Google Search Suggest Get Ads, Links & Answers

Earlier this year, Google Suggest finally made it to the Google home page. The feature suggests queries as you begin typing in the search box. Now Google is testing providing links to web sites, direct answers and even ads that appear within the Google Suggest list.

Not everyone will see these changes. Google’s showing them to a small, randomly selected group of people in the US. The experiment might end at any time and not necessarily become a permanent feature.
Below, you can see how when typing in the beginning letters of New York Times (new york t…), “regular” Google Suggest offers some suggestions to complete your query:

Now consider a change that some are seeing, where a link that leads directly to the New York Times appears:


It might also appear like this:

In the example below, a search for [space shu...] suggest actual news results related to the space shuttle recently being flown from California to Florida right in the drop-down:

I don’t have an example of an actual answer being provided in results, but that’s something Google says will come.
The most dramatic change is the inclusion of AdWords ads in this box. Here are some of the ones I’ve spotted:


In the one above, I started typing the characters [new...] and got an ad for Newsweek. When I continued on, doing [new york t...], rather than seeing a link to the New York Times as with the example shown earlier, I got this ad from the New York Times itself:

And here’s yet another ad I got when I started typing [up...]:

I’m somewhat concerned about the ads appearing at the top of the list. For one thing, I think it’s way too easy for people to click on an ad to reach a web site where Google should be sending them to for free (consider the New York Times example, where one case shows a “free” navigational link while the other is a New York Times ad).
Fortunately, Google said it’s also testing an implementation where the ads appear at the bottom of the list, like this screenshot they sent me:


I prefer this much more.

The ad test is yet the latest way Google is expanding where ads might appear in its services. Just some of the others in recent weeks are covered in the articles from us below:

Google Expands AdSense For Domains

Google Ads For Hard Alcohol & Liqueurs Now Allowed

Drill, Baby, Drill: Google Finance Gets Ads; Google News Testing Them

YouTube Formally Introduces ‘Sponsored Videos’

Google AdWords: Now With Images

Google Puts New AdSense Ads Under Maps

Google Now Allowing Ads For Beer

Google AdWords Allowing Gambling Ads In UK

Why change Search Suggest in this manner?
“This is another example of search becoming more dynamic and Google getting users to the correct results as fast as possible,” said Johanna Wright, director of product management at Google.

Overall, the links seem like a good idea. In many cases, they might save people even more time to find what they want than having to wait (even though it’s a tiny time) for the search results page to load. I just hope that if the ads stay, they move to the bottom of the list.
By by Danny Sullivan From Search Engine Land

Building Worthwhile Links

Imagine link trading so easy that it is just a decision making process. Imagine facilitating and managing all your link trades: reciprocal, triangle (3 way) and parallel. Imagine an advanced link checker that checks all these trades. Imagine being able to dynamically change all your link titles and descriptions on all your link partner’s sites at once. Imagine all you backlinks are contextual links that look more natural and more like a blog format. Imagine managing all your websites in one account. Imagine a link trading system that is going to change the industry as we know it.

Ok, enough imagining. The fact of the matter is that LavaLinx has all these things and more and is currently open for beta. If you’ve done any link trading at all, you’ll be extremely pleased with the LavaLinx system. If search marketing is your profession, you’ll want to get in LavaLinx and get it going before your competition finds out about it.

You can also manage all your social bookmarking sites in one interface including knowing which of your pages you have bookmarked personally as well as getting other social bookmarking users to bookmark your pages. With Lavalinx now doing a similiar progam to their link trading, obtaining social bookmarks will be easier than ever.

Here are a few ways for obtaining backlinks:

1. Submit your site to respectable directories.

2. Submit articles or blogs to Digg, Reddit or other social sites. If your story gets picked up you can get a number of backlinks from other websites.

3. Buy links. This is a viable solution, but can be expensive. Major search engines frown upon the practice, so if you do buy links don’t over do it. I would recommend a reputable service like text-link-ads.com.

4. Link trading is an excellent way of obtaining backlinks, and if done properly, can have a dramatic impact on your search rankings.

5. Write articles and submit them to article submission sites like articledashboard.com

6. Write press releases and submit them to online PR sites.

7. Another excellent way of getting backlinks is to use an affiliate program that doesn’t use a redirect on the backlink. I would recommend using directtrack.com or fusionquest.com.

SEO Basics - Simple SEO Tips

Here are a few tips and simple rules you should follow to improve easily your rankings in the different search engines. Nothing new and nothing very complex but good tips that works.

So, I hope you enjoy reading this little "SEO Beginner Guide" and I hope it helps you grow your traffic.

Search Engines Optimization

What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It's a set of techniques and strategies to optimize websites for the search engines and get beter rankings on the search results of those engines.

There are a few more abreviations and terms you should now if you start learning SEO, among others:

SERPs: Search Engine Results Pages.

Anchor text: Text used as a link.

Backlink: Any link pointing to your web site. Also called Inbound link.

One-way link: When a site or page has a link to your site, and your doesn't have any link back to it.

Keywords density: Relation of a keyword to the other words in a web page element. For example, the web page title < title >This is just an example for a web page title< / title > has a keyword density of 20% because 7 out of 35 characters in this title make the word "example".

Outbound link: Any link on your page pointing to another site.

So, let's start working on it right away!

Tip 1 - Anchor text
When you create a link to another page or another site of yours, don't just use "click here" or "go" as the anchor text. Basically, don't do this:

To join our online HTML training, < href="001.html">click here< /a>.

Instead, use the keywords related to that page:

Join now our < href="online-html-training.html">online HTML training.

Try also to use these keywords in the name of the HTML file.
Search engines algorithms are taking into consideration the text used for the link itself. (anchor text)
"click here" is meaningless. But "online HTML training" correspond exactly to your subject, and this specific page, even independantly of its content, will be considered as an interresting page for "online HTML training" by the search engines.

Tip 2 - Backlinks
Spend time to contact other webmasters who have a site about the same subject as yours and exchange text links.
Again, use the keywords that you target in the anchor text of those links. Don't always use the same keywords but sometimes, use synonims and variations.
Only consider a link exchange with sites treating the same subject. Try to get at least 40 backlinks on 40 different websites.

Tip 3 - Pages title
Give a different title to each page, use keywords related to the page.

Tip 4 - Content
Search engines (through their spiders) are indexing text content from your pages. So the first thing you have to do, is make sure you have plenty of text, related to the subject of your web site. The context of the words is also very important, so don't just list hundreds of keywords. Write correct sentences, repeating several times the words you want to focus on. Try to use all the synonyms you know. Eventually, don't correct your typos or mistakes, people will do the same typos when they do a research!

Plus:
Always set the value of the alt="" tag of your images.

< src="html-training.jpg" alt="HTML Training">

Set the description and keywords metas. If possible, write different metas for each page.

< name="description" content="...">
< name="keywords" content="...">


Tip 5 - Content Actualization
You have nice content? Plenty of backlinks and optimized pages? Great, but don't start sleeping on it.
Update your content as often as possible. Add pages, articles, news... Grow your site.

Tip 6 - Web Hosting
Make sure your site loads fast and your hosting is good. A slow web site is no good.

Tip 7 - Clean HTML code
Try to have your HTML code as clean as possible. And try to reduce it a maximum. You should have a lot of text content and a bit of HTML code, not the contrary.

Tip 8 - Directories
Do not forget to post your web site to all the Internet directories related to your subject. These links are better than links exchanges as usually, directories do not require a link back to their site. These one-way links have a very good value for search engines.
Also submit it to DMOZ directory. It will probably take a few months to get your sited indexed, but the backlinks you will get there are worth gold.

Tip 9 - HTML tags H1, H2, B, U...
Use the headers tags for your titles and subtitles, search engine will give more importance to those texts.

<>HTML Training< /h1>

The look of these tags is not so nice but you can use CSS to redefine it.

h1 { color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px }


Tip 10 - Domain name
The keywords used in the domain name have great importance for some search engines, such as Google. If possible, register a domain name with your target keywords.

A domain name like http://www.buy-flowers.com has good chances to get ranked well on "buy flowers" with a bit of SEO and appropriate content.

You can also try subdomains for your most important sections. Subdomains will usually get indexed much faster than the sub-pages and directories.
Taking our example, you could create http://roses.buy-flowers.com, http://tulips.buy-flowers.com, ... generating a kind of "mini-site" for each.

Tip 11 - Inbound/Outbound links
Make sure you have more inbound links than outbound links on your pages. If you have too much outbound links, search engines will devaluate the importance of your page, considering it's just making a gateway to other sites, without having a good value for the surfer.

Tip 12 - Experiment!
Try new things. Play with the keywords density, your site structure, HTML tags and elements.
Some techniques work good with Google, not for Yahoo or MSN and vice-versa. And moreover, the search engines algorithms are changing all the time! Some old strategy might not work anymore but suddenly work great for one of them.

Well, that's it for today! I think that covers most of the SEO Basics you need to know to start optimize your site.

Thanks to exoclick.com
By
Benja

Ebay Top Ten Ways to Bring you holiday traffic!

We want you to ring in this holiday season with more sales and higher profits. So we're making big investments to bring shoppers your way, with hard cash reasons to buy on eBay. Massive coupon campaigns are hitting millions of eBay buyers, wherever they're searching--watch for our "pull-out-all-the-stops" Cyber Monday blitz. Up to 30% cashback deals reward buyers who get to your listings through a search on Microsoft Live. Irresistible "Daily Deals" on hot holiday items and a special holiday deals hub will keep shoppers coming back. Find out how you can cash in on all these great holiday programs.

(1) Get more exposure and a free subtitle

Offer your buyers free shipping

to help generate new sales. How? Until December 31, items listed with free shipping get a free subtitle. Plus, free shipping gives you a boost in search results. Most of all, buyers love it. And now, when buyers leave Feedback, they get a reminder you offered free shipping--a not-so-subtle hint that you deserve a perfect 5 for shipping cost.

(2) Buyer and Seller Protection

Just in time for the holidays: PayPal Buyer Protection now covers buyers' purchase price and original shipping costs with no coverage limit. See eligibility. PayPal Seller Protection for all US PayPal accounts is also improved. You're now better protected against claims, chargebacks and reversals for unauthorized payments, and items not received. Every eligible claim is covered at no additional cost. Coverage is extended to eBay purchases made by buyers in 190 countries including items shipped to unconfirmed addresses. See eligibility.

(3) Grab more buyers: 2 proven ways to boost holiday sales
This year more than ever, holiday shoppers want a deal. Two big ways to grab their attention and make the sale:
1) Entice buyers into action with Best Offer listings. Buyers can make you an offer. You can set your listings to auto-reject low-ball offers and auto-accept those above the price you want. Adding Best Offer to your listings is free.
2) Highlight savings by applying Markdown Manager to your listings. Strike-through pricing emphasizes savings and value to move your inventory fast. Markdown Manager is free with your Stores subscription.

(4) Make Best Match work for you
Best Match helps shoppers find just what they're looking for from sellers they trust. Bottom line, delivering great value and service to your buyers is key to getting a top position in Best Match search results.

Remember, Auction-style and Fixed Price listings are now sorted differently and then intermingled to give buyers a good mix of both. Auction-style gets a boost when the listing's about to end (time ending soonest). Fixed Price gets a boost based on recent sales--the more items that sell in a listing, the better position it can get in search results.

Number one tip to build recent sales: combine multiple identical items into one 30-day Fixed Price listing. See the top six ways to improve the position of your Fixed Price and Auction-style listings.

(5) Your listing "Featured First"
Give your Auction-style and Fixed Price listings a chance to appear in the featured spot at the top of the first page of search results with the new Featured First listing upgrade. It's an especially good way to jump start recent sales for new Fixed Price listings.



(6) Stand out on new product pages
We've made shopping for many hot holiday items faster and easier with new product pages--one for books, movies, music and video games and one for other categories such as cell phones and digital cameras. To make sure interested buyers find your items on these new pages, just list with pre-filled item information.

(7) 5 cent fees and a free subtitle
From now until the end of the year, when you list books, music, movies and video games in Fixed Price with pre-filled item information, Insertion Fees are just 5¢. And, when you list with pre-filled item information in either Fixed Price or Auction-style, you get a free subtitle--even if you don't offer free shipping.

(8) Turn negative Feedback into positive
Great news for sellers: now you can submit a request for a buyer to change a Feedback rating, Feedback comment, or detailed seller ratings when negative Feedback is left in error or when you've been able to resolve an issue with your buyer.

(9) More tips to get high shipping DSRs
Good communication goes a long way to get high shipping DSRs from happy holiday shoppers. Here are a few more proven strategies:

Clearly state shipping costs, service and handling time in
your listing.
Notify buyers when you receive payment, and inform them of
any delays such as waiting for their payments to clear.
Ship within 24 hours of receiving payment.
Stock up on packaging supplies before the holiday season.
Order free U.S. Postal Service shipping supplies.
Pack properly, and make sure the box can handle the item's
weight. Use recycled packaging that's in good condition.
Package fragile items well.
Include colored packing slip. It's a great opportunity to recap
your return policy, show your appreciation for their business
and encourage buyers to leave positive feedback.
Resolve any problems quickly and professionally.

Get more tips for getting top DSRs.

(10) Get exact shipping costs in no time The eBay Shipping Calculator is a great way to accurately calculate shipping costs. When using the calculator, it is important to specify the right package size. The size and weight of the package will determine the shipping cost, so have an idea of what packaging you're going to use before you list. It'll often speed up your fulfillment once you make the sale.

BONUS: Need more time to update your listings? You got it! To help you focus squarely on holiday selling, we're holding off on requiring a return policy and handling time until early 2009. And we'll give you at least 30 days notice before the requirement takes effect. Note, including a return policy and handling time is still a best practice so we encourage you to start listing with both now. Check the seller checklist to stay on top of the latest timelines and best practices. Take advantage of eBay's bulk editing tools to make all your required updates at once.

All Tips are thanks of Ebay.com

Resolution

After our blog "Above the Fold," we received some very intelligent questions.

"Wouldn't 'the fold' be different depending on what type of computer you're using? Can't it be different for different people?"

The answer? Yes, absolutely it can. But it's not based on your type of computer. It's based on your resolution settings. Resolution is a little bit tricky to explain without starting to speak "tech talk," but we'll give it a shot nonetheless.

Every picture, program, website, etc., that you have on your computer, has a size. Now, while in real life we measure size in inches (or centimeters, for you crazy metric addicts out there), on the internet, and with computers in general, we measure things in "pixels."

So, let's say we have an image. Let's say, in fact, that we have this image:



This specific image is 600 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall. Now, don't go trying to measure this in inches, because pixels and inches aren't really mutually compatible.

The reason for this is your resolution settings. When you choose your screen resolution, you're choosing how many pixels to show on your screen. This setting might be anywhere from 640 x 480 up to 1680 x 1050, or even more. If you change your resolution, images will seem to be different sizes. In reality, they're the exact same size as they were (in pixels), but since you're showing more pixels at once, they're comparitively smaller.

The higher your resolution (meaning the bigger the numbers -- like the 1680 x 1050 number), the higher the quality and smaller t he size of items on your screen (whether that's websites, images, or whatever else).

So, hopefully that give you a general idea of what resolution is, and what resolution means. But what does resolution mean for your website? How will it impact your online business?

Well, with different people viewing your site at different sizes, it's going to look different to people who are using different resolutions. People with higher resolution are going to see more of your site. Your "fold" will change depending on your customer's resolution.

So when you're trying to decide where to put things on your website, what resolution should you be using? What should you be basing these decisions on.

Here's a basic chart that gives an idea of the most common resolutions:

Date	Higher	1024x768	800x600	640x480	Unknown
January 2008	38%	48%	8%	0%	6%

In brief, 1024 wide by 768 high is what you should be judging on. Many of the "higher resolution" settings are actually 1280 wide by 768 high. Since the "fold" is determined by the height of the website, you should make sure your resolution is set to 768 high when you make decisions about placement. This is what we can call the most common "fold" for your website.

I know, I know! It's incredibly technical sounding, and a little difficult to explain. But here are a couple general hints about how the different resolution settings should affect your work.

• Never make your banner (the top section of your website, which contains your logo, etc.) more than 800 pixels wide. If you do, 8%-14% of your visitors will have to scroll left and right to be able to see your entire website, which we want to avoid.
• When making decisions on placement, make sure you're using either a 1024 x 768 or a 1280 x 768 resolution.
• Don't freak out about exactly how your text looks on your site. Some people spend a lot of time changing their wording, just so certain words stay on the same line together. This isn't going to be very effective, though, since the different resolutions are going to make the text look different anyway.

And the end point, of course, is that understanding this will help you make smart decisions about where to place content. Smarter placement means more sales. More sales means having a successful online business.

To learn more about how a quality coaching company can help you in gaining the knowledge you need to run an online business, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

How frequently should I update my site?

Whether you have a blog or a website, you will want to update it semi-frequently. The main reasons for this are that Google and other search engines will declare a website "dead" once it has been unchanged for too long.

There are different schools of thought on exactly how often you should update your site, but research has shown that updating your site once per week in some way helps to increase your search engine ranking.

However, they have also found that updating your website once every three weeks is almost as effective in helping your search engine optimization.

So, what is the best thing to do? Well, opinions differ, but generally speaking, as long as you're making some minor updates about once every three weeks, you should be fine. This can mean adding or removing an image, changing text slightly, or anything similar. Don't change your site too drastically! Remember, you want to be able to keep track of your successes and failures, and know how you're progressing. We'll discuss that more in a future entry.

To learn more about how a quality coaching company can help your business succeed, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

Domain Brokering: Internet Real Estate

The value of physical real estate has seen a downward slide in the United States, but there is one type of "real estate" that has a value which is growing at an astounding rate. Better yet, this type of real estate can be invested in for only a few dollars. What type of real estate? Why, Internet Real Estate, of course.

When looking for ways to make money online, one of the most often overlooked industries is that of domain brokering. Here is the most simple possible breakdown of what domain brokering is:

• Step One: Buy domain names. This will cost you from $6 to $20 per domain name. By domain name, I mean website addresses -- like http://www.google.com, for instance. You can even buy these domain names in bulk for a 10% to 30% discount.
  
  
• Step Two: Make it clear that the domain name is for sale. There are certain domain name sales companies (like GoDaddy.com) who will help you sell your domain for a "cut of the action." This can be highly beneficial, since companies like GoDaddy will be able to place the domain name in their "premium domain name" section, and they often have pre-made websites you can put up to indicate that the site is for sale.
  
  If you're not using a service like this, you'll want to put up a web page at the domain you bought stating "This domain name is for sale. Call us at 555-555-5555 for more details!" Obviously, you'll want to use your phone number.
  
  
• Step Three: Wait. Let internet entrepreneurs find your domain name. This can take quite some time -- anywhere from a few weeks to a few years.
  
  
• Step Four: Sell the site. Your site, purchased for $8, is worth whatever these internet entrepeneurs are willing to pay. Oftentimes, these domain names sell at costs ranging from just under a hundred dollars to several thousand dollars.
  

This is about as simple as it gets online, but obviously, it's not the fastest money! While the profit margins are huge, you will have to sit and wait for long periods of time. You may invest hundreds, and not see any return for several years! It's also possible that the domain name simply won't sell, simply because there's little or no demand for it.

So what do you need to succeed as a domain broker?

1. Investment. You need to put money into domains up front. To be successful, and start on the path to making a living as a domain broker, you will need to invest at least a few hundred dollars into domains.
2. Creativity. You need to be able to think of popular industries and brainstorm domain names that are going to be sellable.
3. Research. You need to be sure that the industry you're thinking of is popular enough that it would be worth the investment of your potential clients.
   
4. Patience. You will need to wait, often for long periods of times, with no return. It takes quite some time for people to come to your site, and when they do, they may simply turn away, uninterested in paying you an inflated amount of money for the domain. It will take time to find an investor with the confidence and the assets to pay what you're asking, and it can be frustrating to wait for this to happen.

If you have all of these qualities, than this often overlooked work from home industry may be perfect for you.

For more information on how an experienced coaching company can help you make a living from your home office, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

Sitemaps: What, why, when, and how?

For a website to be seen, it must be visible. That's about as simplistically as we can put it. In order to make sure people get to your website, it has have a good search engine ranking. If no one has any way of knowing that your website exists, how can you expect your site to succeed?

Now there are a lot of tips, tricks, and tools that you can use to make sure your website and web pages are visible. One of these tools is the Sitemap. So, what is a Sitemap, why does it help, and when is it useful?

What is a Sitemap?
Let me speak a foreign language here for a few seconds: A Sitemap is an HTML or XML file submitted to the search engines that includes the URL links for every single page and sub-page or your website and store. This allows web crawlers to find these sub-pages more easily.

In English: A Sitemap is essentially a list of all of the pages of your website. This will include your main pages (like your home page, about us page, contact us page, or anything else you have) as well as your store pages (and the individual products inside of your store). It has to be created in a certain "web code" format -- either XML or HTML.

This means, that in addition to everything else a Sitemap is, it is also pretty difficult to make.

Why use a Sitemap?
So, if a Sitemap is a complicated piece of website code (which you probably don't know how to make off of the top of your head), then why bother using one? What are the benefits of having a Sitemap?

Well, there are several reasons, but it all boils down to one thing: It helps Google find and read pages that it wouldn't normally find or read.

So, what are those pages? To a list a few types of pages that are hard to read:

• A page made in Flash or Javascript. Pages made in Flash or Javascript usually have some sort of "moving pictures" in them. As a result, though, the pages become "hard for Google to understand."
• A database. If you have a large database -- let's say a list of all of the professional football players that have played in the last thirty years, their statistics, and their teams -- it will make your website, and specifically your sub-pages, very difficult for Google to find and understand.
• A very large website. If you are running a multi-national corporation, your web-page may have 3000 pages. Google's crawler will "give up" before it reads all of them.
• If your site doesn't have very good "internal links" (in other words, if you have a page that you want people to find, but you don't have a link to it in your website), Google may never find that page.
• Your website is brand new and doesn't have links from any other websites. Google may not even realize your site exists, at least not for a while.
  

So, if your website falls into one of those categories, a Sitemap can be useful.

When should I use a Sitemap?

Since most of you who are reading this probably don't have a 3000 page website, a complex database, or a flash website, we'll focus on the last two "problems" that a Sitemap helps resolve.

First, if you don't have very good internal links, should you use a Sitemap? If this is a case, a Sitemap can help resolve this problem and help Google like you more. However, the far simpler solution is simply to put in good internal links.

Second, if you don't have links from other websites and are brand new, should you use a Sitemap? If this is the case, of course a Sitemap will let Google know you exist. Again, though, the simpler solution is to submit your website to the search engines, to directories, and/or to social bookmarking sites. Since this takes a lot less effort, it's usually the better solution.

With that being said, let me clarify: a Sitemap will never hurt your search engine ranking. Its benefits are relatively insignificant in the instances mentioned above, and may well not be worth your time. However, if you have the time for it, it certainly won't hurt either.

How do I make my sitemap?

So, you've decided your site deserves a Sitemap. Now we're to the complicated part. Making your Sitemap.

I won't go over the full directions in this blog, but generally speaking, you have two options.

Option #1: Use a Generator.
There are a lot of free XML generators on the web (http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ for instance). However, many of these will not actually find all of your website pages. Most of them are restricted in many of the same ways Google's crawler is restricted. Also, don't give your e-mail address to any generator site. I promise, they will sell it.
This option is fast, easy, and much less effective.

Option #2: Build a Full Version
Click HERE for Google's tool. They provide step-by-step directions on how to download their software, create your Sitemap, and submit it to them. This is quite complicated and very time consuming, and to those of you who have never used website code, it will also be pretty confusing.
This option is difficult, confusing, and far more thorough.


In Conclusion:
Is a Sitemap a good thing? Absolutely.
Is it easy to make a Sitemap? Absolutely not.
Is it worth it to make a Sitemap? Not Always.

For our clients, the only case where we recommend a Sitemap, is when your site is an e-commerce site that has a few hundred products or more. In this case the benefit is usually worth the investment, but in many other cases it simply isn't.


For more information on ways a quality coaching company can help your online business achieve its goals, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

A Rule for Writing Content for Your Website:

Be Brief:

You should always remember to be concise in your writing. It should be clear and easy to understand, and easy to skim. It should not be so long that people dread reading it. If they do, they will just move on to the next website.

• Short sentences help.
• Bulleted lists help.
• Italicized or bold text help.
  

By being brief, you are making what you do say more memorable for visitors, and often more clear for the search engines.

For more on how quality coaching companies can help you build your website, visit www.thriveli.com.

AdWords: Google is Your Friend!

Google is the creator of dozens of useful tools, especially when it comes to the realms of internet marketing. Of these tools, one in particular stands out -- Google AdWords.

In short summary, Google AdWords allows you to get your website "sponsored," and placed in the first few entries on Google. You only pay Google when someone clicks on your Ad (thus, visiting your website), so it's relatively easy to make sure that this form of marketing is profitable.

While this is highly beneficial, you should only consider this service strongly if you are selling a product or service that has a real profit margin. Since you will be paying anywhere from 5 to 50 cents per click, you want to be sure that each "conversion" covers the cost of your marketing, and leaves you with a decent profit for your effort.

For example, if your online business is an affiliate website, and you gain profit only off of the Ads on your site, and you get an average of a dollar per Ad Click on your site, you probably don't want to spend a lot of money to get the clicking traffic to your website.

However, in e-commerce sites, Google AdWords provides an amazing marketing tool for your company. With appropriate keyword research and Ad writing, you may end up paying as little as a few cents per click. Since "target conversion rate" for an online business should be around 3%, that means that for every 33 clicks, you should have a sale. Imagine, for example, that you're paying 10 cents per click for traffic that is already searching for your product. With a 3% conversion rate, that means you're only paying $3.30 per sale. Depending on your profit margin, this may be an incredible boost in overall sales and profit.

AdWords requires a lot of research and a fair amount of maitenance to run effectively. To find out how a coaching company can help you in setting up an effective Google AdWords Campaign, help you market your website, and help you increase profit in your small online business, visit www.thriveli.com.

What should I pay for a website?

This is yet another one of those excruciatingly vague questions that most people in the online industry will hear quite a bit. The fact is, some websites are only worth $100 or $200 (like a custom design for a blogspot blog, as an example). Others have literally millions of dollars of value in them (like a website and database for a major car dealer, which keeps track of and can search for tens of thousands of cars, and has complex search criteria, a user sign up, custom made graphics, custom made promotions added on a regular basis, etc., etc., etc.).

Don't worry. You don't have to spend millions for your website. But you should know what you're paying for. But it is important for budgeting that you understand the cost of an online store website.

One way to separate "types of websites" is by comparing Custom Design websites to Template websites. There are several major differences to these types of sites.

• A Custom Website Design:
  
  Here are some positives about what you will receive with a Custom Website Design:
  
  
  • A fully unique website, built to your specifics.
    
    
  • The opportunity to modify or tweak specific features that you would like to change or alter.
    
    
  • The option to have special "moving aspects" on your website, such as a "flash banner."
    
    
  • Added customization.
    
    
  • Your banner creation is generally included. You could also purchase a logo design from the same designer or design company.
    
  
  Here are some downfalls to getting a Custom Website Design:
  
  
  • They cost significantly more. Designers charge anywhere between $60 and $150 per hour (on average). Even a simple website, to suit a small business's needs, will generally cost well over a thousand dollars. If you want to have more than a couple of pages, or any additional features, or if you want them to put in your products for you, it will cost well more than that.
    
    
  • You're "stuck with it." Once your website has been given to you, you cannot easily modify it yourself. This means your website is stuck as is unless you learn HTML, or continue to re-hire your designers for changes and revisions. With a website that's not changing, it's far more difficult to adapt to your market, and you will generally not be as well ranked with the search engines.
    
    
  • It's a little risky. Because you're hiring someone for their time, not necessarily for a specific product, it is very difficult to get a refund from a design company if you're not satisfied with your design. Most design companies have a contract which specifies that they only do a set number of alterations once they've made the website, even if you don't like it. This means that if your number of alterations runs out before you like the website design, you may be stuck with a low quality site.
    
    

• Template Website Design
  
  Here are some positive things about getting a template website design, or template website builder.
  
  
  • They are generally the same quality as custom website designs. Despite what designers will try to convince you of, most templates were made by professional designers in the first place, so the quality will be similar.
    
    
  • They are far easier to modify. If you don't know HTML coding, or have access to expensive photo editing software, it is far easier to modify a template website. Templates usually come with easy to use website modification tools, which allow you to change and add text, images, and more on your website. This means you can update more frequently, adapt to your market, and become more "liked" by the search engines.
    
    
  • They come with all the features "built in." While you have to pay a website designer to add a store for your online store website, all of the important features are already included in a template website.
    
    
  • They are easy to expand. It can be a large and expensive task to add a page on a Custom Website Design. However, adding pages, products, categories, etc., is very easy with Website Templates.
  
  Negative things about Template Website Designs:
  
  
  • Other people will have the same templates. It may be attractive and effective, but it's not unique. Other people will have the same borders, backgrounds, and navigation that you do as a result of what a template is. Of course, most people visiting your site won't notice this, and most won't have seen the other sites with the same design, but it is still a downfall.
    
    
  • You have to learn the builder. Even with dedicated customer care or technical support, you won't be given step-by-step-by-step directions on the website builder you are using, and there are some basic things you will need to learn. They may not be as complex as HTML code, but it is still something you'll have to pick up on.
    
    
  • You're limited in the templates you can choose. If you know for sure that you want a pure black website with gold navigation and and baroque styled frame around the site, with a maroon colored pattern outside of that, it's pretty unlikely that you'll find that specific of a template. If you're really picky about those aspects, templates may simply frustrate you, because they are confining in that way.

So which do we recommend? Well, neither and both. Each suits the needs of different people (or, more importantly, the needs of different online businesses).

In brief:

• If you know basic HTML, are okay with spending a little more, and don't mind spending money when you want to make changes, the advantages provided by a custom website design are likely worthwhile for you.
  
  
• If you don't know HTML, are on a tight budget, and don't mind investing little bit more time into your site when you need to make changes, then a Template Website Design is probably the best fit for you.

So, what can you expect to pay for each of these? Well, prices range and vary for each type of website, and especially with custom website designs you will need to do research into the special features of your site.

However, we can say that Template Sites that include an online store, an ability to expand pages, and the ability add products/images/etc., should cost between $700 and $2000. Custom websites that have the normal pages for a store website (Home, About Us, Contact Us, Privacy Policy, Shipping Policy, Store, etc.) should generally cost between $1500 and $4000.

We at Thrive LI provide resources for our clients using the Lightwave Builder, a wonderful Template Website Builder that allows for great customization. We also provide support for the builder, and can help you learn the program. We can also give guidelines, and help you make decisions about what to include in a Custom Website Design if you choose to go in that direction.

To learn more about other resources provided by Thrive LI, or to learn about how an experienced coaching company can help your online business succeed, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

Passive Income: The Truth

If you have been looking around at work-from-home styled jobs, you have undoubtably seen ads that try to convince you that you can "work from home, making hundreds every day while only working two hours per week!" Once again, we have to ask the question -- is this legitimate?

The truth is, this kind of pitch is an oversell of something that is very plausible. Affiliate websites, using Google Adsense or direct banner ads, can give a very fair amount of revenue. But what can you realistically make off of an AdSense website?

Many "non-experts" find that they can create an affiliate website that generates between $1 and $3 per day. This is, of course, after their website has been found by Google, and is being viewed by a fair amount of people. So, this ranges from $30 per month to $90 per month. And how much work does a website or blog like this take? Well, you should generally post about once per week to keep your ranking up and your followers happy -- so often under 1 hour of real work per week. So, for between 2 and 4 hours of work you can get between $30 and $90. That means you're paying yourself anywhere from $7.50 per hour to $45.00 per hour. Not bad, by any means!

However, I know very few people who can pay the bills off of $90 per month. So there are a few directions to go to increase this amount of revenue. Option 1 -- you can focus on making one or two websites very successful. Option 2 -- you can build a hundred different websites and increase your $90 to $9000 per month. Option 3 -- you can go somewhere in-between, focusing on a few websites (generally under 20) which all receive a higher income than your typical AdSense site.

There are downfalls with each of these methods.

Option 1, it is very difficult to find a single category or subject that will pay you enough to support you off of one website. It's possible -- that's where these people claiming their hundreds of dollars a day are coming from. It is also very difficult to do search engine optimization for a website well enough that you can make this kind of income. Sites like this will take a lot more care and attention, and will have to be a great "discovery" of a niche market that is not yet saturated.

In addition, if Google changes its search parameters and you're pushed down a page, your income may fall through the floor! You are far more susceptible to the whims of the internet, and most of us don't like our income to be based on something that risky.

Option 2 has very different problems. First, you will have to find 100 websites that can generate income. Though you can spout off a lot of gibberish without much effort, it won't make you much money. You have to find profitable keywords. No one is going to pay to have their farm animals sold online, for example, so you probably don't want to blog or make a website about farm animals. So you have to do the research to find 100 different websites. You have to then build 100 websites. Even if these are pre-made blogs, this is going to be difficult to do, and highly time consuming.

Also, to make even the $1 to $5 per blog, you will have to do some basic marketing for the websites, posting your link on directories, forums, etc. So the setup time for Option 2 is pretty massive. To set up 100 effective, money-making blogs, and market them, may well takes months of hard work. If you decide this is what you want to do, don't expect any less than a few hundred hours of work before your website are making you the money you want. In addition, you have to maintain these websites for them to be profitable! Even if you know your subjects, and can post quickly and effectively, you can expect to be working 50 hour work weeks.

Then again -- $9000 a month is nothing to scoff at, and if your objective is earning a lot of money, and you don't mind putting in the effort, this may be a viable solution for you.

Option 3 tends to be the most effective and successful. Setting up a dozen blogs or websites is far easier than setting up a hundred, and your general "labor" after setup will probably be somewhere between 6 and 24 hours per week, meaning that your schedule will be very flexible. However, you should still expect to invest the equivalent of 3-4 full time work weeks to get these blogs/websites up and running.

With effective online marketing and updating, which takes time, patience, study, and experience, you may well see each website generating $5 to $15 per day (this is a reasonable goal -- you will likely be frustrated if you aim too far above this). Just to make the numbers here more clear, with a dozen sites, that may be anywhere from $60 to $180 per day, or between $1800 and $5400 per month. This is the equivalent of somewhere between a $75 per hour to a $900 per hour income, for the time you are actually investing.


Of course, knowing the general outline of making money through blogs, or affiliate marketing websites, is one thing. Knowing the details of how to do is successfully is something entirely different.

For more information on how a coaching company can help you in building your own affiliate website empire, and generate great money online with a reasonable time investment, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

Business Blogs

Since you're here, on our blog, I think I can assume that you know something about what a blog is. However, for those who just happen to have stumbled across this Blog, allow me to go back to basics.

The word "blog" is a shortening of "Web Log," and thanks to Blogger, terms like "blogging" and "bloggers" have become more a part of our cultural phenomena over the last few years. This is because it's now very easy to set up a blog.

And "blogging?" Well, blogging can be anything. If I tell the world my grandma is sick on a blog, that's blogging. If I talk about my new girlfriend, that's blogging. If I talk about my political beliefs, that's blogging. If I talk about religion, that's blogging. If I talk about how vanilla is the best ice cream, that's blogging.

And most importantly, if I talk about my company, my products, and my company's quality, that's most definitely blogging! This is where blogs come in as a part of your business. Is it mandatory to have a blog for your online business? No, not mandatory. But it does help you with the search engines.

The more people link to your website, the more popular that site will become. The more relevant the pages that links are on happen to be, the more powerful that link will be. So by creating a blog, you can link to your website through a highly, highly relevant website. In short, you will start to get a better page rank, your search engine ranking and SEO will improve, and you may generate some independent leads through your blog.

So what should you include in the blog to make it most effective? Should you have just one, or multiple? How much does it really impact your ranking? How can you make sure your blog is visible?

Even after explaining a lot of the details, there are always going to be more questions. To find out more about how a coaching company can help answer your questions, and introduce you to many more ways to market your website, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

The Power of a Logo

One thing that commonly comes up during the creation of a business is building a Logo. Many people feel that having a company logo is unimportant, or at least not something that should be a preliminary concern for their business. Others (often those trying to sell you the logo) argue that a logo is the single most important thing you can do to help your business. As usual, the truth lies somewhere in-between the two extremes.

So, what is a logo? What is the real power of a logo? What does it do for you? Why is it important? What's a good amount to pay for one? What should you keep in mind in designing your logo? These are just a few of the common questions regarding logo design, and I'll go into each of them briefly.

What is a logo?
A logo is an image or stylized text (or a combination of the two) which identifies your business. It is not a photograph, it is not a picture of your product, and it is not a description of your business.

This logo should definitely be located on your website. It should also be located on all printed marketing materials, banner ads, business cards, etc. People should come to associate your logo with your company, so using it repeatedly will help ingrain the image into the minds of your clients.

Here are a few famous logos to help give you the idea of what a logo is:




What is the real power of a logo?

There are two major points to mention with a logo. The first major power of a logo is professionalism. Having your own logo gives a clear sense that your company has invested into itself. This makes your company feel more legitimate to your buyers. This is the primary way a logo will pay for itself. People are far more likely to buy from an online business that looks and feels professional.

The second major power of a logo is memorability. It is easier to remember your company when you are using a logo. You may know McDonalds without its logo, but when you see the golden arches, you instantly recognize "This is McDonalds." And what does this mean for you and your business? First, it makes marketing more effective by making your website and company more memorable. Second, it makes your website itself more memorable. Customer loyalty is one of the major keys to success, and having a solid logo can strongly help with this.

These are, of course, the reasons why a logo is important as well. No, a logo will not double your sales! No, it will not make your business miraculously appear on the first page of the google search engines. But it will increase your conversion rate, and it will increase your return customers.

What's a good amount to pay for a logo?

This is a difficult question to answer, but mostly because there are a lot of details that go into a logo. How complex is the logo? Is it just stylized text, or does it include a custom image or graphic? How many versions of the logo will you receive? How many revisions are you allowed to make?

A good price may be anywhere from about $99 to $999 for a solid logo for a start-up company. What we recommend is that you find a company that will give you at least 1 set of revisions (in other words, doesn't hand you a logo and refuse to do extra work on it), and preferably will give you two sets of revisions or more. We also recommend that you either find a logo creation company that will give you multiple logo concepts up front, or will give additional logo concepts if you are not satisfied with the first version. We also recommend that you find a company that will provide more than simply stylized text.

A good cost to pay for this type of logo is between $300 and $400. As an example of a good company, Clover Logos is the primary logo design company we recommend at Thrive. They have assisted dozens of our clients in creating an excellent, professional logo to help their business succeed.

What should I keep in mind when designing my logo?

You should keep in mind about 80 different things while designing your logo. However, there are a couple of basic principles to follow.

First -- make sure it reflects the tone of your business. Don't have a black and gray corporate logo for your children's toys business, and don't have a pink, yellow, green and orange bubble text logo for your office supplies business.

Second -- keep it simple. You should be able to shrink or expand this logo to the size of a business card or the size of a billboard, and it should still be recognizable.


In short summary, a logo is important for every business that wants to come across as authentic and legitimate. It is important to increase return customers. Don't kill yourself over the cost, but put it pretty high on your priority list (probably just below setting up your legal entity, website, and getting your products or dropshipper).

For more information on how a coaching company can help you with the creation and branding of your business, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

The "Buying Mood"

Though many people searching the web are interested in buying a product immediately, certainly not all people are. They may be looking to see how much a product costs, they may be comparing online products, or they may simply be daydreaming. "Wouldn't it be nice if I could buy this."

So, what can you do to turn these browsers and daydreamers into buyers on your online business? Well, there are dozens of tactics, but pretty much all of them full under the category of "setting the buying mood." Creating an atmosphere that encourages buying your product, providing incentives, and more, can help set this buying mood.

Here are just a couple of quick tips to help you in creating that atmosphere for your clients:

• Use emotion evoking images. If you're selling baby products, then you should definitely have some happy, laughing, smiling babies. If you're selling television sets, you should have a family or couple gathered around the TV, perfectly happy and content. Most people want to purchase these items because they have a specific fantasy of what the product is going to do for them. Help build that fantasy through emotion evoking images.
  
  
• Provide clearly visible incentives. And make sure you're providing something! Even if you have the same products at the same final prices, your competitor who has a visible "20% Off!" sale is going to close more than you do. Sales are a great way to do this. With many products, free shipping is another excellent way. Free gifts, buy one get one half off, and many other possible incentives will serve to increase your overall profit.
  
  
• Make sure navigation is clear and simple. Nothing discourages customers more than not being able to find the product they want on your site. If you have images of a product on your home page, make sure that image links directly to that specific product. Make sure all your categories are clearly visible on your site, immediately. People should never struggle to find what they're looking for, because if they do, they're likely to move on to the next website.
  

These are just a few of the things you can do to to increase your number of buyers by turning the casual browsers into your clients. When it comes to e-commerce, your conversion rate (the percentage of people that come to your website who actually purchase your product) can vastly alter your profit. Remember, the difference between a 2% and a 3% conversion rate could mean the difference between $50,000 and $75,000 a year.

To learn more about how a coaching company can help you build your website in a way that increases your conversion rate, and helps set that buying mood, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

What does it take to work from home?

Most people are aware that making money online, from home, is an increasingly popular profession. However, many people who would strongly prefer the work from home lifestyle don't pursue it. And why? Well, there are many reasons.

First, we all know it's true that the industry is full of myths. We can even safely say that the industry is full of scams. Some companies out there will tell you that you can "sign up today, pay just $29.99, and make $200 an hour within a week! Low cost! No effort!" Does this happen? Sure, occasionally. But it's pretty rare, and you can't try and view online businesses as the "easy form" of business.

The fact is, online business takes a lot of effort, research, and intelligence. Some people sign up for online programs and assume that their job is to "sit back and enjoy the ride." This will almost never make you any money.

There are many types of online businesses, ranging from affiliate marketing to dropshipping to eBay businesses to domain brokering and more. However, all of these take effort. Affiliate marketing, for example, is usually viewed as the simplest way to earn money online. Once your website is set up, it will generally take care of itself and make you money without your constant care and attention.

However, you still have to set up the website, and you have to set it up right! You have to market it appropriately, spread the word, get your link on the web, and make sure your keyword density, linking, and more are correctly done, or chance are you won't be making money with that website any time soon. In addition, the best way to make money with affiliate websites is generally to have multiple websites. Since they are so low effort, and the amount of income is low when compared to the potential revenue from eBay and Dropshipping, creating multiple websites is one of the very best ways to make a steady income through affiliate marketing.

Online business is not simple. Many people will try to convince you it is, but anyone who has experience with it will generally tell you the truth. It's hard, it's complicated, and it's time consuming. To quote Princess Bride, "anyone who's tells you different is selling something." Don't you think more people would work from home if it was as effortless as so many people claim?

So, with the amount of intricate details involved, what's the best way to start? Well, that's where a coaching company can be truly beneficial. Companies like Thrive, with years of experience in the industry, can help you in setting up your online business. With tools and resources ranging from help with website creation, online marketing, eBay business, drop shipping, and more, we can assist you in starting your online business, and put you on the road to financial independence. For more information on our services, and how we can help you succeed, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

eBay: Building Positive Feedback

One of the most popular forms of online business is selling on eBay. However, before you begin selling items on eBay, it's important that you get at least some positive feedback. Mostly, this is so people are aware that you are a legitimate eBay user. There is some debate about what a good feedback rating is to start selling at, but it is generally agreed that the lowest you positive feedback rating you'll want to start posting items for sale at is 10. The reason for this is that you get a gold star (yes, we're back in kindergarten!). This star label next to your name makes it quick and easy for potential eBay buyers to see that you are a real life person with some real experience on eBay.

Now, normally, you gain this positive rating by buying or selling items on eBay, gradually increasing your positive feedback. But as a small business owner looking to sell on eBay, you probably don't want to take a casual pace. So here are some tips for building that positive feedback as quickly and effectively as possible.

1. Buy things that are relatively cheap. Though you are not "buying" feedback, you should still view these purchases as a business expense. Don't spend $700 on a laptop unless that's something you would have done anyway. Since you can easily buy under $100 worth of eBay products to get this rating, you don't want to purchase the costlier items.
   
   
2. Buy things you need, want, or will use. For example, you've just started your online
   business. Chance are, you have or will have a home office to make running this easier. So buy some office supplies! Organizers, a printer if you don't have one, pens, sticky notes, etc., can both help your business and increase your feedback rating. Items like pens can be purchased for as little as 1 to 2 dollars, including shipping!
   
   Beyond purchasing items for your eBay business's home office, consider the following types of purchases. Birthday presents, gift cards or gift certificates for places you normally eat or shop, items for your favorite hobbies, and more. The end point is -- don't get things that you're going to throw away.
   
   
3. Don't buy "positive feedback boosting" items. Once upon a time, people were advised to buy recipes on eBay to boost their positive feedback. These recipes would cost as little as ten cents, and were e-mailed for free to the buyer. The payment was made, the positive feedback was given. So what's the problem with this? People can see the items you've recently purchased. If someone looks at your feedback and all you have is recipes purchased, then you will look worse than a new user in regards to legitimacy.
   
   
4. Buy from different sellers. If you get positive feedback multiple times from the same user, it will generally not count towards your positive feedback rating. Be sure to purchase from different eBay stores and users to make sure you get the positive feedback you're aiming for.
   
   
5. Pay right away, give positive feedback to your seller. There are two things you can do to make certain you get your positive feedback as a buyer. First, as soon as you win or buy an item, pay for it. Then, when you receive the item, unless there is a major flaw with the item, leave positive feedback for the seller. If you do these two things, there should be essentially no reason for them to give you non-positive feedback.

Once you've hit ten positive feedback, or more if you'd like, you can safely start creating items to sell on eBay. Of course, at this point there are many, many other tips, tricks, and tactics that can help you maximize your sales, and give you the most money for your time, effort, and investment.

For more information on how an online business coaching company can help you make the right choices with your eBay sales, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

"Above the Fold"

One of the fun things about "high technology" industries nowadays (like e-commerce, online marketing, website design, etc.) is that we develop our own languages.

When I say "Placing products and incentives above the fold can help increase your conversion rate," it may well sound like gibberish to many of you. So let me go into this specific piece of advise, and let you know exactly what it means.

Let's make this as simple as possible. Ignore everything else you know about what each part of the website is. When I say "above the fold" I mean "everything that is immediately visible to the naked eye on your website without scrolling down or clicking on any links." To complicate this just a little, I also mean "visible to the naked eye when your search engine browser (Firefox, IE, Safari, etc.) is maximized, and you're running in a normal screen resolution."
For visual learners, here's an image of the thriveli.com site that may help.



Everything you see on the image above is "above the fold." Now, if you've been to the Thrive Website (you can click on the image above to go there now), then you know that this isn't everything on the Thrive LI home page. There's plenty more information when you scroll down. So what you see above is "above the fold." Anything else is "below the fold."

So, why is this important? Well, there have been a lot of major studies researching how long people stay on any given website when they're trying to find something. The results have all been pretty similar -- your potential buyers will stay on your website between 4 and 8 seconds. If they haven't found something that interests them by then, they're leaving for the next Google result.

4 to 8 seconds! That's all your e-commerce website has to catch someone's attention. They're probably not going to scroll down and see what else you're saying before deciding whether to stay or not. So everything that is going to grab the attention of your potential buyers should be above the fold. If what you have above the fold doesn't win the customer, chances are they will never even scroll down to see the rest of your website.

So, let's look at the phrase I said above. "Placing products and incentives above the fold can help increase your conversion rate." So place your products and sales, discounts, offers for free shipping, gorgeous images, etc., in a place where they are immediately visible when visitors come to the website. Doing so can increase the percentage of people who decide to stay on your website.

Conversion rate is incredibly important to any website. The difference between 2% and a 3% conversion rate can mean the difference between $70,000 and $100,000 per year. In addition, a lower conversion rate means you're wasting your online marketing investments and losing potential return customers.

When it comes right down to it, there are literally hundreds of things to keep in mind in order to keep your conversion rate up. For more information on how a quality coaching company can help you achieve better results for your online business, or how we can help you start a successful online business, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

Go Away No Follow Links!

As we all know link building is still one of the most valuable ways to increase your rankings on the search engines. Throughout the past few years link building has continued to be an effective form of search engine optimization as well as internet marketing. Now even though link building has continued to be an effective form of optimizing your site the methods have changed through the first few years.
A few years ago link trading was all the rage so people creating link trading programs, webrings etc.. which search engines considered abuse and now those aren't as effective. The next thing that started to work was getting listed in directories and then everyone and their dog started creating free directories so that method doesn't work as well anymore. The main pattern to see here is the fact that methods for link building have changed in recent years but the principle has remained consistent and has always worked.
With the advent of the "nofollow" link link building techniques are dropping like flies because more and more links are getting nailed with the "nofollow" tag. Now the no follow tag itself made sense orgingally it was a way to get rid of blog comment spamming but since then it has started to get abused in my opinion, now Wikipedia links, Youtube links, most forum links are all getting tagged with the nofollow link which makes one start to think, "What link building techniques are left?"

When it comes to link building Thrive Learning Institute has the answers, for tips on the future of link building contact us at our site www.thriveli.com.

Contact Manufacturers

Find Manufacturers- Now we have talked about finding products to sell on eBay by finding local manufacturers but you will also want to keep in mind that you can contact manufacturers nation or worldwide. There are several ways for you to be able to contact manufacturers, if they are a well known manufacturer you should be able to just type in the name of the manufacturer in Google and look for the official site. Sometimes you will know a product that you would like to sell but you don't know the name of the manufacturer, in this case the easiest way to find the name of the manufacturer is find one of your potential competitors sites and see if they have the manufacturers name somewhere on the site, if they don't have the name listed try another site or send the company an email asking them who makes the product. Once you have found the name of the supplier you can just type it into Google and again look for the official site. Searching for and contacting manufacturers online is by far the easiest but there are also other ways to find manufacturers including contacting various Chamber of Commerce, City Licensing Departments etc..

For more tips on how to find products for eBay go to www.thriveli.com

The best way to start making money on eBay!

Find Items Around The House- If you are just getting started with selling on eBay the last thing you want to worry about is making sure that your auction is going to sell enough for you to make a profit. We recommend getting started with selling on eBay by finding something around the house that you no longer need, baseball cards, old golf clubs, books that are taking up room on the shelf etc.. and listing them on eBay.

For more information on how you can work from home visit the Thrive Learning Institute website.

How To Find The Average Selling Price (ASP) with Thrive Learning Institute

Once you have used the completed listings to confirm that there is a demand for the product that you are wanting to sell the next step is confirming that the product will be profitable. To find the average selling price of the product that you are thinking of selling you will want to go into the completed listings section and type in the name of the product. Once the results come up you will want to look at the prices that appear in green indicating that those auctions were successful. Next you will want to add all of the prices in green for the past few days and divide them by the total number. For example if you saw that an item sold successful 6 times for 140, 160, 175, 199, 215 and 145. You would divide the total price of $1034 by the number of auctions 6 and your average selling price would be $172.33. By figuring out the ASP you will be able to see how profitable an item will be for you.

For more information on how to make money on ebay visit www.thriveli.com

eBay Research Steps with Thrive Learning Institute

Here at Thrive Learning Institute we recommend for those starting their online business to get started with selling on eBay to make some quick money and then to start building their ecommerce website. The completed listings section of eBay is a valuable asset that will not only show you what to put in your listing to make it rank well in eBay but it will also show you what to do to make it so that people will want to buy from you such as what time your auction should close, what price you should start the auction at etc. Most sellers on eBay don't know that this tool exists and those who do know that it exists don't really know what they should be looking at when they use this tool. To access the completed listings section you will follow these steps:

1. In the Enter keyword or item number box, type your keywords.
2. Select any additional search options, as needed.
3. Select the Completed listings only check box.
4. Click the Search button.

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Where to Find Affiliate Programs

How To Sign Up For Affiliate Programs as an Affiliate: There are a number of ways to sign up for affiliate programs, some of which are more effective than others. The main ways to sign up for affiliate programs are:

• Join Affiliate Networks- This is by far the most effective way to sign up with affiliate programs. Affiliate networks allow you to sign up for several affiliate programs at once instead of having to go to several individual sites and sign up for them one at a time. The majority of larger companies are running their affiliate programs through affiliate networks because it allows them to not have to worry about keeping track of sales and sending out checks to all of their affiliates each month. Some examples of affiliate networks are www.cj.com, www.linkshare.com, www.clickxchange.com
  
• Sign Up On Individual Sites- If you find a company whose products you would like to sell but they aren't in any of the affiliate networks that you are a member of you can go to their site to get setup with them. To see if a company has an affiliate program you will want to go to their site and look for a link that says something like "join our affiliate program" or "become an affiliate". If you don't see it on the home page the next best place to look is on their sitemap. If you still can't find it you can email them to see if they have an affiliate program.
  
• Affiliate Product Networks- There are several affiliate networks that focus more on digital products (such as ebooks), software, and services. The profit can tend to be considerably higher on these products due to the small product cost but can sometimes be harder to sell. Some examples of these affiliate product networks are www.clickbank.com and www.paydotcom.com.
  
• Go To The Search Engine- If you are wanting to join a pay-per-click affiliate program like Google Adsense or the Yahoo Publisher network it is best to go directly to those search engines to get signed up. Again the addresses for those are (adsense.google.com) and (publisher.yahoo.com).
  

For more information on starting affiliate marketing contact Thrive Learning Institute Today