dollardevil.com

Building your own website no longer requires the technical knowledge it once did. If you’re really interested in the do-it-yourself approach, there is a TON of material on the internet and the best part about it; it’s FREE! Search the term “free web design” and investigate the related results. Building your own website is a difficult task for even an experienced developer. If you can undertake the challenge and make it work, congratulations.

Being somewhat of a logical thinker, this seemed unreasonable and difficult. Given the vast array of web services available I figured there had to be an easier way. Since I found myself at a lack of technical know how and programming skills, I decided to use a pre existing platform called WordPress. The advantages to using WordPress were immediate. I no longer had to concern myself with the daunting task of building my own website from scratch. I was able to completely customize my website with a theme. There are thousands of themes, they are mostly free and relatively easy to implement. Also, adding WordPress instantly gave my website a professional look that it very much needed.

Once you’ve uploaded WordPress to your host, you can access it via the admin panel. From this panel, you can quick and easily post new content, edit existing content or even write separate pages. Your only limit is how creative you are.

If the thousands of available themes don’t suit your needs, there are several businesses that will make a custom design to suit your specifications. UniqueBlogDesigns Is the more popular choice amongst the top 100 bloggers list. Included are popular Social Media Marketer JohnChow.com and SEO guru ShoeMoney.com both have selected UniqueBlogDesigns as the solution to their blogging needs.

What does this mean for you? That entirely depends on your situation. I personally love WordPress for it’s simplicity and ease to use. You should choose WordPress especially if your business direction is through product reviews. Product review blogs are some of the more successful blogs on the internet. They are informative, link directly to the product, and leave a reader either wanting to purchase a product or wanting to avoid that product. Either scenario a bond is formed from publisher to reader. This bond allows review blogs to capitalize on their experience with various products.

Making money online is getting easier believe it or not. As technology continues to expand at an alarming rate, the amount of domesticated computers and internet connections continue to increase too. This is happening solely because the requirements to use the internet have virtually stayed the same in the last 15 years. The upgrade from 56k modem connection to high-speed internet is now only a couple of dollars. The cost of a basic computer is reclining too, and within reach of millions of low-income families. As the amount of users continues to increase on the internet, so does your market. This creates an even bigger demand for your product, whatever it may be.

As the internet populace continues to grow, so do advertising companies looking to reach potential clients. The companies allocate more funding to their respective advertising sectors, and in turn are willing to pay more to reach their demographic. Publishers; specifically webmasters and bloggers are in the best position to reap the rewards. When I use the term publisher, I use it very broadly. Since every website on the internet is unique, each owner can be considered a publisher.

The best way to capitalize on internet growth is to position yourself in front of it. You do this by optimizing your website for search engines also known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). When someone goes to Google looking to buy shoes, and your shoe website is in the top 7 spots on the results page of Google, your set. If you place a hot dog stand outside a busy construction site, all those hungry mouthes come lunch time are going to be looking for the easiest solution to their problem. Since your hot dog stand is right in front, you are guaranteed business.

You can apply this concept to any online business. Search engines are where 90% of your traffic will arrive from. Having key real estate amongst internet search engines is exactly like setting up your hot dog stand in front of a busy construction site. The results are virtually guaranteed.

Getting your website that key real estate amongst search engines can be difficult and rather expensive. There are several ways to help encourage the ranking process. I discuss one of them here: Natural SEO. There are companies that specifically cater to businesses looking to improve their search engine rankings. These companies understand exactly how the search engines rank web pages, and use that information to improve client rankings. This is becoming a highly lucrative business, as the demand to be in the spotlight continues to grow along with the growth of the internet.

The internet populace can only continue to grow, just as population continues to increase outside the internet. Placing yourself in front of that growth is crucial if you want to succeed in this business.

Branding your product has become the new way to ensure product recognition in the eye of a consumer. For most, when people think of the term ‘brand’ they tend to think Nike, Sony, or Starbucks. For the clever readers, you have already figured out the purpose and relevance behind branding your product. When I mentioned the names, Nike, Sony, or Starbucks most people recognized Nike as sports, Sony with electronics, and Starbucks with coffee. It’s for this reason that branding is so important to the success of your business because of product and name recognition.

If you can create the same recognition and identifiability within your own product, your in business! Having a brand and marketing it appropriately is like subliminal messages. For example, when you mention the name McDonald’s people associate the term with fast food. Well, if McDonald’s is a 45 minute drive away, but Burger King is right around the corner, most are going to compromise and order the Whopper instead of commute the 45 minute drive for their favorite Big Mac. The great thing about branding your product, as consumers become more familiar and reliable on your product the more incentive you are giving them to enlist your services instead of others. Although most will sell out and go for Burger King, you’ll have that small percentage of loyal customers that want their McDonald’s. This small percentage are the customers you want around your business!

In many ways, branding your product allows a consumer to find association with it and in turn; question, comment, or critique it. This is EXACTLY what you want, so long as you are providing the information for them to make an accurate informed decision regarding your product. Don’t be bias about the product but don’t be to negative either. You want to carefully present 1 or 2 negatives for every 5-8 positives regarding your product. If you slang to much crap, the consumer will wise up and move on. If you sing to much praise, they’ll assume it’s to good to be true and leave anyway. Understanding and implementing a perfect balance will take nothing other then time and practice.

Branding is not limited to products either. Services, information, and blogs can all have their own brand. DollarDevil is my brand, however I tend to run my ship a little bit differently then the rest so the relevance of my brand is limited. However as my readership continues to expand and search rankings begin to climb higher I do plan to reconsider my brand and the direction I plan on taking it.

Your biggest challenge will be finding the perfect name, symbol, and slogan for your product. A few tips when branding your product: Unique/Original - you need YOUR OWN brand, not someone else’s. Simplicity - keep things sweet and simple. Cleverness will confuse most and deter the rest. Compare competitor brands and analyze them. Draw your own conclusions from their success and failures and use them to your advantage.

As the economy continues to plummet, the increase in start-up online businesses has steadily increased. It seems as the economy takes the plunge and so does our hard earned dollar, more and more entrepreneurs are finding their foothold and taking the plunge starting their own online business. This can be attributed directly to the state of our economy. With over 450,000 people that have lost their jobs, and an ensuing 400,000+ jobs now on the chopping block online business has seen an alarming increase in new start-ups. I’d like to know why? Why does it take loss of employment to motivate people to start their own online business?

Reports state that our financial crisis will be influential late into the 3rd quarter of 2009. With just under a year left I wonder exactly how people plan to cope with the financial stress they are about to endure? Some, a select few that obviously have some sense about what the future holds have began creating their own online business. Others, are taking lower paying jobs and even taking two jobs to make ends meet. When the “work” schedule was made, it clearly stated 40-50hrs/wk. With the amount of time some invest into their jobs nowadays, the return on their time is embarrassing. I credit those, that bust their ass 60+hrs/wk to support their family and their way of life. I just don’t think ANYONE with a brain and some common sense should be forced to mule themselves for minimum wage and a decrease in living conditions.

Now is the best time to seize your chance, with the economy in crisis what better time to begin a secondary stream of revenue? Yes, the revenue of your first month will probably be insignificant and won’t be enough to quit your job. With passion and dedication you’re only setting yourself up for success.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading on SEO, an acronym of Search Engine Optimization. For those wondering what SEO exactly is, the best way I can describe it is how effective search engines like Google, Yahoo, or MSN place your website in the results when you search for something.

The idea of optimizing your website is to improve the quality of traffic, and the amount of traffic coming to your website. Optimizing your website includes altering HTML code to essentially improve the way search engines see the relevance of your site to the keywords being searched. This is rather technical and requires a strong understanding of the concept and the basic knowledge of HTML or various other coding languages.

For those lacking the technical know-how there are several successful companies on the market that offer their services that will optimize your website in days. Putting it’s overall page ranking on Google, Yahoo, and MSN to the top! A great resource for SEO tools is ShoeMoney, an online entrepreneur and SEO guru that has been making money on the web for over 10 years. Consider his products, as they are some of the best on the market and offer fast results.

As I said earlier, I’ve been doing a LOT of reading on the subject and am somewhat convinced I can optimize DollarDevil.com completely free of charge. My theory is through key-word saturation I can encourage better search engine results.

Since the theme of my site is “Make Money Online” I’ve decided to saturate this post with all relevant keywords to that of “Make Money Online.” After doing a bit of searching, I’ve found that the most relevant keywords related to “Make Money Online” are:

How to make money fast, ways to make money, how to make money on internet, ideas to make money, how to save money, how to get rich, work from home, and business ideas.

Since these are all related searches to my topic, in theory this should optimize my website on the basic principle of related information. Whether it works is a different story only time can tell. At the very least, I just increased my keyword count by 10 and should see some results, even if they are marginal.

If it works, and I see DollarDevil.com rise to the top of the page rankings then I will happily share the information and tools I used to gain the knowledge. If not? Then I guess it is back to the drawing board. Or should I say; MS Paint?

Once you’ve established your business, creating results from scratch is tough. Converting your traffic to profit can be difficult to say the least. If you are a capable writer, you might be able to drive results from the content of your website. Nowadays, good content just doesn’t produce the results you need. This problem is greatly encouraged by the amount of already well established businesses on the web.

Convincing a consumer your business is their best choice is tough. A strong way to convince your potential customer is to pre-sell your product. The basic concept is to have your customer convinced they need your product before they are taken to a secure purchase page. You can effectively pre-sell your product or service with the right information and tools. Whatever your business is offering it’s clients, you first must find demand. A consumer’s need for your product is the foremost effective way to pre-sell. If consumers NEED your product, then you are on a path to success. This is a simple lesson you can learn in economics; in order to supply a product, their must first be demand.

Great, you now understand supply and demand. Using the principles of supply and demand to pre-sell your product will effectively make you more money.

Back on topic; pre-selling your products. With demand for your product, all you need to do is tell your customers what they want to hear. I know when I buy merchandise online, I like to be sure my money and credit card information is safe. Offering clients the reassurance their investment is not going to get scammed is mandatory if you want to pre-sell your product. Equally important is the overall quality of the product. As a consumer as well as an entrepreneur I have no interest buying something that will break or not work and nor will anyone else. Finally, if you have some experience in the past selling products, you should encourage previous clients to write reviews regarding to the salesman ship of your company.

Credibility in this business is huge, and if you can’t offer your clients security, quality, or testimonials you’re already behind the game.

Ever wonder how people make money online? For the longest time, I did to. It seemed so difficult at the time of my curiosity. Then one day, it clicked. It made sense and I had a game plan. Now, this “click” as I referred to wasn’t as though the light just turned on in my head. It came to me searching the web. It’s no surprise the most searched term on Google is “How to make money.” Money is what we use to trade for our needs. Be it food, gas, or bills. We need money to live and it will always be that way.

The biggest mistake you can make in your life, is to work for your money. I say that in the context relevant to how you exchange your time, work for 8 hours and get a pay check. Seems a little ridiculous that you have to give so much, for so little return. Right?

Let us assume, you have no college education. Without that college education, employers are WAY less likely to hire you. Let us assume, you don’t have your high school diploma. Now according to society you are virtually unfit and unqualified to be employed as much else then a gas station attendant, fast food cashier, or janitor. (Nothing against those that are currently employed as any of the jobs listed) So that’s it? $8.00/hr for the rest of your life? A never ending list of bills and constant calls from debt collectors? That’s a life no one deserves, we all make mistakes, we all made poor choices we regret. It’s time we make that change.

Did you know you can make your own online business, without spending a dime? SynthaSite will allow you to make your own website, free of charge. So will Weebly and there are many more out there that allow you to do it, for free! Now you essentially have your own online business store. One negative to consider with a free website is credibility. Most consumers won’t buy from a business owner that isn’t willing to invest into their own business. If you would like to ensure the credibility associated with your product, I suggest you visit the Build A Site page for a list of reliable web hosts that I endorse.

What to offer your clients? That decision is entirely up to you. If you wish to sell, I recommend you do it via Amazon and sign up for their associates program. The great part about their associates program, there is absolutely NO cost for you! This is because, you are endorsing and selling their products through your site. They will pay you based on your performance! If you wish to build an information website, and capitalize through advertisements placed on your site then I suggest once you are satisfied with the look of your website, you Google “affiliate programs” and sign up for the affiliate programs you think relate to your business or idea the most. Incorporate affiliate links and ads into your site to maximize revenue.

You have a website, you have the products, now you need the traffic! Traffic, is ultimately the make or break of your new business. How many viewers you have will decide how much money you can make. Promote your business, visit relevant forums and blogs and put your name out there! The best part about the internet, it never sleeps! Document the sites you visit, and make sure to check back every few days to either re-submit your business name or to answer questions others might have posted in the previous days. Promote Promote Promote! Consider yourself running for the presidency of the entire world, make sure EVERYONE has heard your name. (When I say name, I am referring to your business name/website name). Creating product awareness will make you money.

Finally, if you are having trouble deciding what your business should be, consider your business something that you can readily endorse and support without little research. Played a lot of football as a kid? Enjoyed music class? Whatever you decide, make it your passion. That way when bombarded by questions of curiosity you can answer confidently and promptly. Nothing says credible more then correct, prompt, and confident answers.

Bringing attention to your online business in an environment where everyone has something to say is difficult to say the least. Over the last few days I have been playing around on a website called EzineArticles to submit some of my work. Their website is crawled by thousands of veiwers each day and is a great way to publicize your work. Now, in order to prevent faulty content, malicious information, and content violating the ToS (Terms of Service) there is a 7 day review period. This allows their moderators to ensure quality content and relevance to the subject you have decide to post your article about.

The practice of most bloggers is to take their content and copy and paste it into EzineArticles. This is perfectly legal, and in fact allows you to double your work. The most advantageous part about submitting articles is you can post a backlink to your website or blog. Now, you have a new source of traffic coming from a different website allowing you to capitalize on the increase in traffic. As we all know, once your website/blog is ready to sell, driving traffic is the single most important goal any entrepreneur should continuously strive to improve.

Another successful way to draw attention is to continuously post relevant, meaningful content on similar websites/blogs. Find the more popular well established blogs and post your comments making sure to leave a backlink to your website. This is an effective traffic driver as well. So long as your comments are relevant and contain insight other viewers will be interested to see what it is you do.

Surprisingly enough readers scan comments for other useful information. Making sure you are one of the first to comment will improve your results. Regularly checking relevant sites/blogs to post your comments is the best way to draw attention. Did I fail to mention, it’s free?

Connecting with potential clients is becoming easier and easier these days. As the giant social media networks of today continue their alarmingly fast growth, advertisers are seeking new ways to reach their targeted demographic. With sites like Facebook and MySpace completely dominating the social media market you begin to wonder how to capitalize on their success.

Facebook, estimated to be worth over $4-billion in advertising revenue. It’s no surprise though, that on virtually every Facebook page you visit, you find advertising to go with it. The advertising Facebook employs, is not invasive to its users, so most continue about their Facebook experience not bothered. Facebook has approximately 90 million users consisting mostly of students ranging in age from 16-24. With the majority of users fitting the “young adult” demographic, advertisers are anxious to connect with their consumers.

How can you benefit from sites like Facebook and Myspace? Typically, without a large advertising budget, getting your ads on sites like Facebook or Myspace are going to cost you a pretty penny. For those not interested in the investment, there are a few tricks to the trade if you want to get your product out there. First, you’ll need to build up a list of friends. (For the sake of explanation, friends are the people that can communicate with you via Facebook) The bigger the list, the better chance you have of reaching your potential customers. Second, you’re going to need to incorporate a way to keep your friends updated on your business. Whether you’re selling products, information, or services keeping your customers aware of your businesses changes/sales/updates etc will help you create an awareness about your product(s). Combining awareness with a large group of people is a recipe for success.

I mentioned above the need to keep your Facebook or Myspace friends aware of changes regarding your business. The best tool I have found for doing so, that works seamlessly with Facebook; an application called Twitter. Once you’ve installed, and configured Twitter to your specifications, you can start keeping your contacts updated and aware on all changes relevant to your business. The best part about Twitter, is it will leave a direct link to the most recent content post of your website, the most recent update, or even update your Facebook status via the Twitter homepage.

Using applications like this to reach your prospected customers can only help the growth of your business. Growing your business and promoting your products are all apart of the recipe for success. Take advantage of the well-established businesses already setup with their foot in the door. You might not have your foot in yet, but sooner or later the door is going to be blown wide open and who better to break down the door, then you?

Using every resource to your advantage is imperative if you wish to succeed.

Giving value to a product, specifically your product is vital if you want to convert a viewer into a customer. Presenting your product as effective as possible will facilitate the sale of said product. How you present the product is going to determine your success or your failure. A few important things to do when presenting your product, provide all the KEY information associated with the product. Leaving out vital information is only putting nails into an already sealed coffin. Remember, selling something on the internet is an up-hill battle.

If you consider how many people walk into BestBuy, and walk out with a purchase in relation to the amount of people viewing your site and the amount of people buying on your site you’ll see something interesting. People generally come to the internet to find answers to their questions. Online shopping, although it is increasing in popularity, still doesn’t compare to that of a retail store. This example, will help me explain a few key points to consider when making your product valuable to a customer.

Let us compare online stores with retail stores to conclude the best way to give optimal value to your product, and entice your potential client into a valued customer.

An online store has its advantages don’t get me wrong. It offers the ability to shop from home, with virtually no work required, you can more effectively compare prices with a few clicks of the mouse. Buying online can at times be significantly cheaper and convenient. The best part about shopping online is simply entering credit card information and deciding how fast you want your purchase to arrive (shipping fees).

A retail store is an already established business. You know it is a legitimate business because you just walked through the doors, you can see the merchandise, the employees, and the price tags on items. You know at Walmart, they’re always cutting prices and you know that in most cases you can return the item for a refund or for store credit.

If you notice, a retail store offers ALL the security features a customer needs. It is this reassurance that puts retail stores ahead of online merchants. Creating this reassurance in online environment is tough, believe me. Even with all the evidence you can throw at a customer, some will remain happy consumers of retail stores. It is just the way things are.

Now that we better understand the foundations that make a consumer; a consumer. We have a better idea of the importance of offering that same reassurance to an online consumer. Really, it comes down to security, quality, and name.

Security if you can offer your consumer the reassurance that their money is not being scammed, they have a money-back-guarantee or refund policy in place, you’re one step closer to sealing the deal. If you’re an eBay seller, and your rating is terrible, no one will buy from you. Apply the same to your business.

Quality if your product doesn’t scream quality, your losing already. Selling cheap, garbage products might make you some money in the short term, but in the long run repeat customers are what ensure the success of your business. Strive to sell nothing but the best. Your name is on it.

Name Let’s face it. Society today buys name brand merchandise. If you are selling in a completely new market, with no competition then you’re golden. If you’re selling home-made television sets and trying to competitively price against Sony or JVC you’re going to fail.

Use these to better your product, and offer something worthwhile to your customers. Customers are people like you and me. They know what they want, and what they don’t want. Supply to their needs and there is no reason your business can’t be a success.