5 Stars Ecommerce Site FREE for You

For those of you who are into e-commerce and don’t know about SolidShops yet, it is time for you to look at it seriously! SolidShops is an extremely user friendly hosted e-commerce platform for web designers and their clients. Individual who is keen to build their own site using SolidShops, this is one of the best platform you should check out.

Way too often, open source software like Magento or OScommerce disappoints when it comes to user friendliness, not to mention creating themes. On top of that you’re stuck for hours uploading and patching files to finally realize you still have to take care of backups and encrypted payments. One important features of SolidShops is that it is very easy to manage your product.

With SolidShops you can have a secure store up and running in just minutes, even on Facebook. That’s right: SolidShops also supports building out unique Facebook stores which can be customized to your liking by using custom HTML and CSS.

SolidShops is also optimised for your mobile phone. You can check orders on the go, anytime, anywhere. Never miss an order anymore!

Popular payment methods like PayPal, Google Checkout, Authorize.net, Ogone and others can be set up in no time.

SolidShops is giving away 5 one year licenses to their platform for free, exclusively to AddyKho readers.

To enter this contest, write down why you want a SolidShops store by posting a comment on https://www.facebook.com/solidshops (mentioning you are reader of AddyKho). Want to beef up your chances of winning? Then upload a short creative video explaining why you want a SolidShops store. Upload the video on www.facebook.com/solidshops. SolidShops wi’ll pick out the winners by November 31 2011.

So DO NOT wait! Go and grab yourself a 1 year FREE ecommerce site now! 1 Year FREE with SolidShops for 5 readers of Addy Kho!!

SaleHoo Launches SaleHoo Stores: Quick, Clean Stores that Get Results!

The team at SaleHoo.com, the same people behind the wholesale supplier directory with over 8,000 verified suppliers, have just released SaleHoo Stores, their new e-Commerce solution that can get you up and running on your own website in just minutes.

If you are looking to expand your online selling ventures beyond eBay, or have ever thought about selling on your own website, then here are three reasons why you should give it a try:

1. It’s quick to setup. With SaleHoo Stores, there is no time wasted spent fussing over technical details. You can setup your store in just minutes and get your products online and ready for buyers in no time.

I understand that A LOT of e-Commerce solution providers say the exact same thing, but the guys at SaleHoo actually mean it. To prove just how fast it is, they have made this short 5 minute video on setting up your SaleHoo Store.

Take a look at it below:

2. SaleHoo Stores are clean and modern. Forget ugly e-Commerce websites with unsightly fonts and difficult navigation. SaleHoo Stores were built by web usability experts who study how web users interact with websites, then create websites and web stores that mimic that behavior.

This results in websites that are more intuitive and natural for users, which makes them stay on your site longer, and purchase more items from you.

Another great thing about SaleHoo Stores is that you can choose from a number of Store themes to make your Store stand out and attract the right audience. Here are a couple of examples of themes you can use:

Best of all, changing your SaleHoo Store’s theme and color variations is fast and easy. With just two clicks of a mouse, you can instantly update your Store with no technical knowledge required.

3. SaleHoo Stores get results! For all website owners, getting sufficient traffic to your site is a crucial determining factor in whether or not your store will be a success. With this in mind, SaleHoo Stores come optimized for search engines with their search-engine-friendly development and page order.

What’s more, setting your on-page optimization is easy. There is no fussy HTML coding involved – it’s as easy as writing an eBay listing title!

Right now, when you sign up to SaleHoo Stores, you will get a FREE video training course on search engine optimization called SaleHoo Stores Traffic Training. This course has been crafted by SEO expert Mark Ling who shows you everything you need to know, with step-by-step instructions, how to get your website ranking on the first page of Google and turbo boost your sales!

Special limited time offer!

In addition to your free copy of SaleHoo Stores Traffic Training, right now you can also get your hands on a free one-year membership to SaleHoo! Your SaleHoo membership gives you instant, unlimited access to their directory of over 8,000 verified, legitimate suppliers as well as the SaleHoo Research Lab, a market research tool that allows you to unearth hot selling markets. A SaleHoo membership normally costs $67 per year, but it’s yours free, for a limited time, when you purchase sign up to SaleHoo Stores.

And as if that wasn’t exceptional value enough, SaleHoo is currently offering a Premium Store package at the price of a Standard SaleHoo package, making now the best time possible to get started.

Your SaleHoo Store also comes with a full 60-day money back guarantee, so you can try SaleHoo Stores with no risk. If you are not completely satisfied, you can get a full refund, with no questions asked.

Head over to SaleHoo Stores now to make the most of this amazing offer!

P.S Remember you get the SaleHoo Stores Traffic Training video course FREE along with a free membership to SaleHoo and the supplier directory!

P.P.S The 60 day money back guarantee makes SaleHoo Stores the low-risk option for getting your very own store setup!

How Selling on Your Own Website Can Increase Online Drop Shipping Sales

Drop shipping is every eBay seller’s dream! If you aren’t familiar with the process of drop shipping, it involves the supplier (wholesaler or manufacturer, for example) shipping the item directly to your buyer.  This bypasses you having to purchase or store items you wish to sell.

The major benefit here is the risk that drop shipping eliminates: Sellers who drop ship items to their buyers do not have to risk buying a bulk lot of items from a supplier and hope that they will sell.

Instead, you will only pay for what you actually sell and side-step the risk associated with buying items in bulk which may or may not sell.

Why drop shipping on eBay and other marketplaces is hard-hitting

The drop shipping dream can be a tough reality on eBay. In a marketplace where price is everything, unless you are the only seller offering the product(s) you are drop shipping, you will have a tough time selling them.

This is simply because when you drop ship, you can’t get the best rock-bottom wholesale prices that your competitors can. In order for suppliers to cover the cost of drop shipping, processing individual orders and shipping them to buyers, they have to add $2-$5 on to the cost of every item.

This means when you drop ship items, you will find it difficult to compete with other sellers who are buying the same items, but are buying in huge bulk which gets them rock-bottom prices, undercutting the drop shipping model.

Another issue that you might face when drop shipping on eBay is slack performance from the supplier. Your buyer might have to wait 2 weeks for their item to be delivered by the supplier which is unacceptable by eBay standards.

The problem here is that it’s not your supplier who takes the blame for the slow delivery – it’s you.

In many cases, eBay sellers have received negative feedback as a result of suppliers not delivering items in a reasonable timeframe. If you get too many negative feedback scores, your listings won’t rank as well in search results, your sales will plummet and you could even have your account closed by eBay.

Can drop shipping items on your own website offset these drawback of using a drop shipper? Yes!

How selling on your own website can increase your drop shipping sales

While drop shipping on eBay is not a viable option for many sellers, due to the heavy competition there, drop shipping from your own website is a surefire way to increase sales, and your overall margins, on each sale. Here’s how:

The elimination of customer’s price-checking

When you sell on your own website, it’s a lot harder for buyers to do price checking like they do when they buy on eBay, where they can flick between different listings instantly and find the cheapest deal.

On your own website, however, you can increase your prices by a few dollars and still see consistent sales because so few buyers will perform price checks and hunt out the best deal by comparing your prices to products available elsewhere.

The end of negative feedback

Customer service standards on eBay are extremely strict. eBay’s push towards providing buyers with a hassle-free retail experience has put a lot of pressure on sellers. And when, as mentioned above, suppliers deliver items late, sellers suffer with negative feedback ratings.

When you sell on your own website, there are no feedback systems and complicated DSR scorings. Instead, you can choose your own delivery times and service standards and, as long as you are open about these, your buyers will be happy.

While many eBay sellers believe that building your own website is difficult and time-consuming, this isn’t the case. There are many affordable options for store builders and e-Commerce software now that require no HTML or programming knowledge in order for you to build your own online store fast and without a huge investment.

Do you drop ship items on eBay? What has your experience been and do you think selling on your own site would be beneficial? Share your thoughts below!

About the Author: Alice Delore is an education specialist for SaleHoo.com, an online community of over 95,000 online sellers and retailers. Their product range consists of an online selling course, ecommerce software and their flagship product, a wholesale directory.

Check out SaleHoo Now!

Looking for Air Swimmers in Malaysia or Singapore or at Your very Own Country?

You and I are probably looking for the same gadget – Air Swimmers after coming across the Air Swimmers Youtube video recently.

I am always attracted easily by interesting big boy gadgets. I believe this lovely Air Swimmers will just amaze anyone, be it adult or small kid. But what really caught my attention or trigger my brain cell  is the way how business should be done – make good use of online media or means to market your product. If you are from Malaysia or Singapore, you can also purchase this wonder toy from Flying Fish Malaysia.

The youtube videos created by Air Swimmers have generated a tsunami online. Within a short 1 month plus, the video has already been viewed nearly 3 mil times. The youtube video has helped bringing tons of visitors to the Air Swimmers site. At one point, the traffic just basically overloaded the server and crashed the site! So if you have a bit of business sense, you should know that the money is rolling in to their bank account!

The video has created a buzz online and therefore generated a lots of visitors (money) to their site. If you are running a business online or offline, video marketing is something you should consider investing in. Guess what… I already starting to think of what the keywords ‘Air Swimmers in Malaysia‘ or ‘Air Swimmers in Singapore‘ can do for me

One last thing, if you want to make more money, your brain has to move fast: Angry Bird Air Swimmer!!  Check out the soon to be released Angry Bird Air Swimmer below:

E-commerce Success Know How

You can make money online selling digital or physical products, software or services. A lot of internet marketers are building their business empire based on affiliate marketing. However, having your own e-commerce business will give you full control of your business destiny and giving you sustainable online income. Therefore e-commerce should not be left out in your Make Money Online portfolio.

There is no difference between selling online and offline. Basically there are 2 stages- PREselling and  Post Selling.

PREselling:

(1)Traffic:

If you are selling offline, you would prefer to open your shop at busy and crowded street, mall or housing area. This will guarantee you lots of walk-in customers by default. The same preference applied to selling online.

If you have a physically product to sell online, on top of having your very own e-commerce website, you should consider selling the same product at market places like eBay, Amazon, Overstock, eCrater,  uBid where you will be getting free traffics which are ready there for you. You will also increase your income by many folds when you sell at several market places. Imaging if you are getting USD500 of sale from eBay every month, by having your products at Amazon, Overstock, uBid etc will easily multiply your income by several folds.

For your own e-commerce site, you may consider PPC, Google organic ranking, links or refer by other sites, directory listing, email marketing, article marketing, social media etc to generate traffic to your site. It will take some efforts in generating traffic to your e-commerce site.

(2)Convincing Sales Pitch:

Nowadays, having traffic to your sites just isn’t enough.

If you open a shop in a shopping mall where competition is fierce, you will have to stand out from the crowd to win your sale. You may want to employ a very good and decent looking sales person who can talk a bird down from the tree, or you are selling at a competitive price with very good customer service and impressive deco.

There is no difference in selling online. You need a good sales pitch and decent web design to at least attract people to stay long enough on your sites to buy. It is even better if the potential customers hear something good about your products before they arrive at your sites. For example, your product is recommended by someone they trust via newsletter or friends in Facebook. Remember, whatever we are selling, we are providing solution to people’s needs. The copywriting has to be spot on.

Money back guarantee, feedbacks and call-to-action are important features to show on your site. They not only help to increase the conversion rate but also help in your SEO campaign. Google gives you extra points for that. You may also consider building your shipping cost onto your product cost and give FREE shipping on your sites. It is the nature of human being to take advantage of FREE offer.

Post Selling

(1)More Products:

Have you ever noticed that there is always a convenient shop at the petrol station? A lot of times people would drop by the shop after paying for the petrol. Or very often in a retail shop, after making your payment for your purchase, you still have to walk past some shelves with interesting products and then find another cashier counter at the end before you can physically leave the shop. All these are just another up-selling tactic of the businesses.

When come to online, if you ever purchased digital products from some Gurus, you may remember that after your first payment, there was another OTO (One time offer) popping up trying to sell you another product? So the same up-selling tactic being applied to both offline and online businesses. When you shop in Amazon, I am sure you have seen this before- “ Customers viewed this item also view…”. So the idea here is, trying to get the most out of your buying customers. The saying is always right- “Those who buy will keep on buying”.

(2)Contacts:

If someone asks you to fill in the survey form or personal details to win prizes in the shop, you are giving away your contact details for their future communication with you. The shop will send you their promotion or new catalogues in post.

We shall do the same online. And we need the help of GetResponse to collect email addresses of our customers online. For all the internet marketers, it is an undeniable truth that Money is in the List. You should always give out something for free as bait in exchange for your customer email address. Your opt in form should be seen on your e-commerce site, and also in the page where the customer is directed to after successful payment. For example, if you are purchasing a home air purifier product online and you are offered a FREE ebook on How to Stay Healthy, would you give away your email for the free ebook that will help to improve the health of your family? Most likely the answer is YES.

I am sure by now you can see how to integrates your e-commerce business with affiliate marketing with the leads collected- more sales in the future. To grow your business I mean long term business), you should now starting to capture leads (email address) of your customers. Check out GetResponse as it is one of the best email marketing software in the market.

• Add Me On Twitter

• Addy me on Facebook

• Free Email Course

“7 Steps to Financial Freedom Part Time Online”

Fill in the form below and start learning from the free email course

Where to Sell Online? Make More Money Leverage Online

This is one of the most important Posts I intend to deliver to you this month if you want to sell online. Please READ if you want to increase your income online by many folds.

I have been invited to post at other places regarding e-commerce for some times. One of the most commonly asked questions is - Where to sell my product? This is a very GOOD question for sure.

The answer is very simple but very important indeed because the answer to the question can easily help to double or triple your income online.

And the answer is: TO SELL AT MANY PLACES!

If you own your very own e-commerce shop and make $200 per day from the website, what you can do is to sell the same product over and over again at other portals. You can always sell at:

• eBay.com
• Amazon.com
• Sell.com
• Overstock.com
• Atoncer.com
• Google.com/products
• eBid.net
• eCrater.com
• Blujay.com
• uBid.com
• and many other sites

Do you will see your daily income  of $200 from your e-commerce site increased by few folds. Those sites listed above will help to increase sales of your products. Most important they have the TRAFFICS ready for you. You do not have to work on your own SEO to rank on Google 1st page.

This is a very simple formula to make more money online. Of course there are many ways you can increase your income online -e.g.  1. lower your cost, 2. increase sales, 3. increase price. But I always think option 1 & 3 are a little bit difficult to apply especially for those with ‘cheap’ products.

If you are selling special products like Art or design or even services, there bound to have more than 1 site that cater typically for your products. Example, if you are selling your design or art, you can always post your design at cafepress.com, 99designs.com etc and give yourself more exposure. Or you can team up with other e-commerce sites that are happy to sell for you and earn some commissions.

There are also many affiliate sites that can help to promote your products if your products meet their requirement, i.e. paydotcom.com, cj.com etc. You can always search online for affiliate sites that cater for your niche or products.

So the Take Away for you is: Leverage on many other portals that have traffic ready to sell your products. You can easily increase your income with very little work done! Simple mathematics right ? !

$200 x A = $200A. If A= 5 different sites, then income = $200 x 5 = $ 1000 per day! Love it!

• Addy me on Facebook

• Add Me On Twitter

• Free Email Course

“7 Steps to Financial Freedom Part Time Online”

Fill in the form below and start learning from the free email course

Is Blogging the History? No If You Know How To Blend or Crash Your iPad

I have lots of friends who used to be very active in blogging before have shown sign of slowing down. The reason being is they are all becoming very active in Facebook. Facebook, Twitter, Linked, MySpace, and many other social networking sites have dominated a large parts of our daily life nowadays. It is much  easier to post a short sentence in Facebook or Twitter and get the whole world notice of that you are up to.  And another beauty of it is, you can post every minute if you want. You can’t create an original blog  post every minute right? So who cares about blogging anymore!! ?? The answer to you is Business. Business needs a blog for branding, promotion, search engine optimisation and sell.

If you own a business and want to create a blog,  unless you are a celebrity, it is probably much more effective for you to create a blog under your business name rather than your personal identity. And you can always integrate your business blog to your sales website.

So what is the point of having a blog for your business?

If you are a business man, you definitely like to get something back from the time  and money you spend in marketing. The same thing applied to your business blog; you want your blog to help to sell. But do not make your blog too serious and too corporate. No one will come back to a blog that talk like their bosses or middle-aged corporate speaking. Your aim is to have people returning to your blog on regular basis and subscribe to your blog. You can be a bit viral like Blendtec. Blentec is company that sell blender. And if you check out their blog, they use their blender to blend, crash, slice everything single thing they can find on earth, this including, the latest iPad, iPhone, diamond..etc. Watch their video clip from their blog and you will be amazed! The blender is selling like hot cake since they throw out this weekly blender video.- Will it Blend.

Or you can check out their viral video on YouTube too- What do you think of this. Only 1 week and it already has 5 mil view on youtube.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is my tips for successful business blogging:

1. Who is your audience? – You must know who your targeted audiences are. By knowing who your audiences are, you should write in the tune and using the voice that suits and appeals to them. Example, if you own a  hotel and you have a blog attached to your hotel website. You cannot blog everyday about how good your hotel is or what facilities do you have and who are your new guests checking in today etc. Of course your potential guests would love to know what facilities your hotel has (in fact this can go to your hotel website itself), but they also interested to find out where they can do in town and where is the best place to go for local food. I am sure you have travelled to a lot of places yourself. So Ask yourself what do you want to find out most when you arrive in town that is totally stranger to you? You may want to know what are the interesting places in town, how to get there, any big events going on in town, what are the best local food and where can you find the laundry service, and where is the money changer..etc. So write something what your customers or your audiences are looking for in your blog and also touch on your hotel every now and then.

2. Give before you Take- Try to give your potential customers more than others. It is a competitive world out there. And everyone is expecting to get free information online these days. So you have to feed them with the info they are looking for and help them to solve their problem online. If your company is selling weight loss product, then your blog shall provide them solution on how to lose weight step by step, what to eat what not to eat, and what exercise to do… and then touch on your product which will accelerate the weight loss process. So trying to give more info to your customers and do not sell them directly- no hard selling in your blog.

3. Make friend with your potential customers- Trying to make friends and be very personal to every single one of your readers. This is what we call relationship marketing. Would you buy from a stranger? I bet you prefer to buy from someone you know or someone reputable like from eBay or Amazon. But if you are totally new to someone online, you shall take the opportunity  to build a relationship with your  potential customers. There are may e-commerce site run a pay per click campaign online. They will sit back and lure people to buy from them. Even though people do buy sometimes, but the customers tend to forget about them after the sale. So the best thing to do is to give something free to your customers in exchange for their email address. Then you can always email (at programmed intervals) them and build a trust between you and your potential customers. Ultimate aim of all these is to make one or even more sales to your customers. This is also why it is important to integrate email marketing to the blog.

4. Keep updating- You will have to keep your blog ‘alive’. Constant updating of your blog is vital as search engine like Google love new content. I am sure you ever come across blogs with the latest post updated few months ago or even years. An outdated blog is worse than no blog at all because this really give very bad impression to people who will think that you are not taking your business seriously. So how do you expect to sell them?

5. Profession domain name- Do not use free blogging host service like www.blogger.com. It is like using Yahoo for your business email address. It is just not professional. For example, if you own a domain like http://instantcashinbox.com, then you should use info@instantcashinbox.com (by the way this is my very own website). Do Not use Instantcashinbox@yahoo.com. This just looks very ugly! So same thing applied to your business blog. If you own ABC123.com, then your blog should be something like http://blogs.ABC123.com/. Do not use ABC123.blogger.com.

6. Social media and social bookmark- Always have your social networking account like Facebook, Twitter and social bookmark like Digg, Stumbl, Delicious etc on the blog. This will help the marketing of your product and also your blog.

Some of the good business blogs that I would recommend you are:

a. Zappos- Best Online Customer Service Shoe Shop by Tony http://blogs.zappos.com/

b. Word Tracker- SEO Tools http://www.wordtracker.com/blog

c. Capital Chronicle- Banking and Finance blog and business by itself http://www.capital-chronicle.com/

d. World biggest online bookstore, Amazon- Blog that promotes Books of course  http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/id/A287JD9GH3ZKFY

e. And the last one is my very own blog http://addykho.com Feel free to disagree with me, lol – I am trying my best to give my readers all sort of online marketing, internet business or e-commerce and search engine optimisation info. Comments are welcomed!

• Add Me On Twitter

• Addy me on Facebook

• Free Email Course

“7 Steps to Financial Freedom Part Time Online”

Fill in the form below and start learning from the free email course

Where does the long tail come from? What is long tail and why is it called long tail?

Long tail has become more prominent in this digital area. Internet has changed the whole perspective of doing business. Nowadays, you can find almost everything online. Example, if you want to purchase an album of some unknown Africa musicians or Japanese Acapella music from the record shop like Speedy, HMV or the big time American music retailer like Wal-Mart, you may not find those albums on the shelf in the shop. The reason being is, there is so little demand for those albums and it makes no sense for the record shops to display those albums on the shelf. The shelf space is limited and don’t you think it is better off to display the more popular or the top ten hits on the shelf? The survival of those record shops depending on  the sale  of the albums. So they cannot take the risk to display albums that only sell 1 or 2 copies per year!

If you want to make money online as single individual, you must read on

But the story is different when comes to online. The is no such limitation like shelf space online (theoretically it can be as big as you want). You can ‘display’ anything you like, and that is the reason why the online music company like Rhapsody can have up to 8 millions tracks in the server, while Wal-Mart can only have less than 2% of what Rhapsody can offer in the shop!! So you can see the huge difference between online and offline business.

What I am trying to tell you here is, one can only sell those popular products in the shop and forced to forego the less popular or lower demand products in offline business. But as mentioned before, internet has changed the whole perspective of doing business. Those so called less popular or lower demand products  can be ‘displayed’ online at no cost and most important, they are being sold as much as the popular products when added up together. In other words, they are now sharing the same platform with the popular products. The chart below shows example of the sales (downloaded) of music online. It can be seen that the popular tracks are being downloaded at high frequency.

But if you look at the total area below the curve for the less popular tracks, it is more or less similar to the area of the popular tracks. In fact, as pointed out by Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired and also the Author of The Long Tail, The Longer Long Tail and also Free, every single track on Rhapsody sells! So the curve just never touch ZERO… and it goes on, very long.  And this is Long Tail. Having said that, Wal-Mart is ever changing. They now also have their own online MP3 download business. In statistic, the curve like the one above is called Long Tailed Distributions, as the Tail is Long relative to the Head.

The data below shows that lots of product which you cannot find offline (less popular product) can be found at those online shops like Rhapsony (music downloading), Netflix (DVD rental) and Amazon (Book). You can see that the number of inventories that they carry is far more than the offline shops. And the less popular products that they carry make up a significant % of their total sales. This is the data for year 2006. The 2008 data shows that the sale % of less popular products has gone up by another 5% . Again, this prove that the Long Tail shall not be overlooked!

Chris Anderson (2006), the Long Tail

A short video about Long Tail from Chris Anderson:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Long Tail principal is applicable to all businesses in this era, especially in internet business. Sometimes we call it a niche market. You do not want to go head to head with the big boy in your business when you just first started online. For example, I just set up a new e-commerce site more or less 1 month ago selling Bamboo Charcoal Home Air Purifiers & Water Purifiers- http://charcoalhomeairpurifiers.com. If I were to go head to head with some old names and also big boys in the market to rank for the keyword air purifier or even home air purifiers, it may take me ages and also great effort to rank on top of the Google SERPs (search engine result pages). You can see from Google keyword tools that air purifier has 1.5 mil searches in the US last month, and also around 1.5 mil worldwide per month. The advertiser competition bar is full, and the cost per click (CPS) is around USD5.80. The Google also shows that there are 2.4mil websites fighting for that keyword phrases. This tells you that air purifier is a competitive keyword phrases to target for.

So the best bet for me is to go for long tail keywords, e.g. bamboo charcoal air purifiers, or less competitive keywords, e.g. Bamboo Charcoal. Then it is easier, and also required less effort to rank on top of Google SERPs. The search volume for bamboo charcoal air purifiers in Google may be ‘too niche’ and of little search volume, but it will give you some businesses from time to time and good for any businesses to kick start. If you search for the keyword phrases- bamboo charcoal air purifiers in Google, you will see that my website or relevant websites that link to my website actually rank on 2,3,4,5,6 & 8 on the 1st page of Google SERPs at the time of writing . And if you go and search for Bamboo Charcoal in Google, you will see that my site is also rank at the 9th position on the 1st page of Google SERPs ( I am sure it will move up higher soon with time).  More businesses or $$$ will start coming in when the website move higher up in the ranking, especially for keyword phrases like Bamboo Charcoal which gives enough search volume for the business.

There is no reason why a website cannot be found under different keywords or keyword phrases. Lets look at the graph below to understand why the long tail keywords are targeted for my e-commerce site and how the sale will increase with time when the website move up in Google SERPs for more competitive keywords.

So internet is a platform for everyone.  Some big names may dominate the majority of the market, but a smaller player will have his or her share in the niche market. You can target the niche market to sell online but make sure at least there is reasonable demand for it (research via Google keyword Tool). There is always chances for you to work your way up and compete with those big names online and out perform them in the Google SERPs.

If you look carefully, most successful internet businesses are capitalising on the Long Tail in one way or another. Google for instance, makes most of its money not from the big corporates but from small and individual advertisers. EBAy is mostly Long Tail as well because you can  find antiques and even Borneo artifacts from eBay…. the list goes on.

Niche market does not necessary has to be in the niche of the product. It can also be geography niche as well. Example you can have ‘Hotel in Centre London’, rather than ‘London Hotel’. Or you can even target ‘Hotel in London for disable people’. Another sample is Kuching Lodge or Kuching Budget Hotel.  All these are special niche that one can always target for. So do not worry if you cannot sell online. Do your own research online as there is niche and long tail in every industry. The online music download is a very good example that shows there is market for a lot of different businesses online and the small players can also make money online!

• Add Me On Twitter

• Addy me on Facebook

• Free Email Course

“7 Steps to Financial Freedom Part Time Online”

Fill in the form below and start learning from the free email course

101 Top Tips for Working From Home- Make Money Online

Lots of people want to work from home; no commuting, more time with the family, and the glitzy promises of wealth draws a lot of people in. But if you’re going to be even remotely successful at this, you have to know what you want, what you are comfortable doing and what to expect. Whatever you doing, remember online business is not a GET RICH QUICK scheme. Just like offline business, it has to be carried out in an ethical manner.

The following is a list of tips taken from all manner of at home workers, including friends’ and my own experience and sharing. Some of them may sounds familiar or are ‘common sense’ to you but they are worth mentioning as they are the FACT and will affect your decision to jump onboard as what to venture into online. The tips are applicable everywhere, no matter where you are- Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, UK, US, Korea, Taiwan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand ..etc.

I have slotted them under different headlines, i.e. the workplace, computer and software, the attitude, at home workers-which one are you, wholesalers and turnkeys, choosing a market, communication, payment online, advertising around, outsourcing, honesty, avoiding scams, avoiding viruses, trojans, spyware, and infections, your health while working from home, the Myths busted! And lastly I also give you a bonus- Free money making website designed for you and also show you how to grab yourself a FREE Domain name.

The Workplace

Work from home, so as it goes, your workplace is your home. So you need all the basic things at home to start with – internet connection, computer and time.

1. Get high speed internet. If you work at home, communication is paramount; your customers, your clients, and everyone who is depending on you has to be able to reach you and you have to be able to talk back.  No matter what online job you have, you’ll need communication and your internet (especially those doing email marketing) and phone link are your ties. A wireless internet connection is preferred.

2. Pick somewhere comfortable for you to work, with everything close at hand. A lot full time marketers or experts will say that you can work anywhere you like as long as there is internet connection- your bed, your couch, the kitchen table, wherever, and of course this is true, but not 100% ‘correct’. My personal experience tells me that you should have a home office (more organize) if possible. Not only will it be distraction free (at least less nuisance for those with kids and lots of family members), but it also allows a bit of physical separation between work life and home life, even though they both happen at home.

3. On the other hand, if you are going to be on the phone a lot (important for network marketers), then have a quiet place to work because there’s nothing more unprofessional than having your customers hear your kinds, the dog and the television going in the background.

4. Have kids?  Don’t fear; you can still work, if you are organized.  Work while they’re napping, playing, or eating, but don’t forget that you can put it down if your child needs you.  If you have a baby, prepared to work like a demon when he or she goes to bed; that’s just the reality of the situation.

Computer and Software

5. A good computer is key. This can be a laptop or a desktop; though a laptop allows you increased mobility. For many people nowadays, having more than 1 computer is very common.

6. Keep up with the latest software in your field; if you want to do a simple web design, then you may need a dreamweaver or xsitepro; and if you are a SEO (search engine optimization) expert, you may need additional tools like Wordtracker and SEO Recon to help you in your works. In other words, you need the best software of your business to make your work easier and efficient. If you have the intention to file your income, just like any offline businesses, you may need things like tax programs and spread sheets.

7. Know your software. If you’re running an internet business, you’ll need shopping cart software and you’ll have to know how best to use it and how to implement it. You also have to know how to maintain it so that you do not have to BEG for people for help every time you need to upload new product or make changes to your listings.

The Attitude

8. You have to be independent, driven, passionate, and a bit of a workaholic.  You will rise or fall under your own power, no one else will make you work.  That’s the reality of the situation of working at home. But once the system is up, or your business is running smoothly, then you can relax and let the system works for you. Your working hour will subsequently reduce.

9. Understand that your office is your home and you won’t be able to physically escape it.  In order to survive this, you have to have mental walls between your home life and your work life.  This takes practice but it will cut down on your stress levels.

10. Start slowly.  When you’re starting out in the home based business, then it’s best to start slow rather than jumping immediately from a job with secure paycheck to one without.  Every kind of home based worker has to start out at the bottom and this means that you won’t be getting a lot of money for a while.  You also have to get used to a radically different pace of work, so it’s best to ease into things.

11. Don’t sell yourself too short (for those providing services online, like graphic designer, programmers, etc).  Yes it’s a highly competitive field and yes for a while, you will not be making very much money, but don’t let that stop you or make you feel like you only deserve a bit of money.  And never shortchange yourself on respect; if someone who hires you doesn’t respect you, then drop them, no matter how much money they are paying.

12. Be FIRM about your time off.  A lot of new at home workers worked all day every day and burned out.  You wouldn’t work at a job all day every day that was out of an office, so why should you do it at home?  Because you’ll feel pressured to!  Don’t succumb to that pressure; tell yourself, your boss/clients what days you’re available and what days you’re not.  Outsource if you have to.  And don’t forget about the annual vacation!

13. If you are providing services online, be professional and courteous to your clients, customers and bosses; this is what will get you rehired, get customers to come back, and make your job overall easier.  At the same time, though don’t be a pushover or a doormat because you will be dealing with a lot of people and chances are some of them will try to walk all over you.

14. Have focus-focus on your projects and don’t let them pile up on you.  Finish one before moving onto another or finish a chunk of one before moving onto another if you have a few on the go.  Set deadlines for yourself and stick to them (to the best of you ability) so it will be less stressful for you.

15. It’s a lonely life at some points; if you are very sociable and outgoing, it’s may not be the job for you.  If on the other hand, you prefer contacting people through, msn, skype, text or telephone and you like to work alone, then it’s a great career for you.

16. Crunch your numbers!  When you see how much (or how little) you’re making every week, you’ll feel motivated to work harder so you can make more.

At Home Workers-Which One Are You?

Figure out what kind of at home worker you want to be; they’re all different and suited for different people.  Read more to learn about the different kinds.

17. Survey taker:  Survey takers are the lowest rung, pay wise and work wise.  All you do is fill out surveys, the more the better.  However, it’s fast work and you can get not only cash, but coupons, free samples and other things.  BUT, be aware that you will never get rich from doing this; you will not make a lot of money at all and it’s only good as a very side income.  Also be very careful of scams; if you have to pay to take the surveys or pay to get the sites that offer them, it’s a scam.

18. Freelance Writer:  Do you enjoy writing, researching, and don’t mind seeing your work under someone else’s name?  Then look into writing.  This job is probably one of the lowest paying in the hierarchy (unless you get on a good retainer), but it’s consistent; there will always be someone looking for writers.  If you’re lucky and work hard, you may get a retainer which is the holy grail of freelance writers.

19. Freelance Graphic Artist:  On the other side of the scale, do you enjoy doing digital art and are good at it?  Then look at being a freelance graphic artist.  Graphic artists design things like logos, pictures, mottos and even e-book layouts; really, anything to do with art.  They are paid better than writers, but it’s harder to get into; you need a portfolio and the more skills you have with art programs the better.

20. Freelance Web Designers:  Web designers are in demand and they are paid well.  You will be creating the websites for your customers and that means you have to know things like HTML and internet codes and be able to design a competitive, customer friendly website.  Web designers are paid well for their work, but be prepared to put in some good hours for it.  You also have to keep up with all of the latest layouts and designs to remain competitive for your customers. Some clients would request to have the websites to be SEO friendly. So you have to know more than you suppose to know!

21. Virtual Assistant:  Virtual assistants are just like any assistant in a business, but from home.  You’ll be doing things like answering calls, organizing things to do with the business, (and sometimes more personal things like shopping), handling customers, researching, and whatever else your boss needs you to do.  Virtual assistants make great money-$20-$55+/hour, but they also do a lot of work.

22. Mystery Shoppers:  Mystery shopping is a bit of an intangible field, but if you enjoy shopping and secretly critiquing stores and restaurants, you’ll enjoy this stay at home job.  Just be sure to clarify what you’ll be paid and how much because some employers will pay in things like coupons and discounts as well as money.  And some mystery shopping opportunities are scams, so be very careful.

23. E-commerce:  If you are an online business owner, you get to run your own business selling your stuff online.  This means that you truly are able to make your own hours and decide how things will be run, but more rides on you; you have to make your business succeed by your own power (and the strength of anyone you hire).  This is considered the penultimate work at home opportunity with countless people trying and failing.  You have to really be persistent to succeed in this, but if you can do it, you’ll be amazed at how well you will do. But it is also a truly competitive area, so you must have your own niche (good product) in order to succeed. If you don’t have the capacity to set up your own e-commerce site, then you can always make use of eBay, Amazon, Shopping etc to sell your product. The good thing about that is the traffic or number of people visiting your products is there for you. Some of the most popular shopping cart online are:  OsCommerce, ZenCart, Magento, Joomla, and even WordPress.

24. Affiliate Marketing: If you don’t have your own product to sell like those who own the e-commerce websites, you can always sell other people products. There are lots of physical and digital products online which give very good commission if you sell for them. You can always go to Clickbank, Paydotcom, Amazon, Sell Health etc to search for good products to promote. Online gambling and adult products also offer lots of commission when you sign someone up for their businesses. A lot of internet marketers like to use email marketing to promote the affiliate products nowadays. If you have your own product to sell, that is even better. You just leverage on other people to sell for you.

25. Network Marketer: It is a new name for MLM (not so new in fact).  A lot of people are phobia of MLM. But when you tell people that you are doing network marketing online, then people will feel better when you approach them. Networking marketing is a very Big Market online. A lot of offline MLM companies are shifting online. People are recruiting downlines online and the basic principal is still the same as offline MLM. The cost of signing up some popular MLM is not cheap, it can go up to few thousands USD easily. No doubt that there are many good network marketers online.

26. Blogger: Blogger can be millionaire too! And there are lots of people blogging to make money. Blogger make money via Google ad sense, commercial advertising, or promoting their own or other people products via writing. You have to have your edge and theme when you write, and constant update is crucial. To keep you going and stand out among the crowds, you must love what you are doing and know what you are writing. You know how many blogs being created every second worldwide? Check this BBC Web.. If you want to create your own blog, you are recommended to go for WordPress.com, WordPress.org (for your own domain name), Blogger.com.

27. Service and Platform Providers: If you are creative enough, then you can create a platform for people to carry out some activities on your site. Example, eBay is an auction platform, Elance or Scriptlance is a platform where web designers, graphic designers, writers, etc can sell their services. Or you can provide hotel or hostel booking platform, e.g. Hostelworld and Rooms4bid (coming soon) and earn commission from every booking. This is a very good way to make money as the effort involved is less once the system is set up and the return is very good.

28. Forum and Membership Sites: There are many people setting up forums on certain subjects and trying to build up the member base. For example, forum that is popular for internet marketer is Warrior Forum or Digital Point; forum which is popular among Asian football or soccer fans is Asian Bookie, Asianbookie ; forum which is popular for HYIP is TalkGold . So when the forums grow popular, the site owners can start charging for advertising, and also start collecting membership fee. A monthly fee will make sure you have your monthly pay! But most people prefer to go for life time membership. You may lose some of your members of you go for monthly fee system.

29. Software Developer: If you are an IT genius (in fact most of the times it is the idea that counts), you can always create software that help to make the life easy for people online. Example, there are tones of Twitter software that helps people to follow and unfollow people- Twittollower There are also lots of software that help to submit your press release to lots of PR sites. And in the market, a lot of software developers come from India. As long as your software is good, then it will sell with some marketing efforts.

30. Trader: Nowadays you do not have to go to the trading floors to trade. You can stay at home to trade in the share market, the currency (forex trading is red hot now). But the statistic shows that only 5% of people making money trading online. So as people always say, if you know how to do it, it will be easy for you. If you do not know how and have no discipline, then better stay away from this! Try to go to Google and search for Forex trading, you will see tones of results coming out. Do you know how much those companies pay Google in Pay Per Click (Google Adwords) Campaign? It ranges from 15USD to 70USD per CLICK!!! So you can see how good profit is it for the trading platform provider.

31. Educator: There are many Gurus teaching online. They are selling their courses online; they teach via webminars and they sell you product after product. But not everyone can become ‘Guru’. You have to prove yourself before you are recognized as Guru. Relationship building and branding is very important for every Guru.

32. Telecommuter:  A telecommuter is someone who has a traditional job, but spends part of the job at home, either because of transportation costs, a preference and ability to stay at home, and/or it’s cheaper for the employer.  Telecommuting is growing more common as computers, internet, and programs that can turn computers into things like fax machines grow more widespread.  While not precisely an at home job, since you will have to go to the office every so often, it is a stepping stone.

33. Website and Domain Flipping: Website flipping and also selling of good domain name is also a business by itself. One must make sure that the website is generating good money before they can put up for sell. Example, the best place for selling your website or get people to bid for your good domain name is at Flippa, Sedo.

34. Drop Catches:  A lot of time people tend to forget to renew their domain names or people purposely let them expire because businesses are no good. So picking up the expired domains will give you some good traffic from sites that link to these domain names or people who have bookmarked them before. So what you can do is to build the site up and start your own selling! Some people will make it into a flipping site.

35. Consultant:  You can be the consultant online, be it a consultant for search engine optimization, consultant for business development, consultant for relationship matter etc. Don’t be surprise that there are many people paying for online consultation.

36. Project Manager: There is also position for project manager online. For some online projects, it involves some coordination among programmers, designers, marketing site, logistic etc. Therefore some site owners prefer to outsource all these tasks to a project manager to coordinate the project. The pay is always very good and but you will have to report to your boss and also deal with several parties involved in the project.

37. Directories: You can set up your very own directory for people to list their sites or businesses with you. And you can do it for free or charge a listing fee when you grow big and popular (with high PageRank). A lot of people submit their sites to the directories not only for better exposure and more traffic, but also to build back links to their websites (for SEO purpose). It is recommended to start your own directory for certain niche, e.g. for digital products, health products or even adult products.

38. Paid to Post: There are a lot of forums out there and especially for the new set up, the forum owners may offer people money to post in the forum (pay per post). And also some business owners may engage your service to pay in forum to advertise their businesses. So, whenever there is demand for certain thing, there will be supply for it in every market.

39. Adult Entertainment: If you are under age, forget about this option. If you like to dress up kinky and talk to people through the webcam, ah ha…! then you can consider those adult webcam service websites. Or you like to talk dirty? Then you may qualify to earn big money when people call you up for your service- people pay premium to the phone call they make. You want the links to those sites? Call meJ

40. Sell Photos: If you are good at photography, you can consider selling your photo online at places like Fotolia , PhotoStockPlus etc. This will enable you to make money out of your hobby.

41. Arbitrage: You may have heard of the word arbitrage in financial term, but there is also sport arbitrage that you can look into. Those involve in sport arbitrage make use of the difference in odds at different bookmakers to make money. There is always software that helps to collect the odds from different bookmakers and show you the arbitrage opportunity. But there is also risk in sport arbitrage- you must have enough cash to place your bet with different bookies and you also have to be fast before the odds change!  My experience tells me that it is NOT Easy and Time Consuming. Check out the SportsArbitrageGuide.

42. HYIP: This is something you may not want to get involve if you do not have the hearth to take the risk. HYIP stands for High Yield Investment Program. Of course most of them are scams. But if you can take the risk and know when to pull back, it may be a ‘good’ investment to throw some money in HYIP- I am not encouraging you to do so here. A lot of them promise you 10% return per week, and some even promise you 10% per day. So it is again up to you to make your own judgment. A lot of times, the early birds will make money! Talk Gold- TalkGold is my favourite forum. Buy Stay away if possible:)!

43. Product Creation: You can create CDs for sale online or even helping people to produce CDs and ship on behalf of them. For example Kunaki, they help not only to produce digital cd / dvd, they also help to publish and ship for their clients. And most important, the cost is reasonable!

44. Hosting: You can be a reseller for hosting companies, or join their affiliate program. A lot of time they are paying you up to 1 year of hosting fee for every customer you recruit for them.

45. Google Adsense: Advertisers pay Google to list their websites on the SERPs and also at some content related pages or websites. If you own a website, blog etc, you can always opt to have Google Adsense on your sites (monetize your sites and this can be done easily via the Blogger or WordPress platforms). Google pay you certain amount (the guess is Google is sharing 50-50 the profit with you for the PPC campaign) for every click on the ads that come from you website. But DO NOT click on the ads yourself or even engage someone to click on the ads as Google can penalize or ban you for life if you get caught. There are many people being penalized for that and that proved Google is better than FBI, KGB or CIA!

46. Link Monkey: There are lots of people providing link building service. Link building is important for your website. A website with good links will be regarded by search engine as important and popular site and hence rank the website higher in SERPs. You can help people to build links (to directories, blogs, press release, article submission etc) and charge a lump sum for your service, and come out with a simple report to your client at the end of the day. But be careful here. Bad links may spoil your website ranking.

This list can go very long here. What I am trying to tell you here is, money is everywhere online for you to earn.

Wholesalers and Turnkeys

47. If you want to sell some physical product and you do not have one, then you’ll need a good drop shipping wholesaler.  Drop shipping wholesaler stock and ship out the items for you and you keep a percentage of the profit.  This cuts down on your workload and gives you more of an inventory for your goods.  However, there are a lot of wholesalers that are crooked, inexperienced, or just wrong for your business, so look around for one. But keep in mind that the drop shipper may not have the item in stock sometimes so you must be updated with their inventory from time to time. You can find a good drop shipping wholesaler here: wholesalerdropshippers.

48. Know where to find coupons.  Wholesalers, shippers and suppliers, and warehouse merchants have promotional coupons that allow you to save money on large shipments every month.  You just have to track them down on the company website and take advantage of them.

49. If you’re brand new to the online business world, then you don’t want a wholesaler, but a turnkey system.  The turnkey system takes over much of the running of your business for you; you can have it do things like advertising, website building (it’ll be a basic one, but still) and the stocking and shipping of your goods.  Turnkeys are great for beginners, but once you get the ropes, then you’ll want to move to a wholesaler so you can customize your website the way you want it.

Choosing a Market

There are a few different kinds of markets.  Before you jump in, decide what you want to do because each kind of market requires different kinds of work, advertising, and different needs to make the business work.

50. Services vs products: do you want to sell your time or your goods?  Services include things like: writing, graphic design, web design, consulting, accounting, and customer service.   Goods are anything material (physical or digital) to sell.  You can mix it up too-sell your writing and e-books for example, or design web sites (website flipping) and sell clothing, health product like, vaginal odor or premature ejaculation cure product etc..  It’s all a matter of preference.

51. In order to get into selling your services, it’s best to start with a third party site (e.g. Elance , RentaCoder) that hooks up workers with employers and then offer yourself up for long term work whenever possible.  These long term partnerships allow you to have steady work and ask for raises and bonuses whenever applicable. There are also professional copywriters, e.g. John Angle, who set up their own websites providing copywriting services to high budget customers .

52. When you are selling your products, you can basically start up your own website and go; however, if you want to start off fast, then you can set up shop in eBay or Amazon to get started and then start your own website when you have more capital.

53. Niche vs Mainstream:  Niche markets are markets for things that (a) only a few devoted customers will want such as rare books, antique lamp shades, or (b) more specific items that people are looking for, example Bamboo charcoal home air purifiers (instead of bamboo charcoal), edible bird nest of Borneo (instead of bird nest)  .  Although you won’t get as much traffic, you will get more interested traffic and thus you’ll be able to raise your prices a little.  Mainstream markets are markets in things like books, clothing, video games, and linens; stuff everybody wants, but can find in many different sites, so you have more competition and you’ll have to charge less.  However, you’ll get more traffic (provided you can rank on top of search engine result pages-SERPs) and more places to advertise.

54. Figure out what to sell.  Go with your strengths and what you already know a lot about so that it’s easier to establish yourself as an expert and so that you’re more passionate about your work. If you do not know what to sell, try to search on eBay to see what are the most popular items people are looking for. Download this free report to learn how to find the most popular product on eBay.

Communication

Choose your communication method.  There are several ways for you to get in touch with your customers, clients, and bosses and the more you have the better.  However, some ways are more practical than others, so choose which ways you want to use carefully and then stick with them.

55. Email:  Email is the most common way to get text, files, and pictures across to someone else.  Choose a business email account that you are comfortable using and, if you are using it for advertising, will not excite the notice of spam filters.  Business email accounts are best for this.  If you are working for someone else, you just need a reliable account that will allow you to send things securely and without fail. If you are running a few businesses and have few email accounts, you can consider importing your different emails into your Gmail account, Window Mail, Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird etc. That would save the hassle for you to check different email every day.

56. Telephone:  If you are going to be dealing with customers on a one-on-one basis, then you’ll want a telephone.  Opt for a Bluetooth wireless headset with quick access to a mute button (especially if you have kids) and make sure you have a cheap, reliable service provider. Any website that provides a telephone number for customer service will definitely have more sales!

57. Instant Messaging:  Instant messaging is most useful for casual conversations, brainstorming, and updating or asking questions about a project.  It shouldn’t be used for transferring files since the files could carry bugs or the computer receiving them may not have the compatible programs.  For a bonus in professionalism, limit the use of ‘texting language’; it makes you look unprofessional, unless you’re just having a friendly chat.

58. Virtual Desks:  Virtual desk software/websites allow both you and the people you work with to upload and share files, discuss work, and assign tasks.  These sites are usually free for simple use, but if you want to do a broader range of things with more people, someone will have to pay a fee.  Virtual desks are very useful though for managing people and tracking their work output.

59. Skype:  Skype warrants a special mention because it does instant messaging, phone calls, and video calls all in one for a very low cost or free if you’re only using it for instant messaging.  Skype allows you to do national and international calls at a vastly reduced rate from the regular phone service, making it extremely popular.

60. Of course, the best thing to do is to do a combination of things depending on circumstance; just be sure to choose methods you’re comfortable with and can keep up with. I am sure you do not want to publish your phone number on your website if you are selling porn movie. Live Chat will also increase your business if you have one on your website. People want solution fast, remember this.

Payment Online

61. Make sure to have secure payment for your customers through shopping cart software.  Even when you know it’s safe, make sure to tell them that it’s safe and why it’s safe for their peace of mind.

62. Have a secure line for your own banking and money management and always make sure to change your passwords regularly.

63. Use a secure online transaction site such as PayPal which guarantees the safety of your buying and selling and can even transfer money to your bank for free once you reach a certain amount of money in the account.

64. Allow max 3 clicks for people to get to the payment site. If it takes more than 3 clicks to get to the payment site, then your sale will definitely drop.

65. Statistic shows that with the logo of credit card or Paypal and few called to action on your website will increase the sale!

Advertising Around

66. Research the best ways to advertise your business.  Depending on what kind of home business owner you are, different methods work better.  For example, if you’re selling physical stuff, try Google AdWords to start with, which will generate traffic to you site fast; if you’re a web designer or writer, try a third party that hooks up workers with employers.  Do a search of the best places to advertise yourself and your products and find out what you need to do in order to obtain visibility.

67. Get an email address that isn’t one of the most common ones; email accounts like hotmail and yahoo are often viewed as spam email slots, so you’ll be taken less seriously when you send out email advertisements. If you have your own website, you can always set up a professional email address that attached to your domain name. One can get a FREE domain here with Host Monster.

68. Get to know your social media!  Nowadays, an online business does not do nearly as well without a page on a social media site as one with one.  Some of the ones to get to know: Facebook and Twitter are the hugest, but if you want to go more low-key, you can find social media that is more related to the products and/or services you’re offering.

69. Blogging.  Blogging is now one of the most common forms of communication; it lets people tell a wide audience all about a given topic.  It’s also fairly fast to write a daily entry in your blog, and yet it heightens your visibility and makes you look more like a professional and experienced in your field. Take advantage of the blogs to build links to the websites that you want to promote.

70. Spend the money (when you can) to hire a good graphic designer/artist/animator to create advertisements with real bang and that will attract new customers.  Although a bit pricey, it’s well worth the cost when you see your traffic jump.

71. The more you write/advertise/draw/talk about yourself, your company, your products and services, the more notice you get.  However, you’ll probably need help with this, so remember to look for your assistants.

72. Join some forums and communities related to your product.  When you do this, and actively participate, you make yourself into an expert in your chosen field which leads to trust which leads to sales.

73. Learn your article directories; these are places where you can submit articles about yourself, your company and your niche-the more the better. Ezine Articles is a very popular directory, but there are others like GoArticles etc.  These are free places to advertise and it’s fairly easy and straightforward to submit articles. It is good for back link building too.

74. Video advertising: Video advertising is a strong and powerful tool. You can post any video regarding your product and add a link in the description (do not forget to show your website link in the video too). The most popular place for you to post your video is of course YouTube. Other websites like MetaCafe, Google Video etc are also good for advertising. Listen…. The number of videos being viewed on Youtube is more than 175Mil per day (or inbound link to Youtube per day)! So do not underestimate the power of video marketing.

75. Keep everything updated, one way or another.  Even doing one article a day to a few directories and a couple forum postings a day is a good way to boost and maintain your visibility and that help your Google Ranking. Consistency is the word.

Outsourcing

Almost all the things you want to do online can be outsourced, if you know HOW! Of course you will have to pay for that. Easiest way is to recruit someone to be your project manager and she or he will sort and source everything out for you.

76. You can always ask for help somewhere along the line; even small online businesses will want to outsource at least one person to handle some of the work load.  Remember that just like paying for any start up materials, hiring on the right person or people is an investment. You can outsource any kind of work for your business; marketing, graphic design, research, customer service, website design; anything that you don’t want to do or can’t do well can be outsourced to someone somewhere.

77. Do your research into outsourcing carefully; check out any prospective employee/partner carefully by looking into their portfolio, their credentials and what other people have said about them (if possible).  Use either an outsourcing firm or a website that hooks freelancers up with businesses, depending on your needs and budget.

78. It’s best to get a couple constant employees/partners rather than bounce from person to person.  That way you can ‘train’ these people to do the work you want your way and you’ll know what to expect from that person (such as billing, schedules, quality and quantity of work and the temperament of that worker).

79. The Three Rs of keeping your employees happy and working well: Respect, Rehire, and Rewards.  As long as you respect, rehire and reward (i.e. pay promptly and fairly) your outsourced help, you’ll have loyal, helpful workers who will enhance and strengthen your business, turning what may have seemed like a financial liability into an asset.

80. Be very careful of inexperienced, unserious, and even scamming outsourced workers.  These people may not be as experienced as they claim (for example they may claim to be English speaking, but can’t write very well), they may be very slow or scattered in their work, and they may even try to take your money and run without delivering anything.  This is why you should be careful who you choose, work out a fair payment schedule (such as half upfront, half on delivery or all on delivery), and screen your potential employees to be sure they are what you want. Some platform providers like ScriptLance allow you to pay by installment via their escrow service.

Honesty

81. Honest dealings with your customers will get you more loyal customers.  Even if this means telling them that you’re out of stock, the site will be down or you have a virus on your computer that could spread, honesty is always the best policy.

82. Never promise to deliver more than you can give, even if it makes you look small time.  If you promise the world and fail, you not only look dishonest, but you look disorganized and furthermore the dreaded word scammer will start floating around about you.  Once word gets out that you’re a scammer, it’ll be really hard to scrape your reputation back up, so don’t even go near the danger zone.

83. Ebay is a typical example. People used to be able to buy Positive feedbacks on eBay, but now this is banned and people are not allowed to sell even digital products on eBay. This tells how important is it a positive feedback means for all sellers on eBay. The feedbacks that you are getting on eBay will affect the decision of the buyers.

Avoiding Scams

834. Unfortunately, working from home means going online a lot and this means you’ll be targeted by every single low life looking to make a quick buck off your new work and lack of knowledge.  Know how to avoid the scams, both in finding work and in dodging ‘offers’ and always listen to your gut. Always do your own Due Diligence before you jump in any offers. Forum is a good place to do your due diligence.

85. Never ever pay money to work.  You should never have to pay anyone to give you work; they should be paying you. However, if you’re looking at some networking opportunities, you will have to pay a start-up fee for materials, but always check the company out to make sure it’s legitimate.  If the company doesn’t have a real address and a phone number you can call them at, they’re not real.

86. Opportunities for business will not come through your email.  A lot of spam emails are scams; they deliver nothing but heartbreak.  You have to do your research to find a legitimate niche for your skills and even when you find it, you may still find yourself dealing with scammers and fraudulent clients.

87. Be professional and use some common sense.  If it looks too good to be true, it is.  If you need money, don’t broadcast it all over creation; that just summons the scammers to try to ply you with promises for fast easy cash.

88. Stuffing envelopes, medical billing from home, craft assembly, email processing, purchasing a list of companies looking for at-home workers, and typing at home are all examples of classic scams; they all ask you to pay money for whatever you ‘need’ and then send you nothing useful.

Avoiding Viruses, Trojans, Spyware, and Infections

89. An anti-virus program. You need a good working antivirus program because you’ll be cruising all kinds of sites (especially if you are a writer/researcher) and exposing your computer to all manner of viruses, Trojans, and spyware, so you need a line of defense. For most of the new computer, the anti-virus always comes together for free.

90. Never ever click on an unsolicited link from an email you don’t recognize.

91. Don’t add contacts to your messenger whose name you don’t recognize, they don’t have anything in their profile and they don’t send you a message.  These are spammers at best and virus ridden at worst.

92. Have a ‘spam’ email account which you can use to do research that requires memberships and newsletters.  That way you can sort it out at your leisure and not have your business inbox clogged.

Your Health While Working from Home

93. At home workers run the risk of becoming overweight and out of shape due to the hours spent in front of the computer.  In order to avoid this, make sure to go out on walks every day.  Not only will this help you keep your weight down, but it will also let you clear your head and work better.  By this token, make sure to leave the computer for breaks so you don’t get sore eyes or shoulders and neck.

94. Because the job can be dull, a lot of people eat more to stave off boredom.  Don’t fall to this trap!  Drink water and eat healthy snacks instead of junk or just go on a walk or read for a few minutes to take a break.

95. Working from home can make some people insular; if you are already anti-social, this career will make you more so simply because of all the time spent working.  Avoid this by inviting people to come over sometimes, going out yourself, and by talking to people face to face instead of just over the ‘net.  Remember, in order to stay mentally healthy, you need contact with the outside world!

96. At home workers tend to be workaholics in order to stay self motivated to work, but don’t let you yourself get overwhelmed.  Know the limits of your abilities and your time and don’t take on more than you can handle or you’ll burn out quickly and not be able to do much of anything.  It’s worth taking a day off to recharge so that you can work better when you get back to it.  Or else the same theory of ‘stay home when you’re sick’ applies even when you work at home.

The Myths Busted!

97. You will not get rich quick, I mean not over night, not over few months time.  Just like any business, you’ll have a slow start up and dry periods.  Make sure you have some outside source of income, especially in the first year where you’re just starting.  The old adage of Five holds true: in the first five weeks you’ll want to quit because you’ll be making little, in the first five months, most will start seeing some lights at the other end of the tunnel; but in five years, you’ll be doing a lot better and some people may already become millionaire (base on fact of many online marketers), so be persistent and understand that you won’t get rich quick.

98. You will not be only working a few hours a week and making tons of money at the beginning if you want to make it a full time job.  You will be working several hours a day, just like any job, and hopefully making some money.  If you have a big project, you may have to keep on top of your business, hire people if needed (and supervise them), write content, get pictures, research, the list goes on.  It’s a job, like any other, but once you get rolling, some things will get easier, some things will be almost automated, some things you’ll get used to and some things you’ll hire others to do. Then you will work few hours a week at your own flexi hours. But…but if you just want an extra income, then working part-time or few hours a week will also generate you handsome income in long term.

99. You will not exactly be making your own hours; just blocking out the best times to work during the day.  You still have to work a certain amount of time per week in order to get everything done.  However, you can pick the best times to work, such as nights or mornings depending on your temperament.

100. When you are really into internet marketing, you will keep buying because you have made some money. And you will be attending internet courses, classes, conferences and also gathering with the likes. It is a good practice as things change every day online. You may be interested to find out what other people are doing, or you are interested to know how people make their money online. As I stated above, there are so many ways you can make money online!

101. The last tip I am giving you here is…. Check out Instant Cash Inbox and grab yourself a free money making website which I already set up for you! Good luck and check out my blog, from time to time for freebies and guides on making money online.

By all means, the 101 top tips are for your reference and I am sure there are things that I missed out above. I welcome you to comment and contact me anytime. Cheers…..

Brought To You

By Addy Kho

http://www.InstantCashInbox.com

Download a copy of the 101 Top Tips for Working From Home and Make Money Online

• Add Me On Twitter

• Addy me on Facebook

• Free Email Course

“7 Steps to Financial Freedom Part Time Online”

Fill in the form below and start learning from the free email course

100 Articles in 100 Days

I have decided to take up the challenge of Hundred Articles in Hundred Days (HAHD) marathon from Christopher Knight, the CEO of Ezine Articles. For those who do not know what is Ezine Articles, it is an article directory where people can post their articles online. Each article is normally of 400-6oo words.

I know I have posted before that article writing is not a good way to attract traffics to your website, unless you have hundreds of articles written to make it a significant traffic source to your website. There are many  other ways online which are more effective in term of traffic generation as compared to article writing, e.g. join venture, ad swap, give away contest etc.  But I have no doubt that article writing is a good practice to generate quality links to your websites. With the right anchored keywords in the resource box of your articles, you are telling Google search engine what your website is all about. In other words, it is good for SEO especially from site of high Page Rank. EzineArticles.com is having PR=6.

It may not be easy to come out with 100 articles in 100 days, but it is not impossible!

All qualifiers will receive:

• #HAHD Certificate of Achievement
• Original Limited-edition EzineArticles #HAHD Trophy Mug
• Limited-edition EzineArticles #HAHD Mouse Pad
• Limited-edition EzineArticles Giant Beach Ball
• Limited-edition EzineArticles Hat

ADDED BONUS:
The top 100 members for total number of qualified submissions will also receive a chance to win 1 of 10 FREE 1-year EzineArticles Premium Membership subscriptions valued at $582 each!

To be honest, the HAHD marathon has kicked off on the 1st Jan 2010. And I am around 30 days behind now. But again it is not too late. Please check out my new Ezine account set up for this competition and I will be writing on Ecommerce under my new account ==>100 articles in Ecommerce!

If you are interested to come on board, I welcome you to join me!

Addy Kho | Create your badge

Add me on FaceBook

Add Me On Twitter

Free Email Course

“7 Steps to Financial Freedom Part Time Online”

Fill in the form below and start learning from the free email course