Data Entry Jobs: Scam or Real Money Making Opportunity?

‘Get paid to type data online! This is a perfect opportunity for stay at home moms, students or anyone that is in need of some extra cash. Available worldwide.’

‘Earn money entering data from the comfort of your home! Follow the simple step by step system. No experience needed.’

Any of these ads look familiar? They should, you can find them plastered all over the Internet and in most classified newspaper ads. Data Entry Jobs are currently the latest rage. It seems everyone wants to do them. In fact, I did a check to see how many times people typed in the phrase, ‘data entry’ (with Overture’s Keyword Selector Tool) and found that last month there were 38,490 searches for Data Entry; and that’s not counting all the searches on Google, MSN or any of the hundreds of other search engines on the Internet! That’s also not counting the other phrases people could have typed in, such as; ‘data entry jobs,’ ‘make money with data entry,’ ‘online data entry’ or many other phrases associated with Data Entry.

Why are so many people interested in Data Entry Jobs? Well think about it. You get to work from home (in your pajamas if you want), spend more time with your family, don’t have to worry about leaving your house and getting stuck in that traffic, and you don’t have to hate it every time the alarm goes off each morning. I mean, how irresistible is that?

I decided to do a bit of research on these so-called ‘Data Entry Jobs.’ What did I find? Well, I will tell you this; many of the companies I researched had a lot in common. Now let me start off by saying that I researched some of the more popular Data Entry Programs. What I found was many of these programs had very misleading ads and websites with outrageous promises. Customer service was also very poor and in some cases nonexistent. I emailed some of them to ask a simple question and I never got a response.

Some of the Data Entry programs I researched were from Clickbank’s Marketplace. All of these I found were actually eBooks that tell you, or even show you how you can make money using Google AdWords to sell their product or other Clickbank products. (That is not Data Entry. That is actually Affiliate Marketing.) So in reality, once you join and pay the registration fee for these Data Entry Programs, you will receive the training materials that will teach you how to type more ‘data entry ads’ and convince other people to do the same thing. What they fail to tell you is that YOU have to pay for the ads you place and you ONLY make money IF you make a sale. When I made this discovery I was outraged because not only are these programs misleading, as you actually do not make money for the data entry itself, you only get money if you sell a product, these programs are also fraud and contain false information. That has the word SCAM written all over it. In fact, after further research, I discovered that Clickbank actually had these so-called Data Entry Programs removed from their Marketplace. Why? Well, even though these products were very popular and sold very easily, they also have a very high return rate, which Clickbank frowns upon. That right there should tell you something.

So are Data Entry Jobs scams? In my opinion I don’t think that Data Entry Programs themselves are scams. It’s the WAY they are presented and sell their product to the public that’s misleading. As mentioned earlier, this is nothing more than Affiliate Marketing, which is not Data Entry.

So how does one go about finding legitimate Data Entry Jobs? The key is to find an honest and reliable freelancing data entry job. This is going to require time on your part. You are going to have to do your homework and put in the effort required to find these legitimate jobs. Don’t worry. I have listed a few of the best places to look.

You can use search engines to help you find reliable companies. There are many review sites out there that will give you an unbiased review of data entry programs. Please don’t go into this kind of search believing EVERYTHING you read from these review sites. Believe it or not, there are a lot of review sites that are still promoting data entry programs from Clickbank, which as mentioned earlier are mostly scams.

Another great place to look for data entry jobs is Webmaster forums. Many webmasters are constantly looking to save time by hiring other people to do manual labor so they can focus more on advertising and updating their web sites. Some forums even let you advertise your services, but some also charge you a fee for this, so once again, do your research.

A great place I recently discovered to look for Data Entry Jobs is www.Craigslist.org. Craig’s List is the largest online classified website on the Internet. I used to think it only listed things to buy or sell, but during my research, I discovered they also have a section called “Gigs” which includes a section on ‘Writing’ where people are always looking for someone to do data entry work.

There are many other job sites such as Monster.com, Yahoo and even HotJobs where you can find data entry jobs in your area. Remember to take your time and do a thorough search because you need to insure that you are signing up with a reliable program so that you do not get scammed.

The best way to make sure that you are dealing with a reliable company is to go to www.BBB.org and check out the company you are interested in. The BBB grades companies using their rating system and has official information and customer praise and complaints about most businesses. It’s the best place to find unbiased and accurate information.

So in conclusion, Data Entry Jobs can be a real money making opportunity. Just remember, as with any industry, there are scammers out there who know what you want to hear and are ready to ‘tickle your ears’ with their ads promising instant riches. Don’t fall for them. Do your homework and you will be fine.

I hope this article has proven to be helpful for you.

To your success,

Anna Allen

For more information on Data Entry Programs and other ways to make money online visit http://www.moneymakingresearch.com where you can find ‘honest’ reviews of various money making opportunities.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

The Ultimate Traffic Generation System

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Home based Online Jobs

Have you ever wanted to have a part time job? In case you do; then I suggest you read this article. It is possible that you will find the part time job that you are looking for. Now I will tell you some thing about myself. I am a professional Doctor and I work in a Private hospital (a big one). My salary is about $4000 a month but I wanted to earn more. So how can I do a part time job when I have to spend almost 10 hours in the hospital? Well this is a good question. There is no way that I can do another job. So is there any solution? Yes, there is. Few years back a friend of mine told me about Online freelancing Jobs. I just hated to hear such thing because it sounded so cheap. My friend suggested me to try it but I never did.

A year ago, I needed some money to buy a new car but I was unable to do so. At that time, I just thought for a second about that freelancing work. I wondered if I can really make some money at freelancing sites. So I decided to give it a try. I already had a personal Laptop all the time in the hospital and there was high speed internet available all the time at the hospital. At my first day, I joined one freelancing site and tried to get work, but no luck. Then a week passed and still no luck at all. Then I decided to do some research about how to get work and I also decided to plan for the freelancing work future.

First of all, I was not doing few very basic things which were very important to be done. Secondly, I was offering to do work for very high rates. So for the first problem, I found an Online Jobs guide which helped me understand what I had to do at the freelancing site. The guide explained everything about how to get work at these sites. I solved the second problem by just lowering the rates that I was offering, actually I lowered the rates a little too much and that is why I started to get work.

The basic concept of freelancing sites is that a buyer (who wants some work to be done) open up a Project offering a job to any freelancer who is interested. All these projects appear on the site. Now freelancers who can do this project read it and then place a bid on the project if they are interested in doing it. So there are many freelancers bidding on the same project. There are few factors that play an important role for the buyer or the creator of the project to choose the winning bidder. Here are few of them:

1. Buyers communicate with all or maybe few of the bidders via communication system in the site. By such communication, buyers try to judge the abilities of the freelancer and they try to figure out whether or not, the particular freelancer is suitable for the Job. A high percentage of buyers choose a freelancer based on the communication results, so this factor is very important one.

2. All freelancers have a Rating or feedback. This is the Rank given by the buyers on the site to the freelancers who had worked for them. This means, when ever a buyer chooses a freelancer and the freelancer completes the work for which the buyer hired him; after the completion the buyer pays the freelancer and then give a feedback to the freelancer. For example, if the buyer is very happy with the work that the freelancer did, then it is possible that the buyer will give 10 out of 10. Or in opposite case a 1 out of 10. When freelancers place a bid on a project, the buyer, and every one else too, can see the ratings of all the freelancers who placed the bid. So the buyer can make a decision on the fact that which freelancer has the best ratings.

3. The third but the most important factor of all is the amount of money that you are placing in your bid for a particular project. For example, suppose there is a project with a budget range of $100-$300, and there are 10 freelancers that have placed bids on this project. A freelancer with 50 ratings, and all ratings are 10 out of 10, has placed a maximum bid of $300 and all others have placed some amount above $100. All other freelancers placed a bid above $100. You are new at this site and you have no ratings, what will you do? How much amount you will put in your bid? $300 or $100? Of course $100, which is the minimum. This is the only way to get this project. You can’t get it if you place a bid of $300, No way, its impossible.

So when I started the work I was not doing anything mentioned above and that is the reason why I never got any project until I realized that some thing is wrong. So, the factor 1 and 3 are important for all the new bees. For the factor 2, the new bees can’t do any thing as you will only get ratings when you will complete any project.

In few days, I got my first project. Actually it was only a 40 dollars project, but you can’t believe how happy I was when I got it. I completed it in a day during the free time I got at the hospital. I received my first payment and most importantly I got my first rating which was 10 out of 10.

After that, things went on nice for few days, by the time when I got my 10th rating; I was making $500 in a month which is not very bad. But I had a feeling that some thing is missing or something that can make things easier for me. Actually, for the $500 that I was making in a month, I was working too hard and doing 2 jobs at the same time, it’s a bit difficult. So I started to think of any solution that can make things easier. Then one day, I read an Online Jobs guide that made things much easier for me. And now I am making $1000 a month and I don’t have to do the hard work, I just do work for no more than an hour and I get my $1000 each month. All you need if a little experience and when you get it, everything goes easier for you.

There are many jobs that person can do. There are software testing jobs, programming jobs, making websites, promoting websites and much more but the two jobs that every body can do are Copywriting and Data entry (Data entry; Do it only to get some ratings). Copywriting is the online job that can produce 1000 dollars in a month. You can work at home or do it in free time you have during your full time job, or do it as a part time job. Freelancing jobs are getting popular these days. Many people are even doing it as a full time job. Its popularity secret is that you are your own boss and that you can do it when ever you want to and you can do it while sitting in front of your PC at your own home.

Read Online Jobs Guide at Online Jobs Legitimate Data Entry Jobs You can contact us at yasirwazir@yahoo.com.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

The Ultimate Traffic Generation System

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Digital Photography Classes…Anyone Can Learn Now

Standing near a path, hedge, fence or wall which stretches away into the distance will carry the eye from the foreground through to the distance, giving the picture the extra dimension of depth. Rivers and streams, stretching into the distance, can be used to serve the same function with the added advantage of sparkling with light and reflecting a blue sky. Whether the photograph is framed to give a vertical picture (portrait format) or horizontal picture (landscape format) will always be dictated by purely visual considerations. Just what is visually most effective in any particular situation will determine whether we should take a landscape or portrait format photograph. Street scenes are another popular subject in this category. Streets in villages, old market towns or the endless variety of town scenes in other countries provide a continuous source of interest. Looking down a street automatically gives the picture a certain depth. Finding a suitable item for the foreground can help this along. This might be such things as a quaint shop front, a market stall, the wing of a car or a person.

If you’re planning on opening up a studio to take children’s photos then you’re going to need to lease a building. It doesn’t have to be anything large but it should be in a visible part of town with a lot of other businesses. Visibility is half the battle won. Finally, you’re going to have to take lots of photos, especially if you want to build a reputation for yourself. You’ll want to put together a portfolio of your work so that you can bring it around with you. Again, this is going to depend on what field you want to get into, whether it be freelancing for a magazine, setting up your own shop, or working for somebody else, which is usually a good way to break in. The world of photography is wide open. There are many options to each aspiring photographer. So pick a game plan and stick to it. With patience and perseverance, you’ll eventually get to where you want to be.

A digital photography camera is a tricky choice for some. Many people are more concerned with price than they are with how much memory the camera will have. The cameras range in price from a hundred dollars all the way to thousands of dollars. Depending on what is needed, the choice can seem overwhelming. One photography site that can help determine just what is right is Shortcourses. This site helps the consumer decide from the four major types of cameras as to which one fits their lifestyle. Digital photography is a great way to capture the images of an individual that will be seen for generations to come. By using digital photography instead of regular film, those memories will be perfect the first time. The choices of cameras are endless, and with the help of the internet, a person can make sure and choose the right camera that best fits their lifestyle and price range.

Anyone who wants to learn how to be a photographer doesn’t have to enroll for many years to get a degree. There are colleges who offer this as one of the subjects which the student may take as an elective. Can you still learn how to be a photographer being out of school for many years? The answer is yes. The only thing needed is your dedication to learn from the proper techniques and a camera to take some shots. Some students don’t have to go to campus anymore. There are some institutions that offer distance education. A good example is the New York Institute of Photography. You will learn everything from exposure, lenses, the various techniques used to cover different events, journalism and much more. Being affiliated with the school, you will be entitled to free online magazine articles such as contests and digital imaging.

Some of you may have more options than others depending on where you live. If there are several schools in your area I highly recommend investigating the following; 1) Go over the course outline; by looking over the subject matter in the digital photography course, you will be able to check out which classes are suitable for your skill level. Some classes teach just the basics like how to work your camera. So if you’re well passed that, why not take on something a little more challenging? 2) See if there are any interesting aspects to your class. Does the class teach nothing but black and white photography? Will you be out and about in nature trying to photograph birds at six in the morning? Some of this may interest you and it also might give you a headache.

Computer skills: A good photography school needs to have courses regarding the use of computers. The field of photography is a very competitive one and you could really use some knowledge of computers. With the advent of digital photography, the need for computer literacy is more evident than ever. Scholarships It would be best if the photography school is offering some kind of financial assistance for their students. Some of the equipments in photography are not that cheap. These are just some tips on how to choose a photography school. Choosing the right school is as important as having a good view of where you want to go. The right school is the best way to get there.

To keep yourself enthusiastic about your subject, you might want to shoot two or maybe three projects at a time. Spend a Saturday afternoon shooting your local town’s attractions and people, and next weekend drive into the nearest city to shoot architecture and caf culture. But how do you choose projects that will assist in creating strong saleable images? Search stock photography agencies, look through travel magazines and newspapers. What you see everyday is what sells. The key is to plan what you are going to shoot. Although we are all guided by weather conditions, it is possible to select the images you want before you arrive at your location. I rarely arrive without at least a few images mapped out in my head, and never without a shoot list. As travel photographers, it goes without saying that we have a passion for travel. It’s why we do what we do. But it is an extremely difficult business to get into. The catch 22 is that to produce a portfolio or stock image library you need time and money. To fund your photography you need to work. It will take time and dedication, but by shooting close to home you will gradually improve your photography skills and start to build a portfolio of images to be proud of. It all comes down to the way we view our surrounding.

Looking into digital photography, ever want to start Learning Digital Photography? Find some great tips on how to take digital photographs with This Free Report

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

The Ultimate Traffic Generation System

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

2009 Global Outsourcing

Global Outsourcing has been a booming success in the business market. It is the talk of the town since it was given birth to in the dawn of the millennium. Started from USA, then got outsourced to Asian countries of India, China (Shanghai as well as Beijing) & Philippines (Cebu City) and presently with its expansion, even reaching continents Europe, Middle-East and Africa. Under its expert services, there are now advancements in the fields of information technology, medical research, engineering and sales marketing. Its fields even branched out from the basic information technology business process outsourcing into knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), legal process outsourcing (LPO), engineering process outsourcing (EPO) and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). Indeed there is a lot to expect from global outsourcing this year of 2009.

There is a lot waiting for investors to think of when in contemplation of putting up a globally outsourcing firm. Factors and benefits should be taken into account in domain of domestic variations, round the clock adjustments in office work, ethnicity customs, communication seclusions and appropriate local legal practices. Outsourcing award giving bodies count rates in management performance answering criteria in expenditures, confrontments, market place, geopolitics, human resources, information technology edge, economic significance, assets update and cultural state of affairs. Furthermore, companies should follow equation on economic conflicts to lower outlays, contrary to a prospering economy of focusing instead on improvisations.

Listing down the outsourcing factors, it should evolve in the working W’s of the industry: “What, Why, When, How, Where, and Who.” Also,

1. Projects should be treated as a normal functioning business (a good paradigm site on this endeavor is GetACoder)

2. Match up with top requirements for inbound services: headship control, established business education, a meaningful client-investor relationship, corporate center blueprint, marketing strategies, high quality standard office procedures, good supervision on implementation of deals and growing business needs

3. Outsource undemanding job responsibilities

4. Realize styles that would help improve the firm’s performance by using outsourcing. These are products of the organizational drive in pursuit of utilizing mediocre directing expenses, value effective client assistance, mastery of disembodiment, gaining the right to use consultancy advises and adaptable workers attitude.

5. Unique system for outsourcing with its fundamental sections in marketing, implementing, managing, evaluating and succeeding.

6. Carry a business portfolio. It’s a must that service providers can find here rules, manpower quota and frameworks.

7. Maintain business science. An organization should have an upward growth. Corporate theories and frameworks (ex. operational model or outsourcing benefits ladder) should be followed and assessed as the firm ages. History is a tool for progress.

Henceforth, what is there to expect from 2009 Global Outsourcing? According to the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), there are top 5 conjectures to be watched out for this annum.

1. Greater home based opportunities await aspirants this year. On its developments, jobs are more highly specialized, with a booming industry in the likes of fields on finance, engineering, sales, marketing, information technology and medicine.

2. Outsourcing conflicts will be on issues of facing higher risk for lower labor costs, cut-off rates on technical needs and merging companies. Contracts will be shorter even for top service level demands.

3. Certified Outsourcing Professional

The Ultimate Traffic Generation System

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

99,450 Unfilled Work-At-Home Jobs Available Today?

Full time employment is going the way of the dinosaur. A new trend in hiring provides a more liquid job market that makes it easier and faster to be hired than ever before.

The old job search websites are no longer where you find jobs. Today the smart worker seeks out freelance jobs they can do at home. You no longer post your resume on a job service and hope an employer will contact you.

Now you can look over a list of jobs, pick the one you want and then tell the employer what you want to be paid. When you finish that job you pick the next one you want. If you want to take a break, simply wait before taking the next job.

I checked the job listings today and found 99,450 work-at-home jobs which had not been filled. There are not enough workers available to fill all of the jobs posted.

We are no longer a society of factory workers but of information jockeys. It is simply not necessary to go to an office in order to do a job anymore.

A result of this shift, a new type of employment has suddenly surged called Freelance work. Freelancing involves taking short term jobs for fixed amounts through special websites called Hire-Me sites. These are websites where companies post job requests and willing workers respond.

It is the opposite of the old way of hiring people. The old way involved an employer posting a generic classified ad and sifting through stacks of resumes, then offering someone an hourly rate job for an uncertain future time period or the employee posted their resume and hoped to be noticed on job sites.

The new Hire-Me hiring trend means employers post a description of the job they want completed, not the general position to be filled. Employees can self qualify themselves from the description and if they are interested in the job, they can notify the employer and tell the employer how much they would charge to do the job.

The new Hire-Me employment system has major advantages for both workers and employers.

Workers can choose what they want to be paid before beginning, work when they want, take time off when they want, and never have to leave home.

Businesses can hire people to do the jobs they need as freelancers. They no longer have to keep a full staff of employees, only hire those they need at any given time and they can hire the most skilled employee for any given job. A business may need a web designer on Monday, a graphic artist Wednesday and someone with a nice voice Friday. They can easily hire three different people, each to do just the job the company wants completed. Small businesses can now do many tasks or connect with consultants that would have been cost prohibitive in the past.

If a small company needs a web page designed, they no longer have to depend on a local designer doing the job for $1000 or more and working for weeks. They can hire someone online who can do the same job online for $300. This saves the company money and gives work to a web designer who would otherwise not have worked at all.

Hire-Me type sites open up the market to people who would never have otherwise been connected to businesses needing workers.

These jobs are not all technical in nature. The bulk of the jobs involve web design and programming, but there are still many thousands of jobs posted daily for people with average skills. Small businesses need people who can translate their website into spanish or other languages. They need people to record voicemail messages in a pleasing voice. They need people who can record commercials for their website or for radio commercials, or people who can work as personal assistants. Many small businesses need writing services including writing short articles, writing sales letters, press releases, or even proofreading eBooks or reports.

There are also more specialized opportunities such as businesses seeking SEO consultants, marketing experts, and artists to create drawings of prototypes or cartoons for websites or newsletters.

There is almost no end to the creative types of jobs that employers need filled.

One of the greatest benefits of these Hire-Me/Freelance jobs is the fact that they are all work-at-home jobs. Workers can work on their own schedule, anytime of the day or night without ever having to drive in rush hour traffic.

The phrase Work-At-Home is commonly associated with fraud because there are so many scams out there. Many crooks offer fake opportunities such as work-at-home typing, data entry, envelope stuffing or assembly jobs. These are all well known scams.

The Hire-Me sites help you avoid dishonest people because the sites offer a rating system for both employers and workers so you can see what jobs they have offered in the past and how other members have rated their experience with them. This gives both workers and employers more confidence in the people they work with. The jobs on the site also vary. You really can find work at home typing or legitimate data entry opportunities on Hire-Me sites. You may work one job submitting a company in Nebraska to directory sites on Monday, then take a new job for a company in London on Tuesday who wants someone to type 200 names from a scanned company directory.

The flexibility and wide ranging skill sets make Hire-Me jobs perfect for anyone who has limited skills or limited time or limited mobility as well as those with highly specialized skills. Working mom’s can take jobs and work on them a few minutes at a time while at home. Teenagers can take web design jobs and work on them after school. Seniors can accept jobs without ever having to leave the house or meeting their employer in person. Hire-Me sites offer a new frontier in employment where there is no prejudice against age, sex, or skin color. Workers are hired solely on their ability to do the job at hand.

Another advantage of these Hire-Me sites is privacy. You never share your personal information or social security number with strangers. Identity theft is a major concern on the Internet. These Hire-Me sites take care of all the legal and tax matters so you never have to worry about identity theft.

Many thousands of jobs go unfilled every day. The problem is that there are not enough willing workers.

One reason the jobs go unfilled is because potential workers do not understand how to apply for a job on these sites. Applying for jobs is not complicated. It is easy. It is so easy, many seeking employment treat it too casually and as a result they are not hired. They send short, trite responses to employers or otherwise do things that turn off employers and cause the potential employer to ignore the worker and not hire them. It is important to understand how these sites work in order to successfully find work through them.

The promise of working at home, never driving to work again can lead you into a totally new type of employment where you are in control of your time and your money.

If you are interested in applying for any of the jobs on Hire-Me sites, you can find more information and a list of Hire-Me sites at http://hire-me.y3s.net If you are a business interested in hiring employees through these sites, you can find more

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

The Ultimate Traffic Generation System

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Working At Home: What Options Are Available?

If you’ve just begun your work-at-home search, you are likely feeling confused and overwhelmed by all the options out there. How do you know what’s legitimate? How do you avoid the scams? Are there really jobs you can do from home? Yes!

So many people are happily working from home, and you can too. You just have to know where to look. This article will explain the types of work you can do at home, which basically fall into four categories:

Working for an Employer – (This is often called “telecommuting.”) There are many legitimate companies that hire people to work from their home offices, and that number is growing every day. Employers are seeing the benefits of having employees work remotely, and many more will join these ranks in the future. (See our list of companies that hire telecommuters.) Some companies will hire you as an actual employee; you will fill out tax forms and the employer will take taxes out of your paycheck, just like if you worked on location. Other companies will hire you as an independent contractor. They will send you a 1099 form at the end of the year, and you are responsible for paying your own taxes. The employer may require you to work certain hours every day, or a set number of hours per week. Pay may be hourly, weekly, bi-weekly, or per piece (as with data entry type jobs). Some telephone jobs will pay you per “talk minute” – in other words, you will be paid only for the time you are actively speaking with customers.

Freelancing – A “freelancer” is someone who hires out their skills to various companies for a specific project. The skills are usually those of a professional nature, such as writing, computer programming, web design and graphic arts, secretarial/administrative and virtual assisting. Some popular freelance websites are http://Guru.com and http://eLance.com. You can browse the jobs available and bid on them. If your bid wins, you get the job. Note that these jobs are usually temporary, for one project only. However, if you build a reputation for good work and meeting deadlines, you will often get offered other jobs.

Home Business Opportunity – You can also start your own business as a representative for an existing company. Most of these companies are Direct Sales or Network Marketing/MLM (Multi-Level Marketing). You’ve probably heard of many such companies, like Tupperware, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Avon, and Pampered Chef. There are thousands to choose from. (See our list of home business opportunities.) There are many benefits to this type of work at home. You are your own boss, you set your own hours, and you are in complete control of how much income you earn (as opposed to earning a set amount of money each week from an employer). There are also some great tax breaks for home-based businesses.

Create Your Own Business – The final option is to build your own company. The possibilities are endless. Just about any skills you have can be turned into a home business. Dog walking/pet sitting, virtual assisting, catering, bicycle repair, childcare, crafts and artwork, etc. The most important thing to consider: is there a market for what you can do? Would people pay for the products or services you can supply? If you set your mind to it, I bet you could come up with dozens of great ideas for businesses you can do.

Avoid the Scams

The number one thing to remember about scammers is that they want either your money, or your personal information. Never, ever pay a “fee” to begin working for a company. (Business opportunities do frequently require you to purchase a start-up kit, however I am referring to actual telecommuting jobs here.) No matter how great they make a job sound, do NOT pull out your credit card and send them money. It is a scam. Rarely, some legitimate companies might charge you for training, but more often they will deduct this from your first few paychecks. If you’re really not sure if a company is legitimate, ask around! Visit work at home message forums and ask about the company. Chances are people have heard of them, or can tell you whether it’s a genuiune job or not. Unfortunately, new scammers pop up every day, so even if you can’t find anything negative about them, proceed cautiously.

Likewise, if you are unsure whether a company is legitimate, do NOT give them your social security number, home address, or any banking information (for direct deposit). An employer will not need this information unless they are actually hiring you. I recommend people to leave those fields blank when applying for a job. If the employer likes your qualifications and wants to hire you (and you are absolutely certain they are legitimate) then you can supply that information. Real employers will understand your caution.

The best way to avoid scams is to listen to your gut. There are always warning signs. Even if everything seems on the up and up, and your gut is giving you a signal that something doesn’t seem right, LISTEN to that. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say, “I had a bad feeling but I wanted it to be for real, so I took a chance.” Don’t do that. You have a great built-in warning system. We all do. It’s called Intuition. Use it. Outsmart the scammers.

Professionalism, Patience and Persistence

Finally, remember that work at home positions have a tremendous amount of demand. Thousands and thousands of people are applying for the very same positions that you are. Make sure your resume is in top form and clearly details your experience and qualifications for the job you are applying for. Consider investing in a professionally done resume and cover letter. It is well worth the money if it lands you the job!

If you haven’t heard back after a week or two, why not follow up with the company and check on the status of your application? Send a nice email inquiring, or call them. (Only if the company hasn’t requested that you not do that.) Don’t whine or beg, be professional about it. Express your genuine interest in working for them. Persistence can pay off, as long as you’re not annoying your potential employer.

Patience is important, as finding a work at home position can take many months. If you can’t wait, why not consider starting your own business? Don’t let lack of experience stop you. You can learn anything you don’t know. Talk to other business owners who do what you are considering. Ask them how they got started. There are a lot of great people out there who would be willing to help guide you in the right direction.

Think about what you really want in a home based career. Do you prefer to be your own boss, or work for someone else? Do you need flexible hours, or would you rather have a set schedule? Do you like telephone work, or internet based? Make a definite list of what you do want, and what you don’t want. That will make your search much quicker.

Believe in yourself. You can create the perfect career for yourself. Many others have done it, so why not you too?

Wendy Betterini is a freelance writer, web designer and owner of http://www.CreativeWorkAtHome.com, a resource center for home business owners and telecommuters. Visit today for information on how to make your work at home experience successful.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

The Ultimate Traffic Generation System

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Some FAQs for Aspiring Copywriters

I get an email at least once a week from aspiring copywriters seeking advice on how to get a foothold in the industry. It’s obviously a popular topic, so I thought I’d put some of the more common questions and answers on paper in the hopes that it might provide a bit of an insight.

Q: What does a copywriter do in a typical day?

A: This question is very comprehensively answered in http://www.divinewrite.com/adayinthelifeof.htm , to summaries, copywriters do some or all of the following:

 meet with prospective clients (“prospects”) or talk with them on the phone to sell your services to them (freelancers only)

 liaise with clients to take a brief (learn what the client needs from the copy, who the audience is, what benefits the client offers their customers, etc.)

 research the subject matter

 plan the structure and approach of the writing

 write the piece

 liaise with the client through the review process (the client reviews the work and the copywriter fixes whatever needs fixing – so long as it’s not out of scope, e.g. a new requirement)

 get the client to sign off (approve) the job

 invoice the client (freelancers only)

 chase payment of invoice (freelancers only)

 process the payment using an accounts package (freelancers only)

 keep detailed records of all correspondence and activities throughout the process

 manage the business (freelancers only – including manage your IT systems, accounting, create and maintain a website, create advertising materials, writing proposals, generate a search engine ranking, maintain a database of contacts, etc.)

Q: What are the working conditions like?

A: Most copywriters work either for themselves (“freelancing”) or for advertising or web design agencies (“employees”). Freelancers tend to work from home, but may sometimes work at the client’s workplace. Employees almost always work at the client’s workplace. Conditions for freelancers tend to be pretty relaxed (they’re at home, after all!!!). I haven’t worked at an agency, but I suspect things are a little different there.

Q: What is the pay like?

A: I’ve heard of freelance copywriters being paid by the article at a rate of USD $12 per 600 word article (seems ridiculous to me!). I believe these people were college students looking for a way into the copywriting industry. At the other end of the spectrum, talented freelancers who treat writing as a serious business can earn in excess of USD $100,000 per year. I think that agency copywriters tend to earn somewhere in between these figures, maybe averaging between USD $35,000 – $70,000.

Q: What skills do I need?

A: A copywriter needs to be able to write very well in many different styles (from short 1-2 line ads through to long 3000 word articles). They also need to be able to adapt to heaps of different subjects (from IT to kitchen surfaces to accounting to nutritional supplements to cars). They need to be organized and hard-working, with an eye for detail and an understanding of writing for different media (website, brochures, radio, TV, etc.). Freelancers need good business sense, an understanding of search engines, some ability with IT systems, and patience. They also need to accept that they’re gonna be poor for the first 2 years!

Q: What education do I need?

A: Formal education never hurts, and often helps. But it’s no guarantee of success. If a copywriter has all of the above skills, they won’t need formal training in writing. Also, in my humble opinion, you can’t train to become a writer; you’re either a writer or you’re not. Training can sharpen certain skills, and teach new styles, etc., but if you don’t have ‘the flow’ when you start the course, it’s unlikely you’ll have it when you finish.

Q: Do I need a website?

A: Yes! The best place for any freelance advertising copywriter or website copywriter to start is to fork out for a website. A website is invaluable because when you cold call and email prospects, you’ll need to direct them somewhere that gives them more information.

Q: What should I include on my website?

A: Keep it simple, include a portfolio page, add any samples of any sort of copywriting you’ve done, talk about the places you’ve worked, the clients you’ve written for, and include any testimonials you’ve received. Make sure you include your address and contact details as well, so people don’t think you’re a fly-by-night operation. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to include a photo either. If you can’t say much about your experience, don’t say much. It doesn’t even really matter if you don’t say anything. Remember, just like any other form of advertising copywriting, writing about yourself requires the art of subtlety. If you lack experience, but you’re confident you can do the job, you can be very clever in what you don’t say, and most people will read it the way you intended.

Q: Should I target agencies?

A: If you’ve never worked as an advertising copywriter or website copywriter before, don’t target advertising agencies and web design agencies. They know exactly what they’re after, so if you don’t have a portfolio, you won’t stand a chance. Target end-clients directly.

Q: Should I cold call?

A: Yes. One of the best ways of generating business in the early days is to cold call potential end-clients. It’s hard work and very time consuming, but you can generate some very qualified leads. For more information on cold calling, take a look at http://www.divinewrite.com/coldcallingcopywriter.htm .

Q: Should I write samples?

A: Yes. If you’re targeting specific clients or industries, don’t be afraid to write a few samples and send them through. You can offer the pieces free of charge (everyone likes something for nothing) or at a discount, or you can use it as an incentive to sign them up for future work. It all depends on the type of work and the type of client. The important thing to remember is that samples are virtually as good as a portfolio to most prospective clients.

Q: Do I need an accounts package?

A: Yes! Don’t be fooled into thinking you can handle your accounts manually (or with Microsoft Excel). Even if you only have a few clients, you NEED a proper accounts package like MYOB or Quicken (they both offer small business versions). You’ll understand why the first time you do your GST reports or annual taxes. In fact, you’ll understand why whenever you need to chase down outstanding invoices.

* Glenn Murray is a website copywriter, SEO copywriter, and article submission and article PR specialist. He is a director of article PR company Article PR and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit www.DivineWrite.com or www.ArticlePR.com for further details, more FREE articles, or to download his FREE SEO e-book.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

The Ultimate Traffic Generation System

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

How Article Marketing is Significantly Increasing My Income (Part 3 of 5)

The never-ending question: article marketing — does it work, or not? Wanting to create more passive income, I decided to give article marketing a REAL try. The following are results so far (this is Part 3 of a 5-part series).

Following are more of the sites I’m consistently submitting articles to. I chose them because they had good PR and Alexa rankings.

What are PR and Alexa rankings? For explanations of these, as well as details on the beginning of the study, see the 10/26/06 post on InkwellEditorial.blogspot.com.

All of the following site names have dot-com extensions, eg, SubmitYourNew Article.com. It’s against this site’s policy to accept the names with bold tags around them.

11. SubmitYourNewArticle: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 62,309.

You must create an author account to submit. They approve your account pretty much immediately.

The submission process is a breeze and the site offers article stats, primarily, how many times the article has been downloaded, how many times it has been sent to friends, and how many articles you’ve submitted (a tracking feature).

12. Amazines: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 16,710.

I love the ease of this site. Once you create an author account, you can start submitting. They also have a bulk submission feature, which allows you to submit more than one article at a time. This site also has a tracking feature, so you know what you submitted, and when.

One of the coolest features of this site is that it shows you how many articles are in each category. For example, as of this writing, the WRITING category had 1,090 articles, while EZINES has only 25.

If it’s a toss-up as to what category to submit to, this can be a handy guideline.

13. GoArticles: This directory has a PR rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 2,407.

You must create an author account to submit here. A really progressive feature of this site is the feed they set up for authors (many directory sites now offer this). This makes it easy for readers to get your content.

This site also has a tracking feature so you can keep track of what you’ve submitted. And, it provides individual article stats (how many words the article is and how many times it’s been downloaded), but you have to click on the author’s name to get this information.

In my opinion, this is a bit odd because it took me a few minutes to figure out how to find the article stats.

But hey, with its Alexa and PR ranking and the sheer number of articles (almost 300,000!), it’s a site you can’t afford to overlook.

14. Isnare: This directory has a PR rank of 5 and an Alexa rank of 5,323.

I love the ease of submission of this site — once you create an author account. BUT, it takes a while for them to approve your article for publishing — unless you use their paid submission feature (Platinum account).

Eg, I submitted an article on 10/19, and as of today (11/1), I’m still waiting for that article, and subsequent ones, to be published.

What does their Platinum account include? Among other things, article distribution to over 40,000+ publishers and hundreds of article directory sites for a fixed amount per month ($59.95). I have to say, it seems like a good deal — especially when I consider the amount of time I’m spending each day just submitting to 25 sites manually (about two hours).

If you’re busy, this is a huuugggeee chunk of time (see what I do for you guys?!). Once I finish my little case study (on 11/18), I will be looking into paid submission software/services, and this is one I’m seriously considering.

Besides the absolute horror of manual submission, I’m considering using this site’s submission service because it has a testimonial from a name I recognize and trust, Jenna Glatzer, Editor-in-Chief of Absolutewrite.com.

15. NetpreneurNow: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 49,423.

This site can be a bit confusing when you log on, eg, where is the “Submit Article” button? You have to click on Article Directory (left hand side of home page) and then you see a link that reads “Post a new article.”

You don’t have to create an author account to use this site — tres cool! BUT, it also doesn’t offer any tracking features or article stats. So, you’re on your own here (eg, get out your article tracking pad and resign yourself to submitting and forgetting).

You’ll have to check your server logs to see if any incoming traffic was generated from articles posted here.

What are server logs? Basically, they are reports you can get from your web host that tells you where visitors from your site came from, eg, a click from an ad on Google, a link from an article on IdeaMarketers.com, etc.

Again though, as this site has good rankings, it’s worth it to submit.

COMMON PROBLEMS WITH ONLINE ARTICLE MARKETING

Delayed Publishing: Many article directories take days, even weeks, to publish your content. This is a double-edged sword. On the positive side, ostensibly, it means that articles are being reviewed and there is more quality content out there; eg, less garbage on the web as a whole.

The negative is that it takes longer to get the word out about your product/service. So, figure this into your marketing timetable if you are rolling out a new product/service.

Tracking the Effectiveness of a Directory: It is highly unlikely that you will have time to do this with any degree of detail, unless you have major chunks of time on your hands. As noted throughout this series, some directories have tracking features and provide article stats, some do not.

In my opinion, time would be better spent targeting highly trafficked directories, submitting to them, and judging the “overall progress” of your article marketing campaign “over a period of time — eg, a month, a quarter, half-year, etc.”

BE IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL

I once read an article that said, especially with Internet marketing, it’s not the immediate results you’re after (although I have been pleased with this aspect of my little campaign so far), but the long-term benefits of establishing yourself as an expert.

Once you establish your abilities and your trustworthiness — and this comes from prospects seeing you in many different places across a period of time — it will be that much easier to make the sale.

As with any business venture, article marketing can garner profound results, but it takes time and effort, effort and time, to get the long-term rewards.

WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE MONEY?

Holding steady at about 2.5 times what I was making (per day) before I started this experiment.

READER QUESTIONS

As I’ve been getting quite a few inquiries from readers, I will devote Monday’s (11/06) issue to answering all of them. So, send in yours.

In the meantime, be sure to catch the rest of the case study. I’ve been an online marketer for a while and am learning a lot! As a matter of fact, I will be conducting a similar study with online groups/forums/message boards next (details coming after 11/18).

Stay tuned for Part IV.

May be reprinted with the following, in full: Yuwanda Black is the publisher of www.InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for and about the editorial and creative industries. First-hand freelance success stories, e-courses, job postings, resume tips, advice on the business of freelancing, and more! Launch a Profitable Freelance Writing Career in 30 Days or Less — Guaranteed! Log on to InkwellEditorial.com to learn how.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

The Ultimate Traffic Generation System

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

9 Totally Legitimate Ways To Make Money On The Internet!

<p>Everywhere you turn, there are literally dozens of online money making opportunities. The big question: Which ones are just fads and which ones are truly legitimate ways to profit online? If you’ve ever asked this question yourself, we heard you, and decided to bring to the table 9 totally legitimate ways to make real cash online regardless of what decade you’re in. These 9 successful online business models have proven themselves time and time again for 1000s of people online and the great thing is they will probably never go out of style.

Now let’s look at a brief summary of each:

1. Affiliate Marketing- In many peoples opinions, affiliate marketing is the number one way to start making money online. Its so appealing to beginners and professionals alike because as an affiliate you don’t have to worry about creating a product, handling inventory, processing orders, or issuing refunds at all. All you do is market and make comission!

What you’re doing here is basically running a referal business. If the people you refer end up buying something because of you, then you get a percentage of the profit! You can find all sorts of products to promote in all kinds of niches as well. You even have the choice whether you want to promote physical goods or digital products.

The variety of choices and freedoms you have as an affiliate are what make this business model practically one of a kind.

2. Online Auction Business- Whats the first thing that comes to mind when you hear online auction? Ebay! Ebay makes a lot of people, a lot of money online. Whats great about it is that you can basically start a business without ever knowing how to make a website or drive traffic. Ebay takes care of that on it’s own really. All you have to do is come up with an inventory of products, put them up on ebay, and make sales!

You do have to take care of the packing and shipping which can prove to be one heck of a hassel when you’re shipping multiple products all over the country at once. So if you don’t mind being highly organized and occasionally dealing with packages that get lost in transit, than you may want to look into starting a business on Ebay.

3. Private Label Rights & Resale Rights- Want a high quality product to sell as your own but don’t want to hassle with being creative? If so, you might want to look into Private Label Rights & Resale Rights.

Private Label Rights(PLR) are special rights passed on with a product that give you permission to alter that product in any way you want!

That means you can, mix, match, add, subtract, stamp your name on the cover and BAM! You have your very own product to do with it whatever you wish. And thats just one idea for taking advantage of Private Label Rights.

Resale Rights(RR) limits you quite a bit more. With them you only have the option of reselling a product as it is. You usually do have a choice at what price to resell the products, but this can turn around and bite you. Its quite common to see great products that are worth at least $47 dollars being given away for a skimpy $0.99. This can obviously make it difficult to earn a decent income but given the right tactics many people see great results using resale rights products.

4. Create & Sell Products From The Public Domain- Did you know that all books, images, audio and video with expired copyright is good for you to take and use as your own? As long as the copyright on the work has expired, its for you to do with as you wish. When copyright expires on information, it then becomes a part of the public domain.

This method involves taking information from the public domain and turning it into information products to sell over the internet. For example, turning an entire book from the public domain into a PDF format to distribute over the web. Another option would be to put it on a CD and sell it over ebay.

The toughest part of the operation is going to be where you have to get all of that information from the book into your computer. Unless you feel like typing out the entire book yourself, you can outsource the task. DataDash.com does this for you. Yanik Silver actually has a product out that teaches you how to create and sell products from the public doman. Google it.

5. Turn Your Knowledge Into E-classes & Teleseminars- If you have specialized knowledge or a certain skill that you know people want, you can make a decent income by turning these things into Paid E-classes and Teleseminars.

E-classes and Teleseminars have a much higher percieved value so you can get more money per person than you could by simply selling your information in an ebook. Setting them up is actually easier to do in many ways, especially if you’re good at talking off the top of your head

6. Turn Your Knowledge Into Video Tutorials- This option is just like putting together E-classes and Teleseminars. Videos also have higher percieved value especially if you’re knowledge or skill needs physical demonstration, such as exercising, sports, computer learning, etc.

Its pretty obvious, you’ll learn how to throw a curve ball much more effectively by watching it demonstrated on video. Your customers understand this and they’ll show their gratitude by purchasing your $97 videos over the competitions $47 ebook.

7. Freelancing- If you have a passion for writing, design, research, programming and much more, the internet certainly has room for you. As a freelancer you perform your specialized skill in exchange for cash. Depending on your abilities, people may be willing to pay big bucks for what you can do for them.

You can sign up at places like elance.com and sell your professional services. People go to sites like these looking to outsource all kinds of work. You should go ahead and take a look see at what kinds of skills are most in demand. Once you build up a nice portfolio of your work, you can start asking a higher rate in exchange for your services.

8. Blogging- if you’re a writer, blogging may just be what you’re looking for. blogging involves putting out high quality content so as to turn initial visitors into loyal fans who keep coming back.

The most popular ways to make money on blogs is to implement Google adsense ads into your site. You make money when people click on the adsense ads. Blogging is also a powerful tool for promoting affiliate products. If you keep putting out quality content, build up a loyal fan base to the point where you have 1000s of visitors a day to your blog, you can easily be making couple hundred dollars a day doing this.

9. Survey Sites- You must have come across the whole “cash for survey ” spiel at least once by now. This is one method I was a little reluctant to share because there are a lot of so called “legitimate” survey sites that are actually a bunch of scammy garbage. I was a victim of some of the junk myself and its sucks.

Its unfortunate for the industry, because there are actually real survey opportunities out there, but it may end up being more trouble than its worth just to find them.

If you don’t know what im talking about, there are sites out there that will actually pay you for your opinion. It almost sounds unreal, but it turns out major companies want to know what the ‘average’ person thinks about certain things; enough to the point where they want to pay you a couple bucks per survey. This method is enough to put maybe a few hundred dollars a month in your bank account, but thats about it.

Well thats all 9 Methods. I have much hope for your success. And like I said before, they have all been proven to work, so choose your favorite and go for it. Thanks for reading.

Looking for a solid business plan to make money online? Grab your FREE ebook “100 Ways To Make $100 A Day Online” right now at:www.ProvenProfitFormulas.com

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

The Ultimate Traffic Generation System

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

How Online Article Marketing is Significantly Increasing My Income (Part 4 of 5)

<p>Following is Part 4 of my case study on article marketing. Specifically, I’m studying the following topic — in detail: Article Marketing — Does It Work, Or Not?

My desire is to create more passive income. An overworked freelancer, I decided to give article marketing a REAL try, as I’d read so much about it. Following are more of the sites I’m consistently submitting articles to. I chose them because they had good PR and Alexa rankings.

For explanations of these, as well as details on the beginning of the experiment, see the 10/26/06 post on InkwellEditorial.blogspot.com.

All of the following site names have dot-com extensions, eg, ContentTycoon.com. It’s against this site’s policy to accept the names with bold tags around them.

16. ContentTycoon: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 201,965.

You must create an author account to submit. According to the announcement on their site, they recently underwent an overhaul and the wait time to approve an article is less than 24 hours.

This is not the case with my articles. To date, they’ve approved 2 of the 8 I’ve submitted. Considering that some sites can take up to 4 weeks to approve an article though — I’m not complaining.

No article stats are provided here. So again, get out your article tracking log sheet.*

17. AfroArticles: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 38,666.

This site has extensive category listings.

I had to smile when I read their submission guidelines because I wrote a couple of articles explaining why I believe that longer articles sell better. On article length, they state: An article length between 700 to 2500 words is desirable. Finally, somebody gets it!

This site is easy to navigate and once you create an author account, you can start submitting multiple articles immediately. Article stats and a tracking feature are also provided.

As an aside, being African American, I like that they have categories which focus on “Afro Issues” among the other categories you’d find at any article submission site. When I ran my ethnic online crafts business, I had a hard time finding enough outlets to submit articles to, so it’s nice to see someone has recognized this void.

18. ImpactArticles: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 189,006.

You don’t need to create an author account to submit here. I tried to use their form to submit, but it didn’t work. So, I sent them the article via email, as advised on their site (eg, when the form doesn’t work).

This is a no-frills site (no tracking features, feeds or article stats provided). The only reason I chose this site is that it is updated daily and I recognized a couple of names of authors who have done well in Internet marketing (ie, Charlie Cook and Willie Crawford).

Google either of these names and you’ll see what I mean. I figured if their articles are there, then it’s a good place for mine to be.

19. Free-Articles-Zone: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 56,670.

You need to create an author account to submit. I’m a bit perplexed at this directory because I’ve submitted 8 articles here and according to my account, only one is showing up.

The others seem to have disappeared. Usually a site will tell you if an article is pending, or if there are problems that need to be addressed before it is published — nothing here. Just one article that was published on 10/19, which means it’s probably the first one I submitted.

HTML Note: This site uses what I call “alternative code” for common elements (bold, ital, underline, etc.). Eg, instead of *b*BOLD*/b* for bold, it uses *strong*BOLD*/strong*. This is the only site I encountered to use this type of coding.

I’m bummed that I’m going to have to go back and submit to this site. I really like their setup and the overall feel of the site — not to mention their very good rankings.

20. MainStreetMom: This directory has a PR rank of 5 and an Alexa rank of 200,721.

This is not a directory site. It describes itself as “The online magazine for modern mothers with traditional values…. See explanation below as to why I submitted articles here.

By the way, no need to create an account to submit here — they have an article submission form that you use.

When It’s a Good Idea to Use Lower-Rated Directories and Websites

Targeted Marketing: As I explained at the beginning of this experiment, I chose directories/sites based on their PR and Alexa rankings.

But, as you may have noticed, some of these sites are not exactly “top-rated.” So, why did I submit to them? Because they spoke directly to the audience I’m trying to reach.

This may sound a little elementary, but in the interest of educating, it is always more important to reach 100 people who fit your target market than 1,000 who do not.

Eg, MainStreetMom.com. While its Alexa ranking is below the much desired 100,000 or lower range, it speaks directly to an audience who show a great interest in my product (e-books on freelance writing — again, if I can ever find time to get them on Clickbank!).

So, as you prepare to market, write down the who, what, where, when and why as it pertains to your target market. Eg, who and/or what are they, where are they, when are they there and why are they there?

Answers to these questions will give you a pretty clear picture of where and how to market your product/service.

Article Marketing Tips Learned from This On-Going Case Study

a. Submit to the head of the directory: What do I mean by this? Many directories have sub-categories. Eg, a main heading might be “Writing & Speaking.” Under this you may find article marketing, e-book publishing, copywriting, etc.

From my article stats (where provided), I’ve noticed that the articles submitted under the main heading (eg, Writing & Speaking) get read more than those under the sub-headings.

I can only guess that many people don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, so will search under a main category heading first. As most surfers flit from article to article, they may never get around to clicking through to sub-categories.

Article directory owners may disagree with this, or move your article to a sub-category, but unless/until they say otherwise, I would submit under main category headings first.

b. Submit a series of articles: Over the last month and a half, including this series on article marketing, I’ve written two more series (eg, Part 1 of 2).

I don’t know if it was the topic or not (my topics focused on ways for freelancers to make more money), but articles as part of a series are getting more reads in a shorter period of time than single articles. They are also picked up by more e-zine publishers.

Mind you, this is a very limited study and a very narrow topic. Much more analysis over a longer period of time would need to be done to make definitive conclusions.

I’m just tossing out info as I notice it. If you can lend any insight into any of these observations, please do so. I’m as anxious to know as anyone.

c. Go minute! What do I mean? Give as much detail as possible. With online marketing being so competitive, implementing even the smallest change can mean a big return.

Readers pick up on and dissect the smallest details. In my opinion, this is extremely helpful because something that you might not think of as important could be the “clue that breaks the case wide open.”

Shake, Shake, Shake My Moneymaker!

My earnings are up a bit to almost 3 times overall what I was making (per day) before I started this experiment.

*Article Tracking Log Sheet: After this experiment ends, I will be doing a final, in-depth case study analysis. Along with this, I will provide an article tracking log sheet I fashioned to keep track of where I submitted articles.

Stay tuned for Part V tomorrow.

May be reprinted with the following, in full: Yuwanda Black is the publisher of InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for and about the editorial and creative industries. First-hand freelance success stories, e-courses, job postings, resume tips, advice on the business of freelancing, and more! Launch a Profitable Freelance Writing Career in 30 Days or Less — Guaranteed! Log on to InkwellEditorial.com to learn how.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

The Ultimate Traffic Generation System

Technorati Tags: , , , ,


Rss Feed Tweeter button Facebook button Myspace button Delicious button Digg button