Blogging The Newest Marketing Tool

Do you know what a blog is? It is a journal, which is made available in the web. Blogs are updated regularly and the process of updating the blog is known as blogging.

Another term for the person doing and updating the blog is the blogger. These blogs are typically updated regularly and daily with the use of software, which allows people who have background, or not.

To this day, blogging has come a long way in keeping up journals and other purposes. Not only does it help in personal use but also applied now in expanding Internet business and increasing promotion of the web sites.

Blogging is a sure way to enhance the visibility of the products and services.

If you want to apply blogging, there are some tips that you need to consider in order to improve your online business.

• Offering advice and guiding your visitors on some tips and other opportunities related to your business. This objective will increase the awareness of you and your business.
This will make you an authority of the customers and visitors who might want to check out your services through publications.

• You need to encourage your readers to write comments and suggestions. Their comments and feedback will be helpful because at least you know that someone is paying attention to your services and visiting your website.

• Take their feedback as a means to improve your overall design, layout, the content and the whole business marketing.

• You need to at least post regularly in your bog. If you have many postings in the past, you can keep it in an Archive so that people can still retrieve it in for future reference. In this way, you can also keep track of all your business plans and get some important information.

• Others can reprint the articles that you have written and posted to the different websites. However, they need to ask for your permission with the condition to post them with your resource box with all the URLs that go with the articles. This will give you more links to your site and will give more exposure to your site.

• In adding and updating bogs, you need to add good content. Always make it fresh and up-to-date. In this way, search engines will include your site in their directory listings. If your bog is listed in the different search engines, you will start increasing traffic to your site without paying for it.

• Your blog contains links to your site and links to other site. You can exchange links to other website and this will help in improving your ranking on search engines. You can add affiliate links through banners in the advertisements. You can also include this in your blog in order to earn extra income.

You have the authority to update your blogs and there is no limit with what you want to do. You can write about your own views, expertise, ideas, opinion, pictures and other important information or message that you want to write about.

Blogging is a way to be heard despite the increasing competency in Internet Marketing. Make sure that you make your blogs interesting and readable.

Blogging is a great way to broadcast important information such as news and current events. It does not only focus on increasing web traffic or gaining promotion.

Blogging is a good way to learn about all the important facts with just about anything under the sun. If you missed the reports and updates on the T.V, you can easily get information from blogs updated frequently. Therefore, you will not have to worry about missing your favorite late night show.

Blogging has helped many industries in the easiest way. The good thing about it is that you do not actually need experience to create your own blog. It is as easy as clicking buttons and you can work your way out on your own.

What you need to keep up is a good content that is friendly and interesting so that your readers will frequently visit your blog site and keep it as a part of their daily habit.

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Reach At Your Destination with SEO

In the internet market Google and SEO process are conjunct. And presently, this conjunct is at first place to divert the visitor’s passage directing at your web site. It may happen that even if your site is at first place in the Google, very less or almost no hits to your website. Plenty of big internet marketing companies put their hands up against Google. Google is the only search engine that frequently updates its algorithms and places new challenges in front of these companies. Many web sites get affected daily by this attack of Google. To steer clear of getting castigated by Google, there is only one tunnel to go and it is just follow their SEO Delhi Company e-Fuzion process rules. I know it looks like simple solution but most of the simple solutions often forgotten while facing the tricky challenges. SEO Delhi Company e-Fuzion and its software developers’ uses this black cap tricks to obtain maximum search engine result and there fore Google updates their algorithms frequently. If you want to gain a short term result, it works like a guaranteed to you. When you optimized your web pages, log files can show you the specific keywords used by the visitors for your website that is their hit are targeted by the specified keyword. You must be very studies and selective regarding this. Only the risk is that future your website may get barred by Google and al famous search engines. Who believes in long term internet business which must follow the rules and try to be a moral SEO process developer? In SEO Delhi Company e-Fuzion services you find many search engines that are emerging owing to the popularization of vertical search in united sates and other countries.

The materialization of upright search engines, which is the most modern trend in web searching methodologies, enables the search engine optimizers to have quick look at the wide and multiple web sites that are available on the internet. Some of the latest search engines provide file about the primary customary searching boards. Search engines are used mainly because they cut down on the search time.

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Non Reciprocal Link Building

What is Non Reciprocal Link Building?

Link popularity is the most important internet marketing tool for you. Building outbound links, inbound links or non reciprocal link building is the prime aspect for you to popularize your links. The non reciprocal link building directly boosts up targeted traffic on your website(s) and, thus, simply generates more business for you. In fact, one way non reciprocal links are responsible for effective SEO operations.

So, it becomes all the more important for you to know about non reciprocal links in detail. Read on to know it.

First things first, what is link popularity?
In the simple terms, link popularity can be defined as the number of websites linking to one website. You can check the link popularity of your website(s) with the help of search engines or some link popularity software. There are actually three types of links: inbound links, outgoing links and reciprocal links. The reciprocal links are the links exchanged between the two sites. Outgoing links are the links of other web masters on your websites. The inbound links are called non reciprocal links. They are also known as the one way links.

Non reciprocal link building: Why it is the most important?
The non reciprocal link building is the process of getting the other websites to mention your links. And you do not even have to link back to these websites. And now the natural question that might be cropping in your mind would be why do you need to build non reciprocal links?

The answer to this question is straight and direct. As these links are one way, they are based on the fact that these links are "useful" to the visitors. The links provide information, article and knowledge to the users. Thus, these links add credibility to your website. Even the search engines base their ranking more on the basis of one way non reciprocal links. Thus, the number of non reciprocal links for your website plays a great role in determining the exact position of your website.

Now to build these one way links, you need to make your site well enticing to the other sites. They must feel that the links to the content on your site will attract the traffic. So your website should provide necessary content or information. Even if you need to spend some money or time in getting quality content made, the deal is worth making.

You can also get free articles from a number of sites to publish on your website(s). Similarly, you can get your articles published on the others' web sites as well. Web directories and ezines are also a place to get your website noticed. Always mention your link at the end of the articles. Always make sure that the directory you are submitting links to, is related to your business circuit.

Joining discussion forums is also an effective way of non reciprocal link building. The forums publish your articles and help you get the feed back from the readers. A numbers of sites search for the forums to find out the websites publishing good articles. Some forums allow you to mention your signature as well.

Now it would be clear to you that non reciprocal link building raise your link popularity to newer heights. So go ahead and start working in this direction today.

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How to Find a Niche For Your Blog

It is important to realize that your choice of a niche can have a significant influence on the success or failure of your new blog.

Deciding on a theme can be a daunting task. What exactly are you going to write about? Your niche needs to be a popular topic that many people are interested in.

If you are going to blog about yourself, then you better have a very interesting life, or you will have difficulty keeping your readers coming back for more. You should choose a topic that will make it comparatively easy to grow your readership and build a strong following.

Since many bloggers write about their favorite subjects, it's not a bad idea to start brainstorming by writing down a list of your hobbies, interests, and any areas of professional expertise. Now try to determine a niche you can target within one of those areas.

Should you blog about automobiles in general, or the latest sports cars? If you choose too narrow a theme then you may struggle to come up with regular, fresh content. And if you choose a topic that's too general your readers may be confused by a jumble of seemingly unrelated posts.

You might consider niches within the following general topic areas which have proven to be popular for blogging:
• Automobiles
• Computers & Information Technology
• Digital Cameras
• Gadgets
• Music
• News
• Photography
• Politics
• Shopping

If you plan to use Pay-Per-Click advertising to get traffic to your blog, then remember also that the hottest topics might have the highest pay-per-click fees.

You can sometimes get great niche ideas by browsing at Blog directories and sites like Google Blog Search: http://blogsearch.google.com

Since it is so time-consuming trying to com up with the 'perfect' niche idea, many bloggers and webmasters have turned to specialized niche discovery tools. I particularly recommend Online Gold Finder and NicheTopics.

With Online Gold Finder you can uncover profitable, undiscovered online markets with just a couple of clicks. Read more about Online Gold Finder at: http://www.moneyforblogging.com/goldfinder.htm

NicheTopics is quite handy in a different way. You get to use some great research that's already been completed by an expert. It is a ready-to-use report on 109 unique, untapped niches. Read more about NicheTopics: http://www.moneyforblogging.com/nichetopics.htm

The tools above are not free but consider for a moment. If you are planning – or would even like - to make some money from your blog, then it will be worthwhile to start off with a well-researched niche.

If a particular tool uncovers a good niche that pays an additional $5 a day, it will pay for itself inside the first month!

Don't forget, it will be very difficult to change the theme and niche of your blog later. So invest some time wisely during your planning stage.

You will be off to a strong start in building a successful blog.

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Top 5 Tips For Effective Email Marketing

Over the past few years, research has continued to prove the benefits of e-mail marketing for business: low costs, high conversion rates and detailed tracking are all notable features. But e-mail marketing is becoming much more than just a tool for spammers and e-businesses. Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy on the differences between spam and permission-based emails, and more and more of them are accepting permission-based e-mail marketing as a positive replacement for direct mail.

The best news is that the majority of people who receive permission-based e-mails open, on average, 78% of them.

Jupiter Research reports effective email marketing campaigns can produce nine times the revenues and 18 times the profits of broadcast mailings. But crafting an effective business email is both an art and a science. Here is a list of factors, potential problems and effective solutions to keep in mind:

1. Spam! Spam! Spam! I don't need any Viagra!
The average consumer receives more than 300 emails a week, 62% of which are spam. No wonder there's such hostility towards the industry. But spam filters, bulk folders and "report spam" features are helping consumers become more at ease about the perils of spam. While 89% of users cited spam as a major concern in 2003, that number dropped to 85% in 2004, proportionally to an increase in the use of spam-fighting tools.

So as a permission-based business email marketer, what can you do? One tip is to remind your subscribers to add you to their "safe senders" list. The second, and most important, tactic is to make sure your email marketing service provider has a good relationship with ISPs. This will ensure that your email marketing campaigns go into your subscribers' inboxes, not their junk mail folders. When choosing an email marketing software, make sure the company has strict anti-spam policies and complies with the guidelines of Can-Spam.

2. Images and formatting: Why do my emails look broken?
Broken email campaigns are an increasing concern among email marketers, especially since several companies and web-based email providers now block graphics as a measure to combat spam. In fact, according to ClickZ, 40% of email marketing messages delivered to inboxes are "broken."

So what's the solution? Some email marketing programs publish all your sent email campaigns to a secure location on the web (a location only original recipients of the email can access, thanks to encrypted technology that automatically authenticates the user). In some programs, the technology also ensures you can track your users' behaviors, even if they are reading your email campaign at the secure web location.

3. Personalization and relevant content: In a business e-mail, one size does not fit all.
In a recent study by DoubleClick, email users were 72% more likely to respond to a business e-mail if its content was based on the interests they had specified. That number points out the absolute importance of allowing users to choose their own interest groups and have control over which business e-mails they receive. The most popular interest categories, according to the study, are coupons and household goods.

But you're coupon is no good unless the user opens the email. Users in the study said the most compelling reason for them to open a business email is the name in the "from" field. So it's a good idea to make sure your company name is clearly stated there. Another major factor is the "subject" line. Users cite discount offers and interesting news as the most compelling subject lines, followed by new product announcements and free shipping offers.

4. Click-through and conversion: Show me the money!
So the user has opened your email and read the content. Great. But where's the sale? There's good news here. For one, consumers are increasingly likely to make purchases as a direct result of a business email campaign. One-third of users in the DoubleClick study had purchased something by clicking a link on an email. Another 42% clicked on an email link for more information, then purchased the product at a later time. Second, online couponing is booming: 73% of consumers have redeemed an online coupon for an online purchase, and 59% have redeemed an online coupon offline.

In terms of industries, the top performers are travel, hardware/software, electronics, apparel, food, home furnishings, gifts/flowers and sporting goods. All companies sending business emails in those categories said between 71% and 80% of recipients have purchased their products because of an email campaign.

There's no need to fret if your company doesn't fit in to one of those industries. The overall landscape for email marketing conversions is looking brighter every day. The average click-to-purchase rate has increased nearly 30% since 2004 and the average orders-per-email-delivered rate has increased more than 18% since last year.

5. Stats tracking: Who are my real consumers?
E-mail marketing is an increasingly popular tool in effective CRM, and it's about time more businesses recognize that. First off, if your provider's email services for business do not include detailed, real-time tracking, you're getting a raw deal. Real-time tracking is now an industry standard, and it's highly valuable, as it allows you to see the exact moment a user opens your campaign, clicks on your link and makes that purchase. Studying your users can help you improve your communications efforts, so each campaign performs better than the last (several email service providers also let you compare the performance of your campaigns).

But many marketers are still in the dark. According to a recent WebTrends research, only 5% of marketers are very confident in the measurement of their online marketing efforts, while 26% admit they're "flying blind." WebTrends says the low confidence comes from a lack of knowledge when it comes to measurement, which means there's still a lot of work to be done.

In email marketing, a blind shot won't take you very far. But if you aim properly by following these essential rules of play, you should soon be reaping the same major results as so many online and offline businesses.

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How to Get All the Website Traffic You Want with No Effort at all

In order to have a successful site you need of course a lot of website traffic. But in many cases, even if you work really hard and you create a professional web page you still do not get too many visitors and in conclusion the profit that you deserve.

First, let us review the most poplar methods of directing traffic to a certain website.

-link exchanging - cheap method but many say that overall it drives people away from your site instead of to it. This is because adding a large number of links to your pages makes them look unprofessional and may drive visitors away. Adding only a small number of links does not have any noticeable effect. Also making link exchanges is not always so easy because you have to convince webmasters to trade links with you. I can tell you from my experience that if you have a new site this thing could get really difficult because almost no one will want to exchange links with you.

-free ezine ads - another cheap method but it rarely does anything because there are thousands of ads out there that try to attract attention and yours will just blend in with the others.

-search engine submissions - this may be the most effective method but it requires a lot of work and time. To rank successfully in the major search engines takes a lot of time development and quite often money. It only works well if you get a high position in the search engines, which is very difficult to do, and you can loose that position in a few weeks.

-Buying one way links to increase your link popularity and your search engine rankings could be a method but having top positions in the major search engines is not so easy. Every one knows that search engine website traffic is the best but to get it you must have thousands of good quality links which can get really expensive. A PR5 one way link can cost 30USD+ a month.

The solution is easier than you may think.. you can buy traffic! For a small amount of money you can purchase all the website traffic that you need and boost you business profits. Without people visiting your pages you can not promote and sell your products, so if you want to increase your profits you have to get as much website traffic as you can. Therefore, the simplest, easiest solution is to buy traffic. It is not cheap, proven and with targeted traffic has a good conversion rate.

Now, a new innovative method has been developed - the redirected visitors technology. This tehnique brings, just as its name suggests, redirected visitors to your site. It works perfectly and it is guaranteed to bring a lot of website traffic to you!

People who are working with this technology purchase all the abandoned / expired domain names that had a website with good traffic on them. Those abandoned websites are listed in the search engines and they are marketed, therefore they used to be visited by a lot of people. When you enter this kind of program, your website will be scanned, and those abandoned websites will be redirected to yours. When someone searches for something in a search engine and clicks on the link that used to point to the abandoned pages, it will lead them to you instead! Unlike popups this method is not annoying for users, because what they find has the same subject as what they searched for, so they will most likely not even notice the redirection.

This way you will get all the targeted website traffic you need. Instead of working really hard you can simply buy that traffic sit back and watch the sales pour in. Furthermore, this tehnique is not a spamming tehnique and it brings real traffic to you!

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Web Site Promotion Through The Use Of Reciprocal Links

Web site promotion is a complex process, and one of the oldest ways to promote a web site is by the exchange of Links. Link exchange is the original web site traffic generation system. In the "old days" before the rise of search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN ( and all the others that have followed since ) the only way to find a web site that you hadn't already been to was to follow a link from another web site. Therefor if your site didn't have many links pointing to it, it didn't get much traffic.

Search engines still use links to find new sites and to help with the calculation of a web sites importance or value. So the exchanging of links is still a very usefull way to promote your site and increase its importance to the search engines.

There are three main types of link exchange. The first type is the reciprocal link, where you literally exchange a link with another web site. They put a link to you on their web site, you place one to them on yours.

The second type of link exchange is not really an exchange at all. A visitor to your site simply decides that they will put a link to your site on their site. Maybe they like the information that is presented on your site or they like your product etc. These one way links are considered to be more important by the search engines than reciprocal links are.

This leads us to the third type of link exchange. This method of link exchanging is an "artificial" type two link exchange. How can that be? Aren't type two links voluntary links placed by a visitor? Yes they are, but that effect can be simulated by doing the following. Basically the idea is to create a "triangle" of links - and it requires at least three web sites for it to work. Picture( or draw ) a triangle with a web site at each of the three points of the triangle. The web sites are any three sites, and they each only link to one of the other sites. So if the sites were to exchange links in a clockwise direction around the triangle they form an "artificial" set of one way, voluntary links.

So thats the three main link exchange types, now how do you go about the actual process of link exchanging? Well its really quite simple. The best way to exchange links is to ask the other web site if they are interested in do so. Usually the request is sent via email or a form on the site you wish to exchange links with. Regardless of how you contact the webmaster of the other site, remember to be polite and to give them all the information they may need to complete the exchange. For example, briefly introduce yourself and your site, with a link back to your site so they can have a look at it. It is good practise to have their link on your site before you contact them for an exchange. Once you start exchanging links you will soon work out what to say and how to say it. Unfortunately many sites are very slow to respond to link exchange requests, so it can take a long time to create a link directory - but it is still well worth doing.

There are "rules" for creating a link directory that should be followed if you want to get the most benefit from it. The rules are very simple and they go something like this.
1. Only exchange links with sites that are relevant to your site. Why? Isn't any link a good one? Yes, to an extent all links are good - but some are better than others. If you concentrate your link exchange efforts to sites that are relevant to yours, then your site will be seen by the search engines as more important to your topic than if your links went all over the place. It is also better for your visitors to have a link directory relevant to the topic of the site they are currently on.

2. Don't make your directory pages too long. In other words, if your directory pages scroll for more than 2 or 3 screens they are too long. Why? Because very few people will scroll further than 2 or 3 screens. So if your link is at the bottom it will rarely be found and that doesn't encourage a webmaster to exchange links with your site. A common limit is 25 links per page of the directory. If you have more links than 25 for any particular catagory a numbered "sub" page is the best way take the extra links. For exanple if you have a directory page called "Software.html", then once you fill that page with 25 links, the new page could be called "Software-2.html" etc. Remember to include easy navigation within the link directory - its not there just for the search engine spiders..

Thats about all there is to it, other than using link exchange sites and finding some link exchange software to make the job a bit easier. Happy Linking!

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Why Most People Don't Use Effective But Free Online Marketing Tools

It is rather interesting that most people do not take free online marketing tools seriously. Never mind that there is plenty of evidence around and even more examples of web sites and online entrepreneurs who have taken off in a hurry using only free online marketing tools.

In a way this reaction is not surprising because we have been brought up in world where we have been taught to firmly believe in the facts of life. One of the major facts of life is that there is no such thing as a free lunch and nothing valuable costs nothing.

While all this is true, most people have failed to realize that the World Wide Web has arrived with its' own unique and rather unorthodox but highly effective set of rules.

Even fewer have taken note of the fact that the most successful online business model so far has been based on the heavy use of free marketing tools and heavy spending in marketing comes later when the web site has already started enjoying some success.

A Famous Example
When Bill Gates was playing catch up on the internet after an initial error of judgement over the future importance of the net, one of the areas where he found himself way behind was in free email services. The likes of Yahoo already had millions of users when Hotmail was re-launched.

Did one of the richest men in the world go for prime time television to advertise his new free email service? Did he book newspaper spots across the states? Not really, he used a free online marketing strategy that worked like a dream. A brief signature at the end of each email sent out invited the recipient to open a free Hotmail email account. The rest is history. This simple referral marketing strategy that cost nothing took Hotmail from virtually zero users to millions in a few short months.

There are numerous other examples, but I shoe this one because it is somebody we all know rather well.

Conventional Advertising Does Not Work Online
There is one other reason why free online advertising tools are so effective. And this is based on the fact that conventional advertising as we have always know it has so far been a big failure online.

Banner advertisements with all the color and gimmickry was such a huge failure that it prompted somebody to come up with what they thought would solve the problem and become a huge success. I am referring to the much-disliked and extremely annoying pop-up advertisements. Even the so-called pop-under ads that are supposedly less annoying have not been received with much enthusiasm online

All these options are not free and people have been paying good money for them.

The reason why conventional ads do not work is simple and yet most people still don't get it. Folks do not come online to be advertised to. They come online, usually with very little time on their hands and looking for some very specific information. Is it any wonder that any form of unsolicited advertising, be it pop-up ads or unsolicited email (SPAM), is so annoying?

This is why informative well-written articles are such an effective free online marketing tool. Only those who are interested in the information you have to offer will read your article. And they do not mind whatever advertising you put in the resource box at the bottom of the article, because it does not look like advertising to them. Especially when they are interested in getting more information on the subject at hand.

Marketing Is No Longer That Simple
What people need to realize is that marketing online does not fall into the neat offline categories we have been used to.

For example the most successful online advertising has been PPC ads or Pay -Per-Click ads. The main reason is that these ads have been based on relevance to the information being looked for right from the beginning. We first saw them next to search engine results. Those ugly small text things that looked like they were part of the results searched. They have worked like magic because advertisers only pay for actual clicks on their ads, so results and response to the ads are easily quantifiable.

It should not be lost on anybody that these ads actually do not look like ads. More so now when the market leader in PPC ads, Google have their AdSense ads in small sites and blogs all over the net. There is even more emphasis on relevance to the information being looked for.

Free Is Actually Not Free
Then the other extremely important factor to note is that many of the most effective online marketing tools are really not free. For instance, even if you write your won informative articles to use for marketing purposes, this is a very time-consuming exercise. Time is even more valuable than money because unlike money, it can never be recovered when it has been lost. So it is just that people pay using some other currency.

Conclusion
Anybody planning an online marketing campaign should look very carefully at the so-called free marketing tools and options, the effectiveness of some of the techniques will surprise them.

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Aggressive Internet Marketing Made Possible

Aggressive internet marketing means full-blown marketing and promotions that exceed any businessman's expectations. A business needs fierce internet marketing. No more, no less. But to make it low cost? Is that even possible? How can something so aggressive be affordable?

Luckily, you can avail of inexpensive aggressive internet marketing if you just look hard and good enough. Be keen and alert and know what's going on in the online industry. The following questions will help you discern if your chosen internet site to do the marketing fits the bill.

1. Does the company offer free website design?
Even if you know your HTML, it is still more advisable if a professional team does it for you. Some internet marketing sites offer free web design to make sure that your site's needs are met. It's a must that marketing is integrated to the web design. If the company requires you to pay more than fifty bucks for the web design, then so much for straight-forward internet marketing! Look somewhere else!

2. How many keywords does your web site cater to?
Having too many keywords or key phrases to focus on will make your page ranking drop. Creating smaller web pages with content that emphasizes only a few keywords will serve Internet marketing endeavor better.

3. How search engine-compatible is your website?
Internet marketing is coined "aggressive" only if it is a hundred percent search engine-compatible. There are about 10 major search engines online and your site has to work accordingly with them. Find out if your internet marketing site is expert on search engine optimization.

4. Do you know your competitors?
Affordable aggressive internet marketing pushes your business forward by taking note of your competitors. Analysis and evaluation of the competition is mandatory to figure out your shortcomings and advantages over them. If this feature is excluded from your internet marketing plan, you're getting a mediocre deal.

5. How efficient is the monthly marketing plan?
Usually, you're asked to pay a monthly fee for the marketing plan. For a marketing plan to be efficient, it must zero in on the following things: webpage development, link exchanges, web content, updates and technical support. Of course, also included are the standard SEO, competition analysis and keyword density.

If you've procured the right answers for the previous questions, then you can finally say: "Now that's low cost aggressive internet marketing."

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Tips For Online Marketers

Most marketers will tell you that building a list is one of the most effective ways to spend your time if you hope to make money online.

Despite this, countless people do not bother to even try, or, having looked at the work required, decide that the effort is just too much. If you have come to think this way, I would seriously suggest that you rethink your marketing strategies. An opt-in list of prospects is one of the most valuable assets you can build. Let's look at that statement a little more closely.

I was talking to a friend and fellow marketer the other day, and we were discussing the relative merits of blogs and mailing lists. He runs a reasonably high traffic blog in the marketing and making money online niche and has built up a fairly decent subscriber base over the past couple of years. He is experienced and makes a full time living online, but, until recently had not focused too much on building a mailing list.

Recently, he changed his approach and began to build his own list and has been amazed by the difference in conversion rates that he has experienced. A mailing to his young list produced 40 sales from one email. A blog post on the subject of the same product produced 1 sale.

As you can imagine, he is now converted and a true believer in the power of owning a list.

This is all well and good, but the things that hold many people back from trying to build a list are often cost related. It costs money for a professional autoresponder - usually a monthly recurring charge, and it's not always easy to persuade people to sign up for yet another list, and it's no simple task to drive traffic to your opt-in forms either.

This is where maintaining a blog and your own website(s) becomes very important. Placing your opt-in form in as many places as possible will increase the chances of tempting new subscribers. You will need something to offer them in exchange for their information too and a free gift of some kind is usually the way to go.


It is a lot of work, and this is the other thing that puts a lot of people off. In terms of return on investment however, the work and the costs really are worthwhile.

There are plenty of free programs out there that claim to do the work for you, but, despite the best efforts of the program designers, most of them fall short for the end user and are really no substitute for your own list.

There is one solution that works very well for the beginner however. It does not require that you have an autoresponder (although if you do it provides for full integration) and you do not need to pay for the service.

It works on a very simple principle, that goes a step beyond traditional viral marketing. By using the system to build your list, you will also be helping others to build theirs. It sounds so simple it's a wonder that not more people have caught on to it but the results can be quite impressive. The marketer who invests in the primary software and hosting stands to gain the most of course, as he or she will reap the benefits of the viral effect in spectacular fashion, but it doesn't detract from the benefits for everyone else.

If you are still hesitant about building an opt-in list of your own, don't put it off for too much longer, because the sooner you begin, the sooner you will see the rewards. I have helped many new marketers on the road to their first list and if you want to know more, you can pick up a free manual from our site.

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15 Tips To Drive Traffic To Your Blog

There are many factors that make blogs much better than normal WebPages including the speed at which blogs are indexed, ability to submit to blog directories & normal directories, pings and track backs. All these little things can help drive more traffic to blogs. Here are 15 popular techniques you can use:

1.) Create at least four keyword posts per day. Most of the top blogs such as Boing Boing, Daily Kos, and Instapundit (with literally tens of thousands of visitors per day) publish an average of 30 small 100-150 word posts per day according to "Secrets of the A-list Bloggers: Lots of Short Posts" by http://TNL.net

2.) Submit to My Yahoo! When you submit your own RSS to My Yahoo it is indexed by Yahoo.

3.) Submit to Google's Reader. When you submit your own blog RSS to Google's Reader the Google Blog Search will index your site.

4.) Add a relevant link directory to your blog and trade links like a demon possessed! Although it may take more time than simply submitting to a search engine one time, this method is perhaps the best way to drive traffic to your site. Use software such as Zeus to speed up the link trading process.

5.) Use ping sites like ping-o-matic. Ping your site every time you add a new post.

6.) Submit your blog to traditional search engines such as AltaVista, and MSN.

7.) Submit your blog to traditional directories such as DMOZ. Directories (particularly DMOZ) increase relevance with Google. DMOZ is very picky, but what do you have to lose by trying?

8.) Submit to as many RSS Directories and Search Engines as possible. This is a simple but repetitive process that can be done with software such as RSS SUBMIT.

9.) Comment on other blogs. Do not just leave short, lazy comments like "I agree." Leave well thought out replies that will force readers to wonder "who wrote this?"

10.) Use track backs. If there is a blog that you refer to or quote and it is highly relevant to your subject, leave a track back. It increases your link popularity and may even score a few interested readers from the linked site.

11.) Go offline. Use newspaper ads, public bulletin boards, business cards, even stickers to let as many people as possible know your blog exists.

12.) Ad a link to your blog in your e-mail signature block.

13.) Use Groups (Usenet). Find a relevant group on Google groups, Yahoo groups, MSN groups or any of the thousands of other FREE group services and find like minded people and talk with them. Make sure your use your blog URL like it is your name.

14.) Use Forums. Forums are one of the best places to go for advice. Go to forums and find problems to solve. Make sure you leave your blog name, but be tactful about it; some forums get annoyed with those who selfishly drop a few links to their own site and leave.

15.) Tag your website. Tagging is a new idea that has erupted across the web. Sites like http://Del.icio.us, Technorati and many others have a social feature that allows you to place your article under keywords or "tags" that everyone interested in that tag can see.

Although these are some of the most popular ways to drive traffic to your blog, do not limit your self to tips and lists. Use your imagination and you will come up with thousands of ways to drive traffic to your blog!

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Which Affiliate Marketing Mentor

Affiliate marketing been in the Internet industry for rather sometime now and it's one of the most popular tools around employed by several online entrepreneurs nowadays. It's a capital pick for those who would like to put up an online business quick and inexpensively. Even so, there's still a large amount of the population who acknowledges a little or still zero about it. And most of the people who have barely discovered this business typically assume that they can well make big money out of it. Well, they are definitely wrong.

To be successful in affiliate marketing business is not an leisurely project and it will never occur overnight. It's simply like an in progress assignment where you want to check and try several advertising strategies and tactics. This could even call for you to sign-up with various affiliate programs just to find which merchants performs all right.

Some other misconception that expect to gain a lot if they place all but 20 affiliated banners on exactly one niche. Well it won't actually work the way you believe it would since once your site is overflowing with too several banners, it will appear like a link farm and visitors will not be curious and won't even bother clicking on any of those banners. So if you actually prefer to promote several affiliate programs in your website, make sure that they swing with the theme and subject from the rest of the articles on your niche. Keep in mind that three to four affiliated links in your site are decent, depending on the size of the web page.

There is as well some who consider that if they add affiliate materials to their site, they can get sales at once. Possibly they simply don't know that affiliate marketing is totally about advertising. Whenever there's no traffic hitting your site, how could you expect to acquire any sales? Recall that the to a greater extent you advertise your affiliate link or the site where the affiliate links are placed, the more clickthru's these links are likely to receive.

If you would like to be involved with or you've already joined an affiliate program, but you have the above misconceptions regarding affiliate marketing, then, you might need a mentor to help you work where to start out and what to do ready to succeed.

In the dictionary, the word mentor is defined as a wise and trusted instructor or counselor. Generally, these individuals are experts in the subject area they are into. They can give skillful advice and direction as well as supervision to another individual. So when we say affiliate marketing mentors, they are experienced counselors that have made affiliate marketing their specialty. Affiliate marketing mentors can be those persons that have already been successful in affiliate marketing and are always willing to share their experienced-based knowledge from the viewpoint of both the affiliates and the web merchants. And that's the reason why we come up with this page. It is aimed to give you the stuffs that affiliate mentors should possess and follow and why do they need these things.

Of course, it's beneficial for an affiliate marketing mentor to live and utilize many theories and generalities regarding your business but there's nothing more helpful and effective than telling the client what works today and what are the things that could probably work in the future and if the trend changes. As a mentor, you should be one of the sources of knowledge for your client and the first one to teach them on how to generate more affiliate income. You too, need to be knowledgeable and equipped with the keys to success for affiliate marketers as well as for merchants. And you should guide your clients as they try to do the things that can help boost their profit because once they do well in that business, it can be counted as one of your great achievements. This also makes you a successful mentor.

There are some articles on affiliate marketing that says, in order to be triumphant in affiliate marketing business, you need to encompass and develop these traits: persistence, patience and thirst for knowledge. And as a mentor, it is your job to help your clients take in these traits within themselves. Once they've already developed the abovementioned character, it'll be very easy for you to explain to them that attaining success in affiliate marketing requires sweat, blood and of course, hefty time commitment. These traits will also teach them not to give up.

Furthermore, before you coach your client to be expert in SEO, link exchanges, email marketing, newsletter marketing, reciprocal exchanges and advertising in forums, you should first become expert on these fields. They'll sure find it hard to learn these things alone and without supervision from the one who knows best. So be sure that you are knowledgeable on these things before you accept any invitation to be a mentor. Yes, being a mentor is way harder than succeeding in affiliate marketing but this task is very rewarding especially if your client become victorious. The failure of your client is your failure too so you must do your very best to be able to bring your client on tour to success. Again, it is never an easy task and there's nothing you'll be able to do about it. After all, that's what affiliate marketing mentors are for.

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Money Making Affiliate Marketing Tips

Affiliate marketing is an excellent way for the internet entrepreneur to earn income – it requires no stocking of products, no shipping, no handling of returns, no credit card processing, etc. But sometimes it can be hard to make money as an affiliate marketer, because the competition can be pretty stiff. Here are some tips to help you stand out from the crowd of competition.

Tip 1 – Content is King
If there is an overused cliché in internet marketing, it's probably "Content is King". But it is true. If you want to stand out from the other affiliate marketers selling the same products you are, you have to give your visitors something that the other websites do not.

For example, you might do a detailed comparison of two similar products, with links to buy each. Or you might create a custom script to help buyers find the product that meets their selected criteria.

You could also have a "deal finder" option that would search for the best deals on a product from several stores, similar to Bizrate.com and similar sites.

Tip 2 – Play both sides of the field
As an affiliate marketer, it's to your advantage to sell competing brands – you can give your customers better selection, an unbiased position, etc. You can also join an affiliate program like Amazon's to fill in the gaps in your other programs, so you can offer your visitors a complete line of products.

Tip 3 – Follow the rules
As simple as it may seem, read the rules of the affiliate programs you're part of. Especially pay attention to the license you are granted for use of corporate trademarks, and marketing rules. It's not worth getting kicked out of the program.

Becoming an affiliate marketing expert will take time and effort. Start with above tips, and keep learning and trying new things. Get involved in affiliate marketing forums and learn from the experts. Best wishes to your success!

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Six Things You Should Consider For Web Hosting

Some of the features you may be looking for when it comes to a web host for your website include cost, dependability, customer service, features, bandwidth and disk space.

Cost
When reviewing the price structure of any web hosting solution you should always take into account the total package of services offered, reputation of firm, testimonials from customers, and ease of use.

Dependability
Has the web host had a problem with down time? Have other customers had a problem with the service? Have all functions of the service proven useful to other customers?

You should always investigate the reliability of the firm.

Customer Service
Some web-hosting firms talk a good game, but will they be there for you when you have difficulties. Many netrepreneurs have horror stories about poor customer service and unresponsive web hosts. Ask questions and check out any guarantees they may offer.

Features
Some web hosts provide a minimal cost but have fewer features than other firms. It's possible a company has a significant package of services, but may not provide enough space for future growth. You may also find there are add on features that you are interested in, but add significantly to the overall cost of the service. Determine the features you need and look for a match that can manage those features.

Bandwidth
Can the web host keep up with the information load for your website? Do they have a limitation? Will those limits work for your ecommerce site?

Disk Space
Your web host should have adequate space set aside for you to grow. It may seem like a shoe that is too big, but dream big because your business footprint may one day match the size of the shoe.

Choosing a web host is kind of like picking out a new computer. You need to determine what you want it to do now and what you believe it will need to do a year or two from now. If you chose a computer that is only adequate for your immediate needs you will not have any room for future growth. The same is true with a quality web host find one that exceeds your current needs. If you don't you severely limit your ability to grow your ecommerce site.

A good web host can provide the building blocked needed to develop a quality online presence and keep the doors open for expansion at a moments notice. Without the flexibility the web host may be less than adequate for your ongoing needs.

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Implementing an Opt-In List to Optimize Your Internet Marketing Success

In order to make a success of your website or online business, it is obvious that you will need customers. Although everyone who visits your page will not become a customer, they must have some interest in your product or service that brought them there in the first place and therefore they are a potential customer. Potential customers are much more likely to
become actual customers if you make an effort to keep in touch with them. This essential marketing tool is called and opt-in list.

An opt-in list will allow you to keep track of your potential customers by obtaining their email address in order to keep them informed about the latest updates for your product or service. You can create your own opt-in list or you can use an opt-in list creator that is available online from several sources. The benefits of creating your own opt-in list is that
you will be able to send personal messages to the potential customers and they will not need to do anything, whereas with commercial opt-in lists, the customer will receive a generated message and will be required to verify their acceptance of the message.

An important part of creating a successful opt-in list is to keep in mind that potential customer will visit your site from many places and may not see your homepage. Therefore it is imperative to have the ability to subscribe to the mailing list from all pages of your site. You should not, however, make the subscription information a focus point of every page

It is a good idea to put it at the bottom or top of the page where it is visible but not distracting. It is also a good idea to promote your mailing list by using a give-away. You could offer a service, a discount, or an ebook. You can also drive potential subscriber to join your mailing list by writing articles that will benefit the reader and at the same time, build your credibly as an expert. You can include the subscription information in the byline of the articles. You could also write an ebook with your subscription information on each page, which will allow the customer to easily access the information and join the list with ease.

Once you have created the mailing list and now have your potential customers within your grasp it is your responsibility to keep them updated and interested. Provide them with quality information that is up-to-date and of interest to them. Offer discounts or a newsletter, something that the reader can use. This will keep them interested and will drive them to your site over and over, eventually they may make a purchase and if not, they will be informed enough to use word of mouth advertising for your site.

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How To Get More Online Customers

At a recent networking meeting Jana asked for a recommendation for a public speaking coach. She was starting to speak in front of audiences, and wanted to polish her presentation skills a bit. Before anyone else got a chance to reply, Elise jumped in to recommend her coach, Kelly. "I have been working with Kelly for two months, and I have already seen results from working with her. I am much more confident during my presentations, and I see that my audience is more engaged and more responsive. She is great; I will e-mail you her contact information later today."

Later that day I spoke with Elise about Kelly. Elise has always been interested in public speaking, so when she heard about Kelly about a year ago, she put herself on Kelly's mailing list. She enjoyed what Kelly had to say, learned more about her practice, but didn't take action to actually buy anything from Kelly until an opportunity came up for Elise to conduct a few workshops with another colleague. Once she started working with Kelly, she confirmed that she was as knowledgeable and professional as she appeared in her newsletter. Kelly, with his professionalism, knowledge and proven marketing techniques turned Elise from being a random business owner into a raving customer. How did she do this?

- She knows and uses effective marketing techniques. Kelly has a web site that describes when she does. She publishes a newsletter, in which she shares useful information on public speaking, as well as keeps the readers informed about her expertise.

- She is consistent. Marketing is not a one time event; rather, it is a process. Kelly markets consistently - she publishes his newsletter on a regular basis, she uses her own web site, branding, articles, and many other techniques in order to get results.

- She is a professional who delivers results. When clients work with Kelly, she delivers the services and products she has promised.

So how can your business benefit from knowing about Kelly's marketing techniques? Over to you - let's take action:

- Run your marketing campaigns on a consistent basis. One time advertising or marketing campaign is likely to bring in more web site visitors, but not very likely to bring in many long term customers. Whether you are publishing newsletter, refining search engine traffic or giving workshops to promote your business, it takes time for the campaigns to start bringing in a consistent stream of qualified buyers. Continue your marketing campaigns for a long enough time to see the results.

- Learn how to promote your products and services online. Knowing how to market online will save you time on your marketing activities.

- Underpromise and overdeliver. Your marketing materials make promises to your customers. Whether it is fast results for people in your classes, a product at no charge with any coaching package purchased or a press release critique for new customers, make sure that you deliver MORE than your marketing materials promise. Doing this will result in customers who not only are happy with your services, but who will also promote your services to others.

Knowing who your customers are and delivering them what they want will help you fill up your practice with happy customers.

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Don't Make This Idiotic Mistake-Build Your List

Don't follow my idiotic mistake!

Yes it took me 2 yeas of trying to market online until I finally got this concept brutaly pounded into my head. BUILD YOUR DARN LIST! If you have heard of this and haven't gotten around to doing it, you just spinning your wheels.

I worked my rear off marketing for 2 straight years nonstop and built sizeable downlines in multiple programs. Sure I made a few bucks here and there but what was digging myself a deep grave. Today, all these programs I built downlines are gone and had nothing to show for it. I was promoting somebody else and not myselft. I am not saying promoting affiliate links is a bad thing but just remember... would you rather promote affiliate links from you optin list or promote these same links with hard work?

So before you do anything else: build a website, create and newsletter, and start promoting your site and newsletter. This will save you tons of time and headaches in the long run. Build your list by giving away free software, ebooks, and offers. I would recommend giving away a viral e-book to new subscribers personally.

I don't know about you but I don't want to work nonstop all day long marketing. If I wanted to do that I would just go out and find a job right? You probably want to be lazy like me and wake up late and go to bed early knowing your gonna make money either way. So 25,000+ subscribers later I can feel comfortable doing that. I am not saying you can be lazy but you get the point :)<

It is much easier to promote affiliate programs or your own programs for that matter when you can e-mail several thousand subscribers about it.

So heres some extra benefits of building a list will bring you....

1. offer paid ads in your newsletter
2. promoting affiliate links or your programs mentioned above
3. potential viral sales
4. days, weeks, months, and years of residual income potential
5. future Joint Ventures with your subscribers or other webmasters affiliated with your business

Those are just a few of the benefits of building a list offers, I am sure you can find other good reasons if you put your mind to work.

Be careful! Once you have a list its up to your to maintain it. Watch what you promote or recommend. For the most part stick to your "newsletters theme." Its okay to go off topic every once in awhile but keep that to a minimum. Remember that you have a good reputation to keep and if you start angering your subscibers or flood their e-mail box with offers your business will start to sink.

Build your list right and build your list smart! If you don't know how to build a list properly feel free to check out my signature for the "Optin Master Course."

I hope that this sheds some light on the importance of building your list and stop you from following my idiotic mistake!

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Always collect an email address

The power of collecting an email address is amazing. As I mentioned in a prior article, you can expect between 1 and 10 percent of visitors to make a purchase on their initial visit to your website (conversion rate) and between 10 and 33 percent to give you their email address (signup rate). Often visitors weren't intending to buy any product but were after more information on your subject. Studies show it often takes 7 communications before a customer will buy a product. Believe me, after selling websites, it's very rare to get a 'yes' on the first visit. Websites can be quite complex so maybe it's not the best example but people just need more information and confidence before they're ready to buy.

We need to offer the customer an awesome product that they simply can't say no to for them to give us their email. Often people have no intention of handing out their email address but a careful planned report or mini-course that is instantly delivered to them is often incentive enough for them to build that bridge.

The method of collecting email addresses is called an autoresponder. That is, a database that stores names and email addresses and can send out pre-programmed email addresses to recipients. These can be customised and sent instantly, 1 day, 5 days and anywhere up to 10 years after the initial email was collected. Very powerful and effective. Third party autoresponders that sit on a separate server are the most effective and you can generate your own signup form to place on your website

You can also send an email to your database at any time. Let's look at an example of the power of an email database. Let's say you attract 200 visitors each day (easily possible) and have a signup rate of 15%, so that's 30 email addresses a day, and after a year you have 10 950. If you mailout a promotion for a course you have created that costs $97 and just 3% of your list signs up (quite reasonable), that's an income of $31 864.50 just from one mailout. This profit is realised over a few days and a great example of the power of a distribution list and a value-adding product. So make sure you ask for that email address. Our goal is to add value for our customers so we need to work out what information will be useful to them and make it available. The easiest way to do that is via email.

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How To Make Money Using Remote Site Syndication (RSS)

You may already know that RSS stands for Remote Site Syndication, but what does that really mean to you and more importantly, how can you use RSS to help you make more money?

Simply put, RSS feeds are written in XML, a special mark up language much like html. That means that they have mechanisms included that identify structures in a document. The structures define the content and how that content will be displayed within that document. RSS is what makes big news websites possible: RSS files are used to create a data feed which will deliver headlines, links or virtually any other piece of information to a channel viewer application, commonly called a news reader.

These readers are subscribed to certain RSS feeds and constantly monitor them, alerting the user when every any new information has been added to the feed. So, how can you use this to your advantage as an internet marketer? Here are the most popular ways to integrate RSS feeds into your marketing effort: you can use RSS to replace any email marketing you are currently doing, take advantage of RSS feeds to drive traffic to your blog or sales site or create your own RSS feed so your messages and information show up on thousands of websites, blogs and desktops online.

Although many marketing gurus will claim that email marketing isn't dead, with the advent of increasing spam complaints and filters coupled with the threat of viruses originating from an email, more and more people are leery of even opening your email. So even if you have a large email list, the likelihood of your emails being opened is becoming increasingly slim.


With RSS, your messages won't ever get filtered and have a much higher chance of actually being read vs. a typical email. And your marketing results can only be better when people actually read your message. You can even incorporate autoresponders in conjunction with RSS.

Including RSS feeds on your content site or blog allows you to add fully dynamic theme-related content to your web pages making your site or blog very popular with the search engines. The constantly updated content is exactly what the search engines crave and helps increase your search engine ranking, driving more traffic to your page.

Probably the best way to use RSS to help your online marketing efforts is to create your own RSS feed. This way your information will be published on any website that is using the RSS feed you are supplying that information to. There's even automated software to submit your RSS feeds to the various directories that supply the feeds to marketers using them as described above.

RSS is still a relatively unknown method of driving traffic to websites, but is becoming more popular every day. As an internet marketer, this is a great opportunity to take advantage of this new technology before the rest of the online gurus jump on the bandwagon.

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Finding hot products to sell online

"What should I sell? What products are hot selling? These are the questions most people are trying to find an answer in order for them to make the definite decision. And if we really want to know the answer to this question, our only choice is to do some research. There are all kinds of twists along the road that may lead you to think you have a high-demand idea. We must be able to understand and satisfy the need, wants and expectations of our customers on a certain product that they're trying to buy. This three are called the basic needs or minimum requirements in a purchase. Needs are the basic reasons or the minimum requirements consumers are looking for in a product or service. They are called the qualifying or "gatekeeper" dimensions in a purchase. Wants are the determining dimensions among many choices. Expectations, on the other hand, are values or intangibles associated with a product or service. Expectations are actually part of "wants" but they become extremely important when products or services are not differentiated.

For example, in reading a logic book, university students look for the following: Relevant logic concepts use of simple language, easy to understand and affordable prices. These similar ideas can be applied to Internet Sales as well. After all, the Internet is just another place to sell products. The basic concept of demand is the same there as it is anywhere else, and has been all the time.

Now, the second thing that must be considered in finding "hot" products to sell are the level of competition or the market shares do your product will have. Market share or level of competition means the ratio of your brand sales versus the total market sales. While companies would naturally define its target competitors, it is actually the consumers who ultimately decide the competitive frame, or the list related products or services that consumers consider when exercising their purchasing power. We must therefore choose the market segment where we can have a potential leadership or at least a strong challenger role. Because the overriding objective of getting into this business is not just to satisfy the needs and wants of our customers but to do so profitably better than his competition. Otherwise, our competition will end up satisfying the customers better than our own interest.


Third factor to be considered in finding hot selling products is finding out the general interest level about the product. General interest in a product helps us to gauge where our demand and competition numbers fall into the big picture. Simply saying, if there isn't much demand for the product, and there isn't much competition, it would seem that it might not be good a good put up for sale. But the research doesn't stop here; there is one last thing to be considered to exactly find the hot selling products that you've been looking for. We must also learn how others are advertising those products. If there are a good number of them doing so, it may mean that it's a good product to get into. Coming to the last phase of the process is analyzing and evaluating all the information that has been collected. We have to look at all of the data we have collected on demand, competition, and advertising, and make decision as how they all balance out.

And here are several factors or aspects that must be measured:
(a) not enough demand means not enough people are going to buy
(b) too much competition means not enough of a profit to go around
(c) too much advertising drives up the price of pay per click ads, and competition as well
(d) not enough general interest, combined with low demand, means there may not be a good market even if there is competition trying to make the sales.

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