mystery shoppers

Remember always, if you are asked to pay for the privilege of working (eg by needing to purchase training materials or obtain certification or register with a database of available mystery shoppers), you are probably being conned, avoiding being victimized in this fashion would be a relatively simple matter: all one would need to remember is, “If they want me to pay them, it’s a scam.” And that would be that.

Someone who answers a mystery shopper ad is sent an employment packet typically containing a variety of items, including a training assignment and a cashier’s check made out for a largish amount, typically a few thousand dollars. The assignment explains that the “shopper” is to pose as an ordinary bank customer (either at a particular named bank or his own), cash the check there, then wire the funds he receives from the teller to an address that has been supplied in the information package. The “shopper” will also typically be told it is imperative he complete the task within two days, or else he will not be paid for his work or hired again.

Social site and friends

You  have been hearing It alot,get involved in social networking,why?,well If you want to make money at internet marketing,and are not real good at It ,or you are good,and want to make more money,social friendships is a must.Why ,well just in the process of making friends,you also find out what people are doing in internet marketing,they don;t mind telling you this because,they also want you as a friend ,so you will tell your friends about them. One of the reasons this is so good ,is because you start out with friends you have things in common with,when it comes around to the internet marketing programs,you can exchange ideas and thoughts.They may be in a better program than yours,and show you how to quickly make money at their level,and vise versa,more on a friendship level than a business level,It works both ways of course,but you can pick and choose,and ask lots of questions.I found a good one here that I am a member of,check it out and tell what you think.  http://r.yuwie.com/island76/

Moving The Free Line?

Free…sorta…

Has anyone else noticed that the definition of the word “free” seems to be undergoing some reshaping lately? I got an email today proudly presenting me “free” software. The software sounded interesting, so being the geek that I am I went to check it out.

I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that the software is a “free 15-day trial” of an application. Once the 15 days are up, of course, they’re going to make me a heck of a deal to buy the full version. Wow, how lucky can a geek get?!?

At least this one is a single payment after the 15 days are up. I recently received a “free” marketing book from a big-time marketer who shall remain nameless. The “free” book only cost me $7.95 for shipping and handling. What “free” means in this case is that the marketer only made a couple bucks’ profit on each book.

That wasn’t what I found annoying. That particular ploy has been going on for years. “I’ll send you this valuable CD/book/whatever FREE! You just pay a nominal fee to cover shipping and handling!” Okay, we all know that game and we go along with it because, hey, $7.95 for an actual printed book isn’t such a bad deal and we’ll overlook the “free” thing.

I got the book and saw the “BONUS! Money-making software included free!” alert on the cover. “Cool, free software!” thought I. So, I looked in the back of the book to see what the free software was and where to download it.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that the “free software” is actually a 30-day trial of an online service run by said big time marketer that features all kinds of marketing advice and wisdom. That’s apparently the money-making part of the equation. I pay to access all this great content and the marketer makes money.

“So, what happens after the 30 days are up?” I hear you asking.

Good question. If I decide to continue accessing the service, it’s a mere $39.95 per month! And I didn’t think it could get any better than the “free” book!

For the record, I’ve actually used this service during its beta stage and there is software involved. There’s a little application that you download to your machine that puts a streaming bar across the top of your screen. You click on things you see that look interesting and it opens your web browser and takes you to the site where you can access the article or whatever.

Is it worth $39.95 per month? Not to me, but others apparently think so.

My issue is not with the service. However, I find it disingenuous at best to trumpet something as “free” when it’s going to end up costing me 40 bucks a month. Call it what it is: a “free 30-day trial.” Don’t tell me it’s “free software” when it’s clearly not.

Marketers have a bad enough reputation as it is. We don’t need further fuel for that fire. I have no problem with enthusiasm for a product, but let’s not be reinventing the language to suit our own agendas.

John The Geek

20 ways to Increase your ALEXA rank

20 Ways to Increase your Alexa Rank

Here is a collection of methods you can use to boost your Alexa Rank. Most of these tips are derived from several fellow webmasters I know who claimed to have derived positive results through their experiments with the Alexa Rankings.

Some of the other tips were derived articles and sources, which I have duly referenced at the end of this post.

Do these tips work? According to some, yes they definitely do work. But do note that most of them require active effort of some sort and hence, they will work as long as long as you are consistently performing specific actions.

To increase your Alexa rank in the long run, I would highly recommended that one focus on developing quality content which attracts and maintains a large audience instead of purely focusing on artificially increasing your Alexa Rank.

Great link-worthy content will leads to an natural increase in site traffic and is an excellent way to passively increase your Alexa rank.

It is important to emphasize that you should devote most of your efforts in growing your site audience alongside integrated implementation of any of the following tips below.

1. Install the Alexa toolbar or Firefox’s SearchStatus extension and set your blog as your homepage. This is the most basic step.
2. Put up an Alexa rank widget on your website. I did this a few days ago and receive a fair amount of clicks every day. According to some, each click counts as a visit even if the toolbar is not used by the visitor.
3. Encourage others to use the Alexa toolbar. This includes friends, fellow webmasters as well as site visitors/blog readers. Be sure to link to Alexa’s full explanation of their toolbar and tracking system so your readers know what installing the toolbar or extension entails.
4. Work in an Office or own a company? Get the Alexa toolbar or SS Firefox extension installed on all computers and set your website as the homepage for all browsers. Perhaps it will be useful to note that this may work only when dynamic or different IPs are used.
5. Get friends to review and rate your Alexa website profile. Not entirely sure of its impact on rankings but it might help in some way.
6. Write or Blog about Alexa. Webmaster and bloggers love to hear about ways to increase their Alexa rank. They’ll link to you and send you targeted traffic (i.e. visitors with the toolbar already installed). This gradually has effects on your Alexa ranking.
7. Flaunt your URL in webmaster forums. Webmasters usually have the toolbar installed. You’ll get webmasters to visit your website and offer useful feedback. It’s also a good way to give back to the community if you have useful articles to share with others.
8. Write content that is related to webmasters. This can fall in the category of domaining and SEO, two fields in which most webmasters will have the Alexa toolbar installed. Promote your content on social networking websites and webmaster forums.
9. Use Alexa redirects on your website URL. Try this: http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?www.doshdosh.com . Replace doshdosh.com with the URL for your website. Leave this redirected URL in blog comments as well as forum signatures. This redirect will count a unique IP address once a day so clicking it multiple times won’t help. There is no official proof that redirects positively benefit your Alexa Rank, so use with caution.
10. Post in Asian social networking websites or forums. Some webmasters have suggested that East Asian web users are big Alexa toolbar fans, judging by the presence of several Asia-based websites in the Alexa Top 500. I suggest trying this only if you have the time or capacity to do so.
11. Create a webmaster tools section on your website. This is a magnet for webmasters who will often revisit your website to gain access to the tools. Aaron Wall’s webpage on SEOTools is a very good example.
12. Get Dugg or Stumbled. This usually brings massive numbers of visitors to your website and the sheer amount will have a positive impact on your Alexa Rank. Naturally, you’ll need to develop link worthy material.
13. Use PayperClick Campaigns. Buying advertisements on search engines such as Google or Exact Seek will help bring in Traffic. Doubly useful when your ad is highly relevant to webmasters.
14. Create an Alexa category on your blog and use it to include any articles or news about Alexa. This acts as an easily accessible resource for webmasters or casual search visitors while helping you rank in the search engines.
15. Optimize your popular posts. Got a popular post that consistently receives traffic from the search engines? Include a widget/graph at the bottom of the post, link to your Alexa post or use Alexa redirection on your internal URLs.
16. Buy banners and links for traffic from webmaster forums and websites. A prominent and well displayed ad will drive lots of webmaster traffic to your website, which can significantly boost your rank.
17. Hire forum posters to pimp your website. Either buy signatures in webmaster forums or promote specific articles or material in your website on a regular basis. You can easily find posters for hire in Digital Point and other webmaster forums.
18. Pay Cybercafe owners to install the Alexa toolbar and set your website as the homepage for all their computers. This might be difficult to arrange and isn’t really a viable solution for most. I’m keeping this one in because some have suggested that it does work.
19. Use MySpace . This is a little shady so I don’t recommended it unless you’re really interested in artificially inflating your Alexa Rank. Use visually attractive pictures or banners and link them to your redirected Alexa URL. This will be most effective if your website has content that is actually relevant to the MySpace Crowd.
20. Try Alexa auto-surfs. Do they work? Maybe for brand new sites. I think they are mostly suitable for new websites with a very poor Alexa rank. Note that there be problems when you try to use auto surfs alongside contextual ads like Adsense. They aren’t also long term solutions to improving your Alexa Rank so I suggest using with caution.

Resources on Alexa Rank

Several of the tips listed above were taken from Aaron Wall’s article on Alexa Ranking. This post by Aaron will also give you some insight on Alexa’s webmaster bias.

WebSite101

It’s easy to hold some romantic notion that someone’s going to
brew up a mug of coffee, curl up with her laptop on the couch, and
browse your web site for a while. Trust me — that never actually
happens (except in commercials). If people are visiting your site,
they’re there for a reason. As much care and love as we might put
into crafting captivating copy, the honest truth is that most
visitors won’t actually read it. In reality, they’ll probably scan
it for a second or two to see if it’s what they’re looking for,
and move on if it’s not.

Create Visual Hierarchy

Creating a consistent visual hierarchy throughout your site gives
your readers visual cues to the importance of various elements by
using color, contrast, size, and relative placement. Working with
a graphic designer at this stage can be critical. You can use
style sheets to apply these rules consistently throughout your
site.

Make it Easy on the Eyes

Don’t tire reader’s eyes with small type, brash color combinations
and wide columns. Conventional print wisdom tells us to use serif
fonts for body copy and sans-serif for headlines, but Web
Marketing Today’s user survey found that web readers tend to
prefer sans-serif fonts. Type vendors have made strides over the
last decade to optimize popular fonts for screen readability, but
remember this golden rule: you can specify any font in your web
pages, but people will only see the fonts actually installed on
their computers. For this reason, I usually recommend commonly-
installed fonts like Verdana or Arial.

Intro. Body. Conclusion. Repeat.

Remember back to fourth grade when you first learned to write
essays? I can hear the teacher now: “Intro, Body, Conclusion.”
Dust off that phrase and hum it like a mantra while you’re writing
your web copy. Start by creating outlines — for each page and
every paragraph within that page. Intro – Body – Conclusion.
Summarize the page content within the first paragraph. Now go back
to each paragraph and summarize its content in the first sentence.

Headlines can Build Interest

Legendary adman David Ogilvy once stated that “four out of five
people don’t read past the headline, so when you’ve written your
headline, you’ve spent eighty cents of your ad dollar.” Though you
may feel you’ve spent lots of time fine-tuning your copy, it’s
time to go a step further and give your paragraphs a heading. Your
first aim is to summarize content, but if you can tease readers’
interest, that’s even better. Why not ask a question to be
answered by the subsequent paragraph? (And while you’re at it, see
if you can use one of your key search terms in the heading or
subheads to boost rankings).

Practice Makes Perfect

Like many art forms, writing effective web copy is a skill that
grows with use. You don’t have to change your site’s copy all at
once. I recommend starting with your most visible pages and
working your way through the rest of your site applying these
principles. Creating an easy-to-scan site enables visitors to find
what they’re looking for, read what’s most important, and get
further into your content-rich site without feeling bogged down.

Ten Effective Ways To Reduce Your Business Costs

 10 Effective Ways To Reduce Your Business Costs. I didnot just post these ideas,for the heck of It, I really use them my self, and you should be too, Lindsey.
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-22991

1. Barter
If you have a business you should be bartering goods
and services with other businesses. You should try to
trade for something before you buy it. Barter deals
usually require little or no money.

2. Network
Try networking your business with other businesses.
You could trade leads or mailing lists. This will cut
down on your marketing and advertising costs. You
may also try bartering goods and services with them.

3. Wholesale/Bulk
You’ll save money buying your business supplies in
bulk quantities. You could get a membership at a
wholesale warehouse or buy them through a mail
order wholesaler. Buy the supplies you are always
running out of.

4. Free Stuff
You should try visiting the thousands of freebie sites
on the internet before buying your business supplies.
You can find free software, graphics, backgrounds,
online business services etc.

5. Borrow/Rent
Have you ever purchased business equipment you
only needed for a small period of time? You could
have just borrowed the equipment from someone
else or rented the equipment from a “rent-all” store.

6. Online/Offline Auctions
You can find lower prices on business supplies and
equipment at online and offline auctions. I’m not
saying all the time, but before you go pay retail for
these items try bidding on them first.

7. Plan Ahead
Make a list of business supplies or equipment you’ll
need in the future. Keep an eye out for stores that
have big sales. Purchase the supplies when they go
on sale before you need them.

8. Used Stuff
If your business equipment and supplies don’t need
to be new, buy them used. You can find used items
at yard and garage sales, used stores, used stuff
for sale message boards and newsgroups etc.

9. Negotiate
You should always try negotiate a lower price for
any business equipment or supplies. It doesn’t hurt
to try. Pretend you are talking to a salesman at a car
lot.

10. Search
You can always be searching for new suppliers for
your business supplies and equipment. Look for
suppliers with lower prices and better quality. Don’t
just be satisfied with a few.

About the Author:
————————————————————
Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy has helped thousands of people
in over 200 countries around the world start and run a
successful home business. Discover 3 easy steps to start
your own home business and subscribe to The Home Biz Guy’s
Free Home Business Secrets Mini-Course at:

http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-22991

Click the Link above for more great  Articles ————————————————————

Quote of the Day:

“It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of
life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave
front to adversity.” — Horace

Free Ecommernce Store

So now you have found that Internet Marketing plan, that you want to buy, from , whats his name?, but you don’t quite have the money.As you sit in front of your computer,kicked back in the chair with your hands on your head,you look around the room and say,If I could just sell some of my junk,but you don’t want to pay ebay to list your stuff for sale,well I have your answer.It’s called ecrater.com,and best of all,It’s free,No upgrades just free.Things to note, this is not a auction site, you must set the price and just like anything else on the Internet,you will be found easier if you have at least 50 items  to list for sale,heck if you don’t have that much,you must be reading this at the library or public computer.

eCrater.com is a free web store host and marketplace. You can list unlimited items for sale indefinitely and never pay a penny. However there are some things to keep in mind when getting started with eCrater.

1: Pictures
Every listing can have up to 5 pictures, use them to show off your products.

2: Thumbnails
Main item image should be square or nearly so. eCrater crops all product images into squares when it processes the thumbnail images that are displayed next to each item search result.

3: RSS Feeds
At the bottom of every category or search result page is an RSS feed button. You can use these feeds to display your latest items on a blog, squidoo page, website, etc.

4: eCrater Widgets
eCrater just launched new widgets that display randomly selected items from your shop. You can use these widgets on any website that allows javascript. To find the widgets, log into your account and find the widget link in the menu. You can then choose from 6 different sizes and shapes for your widget.

5: Analytics
eCrater has very barebones stats built into your account management but it allows you to take advantage of the power of Google Analytics. Sign in (or sign up) for google analytics and create a site profile for your store, Google will then generate a piece of javascript. Find the account number it will usually be in the format “UA-xxxxxx-x” and copy that into the box in your account for analytics. You know have excellent stat tracking for your store.

6: Titles
You get 100 characters for every item’s title. Use that to give searchers as much information about your product as you can in a short space.

7: Google Attributes
eCrater automatically submits all products to Google Shopping. You can add Google Attributes to your item listings to give google added information that it uses in it’s search. These include brand, color, size, etc. A fully list of attributes and how to format them can be found in your account under the link that says Promote My Store.

10 High-Impact Viral Marketing Strategies

Today’s feature article is:

10 High-Impact Viral Marketing Strategies

Read it below!

Recommended Program:
————————————————————

Systems Work, People Fail… It’s That Simple!

I’m About To Share With A Select Few, The Exact Details Of
My Simple And Proven ‘Reverse Funnel System’ That Quickly
And Simply Puts $5,000 to $10,000 In Many Students’ Pockets
EVERY WEEK! Visit This Site To Get Free Info Now:

http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-22991

————————————————————

10 High-Impact Viral Marketing Strategies
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy
http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-22991

Viral Marketing is allowing people to giveaway and
use your free product or service in order to multiply
your marketing quickly over the internet. The idea
behind viral marketing is that you include your ad
with the freebie people giveaway or use. Below are
ten high impact viral marketing strategies:

1. Allow people to reprint your articles on their web
site, in their e-zine, newsletter, magazine or ebooks.
Include your resource box and the option for article
reprints at the bottom of each article.

2. Allow people to use any of your freebies as free
bonuses for products or services they sell. Include
your ad on all your freebies.

3. Allow people to use your online discussion board
for their own web site. Some people don’t have one.
Just include your banner ad at the top of the board.

4. Allow people to sign up for a free web site on
your server. Since you are giving away the space,
require them to include your banner ad at the top
of the site.

5. Allow people to add their link to your free web
site directory. Just require that they return a link
back to your web site, advertising your directory.

6. Allow people to provide your free online service
to their web site, visitors, or e-zine subscribers.
They could be free e-mail, e-mail consulting, search
engine submissions, etc.

7. Allow people to give away your free software.
Just include your business advertisement inside the
software program.

8. Allow people to give away your free web design
graphics, fonts, templates, etc. Just include your ad
on them or require people to link directly to your
web site.

9. Allow people to place an advertisement in your
free ebook if, in exchange, they give away the
ebook to their web visitors or e-zine subscribers.

10. Allow people to give away your free ebook to
their visitors. Then, their visitors will also give it
away. This will just continue to spread your ad all
over the internet.

About the Author:
————————————————————
Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy has helped thousands of people
in over 200 countries around the world start and run a
successful home business. Discover 3 easy steps to start
your own home business and subscribe to The Home Biz Guy’s
Free Home Business Secrets Mini-Course at:
http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-22991
————————————————————

Quote of the Day:

“Love – the feeling – is a fruit of love, the verb.” –
Stephen Covey

Reading Too Many Internet Marketing Blogs?

Too many or none at all? While there is no magic number it is a good idea to find two or three internet marketing Blogs you really enjoy, because they can help you on a day to day basis when you are developing your online business.

Why is this?

Why should you pay attention to what anyone else is saying when it comes to doing your own thing?

While you shouldn’t let any internet marketing blogs run the way you do things, they can be of enormous help when you are building your own knowledge of online business and how things work.

It could be said that they are of more use when you are a newbie, but that’s not necessarily the case. The internet marketing blogs you choose to read on a regular basis may change over time however, as your own needs and tastes change.

As a newbie you will probably be grateful for a certain level of more basic information and advice. As you progress in your own online career and your knowledge develops these initial sources of information may become too basic for you to get any more real enjoyment and knowledge from. So you will probably progress onto more advanced internet marketing blogs that will help you to negotiate the next stage of your career.

But how many should you be reading?

This is really a matter of personal choice, but as a general rule if keeping up to date with them all means you aren’t getting your own work done, then you’re probably reading too many. Two or three is about my limit – and if one ceases to become useful I replace it with something that appeals more to my level of knowledge at that stage.

There are plenty of Internet Marketing blogs out there – all you need to do is find the ones that will help you the most.

The Key to Your Success

The Key to Your Success
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy
http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-22991

In regard to making money on the Internet, everyone is always
looking for the quick fix. They want to sign up for a program,
place an advertisement, and make hundreds or thousands of dollars
instantly. While this may be possible depending on your
circumstances, the most direct and guaranteed path to success on
the Internet is to stick with the fundamentals.

A friend of mine who is an athletic coach for kids in the city
where I live reminded me of this lesson. This guy is actually so
passionate about kids and athletics that he coaches 4 different
sports: basketball, soccer, baseball and football. Of course, he
has a kid of his own on each team. But what is remarkable about
this guy is the results he gets with his teams.

He was recruited to coach the 8th grade football team where his
children go to school. After 27 years of losing seasons in a row,
the first year my friend became the head coach the team won the
district championship and repeated their championship run the
following year. This past weekend he coached 12 different games
and won all 12 of them. As you can tell, this guy is extremely
dedicated.

But the funny thing is that he and the kids he coaches are not
totally hung up on winning. If they lose a game, they feel
equally good about themselves as they would if they had won. What
matters most to them is how well they played and lived up to
their potential as a team.

The real question is how my friend’s teams continually perform
on such a high level and beat nearly anyone they play even though
they are often smaller and younger than their competitors. I
asked this question to my friend the other day and he told me
that it’s all in the fundamentals.

In his practices, all he works on with his kids is keeping a
positive mindset and practicing the fundamentals. He told me that
his teams never scrimmage or strategize about upcoming games
during practice. They simply work hard on all the fundamentals of
whatever particular sport they are playing and do so more than
any other team they play. This constant practice and improvement
of the fundamentals is what allows his teams to progress faster
than his competitors. While most other teams get caught up with
how to win, out-strategize, be stronger than and intimidate their
opponents, my friend’s team is just so good at the basics that
they blow everyone out of the water when game day arrives.

This got me thinking about my own Internet business and why I’ve
been able to succeed on such a high level while most others who
have tried to do what I do have failed. The answer is not really
surprising.

Most people who try to build a successful Internet home business
are looking for the quick fix. They want it to work IMMEDIATELY
and so they usually fall prey to business opportunities that
promise to help them get rich overnight and advertising scams
that promise to deliver thousands of hungry prospects to their
website in the next 24 hours. Of course, these opportunistic
schemes are really just geared to steal people’s hard earned
money. You see, when someone is desperate and looking for an
INSTANT solution, they will often be taken advantage of and their
chances for success with an Internet home business are slim to
none.

However, while there are thousands of business opportunities on
the Internet and millions of different ways to advertise and
promote your website, I personally practice the fundamentals in
my Internet home business. I do this by sticking with the
business opportunities I’ve joined for the long haul and
promoting my website consistently with simple, affordable and
easily maintained Internet marketing techniques.

In fact, one of the techniques that works best for me is writing
articles like this one and getting them published on other
people’s websites using article syndication tools and software
found online.

By writing articles and getting them published on other websites
online using powerful tools like those mentioned above, I’m able
to get my name and website address in front of thousands of
people without paying a dime in advertising. Of course, the key
to this strategy is that I write and distribute articles
consistently in this way. It’s one of those “fundamentals”
that doesn’t cost anything but a little time and effort. Fact
is, it’s this price of time and effort that most people are
unwilling to pay. They’ll gladly part with hundreds or even
thousands of dollars, but ask them to do a little hard work and
they say “No way.”

It’s this understanding that can separate you from the pack. If
you are willing to practice the fundamentals of your business
faithfully and consistently, you will be destined to succeed on a
high level. But if you can’t and you’re only looking for the
quick fix, you have already lost the game before you even set
foot on the field.

Even pros like me practice the fundamentals every day. In fact,
especially pros like me practice the fundamentals. The moment I
stop practicing the fundamentals is the moment I stop being a
pro. Think about this carefully and then renew YOUR commitment to
the fundamentals of your Internet home business today. Do this
and you will soar past your competition.

About the Author:
————————————————————
Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy has helped thousands of people
in over 200 countries around the world start and run a
successful home business. Discover 3 easy steps to start
your own home business and subscribe to The Home Biz Guy’s
Free Home Business Secrets Mini-Course at:
http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-22991
————————————————————

Quote of the Day:

“Constant dripping hollows out a stone.” — Lucretius