Author: plugin

by: Darrell Knox
Copyright 2004 Darrell Knox

What a loaded question! Let�s narrow that down a bit and take it from the perspective of someone who wants to work from home and make money online in a home business. That will make it an easier question to answer.

Let�s assume you�ve never had a website, don�t know how to get a merchant account, don�t know html, and are pretty much stuck with being an expert on sending and receiving email.

What�s there for you to do online to make money? Lots, in fact! These days are not at all like a couple of years ago or even six months ago. If I only had all the opportunities to make money online when I started marketing!

Here is a list of things you can do with just a website and a hosting account today:

Sell affiliate products (products like reports, ebooks, hard goods of every conceivable make, model, size, shape and function, and much, much more).
Sell services (do you know how big a business being a Virtual Assistant is these days? It�s quite amazing what you can do for people without ever meeting them face-to-face, anywhere in the world!)
Online auctions (Ebay has made thousands and thousands of people full-time incomes from auctioning collectibles, antiques, and even brand new equipment and gadgets of all imaginable types. You name it, it has been sold on Ebay!)
Membership sites: Know of any groups of people that would love to get insider information on virtually any topic? You could make money online with a membership site!

The list is a long one and one I am not prepared to detail here. You have found your way onto the net and if you have been surfing for very long at all you know it is a gigantic super shopping mall. Who to you think is making the most money online? Aside from big corporations, most of the web is made up of sites put up by little businesses people work from home.

I sell information and I love it. Most of the products I sell are other merchants� products. I just drive traffic to my site, provide information, and point to relevant products related to the information I provide people looking for a way to make money online. I love helping people make their first few sales.

After that, they are always hooked and cannot do enough to learn everything there is to know about how to make money online. Many people I have worked with now have a couple to several websites selling everything from reports to hard goods that can be shipped direct to their customers. Most people start out to make money online as affiliates of
certain products or authors. This is a great way to get your feet wet and learn what making money online is all about. People then either work to create their own products (which they get 100% of the profits from) or expand their website into other related niches.

About the author:
Darrell Knox is a writer and entrepreneur with 15 years of home business and marketing experience.Free Home Business Tips Newsletter at: http://www.cashgroup.biz/biztipspop.html
Website: http://cgi.tripod.com/lazaraus26/cgi-bin/index.pl

by: Darrell Knox
What a loaded question! Let�s narrow that down a bit and take it from the perspective of someone who wants to work from home and make money online in a home business. That will make it an easier question to answer.
Let�s assume you�ve never had a website, don�t know how to get a merchant account, don�t know html, and are pretty much stuck with being an expert on sending and receiving email.

What�s there for you to do online to make money? Lots, in fact! These days are not at all like a couple of years ago or even six months ago. If I only had all the opportunities to make money online when I started marketing!

Here is a list of things you can do with just a website and a hosting account today:

Sell affiliate products (products like reports, ebooks, hard goods of every conceivable make, model, size, shape and function, and much, much more). Sell services (do you know how big a business being a Virtual Assistant is these days? It�s quite amazing what you can do for people without ever meeting them face-to-face, anywhere in the world!) Online auctions (Ebay has made thousands and thousands of people full-time incomes from auctioning collectibles, antiques, and even brand new equipment and gadgets of all imaginable types. You name it, it has been sold on Ebay!) Membership sites: Know of any groups of people that would love to get insider information on virtually any topic? You could make money online with a membership site!

The list is a long one and one I am not prepared to detail here. You have found your way onto the net and if you have been surfing for very long at all you know it is a gigantic super shopping mall. Who to you think is making the most money online? Aside from big corporations, most of the web is made up of sites put up by little businesses people work from home.

I sell information and I love it. Most of the products I sell are other merchants� products. I just drive traffic to my site, provide information, and point to relevant products related to the information I provide people looking for a way to make money online. I love helping people make their first few sales.

After that, they are always hooked and cannot do enough to learn everything there is to know about how to make money online. Many people I have worked with now have a couple to several websites selling everything from reports to hard goods that can be shipped direct to their customers. Most people start out to make money online as affiliates of certain products or authors. This is a great way to get your feet wet and learn what making money online is all about. People then either work to create their own products (which they get 100% of the profits from) or expand their website into other related niches.

About the author:
Darrell Knox is a writer and entrepreneur with 15 years of home business and marketing experience.Website: http://cgi.tripod.com/lazaraus26/cgi-bin/index.pl

by: Kirk Bannerman
By Kirk Bannerman

No, this baby boom will certainly not swamp the Social Security
system (sort of a bad joke for those that live in the United
States, but many other countries…most notably Japan…have an
even more acute problem), but this baby boom is revolutionizing
the way that pay per click advertising is being spread across the
Internet.

One of the early participants in this pay per click baby boom was
Google, with its AdSense program. With this program, Google
shares pay per click revenue with a huge number of individual
partner websites that carry a few pay per click ads that are
distributed by Google. In essence, this creates a whole bunch of
little pay per click locations (websites) throughout the Internet
and hence the term “pay per click baby boom”.

Conceptually, programs like AdSense are similar to what the
computer hardware folks refer to a distributed processing.
Instead of trying to draw everyone to a large pay per click
search engine site, little groups of pay per click ads are spread
widely across thousands of locations (websites) all over the
Internet.

Actually, this distributed processing or propagation technique is
not limited to pay per click advertising. For example, Amazon
uses a similar arrangement (called Amazon Associates) to sell the
products it carries on amazon.com and ClickBank has a sales
program called CBAdwords which operates in a similar fashion.

According my trusty Ouija board, it seems likely that most
commercial hubs on the Internet will be shifting to this
propagation concept as time progresses…all of those individual
partner websites that carry the message/proposition will
constitute the vast army of worker ants that keep the queen ant
alive and healthy.

From a pay per click marketing perspective, these programs make
brilliant use of leverage while providing highly targeted
prospects for the paying advertiser.

There are, of course, some interesting things that occur as a
result of all of this stuff. For example, consider what I call
the “cross fertilization effect”: Suppose a person goes to
yahoo.com and performs a search that leads them to one of my
websites that happens carry Google AdSense ads and that visitor
then clicks on one of those ads…the net result is that Yahoo
natural search provided Google pay per click with some revenue!
Aren’t these fun times that we’re living in?

As these programs continue to proliferate, the individual
webmaster needs to exercise a little restraint and avoid the
temptation to go overboard by plastering these ads all over your
website and thereby diluting your own primary message/proposition
and confusing your hard earned visitor. When properly used,
these ads are just ancillary or complementary content that you
are providing to enhance the information and opportunities that
you are providing to your visitor…if something happens to
strike a responsive chord with your visitor, you might make a
little pay per click money.

If properly used, these propagation programs can result in the
classical “win-win” situation. However, if you over do it, this
can quickly turn into a loss for you (the individual webmaster)
and a win for your pay per click partners that are distributing
the ads. As in many things, moderation is important.

It’s a constant sea of change, but the good things just keep on
getting better! Stay alert, and light on your feet, and the
opportunities will just keep on coming your way.

The above are just some observations from “the peanut gallery”,
but I don’t think I’m far off the mark about where things are
heading. With that, I’m off the soapbox and wishing you
success in whatever you do online!

About the author:
Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and
coaches others seeking to start their own home based business.
Visit his website at http://www.business-at-home.us
for more details.

by: Greg Hayes
If you have dabbled at all in the world of Internet marketing, you may have heard the term “unique selling proposition” or USP. USP is a technique that Internet marketers use to set themselves apart from the competition. Internet marketing is highly competitive and highly saturated. In order to be successful, it is vital that the Internet marketer present himself as being unique and different from his competitors especially when many of them are selling the same products.

It is also just as vital to have a unique selling proposition on Ebay. I am amazed at the number of Ebay sellers that are either unaware or just don’t care about the importance of having a unique selling proposition. A case in point: A while back, I was researching some products on Ebay from a wholesale company called B&F System. B&F System is a wholesale only company that carries a variety of brand name products. One of the brands they carry is called Maxam. I came across several Maxam leather jackets on Ebay while searching ended auctions. Now here’s the kicker. About a dozen or so of these leather jacket auctions were exactly the same. They all used the same image of a guy modeling the jacket that was captured from the B&F website. They even used the exact ad copy used by B&F!

What was the result? Only one of the sellers was able sell any jackets. The top bid was only $26. And since he purchased the jackets from B&F for $20, he made about $5.00 profit after Ebay fees. That’s a slim profit for an item that normally retails for $95.

Always keep in mind that the amount of effort you put fourth on you auctions will be in direct proportion to the amount of return you get from your auctions. The sellers who put up the jacket auctions put fourth little effort by using stock photos and ad copy from the B&F website, and therefore received little or no sales from their auctions. The sellers in this case might think that using stock photos makes their auctions look more professional. It’s just the opposite. These auctions look very amateurish. Using a picture of someone modeling a garment will not entice people to bid on your auction. Using three or four high quality pictures of the actual item along with a detailed description will entice people to bid. Remember that buying apparel off the internet is not like buying music CD’s or software. You don’t need to worry if a CD will fit. You don’t need to see multiple pictures of a box of software to know what you’ll be getting. However, when selling apparel, good quality pictures and a detailed description are vital. You should use a good quality digital camera to take pictures of the item from different angles. If you’re selling jackets or coats, include a picture of the lining as well. In your description, don’t just say it’s a large size. Give measurements of the garment including overall length, sleeve length and chest size. If you’re going to specialize in apparel, it would be a good idea to purchase a form or clothing dummy to model your apparel. Doing these things will go a long way in setting you apart from the competition and establishing a “unique selling proposition.”

What ever you’re thinking about selling, always look at your competition and think about how to set yourself apart. Remember that unless you’re selling antiques on Ebay, there’s always someone else who’s trying to sell the same thing you’re selling. Establishing your USP will put you on the road to Ebay success.

About the author:
Are You Tired of the scams and the get-rich-quick schemes?
Greg Hayes is founding editor of http://www.mammothprofits.com/
Mammothprofits is the website devoted to helping others filter out the scams and become successful in a home based business.

by: Sydney Johnston
There are thousands of used cars for sale on eBay every
single day. In fact, eBay Motors is the most profitable
sales division on eBay and naturally there are many
entrepreneurs who are interested in jumping into this
market. For instance, eBay claims it sells an SUV every nine
seconds and is the biggest online car dealer in America,
exceeding the traditional car companies. In fact, there are
15 million cars sold over the Internet each year – and
growing.

The recent rapid growth of the consignment business model
has made the used car market even more enticing. Many
sellers are able to sell cars they have never even seen and
with no more risk than the cost of the auction listing. Some
negotiators even persuade the car owner to pay for the ad,
thereby risking no more than their time.

The biggest single issue for this business model is the
trust of prospective buyers. After all, paying thousands or
tens of thousands of dollars for a car sight unseen is an
awesome leap of faith. Even buying for a plane ticket to go
see a car before paying causes buyers to be uncomfortable.

The best way sellers can overcome this fear is to use an
escrow service. The one chosen by eBay is Escrow.com, which
handles eBay auctions in the US and Canada.

An escrow service acts as a neutral third party. In an
exchange of merchandise, the buyer sends his money to
Escrow.com and the seller ships the product to the buyer.
The buyer usually has two days to inspect his purchase, and
if he is happy, he notifies the excrow company who releases
the money to the seller, minus its fee. If the buyer is
dissatisfied, he returns the undamaged merchandise to the
seller, and after the seller receives his merchandise back
(in satisfactory condition), the escrow company returns the
buyer’s money. Thus both sides in the transaction are
protected. The buyer almost always pays the fees for this,
although sometimes buyer and seller split the cost.

Escrow.com has created its “Vehicle Services Division”
specifically for dealing with the used cars, trucks, SUVs
and almost anything else with wheels and a motor. The buyer
can have a 160 point inspection performed before agreeing to
the purchase. This is an inexpensive service and certainly
will save the buyer any headaches.

* The buyer pays a $125 fee that is non-refundable
* The seller is contacted and the inspection is carried out
* The buyer receives a report
* The buyer chooses to go ahead with the purchase – or not

Another choice for the buyer is to deposit his payment with
Escrow.com and then take delivery of the vehicle. The
seller ships the car after he knows the money is secure with
the escrow company. The seller must provide tracking
information, which is verified by Escrow.com.

The buyer has between one and 30 days to thoroughly inspect
his new purchase (the period is negotiated between the two
parties ahead of time). If this time expires and the escrow
company has not heard from the buyer, it assumes he is happy
and gives the purchase price to the seller.

The buyer may return his vehicle if he isn’t happy and
sometimes buyers and sellers work out partial payment
agreements, the buyer being satisfied with some parts of the
transaction, but not with others. If a dispute arises, it is
settled by the American Arbitration Association.

The fee for this service is:

* $0 – $7,500 = value of vehicle: $125
* $7,500.01 to $15,000: $170
* $15,000.01 to $30,000: $200
* $30,000.01 to $50,000: $275
* $50,000+ = 6% of the value

Once both parties have agreed, the title transfer process
begins and Escrow.com will guarantee this too, for a fee of
$95. Title transfers are handled by Centerpoint Diversified
Services which works in all 50 states. The fee, naturally,
doesn’t include any transfer costs – it is only insurance
that the title will be expedited to the satisfaction of both
parties.

Escrow.com also offers a service that will ship cars almost
anywhere in the world and will gather an auto history report
to inform sellers if their new chariot has been salvaged or
stolen, suffered flood or hail damage, been in a fire or
accident, has had an odometer rollback or has been used as a
police car, a rental or a taxi.

Anyone considering offering used cars for sale on eBay would
be well advised to thoroughly learn the services available
through Escrow.com and offer those to prospective buyers.
The trust factor will skyrocket and your chances of
completing sales will dramatically increase.

About the author:
Learn how to sell on eBay with 16 hours of online instruction taught by a 10 year eBay veteran. Own an eBay business instead of an eBay hobby.
http://www.auction-genius-course.com

by: Michael Lever
Copyright 2005 Michael Lever

Dear internet marketer,

I have some advice for improving your bottom line, whatever that may be.
It could be many things ranging from improving website traffic to increasing sales or even just expanding your mailing list.
But whatever your bottom line is, you have two choices when setting out to achieve it.

Your first choice is to employ an assortment of free traffic, sales, or opt-in subscriber generating techniques.
These can be effective but generally take time and results are usually slow.

Most people adopting solely this choice end up failing and frustrated. But at least they haven’t lost their pants in the process.

The second choice you have is to pay for services designed to improve your bottom line. This will almost certainly speed things up and improve the results you achieve both short and long term.

If you find yourself choosing this second option, make sure you can measure quantitative results as you need to know what ROI (return on investment) is being achieved for each paid service.

Most of you are probably a combination of both choices. And if you’re anything like me, you probably started using free techniques before moving to paid alternatives.

Enough beating about the bush.
What’s my advice? Simply this.

If you pay for any form of online advertising or promotion, do yourself a big favour and explore services designed to assist this process without attempting to influence your decision-making in any way.

Affiliate directories and Customer Acquisition Exchanges also known as “Customer Reciprocation” are 2 such services.

These are really an extension or improved version of link exchanges as they can provide paying customers instead of potential traffic generation (leads, click-throughs, or visitors).

It’s that simple. These paying customers earn you sales or commission, depending whether they purchase your own products or products from your affiliated merchants.

So what are you waiting for?

Each time you purchase online and don’t take my advice, you’re missing out on paying customers willing to purchase through your own referral URLs.
Choose wisely and turn your online purchases into profit.

Side note – I’ve mentioned thus far your online advertising and promotion purchase intentions but did you know that all online purchases you make can gain you paying customers?
That’s because customer reciprocation services incorporate unrestricted global shopping directories.

A comparison with Ebay makes interesting reading.

Whereas Ebay matches buyers and sellers of products through an auction process, customer reciprocation services match buyers and sellers through referral URLs via their own exchange engines.
In effect, they work like limited versions of Ebay.
The exchange process can only be completed for people who promote product using referral URLs.

However, they expand on the Ebay model in the sense that with Ebay, sellers can only offer their own product whereas sellers are able to offer both their own product and those of other merchants through the use of customer reciprocation services.

Regards

Michael Lever

About the author:
Michael Lever is a co-founder and CEO of SpinningTornado.com , an independent company offering unbiased tools and services to help affiliate and network marketers build profitable online businesses . http://www.SpinningTornado.com Partnering affiliates the world over .

by: Kenny Hemphill
Google’s Adsense is one of the most powerful weapons in website publisher’s arsenal. It enables you to monetize your sites easily and if used properly can generate a very healthy income. However, if you’re not using it properly and maximizing the income you squeeze from it, your leaving money on the table something we all hate doing.

Boosting your return from Adsense can be done very easily and quickly, and you’ll be amazed by the results.

I ran Adsense on my sites for over a year before I discovered these techniques, and like many people, I though I was doing pretty well. My clickthrough rates and CPM figures were very healthy, and I didn’t honestly think that they could be improved a great deal. How wrong I was. Immediately after I implemented a few quick changes my clickthrough rate more than doubled, and by doing some fine tuning I manged to get nearly three times as many people to click on the ads as had been previously doing so.

The first technique is one that was ‘discovered’ by the amazingly helpful Debs, on SiteSell’s SBI! forums. When I read it originally, it made sense and I decided to goive it a go, but I wasn’t prepared for the immediate impact it would have on my income. It involves making only a few simple changes to the format and positioning of your Adsense ads.

Firstly, forget about using banners or skyscrapers. These ad formats are almost universally ignored by surfers. Why? Because we’ve all been conditioned to recognise a skyscraper or banner as an advert and as these adverts are rarely of any interest, we ignore them. What’s needed is a way of integrating Adsense ads into the editorial on your site as seamlessly as possible. To do this you need to do three things:

1. Use the 250 x 250 rectangle format 2. Make the background color of the ad the same as the background color of your site, or as close to it as possible. 3. Make the ads borderless by setting the border color to be the same as the background color of the ad.

These changes can be made by logging into your Adsense account and creating a custom format. Just select the 250 x 250 ad format, and create a custom color palette. Use the color picker to pick the coor you want. The Javascript is automatically generated at the foot of the page, ready for you to copy and paste into the pages on your site.

Now, you need to position your ads where surfers are most likely to click on them. Research using retina scanning technology has shown that the place that surfers tend to look at first and most often is the top left. I don’t know the reasons for this, perhaps it’s because that’s where we’re used to seeing the most useful search engine results (at the top of the rankings) and search engines are the sites we most often visit, so we automatically look at the same place on other sites.

Whatever the reasoning, as soon as I made the above changes to my Adsense ads, clickthrough rates doubled, immediately.

The second technique is much newer and one which is entirely based on my own experience. Google has recently added a new type of Adsense format, called Adlinks. This displays a series of links on your page in the same style of Ad unit as regular Adsense ads. When a user clicks a link they are taken to a page of adverts that resembles regular Google search results. As a publisher, you are paid every time a user clicks one of those ads.

Adventurous soul that I am, I jumped in with both feet and started to trial Adlinks on my most visited pages as soon as it was launched. I’m using the four links in a square box format, positioned top left of my page content. After a few weeks of running Adlinks alongside regular Adsense ads, it’s clear that the return on Adlinks is about a fifth to a quarter higher than regular ads. There’s no clear reason for this but one explanation may lie in the fact that clicking on an Adlink takes the user to page of ‘results’. When a user clicks on one of these, you are paid for the click. If the user finds what they want, great, if not, it seems that they hit the Back button on their browser and try again, just as you would for normal search engine results. Then they click on another result, and you get paid again. So it’s possible to be paid more than once from the same Adlink click. Now, this reasoning is speculative, but it does make perfect sense in the light of my Adlinks results.

Finally, Adsense has some excellent tracking statistics that allow you to track your results across a number of sites on a site by site, page by page, or just about any other basis you choose. This is a very powerful tool and you should use it to find out which ads are performing best for you and fine tune your Adsense and Adlink ads accordingly.

So you see, by spending an hour or so of your time making a few adjustments to the Adsense ads on your sites, you can very quickly treble your Adsense income. Give it a go, you’ll be amazed by the results.
About the author:

Kenny Hemphill is the owner and publisher of The HDTV Tuner and has been using Adsense for two years.

by: Austin Akalanze
A near risk-free and immediate way to create residual income [part one}

The Internet is a dynamic and ever evolving market place. It is full of promises and opportunities. It has the potential to turn people’s fortunes around in very short orders. If you have been on the net for any reasonable length of time, such names as Yanik silver, John Reese, late Cory Rudl, Mike Filsame, Simon Garbowski and Mark Joyner to name just a handful, would not be unfamiliar to you. And if you are not familiar with these names, do not worry about it, you will soon be. These are regular folks that have leveraged the power of technology- the Internet to change their fortunes.

Apart from the big wigs, there are smaller folks out there who are raking in bundles of dollars everyday, using one or a combination of the various opportunities and income models the Internet has to offer. These income models range from Affiliate marketing, Resell rights, and Downline builders, to Auctiions, Dropships, Permission marketing, Google Adsene and now Traffic arbitrage.

Of all the income models, I like Traffic Arbitrage the most. It is simple, easy and can be implemented in very little time, even by those who know nothing about doing business on the Internet, once they get the hang of it. Making it even easier, is James Jones using his new Traffic Arbitrage page builder at Click Profit Pro.

Traffic Arbitrage? I am glad you noticed. Yes, Traffic Arbitrage! I would not say “Google Traffic Arbitrage” as many would, because Traffic Arbitrage goes beyond Google. Google is mighty and powerful, but if I could achieve the same results using cheaper search engines, why not. It does not always have to be Google. The cheaper the Cost Per Click, CPC, the better for our purpose. Remember, we are not looking for FREE traffic. We are buying traffic in one market to be sold in another market. And targetted traffic is targetted traffic whether it is coming from Kanoodle or from Google. However, for our purpose, we are using Google Adwords and Adsense.

But what is Traffic Arbitrage? Coming from education, I am sold on the idea of breaking concepts down to their component parts. To answer that question, let’s look at the definition of Arbitrage. According to the Encarta World English Dictionary, Arbitrage is “The simultaneous buying and selling of the same negotiables or commodities in different markets in order to make an immediate and riskless profit”.

Looking at our keyword phrase, and the Encarta definition, it is clear that the commodity of our trade is internet or web traffic. Also looking more closely at our Encarta definition, three operative phrases emerge, namely: simultaneous buying and selling, different markets, and immediate and riskless profit. Now, I do not know about you, but of all the three operative phrasology, I like the last best: immediate and riskless profit. Wow!

Immediate and Riskless! I am SOLD. Going, going and gone.

I don’t know about you, but I do not know any businesses where you can make immediate and riskless profit, other than Traffic Arbitrage. Even in Traffic Arbitrage, there is a miniscle element of risk. Very minute. I just have to be hornest with you.But in the real sense of it, the profits can be immediate and near riskless.

How does Traffic Arbitrage work? I am glad you asked. It is simple once you understand it. And good a thing, it is not rocket science. If I do it, anyone one can do it PERIOD. It is as easy as that.

Now Google in her never ending wisdom, created two very compelling and successful campaign platforms- Adsense and AdWords. On the one hand, Adsense offers advertisers a way to reach deeper into their market without breaking their bank, by having Google place their campaigns on participating sites with content related to advertisers products and services. It also allows content creators a way to make a little money for making their webpage available for dispaly of these adsense ads. The advertiser wins because he is getting perfectly target traffic and deeper market penetration, and the content creator wins because he is making a little money doing what he loves to do.

On the other hand, AdWords offer advertisers a quick and cost effective way to drive immediate and targetted traffic to their sites. Like Adsense, Adwords are on a Cost Per Click basis, but unlike Adsense, they appear only on search displays on Google. The advertiser bids for a position on Google search results, and when a searcher clicks on the advertiser’s ads, he the advertiser is charged the bid value of his campaign.

In part two of this two part series on Traffic Arbitrage, will look at the process of setting up a Google Adsense account and Adword account. We will also bring the components together to demonstrate how this genius technique can be use time and again to create residual income.

About the author:
Austin Akalanze is a dream builder a keen observer of the emerging voice over internet protocol technology and a Traffic Arbitrage specialist. He enjoys writing poetry.

by: Joe Clare
Are you looking for “Hot Items” to sell on your eBay Auction? Are you having trouble deciding on a category? Being an active eBayer, I am often asked about what products to sell. As explained in my book “eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak” finding the right product in the right category is cruical.

Many people ask me whether jewelry is a good item to sell on their eBay auction. My opinion is yes, it can be. For the most part jewelry is easy to package and easy to ship. And provided you have done your research first, you should be able to make a good profit selling it. One of the points you will need to research before adding any jewelry to your eBay auction is, what are eBay shoppers looking for in the jewelry niche? Knowing this will help you to decide just what type of jewelry you could include in your auctions. Below you will find Top Ten Buyer Searches for Fine Jewelry (at the time of this writing) as per eBay

10 – Earrings

9 – Turquoise

8 – Sterling Silver

7 – Cameo

6 – Italian Charms

5 – Vintage

4 – Gold

3 – Diamond Rings

2 – Designer Jewelry

And the number 1 jewelry search at the time of this writing is…

Italian Charm Watches.

By knowing what people are searching for you will have a better insight of what items are popular, and what items should sell well on your auctions. If you decide to sell jewelry on eBay, finding items that fit into one or more of the above categories will see your number of bids increase substantially. Always remember to do your research before listing any item for auction. Know what categories are “Hot!” Do a price analysis of your product. Know what the item costs you and what you can potentially sell it for. Then sit back and watch the bidding heat up!

Happy Selling!
Joe Clare

About the author:
Joe Clare is an active Netpreneur and eBayer! He is the author of numerous articles on how to make money online and be successful on eBay! Check out his latest Best Selling eBook “eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak” Your Passport to Success! at http://www.ebooksnsoftware.com

by: Sharon Housley
Copyright 2005 Sharon Housley

In order to determine which advertising and marketing efforts are effective you must have ways to measure the results of those efforts. Alerts and instant notifications can be instrumental in monitoring search engine position, trademarked terms, monitoring competitors and staying abreast of online occurrences. And, of course, the notification can be used for “ego searches”.

Ego Searches
What is an ego search? Find out where your name or company is mentioned, view forum posts or online articles that mention your name or company.

Trademarks
The best offense is a good defense. By monitoring newsgroups or search engines for trademarked terms, you often head off a future conflict. As a trademark owner, it is your responsibility to actively protect your mark. Otherwise, you could lose your trademark rights. Monitoring tools send immediate notification should any suspected trademark infringements occur.

Search Position
Statistics show that more than 85% of Internet users find web sites with the help of the search engines. Therefore, a website’s search engine position is crucial to its success. Prudent webmasters regularly check their search engine position. Monitoring fluctuations and re-indexing of major search engines affects keyword terms and phrases. Monitoring of positions will alert webmasters to any shifts before sales decline.

Competitor Watch
Monitoring newsgroups for mentions of competitors may allow you opportunities to chime in and offer an alternative solution in a helpful, friendly way. Knowing exactly what your online competitors are doing provides a competitive edge that can be used to your advantage.

Website Downtime
Accessibility is the most critical measure of your website’s performance. If customers can’t access your site, they can’t shop; and if they can’t shop, they can’t buy. More important, your business could gain a bad reputation among your customers, which translates into negative word of mouth and even worse, if you’re highly visible, negative press. So regardless of what else you monitor, you want to monitor websites for downtime.

Take a look at the various tools available and how they can be used to keep you current on relevant issues.

WebAlerts – Recieve email updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your choice of query or topic. Alerts can be sent based on information in Google News, Google Searches or both.
http://www.google.com/webalerts

PubSub – PubSub matches your requests against new information as it appears real time. Searches can be categorized to search, blog entries, SEC/EDGAR Filings, press releases, news group posts or flight delays.
http://www.pubsub.com

Ego Alerts – Google news search turned into an RSS feed.
http://www.justinpfister.com/gnewsfeed.php

Ebay Alerts – Ebay Alerts monitoring will create an RSS feed to monitor Ebay auctions for specific keywords or phrases. When a new item that contains those keywords is added to Ebay you will receive notification via your RSS feed!
http://www.freebiddingtools.com

Amazon Alerts – Generate a URL which you can use to automatically search Amazon.com with your favorite RSS news reader. It will automatically update you when new items meet your search criteria. I personally use it to look for new books on topics I’m interested in, and I have the defaults set to do the same, but you can adjust it to search any of Amazon’s stores. You can also adjust the search order and what kind of items you wish to search.
http://www.oxus.net/amazon

Internet Seer – InternetSeer remotely monitors your website to insure that your site is available 24/7. If InternetSeer is unable to reach your site, we will send you an immediate e-mail alert that your site is unreachable.
http://www.internetseer.com

NetNewsTracker – NetNews Tracker is a clipping service for Usenet newsgroups. Newstracker searches newsgroups twice daily for any specified words or phrases and delivers alerts via e-mail. Newstracker can be used to monitor newsgroups for names, company names, products, URLs, or any other topic of interest.
http://www.netnewstracker.com

Other Suggested Resources –
Monitoring Tools – Monitoring Tools is a directory of online monitoring tools and applications
http://www.monitoring-tools.net

Monitoring Software – Monitoring Software is a collection of downloadable monitoring software solutions.
http://www.monitoring-software.net

About the author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.netand FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com.