A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. So, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:

1) Start a forum, discussion board or chatroom

When you start a forum, discussion board or chatroom, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with others — all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day.

2) Start a web log (blog)

Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.

3) Carry out polls or surveys

Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.

4) Update frequently with fresh content

Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!

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No time to blog? Here’s a solution for you.

Microblogging has been the “hottest” thing these days in cyberworld. What is it exactly? Well, the shortest and simplest definition I can think of is that microblogging is like text messaging except - instead of sending your text to just one person, you are sending it for cyber-world to see. Note though that you have an option of having your microblog posts available to everyone on the web or a selected private group.

So … how do you microblog?

While a traditional blog requires you to log-in and post your entries online, you can “microblog” using both your cell phone or your computer - thus microblogging presents that benefit of portability. One thing to remember though - microblogging only allows you to blog brief posts (usually limited to 140 to 200 characters) at a time. So before you start typing your post, you need to really think about how you can make the most out of your words. You can microblog as often as you want as long as you do not post spam. You can even build a following or your own microblogging community. You can connect with other microbloggers and get quick replies to your microblog posts. The fun thing about microblogging is that you can send your messages in text, audio or even video.

Below are some advantages of microblogging:
- It is very easy to post your thoughts in cyberspace using microblogging. Microblog to share your events, promote your business or just to share links worth checking out.
- You can build your own community by microblogging and have others subscribe to your feed - a great way to promote yourself. You can then make a connection with others.
- Microblogging is portable. You can use your cell phone and still be connected to your community even if you are on the go.
- You can microblog using text, audio or even video so there are a lot of possibilities here - you can let your creativity come out!
- The fact that there is a 140-200 character limit in microblogging, you do not have to worry about providing lots of content in your microblog post.

There are some disadvantages too and they are listed below:
- It can be really addicting and if you do not use it properly, it could be a great time waster.
- If you are not careful about what your post on your microblog - for example posting about your “ideas”, your subscribers can easily “adopt one of your ideas and pass it as their own”.
- If you work online and are microblogging for the most part of the day, it can be really distracting and it can take away your focus on projects that you need to complete.

Two microblogging tools that I have been really enjoying lately are Twitter and Utterz. You can follow my twittering here and hear my uttering here. If you want to learn a bit more about Twitter, I have a short video tutorial you can watch by clicking here. Feel free to subscribe to my tweets and utterz.

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Web 2.0 and Social Networking are interchangeable terms that are used to describe interactive environments and communication strategies applied on the Internet.

Social Networking is best defined as the regular interaction of people for a common cause. There is really nothing new about social networking, and it’s something many of us do every day offline, especially in our workplace and in our community. But as a marketing trend, this concept is growing more and more popular online.

The goal of social networks are to allow Internet users to make a connection and build a relationship with other Internet users all around cyberspace.

Here are a couple of suggestions you can bear in mind when creating an account with a social networking site:

Always use your real name!

Think about it. Would you want to buy something from a person you know only as hotmama007?

Perhaps not. We’re talking about real business networking so act like a professional when you get out there - you are likely going to get better results.

Adding Your Photo is a Must!

People like to a face to match a name. It also adds credibility to your cause.

Don’t be be too self-conscious or just plain scared to display your photo on the Web. A clear photo of you on your profile page tells the world you are confident about who you are, and it will encourage others to have confidence in you as well.

Learn more about the basics of Using Social Networking by reading this informative article by Clicking Here!

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Have you ever wondered how you can make passive income using your mailing list? Did you know that you can make some extra cash just by referring your subscribers to affiliate products? There is money to be made in your mailing list yah know …

I interviewed Carrie Lauth about this specific topic during MommyFest 2007.

Here’s my informative interview with Carrie - it is a webcast, and there is also a link where you can download the MP3 file of that interview. Learn more about making money using mini courses - click here!. Listen in and you will be inspired to start planning on how you can monetize your mailing list.

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A couple of friends and fellow wahms, Nell Taliercio and Melissa Ingold have just launched MOMplrebooks - an awesome membership site especially for mom entrepreneurs. They have put their bright minds together to help moms make passive income easily. If you are not quite familiar with PLR (Private Label Rights) products … read on …

What are PLR’s anyway…

These are products that you are allowed to put your name on as the author and sell as your own product. That’s right, with PLR’s you are actually given permission to sign and even change another person’s work depending on the type of PLR that you purchase.

Why is that so great?

Because, it is the fastest way to creating your own product that there is and it’s a reason to get really excited. Now you can almost instantly have a product of your very own. One that will promote your business, build your brand and make you all of the long term profits.

It drastically cuts the cost and effort required in outsourcing content. Private label content allows you to use solid copy created by a qualified writer at dirt cheap prices to your advantage. This way, you can devote your energies to doing what you do best and put the power of PLR content to work for you at the same time.

Here is a quick list of the perks that come with PLR’s

- Saves you time, effort and aggravation.
- Let’s you build your brand.
- Helps you build your business and reputation.
- You keep all of the credit.
- You keep all of the profits.
- Saves you a ton of money.
- Gives you editorial freedom.
- Provides you with professional results.

And that’s just a few of the reasons that you should be head over heals for PLR products.

Nell and Melissa are actually running an awesome contest where moms can get a chance to get a free lifetime membership to their site - you can learn how to enter the contest by Clicking here!.

I encourage you to check out Momplrebooks - to see what is included in the monthly membership. If you are looking for an easy way to make passive income - this is definitely one solution.

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If you want to generate traffic to your website, increase the size of your mailing list, and sell more products, consider creating an e-course. An e-course is information, usually delivered a chunk at a time, as in one lesson per day, via email.

An e-course can be on any topic. Take a look at your website and think about what your target market would like to learn about. If your website is devoted to information about beauty treatments, you can create an e-course explaining how to have a spa day at home. If your website contains information about sewing, you can create an e-course that explains how people can start their own sewing business. The choices are limitless.

Once you know what your topic will be, start writing. If you are not familiar enough with the topic to write from your own experiences, research the subject first. You may want to write the entire course in one word processing file; once the work is done, you can read through it and find appropriate section breaks.

If writing an entire e-course seems daunting, don’t worry. You don’t have to write a book. Just write a few simple lines about a given subject in order to answer a question your target market likely has. Do this every day for a week, and you have written your e-course. You can also get others to help you write your ecourse for free or very inexpensively. (More info on this below.)

Once you have written your e-course, you will need to get it delivered to your subscribers. The easiest way to do this is with an autoresponder. You can subscribe to an autoresponder service for around $20 per month. You can create lists in your autoresponder, and load unique messages for that particular list.

Your autoresponder service will generate a bit of HTML code to display on your site or blog. When someone clicks on the link, they will be subscribed to your list. When someone subscribes to that list, they will receive all the messages in the order you select.

When you write your e-course, you should have some products you want to promote in mind. For instance, you may have created an information product about affiliate marketing. You can create a free e-course about affiliate marketing in order to promote your information product. You can also include links to other products you are an affiliate for.

You do not have to give your e-course away. Your e-course can be the information product that you are selling. You can also make it interactive by including links to audios, videos and other information.

Promoting the fact that you have these e-courses available will help bring traffic to your site. You can even make some of the links customizable for others to put in their affiliate links and give the e-courses away for others to use. If you do this, keep the links to your website unchangeable, so the people who end up reading the e-course can still come to your site for more information.

For more information on ecourses and how they help grow passive income from your website, visit http://www.MiniCourseMoney.com. It includes ideas to help you brainstorm your topic and a step by step checklist on setting up your first ecourse.

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People often ask “what is a mini e-book” and why is it important in the scheme of my business? To answer the question of “what is a mini e-book?”: a mini e-book is a 5-25 page executable file or PDF document that discusses a very specific topic. While the mini e-book has become wildly popular as an Internet marketing tool, it is also used in non-IM niches.

A mini e-book can be used for a number of different purposes. In general, however, a mini-ebook is usually used to convey a very specific – and little known – secret about a niche topic, whether it be car waxing or pet care.

What is a mini e-book and how is it different from a regular ebook? A mini e-book is smaller than a regular e-book because it doesn’t aim to be comprehensive. Instead, it concentrates on providing highly-specific, crucial information about a specific technique or idea. Successful publishers will often going beyond a pre-set scope in their mini e-book.

While smaller than a normal e-book, it can still be sold through the same avenues. For instance, publishers who start by asking “what is a mini e-book?” often end up asking “where can I sell such a product”? It’s simple: they can open a vendor account at http://www.clickbank.com, pay the $50 initial product fee, and then begin selling any amount of mini e-books.

Additionally, a mini e-book publisher can also give his or her product away completely free of charge in order to generate traffic. This is often employed by skilled Internet marketers, who will coordinate a massive free give away – and then include some back-end component to return readers to their sites.

So what is a mini e-book and why is it important? It’s a short book or report on a specific topic that either generates revenue or facilitates traffic generation.

If you are looking for Mini eBooks you can use to bribe visitors on your site to sign up for you mailing list, check out MinieBookClub.com

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Hosting a successful online event can be a lot of work. It is not only emotionally rewarding but could be financially rewarding as well.
Here are a few ways that can help you monetize your online event:

1. Sell exhibitor spots – This means getting exhibitors to purchase a virtual booth from you. You provide them a virtual booth and advertising for their business. If you were having your event site up for one year, then, they would have that link on your site for a whole year. When you set your price for the exhibitor booth, make sure you consider all possible expenses that you can incur – like domain name purchase and hosting.

2. Sell information derived from your online event – If you do recorded audio interviews, and transcripts, you could sell those as a downloadable product to your visitors/participants. You could sell them ala carte (individually) or as a bundled package.

3. Generate a Mailing list from your online event – The mailing list that you generate from your online event is going to be a targeted list because you know these subscribers are interested in what you have to offer. You can use this list and offer them products most especially if you are an affiliate for products that are of interest to this target market. You can recommend products to this list and generate an income from sales of products to your mailing list. Just remember that this particular list signed because of your online event – when recommending products to them, make sure it falls with in the interest of that list. You probably will not like to send recommendations for fishing ebooks if you generated this list from a Mom-related Online Event.

These are just some of the ways you can make money off of your online event. Think of your online event as a seed that in time will grow fruits. The money you can generate from your online event using the methods mentioned above are comparable to the fruits you can pick and enjoy later.

Do you want to learn the secrets to hosting an online event? Marie Ynami has been hosting successful interactive online events since 2004. Learn how you too can host your very own online event by visiting HostAnEventOnline.com .

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Online events have become more popular in the last 2 years mainly because of the following:

1. Convenience - Attending online events do not require you to leave your home. Thus, you do not have to worry about gas, traffic, parking, accommodations and if your children are 5 year old and over you may not even need a baby sitter. You do not even need to get dressed and made up to attend an online event.

2. Time - Another benefit of having an online event is the TIME FACTOR. It is great that people do not have to worry about being at a certain location at a certain time since the event is online. As long as they have a computer and Internet connection, and that they are able to connect during the times that the event is on, then, they are all set.

3. Technology - With today’s technology, attending online events can be as inter-active as attending physical conferences or expos. People are able to network via chat rooms. They can network using text chat or even voice chat. People can make a connection with others and possibly even joint venture on projects. They can exchange personal and business information in a flash.

4. Cost - Online events do not cost as much as physical events. This is great for the online event host and for the participants as well. Hosting an online event can yield similar results to hosting a physical event with out the extra cost and work.

5. Fun - Online events can be lot of fun. Some of the things that can make an online event successful and memorable are contests, giveaways, networking opportunities, audios and presentations.

Like any other event, whether online or offline, one thing to remember is that promotion is the key to getting lots of traffic and participants for your online event.

Would you like to learn more about hosting your very own online event? Marie Ynami has been hosting successful interactive online events since 2004. Learn the secrets to successful online events by visiting HostAnEventOnline.com .

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Description: TalkShoe is a service that allows people to create, join, or listen to Live Interactive Podcasts & Audioblogs in a very simple and easy way. You could be a podcaster or talk radio host instantly even if you re “technologically-challenged”.

Review: This is a great tool for beginners in podcasting, audio blogging and adding interactivity to any online event. You could use this service to interview others, get a discussion going on, host a teleseminar or workshop, record your own audio or even upload an existing pre-recorded podcast/audio recording too. Talkcasts or Audio whether live or pre-recorded can be listened to via streaming audio on real time, can also be downloaded, or subscribed to. As a podcaster or Talkshoe host, you can even earn money each time someone listens to your recorded audio/podcast.

I like how it is easy to use. If you want to be a Talkshoe Host, just sign up for an account and download the program to install in your computer - it is free right now.

Once the account is set up, you just start the Talkshoe software in your computer and you can call in using your home phone or cell phone, a phone number and pin number is required upon signing up, and once the program is running in your computer, you can record your audio using your telephone.

You have the option to invite others to have a discussion - making it interactive - you could interview an expert or even host a tele-seminar and record the entire call.

You will need to be on your computer while you are on the phone if you are a Talkshoe host.

The recording is pretty easy because all you need to do is “click” on the record button on your computer screen while you are talking on your phone. You could then click again on a button on the computer screen to “Stop the recording”.

Your listeners can listen on real time via streaming audio or at a later time. Your visitors can either call in a given phone number which will be assigned - so they can interact with you via telephone or if they wish, they can just listen in via computer as a webcast without having to call in - they just upgraded their service for listeners to interact with host and others via web chat.

I like that all the host’s recordings are kept in just one location. You can direct your visitors to a TalkShoe ID web address and it will feature all your future and past episodes. As a Talkshoe host, you also have the ability to schedule future episodes so your visitors know when to call in to interact with you. You also have the opportunity to send out invitations to others to join you in your TalkCast.

If you pre-record your audio, you can just upload it by signing into your Talkshoe account - it’s pretty easy.

The quality of the audio recording from Talkshoe is not too bad. This service is FREE for now so I can not really complain.

Criticism: The only hassle that I have encountered is that sometimes, visitors you invite are hesitant in participating in your Talkcast because they do not want to sign up or register for anything and some are afraid of technology - some people seem to give up sooner than others. But, with their new updgrade - your listeners are not required to register for an account. They can participate as a “guest”.

Once your guests experience how easy it is to use the program and if you educate them well enough - then, you can have loyal participants or callers to your Talkcast.

Some callers may have problem connecting to the “Call In” line if they are using VOIP but, I have experienced this only once. If you are a beginner in podcasting, you may want to learn how to edit your audio so you can “clean it up” and add intro music and outro music - however, I think the service is still wonderful even if there is no background music.

Rating: 8
Click Here to Check Out Talk Shoe.

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