In this modern time, with technology’s impact to our everyday lives and with the internet as our biggest source of information, it has already come to a point that the success of a business can depend on the internet. Marketing online has made things easier and faster and has helped big time with the business world.

But how do we know which eCommerce software to choose? It surely is not easy especially when you know that the realization of your goals can depend mostly on it. Before choosing, you should consider your needs and your target market. And you should list down your choices and make a table on their pros and cons.

What should you consider? What would be your bases? First, it should be easy to use and have a simple but well-intentioned design which can lay out your products in categories which highlight the content that you need, to increase the effectiveness of the site. The design should be something that would be able to catch attention, something striking enough and not just be another passing site.

It should have a search engine optimization so that it can rise above all the others, thus, be easily known around the internet and around the world.

Aside from being able to stand for itself, it should be able to explore its competitors, evaluate the market, and have a way around it. This search engine optimization helps you know your target population and your probable ranking with your competitors; and being user-friendly could help you keep your aimed market.

Importantly, you have to consider the price you pay for the software. You surely could not settle for free since you cannot really expect much from it; but it should be worthy of the price. Performance should be great and it should be able to get you through your tough times and put you above your goal.

And since you are dealing with money, you should be able to offer security without being too much of a hassle. Processing payments should not give customers a headache. Just the right amount of security with the ability to track how the general populace goes around things, and detect any unusuality. In the same note, your software should be able to help you track your sales and your stocks.

It is best to know the background and the experiences of your chosen software so you would know how dedicated they are to their field. This includes knowing how they go about with their customer service and how they can go an extra mile in helping you out with your needs and reaching your goals.

Hello everyone!

Today is January 23, 2012 and it just hit me – tax time will be rolling around pretty quickly. So, its now time to get motivated – to take action and get prepared for tax day. So, before you panic – here are a few tips that I plan on implementing in the next few weeks/month. Tips to make your tax planning easier. Are you ready? Let’s get started.

1. Purchase tax software. If you’re a do-it-yourself tax preparer, it would be a very good idea to use tax software.  I personally use Turbo Tax and have used it for over 5 years now. I’ve also heard some amazing things about H & R Block’s tax software as well. One thing I absolutely love about Turbo Tax is that it is relatively inexpensive and provides you with guidance throughout the process. Plus, you can see your estimated tax refund or obligation as you go, which is very motivating indeed.

2. Gather those receipts. Make sure that you gather all your receipts before you get started. This includes 1099s, mortgage statements, utility bills, web hosting receipts, office supply receipts, and all that jazz. By having all this information before you start, you’ll save yourself a ton of time and energy when you’re preparing your taxes.

3. Get professional help. Although I love doing things my own way, I’ve found that hiring a professional tax preparer is extremely important in making sure that you have not made any errors. For instance, my friend owns an online invoicing software business and he always hires a tax preparer to go over his numbers and last year his prepared saved him over $1,000 bucks. He was then able to take that money and put it back into his business.

4. Give yourself time. Don’t wait until the last minute. Get started with your taxes as soon as you can. In fact, I typically wait until April 14th to get started (just kidding). I usually start in February and since I’m self employed, it typically takes me about a month to get everything together. By starting early, I can get finished way before the deadline and still have time to get professional tax help.

In conclusion, tax time is approaching rapidly but you can get started now. I certainly plan on doing so. How about you?

Have you ever wondered why some internet marketers make it and others don’t? Could it be that they’re smarter than others? Could it be that they know some secret and are not willing to share this secret with others? Well, I believe that they aren’t necessarily smarter or know a secret – they just have the right mindset. That is, these clever marketers expect to win no matter how long it takes. They don’t see internet marketing as a good rich quick scheme. Instead, they see it as a work hard now and it will pay off technique. They consistently use their knowledge  and their mind to make things happen.  For instance, I have a friend named Mark that started a website called Help Me God. His mission was not to make money or to monetize his site but to help others get closer to God. He was determined to succeed so he built the site Help Me God and is working steadily to make it the best site ever. Although it isn’t monetized, it is making a positive difference in the lives of others and this is a success to Mark.

If more individuals would create sites to help others, they too would succeed. This is because the right mindset and heart, revives ones passion and truly helps them help others.  Take me for instance, I now concentrate on creating valuable sites and the money always comes. I am consistently persistent and committed to helping others and with that mindset, I suceed.

This isn’t to say that the right mindset is all you need. You also need to  put in a bit of elbow grease to make it work. However, if you know in your heart and your soul that IM WILL work out for you, you will discover the true secret of  IM success.By believing in yourself, creating sites of value, and trusting that what you are doing is working in your favor, you can’t help but succeed.

So, I challenge you right here and right now to change your mindset and change your life.

Ever since I wrote this post on autoblogging, I’ve been getting a ton of emails and skype questions about autoblogging and thought I’d better clarify a few things here. Autoblogging is a term for setting your blog so that you don’t have to manually maintain it. Some individuals use plug-ins for WordPress which allow the blog to scoop posts from different sources, so that there is fresh content on the blog daily or even several times a day. And, although it sounds like a great “hands off way” to blog, there are some benefits and disadvantages to this method as you’ll see below.

Pros of Autoblogging

Creating your blogs so that they pull information from different websites or other blogs is fairly easy to do. The true benefit is that you always have fresh content related to your keywords or your niche. Some individuals use Unique Article Wizard, a site that allows you to use their articles, most of which are fairly good quality.

There is little to no maintenance involved with autoblogs, so any income you’re making is passive. Most individuals use Google ads and affiliate links to make money. If you choose to post your own unique content once in a while, you can make the blog even stronger. However, although there are a lot of advantages, there are also disadvantages.

Cons of Autoblogging

It’s really important to find a good plug-in to pull content, and ensure that there are links back to the original site. If you’re getting content from other peoples’ websites or blogs without linking back and giving credit, you could really upset those people. Even worse, there is the possibility that you could be sued.

Another disadvantage is that there are so many variables. What if Google changes their ranking algorithm and decides that they will no longer support autoblogs. What is they penalize individuals with autoblogs by unranking them. If this is the case, you could be left with zero online income virtually overnight. Unfortunately, this has happened to many people, and can easily happen if you’re not careful. Another possibility is that the keywords change or your niche is suddenly not as important anymore.

Although there are pros and cons to every situation, it’s important to look closely before determining whether autoblogging is the correct route for you to take. I personally am not a fan of autoblogs UNLESS you plan to flip them. I’ve been toying around with the idea of doing that but keeping them within my collection, probably not – but that’s just my opinion!

Yesterday, I had a bit of downtime so I perused Flippa, my favorite online website marketplace. I was looking for some undervalued sites (OK cheap sites) with potential that I could improve and possibly flip later on for more cash.

After searching for a bit, I came across a brand new woman’s blog that was aesthetically pleasing and had great content. As an added bonus, the webmaster mentioned that he was willing to write 20 more articles for the new owner because he was excited about the ale. I was just about to place my bid (after all it was only $108) and I really liked the way it looked but I decided to research it further.

Then, I visited Yandalo, a free website evaluation site, plugged in the URL and reviewed the results. It said the site was worth about $58.00. Now mind you, I don’t give a ton of weight to the website valued price. However, this site provides some great free information about the site, how much traffic it receives, when domain was purchased, what it looked like previously, if it has backlinks, etc.

Next, I then emailed the webmaster some basic questions like:

1. When did you acquire the domain?
2. How did you secure the backlinks to the blog so quickly?
3. What marketing did you do?
4. What marketing would you do if you kept the site?
5. Was the content original?
6. When would you provide the extra 20 posts to the winner?

Within 5 minutes, the webmaster wrote back and told me that he acquired the domain a few years back, recently decided to turn it into a blog, wrote 10 original articles, submitted a few articles to get backlinks and was eager to make a sale. He also confirmed that he would provide free articles.

Well, I was just about to push the bid now button and then I decided to run the entire site through Copyscape just to be sure. WHAMMMO out of 10 articles, all 10 were found elsewhere under other people’s names. I mean that site was plagiarism city folks.

I then contacted him with my findings and asked him to explain. He wrote back an hour later with this explanation, “I wrote all the content myself but I sell a lot of PLR to internet marketers and they use my stuff all the time and put their names on it. So, no it is not plagiarized at all. They took my work.”

I guess you can bet by now, what I did – I did not buy that plagiarized site. Garbage wrapped up in a beautiful bow is still garbage.

So, dear friends….. if you are planning on buying a site in the near future, please do the following:

1. Ask the seller questions before the sale. Make sure that you understand the fundamentals before you buy the site. They should be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

2. Check out Yandalo which is a pretty cool and free website valuation service that basically tells you how much your site is worth. You can basically take it with a grain of salt but it still tells you how much traffic it gets, how many links it has, etc.

3. Run the entire site through Copyscape. Note: a brand new site with original content should pass Copyscape easily. It should not be referencing sites that were built over 5 years ago. Geez! I just feel sorry for the person that spent $108 for a plagiarized site.

A couple of days ago, I visited Flippa, an website marketplace, and I saw so many autoblogging sites for sale that it made my head spin. And, the really weird thing is that a lot of these autoblogs were actually being sold for various amounts (many higher than $100). Some of these blogs were aged and had a history of generating revenue and some were brand spanking new. But, one thing was certain, people were buying them left and right.

I then started thinking, why is autoblogging so hot, is this type of business model that I should consider and is autoblogging the wave of the future? I still don’t know why its hot (except that most people want easy money) or if autoblogs will maintain their stickiness. However, I do know that for right now, autoblogs seem to be working (especially for website flippers out there – hint hint) and since I plan on flipping sites very soon, I plan to jump on the autoblogging bandwagon soon.

Here’s a few facts I learned about Autoblogging

What is Autoblogging?

Autoblogging is a method of creating a completely automated blog, so that you don’t have to regularly update it. This process allows individuals to get fresh content, videos, etc. every day or even more than once a day, and make money through Google ads, contextual advertising, or affiliate links.

How to Create Autoblogs

You create an autoblog using a WordPress blog, a domain name. and a plugin. With this plugin, you are able to pull in content from all over the place. Depending upon your keywords and your niche, you can pull content from different kinds of sites that are relevant to your topic. The plug-ins include links back to those sites so that the owners get credit for their articles or posts.

Some people use WP Robot whereas others use plugins from sites like Unique Article Wizard. Both of these allow you to pull articles from their site to populate your blog. However, WP Robot also allows you to pull videos, twitter posts, amazon products, ebay auctions, yahoo answers, and much more.

How Much Can You Make?

You can make $100 or more selling well made autoblogs. If you keep them, the amount you make will vary depending on your niche. It seems as if the most common amount people make from one autoblog is about $2 per day. This is why marketers typically create hundreds of autoblogs. If they create 100 autoblogs, they’ll make $200 a day, which translates into about $6,000 per month. Not too shabby, right?

What are the Risks?

There are many variables to autoblogging, from the keywords you choose to the content you pull. It’s very possible that more than one blog will be highly successful. It’s also equally possible that several blogs will make no money. In addition, search engines tend to look down upon autoblogging sites and it may be harder to get them ranked or keep them ranks, especially for competitive keywords( or at least that is what I’ve heard).

My Verdict About Autoblogging
Autoblogging can be extremely profitable if its done correctly but it carries some risks. As for me, I am going to give autoblogging a try, especially for website flipping. I don’t think I will keep them for my own niche blogging efforts however for website flipping, they seem perfect.

What do you think? Are you going to give autoblogging a try?

Almost every single day, I hear frustrated spouses complaining on message boards and forums that their spouses don’t support their internet marketing efforts. But, can you honestly blame them? Internet marketing is like a jealous mistress that requires a lot of attention – attention away from your spouse and it is totally normal for them to “not understand your passion to succeed or for them to see the big picture of what you’re trying to accomplish”.

After all, you spend so much time on the computer and when you’re just starting off, you don’t make much (if anything) to show for the time you’ve spent.  In turn, they  feel like you’re wasting your time and neglecting the relationship.  As a result, your marriage suffers and your you experience stress.

So, what are you to do? Should you give up your dreams or should you to persuade your spouse to be more supportive? I believe that you should never, ever, ever give up on your dreams. Instead, you should gently persuade your spouse to support you with these proven strategies.

Trust Yourself – It will take some time for you to make money and there is definitely money to be made in internet marketing however it may be hard persuading someone when you don’t have much to show for it. Therefore, you absolutely must trust yourself and believe that you can do it and don’t let anyone (including your spouse) stand in your way of your success.

Make Your Relationship A Priority – Most spouses don’t like internet marketing because it takes a lot of time away from them. So, keep reasonable hours and be respectful of your relationship. Spend time with your spouse and tell them how important they are to you and how you appreciate them supporting your work. By thanking them for even the smallest things, and letting them know how much it means to you, you strengthen the marital bond.

Show Them the Numbers – If your spouse doesn’t know the potential with internet marketing, educate them. Show them statistics or information regarding the amount of money you could be making. If you’ve done research for your own internet marketing business, show him the projected income if you continue on your path. Sometimes, letting them see what you will be making in the future is enough to make them more supportive and tolerant.

Remind Them That You’re Working – I think every person who works on the internet has had someone ask, “What do you do on the computer all day?” To people on the outside, it can look like you’re relaxing or spending your days playing flash games. Show your spouse the kinds of things you’re doing so he or she can see that you really are working. You can even ask them for their help.

Share Your Success with them – And, the most important thing is to share your success with them. Not only will this open up the walls of communication but it will also prove to them that you are indeed making progress toward your dreams – one step at a time.

For the longest time, I have been trying to get all of my niche sites to rank higher in the search engines so that they would make me more advertising money. So, in my effort to rank them higher and increase my advertising revenue, I soon discovered that advertisers are not only concerned with search engine rankings and traffic but many of them are also concerned with ones Alexa and PR rank as well. It took me awhile to figure out which one was better for my needs and I soon discovered that having higher Pageranks were more important than Alexa rankings and here’s why.

Google PageRank is basically a quality rating given by Google as to how authoritative they view your site. That is, if you have a PR of 0, Google views your site as less authoritative as a site that has a PR of 8.  Now, this authoritativeness evaluates the amount of information on your site and the quality and quantity of other sites that are linking to your site as well. In essence a PR is sort of like a report card for your site and Google tends to give higher search engine rankings to those higher graded sites.  In addition, many advertisers also love higher PR sites. Why? Because they want to advertise on those sites that Google regards as authoritative.

In contrast, Alexa is another ranking system that tracks the number of visitors to a website, and only if those visitors have an Alexa toolbar. Using the data gathered about your site, Alexa will give you a rating. Whereas Google PR rates you from 1 to 10, Alexa will literally rate you against the other sites in their databases. So, you may end up in the thousands or even millions. Although some advertisers use Alexa rankings to determine if your site is good for advertising, most advertisers could care less about Alexa’s rating because they are so caught up in PR.

So, which one should you focus on more?

Well, if you are concerned with advertising, you should probably focus on improving your PR as most higher PR sites are often viewed as more authoritative, will typically enjoy higher rankings in the search engines, and most importantly, advertisers are willing to pay more for ads on higher PR sites. On the same token, you shouldn’t totally ignore your Alexa either. After all, some advertisers do use it to evaluate site popularity and ad worth and it can be good tool for determining  traffic.

As for me, I am going to focus on improving my niche sites’ PR. By doing this, I will hopefully see an increase in the SERPs which will lead to an improvement in my overall traffic and more money for me. As an added bonus,  once my traffic improves – my Alexa rankings should naturally improve too.

What do you think?

I’m really beginning to feel as if most of the big gurus – you know the ones who brag about making a six figure income from internet marketing are not really making their money from traditional internet marketing. Instead, they are making their money from selling the hype of “ internet easy riches”. That is, they make their money by selling product after product after product to newbies who really don’t know the difference. Take me for instance, I spent so much over the past few years purchasing materials from self-proclaimed gurus who promised to teach me the next best way to make money online. And, all I had to do was pay a small fee for their precious information. Now, mind you some of the books were good and contained great background but none of them told the full facts about how much work was involved. Instead, these gurus only told me what I wanted to hear and encouraged me to buy more books for more information.

It was like a vicious cycle that I couldn’t get away from and I fear many newbies are experiencing the same thing. Well, now I realize that there is no “magic bullet” and no easy way to master internet marketing. Internet marketing is hard work and takes persistence, patience and a strong desire to succeed. Some days you make money (a lot) and some days you don’t (or very little). This is frustrating but it is the way the IM cookie crumbles.However, to be successful you must remain faithful even when it doesn’t seem like you’re making much or anything.

Now, back to the gurus that make their big incomes is by selling “the promise of easy riches” to unsuspecting individuals who don’t know any better. Just think about it – would someone really divulge all of their secrets for a mere $19 or $29 bucks simply because they want to help? Most marketers would not however, there are a select few that would. Instead, most of these gurus simply give their “desperate readers” a tiny bit of information and then encourage them to buy more.

But, what about those marketers who give out free information, what is their motive? Well, some of them really want to help you succeed however some just do it to build rapport with their readers so that they could hit them up later to buy more stuff – yes, sad but true. In 9 times out of 10 cases, most marketers are out for themselves when it comes to internet marketing and only a select few want you to succeed at the level that they’re at.

So, where does that leave me? I’m one of the good ones of course. My goal isn’t to become a six figure guru that sells the hype of internet marketing. Instead, I want to become a respected internet marketing teacher who makes a six figure salary by teaching others the fundamentals so that they can make a respectable salary for themselves and leave the rat race once and for all. I get no satisfaction of fooling anyone and I absolutely won’t prey on unsuspecting victims. I want you to succeed and I will tell you the truth. Internet marketing is hard but you can succeed at it!

I just spent an hour analyzing my initial niche sites that were created over 3 years ago using an experienced web designer/SEO team and then compared those stats with my blogger blogs created this past year (by yours truly only) and I noticed a HUGE discrepancy in earnings and I mean huge. Out of 28 designer created sites all of them made some money. On the other hand, I have a LOT more duds with my 31 blogger blogs. Out of 31 blogger blogs only 11 have made money and the rest nothing. However, I have to clarify that I have alot more of my earners earning mere cents than dollars and that is nothing to brag about.

Now, before we assume that Google just doesn’t like me anymore or my blogger blogs – I think we’re missing the point. My designer/SEO team knew how to get those earlier sites indexed and placed in the top pages of Google and to this day, they still receive some traffic (not as much as before Google caffeine) but some. In contrast, my blogger blogs are struggling because no one can find them. Arrghhh.

Without my SEO team, I’ve got to take the initiative to get my blogs listed and found. I can’t just throw up a few blogs, place a few articles on Ezines and other directories and simply hope for the best. Nope the competition is much fiercer now and what worked before isn’t what is going to work now. So, I’ve decided that now I have to backlink like a lunatic and really see if I can get my blogs indexed and placed higher in the SERPs. By doing this, I should be able to increase my traffic and my revenues. Hopefully this will work – I’ll definitely keep you posted. Got some link building to do!