VIjay Manchanda

Starting your own blog  on your own hosting involves a little setup. It’s really not overly difficult and there are even some hosting companies that will set up your blog for free. Here are step by step directions on how to start your own blog with an email host using WordPress. Step 1: Install Blog Install blog using Fantastico or Simple Scripts available in your hosting control panel. If you host has Fantastico or Simple Scripts then installing a blog is a fairly easy and quick thing to do. What you do is login to your web site’s control panel, and find the smiley face, the Fantastico Icon, and click on it. You’ll see a section in most control panels for WordPress, click on it. Then you click the ‘install WordPress’ and fill in all the information that it asks for. An important step to remember is the location that says ‘install in directory’. If you want the blog installed on your main ‘index’ page you’ll want to leave the box blank. If you want it to be installed in a different loc

Creating your  online presence  is about establishing yourself as an expert in your niche. Releasing information products is a great way to offer up your knowledge and make money at the same time. Here are some of the steps you’ll want to take in creating your first information product. Step 1 – Create the Product You can create an ebook, special report, physical book, mp3, video or any combination of these products. There’s nothing to say that you can’t hire a Ghostwriter to do the writing and proof reading for you. This product can be as long or as short as you like but just make sure it’s information that people are really in need of and it delivers high value to their lives or problem. Have someone go through your finished product to proof read (or view/listen) it. Step 2 – Set up The Salespage Of course you’ll need a place to sell your new product from. Though you don’t technically need a new domain for this it’s always a good idea to have a domain specific to the product because

Question: I’m a Virtual Assistant. Can I use articles to promote my business? Signed, Eager VA Dear Eager VA, Virtual Assistants are springing up all around the internet. It’s a very viable business option and more work at home moms are jumping on the bandwagon every day. The real go-getters will whip up a “business card” website right away with their contact information, ‘about me’ information, and their rates and services offered. But, then that website sits and collects dust while they wait for the traffic to roll in. So, what’s a Virtual Assistant to do to generate traffic to their website? Oftentimes VAs overlook one of the best methods of marketing their websites – article writing. Virtual Assistants can write about all kinds of topics – how to organize emails, customer service, hiring or firing a VA, ways a VA can benefit a business, or accounting among other things. Then, they can share the articles, just like any other website owner to drive traffic to their websites and estab

One of the best ways to get free advertising is to simply write articles and give them away. It’s a foreign concept to many in online business, but it’s one of the best ways to get traffic, improve your search engine ranking, and sell more products. Why Should You Write Articles? Newsletter and website owners are desperate for content. As someone who owns websites and publishes several newsletters, I can vouch for this. I regularly search article directories, looking for quality information that will help my readers. And, every article I use from these resources gets published with the author’s information and a link to their site. Why Give The Articles Away? How much would you pay to include your ad in a newsletter or popular website? Anywhere from $5 to $80. Wouldn’t you prefer to have your ad placed for free? It’s easy to see the financial reward. Look at the bottom of this article. Right there, plain as day, you can see a resource box with my website included, so you have proof tha

Article writing is one of the best ways to increase your traffic and get more sales. You’ve heard it a million times so you decide to finally just do it. You write an article and submit it to the article directories, eagerly anticipating the flow of traffic. Instead you receive the dreaded rejection letter. What did you do wrong? 1. Did you proof-read your article before you submitted it? Popular article directory sites receive hundreds of submissions each day. It’s much easier for the owner to click “decline” than to edit your typo-filled or unformatted article. Before submitting, proof the article and proof it again. If grammar and spelling make you sweat, then hire a Copywriter or ask a friend to help you before you click that submit button. 2. Is it an Advertisement or an Article? Article directory sites are looking for informative, useful content, not press releases or ads. If your submission reads like an ad, it will not be accepted. And, think about it — even if was approved on

Wisdom can be found in the most unexpected places. Today, wisdom bubbled up from a pineapple under the sea. I suddenly realized that everything you’d want to know about writing articles for your website can be taught by SpongeBob SquarePants and his friends. When you write for your newsletter, blog, or website, which character are you most like? Mr. Krabs: This crustacean is focused on one thing and one thing only, making more and more and more money. Only a cartoon could actually have dollar signs drawn in his eyes. He thinks of no one, only how he can benefit. Are your articles focused on you or on the reader? Are you providing information or do you have blinders on, thinking only about how you can make money from the article you are writing? If your article reads like an ad or is self-serving or full of affiliate links, you might write like Mr. Krabs. Plankton: The smallest creature in the sea is also the sneakiest. He’ll do anything and hurt anyone to steal someone else’s work (the

More and more moms are getting into the blogging scene. Some for fun, some for profit, and some for both. Why not make money while you’re blogging about your favorite stuff, right? It’s easier than ever to get started blogging. But the first thing you need before you begin is an idea for your domain name. What is a domain name? It’s the “www (dot) SOMETHING (dot) com” that people will type in to get to your blog. It’s like your address. How do you Know What is a Good Domain Name? There are some standards for what is a “great” domain name verses one that makes you wonder what on earth that person was thinking! In order to help you to come up with a great web name that you’ll love for years, here are my unbreakable rules for choosing a domain. 1. No hyphens. Avoid dashes and hyphens. I’ve been there. Done that. Regret it to this day. 2. No numbers. Do I spell it out “seven” or is it the number “7?? 3. Avoid words that are difficult to spell. Although I once was really excited about using

If you’ve been on the internet for any length of time or even if you’re a complete newbie you should know the importance of traffic to your business. You may also know that it’s not the wisest thing to “buy” traffic, because once the money runs out, so will the traffic. So how do you get traffic that is so integral to your business? Traffic that’s continuous and best of all free? YouTube can help you with this. YouTube offers many opportunities for promotion and getting traffic to your site as it has the power to increase your rankings considerably. Just take a look at any Google page and you’ll notice that most times the videos are usually ranked at the top of the page.  Here’s why. One, YouTube is owned by Google and they work together. Two, YouTube is the second largest search engine next only to Google. That should be enough motivation to make you want go and create your own YouTube channel and upload videos to it. But don’t go rushing off to create just yet. Let’s make sure you’re

Your SEO efforts may prove futile without the strategy of correct keyword placement. Basically you need to have a good grip on this practice to be successful in your climb up the search engine ladder. After all it’s only through your keyword or keyword phrase that potential customers find your products and services. So you want to make sure you’re placing them in a way that they are most effective. Arguably keyword placement can be confusing. But once you know the basics, you don’t have to be an SEO expert to figure it out. Consider keyword density In practicing keyword placement, one of the first things you want to consider is keyword density. That is, how much keyword you use in a particular piece of content.  So how do you decide? Well that’s dependent on who you’re writing for, whether you’re writing for your audience or for the search engines. Arguably if you’re building a relationship with your audience, don’t worry about it, just write. But if you’re just offering information yo

Link building is critical to your online success and article marketing is said to be one of the best ways to build links. Why do you need to build links? Basically its quality backlinks that to a large extent help determine your rank in the search engines. Most SEO strategies you undertake is for receiving links to your site so you can get to the coveted number one spot. Article marketing involves using articles to expose your site. The more people know of, and about you, the better your chances for getting links. This will eventually lead to more traffic, to pull you up in the search engine rankings. Submitting articles to the various article directories is one of the best ways to achieve this. What you do is, submit original quality articles to the top ranking directories. You can easily do a Google search to find them. Ezine Articles is ranked among them. When your article has been approved and published, you’ll get a link from the particular directory leading back to your site. But

Trying to make a decision between using a static website vs.  WordPress blog  for your small business? Here is a comparison of both so you can make an informed decision! Static Website A website made with HTML is commonly known as a static website. When a website is made in HTML it can be done all by hand (which is the long, outdated way and is rarely used) or it can be made with some sort of website design program such as Microsoft Expressions, Adobe Dreamweaver or a host of others. Pros: •    Quickly Created – For someone who knows what they are doing a simple one or two page static website is a quick process to create. These are sometimes very useful for single salespages, email opt-in sites or anything that requires just a few pages. Cons: •    Expensive – An HTML website can be expensive both to create and to maintain. You need to make sure you have a designer who knows the software your website was built in and that’s not always easy. •    Organization is Difficult – Like I menti

You want to know the real truth about small business  website design  and how much it actually costs. Do you feel like you’re getting the run-around and no one can really answer the question of how much you really need to spend to build a website for your small business? One of the reasons might be that there are just so many options for website design. There are literally hundreds of programs out there you can use to put up a website and they vary in many factors such as: •    ease of use •    cost •    ability to update •    add-ons There are some approximate general costs to building a website that you should be aware of and here they are: •    Domain Name $10: This is the www address that all websites have. •    Hosting $5 – $500+/month: Hosting can be cheap or very expensive depending on if you have a dedicated server and how much traffic is running through your site. •    Software $50 – $1000+: Website design programs can run you hundreds of dollars. •    Website Designers – $100

Given the many crackdowns by Google lately, the general consensus is, high quality content is more important that ever. I whole-heartedly agree with the quality part. However, this bit of advise seems to have a little “build it right and they will come” ring to it, and we all know things simply don’t work like that. In order for quality content to become spectacular, people need to consume it first. The following are 7 things you can do to help people consume more of your content. Create different formats Because we all learn and absorb material differently, our choice of media is also different. Not everyone is a reader. So, translate your content into audio, video, written text, slides, info graphics, quotes made into images. Those are a few to begin with. The nice thing about doing that, you now have the material for distributing your content on more spaces like SlideShare, YouTube, iTunes, Pinterest, other people’s blogs and more. Make it easier to consume on the device of their ch

Over the past few years, blogs have risen from an almost unknown “computer geek” secret to the “it” thing on the internet. It seems that almost everyone, from celebrities to your local junior high students has a blog. While it is very common to find blogs as personal diaries, people that own service based businesses can definitely profit from having a blog. First and foremost, a business  blog helps to build your web presence . In today’s society, having a strong web presence is a key factor in your business success. When a potential client is thinking about hiring you, there is a good chance that they will do a little investigation of you online. The potential client may go to Google and do a search on your name, just to see what comes up. If they find a lot of links, including blog posts that include helpful information, they will feel more secure in hiring you. Using your blog to showcase your knowledge in your chosen field will help you establish yourself as an expert. When people

Do you have a  mailing list ? When was the last time you had a look at how profitable the list is for you and made sure everything was up to date? You’re likely one of the many people who’ve set up their list, got busy, and then forgot about it for a while. There are many things you can do right now to start making more money with your mailing list. 1. List Checkup  – Go through every single message you have in your autoresponder series. This may take you a while to get through if you have a lot of messages set up, but it’s worth it. When I switched my website format over to a WordPress site I deleted a lot of the pages from my other design. I had my autoresponder setup to refer to articles on my older site and with the update these were out of date and needed fixing, so I had to go back in and change the links. If your series of messages are too long and it’s just too much to handle by yourself hire a VA to help. 2. Opt-in Location  – Do people know about your list? Don’t assume every