Using Google Alerts To Help Your Business

At times it seems that Google releases more new products and services than we can keep track of. From Google Calendar and Google Video, to Google Base, Google Finance, and Google Trends, it can be overwhelming just to remember what each one does. One of the oft overlooked hidden gems in Google's enormous offering is Google Alerts.  Within minutes, one can be signed up for email alerts that can give them and their business a leg up on the competition. Alerts can be used to spy...

At times it seems that Google releases more new products and services than we can keep track of. From Google Calendar and Google Video, to Google Base, Google Finance, and Google Trends, it can be overwhelming just to remember what each one does. One of the oft overlooked hidden gems in Google's enormous offering is Google Alerts.  Within minutes, one can be signed up for email alerts that can give them and their business a leg up on the competition. Alerts can be used to spy on competitors, keep track of what people are saying about your business, or follow an important news story.

How Does It Work

Google Alerts sends you an email each time a new page for your chosen term makes it in the top twenty results on Google's web search. You can also have the alert check Google News and/or Google Groups. To sign up for a Google Alert, all that you need to do is visit the Google Alerts homepage (http://www.google.com/alerts), enter the search term, type of alert (search Google News, Google Groups, or the web), frequency of emails (daily, as it happens, or weekly), and your email address. You can set up alerts for as many terms as you like using a Google Account. So why would you want an unlimited amount of alerts? Because as a business owner, you have a lot to keep track of and very limited time to do it.

Spy on Your Competitors

Every business has a competitor. More likely, you have several direct competitors and several more indirect competitors. While regularly checking out their websites is an important part of the process, it doesn't paint the whole picture. A competitor’s website is very much crafted to the image that they want to portray to their customers. This is great if you want to know what their latest sale is or how much their new product costs, but it isn't likely to feature a negative review in last Sunday's newspaper.

That's where Google Alerts comes in. By simply setting up a News, Groups, and search alert for each of your competitors, you will know what other people are saying about your competition – both the media and consumers, both good and bad.

Keep Up To Date on Your Industry

Equally as important as what people are saying about your competition is what people are saying about your industry in general. If there's a negative PR swing against violent video games, and you just happen to run a video game store, you will probably be affected. By receiving alerts on important key words related to your industry, you can be on top of any sudden changes and react accordingly. By the time your competition realizes what's happening they will be scrambling to catch up to you.

Track Yourself and Your Business

It goes without saying, if it's important to know what people are saying about your competitors and about your industry, it would stand to reason that it's important to know what people are saying about you. I have Google Alerts on both my name and my businesses name. I know that they go hand in hand – if one is getting slandered you better bet it will hurt the other. By receiving alerts, you can be on top of anything negative relating to you or your business, and hopefully nip any problem in the bud before it grows too large. On the flip side, there's nothing better than receiving an alert where someone praises your business. Those are the types of things that you want to make sure are on the PR page of your businesses website.

Get News Stories for Your Site or Blog

I own a site where I do weekly news updates about what's going on in the industry. Some weeks, there are tons of news items to choose from, other weeks it's hard to find anything. In addition to the regular industry news sites that I check to get information, I have Google Alerts set up for each of the key terms. You'd be surprised how frequently a unique story from a local newspaper pops up in Google News. Many times these stories haven't been seen by my competitors and I am able to “break” the news to the online community. This works well for blogs too – if you have a daily blog about being an entrepreneur, having an alert for the word “entrepreneur” can fetch you several quality stories each day to help inspire fresh posts.

In this increasingly competitive business world, you need each and every leg up on your competition that you can get. Used properly, Google Alerts can be an extremely efficient way to track what's going on across the web. The alternative would be to search each term every day for new updates. Who has time for that? Spending less time researching enables you to spend more time on the things important to your business.

How Many Affiliate Checks Do You Want To Receive?

Affiliate Marketing is by far, one of the easiest ways to make money online. It is a revenue sharing business relationship between the affiliate who agrees to promote the products or services, and the merchant who offers them.

The affiliate advertises the merchant's products and services and gets a commission for every successful referral. Every time a customer is referred to the merchant's site, through the affiliate's efforts, and makes a purchase, the affiliate gets a share of the profit. No payment is due to the affiliate until successful results are realized. Compensation is based on either number of visits (Pay-per-click), registrant (Pay-per-lead), or commission for each sale (Pay-per-sale).

Affiliate Marketers can earn a few bucks to thousands of dollars with affiliate programs. The opportunity to earn in affiliate marketing can only be limited by the affiliate's determination, creativity and strategy. It is a brilliant way to earn online, and you do not have to produce your own product or service to make a buck. By advertising your merchant's products passionately, you get more in return. Profits in affiliate marketing usually start small but can get larger as the campaign starts to build up steam.

There are many ways that an affiliate marketer can do to maximize their profits. If you ask any affiliate marketer how many affiliate checks they would want to receive, they will most likely want to get as many as possible. Some affiliate checks are small, amounting to nothing more than $25. While others are large and can easily reach the thousands and even more. Over time, these affiliate checks may build up to a really impressive amount. However, making a fortune in affiliate marketing is not instant. You should put in enough work and effort as well. You have to use your imagination to find more ways to attract more web traffic that can convert to sales for the merchant and profit for you as well.

How many affiliate checks do you want to receive? Most affiliate marketers will enthusiastically reply that they want to receive as many affiliate checks as possible. However, is it as easy as it sounds? Does joining many affiliate marketers guarantee more affiliate checks that really amount to something? The answer is No. Most affiliate marketers assume that joining multiple affiliate programs is a wise option. Because, it is very easy to join affiliate programs and there is really nothing to lose, affiliate marketers are tempted to join as many programs they can get their hands on. Thus, they fail to give their affiliate programs enough attention and work that they ought to receive. The maximum potential of the affiliate programs are not realized and the resulting income from these programs will almost certainly be disappointing.

The best way to achieve multiple streams of income is to concentrate on one affiliate program first. Choose a product or service that you can promote passionately. Pick a product in which you have complete trust. The best products and services to promote are those that you use personally. Your prospects will be able to sense your sincerity whenever you promote a product that you have experienced. This will greatly enhance your credibility as well as your product's marketability and will really encourage your prospect to purchase or avail of the product or service.

As soon as your first affiliate program is making a reasonable profit then you can proceed to joining another affiliate program and repeat the process. "Too much, too soon" is a common pitfall in affiliate marketing. Joining too many affiliate programs simultaneously in the hopes of having multiple streams of income simply does not work.

Focus first on one affiliate program and work on it so that it makes a good profit. Then, go find another promising program and give it your best effort. The question should not be how many affiliate checks you want to receive, but how many "high-paying" affiliate checks can you receive. The answer lies in your determination to succeed and determination to maximize your earning potential. With the right tools, the right actions, and perseverance you can definitely make a good profit out of affiliate marketing.

Get The Tattoo You Deserve! Picking Your Dream Design

Tattoos are very common these days, with nearly 1 in 4 people having at least one.  Tattoos represent an art form, and allow people to broadcast who they are.  Even though they are popular, most people will end up regretting them.  In most cases, those who regret tattoos didn’t think about their design or take the time to choose the best tattoo for them.  Even though it is possible to get a tattoo removed, the process is expensive and quite painful.  To prevent this from happening, you should always take some time and find the perfect tattoo – your dream design.

Instead of trying to save some money, you should never choose a studio or artist based on how cheap they are.  Cheaper artists and studios normally lack in work quality, which is why they are able to charge cheaper prices. Instead, you should look for the best studio and artist that you can find close to your area.  Even though it may be expensive – the quality and design will be well worth it.

For some, their dream design is a person.  This can be a loved one or someone who has passed on.  You can always use a design or symbol that means something to you and reminds you of them or you can always use their face.  Good tattoo artists can make magical tattoos with meaning, whether it is someone’s face or a symbol that brings out meaning.

Sometimes, it can be hard picking out your dream design.  If you have an idea in mind but are still not sure what you want, you can always research.  You can get tattoo books, theme books, magazines, or just research online.  By looking at designs you may find something similar to what you are interested in.  Once you have found it, all you need to do is sit down with your tattoo artists and come up with your dream tattoo design.

If you have a basic idea for something small in mind, you can always have it tattooed then come back later and have more added on.  The best thing about tattoos is the fact that they can always be added to later.  This can be a great thing if you want to try a smaller tattoo first, and then decide whether or not you want to get it bigger.  If you start with a fraction of your dream design, you can always finish it up later on.

Whenever you get your dream tattoo you should always take time selecting the design.  Tattoos will stay with you forever, which is why you should pick them carefully.  If you put the necessary time and thought into it now, you won’t regret it later.  Your dream design should be very important, and hold meaning.  This way, every time you look at it – you’ll be reminded of that special moment in time and you’ll never forget about it.

You Want To Be A Affiliate Marketer?

Hello everyone! I am a 30 year old man, I have interested in affiliate marketing. Now, I am having little bit of  to this and don't know much about it at all and I do not have a website. I have so much spare time on my hands so I figured why not use blog to make extra income from the internet! I know how to promote using Commission junction, Amazon and clickbank to sell affiliate products. I will tell you where to start or what you need to have in order to get started, but you have to know there are a few scams out there. I will give you some affiliate marketers experiences below.

Here is a very basic plan to get started..

1. Pick a product. Choose a physical product from amazon, commission junction, clickbank, or an independent affiliate program from a directory like the one below.

2. Setup either a domain with the product name, or a free blog at wordpress.com or blogger.com to have something to link to. You can just buy a domain name with your own hosting and redirect to the affiliate product with your link. Write 1 'presell' page that explains the benefits of the product with multiple buttons/links with your affiliate link to the product home page.

3. Write articles with your product keywords in the titles and also listed 3-5 times throughout each aritcle and point the links to your domain or blog. For a beginner article marketing works well. So write 3-5 articles about the product, an overview if your not familiar with the product in a review style format. Submit to the major article directories like ezinearticles, goarticles, articlesbase, squidoo, and hubpages and place links at the bottom of the article with a call to action to your domain or blog.

4. Signup at some social bookmarking sites and then social bookmark your articles AND your blog.

5. Repeat the above steps with another product

Do that on a consistent basis and you'll be making money in no time. Good luck.

Source:

http://www.affiliatecashdirectory.com/