With the economy we are in, don’t think this advice on the Best Jobs for Seniors in 2010 and 2011 is only for seniors:

There is more demand for jobs for seniors now than ever before. Part of this is because the baby boomer generation is aging and more and more of them are reaching retirement age every year. That, coupled with the stock market plunge and bad jobs situation, means a larger percentage of seniors need work.

It is sad that I had to use the word “need” rather than “want” but that is the predicament many are in. It is safe to say that most seniors would rather find some way to make money from home rather than go out in the workplace. Likewise, doing anything that requires manual labor is most likely something they would prefer to avoid.

The good news is that because of the Internet, there are more opportunities for money making than there have been for people in the past. Via the computer, you can communicate and sell your services to people all over the world. All you have to have is some computer knowledge and the ability to market yourself online. Wait a minute, that could be a real challenge for some seniors

Consulting and Freelancing

The number one way I would think the Internet could benefit a senior is that it can afford them the ability to make a side income through consulting or freelancing. Any skills you have might be transferable to the Internet and you could make money selling your knowledge. The best way would be to set up your own website and get started from there. However, I know that is intimidating and too hard for many people to consider no matter what age group you are.

oDesk is an online site that is one of the biggest outsourcing websites on the Web and you can find all sorts of work there. They have jobs available in areas such as writing and translation, administrative support, business services, sales and marketing, support and many other categories. As I looked through some of the jobs, the pay that is offered is on the low side for many areas. Writing is one of the better paying selections as people always need native English speakers. Please see the quick video below for a quick overview of oDesk.

Technically Speaking, it does help to read more …

Found this article about what the person believes is the Top 5 Internet Home Business :

Image by rolands.lakis

MLM (multi level marketing) is a form of marketing most companies use as a strategy to advertise their business or increase their sales.  MLM is network marketing, direct selling and referral marketing to generate business leads.  It is based on relationship referrals.  There are several types of MLM opportunities that are highly recommended and very affordable to start.

Local Surveyed Leads are one of the best MLM opportunities.  They are usually screened leads that let you find out if the candidate is serious about starting their own home based business. You will need information such as their location and phone number.  You will also have to ask their reason for wanting to work from home, and what the earliest they can be available would be.  Often times you will have to ask how much money and time they are willing to invest in their new business.

Email Auto Responder Leads is another good MLM opportunity.  This email marketing method of MLM lets you contact prospects using email.  These leads have the candidate’s email address, their name and their internet IP address.  Email auto responder leads are from all over the United States.  Email auto responder leads are usually fresh leads.  When contacting these leads it’s best to “personalize” your email most of the time to gain the candidate’s trust.  The best time to send your emails out to these leads would be from Sunday night thru Thursday night, with most emails going out in the evening or night time.

Pre-Screened Verified Phone Leads are leads that have already been verified and are serious about starting a home based business.  You will still be provided the same information with these leads: candidate’s name, phone number, address, internet IP address and the reason they would like to start a home business.

Technically Speaking, you should always read more …

Here is another one about Internet Home Based Business Opportunity :

“Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.” – Tyron Edwards

There are many different opportunities in network marketing and many different ways to sell them. The most important thing you can do is find something that you are passionate about, something that you get excited about and that personally interests you for starters. What we do can be very tedious at times, if we are not enjoying what we are marketing, it becomes difficult to write about, talk about, or stay self motivated.

As I continue to learn and grow here in Internet Marketing Wonderland… I have found myself part of several groups where there are teams working together on specific opportunities, usually, these rooms go silent. Why you ask? Because the few carry the weight of the many and at some point the give and take becomes all about taking. Clearly these “takers” are out of their element, overwhelmed and unable to grasp the opportunity they are in. Their motivation for being involved? Purely to get rich quick with out any effort. They never succeed and end up running around bashing the program they invested in. But what they didn’t invest in it… was their time. Time is the most costly and valuable commodity we put into our online businesses. It is something, unlike a 9-5 job, that doesn’t pay when you start out. You must leverage your time in order to gain income in the future. So choosing what excites you instead of how much it pays is very important. Trust me, if you put in the time, you will see an income.

Ask yourself these questions when considering an opportunity. Can I see myself talking about this in a positive manner for years to come?

Can I imagine myself walking into someone’s office and presenting this as an opportunity that can grow their business and make them money?

Is my motivation with this opportunity to build a steady income or to get rich quick irregardless of the consequences?

Is it something that I can sell outside of the internet if given the opportunity?

What kind of company am I aligning myself with?

If you are considering an opportunity, do your homework in regards to the reputation of the company you are considering investing in. Once you opt in, you become the face of that company to your customers and prospects. It’s your reputation that is on the line not theirs. If you don’t choose wisely, you can destroy your internet business in a heart beat representing something that over promises and under delivers. Be wary of this. Think long and hard about this point. Trust me, if it sounds too good to be true… it is.

All the questions I asked you to consider point to two things, longevity and reputation. Both are things that involve you. If one gets caught up in the big pay out, realize that it is very very hard to get someone to invest that kind of money and what true substance does that program really provide in return? Do you have people already interested in wanting to invest that kind of sum? If you do, then maybe it’s a good opportunity. If you don’t, how easy do you think it will be to get a return on your investment. I know a person who has been Network Marketing on the internet for over a decade, bought into a program that has a 2k price tag on it. You know the kind, where you have to drag people to a cyber call in to listen to a someone say “buy my program, I and only I can teach you the way to make money on the internet. If you cant sell this program you aren’t a closer and you need me to do it for you. All for the price of 2 THOUSAND DOLLARS!”

If after a decade you don’t have a base that can invest 2k, why on earth would you choose that opportunity. You’re setting yourself up for failure.

On the other hand, if you look at opportunities that are affordable investments cash wise, interest and excite you, odds are in the long run you would’ve made 2k in a decade. My poor associate is still waiting for that big sale. He spends all his time in social networks trying to get people to attend this call. Eventually, if it hasn’t happened already, he will be known as the guy who wants you to spend 2k. His reputation will be in the cyber toilet.

Always opt for something that you see a value in, that you can be proud of and most importantly that you believe in. Your sales techniques will improve at an incredible rate if you know why you invested, what positives you see and what growth potential you believe there is.

Yes folks, it really is that simple. You just needed to hear it.

Corie Wallace is the author of The Diva Rants http://coriewallace.wordpress.com and Essential Marketing Strategies http://coriewallace.blogspot.com

Technically Speaking, you should always read more …

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• The Top 5 Internet Home Business (dreamteamformula.com)

Another one from here -  Starting An Online Business – More Targeted Clicks Equals More Business!

It is important to know that a good E-mail marketing campaign is one of the best and most effective forms of direct marketing. Emails can reach the highest number of people in the least amount of time –for little to no extra money invested. They are great for telling new customers about the services and products you provide and they keep your current customers updated about your latest offers. Emails also provide the perfect opportunity for affiliate marketing links. And what is even better about email marketing is that their success rates are very easy to track – as a matter of fact, you can start monitoring your results instantly. Marketing simply does not get any better than that!

If you are starting an online business, here are a few simple but very important guidelines that you should follow if you are going to be a successful email marketer.

Remember that your emails to customers are your ad-copy. Treat them exactly as you would any other advertisement. Don’t obscure your marketing message in a sea of rigmarole and gimmicks. People will spot that in a heartbeat! Email marketing campaigns should be clever and concise and should immediately attract your readers – otherwise you risk losing them in the first few seconds. Make sure that you have relevant, eye-captivating content in your email – content that makes your audience want to keep reading and want go to your website. Make it immediately clear what you have to offer and why they should visit your site.

Make your links obvious. You don’t want people to have to search for them. Put them in several different places. Experiment with their placement and find out what works best. Sometimes it is just a matter of trial and error before you get it right. Don’t be discouraged by the process! Eventually you will learn what works. Links are also a great way to use affiliate marketing. Remember – every click can earn you money.

Monitor your click-through rate.Your email marketing campaign’s success is very easy to track via your click-through rate. Your click-through rate measures how many people see your email, how many respond to it by clicking through the links that you provide, and how many of those who responded actually purchase something. Being able to see this is one of the best aspects of Internet marketing. Click-through rates help you adapt your marketing strategy in the moment – something that is unique to Internet marketing. Take advantage of this benefit by monitoring your click-through rates and adjusting your strategy accordingly.

Don’t let online benchmarks get you down. These benchmarks will tell you where could be. Pay attention to benchmark estimates only so that you can adjust your marketing strategy. Don’t use them as a measure of your company’s value. Eventually, you will find your marketing niche and create your own benchmarks.

Technically Speaking, always go and read more …

Since it is summer time, figured I’d do some re-runs – here is one of the more popular posts from back in April – and in case you missed it the first time around, here it is again:

Found this list : Top 50 work and make money at home blogs:

1. Breaking Free: A blog all about how to start your own business at home, filled with ideas on how to reach this goal.
2. Business Entrepreneur Executive Training Blog: This blog is dedicated to your professional and personal development as a business entrepreneur.
3. Day Job Nuker: Get rid of that day job (if they haven’t already dumped you!) and learn how to work at home. This blog talks about how to work at home and, even better, offers some great resources to that may help you begin your path to autonomy.
4. Home Based Small Business Ideas: Home-based business tips for home business owners.
5. Home Business Blog: According to this blogger, “The beauty of working from home and ultimately yourself is that you are free to do what you wish with the most valuable commodity; time.” Learn more here.
6. Make Money Online: Although some articles in this blog deal with making money through personal blogs and Web sites, a great many entries focus on how to make money through other methods.
7. Make Money Online : Yes, another “make money online” site. This one focuses on various ways to make money online through various business opportunities, including auctions.
8. MLM Business Opportunities : This blog covers multi-level marketing (including opportunities in this field), but it also covers various topics that reach out to the home business owner.
9. Serious Home Based Business : Learn how to work from home and how to make money online through this easy-to-browse blog.
10. The Home-Based Business Blog : Learn how to optimize every aspect of your business, using the right balance of new technologies and old-fashioned business sense.
11. Thinking Home Business : This blog focuses on sharing ideas and experiences with other professionals who work from home.
12. Work at Home Resources : Tools for you to succeed in your home-based business.

WAHM Blogs

A wave of “mommy blogs” began to hit the Internet about five years ago and they have become a legitimate resource for ideas on how to make money online and work from home (and not just for women). Here are a few blogs written by WAHMs (Work At Home Moms) for WAHMs:

1. At Home Mom Blog: A mom named Genesis started this blog as a way to connect and help other women who want to work from home or who are already doing so.
2. Christian Work at Home Moms: If you feel the need to connect only with other Christians, try this CWAHM blog (Christian Work at Home Moms).
3. Cyndi’s Work at Home Blog: Part of the Moms Network, this blog focuses on tips and support for moms who work at home.
4. Contest for Moms: This is an interesting niche, where Amanda provides moms with contest and product review opportunities to win money and prizes from home. She also shares her personal life here.
5. Laureen’s Work at Home Mom’s Blog: This About.com site brings resources, support and information to WAHMs everywhere.
6. Mommy Enterprises: Thoughts, opinions, reviews and more from a WAHM.
7. The WAHM Blog: A blog that will help you get started making money from home.
8. Work At Home Mom – Making Money At Home: A real WAHM writes about how you can make money at home, online and with blogging (so you can forget the last one if you don’t want to blog!).
9. Work at Home Mom Revolution: This blog is a daily work-at-home opportunity and mom news site.
10. Work at Home Moms Talk Radio: You’ll also find a blog at this site, where WAHMs talk about working from home.

Blog Articles

The following articles came from blogs that don’t necessarily deal with making money online or home businesses. But, the articles deal with work-at-home ideas and home business advice and trends in today’s home-business market.

1. 45 Home Business Resources: Things and People That Help You Make Money In Your Underwear: A great resource from a slightly irreverent blog on how to build your home business.
2. Freelance Job Growth Accelerates in the U.S.: Take a look at these charts and comments to learn more about the validity and trends of working and making money at home.
3. How to Make Money at Home: Women’s Day has a long article on ideas and tips about making money from home. They offer ideas that speak to specific companies, too.
4. How to Make Money Using the Internet: Seth Godin is a marketing guru, and his ideas about how to make money online might stimulate your gray cells.
5. How Bloggers Make Money Online without Blogging : ProBlogger provides a long list of ideas on ways to make money online without a blog.
6. Starting A Successful Home Business In Tough Times: This article is on the Kelsey Publishing Knowledge Base blog, and it talks about how to start your business in a rough economy.
7. The Best Ways to Sell Your MLM Home Business Over the Internet: Kathy runs this blog on how to lose weight, but she has an insightful article about how to sell your MLM business online. Her advice might apply to those who sell Web sites online, too.
8. The Top 25 Home-Based Business Ideas: This article is brought to you by AllBusiness, and offers twenty-five great ideas for that work-at-home opportunity.
9. Top 10 Internet Home Business Ideas You Can Start and Run in Your Underwear: Sparkplug CEO is a great resource for any home-based business owner, and this article is a down-to-earth look at some at-home business opportunities.
10. Work At Home Trend On the Rise: Read in this article how people view working at home. They provide links to more articles that can help you have a positive attitude about working from home.

Resources

Tools for the home entrepreneur:

1. Entrepreneur: This site carries informative and helpful blogs, but it also has many other resources for the work-at-home entrepreneur.
2. Freelance Directory: This site holds a blog filled with resources, a directory and other tools for the entrepreneur.
3. Freelance Job Feed: This is not a slick site, but it’s up-to-date and filled with posts about freelance job opportunities and writing about how to find money online. One of the trends in this blog is to learn how to make money by finding jobs and outsourcing the work.
4. Freelance Switch: This site holds an informative blog, a job board, forums, podcasts and more.
5. Home Business: Randy Duermyer brings his expertise to this About.com site, where home business workers can find a blog, tax advice and more for their ventures.
6. Home-Based Business Network: This site has a blog filled with great ideas for the home-based business owner; but, it also is a way to build a network with other like-minded individuals.
7. Moms with a Spine: We would have included this blog in the WAHM section, but the site covers so much more. And, the advice offered isn’t just for WAHMs.
8. Online Scams Uncovered: If you’re starting a home business and you work online, this is the blog to have at hand. They uncover online scams so you don’t get caught with your hand in the wrong cookie jar.
9. Product Sellers Talk Radio: Run by a work-at-home mom, this site offers personalize coaching programs, an Internet marketing blog and a product sellers talk radio show, information on how to start a business and more.
10. Small Business Development Center Blog: If you want information from the National Information Clearinghouse on Small Business, this is your resource.
11. Small Business Trends: This link takes you to the blog on this site, but look around to find more resources for small businesses, including home businesses.
12. Trend Tracker: If you’ve wondered how this economy and online tools have affected small business, look no further. Anita Campbell does a great job with bringing pertinent information to you in a timely manner.

Corporate Business Blogs

Some money-making businesses on the Internet provide blogs that show you how to make money using their sites. But, you can take their information and apply it to any other similar site.

1. Associated Content Blog: Learn how to make money online through writing content for yourself and for others.
2. Fotolia Blog: You can make money with your photographs, and this blog shows you how to do it with the Fotolia business.
3. Helium Blog: Another pay-for-content site presents a blog about how to make money through their program, information that can be applied to other online writing ventures.
4. Salesconx Blog: This company creates sales teams for other companies and provides a blog that focuses on sales techniques, no matter your product or service.
5. Virtual Assistant Blog: If you have considered becoming a virtual assistant, log onto this blog to learn more about how this company views virtual assistant positions.
6. Zyoin Blog: Another recruiter blog. They also have the tools for you to work with, and their blog helps you learn the trade.

Technically Speaking, yes, that was actually a list of 50!

Technically Speaking, it’s summer time!

Found this good article on boosting your YouTube video to viral status:

YouTube can be an absolute goldmine for tapping into viral traffic. It is the third most popular website online, consistently featured in the media for its ability to expose hidden talent (from teen hit star Justin Bieber to ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’) and create at-home businesses for people. These days, video marketing should be included in any internet marketing campaign; if done correctly, it can produce a huge viral following. In this article I am going to discuss a strategy which made two videos of mine viral within days.

I recall the first time I tried video marketing to produce traffic for a website. My client and I had filmed ten quality videos for her niche. I uploaded them to YouTube and filled them with great descriptions and keywords. Thinking this was all I needed, I then left them to sit and accumulate all that traffic. A couple of months later I checked in on their progress and to my surprise, the videos had barely been visited at all. It was as if they had been buried beneath the multifaceted wealth of content held inside YouTube. Making money for her website through YouTube had failed, but I wasn’t ready to give up just yet. We filmed another 2 videos. I then contacted two well-known and successful blogs in our niche and recommended they use the videos for an article we wrote to accompany the videos.

What I noticed in the weeks after posting the videos to the external websites was a huge leap in traffic, video search results and video results through YouTube. The videos had gone viral and we were receiving a fair amount of traffic back to our website. It has now been two years and to this day, those videos still send a flood of visitors to my client’s website.

What we can take from this story as internet marketers is that there is a lot more to generating a boost in traffic through YouTube for our internet marketing businesses. In order to succeed over YouTube in taking your new video viral you need to have established methods of distribution on external and related websites. What this does is gives the video a traffic boost early while at the same time boosting the backlinks to the video. Google and YouTube take both of these factors into account when ranking your video so the more reason you can give them to rank you higher the better.

Technically Speaking, there is always time to read more …

Found this article or guide about making money online:

Making money online used to pretty much require you to have your own Web site, products to sell and some marketing savvy. But a new generation of dot-coms have arisen that will pay you for what you know and who you know without you having to be a web designer or a marketing genius.

But it’s hard to tell hype from the real deal. I did a search on “make money online” and “making money online”, and much of the information out there is just promoting various infoproducts, mostly about Internet marketing. I see why people sometimes ask, “Is anyone making money online besides Internet marketing experts?”

So I put together a list of business opportunities with legitimate companies that:

* Pay cash, not just points towards rewards or a chance to win money
* Don’t require you to have your own Web domain or your own products
* Don’t involve any hard-selling
* Aren’t just promoting more Internet marketing
* Give a good return on your time investment

In the interest of objectivity, none of the links below are affiliate links, and none of them have paid or provided any other consideration for their presence here. These are legitimate companies with business models that allow you to get paid for a wide range of activities.

Help friends find better jobs.

Sites like ReferEarns, Zyoin, Who Do You Know For Dough?, Bohire and WiseStepp connect employers with prospective employees, many of whom are already employed and not actively job-hunting, via networking – the people who know these qualified candidates. Rewards for referring a candidate who gets hired range from $50 on up to several thousand dollars – not chump change. If you know a lot of job-seekers (and who doesn’t these days?), this is a great way to break into the recruiting business with no overhead.

Technically Speaking, I know you want to read more…

Here are some of the 101 ways to make money online:

Money Making Idea 1

Make Money Taking Online Surveys – Free Membership

Every company relies on market research to tell them what people think about their products and what they would be most likely to buy (and why) in the future.
To do this they create surveys and offer an incentive so the general public will fill them in – and most of them are distributed as such [...]

Money Making Idea 2

How To Make Money On EBay

There is a lot of money to be made as a seller on eBay. Thousands and thousands of sales are made each day, resulting in a lot of income for a lot of sellers. And there is still room for you if you want to get involved – whether you want to earn [...]

Money Making Idea 3

How To Make Money Blogging

More and more people are realising that blogging is one of the best ways to start your own online business. It requires minimal start up costs, you can build an impressive and loyal readership over time and once you know how to monetize your blog it can also bring in a decent income that [...]

Money Making Idea 4

How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

How would you like to earn a little extra cash each month? Or even replace your income, working less to make more money… Think its a pipe dream? well, think again.

Most people know that there are millions of dollars being spent every single day purchasing products and services online. But did you know that you [...]

Money Making Idea 5

Make Money in Network Marketing or MLM

It has been said that 10% of new millionaires in the US over the past ten years have done it by building businesses through network marketing.
Even well known authors and business people such as Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad), Donald Trump (Trump University) and Tony Robbins (Robbins Institute) have all stated that Home Based [...]

Money Making Idea 6

How To Make Money With Google Adsense

If you have a website or a blog, you should definitely sign up for Google Adsense. It’s one of the few programs you can truly ‘set and forget’ – once it’s there you don’t really need to do much else with it.
But there are ways and means to maximize your income from Google Adsense, [...]

Money Making Idea 7

Make Money Writing Articles Or Web Content

What is the one thing that everyone is looking for when they go online? You’ve got it – information. And if you can supply it in all kinds of shapes and forms then you will be paid for doing so, which could lead to a whole new career as a web writer.

Of course [...]

Money Making Idea 8

How To Make Money Selling E-Books

Make no mistake – e-books are big business online. No matter what you search for there will be someone out there selling an e-book on it.
But the best thing about them is that they provide one of the most potentially lucrative businesses you could ever hope to start online. So long as you [...]

Money Making Idea 9

How To Make Money With ClickBank

ClickBank is just about the biggest website on the internet today as far as affiliates are concerned. If you want to make money online but you don’t have a product of your own to promote, what better solution could there be than to promote someone else’s in exchange for a slice of the profits?
ClickBank [...]

Money Making Idea 10

How to Make Money Marketing CPA Offers

With the internet such a large part of our lives today, more and more individuals are looking for opportunities to make money online. While some are doing it to bring in some extra cash, others are looking for full-time careers and are being quite successful with their endeavors. Many are doing this by becoming marketers [...]

Technically Speaking, after you get past all the ads they have their (how the person is making money there!), I’m sure there is some good information, you just have to read more to find out …

A good one about split testing your opt in page that you want to read:

What Are We Talking About

Opt In: This is the form that a visitor will fill out to join your mailing list. Your goal is to get the greatest percentage of visitors to give you their contact information. While free gifts can be big elements in conversion, they are not, by far, the only elements for success.

Split Testing (A/B Test): Split testing is one test you can run to determine which elements have the greatest impact on conversion. When you run a split test, you send half of your traffic to one Opt In page and half of your traffic to another version of your Opt In page. You then measure the percentage of conversions (people who signed up as compared to the total traffic number) and you have a mathematical answer to which version of the page has a higher conversion rate.

Variables: Variables are the specific elements you are measuring. To run the best, most accurate split tests, you need to isolate one variable at a time and split test it. If you have multiple variables in a split test, then you can not be certain which one was responsible for the best conversions. For example, if you have two Opt In pages that are identical except for the heading, you want to make sure you isolate one aspect of the heading to test. If one says, “Free E-Book Library For The Next 250 Subscribers” and the other says, “Sign Up Now For Your Free Report On Selling Your Book To Nursing Homes”, then everything else must be the same. If one headline is in a different location on the page, different font, or different size, then you will never know what variable had the biggest affect on your split test results.

Technically Speaking, now that you had a taste, you’ll want to read the rest…

That weapon of course is called Split Testing and this is worth a read:

What Is Split-Testing?

Split-testing is the process of creating two separate variations of anything that a visitor or a prospect is exposed to which requires them to take an action, such as a web page, a PPC ad or a banner ad. An action required for measuring a split-test can include the click-through-rate on a PPC ad, submitting a form to request a free consultation or purchasing a product online. Splitting traffic between the two variations of the same element shows you which one produces the best response rate.

Split-testing allows you to remove the guesswork from your marketing campaign by showing you the difference in response rates each variation produces. The first time that you design your web page and set up a PPC campaign, you’ll of course have to use your “best guess” and experience helps a lot here. However, once a page or an ad is activated and you start achieving results you can use split-testing to continually and incrementally improve these results over time.

Essentially, split-testing allows you to identify the combination of factors that produces the highest conversion rate and, in turn, the highest return on investment (ROI) from your advertising budget.

Why Is Split-Testing Important?

Split-testing is the fastest way to increase your conversion rate and lower your cost-per-action, which increases profitability. But more than this, it allows you to be more competitive in your marketplace by allowing you to spend more on advertising than your competition, yet still achieve higher levels of sales and growth at a lower Cost-Per-Action (CPA).

Split-testing also allows you to test what your competition is implementing on their site and to see how it affects your own conversion rates. Over time, split-testing allows you to capture a larger share of your online market.

Let’s Take A Look At The Numbers

Your competition is spending $2 per click and has a 1% conversion rate. That means it costs $200 to drive 100 website visitors. At a 1% conversion rate they are getting 2 conversions (ie sales or sales leads) for every $200, which means their CPA is $100 per action.

If through split-testing you were able to increase your conversion rate to 3% that means for the same $200 spend you would get the same website traffic, but instead of getting just 2 conversions, you would get 6. This means that your CPA is $33, rather than the $100 your competition is achieving…all from the same advertising budget.

What this really means is that you can afford to spend 3 x what your competition is spending and achieve the same CPA, which means that you will dominate the top positions on the search engines and capture the lion’s share of the online market. Convinced yet?

Conversely, if your competition is split-testing and you are not, they will get the lion’s share of the online market and you will miss out.

In the current economic climate, split-testing allows you to get the most out of your advertising budget and to continue growing your business during these tougher times.

What Should You Split-Test?

You should split-test anything shown to a visitor that requires an action. With PPC advertising you can split-test two separate ads and see which ad produces the lower CPA. With your website design you can split-test two separate pages and see which one produces the highest number of conversions. You can also split-test email campaigns, banner campaigns and other forms of paid advertising.

SEO listings (ie what displays in Google’s organic search) are harder to split-test because you don’t have full control over the information displayed in the listings. Saying that, you can split-test the page that prospects land on after they click on your SEO listing.

On your website, you should split-test the following items on your highest traffic web pages – which you can find through Google Analytics:

• Headlines
• Call to action
• Offer
• Sales copy
• Images
• Testimonials
• Button styles
• Navigation styles
• Background color
• Listing a phone number versus not listing a phone number
• And anything else which holds a prominent position on the page

For your PPC campaign, you should split-test the text ads, keywords and landing pages.

How To Split-Test

The most important metric to measure with split-testing is the CPA, which is measured with conversion tracking. If you don’t have a website form or shopping cart and all your website leads come via telephone or email, it will be much harder to split-test.

The easiest way to split-test is to use a form on your website for somebody to submit whenever they wish to contact your company. When somebody submits that form, they are taken to another page that is call the “thank you” page, which contains a short message saying something like, “Thank you for your enquiry, we will contact you shortly.”

With split-testing, a conversion code is placed on the ‘thank you’ page which then measures the results. If we were split-testing two landing pages using different headlines we would use split-testing software to rotate between those 2 pages so alternate visitors would see alternate versions of the landing page. After a reasonable amount of visits and because conversions are being tracked, one of the two versions will start producing a higher number of conversions than the other. This is then the better landing page, also referred to as the ‘control piece’. The goal with split-testing is always to try and beat the control piece.

To justify that a split-test is statistically correct you need enough visitors and conversions to make an informed decision– as a general rule you will need a minimum of 30 conversions before you can make a decision on which of the variations is best. Note that The difference between the conversions of each version has to be greater than the square root of the sum to ensure statistical integrity.

Technically Speaking, I know that you now want to read the rest or read more…

More good reading on SEO, Landing Pages, and A/B Testing that I ran across:

First of all……..What is A/B testing

A/B testing is essentially (I’ll save you looking on wikipedia) “a method of marketing testing by which a baseline control sample is compared to a variety of single-variable test samples in order to improve response rates. A classic direct mail tactic, this method has been recently adopted within the interactive space to test tactics such as banner ads, emails and landing pages.

Significant improvements can be seen through testing elements like copy text, layouts, images and colors. However, not all elements produce the same improvements, and by looking at the results from different tests, it is possible to identify those elements that consistently tend to produce the greatest improvements” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/B_testing

In Practice, A/B testing allows you to display 2 different web pages and monitor the results. Simply, you can optimize your pages within an inch of their lives, in order to find the best converting page. Google Analytics offers the perfect platform in which to execute this format of A/B testing.

Technically Speaking, good stuff to read up on.

Here are 5 tips that I found this morning that Chris Brogan told ABC News about making money online:

If you want to make money via the web, my five tips would be:
• Grow bigger ears (listening) – the best way I’ve found to help people make money via the web is to “listen at the point of need.” The idea is that people are offering up their interests and requests and desires via the social web every day. If you have what they need, there are opportunities to get into the selling cycle on the spot, instead of waiting.
• Be protective of your community – this is how Oprah succeeded. She grew a community around content that was helpful to the people consuming it, and then she attracted sponsors who wanted access to those people. She then stayed fiercely in between the two groups, making sure her community was always protected, and that sponsors had access on her terms only. Own the relationship, own the money.
• Add more value than promotion – selling is often heavy-handed and based on wanting to close. The real winners are relationship-minded people who make not only the first sale, but all the subsequent sales thereafter. By giving your community much more value (more content, more things they can use) than just promoting your stuff, you win longer term sales relationships.
• Promote and recognize others – in selling and marketing, we talk too much about ourselves. People want to be seen and recognized. Use your platform to point out the good stuff that would appeal to the rest of your community. Mention them. Talk about your customers more than you talk about yourselves.
• Be clear on your ask – when you finally have a hard ask, a request for a sale, then be very clear about it. Don’t ever sidle up to the sale. Never let there be a confusion between your goodwill efforts and your direct need for a sale. Never flinch about it, and never make it a mushy mix of community warmth and indirect sales requests. Just like relationships, short and clear is better than long and convoluted.

Technically Speaking, while there isn’t much more, you probably want to read more ….

Happened to surf by this guide to optimizing your landing page copy:

Eliminate the We’s – Focus on the You’s: When reading your writing (huh?), do you find that you use the word “we” too much? Is your name or the name of your business mentioned too often? Your landing page should focus on the customer and should not be all about you or the “we” of your company. Resist writing copy that is too self-centered and more focused on the customer.

Answer Questions Before They Are Asked: Your readers should come away with the majority of their obvious questions answered before they have to ask them. Your message should be clear and concise so as not to leave readers wondering about your objectives.

Prove Yourself Worthy: If you are making any specific claims about solutions you offer or the product you are selling, be sure to include enough back up the proof to back up your claims. Simply telling people how great, how incredible, how miraculous your product/service is simply not good enough. Readers want to have tangible proof that you can do what you say you can do.

Technically Speaking, go out and read more!

Found these 5 simple ways to improve your landing page headlines:

Speak directly to the visitor.

When writing headlines, I always try to include the words “you” or “your” to directly address the visitor. If somebody wants your product, it’s for their own personal gain, not because they find you interesting, and using these two words helps them imagine what it’s like to have this product solve all the problems.

Technically Speaking, you should read more of this article.

Found this post about the anatomy of a landing page:

Offer: Direct marketers know that the offer is one of the most critical elements of a well-designed campaign. That is why they spend a lot of time testing their offers. Offers must be clear and concise. A maxim of direct mail is that a confused mind always says “no.” The offer is the deal you’re presenting to your visitor. Don’t get this confused with a “call to action,” which is the action you want the person to take. Sometimes the offer is actually delivered successfully as the headline.

Descriptive copy: What supporting copy do you need to explain what you do, what you offer, and how it will benefit your visitor? This is often a list of key features and/or benefits. Don’t overlook formatting. Will the copy be delivered in block text, bullet point, or some combination of the two?

Product/service presentation: This is the imagery you use to support your copy and style for your page. This often takes the form of a product image, a product or service tour (photos or video), screen shots, or lifestyle images. A good picture can be worth a thousand words if you can use it to engage your visitor and give them a sense of what owning your product or service will be like. Likewise, poor quality graphics or presentations can confuse or turn visitors away. A great image won’t make your sale, but a poor one can help lose your sale.

Technically Speaking, be sure to read all of the article here.

@jamievaron started this site – Twitter Should Hire Me – back on Monday 3/9/2009. In her own words she says:

This site was started on March 9, 2009 while trying to decide between throwing myself in front of Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, or Biz Stone’s respective vehicles OR creating a site in the hopes that one of them will see it.

I chose the less painful option: website. Good call, right?

So, here’s the deal: Twitter is blowing up as we all know and they are going to need some people to work for them. I WANT TO BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE. It’s not difficult to understand why either. The micro-blogging platform is amazing and from what I’ve heard, the company is equally as awesome.

Technically Speaking, @jamievaron is doing some pretty interesting marketing. Now the only issue is, and I’ll leave this up to the readers – will Ev, Biz, Jack – think “hmmm.. cool girl, we should hire her! OR will they really be thinking “Freakin’ Psycho Groupie Chick from HELL!!!”

It should be interesting to see if @jamievaron gets noticed (oh she already has that going!) – but noticed enough to actually get hired over at twitter. If she does, it might change the whole ball game for unemployed people looking for work at the best companies out there!

So – what do you think? Great Idea or Psycho Groupie Chick?