Answer this question: What is the number one reason people get online everyday? Simple. To get information. Information seeking is so huge that Google alone hosts 400,000,000 searches every day! OK, so what’s it to you? Well, this is an opportunity for your to provide what people want – information. And when done correctly, you can get paid for it, too!

Info marketing 101

First, understand that this is the simplest kind of business there is. You develop a product that is nothing more than information. And people pay you for the information inside it.. Sounds simple enough, right?

How do you make it work?

OK, the concept is simple. In order to be successful there has to be value in the info you’re selling. So the key is to figure out what people want. How can you find out what people want?

A super simple trick is to just to check “answer” sites. Just go to Yahoo! answers or ask.com and look at the questions being asked there. You want to find something a lot of people are asking about. For things that are causing people discomfort. Then just give them the answer in your ebook.

Think about this:

If you’re worried about how to write and ebook. Put it this way: An ebook is nothing more than a collection of articles. Writing a whole ebook can be overwhelming. Focus on one article at a time. And when you’ve got a few finished, expand and embellish them and put them together into an ebook.

Why info products? Interestingly enough, we’re back to the name of this article Here are 7 reasons for you:

1. Ease

An info product business runs on auto-pilot. There is almost no support. Which means there nothing for you to actually *do*. It’s like having an automated cash machine.

You don’t have any inventory. There’s nothing to ship. Your business is 100% digital.

2. Repurposing

When you have a created a few information products. You can combine them together to create new high ticket products. It’s a simple matter to merge a few ebooks into one. Then you can sell it for a lot more. People will be willing to pay a lot more for one big ebook. Instead of several small ebooks.

3. Resale rights

Since it’s your product, you can offer other people the resale rights. Resell rights are very hot right now, because people just don’t want to invest the time and money into making their own. Plus, you get to charge two to three time as much for these rights.

4. Leverage

Leverage your ebook by using the content in different ways. Take parts of your info product and turn it into a email training series. You can use this to build a list that you can marketing to again and again.

5. More leverage

Don’t stop there . . . break it into several smaller reports. Then you can use the reports as the front-end of your product funnel. You can give them away or even charge a small amount for them. And you’re creating targeted leads for your main product all along. Taking this technique to the max, you can let your affiliate give the reports away for you. Wait, did I say “affiliates”?

6. An affiliate army

This is a real power strategy. When you own your own products. You can get other people to promote it for you. How would you like to have an army of affiliates selling your products? You can’t do this unless you have your own product.

7. Joint Ventures

OK, this is by far the biggest reason why. Joint ventures are the biggest short cut to success known to man. So, I’d say this is the most important reason to have you own products. Without your own products, you can’t do JVs.

Summing it up

If you don’t want to sell digital products by now, then you’ve probably been sleeping. You’ll become the ruler of your own fate. Because you’re 100% in control. So, decide to just start:

• Go to answers.yahoo.com
• Find out what people need to know
• Start providing information

Information product development really is that simple. And in short time you’ll have the foundation for your own info product.

It would be hard to argue against the fact that adding audio to a website increases your overall results. In fact, not using audio is a big mistake. It will boost your opt-in rate. And your sales.

What makes it so effective?

It’s not hard to figure out. Most of the web is cold and impersonal. It adds a human touch to your site. And makes people feel they’re dealing with a real person. Basically, audio brings your site to life. Which fascinates greater interaction from your visitors.

Here are the benefits

There are actually two profit boosts from using audio. First, you’ll make more sales. And you’ll spend less getting those customers. You see, you’ll be able to skip the expensive copywriter. You can just add your own audio. An authentic message from you will do more than the best ad copy.

You’ll also get better conversions on your list opt-ins. People need to be told exactly what to do. So you just add a simple audio that says: Fill in your name and email and click submit. Just this one simple thing will boost opt-ins up to 315%!

Some web audio ideas

Put a welcome message that plays automatically on your site, Most people abandon a website within just a few seconds. Your welcome message could make them stay when they would normally leave.

Lead them by the had. Just like in the opt-in example. You can use audio to tell your visitors exactly what to do. And take them all the way through buying your product.

Get testimonials for your services and products. A written testimonial is good. But what’s even better are audio testimonials. It’s pretty easy to fake a written testimonial. Audio adds a level of higher believability. And that increases your results.

Power tip

Something you may not have thought of is using audio for the product itself. You’ll be able to produce audio products faster than any other kind. And your customers will be very happy with the product. Think about how popular podcast are. And once you record the audio, you can pay someone to transcribe it for you. Then you’ve got an eBook, too – but it was easy to create!

Is adding audio hard?

It’s not hard at all. There’s software that will show you how to add audio to a website. The software does all the work. The software creates the audio button code for you. Simply copy the code and paste it in your site. So don’t let this stop you.

Summary

Let’s take another look at the benefits. Using website audio will increase your conversion rates. No doubt your sales will go up. And your opt-in rate will increase. And you can quickly produce products and website sales copy. No many people are doing this. So you’ll be one of the few reaping the rewards. Start using it today and you’ll be glad you did.

Affiliate marketing can be very difficult to break into. This is because there are already a lot of people doing it. The challenge is to try and outdo other affiliates and think of ways to do a better job promoting. And the sea of information about this doesn’t make it any easier. But here’s one tip that almost no one is talking about.

Marketing with video

You can’t deny that video is powerful. The reason it’s so pervasive is because everyone loves it. About the only thing that keeps people’s attention anymore is video. So using it in your affiliate promotions is a no-brainer!

Examples of how to use video for affiliate marketing:

• Testimonials
• Record a walk-through
• Do an ordering video
• Do a preview video

Testimonials

This one is super simple. Just turn on your web cam and talk. It doesn’t have to be professional or polished. Seeing a real person on the other end helps your viewers make a buying decision. And honestly, if you mess up it just makes it seem more authentic. You can literally just press record and talk. And if you don’t want to show your face, use one of the next ideas.

Record a walk-through

This is a great way to promote something without selling it. Basically you’re doing a tutorial on how to use the product. And in the process you’re actually selling the product. If it’s useful, then what you’re teaching just makes people want it. So, obviously, pick a good product to demo.

Do an ordering video

This technique is super powerful. Do a screen capture of the ordering process. Watching you make a live purchase will inspire your viewer like nothing else. First of all it’s what’s called “social proof”. People will feel more comfortable buying after seeing you do it. Second, it builds trust. People believe you’re giving them good advice if you take that advice yourself. And finally, it creates envy. They see you getting the satisfaction of making the purchase and that makes them want it. You can add some extra punch to this by ending with: You’re gonna have to place your own order if you want to see the members area.

Sneak peak

This one is perfect for building up the value of what you’re promoting. What you do is record a tour of the back end. They get to see everything they’ll receive when they order. And it helps soften the skeptics. It’s much easier to trust they’re getting something if they actually seen it.

Anyone can do it!

There’s no technical knowledge required. Some very easy to use programs make the videos for you. All the work is done by the program. So you don’t have to worry about the technical part of this at all. Remain focused on the benefits:

• Increase sales You’ll earn more affiliate commissions when you add video. People like video, so start using it.
• Lower refund rates Less of your commissions will be clawed back, too. Now they know what they get before they purchase. So less of them will ask for refunds.
• Rise above the competition! This is such a simple technique. But only a very small percentage do it. This puts you out in front of the rest.

Get started right now and take your affiliate marketing to the next level. It’s your profit that’s affected by not taking action.

Honestly, everyone making money online has an email list. It’s the number one key to opening the success floodgates. Once you have a list built, you can market to it again and again. It’s like a renewable resource that allows you to make money on demand.

So, how do you build a list?

There are 3 factors in list building you need to consider:

• Your Landing Page
• The Incentive
• Your Confirmation Page

Your Opt-in Page – The squeeze page is the first thing your visitor is going to see. This is where they will enter their email address. That’s why it needs to look like a professionally designed page. It’s also got to be free from distractions. And have a clear call to action.

If you fail to make a strong close, you’re wasting your efforts. This is a definitive message that tells your visitor what to do. Without this your opt-in rate will plummet. Oddly, if you don’t make it clear, people will be confused and end up doing nothing.

You can take your opt-in page to the next level if you add a video to it. You only have a few second to get your visitors attention – video helps! It also allows you to tell them what to do several times. And after the video, you can make it just say “fill in the form now”.

If you don’t know how to make video, don’t worry. It’s very easy to hire people for a couple hundred bucks to make one for you. There are also list building systems that have everything pre-built for you.

Your Bribe – The second component is the reason they are opting into your list. People won’t give you their email for nothing. Most people are very protective of their email address. This means your bribe needs to be very attractive.

You have to provide value in your bribe for it to be good. Then it becomes something people want to get from you. And something from which they can derive a benefit. A few ideas:

• A report
• A piece of software
• A video
• A multi-part email series

Basically, you just need some content. And make it both helpful and informative. And nothing sells like “free”. But to get the email, it’s got to be a good offer.

If you’re worried about creating this content, don’t be. Here again, you can hire freelancers to create this for you. You just pick the topic and they create the training. One easy and effective bribe is a 5-part email training series. You can have ghost writers create emails for under $25 an email. And whole thing will only cost a hundred and fifty buck.

There are also list building products that include the follow up email series. There are two important things about the email series. First of all it has to give the subscriber what you promised – valuable information. It also has to generate revenue for you! One very easy way to make some money from your list is with affiliate marketing. Affiliate products are easy because you don’t have to do anything at all. And you can earn some commissions immediately from your emails.

Your Confirmation Page – The last bit is the thank you page. This is where your visitor goes after opting into your list. It’s a great idea to give them some valuable information right on the thank you page. That way, they feel glad that they gave you their email address. It also sets the foundation for your relationship with them. It also makes them more likely to open your emails.

Again, a simple solution to this is to get an email marketing package that includes everything. Or you can go the DIY route. You can either write the content pages on your own. Or have someone ghost write for you.

Summary

It doesn’t matter if you do all of this yourself. Or if you hire people to do this for you. Or if you get a ready-done package. The important thing is that you build your own list starting now. Once you’ve got it built. You’re free to make money at the push of a button.

If you’re not preselling, you’re losing money

If you want to make more money as an affiliate, you must presell.

Before we start, let’s talk about what preselling actually is. Well, it is an art. And it’s also a science. And it’s function is to prepare your reader to buy something. Then you send them to the site that sells what you’ve prepared them for. When done correctly, your reader will not even notice.

Basically, you give them some content. And then refer them to the product website. We’ll get into how to do it correctly in a minute. Before we get into that, you should understand what’s in it for you. Some major benefits of this process:

• It builds trust – Once you have your readers’ trust, they will click your links more readily. And the more traffic you can send to the sale page, the more commissions you’ll earn.
• It disarms your reader – When you’re not hyping or pitching a product, your reader lets their guard down. Unguarded reading means they’re not filtering what you say. And your intention is conveyed more easily.
• It creates buying readiness – Now they’re open to hearing what you’re telling them. Being open means, they are open to everything you give them. This includes the sales website you send them to! And being open to the information there means they are much more likely to buy.
• Your commissions go up – They arrive at the product website prepped to buy. With the guard down and trusting your recommendation. The only thing that can result is increased sales!
• It boosts customer loyalty – Plus, they feel they’ve made the buying decision on their own. Instead of feeling pressured or “sold”. And this leads to greater satisfaction with the product.
• It boosts your profits – Happy customers ask for refunds much less often. Less refunds means more affiliate money stays in your pocket.

The need to presell is clear. You earn more commissions. Your customers are happier. That’s a clear win-win.

OK, so how do you do it?

Now you know whey preselling is critical. And hopefully you’re convinced you need to start doing it. You’re ready to learn how to do it properly. Remember, there are two components – art and science.

Becoming an artist

First, you have to gain the trust of your reader, so they let their guard down. And the only method of doing this is to give exceptional value to your readers. The art of this is to provide enough information to be of value, but not enough to satiate the hunger. The idea is that they want more and the sales page you send them to gives them more. Plus they’re not guarded, so they’re more open and likely to purchase the product.

It’s also a science

You also have to include some very specific things.

One of these key elements is the presentation of the information. You’ve got to map out your strategy before you start writing. Your goal is to sell the product you’re promoting. There are two ways to accomplish this with great content. First, you can provide useful but incomplete information. The second way is to provide all the information and let your reader discover how hard it is to actually implement it. Either way, the product sales page solves the problem.

You also have to link to the product you’re promoting discretely. You have directly to the home page of the product. That’s because nobody likes to click on affiliate links. But, without your affiliate link, how do you get credit? Well, that’s part of the science of this whole process. You use the “covert cookie” strategy.

Next, you want to make sure you’re linking on related words and phrases. Hyperlinked words are clicked more than anything else. And if the words you hyperlink relate, your reader will naturally click them for more information.

Using this system, you’re virtually guaranteed to increase your affiliate business success.

OK, here’s the not-so-good news:

This process is not easy – at all! Let’s talk about everything required to put this plan into action: Great content. First and foremost, you have to be able to write a great article that provides valuable information. This means you have to be able to write well, and have enough knowledge to be useful. Strategic writing. Yes, you must providing useful content. But, you also need to know how to present the information in a way that give value to the reader. And still leave them wanting more. The other approach is to reveal a self-evident problem through the information.

Product selection. You also need to determine what products you’ll be preselling. Even if you can pull off writing and great article. All your efforts are wasted if you send your reader to the wrong sales letter.

Techy stuff. One of the keys to this system is using “covert cookies” for the tracking. This is actually pretty simple – just embed a 1 pixel X 1 pixel image and set your affiliate link as the “source” of the image. (Just don’t mess it up. Otherwise, you won’t get credit for your sales.)

Summary:

Now you’re armed with the information needed to effectively presell. Using these techniques will increase your affiliate sales by 500% or more! So, start now and develop preselling content for all your affiliate promotions. Please don’t be lazy. Put in the effort to reap the greater rewards.

Everyone knows the number one thing you need to be successful online is traffic to your website. Obviously, this assumes you actually have a reason for wanting this traffic. After getting the traffic you just need to convert it into subscribers and customers . . . but that’s the easy part. The most crucial aspect of this process is getting the visitors to your site.

How, then do you get traffic to your site?

Here are a few of the most popular way to get traffic to your site – for free:

• Web 2.0 Sites
• Articles Directories
• Video Sites

OK, so how do they work?

Web 2.0 Sites

By web 2.0 we mean any site where the users actually create the content. What this means for you is that you can join into the community and add your own content. Because these sites get so much traffic, Google and the other search engines treat these sites with greater importance in their algorithms. And that’s important to you because it means that Google and the other search engines treat links from these sites as more meaningful than links from other sites. So, if you place links to your own site inside your content, you get a search engine ranking benefit from those links. The direct traffic from the Web 2.0 sites themselves is only part of the benefit. There are many more web 2.0 traffic tactics we don’t have time to get into here, but this will get you started.

Article Websites

The next thing we want to talk about is article marketing. Article directories fall under the category of web 2.0 sites. In typical web 2.0 fashion, article sites rely on user-generated content (i.e. your articles). Just as with the other web 2.0 sites, having your content included gives you immediate traffic and search engine ranking. And in addition to this, other users can take your article and place it on their own website. And because the terms of the directory say they have to include your “resource box” you get links back from all these other sites, too. If you want to generate traffic from articles follow these steps:

• Figure out what keywords you want to go after
• Write your article for the keywords you’ve chosen
• Hyperlink these keywords to your website – both in the content of the article and in your author’s info section.

Video

Our discussion would not be complete without talking about video. Once again, this is really a sub-set of web 2.0. And it carries all the same benefits of article marketing. The extra top secret benefit of video marketing is that it’s much easier to rank for competitive keywords than in any other medium.

OK, so how do you do effective video marketing?

• Set up your YouTube account
• When people view your videos, you want them to visit your site, so turn all the other modules in your profile off
• Put relevant “tags” in your profile
• Make sure to include in your profile a link to your site
• Add 1 or more videos to your profile
• In the title, the description and the tags for each video, include your main keywords

Putting it all together.

If you want to get traffic to your site, then follow the advice in this article.

In order to make sure your membership business is profitable, you have to select the right market. Here’s how.

Number 1 – Discover Niches with Fanatics

The number 1 thing you have to do is find fanatics if you want a profitable membership website. Simply put, a fanatic is someone who’s willing to spend time and more importantly money on a topic they are interested in. OK, so we know what a fanatic is, but how do we find them?

• Here’s something you may not have considered – magazines! We’re so internet-based these days, it’s easy to forget about them. Because it’s becoming harder and harder to keep print periodicals profitable these days, if you see a magazine on the shelves, you know it’s making money. And that means there are lots of people interested in it. That doesn’t mean definitely that it will make a good membership business, but it’s a good starting point.
• You’ve got lots of opportunities every day to see what people are interested in. Just pay attention to what people talk about on the radio, at social gatherings, at the store or restaurants and anywhere in public. People generally talk about things they are interested in. And that may also mean they’re willing to pay money to learn more about it.
• Conventions, clubs, and organizations. Once again, if there are enough people interested in a topic to create a club or organization, then there are enough people to build a membership business around it. By the same token, if enough people are interested to hold a convention on a certain topic, you can definitely find enough people to build a membership business around that same topic.
• Think about the things that you are interested in. There’s a good chance that others are interested in these things, as well. The icing on the cake here is that you get to build a business doing something you love.
• Another fantastic way to discover what people are interest in is Google Trends. Google Trends tells you the most popular current search terms. The reason people are searching Google for info on these topics is because they are interested. And the fact that it’s made it into Google Trends tells you LOTS of people are interested. Hot topics that people are excited about make great niches for your membership website.

Next – Figure out if there’s money in it

OK, so you’ve got a great idea for your niche membership business with lots of fanatics. But will they actually spend money? The quickest way to find out is to determine if others are profiting in your potential niche.

OK, how do we figure that out?

• Find out if there are blogs or forums related to it. Just search Google for “YourNiche blog” & “YourNiche forum” and see what comes up. This tells you there are people who are actively interested in your niche.
• See if other people are creating and selling product in this niche by searching in Google Shopping, ebay and Amazon. It’s a good sign if there are because it tells you people are making money here.
• Look at Google Adwords for the same ads are running over time. If people are running the same ad over time it means they are making money in the niche. They would not continue to spend money on the ads if there were not making a return from them.

Step 3 – Determine ease of entry

Once you’ve found a niche and figured out that there is money to be made in, you need to determine if you can break into this niche. Here are some things to look at to figure this out:

• Product types. What kind of products are being sold in the niche? You’re looking for a niche that sells info products. Membership websites based on information are the easiest to start and maintain.
• The last thing you want is a marketing filled with tons of competitors. A few means it’s a profitable niche, but too many means you won’t be able to take a piece of it.
• Size vs. Competition. Some competition is good. It means that this is a profitable market. And as long as the size of the market is large enough to support the competition, you’re fine.
• Market readiness. Are people ready to buy? Are the receptive to marketing messages? Depending on the market it can be anywhere from a couple minutes to a many months between when someone starts the investigation process to when they actually make a purchase.

Summing it all up

So far, we’ve talked about exactly what it takes to pick a great niche: One with a hungry crowd of fanatics, who are ready to spend money on information about their topic. And you’ve determined your barrier to entry is small enough to give it a go. Now that you’ve prepared properly, you’re success is 99% guaranteed. How to actually run your membership website is the only thing left to talk about…

Let’s talk about some powerful ways to get free and automated traffic coming to your website.

But, first…

Before you begin trying to get traffic to your site, you need to do your keyword research first. The reason this is so important is that you are going to be building content and traffic sources for specific keywords. So you need to make sure the keywords you’re targeting are worth targeting.

A couple things to keep in mind when doing keyword research:

• Will you be able to rank for these keywords? Take a look at the “strength” of others websites (and how many) are already targeting these keywords.
• Are these “buying” keywords? Certain keywords are good for generating a lot of visitors who don’t buy anything. This is not what you’re looking for.
• What about affiliates? If you want to build a huge business, you’re going to need affiliates to help you. This means that some of your traffic focus should be on getting affiliates to your site.

This is critical to your business, but it takes a lot of time and effort. Hiring someone else to do it costs a lot of money. Which is why practically none of your competitors will do this! If you’re smart you will use website traffic software to help you with this process. This way you get this critical step done fast and done well.

OK, now we can talk about traffic…

Only after doing your keyword research correctly can you start targeting these keywords to get you traffic.

Powerful Traffic Tactics:

• Something you may not have ever considered is Surveys
• “Traffic Traps”
• Video Sharing Sites

Surveys

The truth is that people really enjoy taking surveys and finding out what other people think. And smart website owners know this, so they will include your survey on their site if you make a good one. They benefit by getting free content for their site and you get a link to your site under the survey. This allows you to get free website traffic from other people’s sites! Most people think surveys are just for collecting data, but in this case you don’t even care about the answers. So, get creative and make up a survey that’s wacky to get other people interested in putting it on their sites.

“Help” Websites

Maybe you’ve seen these help sites where people post questions and other people answer them. But, like the surveys, that’s not why you’re going to pay attention to these sites. You are going to generate traffic, leads and sales from them. One thing you can do is to visit sites like Craigslist and Yahoo! Answers and manually extract contact info to contact other users. So, if you’re smart, you’ll use website traffic software to do it all for you. These tools put the whole thing on auto-pilot and just deliver the leads to you each day.

Video Websites

Another great resource is video sharing sites like YouTube. These sites generate massive traffic and people watch over 2 billion videos a day on YouTube alone . If used properly, video sites can get you more website traffic than you know what to do with.

And don’t worry if you don’t have any idea of how to make a video. One super easy thing to do is take an article or website you’ve written. Then simply record yourself reading the text and you video the screen with a simple screen capture program. And like anything else, there is software available that will turn articles into videos for you automatically.

In Closing

It’s not that hard to get traffic to your websites. It just takes a little time and some ingenuity. Plus, there’s lots of great software out there to help you.

So, start right now and:

• Keyword research first is key
• Set up some viral surveys
• Build your traffic traps
• Capitalize on video!

Learn Top Affiliate Secrets

If you want to get started quickly and easily making money online, then affiliate marketing is for you. What “affiliate marketing” means is that you just send traffic to someone else’s website, they do everything else! (make the product, design the sale page, handle the billing and support, etc.), and you earn at least a 50% commission

Here’s just a few benefits

1. You’re able to start almost instantly without having to develop a product, write the sales page, design the website, come up with support tools, or set up the ordering, billing & delivery system.
2. You have basically zero investment of your time because the product owner does all the hard work of support, maintenance and billing.
3. You have nearly zero risk because you already know the product sells, because the product owner has already made sure the product sells. So you already know that the visitors you send will result in commissions for you.

There’s no denying that these benefits make affiliate marketing the best thing going!

OK, but it’s not all rosy…

After all your hard work of generating traffic to the sales page, you will never see any of those visitors again. Unfortunately, the majority of those visitors (at least 90%) will not buy on their first visit. And of the 10% or less that do buy, the product owner will be able to sell to them again, but you will not.

Is there are way around this?

What you need to do is capture the contact info of your visitors before sending them to the product website. By getting their contact info, you can follow up increase your odds of making the sale by sending them back to the product owner’s website multiple times. And if you’re a super star affiliate, you’ll provide high-quality content before sending them to the product website.

Here’s why you want to implement these affiliate marketing strategies:

1. You’ll be building your own list of potential customers that you can market to again and again.
2. You’re generating good will by giving them high-quality content. This way, they are much more likely to make a purchase when you send them to the sales page.

Here’s what you’ll need to create affiliate tools like this:

1. A lead capture page, preferably with video
2. Several high-quality content pages
3. A multi-part email series with at least 5 emails in it

You’ll use the squeeze page as the place to send your visitors instead of using the product website. Your squeeze page adds your visitors to you autoresponder. This is how you start building your list, and at the same time begin sending them useful information. Once your visitors have been subscribed to your email series, they are sent to your content pages.

These high-quality content pages provide value and build good will. This way your visitor is more likely to buy when they get to the product owner’s website. While they’re reading the content you’ve provided, your email system is already following up with them to send them back to the product website again and again.

There’s no doubt that it’s worth the effort to put a system like this in place, because doing so will increase your profits by 500% or more. After setting it up, you simply send visitors to your squeeze page instead of the sales page. And the rest runs on auto-pilot.

Setting it all up yourself requires some skill, and if you’re not up to it, you can use a service like Affiliate Silver Bullet. With a service like that, you don’t have to do anything. They make the video, build the squeeze page, write the email series, develop the content mini-site, etc. And then just give you a finished package. The major benefit of using a service like this is that you can get started right away, and for a whole lot less than it would cost to do it all yourself. The downside is that other people will be using the same affiliate tools as you. But the internet is pretty big, so this isn’t much of a concern.

The other route you can take is to hire people on Elance to create and implement the various aspects for you. Either way, it’s an important step that you need to take if you’re going to be serious about your affiliate marketing.

When creating your own blog you will undoubtedly come across two options: host it yourself or have it hosted by the blog platform. It’s best to host it yourself. Here’s why:

Control – You don’t have to be a control freak to want to have complete control over your blog. Your blog is part of your business and it makes sense to want to be able to design it, modify it and access it when and where you want to. Hosting it yourself ensures you have this control.

And this control over your blog means you can create a website that is 100% unique. You can focus on highlighting your brand personality and creating a strong image in your industry.

2. You can choose your own domain name. This is also closely related to the control issue. When you’re hosting your website on a blogging platform, for example http://yourdomainname.wordpress.com, your domain name has two unique challenges.

The first is that your blogging host may deny your domain name for myriad reasons and the other is that your audience has to remember your domain name plus your hosting site. They have to type the entire thing into their browser. If you host your blog yourself both of those challenges disappear.

Hosting your blog yourself means your audience won’t have to remember a long domain name and you can choose any URL you want.

3. Promotion. Platforms restrict what you can do on your blog. Many don’t allow affiliate promotions and they don’t allow you to sell ad space or participate in PPC to make money. Host it yourself and you can sell or promote whatever you want on your blog.

4. Security. Blogs are hacked, often. And while security generally isn’t an issue if your blog is attacked you need to be able to get onto the blog and clean things up. If your blog is hosted by someone else, you can lose information or be locked out of your account and that is perhaps the worst thing that can happen to a blog owner – again, it all boils down to having 100% control over your business.

5. SEO. Do you want to drive traffic to your blog or to the platform? If you want linking to boost your SEO then you must host your blog yourself. Otherwise you’re just improving the popularity of your host.

Finally, your image is affected if you don’t own your blog. You’ll have long email extensions that include the domain of your host. And hosting it yourself just looks more professional.

For more information on hosting, choosing the right domain name and how to find a profitable blogging niche visit :

http://GreatMarketingStuff.com/Adam

Here’s to Your Success,

Tim

“You are surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically increase your income, power, influence and success.”
-Jay Abraham