Latest Home Based Business Ideas | Top Home Based Businesses

Affiliate Marketing Future

2010-11-10T17:36:00.001Z

Four Tips For Long Term Affiliate Marketer Success

You may have found that starting an affiliate marketing business is easy at first because you are exciting and working hard. Eventually you begin to have days where the sales do not come in and you are not reaching your goal of a creating a full time income.

The tips listed in this article should help you tremendously although it is hard to earn a full time income being an affiliate marketer.

1. Providing good content on your affiliate website is very important. If you can create good content through articles and product reviews you will provide people with a reason to trust you. If you can earn the trust of the people looking at the product on your page then you have a much better chance of them purchasing that product.

2. Creating a website of your own is important to do if you do not have one. Websites provide you a place to sell your affiliate products and also a place to market those products.

You may be selling someone else's product but you can use that product to market your own product. As an affiliate marketer you cannot just worry about selling the product but selling your own business.

3. You need to brand your business around the internet. You need to have something that no other business has. By having your own personality and style on the web you give yourself a unique business that people will be intrigued by.

It is also important that you get a personal relationship with your subscribers. If you continually communicate with your subscribers they will feel like they are wanted and will maintain their subscription.

4. The most important thing that you can do is to act. If you think you should do something, get out and do it. People sit around and wait for things to happen and then wonder why they do not make any money.

As soon as you start your business you need to get out and market your business, put content onto your website, and get subscribers to your site. When you don't wait good things start to happen.

Many people fail as an affiliate marketer because they are unable to get continual sales. They all start out really good but as the months or even weeks begin to roll by they are unable to continue to sell the product. With these four affiliate marketing tips you should be able to have a successful business for the long run.

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William Hutchinson invites you to visit his affiliate marketer website for the top affiliate programs online today. Yes you can make money and he can show you how. If you need few work from home ideas or help starting your own business at home please go his website here now:===> http://www.hutchesaffiliatemarketing.com

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Building your list

2010-11-10T17:34:00.000Z

4 Reasons Ecourses Are The Best List Marketing Method

The greatest asset an online business can have is a list of highly targeted, responsive subscribers to send their marketing message. Imagine, being able to market to a highly specific group, where you already know what they want.

But the fact is, building a list is harder than it used to be. Competition is high, and it seems like everyone is fighting for your subscriber's attention. What this means is less people will join your list, less people will open your emails, less people will read your email and less people will ACT on your offers. All told, this means less money in your pocket from your email marketing efforts!

Smart marketers have responded to this challenge. Over the years smart marketers have been offering free reports, free ebooks, videos or other ethical "bribes". But in my opinion, there is no better method for building a targeted, responsive list than eCourses.

An eCourse is simply a series of emails sent to the subscriber with the goal of teaching them something of value. It is the REASON why a visitor to your site gives you their name and email address. They sign up because they want to learn something you are teaching.

Here are the 4 reasons I believe eCourses are best:

Ecourses Build A Highly Targeted List. This is not, "Sign up for my newsletter and I'll send you a bunch of emails about anything under the sun". There is a very specific reason for the eCourse. It is going to teach something about ONE topic. So, when someone subscribes for your eCourse, it is because they are interested in this topic and want to learn more from you.

This targeted list is a huge asset to your online business. You know EXACTLY what the subscriber is interested in. Therefore, you can design your lessons (and offers) to fulfill exactly what they want.

Ecourse Lessons Get Opened More Frequently Than Other Emails. Remember, there are other people competing for the attention of your subscriber. The second biggest obstacle you face is getting subscribers to actually open your email messages. But, since they signed up for your eCourse, they WANT the information you are providing. Therefore, they are waiting for your email lessons. When they receive one, they are much more likely to open it!

More People Will Read Your Ecourse Lessons. Again, your subscribers asked for this information. They want to learn from you. They changed from someone looking for information to someone asking YOU for information. You bet they are going to read your lessons! While other emails go unopened and unread, yours is anxiously awaited and read.

Ecourse Convert Better, Making You More Money. Helping people find solutions to their problems should be your number one reason for writing an ecourse, but you also want to be compensated for the time and effort you put in. This is why ecourses are perfect. Since your lessons are getting opened and getting read... you get a much higher percentage of people who ACT in response to your lessons. And when they ACT, either by buying your product or buying an affiliate product, you make money. A higher conversion rate means more profits for you!

So, if you want to build a targeted list people who are anxiously awaiting your emails, open them when they arrive, read them from top to bottom and ACT on your offer... eCourses are the way to go. And the great thing is, once you have one of these list building, profit generating courses in place, it runs on autopilot. So, you have plenty of time to create another profitable eCourse!

What's your first ecourse going to be about?

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Edward Lomax uses eCourses to teach people and generate profits. You can take his courses free at http://www.bigwealthuniversity.com . If you want to create your own profit generating ecourse, check out his report Autopilot eCourse Cash at: http://www.autopilotecoursecash.com

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Hot ideas

2010-11-09T11:18:00.002Z

One of my biggest regrets in the investment field is that I failed to take the chance to buy some silver bullion when I first started writing about it almost four years ago. That is right - I have been blogging on the subject and spreading the word to others, without taking the steps myself.

As world demand for silver runs far ahead of annual production, it is very clear that this precious metal is a worthwhile investment vehicle.

Gold is also a good hedge against inflation and insecure banks, with gold coins being a very popular way of investing at a low cost. The United States Gold Bureau can help you find the right route for your needs.

gold

2010-11-09T10:52:00.004Z

If you are looking for a home for some spare cash and maybe also some capital appreciation, then the High Street accounts will not satisfy your requirements. Look a bit further for a more solid investment idea and you could consider whether it would be advantageous to buy gold coins and use them as a hedge against inflation and government uncertainties. Many people are turning to this sector and they get an excellent service from the United States Gold Bureau, who guide them through every step of the process. Their dedicated staff have years of experience in precious metals investment, and a thorough knowledge of the precious metals market.

Article submission services

2009-03-06T11:24:00.000Z

Why Submitting Your Articles Manually Won't Save You Any Money at All

For those of us promoting our home based businesses, we know how important it is to use articles to drive traffic to our websites and blogs. When submitting these articles, we do have a couple of choices. We can choose to either submit them manually or pay to have a service submit them for us. Forking out a couple of bucks for a distribution service provides us with more than just a few advantages.

First of all, and the most obvious advantage to me, is that it saves us time. If you have ever tried to manually submit your article before, you know how tedious and time consuming the process can be. With an article distribution service, you can submit to hundreds of places in the same amount of time it takes you to submit your article to just one place manually. This fact alone should be enough for everyone with a home based business to use an article distribution service.

Another advantage is that the article distributors will bring you massive amounts of traffic. It is possible to get the same amount of traffic by submitting manually, but it would take you hundreds of hours of work to duplicate the results. Any online home based business owner knows that the more traffic you get, the more money you make.

There are some article distribution services that will allow you the option to leverage your articles. Leveraging your articles means to make some changes in your title, sentence structure, and resource box. Doing this will allow your article to be viewed by the search engines as several different articles. This gives your articles a better chance of being ranked higher for your selected keywords. Getting ranked higher means more traffic, which means more money.

The number one advantage to using an article distribution service is that you can use them to make money! The best article distribution services also work as affiliate programs and can pay you as much as 35% for each referral! What that means is that if you refer just a couple people to sign on under you, not only will they deliver your articles for free and bring you massive amounts of traffic, but they will actually pay you commissions on top of the actual service you signed up for!

So after reading through just some of the major advantages of using an article distribution service, you must now realize that it should be a vital part of your home based business. You should now also realize that by submitting your articles manually is actually not saving you any money at all, but rather holding you back from making money both by receiving less traffic and by not giving yourself a chance to earn commissions. If you are submitting articles manually, do yourself and your online business a favor and make the switch to an article distribution service. Just be sure to select one that will allow you to leverage your articles and earn commissions on referrals you bring in.

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Find out more about how Matt Helphrey uses an article distribution service to make money and increase traffic to his Home Based Business by over 1000%!
http://www.livelifetothefullest.biz/blog/2007/10/oct-26-2007.html

Money Making Opportunity in a Recession

2009-03-01T11:21:00.000Z

Five Things A Money Making Opportunity Offers On The Internet

We all have dreams and I suggest to you, somewhere in that "dream machine" is a money making opportunity. Yours might be things like buying a new car, a new home, providing a college education for your kids, traveling more, quitting your job, making more money or maybe retiring earlier. It usually boils down to needing more money in order to fulfil our dreams. In this article we will look at five things a money making opportunity online offers the average person.

1. You need choices and the Internet offers it to you. When you go online looking for a money making opportunity, you may or may not have a clear-cut idea of what you are looking to do or get involved with on a full time level. The best thing to do is to think about a hobby you enjoy or maybe an area of your skill set. If you can make money in one of these areas your chances to succeed will go way up. The Internet offers you more choices and chances to find this type of opportunity for you.

2. We do not want to overstate this, but when you are looking for a money making opportunity you will not want to spend a lot of money to get started. The average person cannot start a McDonalds franchise because of the cost. But anyone, anywhere in the world, can join an Internet business for little or no money out of their pockets these days and turn that into a great extra income for them.

3. One thing that makes the Internet so attractive as a way to make money is you can do it pretty much hands off. Once you get your money making website set up and a marketing strategy in place, the words autopilot come to mind. If you get a frequently asked question section on your website you can handle most customer service issues in the form of an FAQ (frequently asked questions).

4. The Internet offers many great money making opportunities to you without the hassles of employees, office hours, working weekends. This is true because you are open year round, every day, all day long. Your business never sleeps even when you choose to do so.

5. Making money from home is a big draw to a lot of people. Everyone wants to work at home and using the Internet is a great way to do it. You can think of all the benefits of doing things that matter most to you but a few include staying home with the kids, saving money on gas, setting your own schedule, and so on.

This is 5 things the Internet offers for every money making opportunity you look at online today. Now all you need to do is find the right one for you.

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Aubrey Richardson is the founder of http://www.logofax.com a Logos & Clip Art site and has created http://www.internet-based-business-opportunity.com to show others how to build a successful online business. Find out how you can profit online too with his popular free ecourse, available at: http://www.aubreyrichardson.com

LA Fitness Bully Tactics Scam

2007-04-27T15:27:00.000+01:00

This is the detail of my complaint against LA Fitness:

LA Fitness failed to deliver the substance of my membership entitlement, none of my complaints have received any attention from LA Fitness personnel. Because I got no reply from LA Fitness on any of these occasions I cancelled my payments since they had not delivered your obligations under the contract.

I am well aware of LA Fitness' poor reputation for harassing members over payments, and the investigations into LA Fitness by BBC Watchdog. Also the judgement by the Advertising Standards Authority, who issued Ad Alert no 540 against your company due to their failure to respond to complaints over inaccurate advertising of membership costs.

I have written to LA Fitness asking them and their 'debt collectors' to cease and desist from pursuing unjustified demands against me. I have acted perfectly reasonably in cancelling the contract after giving you ample chance to deliver your side of the contract, which LA Fitness has singularly failed to do.

Spread the word about your blog

2007-03-04T17:01:00.000Z

All bloggers and webmasters need to make use of Technorati, which is a search engine and directory for blogs, holding details of 60 million blogs worldwide. All blog feeds are ranked according to the number of inbound links to each blog. Multiple links from one site will not help: Technorati looks for a range of sites that have decided to link to you as a gauge of your blog's popularity.

Sign up is fast and free, and you can immediately 'claim' your blog in their directory and add your favourite tags - up to 20 tags for each blog. These tags will be used to list your blog posts in Technorati's tag indexes. Look for a popular but not too-competitive tag: for example, home business is a very popular Technorati tag.

You can search the tag listings yourself to decide how to target your blog posts. Whenever you update your blog, your blog platform will ping Technorati instantly and there will be a listing of your post in their records. There are thousands of blog directories on the world wide web, Technorati is a must for any serious blogger.

Motivation for Success

2006-11-25T13:27:00.000Z

*Failure doesn't just "happen" - it's a choice.
There are only two ways you can fail - you can give up and quit when something goes wrong, refusing to learn from your mistakes. Or you can try new ideas and learn from what works. Seek out the positive in every bad situation and ask, "What did I learn from this?"
*Assume nothing, test everything
Deal only in facts, and check details, even the mundane: does a link work or not?
Theories, assumptions and guesses are the enemies of success. Some of the most interesting statistics may be based on flawed data. Before you make decisions, ask questions. Assume nothing. Test everything.

Get Free PPC Advertising For Your Site or Blog

2006-11-05T16:18:00.000Z

Lots of emails asking about Search BigDaddy last night, so I just want to clarify. The offer is free, the service is good, and you get Pay Per Click Money to play with as you wish. To repeat - Search BigDaddy. is free to join, $50 free advertising credits, and more credits for every search you make. Make BigDaddy happy and sign up today!

Podcasting - Podcast for Profit Now

2006-10-17T18:46:00.000+01:00

Podcasting is a way of distributing multimedia files, for example music video or audio broadcasts, using RSS or Atom syndication across the Internet. These can then be played at any time on a computer or mobile device. The term podcast, like radio, can mean both the content and the method of delivery. Podcasting has become a massively popular way of listening to downloaded tracks on the move, and it is rare to see anyone under the age of 40 walking without an earpiece playing favourite music on an MP3 to help the journey along.

Podcasting is like making a radio broadcast to the world, and it is about to become a key element in website content. The good news is that podcasting is not surrounded by complex technology or rules and regulations. There is no licence required, unlike radio broadcasting. Podcasting requires no expensive equipment – a simple microphone is enough. Even a home based business can start podcasting, recording their contributions and uploading an MP3 file to the server in the same way as any other web content. Finally, the software can be obtained for free. Get your tell-all guide to podcasting, showing how to profit from podcasts. "Podcasting Made Easy" is ready for you right now (by instant download).

Website Promotion - No Quick Fixes

2006-09-16T18:25:00.000+01:00

If you are offered the 'new' website promotion program, 'Instant Booster', please leave it alone. It is simply a rebranded set of free FFA submitters that was around two or three years ago. There is a money back guarantee but you can save yourself the effort and hassle of ordering and asking for a refund. The headline reads: 'Can you afford to loose (lose) 300,000 potential customers per year?' Yes, you can, if they are searching for a dog training advice and you are selling face cream! The program will just create tons of links to FFA farms. Your site page ranking can suffer as a result.

Instead, follow tried and tested techniques - solid Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). It is not as complicated as you may think. Keep reading for tips, and sign up for my regular updates. When I find paid software that works, don't worry - I will rave about it here!

No Software Needed?

2006-08-15T12:05:00.000+01:00

Butterfly Marketing proves to be just as powerful in the strategies it teaches as in the software itself. Learn More About the Butterfly Manuscript. Michael Cheney of "Adsense Videos" applied the the pre-launch strategies and affiliate tools and JV strategies outlined in the Butterfly
Marketing Manuscript to his launch.

'Mike - first off I just want to say thank you so much! The techniques I learned from Butterfly Marketing played a BIG part in helping me make $63,249 in sales in 24 hours...' Read the rest of Michael's story here:

You too can have the same results as Michael Cheney by implementing the tactics and strategies outlined in the Butterfly Marketing Manuscript. Learn why people are saying this report has changed the way marketing is done on the internet for good!
Read more amazing success stories from people who applied what Mike teaches in his tell-all Manuscript on how to profit big from your own products and membership sites.

Adwords rate hike - reasons and tactics

2006-08-10T14:13:00.000+01:00

Google Adwords made some recent changes to the landing page algorithm. As a result for many Keywords that were costing five or ten cents a clíck, advertisers are expected to bid at least 50 cents to $1 plus. Small to medium sized businesses have found themselves priced out of the Adwords market and many are turning to SearchBigDaddy where advertisers 'earn' PPC money by using the search engine, and use the credits to buy top search positions. After only a few weeks, webmasters are reporting solid increases in quality traffic to their websites and blogs.

Web Hosting Tips

2006-07-14T18:55:00.000+01:00

I have been helping my friend set up a new website. Hours spent checking the HTML, choosing the right
keywords for SEO. Less than two weeks later all that work is lost. The Web Hosting company c**ked up one of his domain transfers and as a result his sites were offline for over a week. He was so exasperated that he cancelled the contract and changed hosts. BUT the domain name was included in the hosting package and he cannot take it across with him. Moral: 1. do not put all your eggs in one basket. 2. Use a reliable hosting company that will register your domain to YOU.

Writing and Marketing eBooks to Make Money

2006-05-28T10:36:00.000+01:00

I saw this article on eBooks, thought you would like it.

The Top Seven Mistakes eBook Authors Make
© Jim Edwards and David Garfinkel
eBooks are the hottest thing going on the Web right now!

Authors with the entrepreneurial instinct are making anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars per month - that's right, per month - by selling ebooks online. Why are some authors doing so much better than others? We've discovered seven key mistakes that most ebook authors make (and in doing so, hold themselves back from major success):

1. They don't write to a specific, target audience.
The biggest mistake most ebook authors make is they don't clearly define, identify and visualize who they are selling their ebook to. On the Web, to be successful, you must write to a specific group of people who have specific interests. Make sure that you know exactly who is going to buy your ebook, and where you can find them online.

2. They don't automate as many of their business activities as possible.
Selling ebooks, though it is highly profitable, is not a business where you make hundreds of dollars per sale. Automate everything you can - credit card processing, ebook delivery, as much technical support as possible. If you can't automate a function, delegate it to someone else.

3. They don't have a compelling title for their ebook.
Use words that convey the benefit of what's in the ebook, as well as words your audience is familiar with. A bad title for an ebook: "Online Marketing for Newbies." A good title for the same ebook: "97 Ways to Promote Your Website - No Experience Required."

4. They try to cover too much ground.
Many ebook authors convey a lot of information but don't cover anything in-depth. As a result, they never fully explain anything in enough detail to provide any useful value to their readers. This is a very bad mistake to make, especially when it comes to how-to ebooks, which happen to be the best type to write.

5. They are not proactive in their marketing.
It would be nice if marketing for your ebook simply happened on its own - but it doesn't. You have to do it yourself. After you've promoted your ebook to the people on your own mailing list (if you have one), then you have to contact other Website owners and persuade them to be your affiliates. You should do this continually.

6. They don't differentiate their ebook from its competitors.
When you choose your topic, even if there are a hundred other ebooks out there on the same general subject, choose an angle for yours that will make it easy for yours to be distinguished from the others.

For example, right now job-hunting ebooks are very popular. There are dozens that are big sellers. "Secrets of Breaking Into Pharmaceutical Sales" has a very specific title that sets it apart from the competition, and is aimed at a clearly identified target audience. Incidentally, it's selling very well itself.

7. They write ebooks that nobody will pay for.
Many ebook authors write about information that either people can get for free, or that people are not actually interested in enough to pay for the information. Before you invest weeks or months into the writing of your ebook, invest a little time investigating whether other ebooks in the same subject area are selling on the Web.

So, there you have it - the seven big mistakes to avoid. Remember, the opportunities are plentiful - and huge - right now for anyone who wants to become a best-selling ebook author. Simply use common sense, follow our advice, and let your literary career flourish!

If there ever was a 'must-read' for this century, it's this book. For more information - http://hop.clickbank.net/?adrienne1/ebksecrets

Search Engine Optimisation - SEO Services

2006-05-04T17:29:00.000+01:00

We are going to the Search Engine Strategies conference in London on 1 and 2 June. I am very keen on search engine optimisation: SEO services - I find it is an effective website promotion method, and I expect to learn loads on these two days. I will be blogging on the conference events, plus anything else I pick up beforehand, so watch this space.

Web Business Startup Blog - Work Online at Home

2006-04-05T13:03:00.000+01:00

If you want to make money online, you should check the regular journal of a couple from London starting an online business. Hear the real story from real people! It starts at a seminar in December, with a step by step guide to starting a web business. Internet marketing is easy when it works…. we learnt loads and are still learning. We will not boast of making millions online (yet)! And when you visit any of our sites, please look around, and read the advertising too. I'd do the same for you!

Great advice on using Adsense

2006-03-07T18:27:00.000Z

I just found this article and wanted to share it with my readers - some good advice here. Enjoy!

How I Got More Clicks With Google Adsense. I run a norwegian site called. The main focus on the site is to manage all my favourite links in one place and give the visitors my best site tips on the Net. The second focus on this site is to get visitors from search enignes into the site for a certain topic and lead them to nice sites.

How to get money for running this site? I tried many ways to get money, but found google Adsense to be easiest way. What I did wrong when placing the ads. My first mistake was to place the ads away from the content. About 2% of all visitors clicked on the google ads, but I wanted more. This is what I did: 1. I made a Custom palette with my site's own colors. Background-color, text-color and link-color. This made the ads more blended into the site. 2. I moved the ads from the right section of site to the middle. Firstly at the top of the page, secondly I places them inline of the articles leading text and the main text.

3. Waited...

4. Got the site's click-rates up to 10-15 %. This means that 10-15% of all visitors clicks an ad. The only problem on this norwegian sites is that the ads itself vary on relevant quality. Norway is a small market, You may do better of on a international site with more relevant ads. Good luck!

About The Author

Øystein Iversen in running a website development company in Norway called Essence Internett (www.essence.no). This articles is mainly about a norwegian site called linker.no www.linker.no) (

Internet Shooping Boom benefits Niche Websites

2006-02-13T20:59:00.000Z

The expansion of the online retail market is evident again this week as figures for 2005 were released. UK consumers bought £8.2bn ($14.3bn) of goods from websites last year – a 28.9% increase in internet marketing over 2004, according to market analysts Verdict. In cash terms that means shoppers spent an extra £1.8bn online in 2005, increasing opportunities for niche websites to meet the new demand.

Verdict says the figures show internet shopping is closing in on the £9.4bn spent in department stores in 2005. Its retail analyst, Nick Gladding, said online shopping was now a formidable competitor to the High Street as it allowed people to do the work from home, searching the web for the best value and service.

A quarter of all UK buyers now shop on the internet, for goods and services, as the online shopping community grew by 25.5% to 14.6 million people between 2004 and 2005. The surge in "e-retail" means online shopping is now winning its biggest-ever slice of the UK retail market. Overall UK retail sales grew by just 1.5% in 2005 - the slowest rate since the early 1960s.
In its e-market 2006 report Verdict says internet marketing enables customers to shop at times to suit them. With many more people working from home, the pattern of high street shopping has changed. One of the biggest growth sectors in online shopping is among the over-50s, with numbers almost doubling to 2.7 million users between 2004 and 2005. The amount spent by this sector rose 46.7% to an average £458 per head.
The report comes a month after a report from e-commerce trade body IMRG said online shopping among UK consumers soared almost 50% in the 10 weeks before Christmas. Shoppers spent £4.98bn online during the period, compared with £3.3bn for the same time a year earlier.

Online shoppers need great customer service as they can easily click on to another retailer who serves them better. To keep these clients, website owners must use the right advertising media and launch regular email marketing campaigns. Online marketers can get unbiased advice from dedicated niche websites. The top home based businesses are giving online shoppers what they need: building a relationship, giving excellent service and following up with their customers. Many offline businesses face huge changes to retain the modern consumer against this new competition.

Creating an ebook and getting it to market

2006-02-11T17:26:00.000Z

If you have written a quality ebook you have an exciting money-making commodity
in your hands and I can help develop the idea.

Promotion involves the "front end" which is turning your book into an ebook and
creating a straightforward web page to host it. Then there's the "back end" which is
Search Engine Optimisation so that it gets a high search engine ranking.

I have been doing a lot of work on the best ebook and autoresponder software,
both of which are essential to promote the ebook. I have also gained a lot of background
knowledge on optimising your web pages for search engine spiders.

You can contact me if you have the basis of a quality ebook and we can develop it together.

Be a top internet presenter

2006-02-09T19:45:00.000Z

Anyone involved in internet marketing may think speeches and presentations are not important skills for them, but that is not true. The web pages that grab attention now use audio and video streaming, the face behind the site is going to be exposed sooner or later. In webinars and conference calls, presentation skills are crucial. You may have chosen a home based business because you prefer lone working: most people find making a speech more scary than dying! And because they dread it so much, they convince themselves it will be awful. As we all know, these predictions become self-fulfilling.

With a little preparation you can be a killer presenter rather than a dead one - make your presentations memorable, fulfilling your purpose and meeting the needs of your chosen audience. Challenge yourself to take a radical approach to the whole business of presenting with some simple techniques that you can adapt to suit. If you deliver a speech in your style you will enjoy it more, and so will your public. Everyone needs to make good speeches or presentations – if you get involved in network marketing your presentations are key to earning your living. We all see a lot of presentations and some are memorable for all the right reasons – stimulating and interesting, leaving the audience wanting more. Others could at best be used as cures for insomnia, or can make the audience resent the waste of their time. The best presenters deliver a clear message with conviction and work hard to engage the audience, with impressive results. The converse is also true: no amount of technical expertise will help if there is no message in the talk, or if the speaker clearly has no faith in it.

Never overload your listeners with excessive detail: few, if any, talks are purely for information exchange despite what many people think. They are for building credibility, respect, understanding, trust or relationships - but for pure information download they are inappropriate. Of course information is exchanged but not as much as the average speaker hopes or expects. Use visual aids if they serve a purpose, but not as a hiding place. They should support the message in the way that best meets the needs of the audience. Never read verbatim from notes, or simply repeat the bullet points on your slides, because it’s a waste of everyone’s time. If you have nothing to add, then you don’t need to be there!

Thorough preparation

‘It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.’

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

‘Public speaking is very easy’

Dan Quayle, US Vice-president to George Bush 1989- 1993

Always know the outcome you want from a presentation. It may be to tell people about your business, secure their co-operation, or sell them something. Ask the right questions from the outset to clarify the purpose and appropriate style. First, why are you speaking? Who are your audience and what will you want them to do as a result of listening to you? How can you influence the outcome? It is pointless giving any talk if you don’t know why you’re there. You will check that your message is clear: can you explain the key ideas in two sentences? How can you support that message in a memorable way?

Now prepare your speech outline: like any good story a presentation needs a beginning, middle and an end.

Beginning

· Who you are and why you are making this presentation

· What your presentation is about and why it is being given

· Why it will be of interest to them

· How long it will take

· When and if they can ask questions

· Whether there will be handouts

· What you hope to achieve by the end of the presentation

Middle

· Essential facts relevant to the group you are presenting to. What is the key thing you want the audience to understand?

· What logical order will you follow?

· ‘Nice to know’ points to be added if time permits

End

· Bring together and summarise the main points of your discussion

· Thank the audience and invite questions

Emotional State

It is good for your emotional state to feel prepared, and a courtesy to your audience Stage fright is less apparent to the audience than to the speaker. Most accomplished speakers still experience it, but they manage their emotional state to overcome it. It does not matter how you get into a good emotional state; the results are the same. Always arrive early for presentations and while you relax for a few minutes, mentally rehearse how you want it to go. The difference between enjoying your presentation and dreading it is the way you use the nervous reaction. By taking control and using the adrenalin rush positively you can perform well and come away satisfied that you have achieved what you aimed for in your presentation.

You can improve your physical state, to support your emotional state. Keep your voice well-lubricated, but not with tea/coffee/alcohol – these dry out your vocal chords. Drink water and if necessary have a cup with you (placed safely out of the way) during your presentation.

Be conscious of how you breathe. When you breathe in, aim to feel as if you take air in as low down in your body as possible without your shoulders having to rise. Take a relaxed, deep breath before you start to speak. It will make you feel calmer and more confident.

Don’t do all the talking if you don’t want to – get others to participate by challenging your listeners, asking them questions and stimulating discussion.

Good posture is very important if you want to get the best out of your voice. Remember to stand up straight.

Warm up your voice! Chew an imaginary toffee! Hum gently up and down! A properly warmed-up voice will sound alive and free. Massage your face to warm and relax the muscles

If you find your mouth getting dry during the presentation – gently bite the tip of your tongue. This releases saliva back into your mouth

Stretch, tense and relax your whole body. Shake your fingers and wrists, roll right and left shoulders individually and then together.

Presentation skills

Your presentation skills give your words life. It is not a good idea to give a ‘canned’ presentation. Rehearse. Prepare and practice by all means – but let the material take second place to your energy and individuality. You want a certain outcome. If you fix your presentation too rigidly it becomes an end in itself rather than a means to an end.

Any effective talk must communicate your arguments and ideas, persuade your audience that they are true, and be interesting and entertaining. Business speakers sometimes forget about the third item, thinking (mistakenly) that work is serious and entertainment plays no part in formal presentations. Some think it follows automatically from the first two (it doesn't). Others believe that if a talk is entertaining, it can’t at the same time contain a serious message. Not true: you can communicate and persuade effectively and entertain at the same time. Keeping your audience interested and involved is essential because you need their full attention to get the message across.

Listening is hard work, especially at conferences. When audiences attend talks over a period of several hours, they need the speaker's help to maintain their focus, or one conference speech merges with another. This is the true meaning of "entertainment." With serious topics entertainment doesn't mean making your audience laugh out loud. Instead, it's about helping them stay focused on and interested in what you have to say.

Begin by reminding them how long your speech will be, and whether you are taking questions during the presentation, afterwards – or even not at all! During the presentation look around – make eye contact with as many people as possible. Move around if you feel more comfortable, use your hands to express yourself – but avoid distracting mannerisms. Remember to smile! (some of the audience may be as nervous as you). Focus on the people who are nodding and showing the most interest. This will help bring the rest on board.

Winding up

Finish your speech with a positive summary of the key points and point the way ahead – question time, follow-up contact: whatever you are offering. THANK THEM for listening. Stay professional even with a hostile audience

It is a myth that experienced presenters don’t need to prepare thoroughly. After all, they are coming along to hear what you say – people may even be paying to hear you. If you are properly prepared you will be remembered for all the right reasons.

Top Home Based Business

2006-02-08T11:34:00.000Z

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Balance your home based business

2006-01-16T10:38:00.000Z

I will show you how you can keep fit and care for yourself without neglecting your home based business

Millions of people long to work from home, and the lucky few manage to achieve their ambition. Once you have realised the dream, it’s important to maintain the work-life balance or you could find your effectiveness declines. Working at home still has its own pitfalls: you’ve left the day job and you’re no longer shackled to the desk by your evil boss. But your new boss can be even more tyrannical – it’s you!!

The urge to make your business succeed is powerful. All entrepreneurs feel that sense of urgency, and the need for perfection. By making that change to the next e-mail or tweaking the website, it’s going to make all the difference to the success of the business. We all have to remember that the most important business asset we hold is ourselves, and we should prize it accordingly. It is a truism that we only get one body, so we should take care. Treat yourself like a thoroughbred, with the right diet, rest and exercise.

Chances are that your workspace wasn’t designed for the job. If you don’t use an office chair you are likely to be hunched over your screen, risking upper back tension and repetitive strain injury. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting a complete ergonomic assessment: I left my job to get away from the box-tickers! It is possible to work in less-than-ideal conditions and survive, as long as we take some sensible steps and regular breaks.

The other risk of internet working is a decline in your fitness, if you’re not very careful. It’s easy to feel that time spent working out is time stolen from your business – try to change your mindset and see that this is a key part of your requirements. You need to maintain your fitness routine for the sake of mind and body. The work at home entrepreneur often spends hours each day without talking to another human being face to face.

To deal with your posture and fitness needs, try to ensure you get out of the chair at least once an hour, and do a few stretches and shrugs to release tension in your neck and shoulders. Stand with feet slightly apart and let your body relax downwards to touch your toes with the fingertips (or as far down as you can reach). If you repeat this one regularly it’s encouraging to see how much your flexibility can improve in a short time.

It is a really good idea to leave your office once every three hours. You can set an alarm to remind you, then go outside and walk for at least ten minutes. If you have been hitting some blocks during the working day this is an ideal time for problem-solving: the fresh air will do wonders and help you think clearly.

Once a day, do some type of fitness work. If you can get to a gym for a full workout, that’s great and you will feel great afterwards. If not, make sure you do something. Here are a few exercises you can do anywhere:

- Stand up and place your hands on your knees and breathe out, pulling the abdominal muscles in strongly. Hold for at least ten seconds, and breathe in. Repeat ten times, build up gradually to at least 20 repetitions by the end of a fortnight.
- Stand up and raise elbows level with your shoulders, and twist slowly as far as possible to your right. Repeat the exercise to the left, do at least ten repetitions in each direction.
- Stand up facing away from a solid table or chair, place palms on the surface with fingers pointing forwards. Lower your body, keeping back straight and a slight tension in your abdominals. Come back up using the strength in your arms. Repeat at least ten times.
These are just a few ideas designed to take less than five minutes, and you will feel better for doing them. It’s also important to manage your time and allocate leisure breaks as well as time for socialising with friends and family. If you are in the first year of setting up your business try to spend at least 30 minutes a day on something different – it is too easy to become blinkered, thinking and talking exclusively about the business. Try to make this a habit, or you run the risk of bore everyone around you rigid!

One last idea, which may not be available to everyone, is to get a dog. This is a great way to get away from the desk and keep active, and immensely rewarding. If you can't have a dog of your own, see if anyone nearby needs a dog walker. Now there's a great home business idea .......

Adrienne Davis

BBC Newsnight Geek Week

2006-01-06T18:25:00.000Z

If you can see BBC broadcasts, either online eor through your own TV, don't miss Geek Week, which started on Wednesday. Fascinating, with visits to Silicon Valley and a feature on Avatars and the rising trends for online games. Did you know you can pay someone to take on your role and get you to a higher skill level? Apparently these virtual worlds are also a starting point for romance as well.
Don't miss the rest of the series! More next week.....

Latest home based business ideas for 2006

2006-01-04T14:23:00.000Z

Latest home based business ideas for 2006

Well, it is that time of year again, and everyone is full of resolutions. Let me guess – did yours include the words ‘weight’ (less of), ‘money’ (more of), ‘job’ (none of)? Well maybe it is time to think seriously about starting your own home based business, either part-time or as an alternative to the job that has seemed so dismal recently. The technology available to all of us now costs so little that many more ordinary people can get a slice of the enterpreneurs’ pie, with the latest home based business ideas.

Online shopping took off in a big way this Christmas. Supermarkets struggled to meet orders following a sharp and much bigger than expected rise in demand, while traditional High Street retailers faced increasing pressure from online rivals. Internet sales for Christmas 2005 were 50% above the 2004 pre-Christmas period, and the average spend was also high, according to IMRG, which represents e-tailers. "Britain's 24 million internet shoppers spent £2.253 billion online during November, an average of £94 each," IMRG says. This view is repeated by Deloitte, the consultants. "More than half of UK consumers made an online purchase this Christmas."

Britons spent more than £150m a day online in the run-up to Christmas, and anyone who thinks this is a young person’s phenomenon should think again - the 45-55 age group are most likely to use the internet to buy most of their gifts.

So if you want to find out how your ideas could fill a gap in the online market, please have a look at my website and sign up to the newsletter for in-depth knowledge of how an e-business could be the smartest move you make this year.

Adrienne Davis has extensive experience in marketing, business start up, training and employment law, and publishes a regular FREE newsletter – sign up today at
http://www.homebusinessadvisers.com