The following is a guest post by Sachin. If you would like to write for this blog, please check out the guidelines here.

Many of us are turning to starting, running and owning our own small business. This is a general trend here in Australia as more and more long-term full employment opportunities decrease and with the easy nature of Australian small business taxation laws. Just about everyone that I know is earning their own money and long gone are the days where we were all full-time employed. Most are successful at the beginning, but as with any successful business, it will grow and so we need to look at the ways that we can deal with that. You may need to increase your own skills, or that of people that you will hire, in areas such as sales training, to ensure that your business skills grow with your business. Lets look at some of the reasons why…

1. Keeping in Touch

When you are running your own business, you may fall out of touch with what is the standard norms in your business. By being a part of formal or accepted education and training programs you stay in touch with the rest of your industry and requirements. Training is an excellent way to stay abreast of new laws and regulations.

2. Training the Trainer

As your small business grows you may need to contract out or employ others. That means that you will need to get them to do things the way you want them too. You many be very good at what you do, but you might not be that good at teaching others how to do it. Training for the trainer is crucial and understanding skills and techniques of imparting information is extremely important.

3. Expert Knowledge

As your business grows, expectations on your personal performance and that of your staff will become greater. The larger you become the more professional people will expect you to be. This can be a radical shift for many people, who have always seen themselves as a small family business, for example. You will not be viewed this way by others, and this can be very damaging to your business. Perhaps now that your coffee shop has grown it is time for you to get some formal and accepted customer service training, even though you already have many years of working in the business. Expert knowledge can greatly enhance your hands on experience, making you top of your class. There are many hats that you are going to have to wear, get expert information and training on each one of them.

4. Future Growth

If you yourself become a part of training it will be easier and more effective in the future for you to recommend and set-up a training regime for the people that you employ. How will you know what is right for your people and how can you have them educated in areas that you are not formally sound in? Don’t just rely on your experience, package and wrap it ready for future growth and development. Your own training is training for the future.

It is all too easy to get out of touch and assume that we know what we are doing because we are experienced in our field. There are always ways to increase and ratify our experience and knowledge. Training and education will only enhance your skills and potential.

I thought I would so something different in this post and give you a different kind of flavor here on the blog, and most likely some laughs, too. I’m into music and videos, and I spend some time on YouTube every now and then. It wasn’t until I came across a post on Daily Blog Tips that included Daniel’s Top 6 Geek Parody Videos, which inspired me to do something similar.

Don’t worry, this is completely on-topic and related to entrepreneurship, as my title suggests.

I added a couple of Daniel’s favorites here as I also enjoyed them, and I did some digging on YouTube to uncover some other great videos as well.

I hope you enjoy them!

My Top Funny Entrepreneur Music Video Picks

One of the great ironies of human life is that so many people never get to do the work for which they’re best suited. Talents often go to waste, and the world is poorer as a result. Recent surveys indicate that people employed in areas where they have special talents are far more productive and much happier. If you’ve ever done sales training, you’ll appreciate the logic in this situation. Sales techniques geared to customer motivation are far more effective. Careers, too, are reinforced by motivation and sabotaged by the lack of it.

Enter the New Economy

In the past, personal talents were referred to as “hobbies.” Rather dismissively, they were sometimes called “amateur” pastimes, even as businesses. The New Economy is a very different ball game. Thanks to the internet and much better global communications, people can turn their talents into paying propositions. Many freelancers, in fact, work on that basis and do extremely well.

Some people are able to turn multiple talents into multiple businesses, with multiple income streams. Most work is outsourced, but some are direct suppliers of their products and services. It is interesting to note that in Australia alone, 25% of the workforce is believed to be self-employed.

The defining gifts of talents are their skills, and skills are the things most in demand in the New Economy. The simple fact is that talented people do better work, and the New Economy job market wants quality. Many of the “portfolio professions” like writing, graphic arts and media are performance-based, and a good portfolio can get you more work than a degree.

Another irrefutable fact is that highly talented people are also highly productive. They can do easily the things that others find hard, and they’re also usually innovators, with unique products and ideas. This means that the value of their work is much higher, both for themselves and for their business associates.

What’s Your Special Talent?

A real talent is a skill at which you truly excel. You do these things effortlessly and well, and enjoy doing them. Just about everybody has one or more talents, and it’s now very easy to put them into practical use. Whatever your personal talent, there is practically no limit to the possibilities of turning it into a paying career.

Many of the world’s most highly talented, successful people say that they don’t even consider their jobs to be a type of work. That’s a good indication of the best use of talent, where work becomes pleasure. When considering your own best talents, consider the things that you do best and enjoy most. These are your real strengths, the skills most likely to lead to success. If you think you need more training or experience, you’ve even got a perfectly good excuse to enjoy yourself while getting it!

Talent is a way out of the daily grind and the misery of mediocre jobs and lousy income brackets. Check out the professionals in your area of talent, and see how they got started. You’ll find that all they needed was a little persistence, and their talent did the rest.

If life is what you make it, your talents can make your life a dazzling success.

About the Author: Tim Millett is an Australian freelance writer and journalist. He writes extensively in Australia, Canada, Europe, and the US. He’s published more than 500 articles about various topics, including sales training.

The following is a guest post by Darla Nicole. If you would like to write for this blog, please check out the guidelines here.

Do you want to take ownership in your financial destiny? Chances are you, like every other American, have thought about being their own boss at one time or another. But most folks abandon their dream of starting their own business because they don’t know where to begin, think they don’t have the money needed to fund their venture, and they don’t know where to go for help. And while you might think that now isn’t the best time to start a small business, with the economy being what it is, keep reading.

In spite of unemployment figures hovering just above 14%, our basic needs remain constant. Did you catch that? Needs; not wants. These two facts make starting a small business (and being successful doing so) attractive on two levels:

1. Starting your own business can replace the job/income you lost.
2. Starting your own business can often provide necessary goods and services for less money to those who have less to spend.

No matter what type of business you are thinking about starting, there are plenty of free government resources out there to help you get started. By visiting www.sba.gov or www.grants.gov, you can review and apply for free money or low interest rate loans to get you well on your way. This is especially beneficial to women and minorities – the government is more than happy to help women and minorities with business funding. In addition to the money available to you, there are resources to help you in areas of bookkeeping, taxes, marketing, and other important business needs – all for free.

Other sources of free money are available, as well. You just have to know where to look. Many are restricted to certain types of businesses, so keep that in mind before you ask.

• SARE (sustainable agriculture research & education) Grants are available to those whose business or project centers around agriculture. No, that doesn’t mean you have to milk cows, shear sheep, or combine wheat. SARE grant recipients have developed farmer’s market co-ops and/or markets, opened ‘schools’ to teach healthy food preservation (canning/freezing) and nutrition, and developed agri-tourism businesses.
• If you are interested in agriculture, your state’s department of agriculture will have details for state and federal programs for grants and low interest rate loans for female and first-time farmers.
• If you’re an out of work educator, your church many be more than willing to talk to you about spear heading a day-care and/or pre-school. Using their facilities, you will be able to fall under the guidelines and regulations for non-profit childcare providers. A church considers such a venture a great way to serve the community, and as an evangelistic tool. You will be paid to use your skills and basically be your own boss, without investing anything more than your time and talents.
• Colleges and universities often have research programs available to qualified individuals at no cost to those doing the research.

Many small business ventures require little or no investment, and believe it or not, online mba degree
programs aren’t required either. Anyone with any level of education can start their own small business. Let’s look at a few of those and how they can work for you. In the interest of not being repetitive, don’t forget that no matter what small business venture you choose, you have the ability to reach millions through Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace at no cost. Most communities offer free or low cost classifieds in the newspaper, radio, or internet. Take advantage of them. Another wonderful tool at your disposal is to develop your own website. Webstarts.com allows you to build your own website (they provide the tools) for absolutely no charge. They also offer upgrade packages for as little as $5 a month, but even if you don’t want to spend the money, the site is easy to use, and updating the text and pictures on your site is as easy as it gets.

• Whether it’s your full time job or just a side line to make up for the rise in gas, heating, and grocery prices, there are tens of thousands of people making a pretty decent income by selling their hobby. If you can sew, knit, crochet, bake, make unusual jewelry, sites like Etsy.com allow you to create your own virtual store that reaches across the world. Etsy charges 3.5% per sale plus a fee of $0.20 per item listed for sale. Other sites like E-bay and handmadecatalog.com are two other popular sites to help you market your goods.
• Are you known for throwing the best parties ever? Does every kid in town want to be on your child’s guest list? Sit down and map out a plan for pricing a variety of party plan packages to organize, set up, supervise, and clean up the party at either a public place or the client’s home. Then using Publisher or a similar program, put together some fliers and mail or hand deliver them throughout the neighborhood, child care facilities, schools, youth clubs and organizations, and your family and friends.
• Parents will do just about anything to keep their financial woes from affecting their children’s activities. If you are qualified to tutor or give music lessons, chances are you can do so for a lot less than actual learning centers such as Sylvan, which charges more than most parents can pay.
• Secretarial, IT, writing, graphic design, and marketing jobs are being outsourced more and more every day. Freelancers save companies money by eliminating the need to pay benefits, employee taxes and salaries, and provide office space for performing these duties. Elance.com is an excellent source to gain employment in your area of expertise for little or no cost. Job seekers set up a free profile, and bid on jobs using ‘connects.’ There are different levels of membership ranging from free to $40 per month. You can also network with other small businesses that want and need to budget their money wisely.
• Elder care or sitting is one of the fastest growing needs in our society. Check with your state’s social and senior services agency to see what regulations you need to follow to offer such services. Elder care will most likely require you to become a CNA (certified nurses assistant). Classes are usually offered at a low cost through your community’s adult education center. For elder sitting, nothing quite that detailed is required, but it would be advisable to be competent in the areas of CPR and general first aid. Once again, a simple flier telling potential clients who you are, what your qualifications are, and what you have to offer, is an inexpensive way to advertise in senior centers, retirement homes, medical offices, and hospitals.
• Do you understand the ins and outs of tax forms, the health care system, insurance, or the rights of battered women, children, or the elderly? Advocacy is an honorable service to offer and, for the most part, can be performed from the comfort of your home office.
• Any service or product that promotes ‘living green’ will be well received, as will those that offer fresh produce, home grown agricultural products, and organic products. Local markets, co-ops, and virtual stores like localharvest.org will allow you to advertise and sell your products for a small fee.

Starting a small business can be an exciting adventure that brings both profit and personal fulfillment without spending a lot of money. The key is to find what you can do best, and offer it in such a way that will make it beneficial and cost-effective to those you wish to do business with.

About the Author: This is a guest post from Darla Nicole, contributing writer at CreditDonkey.com. She searches the internet looking for the best credit cards to recommend her friends. Darla reminds you that “financial literacy begins at home.”

First, I apologize for the delay. I was without the internet for a few days, and I wasn’t about to attempt to write an entire blog post on my Droid 2. That just wasn’t going to happen. Fortunately, I could still check my email and Facebook for the time being.

I’m fully back online now, so I wanted to get this income report up right away.

Every month I do a detailed income report, showing you exactly where my income comes from. This gives you an idea of the various income streams that are available, as I strongly believe you shouldn’t place all of your eggs in one basket, as discussed in this post.

This is also a way for me to measure my success (or failure) from month-to-month. Each month will vary in income, and that’s all part of working from home as an affiliate marketer. This acts as a motivator for me to keep pushing forward to reach my goals.

I hope you find these income reports helpful and give you encouragement that it is possible to make money on the internet.

Let’s see how I did last month…

Income from ReplaceYourSalary.com

• ClickBank: $19.34
• PayDotCom – $28.17
• Paul’s Backlinks: $8
• Google Adsense: $17.64
• SFI: $6.84
• Project Payday: $6 (commissions earned from promoting the program, not actually using it)
• AdFish – $26.40
• ResponsiveData – $21
• AshMax – $19.50 (Total monthly commissions from GDI and FTS)
• Affiliate Power Group – $21.81
• Ads – $90

Total = $264.70

Income from Micro Niche Adsense Site

My micro niche site keeps improving each month. Google Adsense earnings for this month from the site totaled $8.75. This amount is included in my total Adsense income as reported above. I finally was able to add another page to my site, providing more related content for those searching for that topic. I believe adding more related pages will bring in more targeted visitors and produce more Adsense clicks. That’s the goal, anyway.

Total Online Income

Total online income from all sources comes to…

$264.70

Income from GetBackYourExAdvice.com

No income as of yet. I’ve been slowly building backlinks and adding more content to the site. Expect an update very soon regarding the site and what exactly I’m doing to market it.

December was by-far my best month to date. One of my goals last year was to reach $1,000 in income for a single month, and I finally did it. Now, the next goal is to do it consistently. I will be doing much less proofreading in the months ahead, so the bulk of that income will be gone. That means I’ll need to boost more income out of this site and try to get the ball rolling with my new niche site.

That’s my current plan.

As always, I welcome your comments below…

The following is a guest post by Art Decker. If you would like to guest post for this blog, please visit the Write For Us page to view the guidelines.

Depressed about how the recession is affecting the U.S.? Think the situation is hopeless? I confess that I have days that I do as well; however, I also think taking a step back and looking at other economies and their response might benefit us all. Consider Mexico for a moment. Have you ever crossed the southern border of the United States, even for the day? As soon as you cross, street vendors come up to you asking if you want to buy something. The vendors are frequently children with gum to sell – others who you may encounter on the road want to wash your windshield.

With the most minimal amount of cash, these young entrepreneurs purchase what they can afford – gum, a squeegee brush and bucket – and turn it into a business! More than 40 percent of those children don’t go to school. Yet, these young street vendors show an innate entrepreneurial drive that we can all learn something from – even those of us who consider ourselves older and wiser. Regardless of your start-up capital – which these tenacious children have shown is fairly irrelevant – anyone can, with creativity and determination, start a business from scratch and be in control of their own success.

Even in these times, I see examples right here in our country – people who ignore the negative outlooks realizing that true change is an individual decision. In fact, I am continually amazed at some of the unique low-cost business ventures that I have come across as part of my daily work. Rather than letting lack of a store front or office location be an obstacle, these guys have found creative ways to to solve their problems.

Here are some examples…

The Neighborhood Store

As grocery stores in inner cities go out of business, some neighborhoods have become what sociologists call “food deserts” — places where the only grocery store for miles around is the convenience store in the local gas station, where fresh or even canned or frozen fruit and vegetables are not to be found. I know Americans like fast food, but there is still a demand, however minimal, for more nutritious fare. I have found that some enterprising chefs are driving to discount stores to buy food in bulk. Then, they rent some climate-controlled self storage units, from which they sell canned vegetables and frozen foods. Some of these enterprising businesspeople even cook, freeze, and sell meals they make themselves. One even specializes in gourmet jams made from fruit she grows in her own garden.

Becoming the neighborhood retail store: A variation on the “food desert” theme is the “retail desert.” In areas where few people can afford to buy expensive, fashionable clothing, a few seamstresses and tailors are making a living by buying discount clothing in bulk, and then customizing it to make it look more unique. Like their “food desert” counterparts, many of these individuals often take advantage of self-storage units as a convenient and relatively low-cost way to store their items.

Tutoring

Some communities have wonderful public school systems — and other communities don’t. But, children all over need an education. Some tutors have taken to renting a quiet space in which to study and teach during the school year. It pulls children away from the lure of the television and helps them to see the value of concentrating on their homework in a quiet location.

Renting Strollers and Bicycles

I was amazed by the creativity shown by Fred (one of my tenants). Fred didn’t have a lot of money. But, he had been going to garage sales and buying strollers, bicycles, and even small foldable grocery carts when he found them in good condition. Sometimes he found strollers or bikes that simply needed a minor repair, and he fixed them. Fred shrewdly rented a ground-floor storage space downtown in Chicago’s Loop, where parking fees are astronomical. Banking on the idea that tourists would want to take the “L” downtown to see museums, rather than deal with the Loop’s traffic and parking nightmare, Fred converted his self-storage unit into a stroller, bicycle, and small cart rental outlet. He took out small free classified ads on websites such as Craigslist and has since become the Loop’s best-kept secret! I even noticed that he has some of those folding chairs that can be used as walking sticks or canes when one is not sitting on them.

Artisans and Craftspeople

In every part of the country, the culture is a little different, and the biggest difference I see is between the city and rural areas. In both venues, I have seen artisans and craftsmen pursuing their trades from low-cost storage facilities (usually rented). In the country, I’ve seen leather workers repairing halters and bridles and braiding nose bands by hand for polo ponies. In the cities, I have seen craftsmen restoring antique furniture — or in some cases, building new furniture. I have even seen artists making mosaic tiles that can be used to decorate upscale kitchens and bathrooms.

For every person and every neighborhood, there seems to be a unique business idea waiting for the entrepreneur with the right combination of skills, business sense, and creativity. If I had a dime for every one of them, I wouldn’t be worrying about this recession — I’d be a wealthy man.

About the Author: Art Decker is a division manager with Self Storage Company, which operates a group of websites, including a Texas self-storage locator. Art leads a busy life, but enjoys meeting new people and interacting with customers when traveling between sites, like from Austin to the Fort Worth self-storage center.

The following is a guest post by Kyle Simpson. If you would like to Guest Post on this blog, please contact me.

Some people just seem to have a better grasp of the English language than others.  Whether they know grammar, spelling, and punctuation like the back of their hands or they have a proven ability to turn a phrase, they can inform, influence, and inspire with their work.  And yet, a strong background in poetry, prose, or even technical writing does not necessarily ensure the ability to make a living with your craft.

So, here are 5 simple tips to help you get it together and adapt your writing style in such a way as to provide for a viable occupation.

1. Try everything.  You won’t really know what you’re capable of until you try, so get your hands on all kinds of work.  Write for publications and blogs with all different subjects, try your hand at marketing or advertising, create an e-zine, or pen some technical service manuals.  The ability to diversify will only make you more marketable (and it will help you figure out what you excel at and what you might want to avoid).
2. Join a service.  As a freelance writer, you will spend a lot of time hustling for jobs and fielding rejections.  This can be extremely disheartening.  To avoid some of the hassle, join a free website like Elance or ODesk that allows you to create a profile (that companies seeking service can peruse) and apply for jobs posted by their patrons.  If you get good reviews and offer a variety of samples, you may soon notice that you receive enough offers to keep you busy indefinitely.
3. Keep learning.  The best writers hone their style through both research and practice, so don’t be too hasty to rest on your laurels.  Just because blogging is big right now doesn’t mean it will keep you employed for the next ten years, so make sure you learn the ins and outs of different types of writing so that you have something to fall back on if the bottom of your bread-and-butter workload suddenly drops out.
4. Be professional.  This means you deliver what the client wants and exercise due diligence to ensure that your submissions meet their standards.  For example, an informative article written for a celebrity blog (think TMZ) is probably not suitable as a press release (even if they contain the same basic information).  And if you can’t tell the difference in style, you are going to be hard pressed to expand your business.  So put in the time to learn various formats so the client isn’t forced to explain your job to you (or give you the send-off).
5. Own it.  Your skill with language and proactive attitude will help you land jobs.  But it’s the personal flair you add to your work that will interest people in hiring you again and again.  Putting your personal stamp on your writing is what makes it desirable, so don’t be afraid to own it.  All famous writers are recognizable in their way.  For example, you wouldn’t confuse Stephen King with Edgar Allan Poe, or Jane Austen with J.K. Rowling.  In the long run, a signature style will get you a lot further than dotting the “i”s and crossing the “t”s.

About the Author: Kyle Simpson writes for Medical Coding Certification where you can find more information about a career and training in the medical field.

photo credit: Amy McTigue

The other day I was running at a local park, ya know, since I’m serious about this whole exercise stuff. We have two parks in the area; one is closer than the other, but the one I run at is much nicer.

There’s a lot of wildlife around (a ton of ducks and little ducklings and very friendly squirrels) which makes running in a park so much more enjoyable than running through a development or through town. I recommend doing so if you have a local park nearby.

On this particular morning I was determined to run two miles, which I proudly did. At about the one and a half mile marker, something strange caught my attention.

The particular park attracts a lot of other runners, joggers and walkers, including people that like to walk their dogs. Well, I came up on a man who was walking his dog. I don’t know what kind of dog he had, but it was rather small and was on a leash (all dogs have to be on a leash).

They were standing next to a short cement wall in which the dog wanted to jump up onto to see down toward the creek where the ducks were. The man decided to help the dog by picking the dog up by its leash, rather than bending down and literally picking the dog up.

You read correctly…

He didn’t pick the dog up like most people would… He pulled up on the leash until the dog lifted up off the path and onto the cement wall.

I almost tripped over my jaw as I saw this right as I was passing by. I don’t know how tight that collar was, but I can’t imagine that felt very good for the little dog. It could have been strangling its neck for all I know.

After my run and on the drive home, it hit me…

Many internet marketers these days are like that man I saw. They hold their leashes in hand and attempt to pick up everyone they can with it, all the meanwhile strangling them. This causes people to resent them and turn the other way. Certainly not the way internet marketing is supposed to be.

Let’s look at some prime examples of what I’m talking about.

The first comes in the form of email spam. You have people shoving their business opportunity or product down your throat, some of which you never agreed to receive email from. Complete turn off… agreed? Makes you hate them all the more, right?

Another example of this – I was trying to sell something on Craiglist, and it clearly has “this seller does not allow commercial contact” (something like that). So, I get an email asking if I had sold my item yet, and I replied, “no.” Right away I get another response from the person, and the email went something like this: “Don’t sell it! Instead, sign up to blah blah blah…”

Yeah, you get the point. They were promoting some website in which they wanted me to sign up for. They got their leash around my neck and strangled me. Hate it when that happens!

Next, you have scuzzy sleezebags using forums and instant messaging services like Skype to spam you with products and services you have no interest in. They “strangle” you right from the start, and you do what any normal person would do. You delete them and/or report them for spam. There’s no being “friends” with them because they have no interest in that.

Here comes my favorite (quite the opposite)…

Thanks to social media and allowing people to connect and meet new people, we now have a whole new breed of marketing spam. I see this a lot on Facebook and have fallen victim to it myself.

Someone said it perfectly when they said (I’m paraphrasing here)…

“When you want to be friends with people and you click the ‘Add as Friend’ button, that button doesn’t say ‘Add as marketer.’”

What this means is, when we add people as friends, we should become friends with them, not a marketer who’s only interest is to get as many people as possible to join our “awesome” business.

It’s important to build relationships with people. Once you have that relationship factor and have built up trust with that person, then you can mention your business and what you do.

The whole point of social sites is to be social. Yes, they have features in place that make it easy to market our businesses, but you first need to be social with people. People will respect you more for it, and they’ll be more inclined to hear you out and check out your business and what you do later on.

Some final advice…

Don’t be like that man where he strangled his dog with the leash, even if it was only for a second or two. First impression is everything, and it only takes a few seconds for you to ruin your reputation online. Strangle enough people, and you’ll find yourself out of business very quickly.

How are you marketing your business online? Have you ever been the victim of marketing spam? Or, have you ever been like that man and strangled others in an attempt to make a quick buck? Share your thoughts below…

Traffic Exchanges are still used by many Internet Marketers to build targeted website traffic. They’re great if you want to get a lot of traffic in very short amount of time. I use them myself from time to time and have learned a bit about how to use them to be most effective.

This post is the continuation to my post yesterday which covered the basic idea of Increasing Web Traffic Using Traffic Exchanges.

When it comes to traffic exchanges, you must know that not all are created equal. That is, not all are the same, and not all are going to produce the same results. It’s just the nature of traffic exchanges, so don’t dwell on this fact.

Instead, let’s focus on what you can do to get the best results. I’m also going to point you to a resource that covers the top 100 traffic exchanges and also has a cool built-in system to help you build your downline.

If you plan on using a traffic exchange, it would be a good idea to know how popular it is and what kind of results you can expect to get out of it. Normally this would be hard to know without first using it and doing some testing. Well, thankfully we can know beforehand we dive in and waste our time on a traffic exchange that might not give us the results we’re looking for.

Let’s face it, if I’m going to spend my time surfing for credits, I want that to be time well spent and know I’m going to get some sort of return out of it. It doesn’t have to be a monetary return by any means, but I better see some positive results.

The best way to use traffic exchanges, in my opinion, is to promote a splash/squeeze page that builds your email list. That’s what I do, and that’s what most all other marketers are going to tell you.

Now, perhaps maybe you have a brand new, never before seen system, and you’re trying to get some exposure to it. If you can create a catchy headline or have a very short sales page, then yeah, you might have a chance.

But, I would say your focus should be to build your email list and get more subscribers that you can promote your business opportunities to. That’s the first MUST in using traffic exchanges effectively.

The second thing you need to do is know which traffic exchanges are hot. For that, we have Affiliate Funnel’s Ranking Report. This report ranks the top traffic exchanges based on user experience and user votes. It also shows other important stats… you can check out the report to see what they are.

So now you know what you should be promoting, and you know which traffic exchanges to promote it on. The last thing you need to do is test, test… oh, and test. Test your results with each traffic exchange and make sure your work is paying off in the end.

One of my readers prompted me to write about the use of forums in marketing your work from home web site or products/services that you offer. Believe it or not, forums can provide terrific targeted traffic as well as long-term natural search engine traffic.

I’ve always been a fan of forums. They provide an enormous wealth of information that is completely free. You can get any question answered by those more experienced. These two benefits alone are well worth the time of getting involved in forums.

An even bigger benefit that some overlook is the marketing aspect that forum participation can bring. The marketing doesn’t come from your posts, but instead from your forum signature. This aspect, that is built into most if not all forums, is not used to its full potential.

Forum signatures should be designed to grab the attention of other forum members who read your posts. This can be tricky as you usually have limited space to create a signature, but it can be done.

A forum signature usually consists of your favorite links to websites that you want to share with others. These can also be your own websites, and that’s what this post is going to focus on.

Here’s an example of one of my signatures… http://www.warriorforum.com/members/alan-mater.html. Click on the About Me tab and scroll down till you see the Signature section.

Notice how every website or web page contains a phrase that is hyperlinked to go to the corresponding URL. For instance, I have Professional Proofreading Services linked to go to http://www.replaceyoursalary.com/proofreading.html.

The mistake I see many make is that they ignore the keyword aspect of forum signatures and just enter the URL for their website, and sometimes they don’t even have it hyperlinked! That’s fine if you’re focusing on direct traffic from the forum, but you’re missing out on the larger aspect of natural search engine traffic.

Note: Most forums have different signature rules and require specific code in order to create hyperlinked text. Be sure you know what is required when setting up your signature, otherwise it won’t turn out right.

You see, using keywords in your signature links will create backlinks to the web pages those links link to for your given keyword phrase and also boost those pages rankings in the search engines. This will create long-term search traffic, which should be your ultimate goal.

Forum participation is a great way to get your name and business or work from home web site noticed by others. But, you want to get noticed by the right kind of people. What I mean is that you want to pick forums that are related to what your business or web site offers. You want your direct traffic to be as targeted as possible.

The last MUST is providing value when posting in forums. This will ensure you get noticed and bring more clickthroughs of your signature links. Below I’ll provide a list of forums I actively post in that are related to the Internet Marketing and Work From Home niche and get a great deal of traffic from…

Warrior Forum

Conquer Your Niche

Entrepreneur Forums

Work At Home Forum

Alright, now get to work and start getting involved in forums!