Today’s society, including many businesses, are filled with corruption. Violence is on the rise in many parts of the world. Today’s children are brought up in homes that teach the wrong values and are told to only look out for “numero uno.”

One website that’s teaching the proper values is the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. This website was brought to my attention in one of the forums I visit daily, and I thought I would share it with you. Their focus is on spreading the word about peforming random acts of kindness during your daily activities.

The quote, “A good deed never goes unpunished,” by Gore Vidal, comes to mind. As an online business owner and aspiring leader in my industry, I strive to help and encourage others on a daily basis. I try to be a light to those that maybe feel down.

Any good deed you can do for someone will not go unnoticed. A lot of appreciation and respect can be earned, and the rewards could come back to you ten-fold.

No matter where our daily life leads us, we can all find time to perform just one act of kindness each day.

I believe these principles not only apply to real life scenarios, but also to the online world as well. Being polite and courteous and being helpful to everyone we meet online will go along way. We will earn others respect, build a friendship with those people and maybe even earn their business.

Be sure to visit the Random Acts of Kindness website to learn more about the foundation. They provide a Kind Times Newsletter, allow you to create your own website, send out e-cards and let you download free stuff.

It’s amazing how many entrepreneurs there are nowadays. It’s no wonder, though, with the many resources available for those looking to start their own small business. Work from home ideas are readily available for anyone, and the amount of resources and information are vast.

The search query for “small business ideas” without quotes returns over 7.5 million results. There’s plenty of ideas and information to go through if you’re thinking of working for yourself. What you would want to do is narrow down your options by looking at what you’re interested in.

Do you have a certain hobby or an area of interest? If you’re going to search for small business ideas, it is best to be as specific as possible. Brainstorm with family and friends to see if they could help you come up with some good, small business ideas that would be right for you.

There’s one resource for small business ideas that I want to bring to your attention. While I was away on a hunting trip, I had the pleasure of receiving an email from Small Business CEO Magazine. I must admit I had never heard of them before. I was informed that my How To Stay Motivated and Focused with Your Work From Home Online Business article was going to be featured in their December issue.

After taking some time to look at what Small Business CEO Magazine has to offer to entrepreneurs, I just had to share this small business resource with you. They provide valuable small business advice and tips, not to mention ideas.

I was very honored to be featured in their magazine and be a part of what they have to offer to the entrepreneur community. If you’re looking for small business ideas and advice, grab your issue of Small Business CEO Magazine. Don’t forget to look for my article in December’s issue!

Small Business Ideas and Resources:

Small Business Ideas

Business Myths Exposed – Grab Your Free Copy!

Starting a work from home online business is tougher than you may think. It takes a lot of work to make it successful and is no different than any other type of business. Hard work, persistence and dedication is the key.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that success will happen overnight. There are too many people that are scammed into thinking that a work from home business will make you rich overnight without any effort. Don’t be naive in thinking this way.

Another problem is that there is too much hype when it comes to online businesses. Do your research, and don’t buy into the success of others. It takes a lot to be successful, regardless of what people tell you. The successful ones have labored many hours over their work from home business and have experienced the success and failures that are associated with it.

Do your part and learn as much as you can. Knowledge is your friend. Put what you learn into practice and build a solid foundation for your online business. You can never learn too much, and when it comes to running a successful online business, you will be grateful for every bit of information and advice you can get. Besides, the internet is changing, so there will always be new things to learn. You must be willing to change for the sake of your work from home business.

You must be patient with your online business. It’s often said that a business is a marathon, not a sprint. That couldn’t be more true. You must be diligent and continually work your online business every day. As time progresses, you will see results.

Don’t set unrealistic goals for yourself and your work from home business. Don’t expect to see results within a certain time frame. If you don’t get the results you were expecting, you could get frustrated and quit. You must allow time for your online business to grow. Keep in mind that success is equal to the amount of effort you put into your work from home business.

One of the smartest things I did was get a group of mentors that were willing to help me. Don’t be afraid to seek help and guidance with your work from home online business. The more help, the better. You need proper guidance and training.

There are too many people giving up on their work from home online business way too early. They just throw in the towel due to frustration. Before you decide to give up and think that it’s not going to work for you, here are some tips to help you stay motivated and focused.

1. Determine your goals. Why are you starting a work from home online business? Write down your goals, keep them close by to look at, and stop at nothing to achieve them.

2. Make your dreams a reality. You must work hard and put forth the effort in order to achieve your goals. The more goals you achieve, the closer will you get to your dream.

3. Be diligent! You will start to see results the more you work at it. Use this to keep yourself motivated. It will become fun and enjoyable to see that your hard work is paying off.

4. Stay focused! Do one thing at a time. Don’t stray and do more than one thing until your task is completed. You will get more done this way.

5. Don’t listen to the crowd. There will always be people saying that you’re wasting your time and that you need to get a “real job.” Do what you believe in, and you can make it happen.

Remind yourself of these tips the next time you feel like giving up. Be part of the 5% that succeeds! You CAN do it!

Social bookmarking has become very popular. Social bookmarking allows you to bookmark sites you find interesting and share them with other users. The number of social bookmarking sites has really sprung up in the past year.

Here’s how you can market your online business using social bookmarking sites. Whenever you make a new post to your blog, write a new article, ect., bookmark that post or article to as many social bookmarking sites as you can.

This will help build backlinks and also build an awareness with other users. Make sure your content is interesting and unique. You want to create a buzz within the social bookmarking community so that others vote for your bookmarks. The more votes you get, the better.

A word of caution… spam is a big problem with social bookmarking sites. Self-promotion is seen as spam. Some sites you’ll be able to get away with it, others you won’t. My advice is you bookmark other people’s articles first, and then your own. That way yours will be at the top of the list.

If you want to bookmark your blog posts, PostOnFire.com is specifically for blogging, and they allow self-promotion. So make sure to bookmark your blog posts at PostOnFire.com. If it’s interesting enough, people will vote for it, and it will gain in popularity. This will help bring awareness to others about your blog and what you provide.

I recommend using a service like Socialmarker or Social Poster which will allow you to submit your sites to multiple social bookmarking sites.

For a list of social bookmarking sites to submit to, just go to the above services and they provide a long list of sites you can sign up with. Once you get signed up, start posting. This will help build your online business and bring awareness to other users.

The whole goal in building an online business is to build up the backlinks you have pointing to your site. The result is better search engine rankings and free, targeted traffic from the search engines. One simple and easy way of achieving this it to submit your website to link directories.

Link directories are simply a collection of websites that were submitted by website owners. Most link directories divide all the websites into categories to make it easy to find a website on a specific topic.

Every link directory is different. Some offer a free and paid inclusion, while others require a payment only. Others also offer inclusion for free if you place a reciprocal link on your site. A reciprocal link is simply a link on your website to another site in exchange for a link on that site to yours.

The best links you can get are one way links, not reciprocal links. Reciprocal links aren’t all bad, but Google places more emphasis on one way links.

Link building is only beneficial for your website when you have optimized your site for the search engines. If you don’t know what I mean then I suggest you go and read Steps for Building a Successful Online Business – Part 1 now to learn how.

Submitting your website to link directories is somewhat time consuming, but well worth it. The key here is to slowly build up your backlinks, so submit your site to ten directories a day. Make sure you use your keywords in the Title and Description when submitting your website.

Don’t stuff your keywords in there, just make it look natural as actual people will be reading it. If you stuff your keywords in the Title and Description it will be seen as spam and your submission will be rejected.

There are two ways to submit your website: Manual submission or automated submission.

Manual submission is free but also takes up a lot of time. If you don’t have much time then you may want to invest in software that will automatically submit your website to link directories for you.

Directory Submitter will submit your website to hundreds of directories for you automatically. There is a free download version, which is limited on the amount of directories it will submit to. If you can afford it I suggest upgrading to get the full benefit of the software.

I have compiled a list of resources for manually submitting to link directories on my website:

Link Directories Resources – Submit Your Site to Link Directories

Don’t underestimate the power of link directories. Boost your search engine ranking easily with this method!

Here’s another way to drive more traffic to your website and increase your visibility.

Step Three: Forum Marketing

There are thousand of forums on the internet, each with a different topic. There are forums for making money online, internet marketing and online business related. There are also forums on computers and IT. The topics and niches are wide and far.

If you’re in a particular niche and want to extend your reach, getting involved in forums is a great way to do so.

Here’s what you need to know when participating in a forum:

• Provide value to the conversation
• There’s no such thing as a dumb question, so just ask
• DO NOT blatantly advertise yourself, your products or affiliate products
• If you’re allowed to have a Signature file, then make good use of it
• Use your keywords in the anchor text of your links in your Signature file
• Participate! (that’s a duh!)

Okay, you get the idea. The problem now is finding a forum to get involved with. The easiest way to do this is to just do a search in Google for whatever niche or topic you’re interested in. Say you sell dog supplies and want to find dog forums, so just search for “dog forums” and see what comes up. I haven’t actually done that search, so I have no idea if there are any. I would assume so, though.

My area of interest is internet marketing, so I like to participate in forums that have to do with internet marketing and making money online. Here are the forums I participate in: The Warrior Forum, Conquer Your Niche Forum, Evan Carmichael Entrepreneur Forums, Jeff Casmer’s Work At Home Forum and the PIPS Power Group Forum (Private members only forum for Plug-In Profit Site members).

Here are some resources that may help you in finding an appropriate forum for your topic of interest:

• Big Boards – Directory Listings of Over 2,000 Forums
  
• List of Do-Follow Forums
• Internet Marketing Forums
• List of Do-Follow Forums on Many Different Subjects

Once you find a good list of forums, it’s time to get to work. Start participating and provide value and be of help to others. Get your questions answered and answer other people’s question. Get involved!

If you haven’t done so yet, read the first two steps in building a successful online business:

Steps to Building a Successful Online Business – Part 2

Steps for Building a Successful Online Business – Part 1

As I discussed last time, the first step in building a successful online business is web page optimization and SEO. If you haven’t read that step then go re-read Steps for Building a Successful Online Business – Part 1 now because that is the foundation on which you will build your online business. You can’t skip that step! These next steps will mean nothing without proper web page optimization, and your work will be in vein. You don’t want that to happen. This is your online business we’re talking about.

Okay, so without further delay, let’s get to the next step…

Step Two: Article Marketing

This is perhaps the easiest method to building your online business. Article marketing is the basic idea of writing an article on a particular topic or niche and then submitting that article to article directories. It helps build your brand, and you’re seen as an expert in your field. It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in… article marketing works!

Now before I go any further I need to mention about the overall benefit of article marketing and how it directly relates to building your online business. This is where the SEO factor comes in.

You see, Google rates a website based on how many one way backlinks the website has pointing at it. The more backlinks, the better. This is where article marketing comes into play. In the resource box of your article you have the opportunity to place a link to your website, but not just any link. You want to use an anchor text link that uses the keyword phrase you optimized your website for. See, this is why step one is so important.

Write an article related to the niche of your website. Use your keyword phrase in the anchor text for your link in the resource box. It’s that simple. But… were not done yet. Now you have to get your article out to as many people as you can, building backlinks for your website. Read my article on the proper way to write an article and use the resource box with Article Marketing – Getting the Most Out of Your Marketing Efforts.

You want to submit your article to as many article directories as possible. This will create numerous one way backlinks all pointing to your website. The problem is that this can be quite time consuming, but it’s well worth it. There are also automated software submissions you can use to do this for you. It’s your choice. I will tell you what I do and what has worked for me.

Take a minute to watch my video to see PROOF that article marketing actually works…

I submit my articles to EzineAritcles, perhaps the most trusted and used directory. I also use Article Marketer, which distributes your articles to thousands of directories. They have a free and paid distribution, but I only use the free distribution. I also submit, by hand, to a number of other article directories, which you can find by visiting the link below.

Here is a list of resources to help you in your article marketing effort:

A list of high Page Rank article directories (the higher PR, the better for your website), Article submission software, article writing software and much more.

Everything is all on one page, so be sure to check it out. Here’s to your article marketing efforts…

Be sure to check back as I will discuss the third step in the online business building system.

Oh… and leave me a comment if you found these tips useful. Thanks!

If your online business consists of a website promoting products or services, then your business depends upon getting traffic to your site. It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to sell if no one ever finds it. You must continually work to get traffic to your site on a daily basis. I’m going to detail the steps I take to build my online business, and how you can do the same.

Step One: Web Page Optimization

SEO, or search engine optimization is important for your website. Specifically, I’m going to talk about web page optimization. This first step is THE most important step that you can take to build your online business. Your website’s survival depends on it! Skipping this step is futile for you and your business. If you want to succeed, then make sure you do this FIRST.

Make sure you optimize your web pages for the search engines, importantly your homepage. Don’t worry, it’s not rocket science. Just follow the steps below, and you’ll be well on your way.

• Keyword Research – Web page optimization begins with keyword research. Find and pick keywords that people search for that are relevant to your site. Here’s what I mean by this. If you sell dog toys on your site, then keywords you might choose are “dog toys,” “dog accessories,” etc. The more relevant, the better. These are keywords that people actually search for in the search engines to find your site.
• Keyword Tools – It helps to know how many times a certain keyword phrase is searched for. Keyword tools can be very helpful for determining the best phrases to optimize your site for. Here’s a good list of keyword tools: Google’s Keyword Tool, Keyword Discovery, SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool, and Wordpot. They are all free to use and will give you a pretty good idea on how many people search for a given term. You want a good amount of searches per day for each keyword phrase, at least 200-300 a day. Here’s where it gets tricky. You don’t want much competition for those keywords, either. Once you find a few good keywords, do a search on Google for that phrase in quotes. If you want to rank for online business, then do a search for “online business” including the quotes, and see how many pages are returned. This will give you an idea of how much competition you will be up against.
• Keyword Placement – Web page optimization is achieved with proper keyword placement. This requires you know a little bit about HTML. Don’t fret, it’s not a big deal. If you don’t know much about HTML you can take a look at this Basic HTML Tag Tutorial. There’s more on HTML on that site, so have a look around and learn something new. Okay, back to web page optimization. Make sure to place your keyword phrase between the <TITLE> and </TITLE> tags of your page. Only put one of your phrases in the title, as Google will give more emphasis on it. If your page has a Header tag, described as <H1> and </H1>, then put it between them as well. If you’re not sure about this, then check the HTML source code and see. If you need an HTML editor, you can grab one for free called Nvu. Also, if you want, create a Header 2 tag, <H2> and </H2>, and put your keyword phrase between them as well. Make sure to use your keyword phrase throughout the content of your page. Sprinkle it here and there, but make sure to use it at the beginning and end of the content. This is very important.

Okay, no it’s not rocket science, and yes, web page optimization is work. Building an online business isn’t easy, but with a little work and effort it can be achieved. Remember, this is the first and most important step to building your online business. If you want a more in-depth look into SEO I suggest you grab a copy of the 3 Steps To Search Engine Success. I have seen this ebook firsthand, so I know the kind of value that it contains. It’s simple and easy to follow. It would be a wise investment for someone that needs to learn how to optimize their site.

In part 2, I will discuss the next step you should take in building your successful online business. Keep in mind that this first step is the foundation for the next steps to come, so DON’T skip this step!

P.S. If you found this useful please leave me a comment as you’ll be rewarded with a backlink. It’s what makes SEO work!

The other day I wrote a review of the Plug-In Profit Site and highlighted the key benefits. Today I want to review the bonuses that Plug-In Profit Site members receive and how they can help you start to build your online business.

So let’s get started shall we?

Bonus #1: The 30 Days to Success Guide

I talked about this training guide in the PIPS review. It is very powerful when you put the techniques into practice. There is a lot to take in and it’s best to take it slow. You don’t need to rush through it, and it’s not necessary to get everything done within 30 days. That’s impossible, and most of the techniques will be done on a continual basis to help build your business.

Bonus #2: The Plug-In Profit Site Affiliate Program

This consists of your sales page that you market and use to build your online business. Learning how to market your sales page will help improve your success with the business. Again, refer to the 30 Days to Success Training Guide.

Bonus #3: The Plug-In Profit Site Advertising Co-op

I personally don’t recommend joining the Advertising Co-op. It doesn’t provide a good return, as the monthly fee is $99 to join. There are far better methods you can use like article marketing and blogging to help market your business, and these methods are free. But, I had to mention the Co-op because it is there for members if they want to use it. There are some benefits to joining, but I personally feel they aren’t worth the money that is required to invest.

Bonus #4: 100 Free targeted website visitors through Traffic Swarm

You’re provided some pre-written ads you can use to advertise your sales page. I recommend making your ads unique and maybe creating a squeeze page to build your list using your already written newsletter campaign that you received with your membership.

Bonus #5: A Branded copy of “Dotcomology – The Science of Making Money Online“

This ebook is free to download and contains 325 pages of very useful information on how to make money online, including numerous resources and tools that can be very helpful to build your online business.

The idea is to give this ebook away to as many people as you can. Within it are links that automically point to your PIPS sales page. If someone signs up through your link, you make all the commissions for each program.

It’s not a bad idea to use TrafficSwarm to promote your ebook. You can also put it on your website or blog and make it easy for people to download it.

Bonus #6: 49 Newbie Internet Training Videos

These videos are literally priceless. Check out the Newbie Training Videos and see what all is included. These are perfect for anyone that wants to learn how to market their online business. Check them out and see the value that you get. There are sample videos included that you can watch right now.

Bonus #7: Access to the Internet Marketing Warriors Site

The Internet Warriors is the only home based marketing group that has actually helped thousands of people make money on the internet. This is a huge value, and I would recommend taking advantage of this membership so that you can maximize the effectiveness of your online business.

Bonus #8: Adminder Ad Tracking System

Tracking the performance of your ads is crucial to your success. This bonus is probably the best value as it allows you to track every link you have and all signups you receive through those links. There is one drawback that you should be aware of, though. You free account is only good for 90 days. But… a normal trial only lasts 15 days, so as a PIPS member you do get an advantage. Just be sure to upgrade, otherwise your links won’t work anymore, and that could be bad for your business.

Bonus #9: Access to the Warrior Forum

The Warrior Forum is an amazing community of successful and beginner internet marketers and online business owners. Within the Forum is the Plug-In Profit Site support forum. Here is where you get to ask any questions and have them answered by other PIPS members. The support and guidance is phenominal.

Bonus #10: The Web Army Knife

This little tool is awesome! It’s every webmasters dream come true. Within it contains a MiniSite Machine, Website Colorer, Deadline Generator, Magic Word Jumpstarter, Meta Tag Generator, Email Scrambler, Timed Bonus Popup, Affiliate Link Cloaker, Popup Generator, Opt-In Alert Generator, Tell A Friend Generator, Favorites Adder and a Profit Pulling Resources area.

You can obviously see the value that this tool provides, and it’s included with your PIPS membership.

Bonus #11: Over $300.00 In FREE Pay-Per-Click Ads

I’m not sure how much value there is with the pre-chosen search engines. Stone specifically states that it would be wiser to use Google Adwords rather than the search engines he provides the $300 in free clicks for. But nonetheless, you get the free clicks. You may not see any results, though. I haven’t personally used any of the Pay-Per-Click search engines that he provides.

Bonus #12: Money & Power

Money & Power is a rare interview with the founder of the Warrior Forum and Host4Profit – Allen Says. Allen is a marketing genius and this one-of-a-kind interview will give you a glimpse into the mind of a true master.

Bonus #13: Plug-In Profit MEGA Site Software & Service

The Plug-In Profit Mega Site creates more profit pulling webpages for your current PIPS website. More products are added so that you can instantly earn commissions on each and every sale that is made through your site. Plus, more conent. The content is a real bonus as this will help your website rank better.

Bonus #14: Confessions of an Affiliate Millionaire

This is an interview with who other than the creater of the Plug-In Profit Site, Stone Evans. Read his confessions as he details his strategies and secrets for becoming a successful affiliate on the internet.

Bonus #15: Get Your Website Submitted to Over 880,000 Search Engines & Directories – 100% FREE!

I personally don’t recommend using this bonus, as it’s not necessary to submit your website to 100′s of search engines. That can actually be detrimental to your website. It’s much better to let the search engines naturally find your site. You can do this by getting backlinks to your site from already indexed sites.

Bonus #16: A small list of useful and free tools that Stone uses for his business

Okay… that wraps up the bonuses that are currently offered to Plug-In Profit Site owners. Hopefully you can see the tremendous value that PIPS members receive. The support, training and guidance is priceless when learning how to start and market an online business.

Be sure to check out the Plug-In Profit Site System and see if it’s the right online business for you.