Sunday, 24 February 2008

Write Dating Articles to Explode Traffic To Your Sites

Why Article Marketing Will Explode Your Site Traffic


Author: Daryl Campbell

There are many ways to get traffic to your website. Reciprocal linking, search engine optimization, pay per click, traffic exchanges and with the emergence of Web 2.0, there is now social bookmarking, You Tube, My Space, conducting polls and a host of new techniques.



It is a whole new ballgame. As Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future said recently,"More than a decade after the portals of the Worldwide Web opened to the public, we are now witnessing the true emergence of the Internet as the powerful personal and social phenomenon we knew it would become."



If you are doing business online this is great news. The more the internet grows and becomes a regular part of everyday life the more traffic to your website. So how do you go about tapping into this emerging traffic powerhouse?



Marketing with articles.



Even with all the changes going on, writing articles is still one of the best ways to drive visitors to your site. It is also very cost effective since the article itself does the advertising. But more than that, it is viral marketing on steroids. Once your article is out there it will grow with very little follow up effort on your part. You can literally have people clicking the link in your resource box for years and years. If your website is monetized properly this will bring you continuous residual income. Sweet.



Why is article marketing so powerful and effective?



1. Exposure



That is the whole point. You want as many people as possible to read your article. Submitting to various directories and ezines will get you maximum exposure. This is especially good if you are just starting out and your site is brand new.



Many webmasters will also place your article on their webpage not only because it provides good information but it also fits the theme of their website. More exposure equals more web site traffic for you.



2. Free advertising and publicity



I mentioned before how cost effective article marketing can be. The fact is most small business owners are on a very tight budget. Paying for advertising is a hit or miss proposition. If it works than it can lead to more customers, sales and the ability to increase your marketing budget. If it does not work, you and your business are in real trouble.



Article marketing can provide you with massive advertising and publicity without the hefty price tag. They can also act as your own private sales force. By giving your readers good content, the chances of them clicking the link in your resource box increases. That means getting your website and product offers in front of more people.



3. The Connection



Never underestimate the power of the written word to move people. You may be writing an article on vacations and happen to mention a place you and your family visit regularly. Your readers may have visited the same place or it triggers them to recall similar incidents. People need to feel connected and writing that inspires common memories or ideas are a way of establishing an online community. Readers will be more inclined to seek out your articles if they feel a part of the experience.



4. Ranking and link popularity.



Articles with the right keywords and a compelling resource box can boost the ranking of your website. Do not go overboard when using keywords in your articles. The search engines will penalize you if they feel you are keyword stuffing your articles. You can easily avoid this by concentrating first on writing good, useful information and then using your keywords where appropriate.



A good article will not only improve your rankings but also generate links back to your website. As your articles spread throughout the internet, the link popularity of your website will increase. More sites pointing toward your webpages means more site traffic for you.



By combining free advertising, almost endless publicity and viral marketing, writing articles will keep your readers and the search engines coming back for more, while your business and profits continue to grow.



Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/online-promotion-articles/why-article-marketing-will-explode-your-site-traffic-152629.html



About the Author:

Daryl Campbell is an internet business owner and affiliate marketer. Get more free web traffic tips, tools, resources, and coaching to drive visitors to your website. Click here now.
More Web Site Traffic

Friday, 22 February 2008

3 Techniques To Increase Online Traffic To Your Website Fast

3 Techniques To Increase Online Traffic To Your Website Fast



Author: Shane Hunte


You need to constantly increase online traffic to your website for you to grow and expand your business online.



Website traffic is not that difficult to generate as most internet marketers would want you to believe. They only want you to buy their useless information on how to generate traffic when you can figure it out on your own.



When I first came online I had no clue about what worked and what did not work online, but I was eager to learn and I promised myself never to give up the fight on increasing online traffic to my websites.



I spent a lot of time and money trying to figure out how to get more website traffic, then I realized that each business is different and a person needs to tailor each traffic generation technique they learn to their own business.



This is what no marketer ever told me. Most of them literally said hey, buy my product because it works. Honestly lots of them were telling the truth. What they forgot to tell me was that it worked for them and that does not mean it will work for me.



I started implementing lots of their ideas to my business and I got some success but only when I made some minor changes to tailor their strategies to my business, did I then see a massive increase it online traffic and sales.



Let me explain three techniques I used to work my way up the search engines and increased online traffic to my websites fast. First of all I am using one of those techniques right now and that is article marketing.This technique alone has helped me to increase online traffic to my website without ever having to spend any money on advertising.



Article marketing is a great way to increase your search engine rankings, back links, Google page rank, website traffic and your credibility with your visitors.



With each article you write and promote with, you will be generating more and more traffic every time. You may have an article that does not bring in many visitors but on the other hand you may write an article that may generate a couple thousand visitors to your website.



Articles are so easy to use as a tool to increase online traffic because obviously if you start an online business about for example, traveling , then you should be able to write plenty of articles about traveling.



You can write about the places you visited and the hot spots and activities those places have to offer. If you do some simple keyword research you can have your articles rank highly in the search engines as well.



In your resource box you should always have your anchor text target the keyword you want to rank for in the search engines.Your articles should have also been written surrounding that keyword as well.



Article marketing is not hard, so do not make it hard. Just write what you love or what interest you the most. If your business is something that you love then article marketing will be a perfect fit to help you increase online traffic. The best part is, all that traffic is free.



The second technique I want to look at is viral marketing.This is one of the most under used forms of marketing to increase online traffic.



I do not think the power of this method is really understood online.Imaging you create an ebook and you give your readers permission to giveaway this information to others, do have any idea how many people will come in contact with your information?



The best part is, you do not ever have to lift a figure to generate the traffic. Viral marketing is a set and forget system that will increase online traffic to your website fast.



The third technique is niche marketing.You may be saying this is not a traffic generating technique but my friend, you are totally wrong.



I spend lots of time researching keywords that are related to my niche market and I use articles and viral marketing to dominate them easily.All I do is set up a web page, normally a squeeze page, that can collect my visitors contact information in exchange for information they need.



Do you have any idea how many subscribers I can collect with niche marketing. I can then increase online traffic to my other websites or products by sending them an email telling them about my offers.



Since I have their email addresses I can market to them for life, or at least until they change their email address.



See how I combined each of the techniques to build traffic to my websites? I hope you see how easy it is to increase online traffic, just think outside the box and tailor each technique you learn to your own unique business.



Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/online-promotion-articles/3-techniques-to-increase-online-traffic-to-your-website-fast-193208.html



About the Author:

Shane Hunte publishes a question and answer newsletter about how to increase online traffic to your website. Get your most burning questions answered on this topic now, go to: www.internetrevinue.com

Thursday, 21 February 2008

Hot Marketing Ideas

Start An Internet Business - Hot Trends
By Brian Peters




If you are looking to start an internet business, then the best thing to do is become aware of the current market trends and then make a smart decision. If you can become aware of the current trends you will find what you think are good Internet business ideas and what are bad ideas. If you can follow that rule of thumb, then there will be no need to find the best Internet business ideas - a solution will just present itself.



Start a Social Networking Website



To start a Social Networking website you need to find a group of people who are interested in the same thing, then bring them together to allow them to network with each other. The key is finding a niche & remembering that your job is to start a social networking website that brings people together. Myspace was a great pioneer of social networking software – and, facebook, youtube, flickr, mp3, and others have followed.



Simply purchase social networking software and then let your members have full control over the website so they build it, not you. In the end you are just one person - so why not have 100,000 people building your business instead of one? By being smart about starting a social networking website and which social networking software you choose, you can really maximize your efforts!



Social Networking Hot Trends: The original, photo sharing, music sharing, video sharing, movie sharing, broadcasting (future).



Start a Dating Website: The dating industry is one of the best Internet business ideas to ever hit the market, and is always a good industry to get into. Many people feel social networking websites do a better job these days but nothing beats the original. What is pretty popular right now is to own a speed dating business locally, and combine it with an online dating website. A good example is MochaMates.com.



Dating Hot Trends: Original, Speed Dating + Online Dating



Start an E-Commerce Website: Originally one of the top Internet business, ideas, most e-commerce websites today are old and boring. Drop shipping is out, but fulfillment houses are offering a new wave of drop shipping services. Fulfillment houses are warehouses that accept bulk shipments, sort merchandise, and then ship orders out for the customer. So it is the same concept of drop shipping; it just maximizes your ROI.



Another great type of e-commerce internet business idea is starting a site similar to cafepress.com & customink.com. They manufacture t-shirts (could be anything) and instead of selling just their designs; they allow others to upload their own designs, and sell everyone else's designs. So instead of selling 5 styles, they sell 1,000,000 styles from people all over the world.



What is great about sites like this is it allows members to promote your business for you. The people uploading the designs promote their own pages on cafepress.com because they get commission from every product of theirs that sells.



E-Commerce Hot Trends: E-Commerce, SEO E-Commerce, E-Commerce B2B, E-Commerce + Social Networks, and sites similar to cafépress.com



Content Management: There is a lot of clutter online. If you are an expert an ANY field, share your knowledge with others; you never know where it could go! There is free content management software like joomla.com that allows you to create & post all of your own articles in a nice, easy format online. The site About.com gives people tons of information online, does a great job of SEO & Linking, and they are one of the top 100 sites in the world.




The author writes articles about start a Social Networking website and social networking software.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_Peters
http://EzineArticles.com/?Start-An-Internet-Business---Hot-Trends&id=367785

Sunday, 10 February 2008

Free Dating Traffic Tips

Here is a list of FREE Dating Traffic tips you could try:

Give away something for Free on your dating sites
Exchange links with related sites
Target your titles and sub-headings based around your keywords
Use keywords in domains
Add your sites to directory's, forums, blogs
Network with simerlar blogs via comments
Use a signature and give useful information in networking sites forums without spamming.
Add a URL signiture to your emails
Write articles in your niche and submit them to directory's
Write a press releases and submit them to press PR sites
Post your dating site on free classified ads

Sunday, 4 November 2007

Your Online Dating Business -

There seems to be two big major issues. The first issue is getting people to visit your website and how to attract large numbers of them at low cost.

The second issue that everyone is facing is how to convert these potential visitors who do visit your site to paying customers.

There are lots of different ways to advertise your dating website. If you're serious about growing your dating business, pick at least two that you're either not doing, or not doing very well - and MAKE A DECISION to add them to your marketing mix in the weeks and months ahead:

Direct Mail
Internet Marketing
Google Adwords
Msn
Yahoo
Email Marketing
Advertising
Up-selling existing customers/clients
Referral Systems
Pay per Click Advertising
PR

I have found a good resource on http://www.spicypage.com where you can advertise your dating site for free and increase your traffic to your dating Site.


Wishing you continued success!

FREE Google Tool To Increase Traffic To Your Online Dating Website

Do you want to increase traffic to your dating website?

Go to: http://www.google.com/webmasters/

Click on: LEARN MORE and create account if you have not done so already.

It will give you reports, let you know if your sites are indexed in Google. See how your site is performing. Learn which queries drive traffic to your site, and see exactly how users arrive there. This is a great tool and will help you keep a track of your sites.

Get started today -- it's free!
Simply log in with your Google Account and add your site URL to get started. It's an easy and free way to have a more interactive experience with Google.

It does take a while to build up traffic and get those cheques coming in but it will come easier with time and motivation. Your success will depend on the effort you put in. Your earnings are uncapped and this is a fantastic way to give you an additional income.

Remittances
You will be paid regularly —on the 1st of every month the remittance will be sent to you if the amount reaches £100, €100, $100 or CHF100.

The payment will be sent the same day by cheque or bank transfer. The fee for the bank transfer outside of UK is £20.

I want you to be a successful partner and give you direct access to the skills and expertise I have to solve your dating business and marketing problems, help you attract more customers and help you create the profits you deserve.

Sunday, 23 September 2007

UK Residents - Register Your Free Dating Site By Telephone

FREE Telephone Registration - Create Your Profitable Dating Site Over The Phone

If you are interested in running a Dating Website - you simply must send me an email. I will personally give you a call and take you though the registration process step by step, to get your site up and running. Or if you have any questions send me an email and I will get back to you.

You can reserve your place on this FREE Telephone registration by email at:

datingpartners@yahoo.com .

The Telephone Registeration will definitely be fully booked so please reserve your FREE place now.

Best Wishes

Andrea

UK Dating Partners

Wednesday, 18 July 2007

Wanna Be A Mompreneur?

40 Million People Visit Dating Sites Each Month - Moms Be A Part Of A MultiMillion Pound Dating Industry.


If you have the ambition, self motivation and the desire to succeed. It could be possible for you to join the ranks millionaire mums. Women make excellent business owners, every year there are millions of moms around the world starting their own successful Dating businesses online. There are 10.6 million women who have there own business in the states generating a massive $2.5 trillion.


Love is big business, the dating industry is a $600 million market and growing fast, according to market research and consulting firm Marketdata Enterprises Inc. Some of the top dating business take home 500k to 2 million every year.

People lives are much faster now, busy careers and little time to search for there Mr or Mrs Right! More and more people are going online to find love and romance. There are millions of singles in the UK and around the world and now choosing to find love online, It is so much easier and faster then hanging out in bars and clubs.

The hottest dating services are niche markets, setting up a site in your home town, Indian Dating, Black Asian Dating, Millionaire Dating, Sugar Daddy Dating, Single Parent Dating are just a few of niche market dating sites you could start your business.

To make millions you need to think outside the box and create a dating site unique to all the rest. The most important challenge of your business is getting the word out with effective marketing...! Take some time to come up with a good short memorable domain name. Your thinking is one or the key elements in determining your levels of success so "Think Differently Moms" and have some fun making some real money.

If you want more details on creating your Dating site visit: UK Dating Partners

Saturday, 14 July 2007

Putting The "Service" Back In "Customer Service"

By Sean Cohen

The future of customer service is here. Technology has made seeking out support faster and easier than ever. But, has your digital age company sacrificed true service in the name of automation?

Today, finding customer support is as simple as writing an e-mail or picking up the phone. But, even though you're not face-to-face with your customers, you still leave a lasting impression. Do you come across as caring and competent, or menacing and mechanical?

Offering stand-out service on the Internet isn't as hard as it is rare. Take these simple steps towards old-style service in the digital age:

Give Each Customer a Personal Response
Be Clear, But Sincere
Offer Live Customer Support
Make Sure Your Support Reps Have All the Answers

Give Each Customer a Personal Response

When a customer sits down to e-mail your company, it's because he needs help. He chooses e-mail because it's quick, but his request still warrants a satisfying and personal response!

Companies eager to save time and money often take automation too far in their customer support. Each customer has a unique question, and deserves a unique answer. Even if you save time by copying and pasting stock replies, change the opening and closing to make the message sound less robotic.

Be Clear, But Sincere

When responding to customers' e-mail, be sincere and to the point. Before sending a message, try turning the tables. Ask yourself, "Would this answer satisfy me if I were the customer?"

Take that extra moment to give your customer the help he deserves. It might mean the difference between a satisfied customer and a credit card chargeback!

Offer Live Customer Support

E-mail has become an acceptable form of communication. But, live customer support is still necessary. The plethora of information available online can be overwhelming to customers, especially those new to the Internet!

Single your company out from the crowd by providing customers with a real person to talk to. Live phone support is an invaluable way to foster trust. When your customer has reached the end of his Internet rope, and just needs help, your toll free number is the answer he's looking for.

Make Sure Your Support Reps Have All The Answers

The presence of phone support will do no good if your staff doesn't know your product! Customer support reps should be warm and friendly, and willing to help with any aspect of your product.

What a good feeling it is to talk to someone who feels confident in his product. It's even better if he's knowledgeable enough to solve your problem without transferring you all around the company!

Provide Stand-Out Service; Gain Lifelong Customers

Too many e-businesses skimp on customer service, hiding behind web sites and message boards. Customer support is an integral part of every company, even those operating solely online. Be one of the few to offer stellar service, and gain customers for life!

Customer Service is becoming a lost art, but Sean Cohen wants to make sure that never happens at AWeber Communications!

Find out what service is meant to be.
Looking for FREE, high-quality web site or e-zine content?

Double Your Profits With Powerful Auto Responders

Sunday, 8 July 2007

Do Your Potential Customers Forget About You?

By: Tom Kulzer]

Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying each person's need for information quickly! But, after you've delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most Internet marketers, you don't. When you don't follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him. Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn't receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.


Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?Following up with leads is more than just a process - it's an art. In order to be effective, you need to design a follow up system, and stick to it, EVERY DAY! If you don't follow up with your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in a timely fashion, then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.


Consistent follow up gets results!

When I first started marketing and following up with prospects, I used a follow up method that I now call the "List Technique." I had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had specifically requested information about my products and services. These prospects had already received my first letter by the time they requested more information, so I used the company's latest news as a follow up piece. I would write follow up newsletters every now and then, and send them, in one mass mailing, to everyone who had previously requested information from me. While this probably did help me win a few additional orders, it wasn't a very good follow up method. Why isn't the "List Technique" very effective?


The List Technique isn't consistent. Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have "big news".


List Technique messages don't give the potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question. He can't make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care that you've just moved your headquarters?


List Technique messages convey a "big list" mentality to your potential customers. When I used to write follow up messages using the List Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone I knew! I should have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted to know more about my products.


What follow up method really works?

Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

First, you'll need to develop your follow up messages. If you've been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn't have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.

The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect's mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!

Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn't yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn't the right color or doesn't have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it's unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don't want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!

Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors'. You will make the sale!

Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don't want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.

Following up effectively seems complicated, but it doesn't have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up - don't you want to be one of the few to get it right?


Tom Kulzer, CEO and Founder of Newtown, PA based AWeber Communications, Inc. an opt-in email service provider. With 7 years managing opt-in follow up and newsletters for small businesses, email deliverability is an integral part of day to day operations. Learn more: http://www.yoursuccess.AWeber.com and http://www.DeliveryMonitor.com

Why use Auto Responders in your Dating Business?

Learning about autoresponders and email newsletters is the first
step to using them effectively in your business.


** Why Should You Follow Up?


People buy from other people they like, know, and trust.
Unfortunately the web has dehumanized much of the interaction
that went on in a traditional bricks and mortar business. Your
competitor is only a click away regardless of where they are
located in the world.

To build the credibility necessary for someone to whip out their
credit card and make a purchase takes time. Unless you have a
fortune 500 brand it's unlikely your visitors have heard of you
before they hit your site the first time.

Numerous direct marketing studies have shown it often takes
7 or more exposures of a marketing message before a consumer
makes a decision to buy. What's happening as those "7 exposures"
stack up? They are building the credibility, familiarity, and
trust with their audience.

It's not rocket science, but it's a key concept that many website
owners miss. You're extremely smart for utilizing this concept to
increase your website conversion. sssshhh, don't tell anyone
it's our little secret. ;)

** How Autoresponder Follow Up Works

You might think this follow up process is going to be really
complicated, but it's not. It works like this:

- Visitor comes to your website, has an interest or need for
what you have and wants to learn more so they type in their
name and email to a form on your web page.

- The form on your website that we give you automatically
submits the visitors name and email to your list at
AWeber.

- Over a period of days and weeks the follow up messages
that you have pre-configured are automatically delivered
to each confirmed subscriber.

Thursday, 14 June 2007

Online Dating Developments

Staying Up To Date - Online Dating DevelopmentsBy Rw Oneill


Personal ads were once seen as the last resort for single people who couldn’t strike up a relationship in the traditional way. A simple “will you go out with me?” was just that step to far when ever that crunch moment came around, and personal ads were their saviour, a middle-man could do it for them. However with this came a stigma, that of desperation, and those who used personal ads were often privately ridiculed.

However times change. Professional career demands, higher divorce figures coupled with less pressure to get married in the first place, and many other variables have led to more single people, with less time to socialise. In some cases these people have grown out of their previous social circles and have had to make new ones, in other cases people have just forgotten how to socialise at all with the opposite sex. And then of course you still have the younger generation who need a little help to get things moving.


The stigma of desperation is no longer relevant and personal ads have become an alternative social network for many people. This ‘acceptance’ has coincided with the Internet revolution and has seen a new market develop for web entrepreneurs – online dating.


The online dating business is massive, however the market has become saturated in recent years. Figures show that spending increased from $8 million to $117 million at the beginning of the decade, but has now levelled out at around $114 million.


To compete in this flooded market, competitors are looking at different ways of capturing new custom. At the beginning the mechanics of the online dating site were simple: alert member to other members who match based on physical indicators such as eye and hair colour, height etc. The mechanics have now advanced to deep profiling to cover all of the compatibility bases in the hope of building more successful and long term relationships.


Some dating sites have explored the exploitation of various niches to target more custom. Many of the big players have started to cater for couples and religious groups, or have jumped on the security bandwagon. Others have increased their use of technology, and have integrated video and audio into their web sites to allow members to visualise and talk to each other before arranging a date.


One thing is clear; the only stigma that now exists in these circles is with the web site owners and how much of the market share they have. The individual looking for love is no longer a seen as a sad or desperate individual but an important and sought after commodity. For the businesses concerned, now more than ever they need to stay up to ‘date’.


Rob is a moderator at http://www.northendates.co.uk
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rw_Oneillhttp://EzineArticles.com/?Staying-Up-To-Date---Online-Dating-Developments&id=579691

Increase traffic to your site with Social Networking

Build Your Social Network for BusinessBy Allen Taylor

In a word, social networking is a means of developing relationships with potential business partners and customers. It can take place in a number of ways and is still in the infancy stage of its life span.
PC Magazine defines social networking as "A web site that provides a virtual community for people interested in a subject. It provides a way for members to communicate by voice, chat, instant message, videoconference and blogs."

The key to social networking is in the building relationships with people with similar interests. All kinds of examples abound and the Internet is rife with sites that target a specific community of interests or allow people to build their own.

Myspace.com is by no means the first social networking site. It has been preceded by many dating sites, business sites, and other interest-targeted web sites. It is, however, one of the most popular web sites on the Internet, enjoying a higher ranking even that Google.

Ryze is another popular site for social networking but geared toward businesses. Other business-minded social networking sites include Ecademy and LinkIn. Mediabistro is an example of an industry specific social networking site, focusing on the needs of freelance writers.

But should you join one of these communities and, if so, which one is right for you?

I'm not going to create a glossy picture. Instead, I'm going to say you should be realistic in your expectations. You can get business through social networkinig and it can be an effective marketing medium, but don't expect your inbox to be flooded with orders overnight. Furthermore, how you approach marketing through social networking is totally different than how you do it through other media.

The number of networking communities are numerous, more than one man can count. They vary in features and amenities as well as focus. Some are simply for building social networks as in MySpace and Facebook, while others are better suited to building business networks. Some can be used for both and many successful marketers do use them for both. Again, how you approach networking through this medium is different than through other media.

You don't want to blatantly advertise your product or service. That turns people off. You do want to build an exhaustive profile of yourself and your business, however. Here a few tips to how you can do that.

* First, be focused. Don't talk about your dog or your goldfish named Sam. Write a profile that mentions who you are, the name of your business, what your specialty is, and who your target is. Hit it hard and quick, be specific and don't dally.

* Next, include a photo. People like to know who they are doing business with.

* Link back to your business web site. If you have more than one, link to them all. You can also link to your blog and, by all means, include your e-mail address. If you don't do this, what is the point? You're networking for your business; link back to your web sites.

* Invite people to visit your profile page. On MySpace you can visit other people's MySpace page and invite them to be your friend. Do this but don't just invite anyone. Invite people you think you might like to do business with. Then go an comment on their pages and send them a nice, short, friendly e-mail thanking them for helping you build your network.

* MySpace also allows you to send bulletin board messages to everyone in your network of friends. Do it, but not often. Some people go overboard with this and spam the board. That's annoying. Don't do it. But every now and then send an invitation to try your ezine, or purchase a product. Promote yourself in a friendly, non-pushy way.

* Every networking site is different. Take some time to learn the features of the site you are using. Get comfortable with those features and use them to build your network.
If you use the social networking sites correctly, people will want to do business with you. Don't be pushy, be friendly. And let people know what you can do for them. But most of all, have fun.

Allen Taylor is an award-winning journalist, freelance writer and copywriter. He specializes in providing low-cost content for online businesses. For more information about how to make your business shine visit http://www.taylor-and-associates.com/. Be sure to sign up for The Content Letter, Taylor and Associates' weekly e-zine. Allen Taylor also manages Articles.pn, an article directory with social networking tools.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Allen_Taylorhttp://EzineArticles.com/?Build-Your-Social-Network-for-Business&id=316127

Dating sites and the 21st century

Dating Sites And The 21st Century...Or How It All Began...By Damien Brodel
Okay, let's face it - there are obviously millions of people using dating sites. What's important here is the number, not their objectives or reasons. Not a regular dating site user myself, I have friends who spend A LOT of time on such places. I suppose the emotional aspect of that can not be described in words and one has to hook up to it in order to understand it. But nevertheless, it seems to feel like a part of the lifestyle for some, say, a few hundred million users.
For the regular dating site user, looks and sounds of the site are not the most important part of it. But for people like me, who spent last 10 years working on design, branding and identity projects, it does. And it does not need much observation to see what I am talking about - just take a look at couple of ugly sites that has a counter showing users that are currently online or how many members from your country are there. Just go to Google and run a search for "dating site" - you will get the idea right from the first page.
This will only show you that users are not much interested in the visual or aesthetical aspects of a site once they find the fun of it. Disregarding the fact that dating sites are usually well visited, the truth is they seem to be stuck in the past century. They look and feel outdated.
Sure, that seems not to be affecting their profits in the very same way as ugliness does not affect eBay's, but in the time when people are talking about web 2.0, how long will it be okay to keep your crappy looks just because your users got used to it?
When the idea of creating our own dating site came, we went through tens of dating sites to check out the competition and plan our startup tactics. Along with the competition, we conducted a research on the existing dating site backends, as a major milestone was to choose whether we are going to use a third party application or write our own. Once we had enough information and impressions, we sat down and brainstormed the hell out of us. Each one of us shared his thoughts and impressions. Then we draw the line (sorry if there is something you already know, but it will do you no harm to go over it again):
1. There are two general types of dating sites - free and paid. Free sites are getting profits by running third party advertising campaigns; paid are run by charging people monthly or yearly subscription.
2. There are quite a lot of third party products to build your dating site with. Both free and commercial.
3. There are few big players on the scene we can't compete with at this point.
4. There are a lot of smaller dating sites we can easily outperform if we plan our strategy right.
5. Dating business is a win-win kind of business - no matter how many new dating sites come out - users will always join as many of them as they like, but will still keep their membership to previously used sites. Or at least on the free ones.
6. Loosing a member is not because the competitor is a bastard, but because the user is bored with your service.
7. Making your dating site popular does not necessarily mean you should target top position in search engines and pay a bunch of money on SEO. At least not right from the start. There are plenty of free marketing alternatives and what's even better - more are coming on a constant basis.
8. Today's dating sites don't rely much on the looks.
9. Today's dating sites don't rely much on the name either. Yesterday I landed on a site called Herpes Dating. HERPES!? Are you for real!?
10. Most of today's dating sites sport a generic set of features.
11. Most of today's dating sites stop developing once they make a fair ammount of members.
12. In general, a great lot of today's dating sites look like crap, sound like it and do not give a damn about it.
After we analysed this information, we came to the following conclusions:
1. There always be a niche for new dating sites. Coming up with well-thought, good looking, appealing and catchy site however puts you in a flying start position. Getting your site noticed by design galleries and into discussions acts as a free initial marketing campaign. Not to mention the fact that it's way better to have a good looking site than crappy looking one.
2. If you want to build a website that stands above the rest, you should go for a custom solution rather than using a generic one. This does not necessarily need to be MUCH more expensive. For example there are lots of features in some sites we found useless and thus not implementing initially in DateYard. Which gives us two benefits - 1. keeping the cost low for the startup; and 2. adding new features to the site in future will allow us to constantly develop, which will strenghten our members' loyalty in our service because this way we will show we care about them.
3. Having a site that looks good and feels different will certainly bring some attention to it right from the start, which is a good move as we did not have marketing budget at all and thus needing to popularize the site in alternative ways. This is also useful as this way we will always be researching and enriching ourselves with information on the latest internet marketing and branding techniques.
So it all began as an experiment. The results will either be that DateYard will be the start of a new era in online dating business, or it will simply prove that ugly sites with stupid names and no branding whatsoever are preferred by today's internet-using Pavlov dogs.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Damien_Brodelhttp://EzineArticles.com/?Dating-Sites-And-The-21st-Century...Or-How-It-All-Began...&id=240842

It takes time to succeed

Launching A Dating Site... A Challenging Endeavor
By Vivienne Neal

I have been in the dating business for over 20 years. It has not been a cakewalk. In l986 I started a pen pal club which over the years evolved into a worldwide correspondence and introduction service for singles and couples seeking friendship, romance, marriage and broadminded contacts.

In October 2001, I decided to go on the internet with my club to reach a broader market. The mission was the same, to target the singles' and couples' market. It wasn't an easy task. Of course I knew it would take years to build my site into a moderate money making venture. Moving from brick and mortar to the World Wide Web was like starting a new business all over again.

Last year I decided to offer a more traditional dating site for people who weren't necessarily into the erotic scene. I searched around for a dating affiliate that could host my singles' site and still maintain my own brand name. I found a server that already had a database of over 100,000 singles' profiles. All I had to do was market and advertise my site to attract new members.

I was prepared to give this site five years to grow into a successful money making site. Just like I did with my correspondence club. Experts will tell you, it can take up to five years before a business begins to see a profit. In many instances it may take longer. When you make a profit, you'll be putting that money back into the business for maintenance, advertising and marketing. And I can attest to this. After all I wasn't in this business to make a killing overnight. I was prepared to provide a professional service and build my membership slowly. I wanted people who visited my site to know that I was going to be there for the long haul. The money will always follow.

Everyday you read about businesses becoming "successful overnight." However, this is the exception and not the norm. You have to ask yourself "how long did it take the business to succeed; what mistakes were made along the way, and were there any failures before the successes."

After running my new online dating site for a year, a total of 456 people became members, and 1% of them became paid members. I thought this was good since my correspondence club site had a very slow start. For a couple of years we had roughly 25 visits a day. Some days were even less. Today we have over 125 visitors a day. To date we have had over 64,000 visitors. This did not happen in a year or even two years. This may not seem like much, but when you're operating on a shoe-string budget, to me this is pretty darn good!

In late February, the affiliate powering my dating site sent out emails to all its members saying that it was removing sites that were inactive and sites that did not point to their servers. Of course, I didn't think this applied to my site, because in my mind, my site was active. It was bringing in new members. Unfortunately, they felt that 456 members wasn't active enough. They decided to remove my site and closed my account because in their words "my site was inactive." I said to myself "inactive, how could this be?" After all people were joining. My lowest month was February 2007 with 8 members. Than in March, membership picked up. By March 21, 2007, 22 people became members, and more were sure to join. I understand that everyone visiting my site will not join, and not everyone who joins will upgrade to become a paid member. To me it takes time to build a large membership.

When I contacted the service to inquire about why my site was removed their response was "we are tightening up and working to offer a leaner, meaner Partner program which functions more efficiently and maintains our high brand quality across the internet."

After reading that sentence, I finally go it. Nowadays instant gratification seems to be the norm. You see it all around you. New TV series are cancelled before they have a chance to build an audience. And in many cases shows are cancelled before they even air. Everything is rush, rush, rush! You're constantly bombarded with the catch phase "got to have it now."

The belief seems to be when a person starts a business, he or she must make the money now. If this doesn't happen, it times to throw in the towel. We all like to think that when starting a business, we are going to make fast money in no time, but life doesn't work that way. You must build trust before you get loyal customers. You must be around for awhile before people will spend their hard earn money on your product or service.

While searching the internet, I came across an affiliate program and read some of their affiliate's testimonials. This particular testimonial struck a cord with me; it was honest and to the point. I am paraphrasing what the person wrote:

"I joined an affiliate almost 4 years ago now, and was informed that it would probably take around 4 years before I started to earn a reasonable income as an affiliate. I now have over 1,500 members registered and With the new site design, this promise is coming true. Affiliate payments have become easy to request, and are paid on time as requested."

This testimonial sumarizes the point I have been trying to make. If you're thinking about starting a dating business or any type of business, remember it's not a "get rich quick venture; it's a long-term commitment where profits may be a long time coming. As a professor once said in a "How To Start A Small Business" class I took in college "owning a business is 90% perspiration and 10% aspiration."

You're probably wondering if I found an affiliate to power and host my dating site. The answer is yes. In fact this service offers great tools and features such as a newsletter suite to contact my members, an online link exchange to build my very own link exchange, an affiliate program so others can advertise on my dating site, site optimising tools which can help me to rank higher in search engines results and so much more.#

Vivienne Neal is the founder of HMCS which manages One World Singles - The coolest place to meet the nicest singles from Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA. If you are seeking marriage, love, dating, companionship, a soul mate, friendship, online romance or just a pen pal, then this site is for you. All colors, ages (18+) religions, etnicities, and lifestyles are welcomed. It is free to join. Browse through thousands of profiles, upload your own photo and personal details, see who is online, meet your soul mate and begin having fun!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Vivienne_Neal
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Internet based dating services receive millions of pounds

How to Start an Online Dating Service Business

How to Start an Online Dating Service Business
By Lawrence Andrews



Making new friends and finding the person of your dreams is not as easy as it used to be. With the busy daily life of singles in the US, there is no available time for socialization outside of work.



Why is online dating service considered a profitable business? Here are some of the facts:



* Almost .5% of the US population is either single or divorced. The largest online dating websites have over 700,000 personal advertisements and profiles all enthusiastically searching for a partner. There have been thousands of marriages resulting from internet introduction.



* Internet-based dating services receive millions of dollars in revenue every year. There is guaranteed money in this business.



* Basic emotional needs are the easiest to sell. These needs include dating, love and romance. You will be paid by marketing romance to the increasing number of single web surfers.



If you are thinking on starting up your own online dating service business, here are four important factors to consider:



1) Online dating business plan: Organizing a plan would allow you to operate the business and ensure your company’s growth. A business plan is crucial for organizing and seeking potential clients. A business with development potential is always a safer investment than a business that settles for breaking even.



A plan would provide you with a clear view of your business’ future. It summarizes the company’s goals and provides your future staff to have information that is vital to the daily function of your company.



2) Website management method. You should plan for a presentable and quality web design or hire the best web designer in the industry. Determine which web hosting service is the best and enroll in it. For your website to attract thousands of visitors, you would need web hosting that could accommodate all the traffic and database of your members. You could also consider being your own web host that would enable you to manage your own server.



3) Marketing and advertising. The online dating service would require a large amount of advertising money to be able to set your company apart from the thousands of other dating services in existence.



4) Financial plan. Organizing your financial plan would help you establish the budget necessary to cover your daily operating costs. This plan would also help your company to develop long-term financial goals.



If you have successfully achieved all of your plans necessary for the company to run, you could now start your own online dating service business and give the singles a chance to meet their dream partner.




About The Author:



Lawrence Andrews is an ePublisher, software developer, consultant,
and author of numerous books. Visit his Private Label Content and
Software site at http://www.lmamedia.com for more information about
Dating Do's and Dont's.



You may use this article freely on your website as long as this resource
box is included, a link point back to my site, and this article remains
unchanged! Copyright 2005 Lawrence Andrews



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Tips for starting a Dating Business

Tips For Starting Dating Service Business In Los Angeles

By Alexander Gordon

Nowadays, finding a dream partner is not as easy as it used to be a few years back. The reasons for this are hectic professional lives and unfamiliarity with dating services. Singles in the U.S. would be glad to know that there are several online dating services. Hence, there is no longer a necessity for them to go and hunt for partners to socialize. They can just go online and browse for such sites that will offer them a lot of options. These sites are of different types: Some of them are broad-based and have members from different backgrounds looking out for several kinds of relationships; others provide specific services for members considering their interest, location, and relationships sought after.


If you are planning to set up such a service in Los Angeles, it could be a wise business decision, given the popularity of such services in the city.


As a provider of an Internet dating service, you need to facilitate individuals, groups, and couples to meet online and encourage them to develop either a romantic or a sexual relationship. You could also consider providing un-moderated matchmaking services by way of personal computers, cell phones, and internet. These services will enable people to exchange personal information and allow them to search for eligible partners based on the criteria of age, gender, profession, and location.


You may also provide the users the opportunity of uploading their photos to your website so that interested people can consider them for “hookups.” You may think of providing additional services such as online chatting, messaging through message boards, and web casting. If you are providing only basic services, allow the users to register for free. However, if you are offering additional value-added services, you may charge them an extra fee on a monthly basis.


Such a business could yield great results, if you take it up seriously and invest considerable time in it. Research reports show that U.S. residents spent nearly $469.5 million in 2004 on online dating facilities. This makes the segment the largest paid web content, according to market experts. Moreover, towards November-end in 2004, nearly 844 lifestyle and dating sites were operational, which marks a 38% increase since the beginning of the year.


Market analysts point out that online dating services are likely to grow significantly in the U.S., considering the growing population of divorcees. Moreover, the online dating service is an already established industry and has been instrumental in marriages of thousands of americans. The business just needs your focus and commitment for guaranteeing success. Make sure that you have a business plan in place to start with.


Alexander Gordon is a writer for http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com/ - The Small Business Consulting Community. Sign-up for the free success steps newsletter and get our booklet valued at $24.95 for free as a special bonus. The newsletter provides daily strategies on starting and significantly growing a business.


Business Owners all across the country are joining "The Community of Small Business Owners” to receive and provide strategies, insight, tips, support and more on starting, managing, growing, and selling their businesses. As a member, you will have access to true Millionaire Business Owners who will provide strategies and tips from their real-life experiences.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alexander_Gordon
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UK Dating Partners

By working with us you will have a site created for you, tailored to your specific requirements, at absolutely no cost. The site will be built using technologically advanced software that enables your members to identify and communicate with individuals who are psychologically, culturally, educationally and demographically compatible. And it will operate under the umbrella of the most advanced online dating affiliate platform in the world.
One of the main aims of what we do and what we have created is a cooperative of dating sites that are integrated together to share the benefits of one extremely large site. What you - our partners - bring is expertise in marketing specifically in the dating industry. We bring the reward of working with a massive database, higher conversion rates (which we will explain later), and customers staying as members longer to enjoy the full benefits of our sites' advanced utilities.
You have no staffing costs, no worries about either online support or the major cost of developing or maintaining your own site, or paying for unrestricted bandwidth or hosting. There is a free integration package and maximum choice in how to carry this out.

What are the Benefits?

Independent dating system
Independent partner program
Full customization and branding
Advanced administration control
Demographic info for calculating costs
Statistics for measuring traffic and links
Geographical or subject-specific sites
Top level administration
Own banner program for partners
No Hosting costs or other overheads
Supports any language
Tremendous earning potential