Many Investors Turning to Internet Businesses

With other investing opportunities drying up and earning little to no returns, investors have recently turned their attention to online businesses. These online businesses are typically easy to operate and return higher multiples (returns) on investment.

In the 90’s the hottest thing going was “flipping” homes. Investors would buy up a run down home, make cosmetic improvements to the home and quickly sell it for many times what they had invested. They would do this again and again re-investing their profits for even larger gains. unfortunately, when the real estate “bubble” burst a few years ago this technique no longer was a viable means of making money. Low Return And/Or High Risk Alternatives Interest on savings and money market accounts (if they even pay interest) are extremely low, and currently are around .5 percent – that is a one half a percent. That means a return of only $5 per year for every $1,000 invested. Many investors are shying away from the stock market due to the uncertainty of the economy. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on when and if a recovery might take place. For the average investor, the risk of losing their investment is not worth the risk of the potential gains they might achieve investing in stocks. Prices of Real Estate at the moment in most markets is down substantially from where it was just a few years ago, and the likelihood of recovery is unsure. Add to that fact that banks have tightened their lending policies making it difficult for investors to get the funds necessary to purchase real estate leave this a less than attractive investment alternative at the moment. When the real estate market is strong, and the lending/borrowing market favorable, investors can use leverage to make incredible investment returns. They usually only have to put up 5% – 20% of the real estate’s value and can control hundreds of thousands of dollars. As the value of the real estate increases their return on investment is tremendous. In the current market with home prices stagnant or even falling, the returns are just not there. Thus, in their search for money making opportunities, investors have found online businesses or websites as they are typically called. Flippa.com Is the Leader Flippa.com is the number 1 marketplace for buying and selling these online businesses. At any give time they have over 1,000 sites for sale and average over 1/2 million dollars of sales per week. They indicate that around 60% of all of the sites listed eventually sell. In addition to selling complete web sites, they also sell domain names. The other 3 popular websites where domains and websites can be found are The Digital Point Marketplace (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=52), The Warrior Forum (http://www.warriorforum.com/complete-web-sites-sale/) and ebay.com Automated Income One of the other reasons website investing is attractive to investors is the fact that websites have the ability to earn “automated income”. This means that the site makes income for the owner with no human intervention needed. Income is made through advertising sales or what are know as “affiliate links” where the website owner gets a percentage of any sales made of products that are recommended by that website. At the heart of the system is “Free Traffic” aka website visitors that are directed to the website via the top 3 search engines Google, Yahoo and Bing. When a user types their search term into these search engines the top websites are displayed, and when the user clicks on the results they are redirected to the owners website. While at the website, the visitor will click on the advertising links or order products. These websites are designed using SEO (Search Engine Optimized) techniques to “rank” (appear) on the search engines for terms related to the content and subject matter that appear on the website. The content is usually in the form of informative articles. People come to the websites looking for additional information on a subject, or perhaps even solve a problem they are having. Low Initial Investment Required One of the other aspects that are appealing to investors is the low cost of entry. In many cases, income producing websites can be found for only a few hundred dollars. This is enticing to investors as it minimizes their risk of loss. Investors can quickly recoup their investment, or, if things go bad, they have only lost a minimal amount of money. With the low cost per business it is typical for an investor to buy multiple web properties. Each of the individual web sites may not earn them a huge amount (Say $30 – $100 each per month) but if they own 10 or more the combined income can be substantial. Like any investment, investors are advised to due proper due diligence before buying any website to ensure that the claims of the seller can be verified (such as amount of traffic, source of traffic, and income claims). Sourcehttp://rapidnewsnetwork.com/

HTC will release a "super food" device 16 "dots"?

According to a new short video ads leaked, HTC is preparing to launch a smartphone with integrated 16 megapixel camera and runs on the Windows operating system Phone 7. Camera phone equipped with "terrorist" will double the number of pixels of the device has the highest resolution of HTC. HTC phones equipped with cameras highest current stop at 8 megapixels. Phone models appear in the video looks a lot like advertising Desire S, smartphone running Android was released recently, except the buttons. Besides the camera resolution with the assistance of two LED flash, the specifications and features of the phone has not been disclosed. Currently, Alteck camera manufacturers are still No. 1 on the smartphone is the highest resolution with the Altek Leo 14 "dot" of the firm. Other technology companies such as Sony Ericsson is trying to reduce the importance of indicators to be beneficial for megapixel image quality overall.

The Top Three B2B SEO Recommendations to Consider

White hat search engine optimization (SEO) principles that apply to B2B online marketing also apply to B2C, but B2B is otherwise a different animal. True, to generate leads, local doctors or lawyers go after the appropriate local keywords to help their site rank well. And product pages on e-commerce sites can easily be optimized to match common keywords that users search for. But B2B online marketing involves other considerations for getting the most out of your SEO. There is much more to understand on the B2B side, so let's break it down into three major components: understanding your business cycles, incorporating different types of keywords, and using offline marketing efforts. 1. Understand your business cycles Just like the B2C buy cycle, B2B business cycles must be factored into SEO. The Sales Cycle The sales cycle begins the moment you get a sales lead. How long is it going to take to close a deal from that point? If a B2B company sells very expensive technical or complex equipment, its sales cycle is probably going to be much longer than that of a B2B company that sells office supplies. Why is the sales cycle important to SEO? It's simple: SEO is a long-term effort. If it takes six months to ramp up your SEO program, you have to wait that long, plus your sales cycle time, to be able to determine ROI. You can't kill your SEO program if you don't see immediate results; that's because it already takes time for your sales cycle to go from "new lead" to "closed." If your typical sales cycle is 12 months, it could be 18 months before you could attribute that sale to your SEO. The Conversion Cycle It's important to have good calls to action that fit your B2B sales cycle. So many B2B websites in complex industries (tech, medical, etc.) have a finite audience but do a lousy job of converting. I once worked with a client that sells high-end tech products. The company's site generates thousands of organic visitors per month, and it has a robust marketing/advertising campaign (online and offline). Its potential is incredible. However, the site's conversion is atrocious (0.01%). SEO professionals argue over whether SEO people should look at conversion rates as a measure of success. But as an SEO professional/marketer, you have to be accountable for every part of the marketing budget. Conversion is essential. A B2B site needs to be built in a way that doesn't sacrifice brand for SEO and vice versa. Sites should include contact forms, compelling calls to action, buttons linking to various action points, and so on. As an SEO professional, I deal with a fine line between what I can tell a client to do (when the client doesn't want to listen) because I have to justify my company's worth. As the adage goes, "You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." The SEO Cycle If the online audience is small, the SEO cycle might be relatively short. · Scenario 1: Your competitors dominate. It's harder to break ground and gain visibility because, though there are fewer players, they do it well. · Scenario 2: No one does a good job. Your company therefore has huge opportunities and room for growth. You need to understand the competition and their online marketing efforts to get an idea of how long it will take to do well in your industry. My dream client is a site that has been online for a long time (at least five years) and has a good trust factor with the search engines—but hasn't done any kind of SEO before. All the traffic it gets is organic and happens without the added push from SEO. If none of its competitors are actively engaging in SEO, it's amazing what can happen within the shortened SEO cycle. 2. Mix up your keywords When selecting your keywords based on page content, you want to do a mix of branded and nonbranded keywords and search terms, as well as keywords intended for demand generation. · Branded. People look for specific model numbers, spec sheets, instructions, etc. B2B companies should want customers to look online for answers to their specific needs, because doing so eliminates phone time for customer service. It's not unusual for people to go online and search a website for answers before they call. Why not have the information waiting for them? Most general inquiries can be easily answered with a Q&A section on your website. · Demand generation. Sometimes keywords belong to an industry that not many people search for, but they are essential industry keywords that a site needs to perform well for. If you develop specific keywords for your products that no one is searching for, you have the opportunity to build a whole new set of keywords that you own. For instance, HubSpot created the term "inbound marketing" and built a successful business around it. · Nonbranded. These are the highly searched, competitive, and relevant keywords that someone who has never heard of your company can use as a search perimeter and still find your company. 3. Use offline actions online Many companies fail this Marketing 101 rule: What you do offline, use online. Tradeshows, whitepapers, social networking, and so on— all your marketing efforts need to be integrated. When doing anything in marketing, try to keep the idea of SEO in the back of your brain, especially for B2B. Going to an industry tradeshow could cost you $20k for a booth so why wouldn't you want to use it in your SEO? Write and distribute an online press release about your booth at the tradeshow, bring a camera to record customers, and post them to video-sharing sites like YouTube. If someone from your company is giving a speech at the tradeshow, record and transcribe it. Then use it for your content marketing strategy: post a blog review of the conference, send your review to newsletter subscribers, and turn the PowerPoint presentation into a whitepaper. * * * B2B and B2C marketing have commonalities—and differences. Some of the rules apply, while others have to be tweaked to fit the B2B world. The same is true for SEO. You have a different set of challenges to overcome and new opportunities to take advantage of. But B2B businesses that can effectively navigate through SEO are sure to find it worth the effort and wait. Source http://www.marketingprofs.com/

How I Made It: Jim Lanzone, president of CBS Interactive

Before CBS bought his start-up Clicker, Lanzone spent much of his career helping people navigate and mine the Internet. The gig: Jim Lanzone is president of CBS Interactive, a group of news, sports, entertainment, technology and business websites that reaches more than 87 million monthly users in the U.S. He was named to the post in March when CBS Corp. acquired his start-up, Clicker Media Inc., which he describes as the TV Guide for Internet video. "When programming gets online it's not about when it's on, it's about where it's on and whether it's on," he said. Clicker tracks more than 1 million Web videos, from mainstream TV episodes and movies to online-only content such as Funny or Die's "When Harry Met Sally 2."Getting CBS clicking: The network is betting that Clicker will emerge as the place people go to figure out what to watch on their Internet-connected TVs or portable devices. Getting the hardware side on board is key, which is why "we are talking to television manufacturers and consumer electronics companies about outsourcing their navigation and discovery technology to Clicker," Lanzone said. He hopes to apply his team's search expertise to other CBS properties, such as music site Last.fm or tech news portal CNET.Why brands matter online: As long ago as 2008, it was clear that the era of Internet TV had arrived — and that this would further fragment audiences. That had two consequences, Lanzone said. It created the need for products like Clicker, which help viewers navigate seemingly infinite choices, and it underscored the value of brands. "One of the biggest [misconceptions] being thrown out now is that network or cable brands will cease to matter," Lanzone said. "That couldn't be more wrong. The truth is that people absolutely know that 'NCIS' is a CBS show, they absolutely know that 'The Daily Show' is a Comedy Central show. Brands are shortcuts, and they help people make decisions about quality."Tuning in: Lanzone is a self-described entertainment addict. He grew up watching sports with his dad and joining his mom in front of the television on Oscar night. "You'll find Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly and People at our house," he said. He's also a classic early adopter of technology, using the Internet to run his fantasy baseball league. "That website — [then] called commissioner.com, which my league has been using for almost 16 years — is owned by CBS," he said. "Now it's part of CBS Interactive."Early days: Before Clicker, Lanzone spent much of his career helping people navigate and mine the Internet. He worked for KnowX.com, one of the Internet's early providers of public-records search, and then co-founded eTour, a website that helped people discover sites that matched their interests (think of it as a predecessor of StumbleUpon). As chief executive of Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com), he is credited with turning around the search engine that was the first to let people use plain English to scour the Internet for information. That set the stage for the company's sale in 2005 to IAC/InterActiveCorp.Applying the secrets of search: Eighty-seven percent of Internet sessions today start with search engines, Lanzone said. He considers search the underpinning of many of the most important technologies on the Web, such as ad targeting and the recommendations on Netflix and Clicker. "Search engine optimization is a huge source of traffic for CBS Interactive properties and also a big source of opportunities," he said.Favorite TV show? Lanzone said his favorite show of all time was HBO's "The Wire." His favorites this season are "Shameless" on Showtime and "The Good Wife" and "How I Met Your Mother" on CBS. (It can't hurt to give props to his new boss, CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves.)dawn.chmielewski@latimes.com Source http://www.latimes.com/

Many Websites Look Like Zombies to Google Search

A while back I emphasized how important is to have a company website these days (Publish Your Website Or Customers Won’t Find You). I should have added that a website not optimized for search engines is lost in the heap of a billion dead websites. Unless someone searches for your company by name, it won’t show up in the first few pages of any search results. Search engines are programmed to rank websites based on their popularity and relevancy. These are subjective elements, but there are specifics that even a computer program can evaluate to set your ranking, and thus determine whether your site is alive and a good match to a specific search request. Yet recent research indicates that almost half of small business websites are still missing these basics, and thus are essentially dead to the search world. The solution is keeping your site alive and vital, and following basic search engine optimization (SEO) suggestions. Here are some high-value elements you need, if you hope to see your company on any page of results for relevant user queries: Relevant and constantly updated content. Web sites that haven’t been updated in the last couple of years can’t possibly be alive. These days, the best way to provide fresh content is to attach your blog to the website, and add new entries at least a couple of times a month. Create inbound and outbound links. Contact related web sites that are well known, to request reciprocal links. Another way to get inbound links is review other site blogs, and leave your comments with your link. Register your business in relevant directories, and sign up in all local directories. Make sure you have no dead links on your own site. Web page title tags. You need to name every page of your web site, and these names must contain your important search keywords. Check every page of your web site to make sure a title is predominantly displayed as the first line of a search result. Missing and meaningless tags will cause your site to be ignored by users, even if found. Web site keyword tags and description. These are elements, normally added by your website designer, which contain one or two sentences that briefly explain to the search engine what each web page is about. These same tags and keywords should be used liberally in each page text to give that page a higher ranking. Image attributes and sub-folder names. Search engines process every word on your web site, even optional internal names assigned to images (alt tag) and folders. Thus even internal names of website elements must be properly named (eliminate computer generated text) to amplify your search position. Reduce page load time. Eliminate flashy ads that delay entry to your site. Search engine spiders (also known as bots) take into consideration the page’s size in kilobytes. Web pages that take a long time to load will discourage search engines and human viewers alike. The usual culprit is a picture or graphic that is larger than 20 kilobytes. Completion of these tasks is not the full SEO job, but will keep your company out of the Internet dead zone. You can contract an SEO specialist at this level for a couple of thousand dollars, or you can do the work in-house, if someone on your team has some basic tools and web maintenance skills. SEO does not have to be a major expense. Another alternative is to buy your way out of the zone with Search Engine Marketing (SEM). If you give Google enough money, their search engine will put you up as a preferred provider for any search keyword you buy. That may be a quick fix, but will definitely be more costly in the long run. But the cost of doing nothing is even greater. Websites that look like the walking dead to Google search, work like no website, which means that your business will suffer. Work on a good website is never done, but there is no time like the present to wake up and get started. Source http://www.businessinsider.com/

Make money part of family discussion

Nathan Dungan, founder and president of Share Save Spend, admits that teaching kids about money "can be like drinking water from a firehose," Nathan Dungan, founder and president of Share Save Spend, admits that teaching kids about money "can be like drinking water from a firehose," given that it's such a broad topic that encompasses saving and spending, wants and needs, financial goals and more. However, he believes the earlier parents begin those conversations with their kids, the more naturally "money talk" will become part of daily family life. ¶ Since April is Financial Literacy Month, we asked Dungan, author of "Money Sanity Solutions: Linking Money + Meaning," for tips and suggestions about how to help your kids cultivate sound financial skills. Q What is your theory about giving a child an allowance? At what age? A An allowance can be a powerful teaching tool. I think you can definitely start around 5 or 6 years old. If you are intentional about giving them money -- in other words, don't give it without expectations -- it can give kids a sense of confidence, awareness and responsibility. If you just give them allowance randomly, it's not effective. Family chores are family chores, but if you have a "job jar" where kids can pick a task to do, they will value the money they've earned because they worked for it. Q Do you think it is more challenging for today's parents to teach kids about money than it was for their parents? A Society today is super-skewed toward spending and the message about sharing and saving just isn't there. I've asked elementary school kids in my workshops what they learn about spending and saving in school and the answer is generally "not much." So that means it really is on parents. If you abdicate your role to teach kids about money, the void will be filled by the culture of consumerism. Parents are the best ones to shape the narrative about money for their family. Q What are some ways for parents to integrate good financial messages into everyday life? A This isn't a topic you have to spend two hours on every day. You can build the subject into your daily family life -- going to the grocery store, conversations on how money is spent at home on items like technology, maybe talking about a family vacation. Involve your kids in those discussions. I'm often surprised by the wisdom young people have about money and I think adults can learn from that. Q Many families have been adversely affected by the economy in recent months. How can parents help kids understand a difficult financial situation? A Kids are more perceptive than we give them credit for, so to shield them completely from the family's financial problems is not helpful. At the same time, you want to make sure the conversations are age-appropriate because it is not necessary to tell them every detail. Offer messages of reassurance and tell kids that as parents, you are going to make the best decisions you can for the family. This is another opportunity to invite them into the discussion -- talk about ways the family can save money like making sure all lights are turned off when they aren't being used or eating all the food in the refrigerator and not being wasteful. Q As kids get older, they are likely to become keen observers of ways their friends spend money. Any tips on how parents can handle this? A Kids definitely enter the world of "comparonomics" and it's a game no one can win. In our consumer culture, it will always be about wanting to have more, and parents should be realistic with kids about what their family can afford. It's important to have conversations about the difference between wants and needs. Talk to your kids about what you value as a family when it comes to spending money. Encourage them to save for something that is important to them, just as the family might save for a vacation or something that matters to everyone in the family. If parents have been instilling healthy financial habits in kids throughout the years, it will definitely serve them well as they eventually become responsible for their own spending and saving. It's a lot easier to do it that way than for kids to unravel unhealthy money habits when they are in their 20s and beyond. Julie Pfitzinger is a West St. Paul freelance writer. Source http://www.startribune.com/ Many Websites Look Like Zombies to Google Search A while back I emphasized how important is to have a company website these days (Publish Your Website Or Customers Won’t Find You). I should have added that a website not optimized for search engines is lost in the heap of a billion dead websites. Unless someone searches for your company by name, it won’t show up in the first few pages of any search results. Search engines are programmed to rank websites based on their popularity and relevancy. These are subjective elements, but there are specifics that even a computer program can evaluate to set your ranking, and thus determine whether your site is alive and a good match to a specific search request. Yet recent research indicates that almost half of small business websites are still missing these basics, and thus are essentially dead to the search world. The solution is keeping your site alive and vital, and following basic search engine optimization (SEO) suggestions. Here are some high-value elements you need, if you hope to see your company on any page of results for relevant user queries: Relevant and constantly updated content. Web sites that haven’t been updated in the last couple of years can’t possibly be alive. These days, the best way to provide fresh content is to attach your blog to the website, and add new entries at least a couple of times a month. Create inbound and outbound links. Contact related web sites that are well known, to request reciprocal links. Another way to get inbound links is review other site blogs, and leave your comments with your link. Register your business in relevant directories, and sign up in all local directories. Make sure you have no dead links on your own site. Web page title tags. You need to name every page of your web site, and these names must contain your important search keywords. Check every page of your web site to make sure a title is predominantly displayed as the first line of a search result. Missing and meaningless tags will cause your site to be ignored by users, even if found. Web site keyword tags and description. These are elements, normally added by your website designer, which contain one or two sentences that briefly explain to the search engine what each web page is about. These same tags and keywords should be used liberally in each page text to give that page a higher ranking. Image attributes and sub-folder names. Search engines process every word on your web site, even optional internal names assigned to images (alt tag) and folders. Thus even internal names of website elements must be properly named (eliminate computer generated text) to amplify your search position. Reduce page load time. Eliminate flashy ads that delay entry to your site. Search engine spiders (also known as bots) take into consideration the page’s size in kilobytes. Web pages that take a long time to load will discourage search engines and human viewers alike. The usual culprit is a picture or graphic that is larger than 20 kilobytes. Completion of these tasks is not the full SEO job, but will keep your company out of the Internet dead zone. You can contract an SEO specialist at this level for a couple of thousand dollars, or you can do the work in-house, if someone on your team has some basic tools and web maintenance skills. SEO does not have to be a major expense. Another alternative is to buy your way out of the zone with Search Engine Marketing (SEM). If you give Google enough money, their search engine will put you up as a preferred provider for any search keyword you buy. That may be a quick fix, but will definitely be more costly in the long run. But the cost of doing nothing is even greater. Websites that look like the walking dead to Google search, work like no website, which means that your business will suffer. Work on a good website is never done, but there is no time like the present to wake up and get started. Source http://www.businessinsider.com/

Search The World Wide Web For Profit - CEO Space Learning Resource

CEO Space chairman Berny Dohrmann, in conjunction with the quarterly forums, offers an educational resource for busy executives. Ceospace Search Engine SeriesWe all know that 'content is king' on the web and that google crawls the web for key words to weave together in response to search. There is a suitable reason world wide web is called the world wide web, and the skilled team at CEO Space understands how to optimize this byzantine web by using a 'search bot language.' To have a social media marketing plan of action that ranks your websites on top of your competitors, purely generating a lot of articles is not necessarily going to do the trick. Chances are that most of them are going to be ignored by the search engine spiders because they are not properly tied to the url Wheel that intergrates your content into the internet.Getting to know the URL Wheelceo space has studied strategies that url Wheels exercise to search the internet, and quickly discovered that they are not all compelling. In fact, we realized how poor search engine optimization strategies can actually damage your traffic flow, putting your website at a recognizable disadvantage. So we have been keeping our cards close until we discovered the perfect link Wheel shows our customers the kind of media saturation that gets listing. We learned the procedures for forging search engine optimization chains to contribute safe, reliable links back to your url regardless of the source.How URL Wheels are ForgedAlthough the process of preparing link Wheels is quite technical, the concept behind them is easy. We start with 5 main keywords that you supply that best describes your company. We then pen accounts for you on 35 social network sites like WordPress, Windows Live Spaces, Weebly, Live Journal and Blogger. But is merely the first step in Newswire's link Wheel search engine blueprint.Weaving the InternetThe seo researchers at newswire take your 5 key words and devise 6 related key words to be sub-keywords in each posting, creating 35 keywords that interlink across the web. The next step is for Newswire's skilled writers to generate 35 separate articles that each one of these words, with all the remaining 34 worked into the text, graphics and titles if possible. Now we go to each of the 35 social network sites and write an unique article on each one so they all interlink. Every story ceo space submits should get reliable links back to relevant pages on your web page that drive targeted traffic right where you need it. Resources CEO Space and chairman Berny Dohrmann designs their retreats to make the most of a busy executive's substantial time. CEO Space claims endorsements by the following well-known experts in corporate training: Anthony Robbins, motivational speaker and author of "Awaken The Giant Within;" ; Bob Proctor, who had been featured in "The Secret" and wrote "The Science of Getting Rich"; Lisa Nichols, CEO of Motivating the Teen Spirit and reporter of "No Matter What" and was also featured in "The Secret"; Dr. Jeff Magee of "Performance Magazine;" Jill Lublin, a professional self-promotion expert; Jane Whilhite, co-founder of PSI World; Dr. John Gray, bestselling author of "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus;" Ron Zeller, creator and co-presenter of "Winning The Second Half;" T. Harv Eker, bestselling author of "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind;" and Rick Frishman, chairman of Planned Television Arts Kevin Harrington of ABC series "Shark Tank Source http://www.newswire.net/