Yesterday, we talked about different methods of adding content to your site, including hiring ghostwriters, using PLR content and free articles (with the author’s resource box).

The first two methods cost money, which makes the third, free, method, look pretty good — until you realize that those resource boxes are going to lead people away from your website.

Which is where the first rule comes in:

1. Never lead people away from your website

This leaves you with the more expensive options. But if you’re a new work at home mom, and you’ve just spent everything you have on inventory or supplies, you can afford to buy articles Or send people away from your site.

So what do you do?

Well, that leads us to the second rule:

2. If you do send people away from your site, make sure you earn some money from the deal.

This is where my friend Nicole Dean’s website Free Affiliate Articles comes into play. You see, not only are the articles on Nicole’s site written by other work at home moms just like you, they are also tied to affiliate programs.

This means that you can pick a product or service you want to promote, from her site. Join the affiliate program — and then choose articles that the affiliate site owner has provided. You publish the article on your site, including the resource box, which contains your affiliate link.

So now, when a visitor to your site clicks the link in the resource box, instead of being gone forever, she is still tied to you through the affiliate link. And if she orders from the site you sent her to, you get a commission.

What more could you ask for?

[tags]affiliate marketing, nicole dean, article marketing, PLR[/tags]

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As I’m sure you know, well-written content that meets the needs of your site visitors is the key to increasing your website traffic. If you’re trying to write all of your own content, you’re going to end up chained to your computer. Not exactly the reason you wanted to stay at home with your kids, huh?

You may think that the only way to increase your VRE (internet marketing speak for “virtual real estate”) without a negative impact on your family is to hire writers to create much of your content. If you’re like me, you’ve been told to go to Guru.com or Elance.com and hire someone who is “affordable.” You may have even done this — only to come back with content that isn’t well written or very informative. Perhaps you found someone who does an excellent job of writing — but charges $20 to $40 per hour. Ouch!

So what do you do?

This is where All Mom Content comes into play. All Mom Content is run by my colleagues and mentors Alice Seba and Mila Sidman, both of whom are work at home moms. They saw a need for affordable PLR content, geared towards mom’s searching for information on the Internet.

Here are a few key features of All Mom Content:

• All Mom Content articles are written by people with a command of the English language.
• All articles are mom-approved and come from the perspective of the intended target market.
• Membership is limited in number.
• 30 articles, 10 product reviews and 10 recipes each month.
• 30-day, no questions asked, money-back guarantee

Sound like what you’re looking for?

Update: My friend Melissa Ingold and I have put together a new PLR resource just for product sellers: ProductSellersContent.com. Check it out!

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So, we all know that content is king in gaining PageRank in Google and attracting people to our websites. For product sellers, that typically means adding articles to your existing product selling website.

That’s the conventional wisdom.

The new wisdom: My internet marketing mentor Alice Seba recently advised a member of her Mom Masterminds group to separate the content (information) from her products, by setting up separate sites.

Her basis for this advice appeared in an article by Bobette Kyle, who wrote that customers have four stages to their decision making process, or buying process:

• Need/Want Recognition
• Information Search
• Evalutation
• Purchase

You need to make sure that your site is attracting visitors who are in the right stage of the buying process. If you are wanting people to purchase products when they arrive, you don’t want to bog them down with lots of information. Conversely, if your visitors are still seeking information, you don’t want to shove Buy It Now buttons in their face.

Once you have your new site up, you fill it with articles that will provide information related to your products — and links back to your sales site for the appropriate products. I also recommend you place a mailing list signup form on this site, so that you can send ecourses and update information to your prospects.

So, how do you accomplish this with the [tag]Shop Kit Plus[/tag]?

The easiest way that involves the least amount of design work and money is to setup a new site on a subdomain of your existing site. This method will get you up and going for the cost of a domain name — and you can scale the customization level to meet your budget needs.

So, you have your Shop Kit Plus installed on your hosting account, which you access with your main domain name. Just purchase the domain name for your information site and set the nameservers to Watersweb’s. Then, login to your cpanel and click the [tag]Addon Domain[/tag] button and follow the directions.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll want to go back to the home page of cpanel, scroll down to the Fantastico button and install Wordpress in your new subdirectory. It’s easy. Just click the link, fill out the form and click the button. (And if you have any questions, just contact the Helpdesk for help.

Once you have Wordpress installed, you’ll be able to access it through the new domain name.

At this point, you can find a free Wordpress theme to install on the site — or you can hire one of our Design Partners to customize the templates. The first way is less expensive, the second way will give you a more customized look.

Now, for the fun part: You need to publish articles on your new weblog, related to your products and that will help your prospects through the process of deciding what to buy.

You can write articles yourself, find free articles online, buy affordable Private Label Articles for moms or hire a ghostwriter. Once you have this setup and a few articles/entries under your belt, start spreading your link around with forum signatures (where available), blog comments and memberships at technorati (for example).

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My 3-year-old daughter, Aimee, is at that stage where she is amazed by everything — and talks about everything. It’s such a wonderful age, isn’t it?

So, over the past couple of days, she’s made a few comments that had us rolling — so I thought I’d share with you guys.

Yesterday, I told Aimee that my nose was running (allergy season, naturally).

Aimee: “My nose isn’t running. It’s walking!”

On the way to Grandma’s house for dinner, she noticed a crescent moon, high in the sky and said, “We’re going to the moon — to eat cheese!”

And then on the way home, my husband, Steve, said that he’d been running around all day at work like a chicken with his head cut off.

“CHICKEN!?” Aimee yelled. “OH NO! I’M GOING TO GET CHICKEN SPOTS!”

I guess if she comes down with chicken spots, there’s nothing like Happy Cakes and Hopcorn* to make her feel better.

*Otherwise known as her favorite foods, pancakes and popcorn.

Popularity: 23% [?]

I am in the process of interviewing WAHM [tag]product photography[/tag], labeling and shipping experts to find out the answers to your toughest questions. Of course, I need to know what those questions are! LOL When you have a moment, please take a peek at my new site, Presenting Your Products and use the form to ask your questions.

I have talked to many of my clients during the course of setting up their shipping in Mals, and I’ve noticed that often the newer [tag]Work At Home Moms[/tag] are lost among all the choices available. Until now, I haven’t been able to help. But with this information product, I’ll have all the answers you need!

The product will include audio interviews with [tag]WAHM experts[/tag], transcripts, checklists and workbooks.

The questions you ask will help us make this product better for all the WAHMs who need it.

So, got questions? Send them over to us and we’ll let you know when we have answers:

http://www.presentingyourproducts.com/ask.html

Thank you!

[tags]product labeling, product shipping[/tags]

Popularity: 19% [?]

What is a website?

Well, according to some leading Internet Marketing Gurus, a website is just an advertisement, a tool that a business uses to reach out to its market — either to sell or to inform.

So, what does that mean for your business?

That means that if you have just setup a website, and are creating a few products for it, or running a few affiliate programs — you really don’t have a business. You have an ad.

So then — what is a business?

Search Google, and you will find these definitions, among others:

• An organization operated with the objective of making a profit from the sale of goods or services.
• An enterprise, commercial entity, or firm in either the private or public sector, concerned with providing products or services to satisfy customer requirements.

In a nutshell, your business is what you do.

If you just wait for people to visit your website, then you don’t have a business.

If you play the Google Adwords game, or post on message boards or send out spam or do anything that does not involve providing a product or service to your customers, then you do not have a business.

Food for thought, eh?

A little homework: Sit down and think about what you’ve got going? Do you have a business? What does your business do?

Once you’ve figure that out, ask yourself this: Who are the people that you provide your products and services to? What do they come to you for? What else could they need besides the item(s) or service(s) you currently provide?

Find ways to meet more of their needs, related to what you’re already providing. Setup partnerships with complementary companies. Join affiliate programs that offer products or services that will benefit your target market.

Develop a strategy (a system) for finding out what it is people need from your business. And give it to them.

Then you’ll have a business.

Popularity: 26% [?]