Well, another weekend has arrived. The morning news greets us with kidnapping, bombing, starvation and riots while wild stock market swings engender both fear and hope. Johnny Depp's remake of The Lone Ranger is halted for budget concerns by Disney.

I remember running home from school to watch Clayton Moore's Lone Ranger with Jay Silverheels as Tonto and listening to the William Tell Overture as the announcer cried: "Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear ..." Oh how I wish I could!!!

What I can do this evening is play the William Tell Overture and enjoy some Sauvignon Blanc with Sherry's Beef Strogannoff and discuss early tv westerns. Robert Mondavi has dubbed this wine "Fumé Blanc", to emphasize a smoky taste and increase sales.

Sauvignon Blanc was sold for decades in the Wine Shoppes of France before being exported to California in the latter 19th century. Smoky, herbal, olive, grassy and apple are among flavors from sweet to dry and usually light. New Zealand is also a top producer.

Speaking of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc here is a low price offering from Silver Birch you might bring along to the next backyard barbecue. If you're planning to attend a more elegant outing, why not take along an exciting upscale picnic basket from Matanzas Creek.

Appleberry Wine Shoppe is an ongoing project we are hoping will increase our knowledge and enjoyment of the wine drinking experience and pay for some wine and fine dining. We have invoked the paradigm that says doing something you love will never be work. “Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” ... Benjamin Franklin

Good Night Mrs. Levinson, wherever you are!

Where To Start In Home Based Marketing

Before starting ANY business and even before beginning your learning process there are a few ducks that you need to put in a row. A sensible and stable lifestyle is a given but even in this area a learning curve will still need undergoing. What I mean by this is that you need discipline to focus your mind on the goal of wealth building, paying yourself first, avoiding unnecessary debt, understanding tax regulations, treating your websites like a business and not a hobby and finally, learning from people who are successful.

There are many online schools that teach everything from soup to nuts about starting and running an online business. My approach to Affiliate-Marketing 101 will be to write my own ebook and offer it to interested parties.

I want to do an honest and practical primer and use it to get email addresses in return. I hope to develop a database of people who respect my honesty and in turn are willing to consider any income opportunities I may be promoting.

I follow the 'educate and integrate' paradigm which suggests offering useful free ebooks and/or services that online marketers can use to promote themselves and their products. One very helpful offering of this kind is the Free-Page Network. You can create as many free pages as you like and use them to promote business or even to just have some fun. Here is a free page I created and Here Is Another - its fun and its totally free. It is hosted for free and will be online for as long as Veretekk is in business and they have been here over 11 years so far.

I Recommend That You Sign Up On My Free Page Site. And although the pages are pretty easy to make, why not get some live, interactive training and see examples of what you can do. So next, if you will, Go to Lynda Schroder's Class for interaction with a live, expert trainer. She is an experienced internet professional who lives in New Zealand and earns a living on the internet. She will also be happy to show you photos of her beautiful ranch and prize roses. Simply sign up for a free Veretekk Silver Marketing System, click on 'Veretraining' and then click on 'calendar'. You will be shown the time and dates for Veretekk's daily classes and you only need to click the 'enter' link to get into the live, interactive training.

True wealth is seldom generated by working for an hourly (or annual) salary but most often the 5% of folks who achieve it are owners of their own businesses. With today's technology it is possible to start and promote your own business with a small cash investment so long as you invest a lot of hard work, constantly upgrade your education and get experienced mentoring. You can be employed, out of work, a student or retired and still be on an even playing field with the 'big guys'. Just Sign Up as a Free Silver Member of Veretekk and attend daily, live and interactive classes. Click on 'Veretraining' and then on 'calendar' to get into our training.

Straight Talk on Home Based Marketing

18 million people are now earning a living as internet entrepreneurs which means you and I can do it too. There are many opportunities for work-at-home marketers offering resources and assistance. Check out Hiremymom.com and virtualassistantforums.com for starters as sources of advice and success stories for home based business startups. Some of my favorites are wealthyaffiliate.com (a bit pricey), AWeber.com (probably the biggest) and, last but not least (my favorite in fact), is Veretekk which I find most affordable and also the most interactive and responsive.

I'm a newbie to this infinitely variegated internet marketing universe and I am blogging primarily to share my thoughts with like minded people. I'm at a point in my life where I'm not out to make money by hoodwinking others into thinking I will show them how to create super big incomes in a short period of time. Marrying wealth, winning the lotto or engaging in organized crime are my only insights on that topic - and needless to say, in those directions may lie madness. The practical path to wealth and riches has been known to those willing to listen since at least ancient Babylonian times: make a good product at a good price, offer good customer service and work hard and long.

Education-Based Marketing is a powerful marketing strategy used to establish trust and credibility via educational messages. This is the antithesis of traditional marketing that offers primarily sales based messages. Once developed, your educational message needs to be packaged and given free in exchange for your prospects' contact information.

Don't Be Fooled By All The Hype about making big bucks in a few hours or a few days. Its just plain B.S. that says you need no knowledge or experience and somehow a fantastic system will do all the work while you make $100's or $1,000's in a few hours or days! Network Marketing is, however, amenable to business startups on a part-time basis and allows starting while you work a full time, traditional job and build a 2nd income to replace your salary.

People have had it with worn-out, outdated sales pitches. Shields go up the moment you begin to spiel a sales pitch. Conversely, people sit up and take notice when you share important facts and expertise that helps them make effective buying decisions. It is also important to present your educational message in a format your subscriber finds appealing - CD, DVD, Ebook etc..

There are no hard and fast rules as to when any given venture will become profitable and established. Through Veretekk I associate with many successful online marketers and off the top of my head I would say hard work and constant learning could bring a modest 2nd income in perhaps 6 to 18 months of maybe $500 to $2,000 per month. The Veretekk instructors and subscribers I work with have been in business 2 to 11 years and I have learned over the grapevine their incomes are spread from $30k or $40k to just over $1,000,000.

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Effective marketing requires getting the word out - but in a way that encourages responses. This involves developing strategies to distribute educational messages at certain customer contact points - via business phones, websites, blogs, advertising, press releases, social networking etc..

The final goal here, of course, is making it to the top of Google - especially the top 3 spots that generate about 50% of total traffic. Certainly its mandatory to be in one of the top 10 Google positions that collectively generate 85% of total traffic and are primarily attained by building backlinks. These links inform Google you have relevant content that will benefit searchers.

Backlink building is simply creating normal links to your web pages from authoritative sources that promote products or services similar to those you offer. Submissions of unique articles to hundreds of directories will be required which would take many hours without automated marketing. Internet savvy is the new common denominator of success today… and Veretekk is a place where you’ll find the tools, training and community support to help you do it.

You can click on the images below to download a pdf ebook that explains the Veretekk Automated Marketing System and Is Also A Great Source Of Information And Inspiration For Internet Newbies!

Good Night, Mrs. Levinson. Wherever you are!

Has Your Job Become A Rat Race?

Picking the right home business can be your ticket out of the 'rat race' of the working poor and into financial freedom so it should not be taken lightly. You need to be wary of all the 'get rich quick' hype and B.S. out there but also be aware there are 18 million people earning their income on the internet. Business success has always been and still is the result of knowledge, investment and plain old hard work.

We can take advantage of emerging-market revenue opportunities as more merchants embrace the pay-for-performance model of online affiliate marketing. As you delve deeper into a marketing niche you are able to add more relevant content and value to your products throughout the purchasing process. Such efforts will eventually establish you as an expert in your field. The practical result of this will be increased traffic on your blogs, web sites and landing pages.

Before you join any business opportunity, you should have a goal and a plan in place so you are organized and prepared to achieve success. You can start with a Google search on '[company name] reviews' where people will tell you what they like or dislike about the company. Further searches will reveal how this company stacks up against its competitors - product features, pricing and affiliate commision structures are a good start. Its still a good idea to check out prospective merchant partners with the Better Business Bureau too.

The basic idea here is to select products that fall into a specialized niche that is increasing in popularity but currently not over served. You may decide to promote in a niche with which you are familiar and have some related expertise. On the other hand you may simply find new and interesting products that you enjoy reading about and researching. I like selling products that are digital in nature such as software or eBooks due to the ease of delivery and the speed of the transaction.

How will you market your product? Where will you advertise? Who will you email? What social marketing techniques will you use? What niche group is interested in this product and how do I conduct relevant research? Bear in mind that the marketing system employed to promote your product or service is also of primary importance. Research again is required to determine the processes involved and whether it is more practical to outsource these tasks or perform them yourself. It is also a very good idea to have an expert mentor. One way to develop this kind of relationship is through free marketing forums.

You can learn more about choosing a no cost affiliate program through The Veretekk Money Machine. Take the time to do it right.

Good night Mrs. Levinson wherever you are!

Online Marketing Update

I've just gotta love all the creative blogs out there in bloggerspace and their cool graphics. I constantly click on the 'next blog' link in eager anticipation of what I will see and read next. Its no wonder then that business (for better or worse) is exploiting this Brave New World. It therefore seems appropriate for us SOHO entrepreneurs to also 'get on the band wagon'.

Many people are now using blogs instead of websites for their internet promotions. As a result these folks are asking how to get more blog traffic. Actually the rules of internet traffic don't really change so that most of the proven techniques still apply.

Another method that generates this sort of 'targeted traffic' is to make comments on blogs with offerings in the same niche as your product(s). However, please don't commit the offense of 'drive-buy blogging'! You need to make intelligent, relevant remarks as opposed to just spamming out stuff like 'Nice site!'

Making comments on a regular basis can also generate Trackback Links which result when you include quotations in your blog from other people's blogs. The Trackback feature informs the other blogger that you have commented on their blog. This creates a link from another blog to your blog.

My primary source of info on generating blog traffic is asking successful internet marketers who have 'been there and done that' for their advice and assistance. This requires some homework to find these folks and make contact. I have discovered some organizations of internet marketing professionals that will allow this kind of access. Wealthy Affiliate is one good choice but Veretekk is my hands down favorite.

Blogging combined with other Social media is a very powerful platform used by millions to discuss likes, dislikes and perspectives on news. You are very likely to discover conversation on topics pertaining to your product or brand on these social channels. This presents a golden opportunity for you to join the discussion and by doing so to strengthen your online sphere of influence.

SEO Overview

What is the importance of achieving a high Page Rank for the pages on your site? What's the deal with backlinks (links to your site from other sites)? The Prime Directive of basic SEO (search engine optimization) is getting a web site to the top of search engine result pages (SERP's) through the use of relevant backlinks. In the oldtime vernacular of vaudeville and burlesque proper SEO can make you the 'Top Banana'! This provides my segway to a photo of 'banana spiel' artist Phil Silvers.

SEO is all about consistently getting back links and Page Rank after the due diligence of optimizing domain names, subdomains, keywords and keyword phrases. When Google performs 'hard crawls' they begin with highest ranked pages which means Google views your sites more often as your page ranking improves. Therefore, as you create new sites you can raise their page rankings with backlinks from your higher ranked pages and so on and so on. Is anyone ancient enough to recognize the original 'Google Crawler'?

One source of Off-Page SEO are web directory lists wherein you submit your link. Be sure, however, to check the PageRank, price and relevance of these web directories. http://LiveArticles.Info seems to be a good source of info on web directory submissions.

Optimal SEO can result from a detailed 3 part strategy.

1. Keywords
   
   You need to study hundreds of keywords so you know exactly those keywords you want search engines to index you for - free keyword tools work just fine


2. Meta Information
   
   Includes title and description tags that tell search engines what you are about so they can give you ranking. Example: Antiques|AntiquesToday.com for the title. Description should be kept to 2 or 3 lines about your website. Keywords - best to use 10 or less keywords so you won't be seen by search engines as a 'keyword stuffer'.


3. Marketing Plan
   
   SEO Marketing thrives on article marketing and mass article submissions which yield quick and abundant backlinks. When you write and submit articles to directories you will be able to place backlinks with anchor text in your Author Bio Box. When you submit sufficient articles to the proper number of directories you will find yourself indexed for the keywords you choose in a short space of time.

Not all web pages find their way into Google's index. Only those considered to be of high quality with relevant keywords are indexed. It is often advantageous to work with a like-minded team of individuals such as Veretekk subscribers. We use the Veretekk Automated Marketing System to build business opportunities. Unlimited Training is Free.

Veretekk is suitable for home based or brick and mortar businesses. The home based path is my venue of choice. It can be profitable and satisfying but requires time, education and effort. I got tired of living like the folks in this graphic and decided to '...take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them'.

Good Night Mrs. Levinson - wherever you are!

No Cost Online Opportunities

I have developed a case of writer's block regarding my blogging but I have the solution. You see, I've been reading so many advice articles on what to do and not do that I fell into an impasse and just kept looping back and forth in an infinite indecision loop. From now on I will follow the example of a great and prolific author I revered for many years. The great science fiction author, Isaac Asimov, said in his autobiography that he didn't have time to revise and edit his writing so he simply got it right the first time. I certainly lack his talent but nonetheless I'm going to muddle through from now on and just 'Get 'er done'.

It seems to me that those techniques of Internet Marketing that result in great SEO, sales, lead generation and large affiliate downlines work regardless of the products promoted. I suppose this might lead to the conclusion that high cost, high profit products would be the best prospects. I tend to agree with this but folks like myself on miniscule budgets might not be able afford these kinds of promotions - at least in the beginning. Therefore I choose No Cost or Low Cost products and MLMs so I can concentrate my resources on marketing and SEO.


I guess the word FREE has pretty much become negative in connotation and if you use it too much in your emails they may be relegated to the SPAM file. So I use the more politically correct NO COST label. Another kind of pet peeve of mine is the use of 7's. What I mean is there's a bunch of offers out there that cost $77 or they are only $47 (but a $77 value). I guess these promoters feel the old 9's paradigm is too trite ($9.99, $29.99, $99.99 etc) - maybe they're right.


Did I mention that I intend to intersperse comments about the news, humor, history and interesting or unusual (at least to me) pictures & graphics? Why, because I can do it! All my life I've planned and plotted to start this business or that and be my own boss working from home. This means to me that I can be listening to music, watching tv, eating, having a beer, or wearing t-shirts, bermuda shorts, baseball caps, berets, 10 gallon western hats, 'Bubba' teeth and even those funny glasses with big nose and eyebrows. This way my YouTube videos may be funny enough to offset the boring bragging gibberish that seems to be everywhere. Its time I have some fun and 'do it my way'! I may be retired but I've got an office at last set up my way with my decor, toys, goodies and accoutrements. I get to pick my own hours, days and quality time!


I'm not so sure what this graphic I found HERE is trying to tell me but somehow I like it. Maybe I will create a similar graphic that shows me about to grab piles of gold or large denomination bills. Isn't that pretty much the level of the many ridiculous 'get rich quick' ads that flood the internet? I confess, though, I use them too! BUT, I don't promise fantastic profits in hours, days or weeks with little or no marketing knowledge or experience. I use them to get attention before I discuss what it really takes to create income - Hard Work, Education and Cash Investment. I pick my workdays but they are 12 hour days!

The first step in becoming successful in direct or internet marketing is getting the set of values best suited to your endeavors. A great presentation on this subject is Robert Kiyosaki's book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. While making no disparaging commentary on the 'Employee' mindset he Argues that a good education and a secure job are not guarantees for financial success, and describes six guidelines for making money work for you. Watch His Video


I am currently working with a diverse team of like minded individuals at Veretekk to build business opportunities. We combine our efforts to obtain high positions in Google and other search engines for high level keyword phrases. Its simply smarter for many people to do a little instead of one or a few people doing a lot. This team approach can achieve the SEO it takes to generate the traffic and customers needed for success. Here are a few No Cost Offers.