It might be difficult to hear, but just as there are reasons that your business is successful, there are just as many reasons why people are NOT buying from you. Use these tried and true techniques to make sure that you aren’t sending wrong message to potential customers:

1. You don’t make people feel safe when they order. Remind people that they are ordering through a secure server. Tell them you won’t sell their e-mail address and all their information will be kept confidential.

2. You don’t make your ads attractive. Your ad may list features instead of benefits. The headline doesn’t attract your target audience. You don’t list any testimonials or guarantees included in your ad.

3. You don’t provide a reason or need to come back and visit your site. People usually don’t purchase the first time they visit. The more times they visit your site, the greater the chance they will buy. The most effective way is to give them a free subscription to your e-zine.

4. You don’t give people as many ordering options as possible. Accept credit cards, checks, money orders, and other forms of electronic payments. Take orders by phone, e-mail, web site, fax, mail, etc.

5. You don’t make your web site look professional. You want to have your own domain name. Your web site should be easy to navigate through. The graphics should be related to the theme of your web site.

6. You don’t let people read your ad before they get your freebie. When you use free stuff to lure people to your web site include it below your ad copy or on another web page. If you list the freebie above your
ad they may never look to see what you’re selling. Make them “work” to actually receive the free item.

7. You don’t attract the target audience that would buy your product or service. A simple way to do this is to survey your existing customers to see what attracted them to buy. This information will help you improve your target marketing and advertising.

8. You don’t give people any urgency to buy now. Many people are interested in your product but they put off buying it till later and eventually forget about it. Entice them to buy now with a freebie or discount and include a deadline date when the offer ends.

9. You don’t offer a free contest or sweepstakes. It’s a fact, people like to win things. If you can fulfill that need, people will stop by to visit.

10. You don’t offer a free directory, ezine, or community that they can come back to. People want to belong and to give their opinion. Create these people-oriented amenities and you will see a difference.

11. You don’t offer free samples of your product or service. Offer a consultation, trial membership, product, or whatever it is that you provide, to you potential customer. Nothing works better in sales than a hot lead, and when someone provides you with their business, even on a small level, it is much easier to keep that customer than find a brand new one.

Jeff Bunnell is a part-time marketer and full-time Dad. He has worked as a Realtor, Concert Promoter, Computer Tech, Salesman, Manager, etc. Now he is using his years of experience to help others make additional income on the internet.
For more information go to http://www.easybigmoneymaker.com

Do you feel self-conscious about the size of your belly? Want to do something about it? Instead of trying some “miracle” fat burning pill or gimmicky fitness gadget, try sticking to the basics. The following tips are proven to help you slim down, tone up, and lose stubborn belly fat. Make them part of your daily routine and you’ll start looking and felling better fast!

Exercise the “Right Way” Several Times Per Week

Despite what you may have been lead to believe by late-night infomercials, you are definitely not going to get a lean midsection simply by exercising your ab muscles every day. Performing thousands of crunches and situps will certainly strengthen your abdominal muscles but it’s not going to put a significant dent in your body fat levels. There’s simply no way to “spot reduce,” as any fitness expert will tell you.

The best way to lose belly fat is to perform a combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercise at least 3 or 4 times per week. An example of a great workout for fat loss is performing 10 minutes of light jogging as a warmup followed by 20 minutes of moderate-intensity strength training (compound exercises like pushups, pullups, and squats are best), then 10 minutes of higher-intensity aerobic exercise such as running, bike riding, or swimming.

Another highly effective fat loss technique that combines both aerobic and anaerobic exercise is interval training. In its simplest form interval training is just performing short bursts of high-intensity exercise followed by “recovery” periods of low-intensity exercise. For example you might jog for a minute, sprint for 30 seconds, jog for a minute, sprint for 30 seconds, jog, sprint, jog, etc. Performing as few as 7 minutes of interval training has been shown to greatly increase fat burning throughout the day!

Keep in mind that interval training (or any form of high-intensity exercise) is not for beginners. You should always start off slow with any type of exercise program and try to make small improvement in your fitness levels each week. Obviously, talk with your doctor before beginning any new exercise program, especially if you have existing health problems.

Eat Simply and Don’t Get Hungry

When it comes to losing belly fat, your diet is just as important as your exercise routine… actually even more so! The first rule of eating to lose weight is to not allow yourself to get hungry. Starving yourself by eating too few calories is not an effective weight loss method, short-term or long-term. Being hungry just leads to low energy levels, a sluggish metabolism, and eating too much of the wrong foods at the wrong times. For best results eat a small meal or snack every 3 or 4 hours during the day.

The most effective foods for fat loss are “simple” foods that work with your body instead of against it. Simple foods are the foods humans ate over millions of years of evolution and they include things like lean meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. If you must have grain foods (e.g. breads, pastas, and cereals) always, always choose 100% whole-grain versions. Of course you must avoid all refined sugars and flours.

In terms of beverages, stick to water and sugar-free teas. If you’re addicted to soda at least choose the diet versions. An even better choice is sparkling water with a small amount of pure fruit juice mixed in or even just the juice of half a fresh lime. Green tea is a great drink for weight loss as well as overall health. If you like your teas sweet, try the natural sweeteners stevia and xylitol in place of sugar or synthetic sugar substitutes.

One meal a week, eat anything you want. This is often referred to as a “cheat” meal and it’s a great way to reward yourself for eating healthy foods all week long. It’s also an effective way to keep food cravings at bay and help you stay on your diet, which of course is the most important thing in the end.

Stay Motivated

Anyone can get excited and motivated to lose weight for a few days. But it’s much more difficult to stay motivated and energized over the course of weeks and months, especially when your belly fat isn’t melting away as fast as you hoped it would. Just about everyone hits the “wall” within the first 2 or 3 weeks of beginning an intense weight loss program.

The key is to find ways to motivate yourself and to use them every day. It’s just a matter of figuring out what really gets you excited and motivated to continue working out and eating well. Try writing a goal statement and reading it out loud twice daily. Post photos of people with fit, sexy bodies around your house and look at them often. Get a “workout buddy” or join a gym so that you can get motivated by being around other people who have made their bodies and health a priority.

Finally, keep in mind that losing belly fat will do a lot more than just make you look better with your shirt off. It could also help you live a lot longer! Recent research has shown that abdominal fat is probably the most dangerous fat because it appears to increase inflammation in the body. Increased inflammation levels are associated with heart disease, diabetes, and several types of cancer. The deep “visceral” fat that surrounds your organs appears to be the biggest culprit and the only way to lose it is by exercising regularly and eating simply!

By the way, if you want a complete guide to burning fat, building muscle, and looking great — written by an absolute expert — I highly recommend the “Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle” program located at:

http://www.fat-burning-guide.com

Jamie Clark is an expert fitness writer and contributing editor at the Belly Fat Blog. For more great tips on losing belly fat be sure to visit http://bellyfatblog.blogspot.com today.

1. Determine your goals for your website. How will you drive traffic to your website? Plan for this up front, while developing your website. If search engines are important to you, then proceed to step 2.

2. Allocate a budget to online marketing and search engines. It’s as important as what you spend for designing and hosting your website. The budget you set will instruct these further steps you should take:

3. Optimize your website during design to perform well in search engines. Make sure it contains the correct density of keywords important in searches.

4. Make a commitment to keep your content fresh. Augment content as frequently as practicable, because search engines reward rich content.

5. Devote resources (your time or the money to hire others) to actively work on search engine placement. Monitor your ranking weekly or monthly in the major search engines for key search terms; this can be done manually or you can utilize automated software to produce a monthly or weekly ranking report. Even if you plan to focus on free “organic” rankings, plan to set up Pay-Per-Click accounts at Google and Yahoo. All companies that want traffic from search engines should consider PPC a basic cost, as essential as paying your monthly hosting bill. The budget can be as little as $20 a month … or much more, depending upon how aggressive you want to be.

6. Promote links to your website from your trading partners, in directories, through reciprocal links and discrete paid placements. “Link popularity” is highly important to search engine rankings. Monitor who links to you, and also who links to your competitors. Get as many links coming into your website as possible. Use viral marketing strategies, like posts or links from forums, bulletin boards, social websites like myspace and more.

7. Install a good statistics package. And review it frequently so you know what is happening with your website. Statistics will tell you if you are successful in getting people to your website. If you are having success in traffic but realizing few sales, that means you need to work on your “conversion” of website visitors by improving your products or improving the functionality and usability of your website..

8. Periodically measure progress in ranking and make adjustments to keywords and content as part of a regular maintenance program - at least monthly.

9. Submit your site URL to as many free sites as possible. Self-promote yourself by writing articles, placing ads on bulletin boards, e-zines, group sites etc.

Jeff Bunnell is a part-time marketer and full-time Dad. He has worked as a Realtor, Concert Promoter, Computer Tech, Salesman, Manager, etc. Now he is using his years of experience to help others make additional income on the internet.
For more information go to http://www.easybigmoneymaker.com

If you are looking for carbohydrates that will add to your brain’s efficiency and capacity, without leading to weight on your bottom, then here are the best low carb foods that you might want to buy.

Take caution, however: the best low carb foods should be taken in moderation, as all other major food groups. In fact, the effects of the best low carb foods are useless without the proper exercise. The best low carb foods do not substitute for a balanced diet, which should include fresh fruits and vegetables.

High on the best low carb foods list are fish. Stock up on your tuna and salmon, which contain loads of iron that can prevent you from getting anemia. Herring and sardines are also a good source of proteins. Be careful when stocking on proteins, though: excess proteins can do damage to your kidneys, so take a lot of water to flush the toxins out.

Also notable on the best low carb foods list are poultry. Cornish hens and chickens are good meats to go with your all-green, dressing-free salad. Be sure to pick out the white meat, especially when you treat yourself to some turkey, duck, or goose. If you want to cut down on even more fats, eschew the skin of your flying friends, and broil or sear the chicken meat in herbs.

If you are not allergic to shellfish, then include them on your list of the best low carb foods. Down moderate amounts of shrimps, oysters, and clams, and get them fresh. Stay away from clam chowder, which contains large amounts of starch in the form of potatoes and cream. Oysters and most other mussels, however, have higher amounts of carbohydrates than other shellfish, so eat three to four ounces of them, at the most, per day.

Also on the best low carb foods list are some cheeses. Take only three to four ounces of gouda, mozzarella, and cream cheese daily; you can slather them onto your green salad or nibble them for a light snack. To round out this list of the best low carb foods, limit your salads to sprouts, mushrooms, green lettuce leaves, and cucumbers.

To know more low carb foods you can prepare for different meals, visit http://www.lowcarbfoods101.com

You are feeling awful with vomiting, cramps and have been visiting the toilet every 10 minutes for the last two hours. Does this sound familiar? The chances are that all of us have experienced some form of food poisoning at some time.

There are different types of food poisoning, with symptoms ranging from simple nausea to potential death. It all depends upon what food is involved, and how that food was handled before you ate it. The effect of food poisoning is also dependent upon the individual – the aged, young or those that are immune depressed are all more likely to suffer badly.

If you think that you have food poisoning, see your Doctor, as it may need to be reported to the appropriate government authority. It is really important that food poisonings are reported as it is the only way available to track outbreaks and numbers of occurrences.
You will never always be able to avoid food poisoning, however by following a few simple techniques you can minimise the likelihood of you becoming ill;

- Always keep food outside the temperature range of 5˚C and 60˚C – this is the favored temperature range for food poisoning bacteria. For hot food make sure it is heated / cooked to more than 60˚C and for cold food store at less than 4˚C at all times.

- Thaw food, particularly meats, in the fridge not on the bench or sink.

- Always wash your hands properly prior to handling food, and especially after; patting the dog, blowing your nose, visiting the toilet, smoking or eating, changing the baby.

- Store raw meat in a covered container at the bottom of your fridge to keep it from dripping onto other food.

- Always thoroughly wash utensils and containers that have been used on raw food prior to using them on cooked product.

Rachelle Williams is committed to helping food businesses be better businesses. She is a food technologist, fellow of the Australian Organization for Quality and member of both the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology, and Food Safety Information Council. Rachelle has appeared on “What’s Good for You” and “Brisbane Extra” and has written many food safety and business eBooks. Contact her on anyi@howsafeisyourfood.com.au to request your free eBook “How safe is food in Australia”, and to subscribe to her free eNewsletter, ”Food Safety for Small Businesses”.

Getting people to spend time (and money) at your website is an ongoing battle in itself. Finding the right combination is crucial, but worth the effort in trying out what works. These have worked for myself and those that I have worked with over the years. With most all of these phrases, placing them within clickable banners or ads is most effective.

1. “Bookmark This Web Site Now” Tell your visitors to bookmark your web site. They may see your web site listed in their bookmarks and visit again. You should also give then a good reason to bookmark your site. For example tell them you add new content on a regular basis.

2. “Subscribe To Our Free E-zine” Tell your visitors to subscribe to your e-zine. When they subscribe you’ll capture their e-mail address. Every time they read your e-zine, it will remind them to return to your site.

3.” Participate On Our Discussion Board” Ask your visitors to participate on your online discussion board. By participating they will meet other people. By meeting other people, they will come back and visit your web site on a regular basis to stay in contact with them.

4. “Sign Our Guestbook” Ask your visitors to sign your guest book. When people sign your guestbook you may get valuable feedback or constructive criticism on how to improve your web site. This may help you increase traffic to your web site.

5. “Use Our Free Content On Your Site Or In Your E-zine” Allow your visitors to use your articles on their own web site or in their e-zine. Make sure that they include your resource box. This will spread links to your URL all over the Internet.

6. “Refer This Our Web Site To A Friend” Ask your visitors to refer your web site to a friend(s). They may know someone that would benefit from visiting your web site.

7. “Fill Out Our Online Survey”. Ask visitors to fill out your online survey or questionnaire. You could use it to get valuable feedback on ways to improve your web site to increase traffic.

8. “Enter Our Contests” Ask your visitors to enter your online contest or sweepstakes. People love to win stuff, and they will visit your web site to try.

Now that you have the customers at your site, you need to implement these proven techniques to get them to buy. If you remember that we are all the same (same wants, needs & desires) you can use this to your advantage in sales.

* People want to save money. Show them how by purchasing your products and services, they are actually saving money. Tie-in multiple purchases and/or services together and they will buy big.

* People want to save time. Show them that by investing in your product or service, this will free up some time for them.

* People want to look better. They may want to lose weight, tone their body, or improve their facial features. People are also self-conscious about their age. Tell them how your product will make them look or feel better and younger.

* People want to feel like they have more energy. Tell them how your products can make them do that.

*People want to feel good. They may want to relive aches and pains or wake up feeling better. Tell them how your product can do that.

* People want to be loved. Tell them how this product can improve themselves and make others love to be around them more. Obviously this not for every product, but there are many that are.

* People want to be popular. Many people purchase items with the main intention of “showing it off” to make themselves feel popular. It worked in grade school and most people never stop doing it.

* People want to gain pleasure. If your product can give people pleasure or alleviate discomfort, promote it.

Hopefully these tips can be used to enhance the profitability of your Internet business. Feel free to drop me a line anytime and share what may or may not have worked.

Jeff Bunnell is a part-time marketer and full-time Dad. He has worked as a Realtor, Concert Promoter, Computer Tech, Salesman, Manager, etc. Now he is using his years of experience to help others make additional income on the internet.
For more information go to http://www.easybigmoneymaker.com

Watching world cup matches of any sport has a different charm altogether and the game of cricket is no exception to this. In the current world cup that is underway in the West Indies many matches have been played and we have seen some expected and some unexpected results out of these world cup matches. Any world cup tournament has been known to throw up surprise results and if one takes a careful look at the world cup matches that have been played till date, this will very much be evident. World cup is the most prestigious tournament that is played in the field of cricket. The event happens only once after every four years and this makes it all the more important for fans to try and deliver their best and become the world champions.

The 9th World Cup which is being played in West Indies is being very keenly contested. When the tournament began, there was no team that was a clear favorite among the followers of the game. Many teams were in contention, but now as the tournament is approaching the final stages, four teams have emerged as possible winners of the cup. However, all these teams still need to play some more world cup matches and beat the other teams to become the champions. It is just a matter of few world cup matches and we will come to know who the winners are. Australia appears to be very good contender and having won the last two world cups would love to make it three times in a row. Well, which team would not like to win the world cup and prove their potential at the highest levels?

The world cup matches are the best platform where players can show their talents to the world. There are several world cup records at stake that can be broken during the course of the entire tournament. There are many things at stake and players make efforts to ensure that their team does not lose any game. The most important aspect for a team that is playing world cup matches against its opponents is the strategy. Each team has its own set of strategies to take on the opposition and the different players in the team must ensure that they play their part well and only then will their team succeed in playing well. To make a winning strategy one needs to carefully study the opposition and find out all they can about their strengths and weaknesses.

The captain, coach and the other support staff of the team are responsible for observing things and making strategies for a game. Other players of the team can also express their views and comments about the strategies. The game of cricket is all about team work and all the players must ensure that they play their part really well to win the game. Winning and losing are part of the game. Well if a team does not lose the how the other team is supposed to win and vice versa. What matters is good performance by the players.

Ella Wilson is a cricket fanatic. She simply loves the game and tries to catch live action no matter where she is. At Stickiewicket she works on Online cricket score, live cricket score, Wallpaper, Cricket News and world cup matches among other things. You can see her works at http://www.stickiewicket.com

1. Spend money on targeted advertising instead of mass media advertising. You don’t want to waste your ad dollars on people who aren’t interested.

2. Personalize all your e-mail messages so they get read. Include the recipient’s name in the subject line. This will grab people’s attention quickly. Also be sure to include your business contact info in your signature.

3. Attract more subscribers to your free e-zine by giving them free bonuses like e-books, software, online services and other incentives.
Also, send details of upcoming promotions, discounts or contests to your email list.

4. Sell advertising space in your e-zine and on your web site. This will create an extra income stream for your business.

5. Show your prospects how much enthusiasm there is for your product and business. Use testimonials. Also, placing one testimonial on EVERY page is much more effective that a standard page with a dozen or so testimonials.

6. Please your complaining customers. You can refund their money, give them a discount, give them a free gift, solve the problem quickly, etc. They will return to buy from you, if they remember that you took care of their problem.

7. Make your customers get excited about your business and they will tell their friends. Give them referral incentives, run contests etc. People will come back to your business if there is something new every month.

8. Build your opt-in list by allowing your visitors to sign up for a free e-zine, ebooks, software, contests, sweepstakes, etc. Also offer this for helping existing customers add to your email list.

9. Write and submit articles to e-zine publishers or webmasters. If you want it to be published, it should be like an article and not like an ad. Write different articles on a regular basis, and your placement on the search engines will improve.

10. Find out more about who your target customer is. Have online surveys, or questionnaires. Ask your customers for their opinion. Have them tell you what they like/don’t like about your business and products.

Jeff Bunnell is a part-time marketer and full-time Dad. He has worked as a Realtor, Concert Promoter, Computer Tech, Salesman, Manager, etc. Now he is using his years of experience to help others make additional income on the internet.
For more information go to http://www.easybigmoneymaker.com

So you have received a credit card offer that allows you to transfer your current balances from other credit cards to this new credit card at an interest rate of 0%. Sounds good, right? Maybe, but there are some definite pros and cons to the idea.

The most important part of the offer is how long does the 0% interest rate offer last. These offers do not usually last for a long time. Some companies offer it for three months and some will offer it for up to one year. So make sure that the rate offer is actually worth the transfer.

You are probably thinking that no interest for even three months is better than paying interest for those three months. That is only true if you are actually going to save money. See, most balance transfer offers require a transaction fee for each transfer.

Transfer fees differ for each credit card company. Most of them charge about 4% of the actual amount transferred. But they usually have a cap on that amount. That means that if they have a cap of a $75 fee you will pay 4% until reach the $75 limit. Remember that fee is for each transfer.

If, for instance, you only owe $1000 and are currently paying 9% interest and you want to transfer the balance over, you will first pay a $40 fee. If the rate is only for three months, you did not save any money, it actually cost you money to do the transaction.

But if you could borrow, say $8000, you would pay the transfer fee of $75. If the offer is for anything over three months, you will actually save quite a bit of money. So do the math before you jump on the offer.

The biggest pro to this is, if they are offering you a high enough credit limit that you can consolidate a few very high interest rate cards on to the 0% interest rate card. You can, even after paying the fees, save a lot of money. This is especially true if the length of the offer is for nine months or more.

One thing to check with first is what the interest rate will be after the promotional time period expires. This will let you know if you can just keep this card or are you going to need to shop around for a better card two months before the rate expires. Usually, if you are a good payer, the interest rate you will receive will be pretty reasonable.

So there are a few pro and cons that come with a 0% interest rate offer. Just check first and make sure the rate out weighs the fees. If that is, in fact, the case, go ahead and consolidate some of those high interest rate cards and save yourself some money.

David Tanguay is dedicated in helping individuals & businesses get out of debt. To compare hundreds of credit card offers & rates please visit Compare Credit Card Rates at easycreditcompare.com

A strategic alliance is when two or more businesses join together for a set period of time. The businesses, usually, are not in direct competition, but have similar products or services that are directed toward the same target audience. Below are ten reasons to
create a strategic alliance.

1. Between the two of you, you will probably be able to offer your customers a larger variety of products or services. This will allow you to spend less time and money developing new products to sell. If your business partner is service oriented, and you are product based, then you will each get to focus on your strengths and the two businesses will compliment each other.

2. Your number of sales people will increase because you’re combining with other business. You won’t have to spend time and money hiring new employees. If you currently have two separate “brick and mortar” business, you can decide whether to keep both businesses and work from both.

3. Your marketing and advertising budget will increase. When you form a strategic alliance with other businesses you both will share the advertising and marketing costs.

4. You can now offer your existing customers more back-end and upsell products. This will increase your sales and profits. Also, you can have more variety and less backstock overall. For example, if you stock a particular product, and order 6 cases, you can now stock the item at both stores, but yet only have the expense of ordering the original six cases. For some of the slower-moving products, you can tie them in with a popular product.

5. Your business will gain a larger number of skilled people working on the same project. You will gain the knowledge of the other businesses employees. Each location may cater to a different clientele and the techniques used to market to them may be completely different than what you’ve done in the past. You and your partner can pool your knowledge to appeal to more customers for each location.

6. You will be able to beat your competition by selling to a larger target audience. You will also increase the total number of existing customers you can sell your products and services to. Also, if a particular product is doing well, you may be able to justify a larger purchase from the manufacturer resulting in a lower wholesale price.

7. You can exchange endorsements with your alliance partners. You’ll add more credibility to your business and gain your potential customers trust to buy.

8. You can expand your business more rapidly. You can develop new products and services faster with a larger work force.

9. You’ll be able to solve your customer’s problems faster with a larger base of customer service people. You’ll also learn new ways to improve your customer service from your alliance partners.

10. You’ll have a larger number of “strategic thinking” people. This will allow both businesses to come up with profitable business ideas quicker than before.

Jeff Bunnell is a part-time marketer and full-time Dad. He has worked as a Realtor, Concert Promoter, Computer Tech, Salesman, Manager, etc. Now he is using his years of experience to help others make additional income on the internet.
For more information go to http://www.easybigmoneymaker.com