You've probably heard by now that article marketing can help you build links back to your site.

But there's a lot more to it than that. Articles aren't only good for leveraging yourself stronger positions in Google, Yahoo, MSN and the other big search engines, though that's what we'll be focusing on today. Keep in mind that learning a more balanced view of promotion and marketing with articles can help you reap all the perks with essentially the same amount of work.

For now, let's start with four of the top five search engine benefits.

1- The One-Way Link of a Resource Box backlink is More Powerful.

A link from a site that you're not linked back to has more value than one where you may be required to link back to, simply because changes in the way search engines rank sites now include an adjustment for exchanged links.

The logic is that this would make the voting power of a link that points in one direction weigh more heavily than one that is traded. In theory, this makes it easier for sites that have earned link popularity to get more credit than those who have bought or traded for it.

Of course, over time, this effect may be adjusted and partially dampened so that articles that are just being submitted to resources with no editorial process will count less than those that don't undergo this process. So make sure you're not submitting junk content for the purpose of linking alone.

2- Article Resource Box Links Back to You Are Relevant

If you write articles that stay on the topic of your site, the page where your article appears is more effective as a page that links back because it is more relevant. Again, depending on the search engine, the more topical the environment where you are linked, the more credit your site gets for the link itself, particularly if you're submitting to an online directory which allows you to make better use of linking.

There are a few little changes you can make that will make your links and articles more topically relevant than 90% of other articles, merely because other authors don't think to balance the search engine benefits of article promotion with its value as content, rather than favoring one or the other.

3- Many of Your Articles Appear on Pages with High Google PR

If you take a look at your Google Site Information page, you'll probably notice that Google seems to pick up only sites that have high page rank under the listing for sites that link to you.

Then, of course all the sites that use the text of your site URL, hyperlinked or not, can be found under the last setting for sites that contain your link.

Google Page Rank is typically not something to get in a frenzy over, but it does have an importance that can affect your bottom line for two main reasons.

First, on the occasions that Google Page Rank can help you get better search engine positioning, the process of being linked from these sites can help bring you more targeted traffic, which can lead to more sales. Again, this has to be part of an overall strategy, not your sole reason for submitting articles.

Second, if links from sites with higher page rank get are being spidered more frequently than your site, your link on these sites can also get crawled faster. If you have unique content on your site, this can give you a competitive edge when your content gets included more rapidly.

4- These links back to your site are permanent.

That means that instead of buying a link on a site that appears there for three months and disappears, you are getting a free, topically relevant link pointing back to your site that may be archived, but not dropped.

Over time, if you submit articles on a regular schedule, each effort towards publication is building on previous exposure, helping you brand yourself and your company, as well as build a strong link campaign pointing back towards your site that is free.

As the quality of your articles improve, you can also get qualified leads from the process, an increase in traffic and sales, and publication in resources who have stronger brands than you do, which you may then leverage for additional exposure.

Just remember, the search engine benefits of promoting your site with articles represent only the tip of the iceberg. With articles you can also brand yourself, use your knowledge to establish yourself as an expert, network, develop relationships and increase your leads, sales and traffic.

by: Tinu AbayomiPaul

About Paid Surveys

Get paid to take surveys! Get paid for your opinion! Earn up to $250 an hour taking surveys from your home computer!

Advertisements like these are popping up all over the place. Classifieds, forums, newspapers, magazines, everywhere. But the thing everyone wants to know is, "Is this real?".

The truth is... yes and no. Yes, you can actually make money taking surveys online. No, you are not going to make $4,500 a month doing it.

But, you can actually make some extra money every month. $100 to $300 a month from paid surveys is not very hard to reach. The problem is there are so many websites posing as
"paid survey" companies that it's hard to find legitimate resources.

In the following paragraphs I will give you step by step instructions on how to get paid taking surveys online. In 3 simple steps you can easily be on your way to getting paid
for your opinion.
STEP 1: Finding a legitimate source for paid surveys

Finding a legitimate source of information is probably the hardest part. There are several companies that pose as paid surveys or market research companies that will only try to
sell you something or sell your email address to third parties.
There are also several paid survey directories that you can join. These directories charge you up to $50 for information that is available all over the internet for free. Never pay for a paid surveys directory. Use the search engines to find free directories. Or try a free directory like the one at
www.wahmservice.com

STEP 2: What Paid Survey Companies To Join

There are over 600 paid survey companies you can join. Choosing the right ones are key to getting paid for taking surveys. Some companies will send you one every few months
while others may send you invitations everyday. There are about 20 paid survey sites you should join when first starting. These companies send surveys regularly and by joining them you can almost be sure to get at least 1 paid survey a day. After signing up for these companies you can come back later and sign up with other companies that send less. But just with these 20 a hundred to a few hundred dollars a month is not impossible. These companies are:
NFO My Survey, goZing Surveys, Global Test Market, Test Spin, Survey Savvy, Survey Spot, American Consumer Opinion, E-Poll, Poll Cast, ECN Research, Synovate Surveys, NPD Online Research, Pinecone Research, Harris Poll, Lightspeed Research, Ipsos Surveys, Opinion Outpost, Greenfield Online, Nielson/NetRatings,Consumer Link.......

STEP 3: Check Your Email, Confirm Your Memberships

Some companies will send you emails asking you to confirm your membership. Make sure you do this. Now all you have to do is wait for paid survey invitations daily. Sometimes more. None of the companies listed here will spam you or try to get you to buy anything. They are all legitimate paid survey companies. You will find that once you have taken a few surveys you will start receiving more invitations.Once you get the hang of it you can go back and find other companies to join to increase your income.
by: chris price

$6.00 Welcome Survey After Free Registration!

Christmas is coming! And, Christmas time is all about family and togetherness. We’ve put together some recommendations for movies to have on hand for the Christmas season that the whole family will enjoy. These are all movies to buy and watch year after year!

A Christmas Story (1983)
All Ralphie wants in the entire world is a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. This 1940s family is hilarious. You’ll love Ralphie’s irritable father, his whiny brother, and his all-American mother.

Elf (2003)
What could be more fun for a kid to watch than a six foot tall elf? Between Will Farrell’s great performance and the wacky concept of an Elf on the loose in New York City, this is destined to become a Christmas classic.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
No list of “Must See Holiday Movies” would be complete without this James Stewart and Donna Reed classic. Share this timeless story with your children.

The Santa Clause (1994)
Every kids dream is to go to the North Pole, but how many kids can say that Santa is their Dad? Watch an unwilling Tim Allen become Santa.

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Great Gonzo as Charles Dickens? How can you go wrong? This lighthearted, humorous version is a perfect introduction to the classic Charles Dickens tale.
by: Nicole Dean

After seeing many people complain about their weak Internet security I decided to write down some things that will help you for your Internet security.

First, here are some tips to make windows safer :

For basic security and update patches install Service Pack 2 for Windows XP or Service Pack 4 for Windows 2000.

Once a month use Windows Update so you can get the latest pacthes.

When you download software from the Internet make sure you download it from the original website.

Always run anti Trojan and anti virus software.

Even if you don't use it you have to make your Internet Explorer as safe as possible.

When you access the Internet you are browsing the web using a browser such as Internet Explorer.The Internet Explorer contains several security vulnerabilities. You should make it as safe as possible or switch your default browser to an alternative. You will have to set some options from the Manage Add-Ons in the Internet Options. You will see a list of add-ons that can be activated or deactivated. If you see any unusual entries just deactivate them so you can be sure you don't have a trojan/worm.

Under Internet Options -> Security -> Internet -> you will see the Edit Level.You should set it to high in order to disable most of the security threats.

Your Web Browser should be ok now. Let's see what we have to do from our email point of view.

Because it's built-in in their Windows system lots of users like to use Outlook Express for emailing. But it's a fact that it contains many security vulnerabilities so I advise you to use alternatives. If you use a web based Email (you can browse your email with your web browser) you can delete viruses even if you don't download them to your PC.

Make sure you have installed an Anti Virus for 100% virus protection. One that I've found to be very good and never disappointed me is the AVG Anti virus. If you take the time to regularly update it you will be safe enough with it.

Lots of people install Firewalls because they belive their Internet security will be higher. I personaly disagree. If you do not know how to best configure it, and you have to know much about the tech behind it to do so, it will just make your PC slow and software not working.You can just use the Windows XP SP2 firewall for basic security.

All this tips should make your PC safer. I browse the Internet every single day for some time now and they worked great for me. I haven't met a virus/worm for some time now.
by: Popescu Alexandru

It's been years since blogging has been practiced. But it's just recently that it has been considered as one of the addicting fads. Many teenagers have resorted to blogging as an outlet for their emotions, a little online nook where they can blurt out whatever just bugs them or whatever makes them feel elated. Savvy marketers have discovered that blogging is one of the best Internet marketing methods that won't cost you a cent.

What exactly is blogging? Blog is the widely used term that refers to web log. Basically, a blog is an online journal. A blog could be set up to no cost at all, and can be used for just for the fun of it or for business reasons.

Blogging for your Internet business is one surefire way to boost the visibility of your products and services. Here are a few ways to boost your internet advertising with the help of a blog:

1. Make your clients or customers abreast on your website's alterations. Your new products and affiliate websites could also be announced through your blog.

2. Keep track of your business objectives and plans through open writing. Your blog content can be easily stored through archives. What could be better than searchable information that could be easily accessed by anyone browsing the web, right?

3. Air your opinions, advice or reviews on specific services or products that are related to your business. Publishing is a very easy process with blogging.

4. Include links that will fetch back links and subsequently improve your ranking on search engines. This could be better executed through putting well-written articles in your website. Affiliate links could also be included in your blog to earn more extra income.

5. Collect response through the ability of blogs to fetch comments from your blog readers. You can learn and improve your products and services through with the feedback from your readers.

6. Connect easily with other bloggers. When other bloggers notice that you have something good in your blog, they will put you in their favorite lists that will automatically link you to their blogs.

So, how do you set up a blog? Here are some of the options you can make use of to take advantage of this fun way to advertise your Internet business.

Either you load a blogging software or let a blogging hosting service do it for you. Host services such as LiveJournal and Blogger.com are the most popular in this field. Those hosts will provide you with easy instructions on how to put up your blog.
by: David Riewe

Choosing a college degree can be a very difficult decision to make. There are many things to consider but it is important to decide on the right college degree for the type of occupation that you want to pursue. You may find that you do not actually need a college degree but that a certificate or diploma will be sufficient, or your chosen profession may require further study after a college degree such as medicine or law.

Certificates or diplomas require a shorter period of study than a traditional college degree and are usually taken by students wanting to pursue a career in an occupational field. Quite often a certificate or diploma can be taken before embarking on a college degree course.

An associate degree is awarded after completing a two-year college degree course. Some community colleges and other universities offer an associate degree program which allows you to transfer to a four-year college degree course after you have been awarded the appropriate associate degree. There are a number of occupations where a two-year college degree is recommended or required including:

• Administrative Assistant
• Automotive Mechanic
• Cardiovascular Technician
• Commercial Artist
• Computer Technician
• Dental Hygienist
• Drafter
• Engineering Technician
• Funeral Director
• Graphic Designer
• Heating, Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Technician
• Hotel or Restaurant Manager
• Medical Laboratory Technician
• Medical Record Technician
• Insurance Agent
• Registered Nurse
• Surgical Technologist
• Surveyor
• Visual Artist
• Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator

A traditional four-year college degree is the most frequently required qualification for a number of occupations. Some examples of professions requiring a four-year college degree in an appropriate discipline are:

• Accountant
• Computer Systems Analyst
• Dietitian
• Editor
• Engineer
• FBI Agent
• Investment Banker
• Journalist
• Medical Illustrator
• Pharmacist
• Public Relations Specialist
• Recreational Therapist
• Research Assistant
• Social Worker
• Teacher
• Writer

There are also a number of occupations that require a student to obtain a college degree that is longer than the conventional four-year college degree programs. These extended professional college degree programs include:

• Architect
• Biologist
• Chiropractor
• Dentist
• Diplomat
• Doctor
• Economist
• Geologist
• Lawyer
• Librarian
• Management Consultant
• Palaeontologist
• Priest
• Psychologist
• Public Policy Analyst

It is important to choose a college degree course that is suitable for the career path you want to follow. If you are unsure of which field of occupation you want to enter then it is advisable to take a certificate or diploma course first. This will enable you to change disciplines without having spent four years on a degree course that ends up not being something that you want to pursue.
by: Jordan Dunham

Secret #1: Find a ‘real’ wholesale and drop ship company

Do you know what one of the biggest problem is to be successful on eBay? ‘What should I sell”? I can tell you, I get many emails per day from eBay sellers, asking me what they can sell. Let me explain this more in detail.

Let’s take John and David for example. Both are sellers and try to make money on eBay. Let’s start with John. He mainly gets his items from garage sales. So, every Saturday morning he gets up very early, hops into his car and drives around the neighbourhood to check out the garage sales. So he went last Saturday. John did not buy anything on the first two garage sales, but on his third garage sale, he found a little treasure. An old book from 1897 - for a bargain price of $10. Bingo! John was proud! ‘I can sell this for huge profit’, he thought and he went home. He took his digital camera and he made a high quality digital photo. It took quite some time but finally he was happy with the result. Then he had to upload this picture to his computer and he spent some time writing the sales copy. Late Saturday afternoon finally he was finished and launched this book onto eBay. 7-10 days later his item got sold for $75!! John is excited. He packs the item, labels it with the buyers address and then he drives to the nearest post office. Oh no, what a long line. After 15 min of waiting he could finally post this item to his customer! Wow, a lot of work for $65 profit? Don’t you think?

Let’s look at David. He usually gets up very late – usually at Saturday around lunchtime. He is still in his pyjamas and he makes himself a nice cup of coffee and gets onto the Internet. He logs into his drop ship account and browses through some hot selling product. ‘Yes, I can sell that” - A nice laptop for a bargain price of $550 (wholesale price). But David does not have to pay upfront for this item, so he just downloads the professional digital photos offered by his drop ship company to his computer. ”Oh wait”; David has just discovered that this drop ship company has also a ‘ready-to-use’ auction sales letter available. That’s really cool …and David copies and pastes the source code of this letter into his eBay listing and he launches his auction. A Dutch auction, since the drop ship company announced that they have more than one of this laptop currently available. Great, David could sell 6 laptops. He hits the submit button for this Dutch auction of 6 laptops and enjoys his coffee (which is still hot by the way). After 7-10 days David has sold all 6 laptops for $830 each. All what David does is the following: He waits until he gets the payment from his 6 customers in his paypal account, sends the address of the customers together with 6 x $550 (wholesale price) to his drop sip company via paypal. He has made pure profit of 6 x $280 = $1,680 in about 25 min of work – total. That’s why David is a smarter eBay seller than John. I think the idea is clear …drop shipping can be the answer to your problem what to sell on eBay and it can saves you a lot of time too. No packing, posting etc.

Secret #2: Have a professional auction listing

A professional eBay auction site is like your business card. If you are serious selling on eBay you should show your potential customers that you are a professional seller and that you are selling high quality products. Please, don’t just upload a photo and type the text in the description box. Do your homework and learn some HTML. Look around there are many professional tutorials and ebooks around helping you in that matter. It’s definitely worth it. And you’ll be surprised, because if your auction listing looks nice and professional potential buyers stay longer on your site and usually it’s more likely that they place a bid.

Secret #3: The money is in the follow up

“Yes, I’ve heard this before”, you may say. But, this is a very important aspect of your successful eBay career: Follow up with your customers. Send them an email ~10 days after they have purchased the product and ask them how they are going with the product and if everything is all right. Invite them to have a look at your other auctions. (You have to be careful though not offending anyone, but if the products are related and you ask how they went with the product, that’s fine). I never got complaints by doing that and your customers are happy to get some “insider tips”. You’ll be amazed how many customers will buy from you again, since they value you as a seller. Keep in mind that it is easier to keep an existing customer, instead of getting a new customer. You could also send them a thank you gift in form of a downloadable digital information product. That’s easy for you and they get some valuable information. You’ll see that your existing customers will be very thankful and they feel good that they have bought from you and will do again in the future.

Secret #4: Sell internationally

This aspect is often neglected by many eBay sellers: Sell internationally! First, check with your drop ship company in which countries they are shipping and how much postage they charge to send the item overseas. If you have sort out these details, you can go ahead and list your item internationally. You’ll be surprised how many more items you are selling when the potential buyers see: Ship worldwide. Don’t miss this opportunity or you are leaving big bucks on the table.

Secret #5: Be creative – Be different

How do you think your listing will be stand out from the crowd? Good question isn’t it. In my 4 years of being an active Power Seller, I have tried and tested a lot. First have the photo in the gallery; it just costs a bit more to list but these additional cents are well spend. A recent study has shown that people almost ignore listing without a picture in the gallery. So that’s mandatory! The next step is your title. Do you know that only the title is spidered by eBay when potential customers are searching for specific products? So, you have to make sure that your title includes as much keywords as possible. But be careful here, eBay does not like “keyword stuffing”. So, be creative and come up with 2-3 different titles for the same item. Try them all and you’ll see what works best.

by: Jason James

The world of small business accounting software can be a minefield for any business owner. However choosing the right package is one of the most critical business decisions you will make.

Here are the seven things you must consider before making a purchase that will help you achieve your businesses goals.

1. Scalability
Businesses change over time so it's critical that the small business accounting software you choose can change too. Some things that often change are the number of products and services offered and the number of employees. When you choose your package try and imaging the business in 5 years or 10 years time and how different it will be. Use this information to guide your purchase decision. It may well be better to pay a little more now for the software knowing that it can be easily
upgraded when needed with minimum disruption and cost to your business.

2. Support
It is important that any software has great support for when something goes wrong (and it always does). Most major companies offer support but you also need to think about support in your local area. It's often much easier to have someone locally come in and do things you need done with your software than have someone trying to help you over the phone. Make some
enquiries with other businesses about the package they use and who helps them.

3. Accountant Interface
It's most unlikely you will handle every aspect of your businesses accounting. Your accountant is an important factor in making the right decision. What software are they used to working with and what do they prefer? Can you easily supply them data and reports from your package without the need for any extra work (which you'll have to pay for). Don't be afraid to ask their opinion as they live and breathe this stuff.

4. Best Value For Money
Once you have selected the right package for your business you may as well get the best value. Shop around as the price can vary greatly and the product is exactly the same. Online merchants such as Amazon may offer better pricing because of the sheer volume of products they sell. However price is only one part of the equation so if their is great merchant locally with support or installation assistance this may be far more valuable.

5. Major Brands
There are two major players in the small business accounting software market. They are QuickBooks and Peachtree. Microsoft is expected to enter the market soon. I recommend choosing a major brand so that you can get regular updates and you know the company will be around as long as your business needs them.

6. Ease of Use
Ease of use is a personal thing but it is worth trying the software before you buy it if you can. Remember to get the person who will be the main user to test the software as well. Also consider how well the package can interact with other software you use. This is an advantage the Microsoft package may have when it's available.

7. Features Needed
I touched on this earlier when talking about thinking ahead as to where you business will be in 5 or 10 years time. Most accounting software packages come in several different versions. If you don't need certain features now and can't see a need for them in the future then don't buy them. The major differences are usually - number of users allowed, inventory management capability and number of reports available.

To sum up think ahead when planning your purchase of small business accounting software. You will make a much smarter business decision that will save you plenty of trouble and money in the future.
by: William Siebler