Everywhere you turn these days, you read about membership sites. You read how easy they are to set up, and how lucrative they can be. That should naturally lead you to the question, “Should I be operating my own membership site?” Are they really that easy to set up and maintain?

First of all, a membership site is nothing more than a system for password protecting some “content,” and a system for handling recurring billing of members. So they can be very simple, and in fact can be set up using all free resources.

You could even think of a membership site as another type of list, only one where you don’t have to contend with email filters. You communicate with your “list members” inside the site instead of via email.

In deciding to set up a membership site, the first question that you should answer is what niche or topic would the membership site be focused on. Are there enough people interested in that topic to make it profitable? Do people interested in that topic spend money on it?

The simplest way to answer the above questions is to ask yourself, “What phrases would people interested in my proposed topic type into a search engine?” Come up with a list of keywords they’d likely use.

Next, go to Google.com and enter those keyword phrases into their search box, and look at how many searches there are for those terms as well as how many webpages there are out there targeting those phrases. Look off to the right side of the page and see if there are “Google AdWords” ads displayed. If you see ads off to the right side of the page, that means that people are paying to advertise to people interested in that topic. That’s generally a strong indicator that people searching on those terms are also buying!

Your research shows you how many searches are done on your keywords each month, and indicates if there is a large pool of potential members for your new membership site. There is no hard and fast rule for how many searches there should be. This just gives you a feel for if this is a viable niche for a membership site.

How many members do you need for a successful membership site anyway? If you have a site that has 200 members each paying $20 per month, would you consider that a success? What if that site only took 2 hours per month to maintain?

The secret to making a site easy to maintain, by the way, is to have your members interact a lot with each other, and generate most of the content!

There are many successful online entrepreneurs who have a dozen or more small, simple, memberships sites, each with only a few hundred members. Most of these sites don’t generate a fortune, but collectively they afford a very comfortable lifestyle.

There is no reason that you have to stop at one simple, easy to maintain, membership site. You could easily launch one a month, and in a year have a dozen. If each produced just that $4000 in our example above, that would be $48k per month.

If your goals aren’t that lofty, you could stop with just one simple membership site producing just that $4000, or you could go for a lot more members. If you set your site up properly, you’ll have to spend very little time actually maintaining it.

So, are you missing out by not having a membership site?

Probably.

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Willie Crawford has been marketing goods and services on the internet since 1996. He operates numerous simple membership sites. To learn how you can set up your own membership site in under six minutes, using all completely free software, visit: http://YourNewMembershipSite.com

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There was a time in the past, when people would flaunt their visiting cards with their flashy addresses and telephone numbers. However, the present trend is of people flashing their web addresses to their friends, colleagues and business partners. Of late, people from all spectrum of life are opting for web portals to give out information and details to others. Buying domain names is the latest trend among people. People buy domain names for personal uses, while businesses buy them to carry out different types of business operations. People may buy and register domain names by creating their own URLs. However, many business entrepreneurs also buy expired domains to set up online business ventures.

Selling expired domain names is actually difficult considering the stiff competition that exists among domain traders. First, you may never know the personal preferences of people who are looking for expired domain names. People have varied needs and requirements for expired domain names. You may wish to know for what purposes, uses people buy, and use expired domain names. Here are some general tips and ideas:

You can classify expired domains under two broad categories depending on the uses and purposes. Under general circumstances, people may buy expired domain names either for non-profit or personal uses, or for business and for uses of profit.

Expired domain buyers for non-profit and personal uses:

A number of non-profits and charitable organizations keep looking for good domains expired and buy them for their charitable activities. These organizations would need domain names that match the objectives and goals of their charity. On the other hand, millions of people also buy expired domains for personal purposes. Someone may need an expired web domain just to publish family photographs, while others may want to buy them to print personal blogs. The most essential thing for these people is to make a connection with their friends and family members.

Tip:

~~ Most people under these categories look for expired domains that end with .org or .info extensions.

These domains are actually cheaper and people, who look for such domains have a severe budgetary constraint.

These domains are difficult to sell as people tend to register fresh domains. ~~

Finding out an expired domain buyer for this category is actually very easy. People who look for these categories of names are very choosy and specific, as they would need only a specific type of name. Once you segregate these names and list them, you can contact them with your best prices. Make sure that you are offering something that is useful to your personal customers. Non-profits are very specific, because they want web domains based on particular keywords. On the other hand, people who buy personal domains are easy to handle and manage. You can even offer an extra, free expired domain as a gift, when they buy a domain at a profitable rate. Mixing your expired domain portfolio with personal and non-profit type of domains may offer you a streamlined business with varied options and choices.

This article published here.

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John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.

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Can any new search engine beat Google, probably not, mainly because Google isn’t going anywhere but up. It is the dominant search engine with around 72 percent of U.S. online searches and its percentages are much higher in other parts of the world. (Source: Hitwise) However, there are some serious new competitors that may just take a bite out of Google’s rosy search numbers. Never know, one or several of them, may just give Google a run for those all important search engine dollars.

Recently, there has been a whole army of new search engines debuting on the web. If you’re a full-time online marketer like me, you really have to keep your eyes open to what is happening on the web, especially relating to search engines which deliver most of your quality traffic. Also keep in mind, this piece may be fairly biased since Google is directly or indirectly responsible for around 80% of my online revenue, so any opinions may be slanted in Google’s favor, not that they need any favors from me or anyone.

But as an online marketer you have to try to remain objective and examine all angles in regards to these new search engines. Despite this, in marketing and webmaster circles, everyone will know even if you have the number one ranking for a certain keyword in all three major engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN – Google supplies the most traffic, hands down.

Despite its obvious dominance, Google is still basically the new kid on the block. We have to remember, there have been many search engines before Google and there will be many more search engines after Google. Every entity has its day and then hands the torch along to whatever comes next. It’s one of those subtle facts of life we all learn eventually.

Everybody has their day – empires, countries, leaders, companies… or even search engines. Are Google’s days as top dog really numbered? Probably not in the immediate future, but there are some new kids on the block that could definitely kick some sand in the face of Google and stir things up, we might even see a few serious squabbles here and there.

In a recent article on CNN, by John D. Sutter, entitled “New Search Engines Aspire To Supplement Google” the author examines some recent new search engines. The author discusses: Twine, Hakia, Searchme, Cuil, Kosmix, Wolfram Alpha, Topsy, TweetMeme and OneRiot. Each of these are different, making your web search more personal, more visual, or connecting your search to new social networks like FaceBook and Twitter.

Some experts say Wolfram Alpha is the most likely candidate to give Google some serious competition because Wolfram can do something Google can’t; it can create information rather than just reading/presenting content already on the web. Will it present a solid threat to Google’s dominance?

Perhaps, a more fitting sparring partner will come from an old rival with very deep, deep pockets. We are talking about the new search engine from Microsoft called Bing, which is very similar to Google in many ways, yet different. Bing’s results are very similar to Google in a lot of ways, yet Bing serves up the results in a very pleasing arrangement, with a nice preview button for each listing and giving you related searches and your search history on the left hand side. Only time will tell if everyone would rather be binging instead of googling. To Bing or not to Bing, that is the question? There’s a very informative article on Bing by Farhad Manjoo on Slate entitled: “Beware Google: Microsoft’s New Search Engine Isn’t Half-bad.” Just Bing or Google to find it!

I personally like this search engine much better than MSN mainly because the home page of Bing is very appealing and only has the search box on it so you’re not distracted with other news listings like on MSN and Yahoo! One of the main reasons for Google’s success, besides the superior search results, has been its simplicity. Keep it simple and you may just be able to compete.

Then again, this is a bit of a biased judgment, since many of my own keywords and sites rank high in Bing; some even higher than they are listed in Google. I routinely monitor countless keyword phrases in all the search engines and lately Google has been favoring big Brand Name listings on their first page results. We are also seeing more Product Listings (Old Froogle), more video and more news listings… competition for Google’s first page has become multi-layered and extremely competitive. What’s a poor small online marketer to do when Google goes corporate?

Actually, Bing is not my favorite search engine of the new ones forcing their way into the spotlight.

For me, the one that shows the most promise and may give Google some competition is Searchme, which is a visual search (much like the iTunes interface) where you can shuffle through screenshots of webpages instead of a list of links. Searchme, which touts itself as the first multimedia search engine, has been around for a few years but is not widely known to web users. Performing a search on Searchme with a 24 inch monitor and 64-bit Windows is a hundred times more enjoyable than using Google Search or Bing for that matter. It is a hundred times faster than Google mainly because you can generally find your information without clicking through to the sites displayed.

Searchme is truly an eye opener but can it give Google some serious competition. The jury is still out, but I believe over time as web users upgrade their computers, operating systems, and their graphics… Searchme will be more accessible to more web users. Never know, with the right backing and marketing, any of these search engines, especially Searchme and Bing could blossom into a formidable opponent even for the mighty Google.

Here’s why: Human Nature!

Whether we admit it or not, most of us (Humans) are lazy, we want the fastest and easiest route to solving any question or problem. Searchme gives us the answer much quicker than Google and in a much nicer way. Mainly because we are also visual creatures, given the choice between receiving pages of text and viewing images of sites/answers, most of us will take the visual route – we will choose TV over radio, music videos over records… video enhanced content over just plain static HTML. As the web turns into more of an interactive multimedia operation; visual search will always win out over text search any day of the year.

Most humans also have a need for speed, in our fast paced life styles, we all want a speedy solution to our problems. Search is no different, we want quick answers now, we want instant solutions and immediate gratification. Nature of the beast. If Searchme, Bing or any of the other search engines becomes faster than Google at giving the right answer, then it’s a whole new ballgame.

Google must obviously know there are challenges to its search engine dominance. Otherwise, why would they be offering many new features in their SERPs; we are seeing more images and videos. Plus, Google has just introduced the “show options” link at the top of their SERPs, which presents their search results in many different ways. They even have introduced the “Wonder Wheel” as another viewing option, which gives a whole new way of using Google’s search results.

Google’s Achilles’ Heel may just be the thing that gives it all its revenue: text ads. There may be a backlash on all those Google ads littered across the web, especially among the younger computer savvy crowd using such sites like the Google owned YouTube, where Google has nearly obliterated the videos with its ads. Everyone dislikes advertising, no matter what form it takes.

However, any news of Google’s demise will be greatly exaggerated, because Google, like any smart company with tons of resources, has kept morphing and changing with the times, quickly adapting to new features as our usage of the web keeps changing. Google has perfected the art of staying one step ahead of the competition. This is one champion that won’t go down without a fight to the finish. Top dogs rarely do.

If they ever present a serious challenge to Google, Searchme, Bing or any of the above search engines, will have a formidable opponent in the opposing corner, one that has gained almost insurmountable prestige and brand recognition around the world. Any major battle will instantly have a “David vs Goliath” scenario attached to it. And we all know how that one played out!

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The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous
niche sites. These 10 SEO Tactics Bring Me Over 2000 Visitors Daily:
SEO Tips. To learn more Internet Marketing Tactics try:
Marketing Tools. Copyright (c) 2009 Titus Hoskins. http://www.bizwaremagic.com This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

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Even with no product and no Web site, you can get paid for what and who you know

Making money online used to pretty much require you to have your own Web site, products to sell and some marketing savvy. But a new generation of dot-coms have arisen that will pay you for what you know and who you know without you having to be a web designer or a marketing genius.

But it’s hard to tell hype from the real deal. I did a search on “make money online” and “making money online”, and much of the information out there is just promoting various infoproducts, mostly about Internet marketing. I see why people sometimes ask, “Is anyone making money online besides Internet marketing experts?”

So I put together a list of business opportunities with legitimate companies that:

Pay cash, not just points towards rewards or a chance to win money
Don’t require you to have your own Web domain or your own products
Don’t involve any hard-selling
Aren’t just promoting more Internet marketing
Give a good return on your time investment

In the interest of objectivity, none of the links below are affiliate links, and none of them have paid or provided any other consideration for their presence here. These are legitimate companies with business models that allow you to get paid for a wide range of activities.
Help friends find better jobs.

Sites like ReferEarns, Zyoin, Who Do You Know For Dough?, Bohire and WiseStepp connect employers with prospective employees, many of whom are already employed and not actively job-hunting, via networking – the people who know these qualified candidates. Rewards for referring a candidate who gets hired range from $50 on up to several thousand dollars – not chump change. If you know a lot of job-seekers (and who doesn’t these days?), this is a great way to break into the recruiting business with no overhead.

Connect suppliers with buyers.

Referral fees are a common practice in business, but they haven’t been used much in online networking sites because there was no way to track them. Sites like Salesconx, InnerSell and uRefer now provide that. Vendors set the referral fees they’re willing to pay (and for what), and when the transaction happens, you get paid. uRefer also allows merchants to set up referral programs for introductions and meetings, as well as transactions.

Write.

A growing number of sites will pay for your articles or blog posts. Associated Content and Helium will “pay for performance” based on page views for just about anything you want to write about. Articles on specific topics they’re looking for can earn direct payments up to about $200. The rates are probably low for established writers, but if you’re trying to break into the field and have time on your hands, they’re a great way to start. Also, a lot of companies are looking for part-time bloggers. They may pay per post or on a steady contract. Our Weblogs Guide posts blogging jobs weekly in the forum.

Start your own blog.

You don’t have to have your own Web site, or install blogging software, or even figure out how to set up the advertising. At Blogger you can set up a blog for free in less than five minutes without knowing a thing about web design, and Blogger even automates setting up Google AdSense so you can make money off your blog by displaying ads and getting paid when people click on the ads. To make even more money from it, set up an affiliate program (see below) for books, music, etc., and insert your affiliate links whenever you refer to those items. You’ll have to get a lot of traffic to become a six-figure blogger, but pick an interesting topic, write well, tell all your friends, and you’re off to a good start.

Related: Monetizing Your Blog

Create topical resource hubs.

Are you an expert on a particular niche topic? Can you put together an overview of the topic and assemble some of the best resources on the topic from around the web? Then you can create topical hubs and get paid through sites like Squidoo, HugPages and Google Knol. Payments are based on a combination of ad revenue and affiliate fees. You’ll get higher rates doing it on your own, but these sites have a built-in supply of traffic and tools to make content creation easier.

Advertise other people’s products.

If you already have a Web site or a blog, look for vendors that offer related but non-competing products and see if they have an affiliate program. Stick to familiar products and brands – they’re easier to sell. To promote those products:

Place simple text or graphical ads in appropriate places on your site

Include links to purchase products you review or recommend in a blog, discussion forum or mailing list you control

Create a dedicated sales page or Web site to promote a particular product

They all work – it just depends on how much time you have to spend on it and your level of expertise with Web design and marketing.

Related: How to Really Make Money on the Internet With an Amazon.com Affiliate Site

Microstock photography.

You don’t have to be a professional photographer to sell your photos for money. People are constantly in need of stock photography for websites, presentations, brochures and so on, and are willing to pay for the right image. People generally search for images on stock photography sites by keywords, not by photographer, so you have the same chance as anyone else of having your image picked. Just be careful that you don’t have images of trademarked brands, copyrighted art or people’s faces that are readily identifiable (unless you have a model release), but just about anything else is fair game, and I promise – you’d be amazed what people need pictures of, so don’t make any assumptions. If it’s a decent photo, upload it. Some sites to get you started include Fotolia, ShutterStock, Dreamstime and iStockphoto. The great thing about this is that it’s truly “set it and forget it”.

The above list is by no means comprehensive, but it highlights some of the new and interesting ways to make money online without investing any money, without having a product of your own, and without having expert sales and marketing skills. Most of all, unlike taking surveys or getting paid to read e-mail, the potential return on your time investment is substantial.

Author Bio: Click the link, to learn how to make money online by some of the most successful people to date http://TopSecretOnlineProfits.com

While there’s a massive market of online business owners to sell information to; there are also a huge number of businesses that are providing them with the informational products. So, as with any business, you will need to make your own informational items stand out from all the rest of them out there.

To do that, you will need to figure out how to bring your own uniqueness to what you’re providing in your business. There are some ways that they could be accomplished:

Niche marketing- Finding a specific group of business owners to market to; can increase your chances of getting your items chosen by the consumers.

Providing certain kinds of content- For example, you can choose to sell only materials that cover various topics on PLR content. Or you could cover all kinds of topics using only reports to give them that information.

Knowledge or experience- If you have knowledge or experience in any certain area, then you can use that to your advantage. There are many ways to do that. If you have a business degree, you can use that to establish a level of expert status for yourself. Maybe you have owned a business in a particular niche for several years, which gains you credibility as well as expert status.

Point of View- Sometimes giving a different point of view on a topic can establish your uniqueness and gain you a nice sharp edge on your competition. For example, maybe you have inside information on a particular topic. This could be used to play on the business owner’s desires.

Establishing a name for yourself- This is a strong tactic to use within the social networking communities. Once you build rapport with the fellow members of the group you have joined; you start to show them what you’re all about. As they get to know you; you start to become a ‘celebrity’ of sorts within that niche. Voila! You’ve established a name for yourself and people have trust to buy from you.

Broaden your horizons- Get yourself out there to every corner of the internet. Join Message boards, forums, run a blogging community, and utilize all the available tools the internet provides like social bookmarking sites. The more your name is out there, the more your business is known. And then what? More Sales happen.

Show your caring side- Don’t be afraid to show that not only are you a business person, but you’re a caring one as well. Those who are caring tend to build rapport with their target audience easier and quicker. For example, if you’re a mom who owns a business, and you target other moms who have businesses; you should show that. When the target audience can see you’re just like them, they will be more drawn to you.

Using a different format- Most of your competitors are probably providing their customers with simple written materials on various topics. To stand out, you could use a different media format to offer your information with. This could be:

• Video format
• Audio format
• Teleclasses/Webinars

These formats give your customers a different way to learn their information from. Instead of always having to read a document on their computer, they can watch a video of you talking about it instead. You can also attach a written transcript with it, so they can follow along if they choose or give them something to refer to later on when questions arise.

Online Business owners have the desire to succeed. They also have the desire to learn how to better themselves and their business. Put these two factors together and you have a prime Money making opportunity on your hands.

Get into this billion dollar industry and market the information they want, need and most of all desire. This is Problem-Solution. They have a problem and you have the solution. You have the knowledge to offer them, so give what they desire-information on how to succeed.

Author Bio: One way to make it easy to get this information out to your market is with the Special Report Club. Each month you receive a new fully-customizable 30 page report & complete marketing materials, so you can start selling information the lucrative online business owner market right away. While you’re there, join the affiliate program for recurring monthly commissions.