How to Profit From Your Free Reprint Articles

Kalena Jordan

I came across a very clever tactic by an article author the other day. I was reading one of his free reprint articles and when I finished it, I realized just how smart he really was. Not simply for the content of the article, which contained very timely and useful information, but for the way he managed to hook the reader in and possibly profit from them. Let me explain:

Like me and other article writers, this author circulates his articles to hundreds of article distribution lists on a regular basis. His articles contain a link back to his web site, which is an ideal way to boost his site's link popularity on the search engines. Like other authors, he writes about hot topics and current events in his particular industry. Like most article authors, he writes in a casual, relaxed style that engages the reader quickly and earns their trust. BUT, (here comes the clever part), unlike most article marketers, this author always divides his articles into two or more parts.

The first part of the article is circulated as a stand-alone free reprint article via traditional distribution methods. But at the end of the article and in his Author Resource Box, he adds a link to invite the reader to view "a continuation of the article" on his web site. The link is described as either part two of the first article, or a related article with more detailed information or a specific tutorial on how to implement what was discussed in part one.

Why does he do this? Because most people reading the first article will naturally click on the link leading to the next. Once they are at his web site, he has much more control over how the rest of the article/tutorial is presented. If the article is a tutorial about an aspect of web design or search engine marketing, it generally includes software recommendations that integrate his affiliate links. He also manages to weave in Google AdSense ads at convenient points between the article paragraphs. And of course, by the time readers arrive at his site, he has engaged the reader and gained enough of their trust for them to take his recommendations and click on his affiliate and AdSense links so he earns commission from them. Very clever, don't you think?

You too can use this tactic to profit from your own free reprint articles, by doing the following:

1) Write articles that solve a problem for the reader, like a "how to" article or a basic tutorial.

2) Write about hot or new topics in your industry that people are likely to be searching for.

3) Write the article in two or more segments and save the key instructions for part two.

4) Design a landing page for the later part/s of your article that naturally weaves in your affiliate links and/or AdSense ads.

5) Create a text link "hook" to the continuation of your article, (your landing page), from the bottom of part one.

6) Make sure the first part of your article is well-written and contains useful information as a stand-alone article. The key is to provide a relevant, interesting article with a link to another relevant, interesting article. No-one wants to read a poorly-disguised ad for your affiliate products.

7) Submit part one of your article to free distribution lists.

8) Observe the increased link popularity your site attains and the resulting increase in search engine traffic.

9) Enjoy the benefits and potential profits from your article marketing efforts!

Discuss this article in the Small Business Ideas forum.

Bookkeeping Business Advice: Put Value to Your Time with Zero Dollar Checks

By: Laurie O'Neil

In the last bookkeeping business advice article, we agreed that tracking your time with QuickBooks Timesheets or QuickBooks Pro Timer is the first step to becoming successful in your bookkeeping business. When you start tracking all of your daily time – and detailing what you did in the "note" section of the timesheet - it is easier to put value to your time.

In my own QuickBooks file, I set my own business mentoring company up as a customer with sub-accounts. Some of those sub-accounts are Marketing, Paid Time Off, Education, Administration Time, Letters/Contracts and Bookkeeping – to use when I work on my own company's bookkeeping. Breaking it out this way has helped me with my hiring process by calculating the administrative cost to run my company. It has helped me determine how many new clients I can take on, and the value of my unpaid time.

If you are an individual bookkeeper like many of my business mentoring clients, you can enable the timesheets in QuickBooks and use them to keep track of your time and run reports. If you have more than one person in the office, as in my firm, use the QuickBooks Time Tracker, which comes on your QuickBooks Installation CD.

So now what do you do with the information after it is entered? How many of you actually know what your profitability is per client? One of the common practices that I see as a bookkeeping business coach is bookkeeping service owners do not attach a value to their time. Most bookkeeping business owners are 'dba's or 'LLC's. As you know, owners of these types of business do not take paychecks, they take draws. So how do you put the value to your time?

Before we get started setting this up in QuickBooks, you need to think of how much money you want to make this year in your bookkeeping service business and break it down to an hourly rate. Then you want to set yourself up as a vendor in the list and set a rate and code in the item field for each service you provide. Next, link the expense side to a payroll account or an owner's wage account.

From this window in QuickBooks create a check and allow it to pull your time from your timesheets. If you notice that all the details post to the "item" tab, just keep in mind that we are not going to pay this entire amount.

Next click on the "expense" tab and post a negative dollar amount to the payroll account. Save and close the transaction. You have now put value to your time with a zero dollar check.

Now, when you run your 'Job Profitability Summary' you have actual cost for your time and you can see if your margins are within 70% of what you billed. If they are not, your pricing is not high enough. I tell my business mentoring clients to always keep in mind that 1/3 of cost goes to overhead, 1/3 of cost goes toward direct cost and the remainder 1/3 goes to the owner.

By using QuickBooks, bookkeeping service owners can put a value to their time, analyze their pricing and manage their time more efficiently.

Stay tuned. In the next bookkeeping business coaching article we will go over how to streamline your invoicing process by pulling data from your time records.

About The Author--Laurie O'Neil is the co-founder of The Bookkeeper's Referral Network Inc., the place where business meets great bookkeepers. To get your copy of a free special report, The 9 Disastrous Mistakes Most Freelance Bookkeeper's Make in Business (and How You Can Avoid Them!), visit www.bkpr-network.com

What Everybody Should Know About How To Master Google AdWords

Then most difficult aspect of marketing a new product or web site is to find enough people that are interested in it so that they are ready to buy. Mastering Google AdWords will enable you to drive traffic to your web site and start making sales immediately. You can create a Google AdWord campaign in a matter of minutes and be making sales within 24 hours.

Benefits of Mastering Google AdWords

1. Test Products - with Google AdWords you can quickly test a product to determine if there is a demand for it. If you generate a lot of clicks, this may mean you have a winning product.

2. Generate sales leads - use Google AdWords to generate leads by offering something for free to obtain their email address. Following this, create an autoresponder series to build a relationship with the person. Through this long term relationship you can continually introduce new products to them.

3. Sell your own products - this can produce large profits because you don't have to deal with any middle men which tend to reduce your total profits.

4. Sell other people's products through affiliate programs - you become the sales person for a large company. The company provides a quality product that is in high demand, with a professional web site and sales page. You simply direct visitors to this site and collect commissions for every sale you make.

Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Do extensive keyword research first - use Wordtracker to find the best keywords that fit the product you wish to sell. Make a list of at least 50-100 keywords or keyword phrases. Create different ads based on your most targeted keywords. Not all keywords will necessarily be profitable, however you can use them later when developing content for your web pages.

2. Create several ads within an ad group - an ad group consists of a group of ads you create for the keywords you have researched. Choose your most targeted keyword or keyword phrase then create at least 2 different ads so you can see which ad produces the highest click through rate.

The click through rate (CTR) is the ratio of the number of times a person clicks on your ad based on the number of times it is viewed. For example if 100 people see your ad and only one person clicks on your ad to be taken to your web site, then the CTR for that ad is 1/100, 1%.

3. Don't place too many keywords in one ad group - if your keyword phrase is "red wagons" then create an ad group of 2 ads containing this phrase. If your keyword phrase is "blue wagons" then create another ad group with 2 ads containing this phrase. All your keywords must be similar.

4. Write an attractive ad - you have a very limited space to write your ad so you need to make each word count if you want your visitors to click through to your web site or landing page. Start with a clear headline, followed by benefit, feature then web address.

5. Use strong verbs in your ad - strong verbs link directly to the five senses--touch, sight, smell, sound, and taste--and to familiar emotions. They are short and personal: "run," "fight," "love," "say."

Weak verbs seem abstract and impersonal. They tend to be long words: "employ," "postpone," "construct."

Here's a comparison of weak and strong verbs:

Weak verbs Inform Reduce Indicate Modify Endeavor Desire

Strong Verbs tell, say cut show change try want

Next time you visit the grocery store look at some of the headlines of popular magazines ie Cosmopolitan Magazine. They spend millions of dollars researching words which will attract readers. By using strong verbs in your ads your visitor will be more inclined to take action.

6. Write ads that have rhythm - ads that have a flow nice flow to them effect people in a better way than ones that don't ie "simple self defense"

7. Set a daily budget - Google will recommend a specific amount to spend for each click. Don't go with their recommendation as they probably have their own self interest in mind. Start with a smaller daily amount than what is suggested ie 5 cents per click and keep a eye on your CTR. Ads shown at the top of the page don't necessarily produce the highest CTR. Aim for positions 6-8. Google will rotate your ads periodically so each one of them gets equal exposure.

8. Check on your ad regularly - when you first run your ad, check on it 3-4 times per day until you have got at least 50 clicks.

9. Refine your ads - discard those ads that are not producing a high click through rate. Continue editing those ads that work or create new ones within your same ad group until you find a winner. You can do this by using different combinations of keywords or trying different headlines.

10. Track your ads - track which ads produce the most clicks. The adtracker I recommend you use is Adtrackz:

This software allows you to create a different URL for each ad and tracks how many clicks you receive each day from placing the ad. You can also use the Google tracker that's included with your AdWrords account, however it is not as powerful as Adtrackz and has much less features.

By mastering Google Adwords Ads, you can confidently expand your marketing campaign to include other PPC advertising companies ie Overture, FindWhat and also try offline advertising.

Nickolie Greer Download a Free AdTracking Guide and to learn how Adtrackz will improve your http://www.squidoo.com/AdTrackZ-Review/ read my AdTrackz Review.