Make Money Online

I’ll guess that most of you know what a smackdown is. Well, I’ve decided to put some popular article submission sites in head to head review. I guess you could call it a article marketing Battle Royale. I get a lot of questions from readers wanting to know which is the best article submission site out there.

I know many of you use article marketing as a means to brand your blogs and websites and to drive traffic to them. That’s cool, I do for some of my blogs and websites also. Article marketing is a very good way to get the word out about your product or service.

The problem for many blog and website owners is deciding on which article submission site or service to use. There are many article submission sites on the Internet today. For the purpose of this head-to-head review, I’m choosing the most popular article submission sites that I know of. Some are free and several are paid. I have either used these services in the past and/or I currently use them. The article submission websites are Ezinearticles, iSnare, GoArticles, Article Marketer, Article Marketing Automation and Unique Article Wizard.

How The Article Marketing Smackdown Will Be Judged

To judge the Smackdown, I wrote an original article for a specific website of mine. I made it unique for each article submission site (as best as I could, each site has it’s own rules). I then submitted the article to each submission service and I’ve been waiting on the outcome for a few weeks. I believe enough results have come in now to bring this Smackdown to an end.

So, without further delay…I bring you the results of the article submission smackdown!

Unique Article Wizard

I’ve been using Unique Article Wizard (UAW) for about 6 months now.

I’m here to tell you that this has been a very good investment for me. I simply love UAW!

UAW’s is a very unique service. Due to the non-disclosure letter you have to sign when joining, I can’t go into details about how UAW works, just trust me when I say it will bring in a lot of one way links to your sites by distributing unique article to blogs, websites and directories. This service has been the fastest way to build legitimate one way back links that I’ve found, bar none!

But that’s not all. Unique Article Wizard also has another very powerful feature in that it can make each of your resource boxes unique as well. It’s possible to add links to many websites with just one article.

You can also choose how many times your article is distributed each day. You can have it blasted out to all the places at once or choose your own number. I like to “drip” my articles out as I think having a bunch of backlinks show up at once is not good for a site. Especially small sites. So I “drip” my articles out by choosing to have them submitted at a rate of about 20 to 30 per day.

After your article has been distributed, you can check to see the actual number of sites and email subscribers where your article was submitted to. You find this button in your dashboard in the column next to your article title. Neat stuff.

Now, the article I submitted to was distributed to 543 websites and directories and 71 email subscribers. Out of that number, I can track about 107 backlinks (as of this writing, I expect this number to increase over time) I received to the website I had listed in my resource boxes. That’s a pretty high number! (I’ve actually had some articles do better than that!)

The cool thing is, as people find these articles, they’ll use them and I’ll still be getting backlinks long after the submission is over with.

Another benefit that isn’t advertised is this. Hit the page reload button on your browser when you’re viewing your article on UAW and you’ll see a completely new article every time your refresh (again, I can’t tell you how they do this, but it is very powerful). It’s awesome. I then will take one of these unique articles and submit it to the free article submission sites. I’ve also submitted them to Article Marketer to have them submitted. If you have blogs or websites in the same niche, you could use one of these unique articles that UAW makes as content on your site.

Click here to learn more about Unique Article Marketing.

Article Marketing Automation (AMA)

I’ll be honest and tell you that I passed Article Marketing Automation the first time I heard about it. I wasn’t impressed with the advertising or the $47 per month price tag. Besides, I was already using UAW and figured that this service couldn’t be any better. Plus they used the words “spin” and “spun” in their advertising and that sounded cheap to me. I had visions of my sentences looking like “Affiliate marketing rolls down ice cubes after desert” or some other crap like that.

Thankfully, I was wrong.

But about two months ago an Internet Marketer who I trust told me I should be using AMA. He told me it was as powerful as UAW and had some other cool features that UAW didn’t.

So I signed up, figuring “What the hell, I’ll cancel if I don’t like it“.

Do I think that AMA is as good or better than UAW? No. But it’s close, damn close!

What I like about AMA is that its network is only made up of websites and blogs, not directories. Also, my favorite feature is that you can add up to 3 links to the body of the content. There is no resource box! All links go into the body. In my opinion, these anchored links will pass more authority when in the body of the article than a resource box. (some site owners either remove the resource box or nofollow the links in resource boxes when using other article submission services)

Here’s a big tip for you. Whether it’s an article you’re submitting or whether it’s your own site, put the links as near to the top as you can get. Google figures they must be important if you put them near the top and you’ll get more weight passed on to your site or to an interior page if the link happens to be on your site.

What I don’t like about AMA is that their network seems pretty small. They advertise 2000 sites, but I haven’t seen near that many. Of course, I know that my articles don’t go out to all of them, but the best I’ve seen is a few hundred. Word has it that they’re continually building their network, so that is the good news. Since they’re fairly new, it may take a little while longer for them to get to the size that some of the others are.

But, since the links are in the content instead of at the bottom of the page in a resource box, the backlinks I am getting are passing more weight to my sites. It’s probably only a small difference, but I’ll take all the help I can get!

The article I submitted to AMA has been published 77 times (as of this writing) and three quarters of those articles have been indexed by Google so far. Not bad!

If the level of service, both Customer service and the level of article submission, continues to grow, I see great things happening with Article Marketing Automation. Right now, I think it’s well worth the money. You can spend a lot more and get a helluva lot less with some of the other article submission services out there! This one is a keeper in my book! If they’re like any other Internet services, once they start growing, they will continue to raise the price, so you’d better get in quick if you want to lock in at a low price. Click here to learn more about Article Marketing Automation.

Ezinearticles

Ezinearticles has been around a while. In fact, I believe they were one of the first article directories. At least as best as I can remember. If any of you have read my previous post about Ezinearticles, then you know others as well as myself have had some problems with them over the years getting articles accepted. Looking back, I think this started in earnest whenever they started their “Premium” paid service. I don’t know if it was coincidence or not.

They offer both a free submission service and a $97 per month “Premium” service. I looked over the “features” of the premium service and to be honest, I don’t see the benefit. Certainly not $97 per month worth! There are too many other services that offer better service and more features for less than $97 per month IMHO.

But back to the smackdown.

I submitted the article about 3 weeks ago. It took several days for the article to be accepted. I have noticed over about the last month or so that my articles were being accepted faster. I don’t know why, I just know the last few times I’ve used them it has went off without a hitch.

Anyway, the article has been viewed 232 times and published 16 times as of the writing of this post.

Ezinearticle doesn’t tell you where they submitted the articles to or which sites have accepted your article. But judging from my WordPress dashboard, this article has sent me 19 backlinks to a site of mine. Looking through my sites, I found 8 visitors who came to my site through that article and my EZA dashboard said I’ve had 9 URL clicks. Not great, but better than nothing, especially on the backlinks.

GoArticles

GoArticles is a free submission site. Being free, the features are limited as to the stats you’ll get from your articles. The article I submitted has received 56 request since I submitted it. Now that doesn’t tell my everyone who has used my article because any article on GoArticles can be cut and pasted without requesting it.

One thing I really like about GoArticles is that you can put links in the body of the article and they don’t get bent out of shape about it.

As for the backlinks I received from that article, a search of my stats showed that I’ve received 8 backlinks from that article. One of them on an Authority blog.

Not great results, but remember, it’s free and you can add links in the body of the article without them getting all pissy about it. Also, I’ve never had an article rejected by GoArticles. From what I can tell, you’re article is accepted very quick. Hey, it’s free, what do you have to lose!

iSnare

This is a paid to submit an article service. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that they probably don’t make much money from this site because of the poor customer service and submission time I and others have had with them. It took over two weeks for my article to be accepted and distributed. From what I can tell, I haven’t received any traffic or backlinks from that article.

For the price you have to pay iSnare, their customer service and submission time should be a helluva lot better. I personally wouldn’t use them again until they start submitting articles for free or improve their customer service. There’s just too many good article submission sites out there, both free and paid ones, to put up with the B.S. from them.

Article Marketer

I’ve been using Article Marketer for over a year now. I’ve never really been happy with their service, but at the time they were one of the best article submission sites around. They advertise that you’re article will be reviewed by the next business day (or the use to advertise that, haven’t checked recently) but that hasn’t been my experience.

Here’s what normally happens. I submit an article and generally there’s something wrong with it in their eyes. Either it doesn’t meet the 400 word requirement, the keyword density is too high or a dozen other reasons I’ve had. They kick it back to me, I fix it and resubmit it. Now I’ve lost another day.

You see, apparently the “by the next day” starts at the time of the LATEST SUBMISSION, not when you originally submitted it. So when they reject your article and you go back and fix it, the submission process starts all over. You move to the back of the line.

The problem is, I think they’re overworked and their editors look for reasons to reject your articles. I’ve had some of my articles rejected for the stupidest reasons imaginable. One of the most common is that the article does not meet their 400 word requirement. Doesn’t matter that I just pulled it off MS Word document that showed the word count at 500 words. Or that I rewrote an article from EZA that said the article had 475 words. Somehow their counting doesn’t add up.

I also like their excuse. “Most directories won’t accept an article with less than 400 words” or something to that affect. Bull! I get 250 and 300 word articles accepted at many article directories all day long.

Like I said, either their editors are snowed under or they are not native English speaking editors. I have a hunch it may be a little of both.

I once wrote an article on a classic consumer product. For the sake of this post, let’s say the article was over the Model T Ford. So in this article I’m giving the history of the Model T Ford and describing how automobiles have evolved over the years.

They rejected the article the first time due to ‘too many keywords’. So I changed it up and resubmitted it. Then it was “we don’t accept articles that are product reviews. You will have to either change the wording of the article or compare the product with two other like products”.

WTF! Who’s smoking crack over there!

So I changed the article up. Sounded really stupid without using the words Model T Ford, since it was an article over the Model T Ford (well, not over the Model T, but over a Classic product that has been in service for more than 50 years). But I hope you get the point.

That’s just a few of the problems I have with them. It’s not uncommon to take a week or more to get my articles accepted by them after jumping through all the hoops they put in your way.

Since this is a paid service, I expect a lot better Customer Service than that and way better service from their submissions. I noticed that they’ve lowered their price to $21 per month now. I wonder if those of us who are already subscribed will get a discount?

I have to be honest with you. Until their submission acceptance service and their Customer Service gets a lot better, I wouldn’t recommend them. Not at $21 per month. If this was a free service, I could handle it. But when I’m paying top dollar, I expect better service from a company.

Now, on to the submitted report. Their site says my article was submitted to 945 directories and websites. It doesn’t tell me how many accepted my article. NOTE: Just because your article is submitted to a directory or website doesn’t mean it will be accepted. The site owner has the final say. This is true with all services that I’m aware of.

Out of that 945 directories and websites, I can track 22 backlinks. The reason is because of Google’s duplicate content penalty. Since this service blast out the same article to a thousand or so directories and blogs, only a few will be indexed by Google.

Click here to learn more about Article Marketer

And the Winner of the 1st Annual Article Marketing Smackdown is…

Well, IMHO it’s a tie between Unique Article Wizard and Article Marketing Automation.

The Pro’s of Unique Artilce Wizard is that my articles were submitted to more directories and websites, bringing me more backlinks.

The Pro’s of using Article Marketing Automation is that each article ends up on a website or blog, not an article directory (that’s not a bad thing either, it’s still a backlink to your site!). Plus, I love how the anchored links are embedded into the content, not at the bottom of the page in a resource box. While I got fewer links with AMA, the links I did get were embedded into content on legitimate blogs and websites. This equals maximum passing of the link juice if the subjects are relevant!

Article Marketer comes in at third simply because of the amount of directories it submits too. The number of backlinks should have been greater, but they weren’t. Which tells me not all of the articles are getting indexed because all 945 articles were same with the same resource box. Other factors could have contributed to this, I don’t know. 

Another negative about Article Marketer is that they use two types of resource boxes. One that you can only type in your url, which does not become a hyperlink on the site it ends up on. The other is the traditional resource box with two links in it. I speculate that many site owners choose to use the 1st resource box that only shows your URL as text. This could also be the reason for low backlinks versus the numbers of sites the article was submitted to.

Down at fourth we have Ezinearticles. Pretty decent backlinks for a free service. If I had to pay for this service, I drop it in a heartbeat due to the lack of submissions and the backlinks it produces.

GoArticles isn’t great, but they’re free and you can put links in the body of the article as well as the resource box. That alone makes it worth my time to add my articles to GoArticles.

iSnare. I wouldn’t waste a dollar or my time on them until they get their act together. When I hear others starting to have good results with them, maybe I’ll try them again, but not any time soon!

So there you have it. The finals of the Article Marketing Smackdown. If you’re on a limited budget, then use GoArticles and Ezinearticles until you can afford either Article Marketing Automation or Unique Article Wizard. You’ll build backlinks with the free sites, but at a much slower pace than you will with UAW or AMA. UAW and AMA will give you the most bang for the buck and help set your linkbuilding on the fast track to higher rankings.

I received an email the other day from a reader. Basically she said it was easy for me to make money online because I had all the expensive tools, contacts and resources the average person didn’t. Hmmm…I wonder how she thinks she knows me so well without having met me?

Anyway, it was probably a troll email, but it did get me to thinking.

Could I start out with nothing and make some decent money online without all my tools and resources? Yes, I think I could.

So I decided to challenge myself for the month of January. I’m going to start a Challenge to make $2500 online during the month. Why $2500? I don’t know, it seems like a decent number. Plus, that’s $30,000 per year before taxes. I’d say that’s pretty close to what the average household brings home in the U.S. At any rate, that added income would sure come in handy to many families across the World right now, not just here in the U.S.

I’m setting some guidelines for myself to try and make it as fair as possible.

Here are some of the guidelines I’m setting.

• I’ll only be using free or low cost resources that are available on the Internet and accessible to the general public.
• I’m only going to start the Challenge with $50. Nearly anyone can beg, borrow or steal (just j/k’ing about the stealing part) fifty bucks. Sure, you can get started with nothing, but in reality, an online business is just like any other business. You’re going to have to put up a little money. Any money I make, I’ll reinvest it into the challenge if I need to.
• I won’t use any of my existing websites for help. It would be much easier, but I realize many people do not have a network of websites in place, so mine will be off limits to help me with this challenge.
• I’ll use a variety of techniques to make money online. I haven’t sit down and figured all the ways that I’ll try, but I will do a weekly post and let people know what I did the previous week and how much money was made or lost for that week.
• At the end of the Challenge – win, lose or draw – I’ll be giving away a lot of my resources to a few lucky readers. (I’m thinking a website here, tools, ebooks, etc…) Since I don’t know where this will take me, I don’t know yet what I will have to giveaway!
• To be elgible for the giveaway, all you need to do is leave a comment on any of the post relating to the January $2500 Challenge and ask to be entered. You must let me know through the comments you want entered as some people will not be wanting to enter but yet want to comment. Extra entries will be given to people who blog about the January $2500 Challenge.

Although I sincerely believe anyone can make money online if they just put forth a good effort and stay focused, I know that many people don’t have a clue where to start. I’m of the mindset that making money online is a long term proposition, but I believe some money can be made rather quickly in certain areas. These short term money making projects can help you get by while waiting on your long term business to become profitable.

I’d love to hear from you folks. Suggestions, comments or just to enter the giveaway that will happen at the end of the Challenge, leave me a comment. I’ll keep you updated as I sit down and plan how I’m going to make money online with the January $2500 Challenge.

What one or two aspects of Affiliate Marketing that you hate to do? Maybe it’s writing content. Perhaps it’s building backlinks or building web sites or writing code. It really doesn’t matter what it is, you can find someone to do it for you and probably do it cheaper than what you think. It’s called outsourcing and when done properly, will leave you with plenty of time to concentrate on areas of your affiliate marketing that you enjoy and make the most money at.

Outsourcing your work isn’t for everyone. But at some point in your affiliate marketing efforts, you’ll have to decide whether or not to bring new people in. People who are just beginning in affiliate marketing generally have time to do all the things necessary to become successful.

Once you’ve started building up your portfolio, things can get pretty tight. Especially time. If you stay in this business long enough, there will come a point when you discover that you don’t have enough time to get everything you need done accomplished. When this happens, it’s time to look into outsourcing some of the chores.

For me, it was content writing. I had so many websites that I didn’t have time to write content for every one of them.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to write. But I can only do so much. Plus, there are different types of content. For my Adsense sites, I don’t need the best content. In fact, I’d say poor content will actually convert better on an Adsense site than good content. I can get 500 to 750 word articles written for these sites for as little as $3 to $5 per article. I don’t know about you, but my time is worth a lot more than that plus these articles pay for their self rather quickly.

There are literally people willing to do anything that you can think of. And many of them will do it rather cheaply. It comes down to the value of your time plus how much more money you could make by spending the time you do have on actions that create the most money for you.

By having a lot of articles written for my sites, the time this frees up is spent on building backlinks to my sites and creating more sites, which makes me a lot more money than writing content!

Where to find outsourcing resources

There Internet is a wonderful place to find people willing to work for you. All you need to do is look.

Here are some of my favorite places to find people to outsource my work to.

DigitalPoint forums. They have a section called the Marketplace. You can find anything you want here. Content Writers, Coders, Content, eBook creation, Link building services to people who will build backinks for you and submit your articles to directories and so on. Make sure you check the iTrader reputation of the person before hiring him/her to work for you. Most other Webmaster forums also have a similar marketplace. Other sites you may want to look into are; SitePoint, Webmaster World, V7N, Warrior Forum, etc.

eLance, Rent-A-Coder, RentAFreelancer, GetAFreelancer. These are great places to find people to outsource every aspect of your affiliate marketing. From building website templates to PHP coders and people who will build you landing pages, you’ll find them here.

Need-An-Article. When I need great content, I use these people. I can get 1000 plus word articles written by native English speaking writers for as little as $12.50 and these articles are as good, or in many cases – better, than ones I have paid $30 or more for. Their research is excellent as well and most of my article request are turned around in a few days.

Craigslist – Ha! Gotcha didn’t I? Yeah, I’ve found some good freelancers on Craigslist. Several Content writers and a Coder. Look toward the bottom of the page under the heading of “Services”.  Also be sure to check out the “Gigs” section. If you want someone local, just put up a post and you should have plenty of people responding shortly.

There are tons of other places to find people to outsource your work to. For many of you, you get hung up on the cost to hire these people. I think this generally comes from lack of confidence on most peoples part. If your sites are making money, then your outsourced work will pay for itself many times over. This will free you up to create more sites or work on an area that you enjoy and let the freelancers work on the chores you hate to do or are not particularly good at.

One last bit of advice here. And you’d better take this to heart. Once you find several freelancers that you like, keep their contact info close by. These people can be invaluable to you. Also, treat them fairly in all your business dealings. If they’re good, they’ll be an asset to your business. The few bucks you’ll save by trying to screw them over isn’t worth it. A good freelancer can be like the Goose that laid the Golden egg.

Remember, you’re the Money Man, the Rainmaker, the person with the Creative Ideas. Do what you do best and let the freelancers do what they’re best at!

To you people, I’d say give it a try. Budget some money and get those time sucking jobs that are holding you back outsourced! Your bank account will thank you!

Okay, some of you have been getting pretty testy over your comments not being approved. For some of you, it’s your own fault. Don’t try and spam my comments with links!

For others, once I approved your comments, they would simply vanish and not show up under the post they were suppose to. I couldn’t find them anywhere. Sorry about that!

I upgraded WordPress and the WordPress Plugins this morning so I’m hoping that took care of the problem.

I believe there was a commenter on my Embarg post name Susan who become very hot at me because she thought I wasn’t approving her comments. Susan, (if I have your name correct), try commenting again. I didn’t delete your post, it just became a casualty of this black hole where all my approved comments were going!

As for you others, I have Akismet set to hold all comments with links. Honestly, when I see the amount of post in the Akismet spam section, I just delete the whole mess. Akismet is good at catching most of my spam and I don’t have the time to wade through thousands of Spam comments hoping to find one or two good comments.

If you want your comments to show up, it’s best to make one that says something other than “good site, me learned lots” or one with a link in it.

Don

Ring Revenue (here’s their promotional flyer) is a new division of Commission Junction and it lets you get paid commissions for people CALLING a company instead of using just a website.

Use your online or offline marketing skills to drive consumers to a toll free number and you can earn significant amounts of money monthly for your efforts.

This rewards you for LOCAL marketing efforts far more than some online pay per click deals… a call to Angie’s List, for example, could earn you $15. How many of those calls could you generate using your marketing skills?

Commission Junction has paid commission on time for years. If you can find a program you love promoting that works for you and your potential customers, this could add a nice healthy income stream to any business – even if you’re just leaving flyers around town wherever you go.

That’s RingRevenue.com

Here’s how Commission Junction publicized the new service in terms of its benefits to consumers:

Why should you be as excited as we are about CJ’s new pay-per-call platform? That’s easy. Big commissions for doing not much more than you’re already doing today. Pay-per-call is here to stay, and most of our 4-bar and 5-bar advertisers are already actively paying attractive commissions for calls as well as online transactions. In fact, the average per-call commission is over $10, and some advertisers pay up to $100 per call. Pay-per-call doesn’t take the place of your online CPA campaigns with these large advertisers. Pay-per-call campaigns are IN ADDITION TO existing CPA campaigns. And our new platform makes it surprisingly easy for publishers to start generating these higher per-call commissions.

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Need free content (i.e. articles) for your blog? your website? or other online property? It may be time for you to check out an Article directory. For instance, if you are looking for home business articles or free home business content the article directory called ArticleAlley.com is worth checking out.

It’s simple to use. You scan through the articles that strike your interest. Here’s one called “Twitterverse Translation – Is Twitter Worth The Time?” . You decide to use it. Want to publish it, go to the bottom of the article and push the “republish this article”. Voila! You are given the html code you need to publish the article instantly! If you just need the text, it’s there too!

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With President Obama’s friend locking himself out of his house and having to break in the door and then getting arrested for making himself a public nuisance, it strikes me that this man,Gates, could have used a good Mobile Locksmith Service!

In fact, if “Dr” Gates hadn’t started running off at the mouth and creating a public disturbance and had just called 911, the local police could have probably referred him to a mobile locksmith after he’d showed his ID!

Hey, that’s a great marketing tip… get to know your local law enforcement. When they run into people locked out of cars, homes, and offices, if you are their friend, they will at least make sure you get your fair share of calls!

OK – this is a LONG ONE. But in honor of the so-called Beer Summit and the public spectacle highlighting the need for a good Mobile Locksmith Service, here is how to start your own Mobile Locksmith Business!

So how do you start one of those? Here’s some tips to get going!!!

The locks on the doors on most homes keep the skilled burglar out for about 30 seconds! This is especially true if the only thing slowing him down is a standard key-in-the-knob lock.

Statistically, there’s about one residential burglary every 30 seconds in this country. Traditionally, as the economy falters and times get harder, the number tends to rise.

Quite naturally, people are concerned and frightened. As a result, locksmithing is not only one of the new “demand” businesses, it’s rapidly becoming one of the more profitable businesses for entrepreneurs with not too much capital to invest.

Today’s locksmiths are usually well versed in mathematics and basic electronics. They almost always have to be, what with the new types of locks being introduced. Today’s locksmith is more likely to be known as a “Security Specialists,” then just ordinary locksmith, as in the past.

Even so, most locksmithing businesses are still one-man operations. In many instances, it’s a husband and wife family affair, with the husband handling the mechanical end and the wife
doing the books and financial end of the business. Most of these small operations concentrate on the repair side of the business, and deliberately choose to remain small in size. As we will
discuss later, however, this need not be the case; these small businesses CAN “grow up.”

According to the area in which he is located, and established, well organized and trained locksmith may gross between $50,000 and $60,000 per year, using a van as a mobile “workshop,” and space in his home as an office. Remember: As the economy turns toward recession, burglaries increase and people become aware of the need for better locks to protect what they own; thus the locksmith enjoys an increased income during hard times.

Just because locksmithing is a “personal” kind of business, and can be started on a shoestring and operated out of the home, that’s not to say that a locksmithing service cannot be developed into a million dollar business. On the contrary, there are a number of operations in some of the larger metropolitan areas that have several mobile locksmith vans on the road, in addition to retail store locations. These operations are grossing well into the million dollar figures every year.

It’s a matter of desire, determination and personal fulfillment and satisfaction. Attitude, marketing skills and general business knowledge are also positive attributes necessary for real
success. Very definitely, the sharp businessman with determined ambition can dominate any market with a modern locksmithing service.

The key ingredient to this business is the utilization of proper marketing and selling skills. It goes without saying: you can know all there is about the mechanical functioning of the business, but without innovative marketing and selling skills, your business will surely flounder.

However, given the marketing know-how, plus persistent sales efforts, you can succeed in this business with the knowledge you can acquire of the technical side. The success of any business is built upon the marketing and sales expertise of its founder, because after all, “mechanics” can always be hired, if you decide to go that route rather than learn the trade and the business.

Your marketing efforts should stress the theme that your services will allay the fears of your buyers. You want to get across to your prospective customers the sense of security your service will provide: You can make them safe in their own homes; no longer will they have to worry about being rudely awakened in the middle of the night by a burglar rustling around in their house; no longer will they have to worry about coming home to a house that’s been cleaned out or ransacked.

Once you understand that fear is a basic human instinct, it’s easy to see that virtually everyone can be a prospect for your service as a locksmith. Your potential market includes everyone
in your area, because everyone has possessions. So every homeowner, every apartment dweller, every business owner, all the schools, churches, government institutions, and a wide variety of
other commercial and industrial accounts can be yours.

In this day and age, new homeowners and apartment dwellers want locks changed the day the move in, so that the former occupants and other key holders will not have access to their place. In addition, there will probably be the need for additional keys for each member of the new family, now that new, safer locks have been installed.

Commercial and industrial accounts present and even lucrative market. larger companies tend to want their keys “departmentalized,” so that office workers can get into the building on weekends, but not into the factory or shipping areas, and vice versa. Banks and savings institutions frequently need the safe deposit locks changed.

Generally speaking, newcomers to this field should focus their efforts on the commercial market is vast, and often up for grabs in many areas. In addition, the profit margins in these areas are
excellent! With one of these accounts you’ll have to work paying about $500 or more per visit, compared with $25 to $50 per visit per residential job. With commercial/industrial accounts, there’s also the possibility of ongoing service and maintenance. Definitely, the commercial or industrial business is well worth going after, and can put your business in the black very rapidly. However, it does take aggressiveness, and the determination to sell these accounts.

Start small, Consider working out of your home in the beginning. Most of today’s successful locksmiths began by working out of their homes, with the family car or van outfitted with the tools and equipment needed. Such an approach will enable you to get started for a little as $1,000. You should be aware however, that this is just a beginning, and not all it’s going to take to really establish your business. With this level of investment, you’re more or less limited in the business you can handle and the money you can make. Locksmiths who want to make the really
big money should be investing all their early profits into more equipment and inventory up to a level where they can offer complete full service locksmithing. Such a business would require
at least $5,000 in equipment, perhaps even $10,000, depending on how many different services you want to offer. this estimate for start-up costs does not include your van or inventory of spare parts and new locks.

Perhaps a quick word of caution is in order here. You’ve no doubt seen or heard some of the advertisements promising all kinds of big money to be made with your own locksmithing service; “just send for the learn-at-home correspondence course, and you’ll be home free.” It’s true that you can earn big money in this business, but as we’ve noted earlier, without a lot of sharp
marketing and selling expertise, plus at least the essential equipment to handle the kind of work these courses teach, enrolling in one of these courses will put you no further ahead
than you are right now. This business requires EQUIPMENT and KNOWLEDGE.

You can make excellent money as a locksmith, so long as you operate your business capably and in a professional manner. But without a full line of the equipment required to handle a wide
variety of jobs, you will be limiting your total income potential. The more you invest in quality equipment, the more different kinds of jobs you can handle, and thus the more money
you’ll be capable of making.

This is definitely a business in which you decide for yourself exactly how far and how fast you want to go. As we’ve said, some operators are perfectly content to work out of their homes, using a mobile van. They don’t want the larger problems involved in hiring employees, or the expense of maintaining a retail location.

But to make really big money in this business, starting small and working out of your home, you should plan to put more mobile trucks on the road, and as soon as possible, open a retail
location. Each mobile van will give you another satellite business, and a retail location will afford you a base headquarters for your mobile vans.

It is of the utmost importance that you build and maintain a professional image as a quality locksmithing operation from the start. Clinging to the craftsman type of image will be of
advantage only if you wish to stay in the “Mom and Pop” category.

You should endeavor to handle all jobs as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Outfitting yourself and your help in sharp looking uniforms will help. Making your calls in a clean,well organized van will also play an important part in the image your customers have of your business. You want your customers to have confidence in your business, and in the quality of the work you do for them. When they do, you’ll find they are more likely to pay their bills with fewer reminders.

Think of it like this: A large invoice presented by a man in a clean uniform who drives up in a good looking truck and does quality work is going to be paid more readily than one for $25
presented by a guy in grubby jeans who drove up in a 10-year old decrepit truck.

With so many technological changes occurring within this field on an almost monthly basis, it’s to your advantage to stay on top of what’s happening within the locksmithing field. This means
subscribing to some of the better trade publications. You should be attending the various Locksmithing Association promoted seminars and workshops that offer ongoing help in both the
technical and financial side of this business. In other words, you should plan to keep yourself up to date with a program of continuous learning.

There are several ways to get started in this business. You can buy an existing operation from a retiring craftsman. Ask him to help you with the technical side of the operation while you spend
most of your time actively promoting and managing the business. Or, you can hire the technical help you need, and the sales force to build the business while you do the managing. You can enroll in one of the popular correspondence courses, become involved in the business as you learn from the various trade publications, and progress at your own speed. Our recommendation is that you learn the fiscal and management side of the business, and hire others to handle the mechanical or technical side. Thus the purpose of this report is to indoctrinate you to the business side. To explain the technical details of this business would take volumes and probably much of the information contained would be out-dated by the time it came to press.

However, we will provide you with an outline of the most common types of jobs a locksmith should be able to handle.

RECOMBINATION LOCKS: A customer may want to change an existing lock to work off a new key–the most common type of lock being the key-in-the-knob cylinder or pin tumbler lock. When the proper key is inserted in the keyway, spring-loaded pins are pushed up and out of the cylinder, allowing the plug to turn, and opening the lock. When recombinating, you’re changing the depth of these pins so that a new key is the only one that will work. Most house, auto and padlocks are the pin tumbler variety. Different brands of locks use different depths, space and keyways. But with a given brand of lock, up to 50,000 variations exist. Thus, it’s not always necessary to change the new lock.

COMBINATING ALIKE: Some customers will have a house or business with several different locks and keys, none of them alike or using the same key. Sometimes people will want to change to a
system that will require the least number of keys to carry around. Here, you’ll be required to change the key coding so that one key works all the locks. Sometimes this requires the
installation of common door hardware; however, in most cases, you’ll find the same brand locks are used throughout the building.

MASTERKEYING: Apartment owners and other commercial accounts may want dual key access. This is done by using locks with dual pin tumbler sets. One works with the apartment key, the other with the master key. Keys are spoken of in terms of code numbers. These are sets of digits reflecting the depth of serration. A given lock is a master key setup might respond, for example, to keys with code numbers 1-2-3-4-5 and 6-7-8-9. Mathematical progressions are used in master keying.

LOCKOUTS: Frequently a person finds himself locked out of his home, office, warehouse, car, etc. Invariably this happens at odd hours of the day or night. So opening locks at odd hours of the day or night will be a role you’ll definitely play live of your customers. A typical pin tumbler lock can generally be picked open in about 30 seconds, using either picks or a single piece of
spring steel and good wrist work. All locks have tolerances and variations in manufacture which will allow you to push the cylinder pins up and out of the way while exerting a turning
pressure on the cylinder itself.

AUTOMOBILE LOCKOUTS: This problem occurs frequently and will require a different procedure. A tool called a “Slim Shim” is often used here, and works on most domestic and many foreign cars. this is pushed down between the glass and the weather stripping on the door far enough to reach the back of the lock cylinder on the door. You simply push down or pull up. A “button
popper” is also used, worked through the weather stripping on vent windows in older cars, and angled back to the latch button.

LOCK INSTALLATION: Much of your time will be spent installing new lock and door hardware. In many cases, homeowners and business people will want to upgrade their security with the latest model hardware for older homes, offices and other buildings. Many locksmiths get involved in new construction of apartment houses, condominiums, shopping centers and the like. Often you’ll be adding more security to an existing door, such as installing a deadbolt lock.

PANIC BARS AND DOOR CLOSERS: Many locksmiths working the commercial or industrial market get involved in the repair and installation of panic bars in public access areas. Panic bars are
those large bars you can push on to open the outside doors of many public buildings. Door closers are those hydraulic devices mounted at the top of these doors which return the door to the closed position after it has been opened.

ALARMS, SAFES, AND VAULTS: The sale and installation of alarm are a natural adjunct to the locksmithing business. Many larger locksmithing operations move into this area, which is somewhat specialized. Alarms can be the “perimeter” type which sound when a door is opened after hours, or “area” alarms. “Space” or “area” protection is generally preferred, and involves infrared, ultrasonic or microwave sensors triggering alarms by detecting movement.

Safe and vault work is another specialty. Some locksmiths have major banks and savings and loan associations as clients. They spend a good deal of their time changing safe deposit box locks and maintaining vaults and the like. Gaining in popularity is the safe and service of safes for homes and business use. You will be exposed to all these specialties and to new technology at seminars, conventions and workshops.

HIGH SECURITY WORK: A typical locksmith is a “general practitioner,” while the high-security locksmith is a “specialist.” High security work is often done for major corporations, government institutions, large banks, race tracks, museums and wealthy private individuals who desire maximum security. Often this work involves access control systems using card readers or voice print equipment, possibly combines with electronic push button locks that work off a combination of numbers known only to a few individuals.

In addition to these major areas of activity, locksmiths the world over do key duplicating and impressioning, which is replacing of lost keys with custom made copies, and a wide variety of other types of sales, repair and service work.

In order to achieve maximum profitability as a locksmith, you must be able to offer all these services to your customers. Locks and security are the prime concern to your customer, and it
follows that when a customer wants help in this area, he wants it taken care of immediately. Thus, you must position yourself to handle this job immediately, or lose him to a locksmith who can take care of his needs on the spot.

Do some market research. Analyze your local market area before you embark upon this business. This can be done via letters to the local locksmithing association, Chamber of Commerce, or even by checking through the yellow pages. As important as anything else, you’ll want to know how many locksmiths are already operating in your area, and how much of the market you can expect to attract with your business. Most industry experts agree that any more than one locksmith for every 30,000 people tends to saturate the market. However, you should study the operations of the existing locksmiths to determine if you can capture a good portion of the existing market by offering more and better service, especially with well-planned efforts towards the commercial and industrial accounts. In many areas, the established locksmiths have been in business for 20 years or more, and are not interested in expanding their businesses to
include the newer and more intricate types of protection available.

Look your market over. Determine if there’s been any real effort to “sell” the market on upgraded protection. Door-to-door sales efforts; direct mail advertising campaigns; local “hard sell”
newspaper advertising; home protection and business security seminars, are angles that can be used to launch your business. These approaches should prove to be especially profitable if the
existing locksmiths have been sitting back and letting the people come to them when they have a problem. Get to know the building contractors and start bidding on the installation of locks on
their building projects. You will get your share of business, even though at first you may get contracts only from the new builders who have not had experience with the other locksmiths.

For a fast start in this business, we suggest that you set yourself up with a van and take your business to your customers. It isn’t absolutely necessary to buy a van off the showroom floor
and outfit it with all the equipment you’ll ultimately need for a full service locksmithing business. That would be nice, but it would probably run you close to $50,000 or more. By shopping
around, you should be able to pick up a good, late model van for about $3,000. You might be able to work an even better deal by leasing a new van, and writing off the payments as a business tax deduction. One thing you’ll definitely want to consider is a van that has a raised roof in order for you to stand upright in it.

After all, you’ll be doing most of your work in it, and to have to stoop all the time would soon become quite tiring. Generally, you can run a workbench down either or both sides of your van.

Here’s a title on the subject from Amazon.com…

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How does Online Professional Guy Kawasaki use Twitter?

Yes, Twitter can be a colossal waste of good time. And for that reason, many people aspiring to be online marketers either

1) Drop the service entirely and let their accounts go stagnant or

2) They become engrossed in the minutiae of Twitter and waste valuable time they should spend on real work -or life for that matter.

Of course there is a “via media” or middle way as online professional Guy Kawasaki shows.

He follows everyone who follows him out of courtesy so they can give him direct messages which he prefers to email.

He replies to comments from another Twitter account (easily managed using something like Tweetdeck) to keep his timeline from being cluttered.

And he only replies to comments made to him or for key search terms like his name or business “alltop”.

Most importantly, he uses Twitter because it’s good marketing.

How are you using it?

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“Big Al” Tom Schreiter is a multi level marketing guru. He teaches others how to succeed in a MLM business. Whatever your business, it’s a point worth remembering.

During his Power Marketing and Promotion training, Tom asks the people attending this question: “How many of you could recruit 100 people to your down line in the coming one week?”

As I recall, nobody ever raises their hands.

So then Tom takes out his check book and his pen and then asks again: “How many of you could recruit 100 people in the coming week if I made a check for $50,000 with your name on it right now?”

About half the audience raises their hands up!

In a mock tone, Tom asks his audience: “What has changed?”

“What caused you to go from ‘I can’t’ to ‘I can’ in less than a minute?”

Think about it – for most MLM programs, having 100 distributors who actually are recruiting others themselves would be worth MORE than $50,000.

What changed?

… only their attitude.

Though a “simple” change of attitude can be worth an immense amount of money, changing our attitudes isn’t that simple is it?

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This is a follow up post about the free book/audiobook Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Click that link to get it free in a variety of formats.

One of the great things about the Free ebook (Free to read online anyway) are the SIDEBARS that tell you how so many Free Promotions were structured.

You can see and read the list here: Sidebars

This wasn’t in the sidebar, though.

It’s how FreeConferenceCalling.com makes money.

Personally I’ve used the service, and I’ve liked it. There were no ads or other discernable ways they made money.

I thought “some idiot is wasting a lot of venture capital on this one”. But it turns out they do have an ingenious way to make money!  The book Free, which is “Free” tells how. You can download it for Kindle, Iphone, at Google Books and even a free audio book at ITunes!

Free: The Future of a Radical Price

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