What Really Holds You Back in Business

A great read for anyone planning to take the plunge and launch their own business.

This may or may not surprise you, but I have learned that regardless of age, it usually isn't lack of skill, time or money that gets in the way of starting or growing your business.

Most of the entrepreneurs I work with are between 40 to 65 years young, and when they hit a wall or spin their wheels, it's rarely associated to lack of ability, desire, physical or monetary means.

Physically, they have what it takes, but mentally -- there's a lifetime of baggage blocking access to real progress.

Many have raised children, have been supervisors at work, devoted and hardworking employees, and creative geniuses, and despite their lifetime of accomplishments, something seems to come up when they begin the journey from employee to entrepreneur.

Some of it is tied to the transition into the business world, but much of it also comes from reaching a certain point in life where you can start putting your needs ahead of others. You have raised your children, supported your spouse in his or her career, served as a loyal employee to your boss and now, it's time to focus on following your dream.

The problem is the dream is clouded by old programming.

How many times in the past did you do or say things you didn't want to simply to please your parents, teachers, spouse, church leaders or children?

Did you take courses you didn't want to take or jobs you hated because someone told you it was best for you? Did you marry someone you shouldn't have because you were told it was the "right" thing to do?

How many times were you told you had dumb ideas, weren't smart, pretty or strong enough?

How many times were you told not to bother pursuing a professional sport, music or writing because you'd never make it -- only the exceptional few did?

If you're struggling to get clear on what you want or if you're not taking the right actions even though you know what must be done, look inside yourself and try to uncover what's really holding you back.

How much of other people's "stuff" are you allowing to influence how big you dream and the actions you do or do not take?

I recall a colleague of mine who today is a millionaire, but when he started his business he struggled to succeed. He had done well in corporate, but when he started to promote his new business, he couldn't attract clients.

It was only after he locked himself in his office for a full day and began looking at his marketing materials that he realized he had designed everything to appease his father and gain his approval. He wasn't communicating to his target audience at all.

He re-wrote his material, changed the way he promoted himself, and within months attracted numerous clients.

Another client realized in her late 50's that because she was allowing her father to make her feel guilty because he had helped her out when she was younger, every day was dictated by his mood and the demands he placed on her.

She couldn't grow her business because she allowed her father to determine the amount of time and activities she could focus on each day.

It took almost two years to release the guilt and feeling that she had to be at his beck and call, but when she did, doors began to open. She started receiving phone calls and orders from large organizations and she started meeting people with huge networks who loved her products and wanted to share her with all of their friends.

She became a vibrant, confident woman and started attracting other vibrant people into her life.

I share these stories not to encourage you to blame your parents or loved ones for the obstacles in your life, but to create awareness of the fact that what often holds us back is our belief that we must be responsible for everyone else's happiness and comfort.

One of my former clients works with people who struggle with what she calls People Pleasing Syndrome because it is more often than not the biggest obstacle to personal and professional growth.

If you're facing challenges in your business, take some time to look at the behaviors and beliefs you hold. What thoughts may be holding you back? What actions do you take that you know for a fact aren't moving you forward?

Make the effort to uncover the reasons behind your thoughts and actions. If this is too hard to do on your own, seek the assistance of a coach or trusted professional.

Your life, your business and your ultimate happiness depend on your ability to give yourself permission to follow your dream without guilt or embarrassment and if you need help to make that happen, give yourself that gift. You deserve it.

2007 © Laurie Hayes - The HBB Source

Laurie Hayes, founder of The HBB Source, and creator of The Complete 12-Step Guide To Starting A Home-Based Business, helps entrepreneurs build loyal client relationships and attract more quality referrals. Get her free ezine packed with helpful resources at http://www.thehbbsource.com and learn how to build your business through customer appreciation at http://www.hbbsourcecards.com

Choosing Your Keywords

Everyone wants their site to be found easily in the search engines. The use of keywords, therefore, is important when designing the content on your site. The following offers some good advice on this.

These days, our needs for knowledge, information, everyday
necessities and novelty materials can be found just with one
single click on an internet website. It’s no surprise that
people prefer to surf the WWW rather than go to a library or
shopping center to look for or buy what they want. More and more
people use search engines like google to help them go directly
to the website that contains what they need.

This trend sparked a revolution in internet marketing
strategies. Web masters of vendor sites compete with each other
to place their websites in the top 10 search results of a user’s
searches. Various software utilities were created to boost the
chances of high SE rankings. Some of these utilities even
manage to cheat a high ranking out of a search engine even when
the website itself contains nothing of interest to the user.

As more and more web masters arm themselves with rank boosting
software, the effectiveness of their efforts begins to plummet so
much so that they find themselves back to where they started. A
new avenue for increasing their rankings became necessary.
One of these ideas is the saturation of keywords on a single
article. The entire philosophy of keywords hinged on their
relevance. In searching for a Ford truck, what search strings
would the customer use? How many of those search strings will
match the keywords? The more a search string matches your site
or article’s keywords, the higher you place on a search engine
result page. Keywords have gotten to be such a major concern
that private enterprises which offer search engine optimization
(SEO) services are now making a killing in the internet economy.

The first result that comes out of a search engine is usually
the website that contains the most similar number of keywords in
the exact same order as the search. For instance, if I used “DIY
Wi-Fi antenna” for my search string, the search engine will look
for the exact same words and word placement. Now, if I type the
word “ask” and perform my search using google, the common result
would be ask.com. Notice how the search engine immediately went
for the website with the domain name (ask.com) that matched my
query. On the other hand, if I type “asked”, google still comes
out with the ask.com webpage as its top search result. It’s all
about relevance.

To be able to fully utilize your website’s potential as a top
search result item, you need to orient your website towards the
product or idea you want to promote. If you cannot have the .com
name, you can rely on keyword optimization to help you with your
search engine rankings.

You do not need to consult a private enterprise to tell you
which keywords to use. All you have to do is think about your
product or idea and think of how you would look for it in the
internet using a search engine.

Keywords will not work for you if you keep them generic. Most
customers log onto the internet already knowing what they need
or want. Remember, these shoppers can’t hold or examine the
merchandise so they want to find out about them fist hand before
they actually buy. When they do decide to buy, they have a
specific idea in mind. They will use this idea as their search
string in search engines. Ergo, if you have multiple products,
you need to be able to generate a fair amount of literature
containing relevant keywords for each of your merchandise. If
you choose to limit your business to a certain area, be sure to
include the name of your chosen location into your keyword base.

You also need to take care of the literature or articles
you produce for your business. Make sure that they contain the
necessary keyword count. Do not sacrifice the quality of your
articles for the sake of keywords. Always present a detailed,
literate and informative article.

About the Author:

Len Hutton is an information publisher specializing in helping people start their own home based business. You can read up on how to create your own info products in one day without writing a single word by going to http://www.nicheresidualincomes.com/

How To Turn Other Peoples Hard Work Into A Part Time And Instant Internet Business

http://www.nicheresidualincomes.com/underground.htm

Reciprocal Links - Yes Or No?

A great article on the topic of link exchange and their relevance to search engine rankings.

Reciprocal Link Exchange is a very popular and valuable practice. This can be a valuable tool for information sharing and it helps establish communication among web developers and creates strong on line communities.

A reciprocal link simply means that two websites are linking to each other. Both sites generate traffic for each other simultaneously.

Building links is a very good way to improve how high you rank on a search engine index. Links consist of your hyperlink of your web site that is posted onto another web site. The more links of your web site that can be found throughout the internet on other sites, usually the higher you will rank in the search engines.

You can't just put your website on the net with right keywords and all the right touches and expect your traffic and ranking will remain constant. As the web is an ever changing landscape, you have to keep track of your own web results like what is happening with the competition and also the best and highest ranked sites.

Tips and recommendations for designing a Good Reciprocal Link Campaign

- Set a goal. Figure out how fast you can do it, then create a plan to increase and improve your Page Ranking. Start your own Marketing Linking Campaign;

- Choose your reciprocal links wisely. Connect only to websites that contain related information that readers will enjoy.

- Use your time collecting valuable information on your site, and then tell everyone you can! Offer a web site full of interesting details that similar sites' readers can't live without. The best way to gain readership is by offering a valuable resource! - If you want to improve your Page Ranking try to do not link to sites that are irrelevant to yours and avoid sites that have a "Links Page" that is hard to find.

- Write relevant articles and publish them for free. Make sure to include a Bio Box that includes a link to your site. Stipulate that the article may be reprinted for free as long as the Bio Box is included. This will instantaneously provide extra links to your page when people reprint your work.

- Email other webmasters and simply ask for a link and provide a pre-coded HTML link for them to cut and paste to their page.

- Do not link to sites with directories that are haphazardly arranged with no categorization and avoid sites that contain more than 40 - 50 links per page. Your link will be hard to find...

- The fastest and most powerful way to make your website known is to submit it to as many relevant web directories as you can. Directory submission is the BEST way to gain targeted traffic to your site. - Celebrate each small success and keep in mind every small step in the right direction is bringing you closer and closer to your main target.

Choose wisely! And be patient, be persistent, be creative! Even if you only acquire one third of the links you pursue, your efforts will be well-rewarded.

Copyright © Anne-Marie Ronsen You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.

About the Author:

Anne-Marie RONSEN is the author of many wealth and self development books. Download FREE eBooks from http://www.e-bestsellers.com, http://www.plrbestsellers.com or http://www.UniversalPublishingltd.com... You will learn about the best tips and recommendations to improve your health, weight and wealth.

Pressure To Rank High In The Search Engines

The following article discusses other ways to increase your traffic without relying solely on search engines.

The ultimate goal for any webmaster is getting quality traffic to their website and therefore customers. In the past web masters felt they had one choice and one choice only but to get placed in the top 10 position in order to get traffic. Times have changed. They are now given more than one method to generate traffic to their web site. The pressure to rank high in the search engines is lessened.

With the great uprise of social bookmarking, blog and article directory sites, more and more webmasters are turning to these alternatives to get traffic. These sites have come as a relief to those who have struggled to gain a piece of the pie of the search engines without success. These social media sites without bias make it possible for any web master great or small to get traffic in as little as 24 hours unlike the search engines which can take months.

There are blog sites for just about any subject, and you can be assured that there are some that relate to your products and/or services. The true origin of the word "blog" found on the Book of Joe web site shows that Dr. Seuss actually created blogs. At first people thought the word "blog" came from the word "web-log". Some blog sites provide commentary or news on a particular subject while others function as a personal diary. Blog sites are great for generating traffic to your web site because you can express yourself in an interesting way that gets people to respond to your blog. You can simply sign up with a site such as Word Press and begin blogging away. You can even have your own blog site!

Article writing is a great marketing method. Depending on who you talk to you might just hear that it is the best marketing method to generate traffic to your web site. One thing for sure is that if you can provide people with some great information, sharing valuable tips that they can use right away, you will get your article read. Article writing plays a very active role in getting out there and finding people who are interested in what you are saying. Search Engine listings on the other hand wait for people to search your keywords in order to find you. It's role is a passive one. You can get your article out there for thousands of people to see for free!

Social Bookmarking is another great method for generating traffic to your web site. Millions of people are using social bookmarking sites to find information. They have become so popular they are even considered to be a new type of search engine. If you are new to bookmarking sites, they allow you to store your bookmarks online and use tags to organize and remember your bookmarks. Tags are keywords chosen by you to remember the subject, name, category, etc. of an article or web site. In order to get social bookmarking to work for you, create quality content, tag it, and get other people to see your content and tag it themselves. This can do wonders of getting traffic to your web site.

Knowing that there are other methods of generating traffic to your web site other than being place in the top 10 of the search engines, have significantly lessen the pressure to rank high in the search engines.

About the Author:

Rosemarie Bryan is an experienced web marketer who helps small online businesses get the best web marketing services at a fraction of the cost. Visit her web site at: http://www.websitemarketing.friendlyfirm.com