Online marketing Blog

HaHa! I’m working on it. I’m not completely done with lesson 2 yet… I have more fine tuning and I want to lace it with some more avenues and information. But it’s coming along!If you don’t know already I run WebofOpportunity.com. It’s my baby… the heart of the site is a very comprehensive eCourse that I’m currently redeveloping. Nothing fancy or hypy. Just solid information….

If you’re interested: Lesson 2 - Internet Marketing

Fun stuff! It’s so amazing what one learns from year to year. I wrote this course a long time ago (in internet years, lol) and it’s interesting to feel the surge of new ideas and the process of redoing it is revitalizing me even!

I really think over time this eCourse will help so many people. That’s my intention. Like I say in the lesson, I really could charge for it, but I really want to keep with my original intent. To have a place for ANYONE no matter their financial situation to have good guidance and direction online.

Well, I hope everyone’s having a Great, productive day.

Take care and keep at it!

-Matt Levenhagen

I’ve been meaning for some time to post about Podcasting and I actually was going to make an article page devoted to it… still will, but do to lack of time it may be sometime yet.At the same time I want to mention it because it is growing in popularity and it might be something for you to look into for you business…

Wikipedia’s Podcasting Explanation

Podcasting is a method of publishing files via the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new files automatically. It became popular in late 2004, intended largely for downloading audio files onto a portable MP3 player. However, listening to podcasts does not require a portable player and it is not traditional “broadcasting” to a mass audience at a fixed time.

Many online marketers (and probably some offline) are looking at this is an opportunity… an opportunity to provide another service to their clients or create a whole new service to attract and audience.

You are simply recording a broadcast that you can give people an opportunity to subscribe to via RSS.

You can create Podcasts that can be listened to by anyone at their convenience. They can listen to it on their desktop or on their iPod… Powerful stuff.

I’ve been watching this to see if it would take off for about 6 months now. About a month ago I noticed Rush Limbaugh (the popular radio host) was setting one up on his site… I thought… that could be the spark the ignites. Then I saw CNN with one!

A lot of internet marketers are talking about it and it’s potential.

For more information:

Podcast Directory
Podcasting News
Apple iPod Info
Free PodCast Receiver
Wired News Article

Those should get you started in understanding what it’s all about… it looks like it might be here to stay.

Check it out!

-Matt Levenhagen

WOW! I think I hit the jackpot!I actually was browsing for some information about .htaccess and found this great Guide:

Comprehensive Guide to .htaccess

But there was a link to this forum…

CodingForums.com- Web coding and development forums. Get help on JavaScript, PHP, CSS, XML, mySQL, ASP, and more!

Wow! I think there might be a new username showing up there in the future. They have included a lot of turorials within the forums and have a pretty decent size member base to draw from…

Cool stuff!

-Matt Levenhagen

This was sent to me from a fellow entrepreneur…A Band of Brothers - Ayn Rand Admirers at The Atlasphere

Just an exellent article about relationships between business people and the special bond we have and our special journey together…

-Matt Levenhagen

P.S. Thanks Ron

If you are looking for some unique scripts for you website, check out this gem:Dynamic Drive DHTML(dynamic html) & JavaScript code library

These are free original DHTML scripts and components to enhance your website… make ‘em go Wow!

-Matt Levenhagen

If you’ve been thinking about CSS or want to learn more OR haven’t a clue what it even is, here is a great article and list of resources to help you out:Click Here: The 10 Best Resources for CSS

CSS is a great way to code. It let’s you do some interesting things and also lightens the code on your webpages by enabling you to have an external file with a bulk of the code used on the page. You just have simple scripts to call the code and the rest of the room is for you text.

The Search Engine Bots have an easier time crawling your pages as well.

Worth checking out!

-Matt Levenhagen

This internet business. Did you know you can make money online? Legitimately. For real. No joke.I didn’t believe it myself a few years ago, but here I am. Making money…

Seriously though. There is so many things going on online it’s just remarkable. The environments we find ourselves in change so rapidly it’s a wonder how one can keep up… but keep up we must.

There are many things one can do to make GREAT money online… BUT you can have the greatest opportunity there is sitting in front of you, but the success we all have long term relies on two things: 1) Persistance 2) The ability to adapt.

That’s the environment we’re in. Do not expect what you are doing today will be valid and productive in 3 months. Don’t shy away from new ideas and tools that arise daily.

Always look for ways to enhance what you are already doing, but don’t give up… focus. Stick to your guns. Have the ability to change course, but don’t be so quick to change ships…

The people I see that struggle and fail online… it’s not that they haven’t found the ONE thing that’s going to make them money… it’s because they float from one thing to another. The never fully develop a product or effort. They don’t find their expertise.

There is an extrodinary amount of things one can do online… but it’s your approach that will pull you through. It’s the routines and rules one sets for themselves that will make it happen.

Do you have what it takes?

-Matt Levenhagen

You may be missing out on an incredible opportunity… an opportunity that is very, very overlooked by many, many people with online businesses.Are you acting alone?

Are you trying to do it all yourself?

“I know what you’re driving at Matt”, you say. “You want me to hire someone to do some of the work I’m doing. You want me to outsource… You want me to hire an outside marketing firm to handle promoting my business.”

“I can’t afford it!”, you say…. or whatever excuse you come up with…

Wrong, wrong and wrong. That’s not what I’m driving at.

And it doesn’t cost you anything.

Have you considered partnering up with another business? Have you considered doing a Joint Venture with another business or entrepreneur?

Take a hard look at what you are doing… now look around the interent. What businesses out there could benefit from a relationship with you? What businesses might be able to do something in trade with you?

There might be someone out there with an e-mail list… if you have one as well you could advertise in each others and expand your e-mail lists… grab each others subscribers!

You could write an article or report for someone that has a newsletter related to your website or business.

Believe me. The sky’s the limit.

You can also take on projects you never dreamed possible if you find an individual or a group of people that have the same goals you do. Like minded people that care about what you are doing… and have resources you don’t have access to. Knowledge that you can tap… or can they tap and use yours in trade?

How do you find them?

They are everywhere… forums are an exellent place to begin. Get involved and you might have people approach you naturally. I have…

Or if you find someone with a situation that suits you, send them a Private Message… If you have something that could help someone, help them.

Building relationships online can give you more opportunity and help you reach heights you never dreamed possible… And you can learn and grow in the process.

You could also simply just start searching through Search Engines or Directories to find sites that might benefit from a relationship with you. Just e-mail the webmaster and see what happens!

I know doing it alone is easy. Doing it alone keeps things in control… but sometimes if you give up a little control… sometimes if you open your eyes and look for a partner, BIG things can happen.

True story.

-Matt Levenhagen

Holy Crackers! I just discovered how you and I can create a Podcast easily using our WordPress Blogs! It’s a beautiful thing… if ya got a WordPress Blog. Check This Out! Podcasting with WordPress

I’m actually going to duplicate a post I had made at the Warriors. I had posted because I wasn’t sure that it could be this easy… my conclusion:

Yeah, it honestly does look that easy! I just listened to the audio tutorial he has and it goes into a little more detail. I like how he’s using the internet archive for his files to save on bandwidth…

And he recommends either creating a special category and give out that RSS feed OR setting up a stripped down version of WP to just handle your podcasts so you aren’t sending people who subscribe to your podcast your regular blog posts…

And basically you just reference the URI for your podcast in the body of your post… when you publish the post WP will loop through the body of the post and it will grab that URI and it will create an enclosure in your RSS feed referencing that URI.

Good job WP! Dang, I thought I was going to have to buy a ‘how to’ eBook or something to learn how to create a PodCast, LOL.

Now I just need to thing of something to talk about!

BTW, for more information about Podcasting:

PodCasting - Looks Like it’s Here to Stay!

-Matt Levenhagen

I’m reaching back into the vault and picking up where I left off… One of my first posts to this blog simply covered some basic roads one can take to Make Money Online…I’ve already covered Pure Interenet Marketing, now I’d like to touch on Tangible Products a bit.

2) Selling Tangible Products

You can sell anything online. There are auction websites like eBay that will give you a huge market to sell to. OR you can simply set up a stand alone website and market your products that way. eCommerce is BIG business.

I am willing to bet that most people that come online think they are going to find a way to sell some sort of tangible product. Something physical and solid… Something they might have to warehouse. I could be wrong, but that seems logical doesn’t it?

If you first jump online, you know nothing about what a digital product even is, much less affiliate marketing, adwords, adsense…

And honestly I also believe that many of us get sucked away from the thought of selling the tangible products for the allure of making big bucks with the digitals and other pure marketing methods.

BUT! There is GREAT opportunity to sell and make great money with physical products as well!

You can either create your own products and have a product warehoused, you can buy products in bulk to resell OR you can simply do something called drop shipping! Drop shipping allows you to sell products without having to warehouse them. The warehouse keeps the products and if someone buys from you they ship it for you and it looks like it’s coming directly from your warehouse! Pretty slick!

There are tons of ways to approach this type of business.

You can sell on eBay, Amazon.com, or many other sites devoted to products…. or you could simply build your own website and market it on it’s own…. or do a combination of both!

We are not dealing with many limitations online. We are only truley limited by our own imaginations.

A lesson in my free Online Opportunity eCourse really goes in to more detail and depth about this side of online business. I encourage you, if you are interested, to check it out. It’s a quick read:

Here: Lesson 3 - Selling Physical Products Online

The only drawback with physical/tangible products is the labor end of it. You do have more to manage than some of the other online businesses out there that go virtually on autopilot… but if you are not afraid of that, go for it! Someone’s gotta do it!

And I would never discourage you to go after something you’re passionate about.

I don’t care what your idea is and what you decide to do. If you think you have a good idea, and you’ve done the market research to determine there is demand, and you have room to make a profit, go for it! There’s nothing stopping you.

Some additional resources on this topic:

· Starting Your Internet Business Right

· What is Drop Shipping?

· Auction Genius Courses - Includes some free courses on how to sell on eBay!

· What Should I Sell Online?

That should be enough info to get you a feel for this opportunity.

You know the bottom line is this. You can find success online. The opportunity out there on the net is HUGE! But the only way you will find your success online is by doing one thing… Acting. Action is the only way it will happen for you.

Hope you found this post informative & helpful!

-Matt Levenhagen