Carpet Cleaners Can Help You Sell Your Home
Aesthetics is the most important thing when a potential buyer is looking at your home to purchase and the cost of carpet is a major exspense to replace and can cause that potential buyer to walk away from your home.
The condition of your carpet tells the potential buyer how the house was treated and will weigh heavy on their minds as they decide if they are still interested in your house.
Pet odors can cause someone to plain out walk out and lose interest instantly, carpets can keep pet odors and other foul odors such a cigarette smoke and cooking odors.
A carpet cleaning company can help to get rid of these odors and should be completed prior to putting your home on the real estate market.
A quality carpet cleaner can also make your carpet look and feel years younger depending on its current condition which will also help sell the home by lifting the nap of the carpet and giving it a fresh look and feel.
Professional carpet cleaning can also revitalize the look of high traffic areas on your carpet.
Floors, cabinets , bath and kitchen are some of the most looked at factors when a potential buyer looks at a new home. Flooring is the most visible and massive of these and proper care and attention should be used to make sure that they are up to par before you let buyers see your home.
With the potential to have to spend an additional 10 to 20 thousand on carpet replacement your actions before they show up could mean the difference between making the sale at all, or getting the price you wanted for your home.
Most carpet cleaning companies also do upholstery cleaning and I would recommend that you use this service also so that the upholstery does not have any odors and also has a well kept look and feel.
A word of caution, be sure that if you allow steam cleaning of your carpet that they do a good job extraction the water after the job is completed. Your carpet should be dry in less than 8 hours at the longest. Leaving too much moisture in your carpet can cause mold and other health and odor problems. Most companies have advance extraction equipment and this will not be a problem as most carpet cleaning companies also do water damage restoration and are well aware of the problems with leaving carpet and fabrics wet or damp
The price is small compared to what you stand to lose by not taking the steps you need to to make sure that you do not have to tell the story about the one that got away. Use some common sense and spend a little now to save loads later.
Jim Corkern is a writer and respected contributor to the New York Carpet Cleaning Industry visit his sites for more information
http://www.rugmasterclean.com and http://www.sherrmikeusa.com/
In A Career Bind? Rethink Your Future With A Powerful New Approach!
Sometimes we get in a career bind when sobering needs for independence, financial security and family limit our horizon and force us to make choices which inevitably narrow our sights. We start to think vertically.
Most of the time we think of our career VERTICALLY. We perceive our job search as moving up (or down) the same ladder. But this can put us in a serious career bind.
For example, Hal graduated from college with a Liberal Arts degree. His sense of independence and the need to make money required him to find a job. His choice of job was further limited by other important priorities — getting married and raising a family.
Hal went to work for a local steel fabrication firm. His job skills became identified exclusively with the steel industry, its procedures, requirement and contacts. This identification, of course, ran deep in Hal’s own mind. Consequently, he unwittingly excluded all other job opportunities. He saw no need for career diversification. He became a specialist.
It all worked well together for Hal. He was a hard worker who gradually moved up the line and eventually found himself a well-paid senior manager.
Until the steel industry collapsed. Hal was suddenly left without long-term resources and the desperate need to find another job.
Now, Hal eventually found another job. But it was for a lot less money. He was forced to look in an industry where he had little knowledge and no experience. It didn’t have to be that way.
If Hal had invested in exploring career diversity early on . . . if he had started out by thinking horizontally . . . he would be prepared for the 21st Century job marketplace where he could be ready to put his talents to work in a variety of job opportunities.
Thinking horizontally means learning how to become a career generalist. It means thinking of ourselves as multi-careered. The 21st Century is changing how we must look at ourselves. If we can’t adapt we’re putting ourselves into a career bind. where we’re destined to settle for jobs that offer no future career or financial growth.
You see, the job search needs and expectations of both employers and employees are changing. It’s time to think HORIZONTALLY! It’s time to diversify our outlook and re-arrange our career profile to match the needs of the current job market.
The talents and skills we’ve grown up with aren’t the product of vertical thinking. They reflect, instead, ideas, preferences and pleasures we have derived from a vast horizon of family, educational and personal experiences.
This is where we can look to broaden our understanding of the diversity of our talents and experiences. It’s the way out of a limiting career bind. It’s time for you to open the door a future where you can realistically look for jobs that take you well beyond the limitations of a vertical job search.
Paul Bowley manages EEI, the world-class pioneer in alternative job search techniques and innovative e-business strategies . . . since 1985. Check out THE WORLD’S FASTEST JOB SEARCH PLAN! And grab our stunning FREE REPORT! http://www.fastest-job-search.com
Surefire Email Marketing Strategy
If you’ve been selling real estate for a while you know that the secret to success is generating leads, and lots of them. Equally important is the ability to replenish them.
Why not simply advertise for them?
For one thing many agents assume that they must have listings to advertise, but that’s the farthest thing from the truth. In fact, it’s as easy to generate prospects with the listings of other agents as it is your own.
Now, I assure you that I didn’t just suffer a bump on the head, but think about it for a second. Do you think agents in your office would be upset with you for advertising their listings? Probably not. In fact, they may be downright ecstatic about it, because they know that the more exposure their listings get the more successful they’ll be selling them.
And most importantly why would they be upset about you spending your money to make them money - you, too of course.
So, they probably won’t care one teeny tiny bit, but to be on the safe side you should ask before doing it.
Email Marketing for Leads
There are many aspects of email marketing that are appealing, including but not limited to it being a relatively inexpensive way to advertise. Also, you can have your marketing messages broadcast 24/7 - almost completely automated; and in some instances once you develop one campaign you can duplicate it for little to no additional expenses over and over again.
Some agents use special reports, while others use electronic newsletters as the foundation of their email marketing campaigns, but have gone low maintenance by using prewritten content. Many agents simply don’t have the time or interest to write their own materials, so they simply buy prewritten content and pick and choose what they want to send to their readers.
If you want some, too you can go to Google and type in “real estate agent marketing reports” or some variation of that.
Advertising and Email Marketing - A Dynamic Combo
The key element of email marketing is to have people request information in exchange for their email address and other contact information and get folk offering up their contact information.
For example, you could advertise the following. “3 Bedroom House - Best Value In West End Subdivision. Won’t Last Long. Email yourname (you) at your name email address for full details.”
Do you think people might email you for additional information. And of course you’re not limited to advertising in a newspaper. You could advertise on flyers and place them on windshields of automobiles parked at the malls and shopping centers in your area.
Another example of this email marketing strategy is to advertise to gather the names and email addresses of renters in your community who might be interested in buying their first home. You could have an ongoing ad that reads something like…”Own a home for the same as rent. Email your name at your name email address for a confidential consultation.”
Again, you should not limit your advertising to just newspapers. Alternatively, you can post flyers in laundromats and simply lying around where people gather; in business offices, stores, college campuses, movie theaters, etc.
Now the point in both of these examples is to build your mailing list, not to make sales. While that might not be exactly what you want to hear you should understand that not many folk are compulsive buyers when it comes to purchasing real estate. It’s much too big of an investment for that. Instead, they typically labor over the process for months, sometimes years.
So, it’s unrealistic to think that you can change that about them and have them buy a home from you just because you want them to…espcially if you just met them. Forget about it already.
However, it is reasonable to expect that if you cultivate a relationship with them that you can be the agent they work with when they are ready to buy That’s the power of advertising for email marketing leads.
So, once you have names and email addresses you are ready to take the next step, which is converting them into paying customers. In fact, you’ll be able to provide useful information and follow-up for as long as it takes - and much of it with a precision like efficiency.
Who knows, pretty soon you could be in the enviable position of having folk on your list buying and selling through you, one by one, and all because you recognized the basic principal of selling - which is building relationships.
Visit Lanard Perry at http://www.real-estate-marketing-talk.com for more business building tips, tools and strategies.
Clone Golf Clubs - Are They Worth It?
Let’s face it, golf can be a pretty costly hobby to get into. And whilst no-one wants to pay any more than they need to, golfers worldwide want to ensure that the tools they use are going to enable them to play to their full potential, thus maximizing their enjoyment of the game, not to mention success.
This is where clone golf clubs have found a significant part of the golf club market.
With the quality and performance meeting the exacting standards of their branded cousins these days, there is no reason to feel concerned that your value-conscious purchase will be anything like substandard. Value, in your golf club purchase, does not mean you have to compromise at all these days.
Certainly, clone golf clubs are now manufactured to the same high standards as the better known brands, with great care being taken from design, through materials sourcing to manufacture and delivery.
From a technological point of view, just as much energy is expended as you would expect for the more well known brands. Yet clone golf clubs are followers of design and not innovators as such. The leading brands set the standards and the clone brand manufacturers follow.
It’s important to recognize that your financial outlay, even though it might be lighter on your pocket, will be still buying an excellent product. It’s just that costs are typically between 50-75% lower than the corresponding brands. Since most manufacturers used shafts and grips from the same sources, it’s down to the club head where the differences are seen.
Remember too, that manufacturers of clone golf clubs have to be very careful to observe patent and copyright laws, so there will be differences.
Legitimate clone golf club manufacturers produce clubs which have similar design elements to branded clubs, but are considered “distinct and different” enough, without breaching relevant registered patents.
In fact, clone golf club manufacturers work closely with the leading brands to ensure that they fight off the worse threat to their industry, that of counterfeit goods, illegally branded and passed off as originals - an increasing problem in many industries.
So, why would you ever buy a well-known brand, if on value and performance terms clone golf clubs are as good as they seem? Here are a few reasons:-
1. You get leading-edge technology, design and materials innovation.
2. You might just feel that you need to have a set of well-known clubs in your bag for reason other than performance, such as status when golfing with your company president.
3. It might just be that some players get extra confidence by spending all that cash on a branded product, in the belief that they will play better using these clubs.
Unlikely, but true!
Enough reason for you? To pay double or more for a quality of club that is second to none and with a posh and well-known brand name? Maybe - it is, of course, up to you.
In truth, as long as you have a reasonable set of clubs, it’s much more likely to be the technique you use, rather than something that costs twice the price, that makes the difference. Clone golf clubs will, without question save you money, without any compromise on quality.
So, if you are considering your next set of clubs right now, but can’t really justify the most well known, then don’t feel that you will be less well served if your purchase is for a brand new set of clone golf clubs, rather than something with a name you might see more on your TV screen.
(c) 2007 “Choosing Great Golf Clubs”. You want some new clubs, yet you don’t know how to choose. Well, there’s all the information you need at Martin Haworth’s golf website, http://choosinggreatgolfclubs.com/clone-golf-clubs-improve-the-game.
Be In The Know With These Online Dating Jargon
Online dating has been growing in popularity as it provides a great venue for single people to search for other single individuals as well who are looking for potential partners. Being new on the online dating scene can keep you in the dark with certain terminologies that are being used. A few helpful online dating terms are mentioned here.
Online daters who chat or exchange emails use emoticons to express certain emotions. Smiles, happy faces, winks, and other emotions that you could practically think of are readily available to be used. In some cases, emoticons are not available for use on the site so chatters use colons and parenthesis to express the various emotions. Make sure you know which characters to use as well as understand the various emotions that people send you when you chat or engage in some emailing with them.
Instant messaging enables you to send messages on the spot to prospects that you maybe interested in. This feature also enables you to chat and engage in conversation as you test the waters before investing in any time or getting involved in deep emails.
Joining an online dating site will have you receiving many emails from prospects. Most online dating sites provide a blocking feature that will enable you to screen the emails that you will get. In case, you want to block certain prospects from contacting you, you can do it with this feature.
You can actually enter online dating chat rooms and read the messages posted without you posting any message at all. Basically you are just trying to get a feel of the atmosphere before engaging or including yourself in the conversation. This is actually termed lurking.
While many online dating sites just leave everything in your hands to search for your perfect match, there are some who offer matchmaking services. They basically match people based on their chosen preferences and on their profile.
Avoid sending the wrong message by writing letters in all caps. This is actually considered as shouting online.
Many online dating sites currently offer video profile features aside from the typical profile information that you could post. The great thing about video is the chance to bring words and pictures to life.
To establish a connection with prospects you basically send them personalized emails. However, many go fishing for potential mates by writing one standard email and sending them to many prospects.
Enjoy your journey in cyber space as you venture into finding that special someone.
James Brown writes about http://www.simplybestcoupons.com
10 Questions to Ask the Mortgage Loan Originator
You’ve decided to refinance or purchase that new home and now it’s time to call a bank or mortgage company to apply for a mortgage. How do you know you’ll be getting the mortgage that will be the right one for you? How do you know you’re dealing with a good honest person? Asking these 10 questions will separate the wheat from the chaff in a hurry!
Question 1. Will this mortgage have an application fee and if I don’t get the mortgage will it be returned to me?
Application fees are not as prevalent as they used to be. Most mortgage lenders will pre-qualify you before they take your application. So, there is really no need for an application fee. You can find a mortgage company who doesn’t charge this fee, so, if one company does, be sure there is a good reason for it.
Application fees sometimes include an appraisal fee. Find out about the appraisal fee, too. Your property, or potential property, will need an appraisal and somebody will have to pay for it.
Question 2. How many points will I be paying on this mortgage?
Make sure the loan originator is very upfront about this so that you can compare this mortgage with other offers. Points can be almost meaningless if you are getting a good interest rate and you will not be paying off the mortgage in full for many years.
If you will be paying off the mortgage in 2 years or less, try to get a zero point mortgage.
Question 3. Does this mortgage have a pre-payment penalty? If so, please explain all the details of it.
There are lenders, even big, big lenders who charge you extra money if you refinance with another mortgage company sooner than they would like you to. These lenders will waive this charge if you refinance with them. They call this practice “protecting their interest.” I call it having you over a barrel!
With all the laws that congress passes, I don’t know how this indecorous business practice goes on unabated. Imagine, you pay an upfront fee of, usually more than $5,000 in points, the larger part of your monthly payment is interest, and still they want more money from you if you decide you can get a better rate with another lender!
These lenders will want to saddle you with a pre-payment penalty if you sell your property or refinance within the first 5 years. Make sure you look around before agreeing to accept a pre-payment penalty for refinancing and never agree to a pre-payment penalty for selling your property.
Question 4. Will my mortgage rate ever change?
At this particular time in history, a fixed rate is the only way to go. A lot of lenders have programs where you will be easing in to your regular payment from an original lower payment.
If you are applying for such a mortgage, make sure you know every detail about this payment schedule. Don’t agree to a payment that you may not be able to make at some time in the future.
Question 5. Is there any negative amortization involved?
This question is similar to question 4, but if you do have changing payments, you should know if your principle would be getting larger at any time during the mortgage. A negative amortization will do this, and with one, if you want to sell your property within the first few years, you will owe more than your original mortgage amount. These types of situations are what foreclosures are made of!
Question 6. Other than points, what other closing costs can I expect?
Make sure you get an accurate idea of what your closing costs will be, and let the loan originator know you are counting on him or her to be accurate.
If you are buying a property, you will have your own attorney, anyway. Still, this question will help you get more details about the mortgage.
Question 7. When would a monthly payment be considered late, and what would the late charge be?
You don’t want to be filling out an application while giving the originator the idea you intend to make late payments. However, if a mistake does happen, you want to make sure you are not dealing with a lender who is ready to pounce on you with an excessive fee.
4% ought to be enough for a late charge. If you get an answer like 15%, you would be dealing with someone who is not willing to work with people.
Question 8. Do I get a discount for an automatic debit?
It’s worth a try! I actually have seen advertisements from lenders who imply that if you set up an automatic debit from your checking account for your monthly payment, they will give you a slightly lower rate.
Maybe this will be the kind of question where the originator’s answer will start, “well, since you asked…”
Question 9. Can I buy down the interest rate?
Buying down the interest rates means paying more points to get a lower rate. These points used to be called “discount points.”
While there aren’t too many of these buy down programs around anymore, this question is really just meant to start the originator thinking, “Wow, these people know more about mortgages than I do!”
Remember, the mortgage originators are salespeople. They won’t mess with you after you show them you know about buy downs.
Question 10. How much escrow is the lender keeping after paying my taxes and Home Owners Insurance?
The lender usually will charge you more than your normal monthly payment each month so they can pay your taxes and Home Owner’s Insurance.
Some mortgage companies misuse your mortgage account by keeping hundreds, maybe even thousands of your dollars in their escrow accounts after your taxes and insurance have been paid.
Make sure you find out how this lender treats their escrow accounts. They should have a program in place where they will send a check to you should your escrow account get above a certain amount and stay there for a certain period of time.
A lot of originators may not know the answers to all these questions. However, they certainly will know whether or not their previous customers have been happy with a particular lender. Furthermore, after you ask all these questions, they will know you’ve done your homework and they will realize they better level with you.
Ed Lathrop is a successful Real Estate investor. He has developed EzCalculator, a Mortgage Calculator that calculates anything to do with mortgages. EzCalculator includes the famous How to Make $100,000 on Your Mortgage calculator. Come visit this free site at http://ezcalculator.com
Excuse Me, Have We Met?
According to the Harvard Business Review (Feb, 2007), self-awareness has just been recognized as the most important capability for leaders to develop. I would add that this is a quality that is beneficial for anyone to develop. After all, we are all leaders somewhere in our lives aren’t we? Emotions can play an important role in our careers, education, at home, in our community, and in all our relationships.
Ever find that you get upset easily or fairly regularly? Maybe you feel overwhelmed most of the time, stressed out, or even tired?
Remember the old joke, “Doc, my arm hurts when I move it like this. What should I do?” To which the good doctor quickly responds, “Stop moving it like that.” If your life, career, relationships… (fill in the blank) are not going the way you’d like…maybe it’s time you took a hard look at “yourself”… more specifically, your lack of self-awareness.
What is Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is knowing one’s internal states, preferences, resources, and intuitions, allowing us to plan our actions and develop proactive behaviors. People with greater certainty about feelings are better pilots of their lives, having a surer sense of how they really feel about personal decisions from whom to marry to what job to take.
Why is it Important
This is where constructive or critical thinking happens. As you work to develop your self-awareness you increase your self-confidence. A good leader knows when you understand yourself you are more likely to understand others. Now that’s a skill that can come in handy. Any one striving to increase their skills needs a solid plan.
How Do I Make A Plan
The process is not a quick fix rather it is a life long commitment. Change happens over time. So be patient with yourself while you are learning. Self-awareness allows us to take responsibility for our outcomes, plan our actions, and develop proactive behaviors. Here are some suggestions to get you going in the right direction.
1. Assessment- Assessments can identify your strengths, challenges, and personal style. Also, they mark a baseline and measure growth.
2. Goal setting- Now that you understand your unique style you can create a plan that identifies specific skills that are congruent with your preferences and tendencies yet challenges you to develop new behaviors.
3. Accountability- We all need to be accountable. Recruit a friend, a mentor, or hire a coach. Who ever you decide to work with, collaborate on a plan that spells out exactly what you need from them.
4. Support/Feedback- Feedback is probably the most important dimension in your personal development plan. It is through feedback we can learn to “see ourselves as others see us.”
By developing your self-awareness you are increasing your emotional intelligence. The knowledge and skills that you develop to accurately identify and express your emotions are vital for human performance not to mention, physical health.
Copyright 2007 Michelle Simms, personal development coach, works with individuals and groups worldwide at http://www.SimmsInternational.com
It Is Great To Be A Dog Owner
Pet ownership is fast becoming more popular for many. The reasons are obvious. Pet lovers do benefit a great deal from having a furry friend around them.
Attention are must be taken to understand the responsibilities of pet ownership before we eventually commit to a pet for life. Thus, decisions on weather to have a dog, the choice of breed, the breed type temperament, health needs and training responsibilities must be well thought before we decide to own a dog.
Having a dog is a lifetime commitment. We benefit a great deal from having an animal around for emotional, physical and even spiritually. However, do not be in a haste to go get one when we feel the need to have a pet. Understand the commitment and responsibilities it requires before we decide.
As more and more pet owners are depending on their pets to fill their emotional need. No matter how smart and human like they are, we should not forget they are animals after all and ensure that we train our pets to live in human society so they can be pleasant to be with. Statistics shows that only about 5% of dog owners train their pets. With more people buying and adopting dogs, and so little training them to live with us human, no wonder the animal shelter centers are getting too crowded and many dogs are also left abandoned on the streets. Most eventually are caught and euthanized eventually due to lack of facilities, home and shelters to care for them.
Here is a list of questions we should ask ourselves honestly before getting a dog:
1) Are you committed to your pet for life no matter what is changed in your environment or if she is not living up to your expectation.
2) If financial condition is a challenging situation for you right now, think twice about having a pet as we need to have the financial means to support the daily expenses as well as unexpected medical costs of pet ownership.
3) If you need to travel frequently, it will be good if there is someone you know and trust that can care for your pet when you are away. It is best if such arrangement can be done quickly.
4) Training your pet is not an option but a necessity to ensure they are well socialized with human and dogs alike. Adequate training will make life with your pet an enjoyable and fulfilling one instead of a stressful one. Ensure you have enough resources and time to train your pet.
I cannot stress enough to all potential pet owners to seriously consider the responsibilities, resources and financial needs of a pet before bringing fido back home. Many dogs are abandoned or given up too quickly when challenges of pet ownership surfaces. Read about dog ownership, talk to dog owners, know the costs involved and responsibilities of pet ownership before you head off to adopt or purchase one.
Once you have decided on a pet, ADOPT one instead of buying one. It saves you costs and most of these pets in the shelters have been spayed or neutered so this will save you the post operative care needs and operation costs as well.
The next step is to read up as much about the breed of your choice and talk to dog breeders about them to understand more about responsibilities in taking care of the particular breed. Some long haired, shedding breeds will take more time to care and groom. Certain dog breeds needs more exercise then others. Only decide to have a pet when you fully understand the commitment behind having that bundle of joy.
Veronica Eng researched on dog care from various sources for many years and summarized many effective yet simple guides to dog lovers. Her techniques have made her dogs healthy, vibrant and gorgeous coat that many envy. Natural pet health is her passion! More tips at http://www.dogcarezone.com
Types Of Cord Blood Banks: Understand The Difference To Select The Right Bank
Are you planning for cord blood donation? Then, it is important that you know about the types of these banks.
Private Vs. Public Cord Blood Banks
Cord blood banks are mainly of two types, i.e. public banks and Private Banks. Normally, public banks are set up to facilitate umbilical stem cell research for disease treatment and for utilization in transplants of non-relatives. If you decide to save your baby’s cord blood at a public bank, they would not provide you the link between your baby and her blood unit. Therefore, in time of need, there is no guarantee that you will be able to access your babys blood unit. On the contrary, if you donate your baby’s cord blood to a private bank, no one else is authorized to access and use that particular unit without your permission.
Public banks have been further categorized according to profit and non-profit objectives.
The Non Profit Public Bank
An estimate says that about 75 per cent of these banks across the globe are either public or private non-profit ones, which work for public interest. They save samples for transplant or research, and for family use, if a family has a known risk with a rare HLA group.
Remember, if you donate this blood to a non-profit bank, then the bank, and NOT YOU, are the owner of it. These banks store the blood for free and add them in the donor registry, which is accessed by doctors and researchers.
For Profit Public Bank
These banks save your samples for free, but make profit by selling the cord blood units for research. The selling of freely stored blood is legal in US, but illegal in several Asian and European nations.
Private Cord Blood Bank
A private bank is an independent unit and not owned by the state. As mentioned earlier, only you are entitled to access and use your cord blood sample. Such banks charge around $500 to $2,000 to store the sample. The charges vary with different private banks. Besides this, there is a maintenance fee or handling fee, which comes to around $100 annually.
Research Public Banks (RPBs)
These are another kind of banks, which were set up in the early 2000. The cord blood samples stored in such banks are not used for transplants, but only for research. The banks take your samples for free and use them in their own research or sell them to other researchers.
So, now that you are aware of the types of these banks, you can go for donations depending on whether you want to donate the sample for family use or simply help in research. Remember, if you do not like the idea of someone else using your babys stem cells, forget using public banks.
There are two types of cord blood banks. Private banks and public banks. http://www.cordblood-banking.org offers details about the way public and private banks work and other aspects of stem cell and cord blood issues to help you make a smart choice.
The Free Article Directory - What is it?
The radical changes in the structure of the internet and its adoption by people of all ages throughout the world have lead to new business models being adopted. As a webmaster, it is now possible to provide quality free information to the public while still earning a healthy income for your hard work. The free article directory is a perfect example of a new type of revenue model that has been proliferating across the web.
While there are a few notable exceptions (such as non-profit Wikipedia.org), most content-driven websites are able to earn money by displaying advertisements on their pages. These types of advertising are either keyword-based text ads (such as Google’s Adsense program) or paid sponsorships. Keyword-based text ads allow targeted ads to be delivered to the visitor based on the content of the page. Paid sponsorships are where the webmaster receives a fee for linking to an external website. A free article directory provides a wealth of information at no charge to the visitor.
Of course, not all article directory webmasters are completely altruistic. If the directory is popular and publishes current, well written, informative articles, it can provide the webmaster with a handsome income solely from advertising. Now I have come across dozens of free article directories that exist solely to display ads. The pages on these sites are littered with advertisements, making the pages a complete eyesore. These directories typically don’t receive high traffic because visitors find it hard to actually read the articles.
The article directories that do last are the ones that have successfully integrated the ads into an efficient and eye-pleasing layout. These directories have loyal followers and typically rank better in the search engine ranking pages. It is this type of article directory that I wish to discuss - the visitor-oriented, free article directory.
You may be just a curious websurfer wondering what the purpose of an article directory is. As I have mentioned previously, it is a directory that provides content on a variety of topics of interest to the visitor. There are general directories with dozens or hundreds of different categories. There are also niche directories targeted at a certain small segment (such as health related article directories).
Authors write on a topic relating to the theme of their own website in order to establish themselves as experts in a given field and to obtain important links to their website from the article directory. The author generally submits his/her article manually to a few directories or uses an automated submission service to submit to hundreds of article directories. If the article is approved by the article directory, it provides a targeted low-cost form of advertising for the author.
For those who are looking for an inexpensive way to get your feet wet in web marketing, this could be an attractive option. I have built dozens of websites, and article directories are among the easiest to manage and promote. You can obtain quality directory software for free (ArticleMS and Article Dashboard are the two most popular). They have excellent content management systems and can host thousands of articles with no problem.
Once you have the backend in place, you can customize the free skins that are available. Then you need to promote, promote, promote. Trade links with other related websites and directories, and write a few articles yourself. Play with different advertising methods on your pages. Because these sites are dynamic, it is usually possible to cut and paste a single snippet of code in order to place an ad on every page of your site.
A free article directory proves that it is possible to provide a quality free service, and still be rewarded for your efforts. Hopefully we’ll see more and more online businesses turning to this type of revenue model.
The author is the developer and operator of Articopia.com - Article Directory. Submit your article to our free article directory at http://www.articopia.com
