When a marketer has found a niche they want to market to they are ready to begin the keyword research phase. And the wise marketer will do their research before starting a website or writing a single word.

Your keywords are that important, if you wish to get any free traffic from the major search engines which takes ranking or you’ll never be found in any search results.

Many marketers started their keyword research manually but found it to be quite time consuming. Many of these marketers, myself included, eventually purchased the proper tool for the job of keyword research.

My first keyword tool purchase was Keyword Elite by Brad Callen. It has been saving me time and helping me earn money online with my keywords ever since.

Manual Keyword Research Is Frustrating

Back when I was doing all my keyword research manually I spent most of my days frustrated because it took so long and I would end up confused before ever getting close to completing the research phase.

Never completing my keyword research led to many sites that just didn’t get any ranking so again I would end up frustrated.

Let me take a minute to show you how I would do my keyword research once I found a niche I liked and of course before I purchased Keyword Elite.

1. I used Google’s Free Keyword Tool to locate as many keywords as possible.
2. I would check each phrase for competition as well as to see if the phrase had any Adwords ads showing on the right of Google’s search results pages.
3. Once I found potential keywords I would look at the top ten sites that Google listed for that phrase.
4. Then it would be on to the next keyword phrase.

Checking The Top Ten Sites Took Time

I would start out enthusiastic but after the first couple of sites it was hard to keep my focus. Here is what I would be checking for.

1. How many competing pages for the phrase.
2. Do they use the keyword phrase in the page title.
3. Does the page have a PageRank.
4. What is the keyword density.
5. Do images include an ALT tag.
6. Are links using keywords as link text.
7. Does the page have Heading One header as well as heading 2 or 3.
8. Are the keywords bold, italics or both.

I performed these checks on each of the top ten sites for each of the keywords I was interested in. Oh so very time consuming. It tires me out just remembering the days before Keyword Elite by Brad Callen.

My thanks goes out to Brad Callen for making my life so much easier today due to KE. Now I do keyword research and actually enjoy it, likely because it’s done in a fraction of the time it used to take me.

At a glance I can see which niche keywords I can rank for, now that I use Keyword Elite but it wasn’t like that before. Now I can see exactly what I need to do in order to compete with those top ten competing sites.

Keyword Elite 2 by Brad Callen is the only keyword tool I use today and that’s because it does the job in record time.

Time For Puppies First Grooming

Do you love dogs? Are you aware that dog grooming is a work at home business that’s really taking off. I guess we have a lot of dogs in our cities and towns. Here in Moncton I think we have at least one dog for every couple of families, while many have more than just one dog.

There are plenty of moms who would love the opportunity to be work from home moms so they could take care of their own kids instead of using day cares. I know my wife would have loved to work from home when Steve was little.

But before you just jump right into starting a dog grooming business from home you might want to know a few things.

• First the size of your home will matter, especially if you will have more than one dog waiting to be groomed.
• If you are in a neighbourhood like ours where too much noise is not acceptable you will need to keep the noise level down, so you may have to include some soundproofing.
• You will need a good air conditioner for those hot summer months and of course if you live where the temperature drops in winter you will want a strong but safe heater.

Be Equipped With The Right Tools

Dog grooming does require some specific but basic tools and equipment before you’re ready to start your work from home business.

A few things you will need to be ready:

• A separate room to groom in
• A grooming table
• A tub with a ramp
• Grooming shears
• Grooming scissors
• Clippers
• Hair accessories
• Cages to hold waiting dogs

Start up costs will run you a few hundred dollars. You may also want to do a little decorating to make your K-9 clients happy.

I have a couple of female friends that groom dogs for friends but the funny thing is neither of them own a dog. They really know how to make a dog feel relaxed. If you don’t have this natural ability you need to learn a few things about handling a dog during grooming for your safety and that of the dog.

An excellent way to learn things is hands on by volunteering at a grooming shop near you.

Promoting Your Dog Grooming Business

Word of Mouth Advertising

I worked as a computer instructor for 20 years and never once advertised, other than by word of mouth advertising which is very powerful. You make someone very happy and charge a reasonable prices and they will tell people, especially their friends and family.

Word of mouth is so powerful it can also cause problems if you don’t do a good job. The reason for this is due to the fact people tend to tell more people when they’ve had a bad experience compared to how many they tell when they get the experience they expect.

Internet Marketing

Most businesses, whether it’s a work from home business or not should have a web presence. Let people know what you do and where you are. Be sure to include testimonials as they go a long way toward drawing more business.

I have people contacting me on a daily basis looking for links from my sites to their sites in order to gain more traffic.

You could hire someone like me to build your website or you could start a Dog Grooming blog. But my suggestion would be to have both. A static page that tells people what you do and shows some images of before and after. But it’s also good to have a blog to share daily experiences and maybe stories from happy customers.

Have a presence at the local Farmer’s market, if you have one. I have friends that have work from home businesses who actually hire people to sit at a booth in the farmer’s market because it works to get more business.

Dog Grooming in Moncton, New Brunswick:

Best Friend Pet Spa
Melanie Levesque
44 Kelly Rd. (off McLaughlin Dr.)
Moncton, NB

Elite Dog Grooming
Charlotte Cormier
45 Colonial Drive
Moncton, NB

Dog Grooming Academy

Pretty Pooch Dog Grooming
Tammy Smith
316 Worthington Street
Moncton, NB

We have more articles about dogs, well puppies really. It’s all about puppy potty and house training.

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Marketing your company, whether it’s a brick and mortar business on Main street or a work from home business at your kitchen table, will help you stand apart from all the other work-at-home professionals offering your services.

The better you market yourself and your business, the better you will attract targeted prospects and clientele, and in turn increase your profits.

12 Ways to Effectively Market Your Services

1. Set up a Professional Website

You must have an attractive, professional site that showcases your skills, talents, and service offerings. Use it to market yourself through search engines, discussion boards, reciprocal link exchanges, and other online activities. Include your contact information, your biography and credentials, and testimonials to make it easy for potential clients to reach you and see you as credible.

2. Set up an Online Portfolio

Create and maintain an online portfolio filled with examples of your work to show your clients proof of what you can do.

3. Create a Brochure

Use a brochure to project a professional image for yourself while explaining the services you provide in a printed format – many people still like hard copies of information. Make it easy to read and not too wordy, including answers to questions someone might have about your type of business. As with your website, include your contact information, target client, a list and description of your services, testimonials, your biography and credentials, and contact information.

4. Network with Local Businesses

Meeting with fellow businesspeople at local business networking events can help you improve your reputation as a serious businessperson, and can help you generate contracts for yourself from companies that are not necessarily looking for staff or new projects.

5. Network through Social Networks

Market yourself on social networking sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to increase exposure and awareness for your company and build valuable business and customer relationships. You’ll need to stay actively involved once you start, so join only a few groups specific to your industry and commit to participating in them regularly. Make sure to include a signature in your profiles that includes your website and contact details so your fellow members can find you online.

6. Research Your Prospective Clients

Learn as much as you can about a potential company before you make your first contact. It will help you find out if the client is a good fit for your services, and can help you make a sale later on.

7. Call Potential Clients

Market yourself by calling potential clients and making appointments to show them your service offerings.

8. Advertise in Local and Community Publications

Running your ad constantly in local publications will give you an image of reliability by making you consistently visible in your community, which will increase your chances of being hired when people are looking for services in your field.

9. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing can increase your sales, reach, awareness, branding, and return on investment by increasing the number of avenues advertising your product or services and allowing you to pay on a per-performance basis.

10. Use Blogging, Forums, Chat Rooms, and Social Media Marketing

Providing social media options on your website is a great way to build strong relationships and brand loyalty with your customers, as well as get feedback from them on suggestions you make or products you are promoting. They can help gain trust and encourage purchases when your audience finds them useful and informative. Use them to showcase your talent and expertise within your business.

11. Audio, Video, and Podcast Marketing

Use audio and video to increase your reach and visibility, provide valuable and beneficial added content, and communicate with your prospects more personally and regularly. Some people prefer to receive information in these formats, so these will strengthen your relationship with buyers and help build a community in your customers. You can also use podcasts to set yourself apart from your competition by distributing industry news and trends through them and in turn be seen as an expert in your industry.

12. Sweepstakes, Contests, and Giveaways

Generate buzz about your business by holding a contest and offering a giveaway. You can do it alone or with a partnering business. Just be sure to create a press release announcing the contest, and one to announce the winner.

You can make your business a winning one by putting these effective marketing tactics into practice. What are you waiting for?

For realistic information about – please read this site. The time has come when concise information is really within your reach, use this opportunity.

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The idea of having an online business one can work from their home is quite appealing to most Internet savvy people these days.

The door’s been opened to a great opportunity, especially for the work from home mom or dad who are already home with kids.

Work at home ideas abound so pretty much anyone willing to work can make money online, right from home, as long as they pick a niche people are spending money in.

The thing about work at home businesses is that they are not as easy to get started and earning money as many online marketers claim. Many of those making these claims don’t even make any money. They expect other newbies to click their links so they will make money.

Don’t go into a work from home business is you are not willing to do some research and work to make it work. Don’t be fooled by those making the claim it’s easy. It’s only easy when you do everything right and that does take some study time.

This leads newbie work from home marketers into starting without the required preparation and for this reason things don’t go as expected. At this point they either give up believing working from home to make money online is just a big scam or they realize, as I did, that they need to invest some time learning how to work from home and actually make money.

Where To Begin A Work From Home Business

1. A Quiet Place To Work

Making money online requires research and work. I don’t know about you but I am easily distracted and need a place to work where I won’t be disturbed.

I started my work from home business from our kitchen table and it took me twice as long to get anything accomplished.

Shortly after I started working online from home we rented a bigger apartment. One with an extra bedroom. I used that as my office and could close the door to cut down on any noises.

2. Get A Do Not Disturb Sign

Even though I was able to have my own office at home it didn’t stop the interruptions and a number of times I lost my temper a bit. That would usually work for a day or two.

The next time I was out of the house I stopped and bought a sign saying “Do Not Disturb, Genius At Work”. Just having that little sign on the door made a huge difference and I finally had a place that was quiet I could work and concentrate.

3. Schedule Your Work From Home Hours

I work from home full time and have the week ends to myself and family but during the week I like to get up early, with the birds, and get my online tasks completed before noon. Then the rest of the day is mine to do with as I please.

When I was working outside the home and didn’t get home until after 5 I worked on my online business at home late into the night. Working those late hours it was no wonder I made so many mistakes I would later have to back track to find and correct. Not efficient to work when you should be sleeping.

My suggestion is that anyone starting a work from home business should have a scheduled time to work their business. A routine tends to be easier to follow when it becomes a habit and changing the hours you work your business keeps that from happening and one tends to be less efficient.

4. Keep Your Work At Home Business Organized

This point is vital to one’s sanity. Well I feel like that when I allow things to become cluttered too much or I don’t keep track of everything I am doing.

This becomes really important the longer you’ve been working online because you may find you are duplicating things.

Once you have done the niche and keyword research you may have hundreds of keywords and phrases to write about but if you don’t learn how to use that research you’re going to be going in circles.

5. Take It One Step At A Time

My biggest problem and one I had a hard time getting under control was taking on too much at one time. My thinking was that I would make more money but in reality I was just spinning my wheels and making myself confused.

It actually slowed me down so much I think I started going backwards. Well it started feeling that way as I had to work harder and longer just to keep up. So my most valuable advice to those starting out with online marketing would be to take it slow and steady, one step at a time and you will succeed much sooner, with less backtracking and frustration.

In Conclusion, these points may seem pretty basic and that’s because they are basic. If you miss the basics you’ll be struggling until you get it all straight in your head.

Now you might be thinking my big dreams of Melaleuca are about it being a work from home business I could make big money with but you’d be wrong.

I’m all for making money and is why I have my work from home business but that’s not my goal. For me it’s personal and about my health. I would like to live longer and be healthier so I can enjoy being around longer.

Friday 13th, February 2004

Just after supper on Friday 13th I headed to my office to do a little more work before calling it a day, as usual but shortly after sitting down one of my teeth started hurting.

I thought it was time for a trip to the dentist but after a while the pain started moving towards my back and down my spine. Quite uncomfortable.

Eventually it got bad enough we took a trip to the hospital. Good thing because what started as a pain in my tooth was actually me having my first heart attack.

That’s when my happy go lucky life took a sharp turn for the worse. I was immediately as weak as a new born baby. To make it even worse they would no longer allow me to drive my car.

That was back in 2004 and things haven’t gotten a whole lot better since.

Energy Reserves At A Minimum

Some of the things that have happened since having my heart attack are:

1. I am tired all day long.
2. I don’t sleep well at all.
3. My energy level is always low and disappears quickly.
4. The medication I take has somehow activated my diabetes gene meaning I now have to take even more medication.
5. The meds dry my skin and now I have eczema.
6. I also get hives that make me want to scratch my skin off.

There are more things but I am sure you get the point. I am tired of being tired, no energy and itchy.

Will Melaleuca Save The Day?

I am an online marketer and I work from home, good thing cause I probably won’t be able to hold down a job. Anyways I was chatting with another online marketer, Keith, and eager to look at one of his offerings.

Shortly after I signed up to his website Keith called me about his online business. I really only wanted to work through the email as I really detest talking on the phone, so I almost said I wasn’t interested.

So glad I didn’t, I think.

We chatted for a few minutes making me want to hang up even more but at one point I mentioned my health issues and the conversation changed from his business to Melaleuca as he had some problems himself, well did have some problems.

Before the conversation was over more than an hour had passed and I actually wasn’t angry, like I usually get when on the phone more than 5 minutes.

I made the decision to join Melaleuca and see if I could gain some health back and get rid of a few other problems like my eczema and lack of energy.

It will be a few days before I get any products but in the meantime I am starting a new website specifically about my progress with Melaleuca at AliveOnceAgain.com

One thing is certain. If Melaleuca does for me what it has for others I will definitely being promoting. After all the reason I joined is because of personal testimonials from Keith, about himself as well as his family.