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The Indispensable Shopping Cart

By on June 6, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

The Indispensable Shopping Cart

Shopping carts are a necessity for those Website owners who wish to sell physical or digital goods and also those who sell services. Customers have come to expect that a serious ecommerce site will have a shopping cart and will exit a site it if doesn’t. A shopping cart has become an indispensable part of doing business online.

A customer can place items into a virtual shopping cart and continue browsing the site to locate other items of interest. The customer can usually look at the top of the screen and see a running total of how many items they have placed in the cart and can usually also tell a running total of dollars spent so far. While navigating the online shopping cart a customer is able to add to the cart, delete items from the cart, change quantities of the items that are in the cart and make option choices such as color and size from the cart. Shopping carts will even do the math for the customer regarding totaling the retail amount of the order, adding any necessary tax and also adding the shipping fee to the order. Most shopping carts will even email the customer after they have made a purchase and thank them for shopping at the particular Website and will confirm the order that they just placed. The fact that a shopping carts software can be programmed to do this means that the customer will feel secure in the purchase.

Because most ecommerce sites have shopping carts, if your site lacks one you will look unprofessional to a customer visiting your site. The last thing you want to do is drive away potential customers because you did not think to provide a shopping cart.

A shopping cart can provide many benefits to the online store owner including providing data collection and market research based on customer usage, such as how many carts have been abandoned before the purchase was completed, and how much traffic went through the shopping cart. A secure, easy to use shopping cart can even foster repeat business when customers enjoy their shopping cart experience.

The benefits of a secure and multiple featured shopping cart can give your customers a shopping experience that will put them at ease dealing with you. When a customer feels comfortable dealing with you they will purchase more items, and also come back to purchase again from you. They will also spread the word about the good shopping experience they encountered with you and you will pick up more customers by word-of-mouth advertising.

A shopping cart is an indispensable tool to the Website owner who sells goods or services because of the professional look of the site, the shopping experience a customer will enjoy using the shopping cart and because of the invaluable data a shopping cart can provide the Website owner about the shopping habits of the customers who visit the site.

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How-to-become-a-webmaster-Part4

By on June 4, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

How to become a webmaster? (Part – 4)

This is the fourth part of the “how to become a webmaster” series. Okay, you have already learned what a webmaster forum is and who are the people who visit a webmaster forum. You have also learned about creating a user account in a webmaster forum. Now its time for you to familiarize the various features that are available in a webmaster forum.

There are different webmaster forums. In the same manner, there are different forum softwares as well. So, the features available in two different forums can be different. But it’s a fact that, most of the top webmaster forums like DP, NP, SP, Netbuilders etc are using the V-bulletin forum software. It’s one of the best forum software that has a lot of features in it. Okay, leave the v-bulletin thing. That’s not important for us. We are here to talk about the features in a webmaster forum. Our talks will be based on the v-bulletin forum software since most of the webmaster forums are using v-bulletin. Okay, so here we start.

After creating an account, the first thing you should be doing is to update your profile. Profile is something which others will view in order to know more about you. In the profile you can include your email address, your instant messenger ids, your website url etc. You can also mention about what you do, what are your hobbies, interests etc. For accessing the profile you should enter the user control panel. In most of the webmaster forums, it’ll be something like “user cp”. After clicking which you’ll be taken to the user control panel. Then on the left side, you’ll see an option to update your profile. You should be clicking there in order to update your profile as mentioned above.

From the user control panel you can change the password of your account as well. Once you get into the user control panel, you’ll learn everything. There is nothing much to worry, you’ll be given information regarding how to do these things ni the site itself. Just click on the various links and give whatever information you are planning to give about yourself.

Now that you have got an idea about user cp or user control panel in a webmaster forum, lets get into some more complicated things. In the next section we’ll be teaching you one of the easiest way to make money online without you even knowing about it. So stay tuned for part 5 of the “how to become a webmaster” series.

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How-to-become-a-webmaster-Part3

By on June 1, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

How to become a webmaster? (Part – 3)

After going through the last two parts of our “how to become a webmaster” series, you would have understood that its not money that’s important for becoming a webmaster, but its time and effort from your side. And a webmaster forum is the right platform for you to make a start.

Now that you have planned to spend a few hours daily at webmaster forums, lets look into things that you should be doing there. At first your ultimate aim should be to learn. You may find others talking about making money online. Don’t rush and get into those things before you learn the basics. There are a lot of things to learn and understand before you should even think about making money online.

We have been mentioning the word “forum” for some time now. Do you know what exactly is a forum? How is it different from a normal website? See, forums are websites where people can register an account and start discussions. While registering for an account, you’ll be asked to provide a username and password. The username can be anything easy to spell. And while choosing a password make sure that, you create a unique one. Don’t use the same password everywhere. If the password is a mix of alphabets and numbers, then it would be a stronger one than the usual one which people create using just alphabets.

After creating an account in the webmaster forum, you’ll have to use the username and password of your account to login there in the site. Always you should be logged in if you want to discuss something with the community. If you are accessing the site from your personal laptop, then you can make the browser to save the username and password for you. This way, every time you open the site, you’ll be automatically logged in without even typing the username or password.

That’s it for now. In the next part, we’ll be telling you about the user interface of a webmaster forum. After going through the next part, you’ll be in a position to send personal messages, emails to other members of the forum and the such. You’ll be learning about signatures, profiles and other such things as well. So stay tuned to know more – on how to become a webmaster.

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Communicate with Twitter

By on May 29, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Communicate with Twitter

Twitter is a unique kind of place, it’s another social networking location but still it’s a really excellent place to be. You can find all kinds of people on Twitter; pick a topic that you want to meet people who know that topic, like “basketball” or some other term. You can see the matches and click to see their Twitter page, click on the follow button under their picture, and you will than receive updates when they change their status.

It’s not full of tons of different types of themes or backgrounds you can use. However, you have some really cool looking themes that you can change the colors to your desire. Making you page perhaps very unique, or normal like others. Depending on what you want to do.

When you go on to find others, there is also a button that says “suggested matches”, check these out, you’ll be surprised who you may find there. Anywhere from Shaquille O’Neal, to Kevin Pollock, both the Kutchers, you know Ashton and Demi. And too many more to really name.

Looking through Twitter today, there was one post that had said the staff of Twitter had gotten to see the Phoenix Suns when they were in town, thanks to Shaq. How cool is that, really you know it happens once in a while, but it’s just neat to hear about what they are doing.

If you’re trying to get some interests going on products you have for sale. Put up your link and see if you get some more sales. Twitter is a place where you can meet people from all walks of life, and in all areas of the country. What a way to broaden your horizons.

For college students this can be a great way to get that extra information on a country they may have to do a report on. Go and look for people at that location. Get to know them and see if you can find out some information about their location, stuff that no one can find in a book. Not only will you have a unique report, you’ll impress your professor, and get a good grade.

Some people think they want to move out of a state to another state or country. Get on Twitter and find people from the area and ask about the weather, to what kind of places are in that place to have fun at. Or maybe you want to plan a special vacation, one that you can stay away from the tourist’s traps, and see things that most people don’t know about.

With a Twitter account that costs nothing to set up, you will open up new forms of communication with people who you might never meet, but could become best friends with online. Be sure that you check out the cool widgets, there is a listing of widgets that are available on the different types of operating systems. Check them out and add a widget or two.

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How-to-become-a-webmaster-Part2

By on May 29, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

How to become a webmaster? (Part – 2)

In the first part of our “how to become a webmaster” series, we’ve discussed about the first step that you should be taking in order to become a successful webmaster. It was about registering in webmaster forums, where you’ll be learning the basics. It is to be understood that, no one is born as an expert, people become experts after practicing what they have learned. But for practicing something, you should be first of all learning something. With nothing in your brain, you won’t get anywhere. So, as we have mentioned in the first part, the key to success is to learn the basics and then practice it. In this part we’ll be concentrating on this topic.

If you want to become a webmaster, then one of the best place where you’ll be getting the right coaching is from webmaster forums. You won’t have to spend any money for it. But you’ll have to spend something else. That’s nothing, but time. Only if you are having time to spend at webmaster forums, you’ll be learning something from there. You won’t be able to learn everything the very first day. You may have to spend days or even months. That will depend on the skills that you are with, at the moment. If you know something about webmasters and what they does, then things will be easy for you. On the other hand, if you know nothing, then it’ll take you some time to learn the basics. Again, nothing is impossible, if you are with the determination to learn it at any cost, then time is the only thing that should be with you. And you’ll learn everything in no time. No doubt about it.

So that’s it, there is no need to make any investment, there is no need to hire any personal coach to teach you things, there is no need to attend any classes neither. All you have to do is – make yourself prepared to spend some time everyday, for learning the basic things at webmaster forums. This way, in no time, you’ll be learning the basics of becoming a webmaster.

We’ll throw more light on this topic in the next part of our “how to become a webmaster” series. So, stay tuned.

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How-to-become-a-webmaster-Part1

By on May 26, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

How to become a webmaster? (Part – 1)

Before you move any further, you should be registering at some webmaster forums. I’d recommend you to register at the top 2-3 webmaster forums rather than registering at just one. But why to register at those sites? I know you’ll be asking that question.

Webmaster forums are sites where you’ll find experienced webmasters. What are they doing there? They’ll be either promoting their business, or simply helping others. By helping others, their reputation is gonna increase, and they will be also getting some other benefits. We’ll discuss those things some other day.

So webmaster forums are just for experienced webmasters? Nope, not like that. There you’ll see people like you as well. They’ll be either learning things from other webmasters or practicing what they have learned. You can start by clearing your doubts. You’ll get surprised when you see, even new members replying to your queries. That’s because they might have already got answers to such questions from experienced webmasters out there when they asked those kinda questions earlier, when they were new there.

Don’t feel shy to ask questions. The questions that you might be feeling to ask may sound simple even for you. But, if you are having doubts, then you should ask them and clear those doubts the same moment. Only then, you’ll be able to become a successful webmaster. One thing to note is that – don’t spam the forum with questions that are already asked by others. Before you ask questions, its recommended to search for answers using the search facility provided in the forum. And even after visiting the threads started by others, if you’re still having doubts, then go ahead and clear your doubts by starting a new thread. Again, make sure that you are starting threads at the right place. There will be different sections in the site for discussing different topics like programming, business, blogging, search engines, marketing, search engine optimization etc. There will be a general section as well, where you’ll be able to ask general questions that don’t fit under any other section.

That’s all for now. Check out the next part for more.

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Shutter Reloaded

By on May 25, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Extensions, or plugins, are used to give your site or blog more functions and extend its usefulness. They also make it more interesting and more convenient for you, the blogger, and may even draw more readers to your blog! This article will list a few basic WordPress plugins that will definitely improve your blogging experience.
Starting off the list is Shutter Reloaded, a plugin that makes your photo-viewing experience a better one. It uses the Lightbox effect, which is a script that enables images to overlay the existing page you’re on. It is very cool and definitely enhances your image-viewing experience. And because it doesn’t use an external JavaScript framework, it’s very light. That’s always a plus!
Another item on the list is the Google Custom Search plugin. The default search capability that comes with the WordPress page is limited to searches within your posts only. This powerful search capabilities can expand your search to the whole of your website and will be able to return more relevant results to your users.
Third on the list is a very interesting plugin called Akismet. What it does is that it blocks automated spam, which is the type that is sent by automated bots. Akismet eliminates spam by scrutinising the method of delivery, instead of the message itself. Installing this plugin will mean virtually no comment spam, as it is commonly delivered by bots. Automated bots, beware!
Another plugin that would up the convenience level of your WordPress is the Query Posts. It compiles a list of pages similar to the one you’re currently viewing, by way of a calculation of a page’s similarity in terms of title, content and tags. There are a lot of options that you can choose from for you to find related posts.
I’m sure your readers would like leave comments on your page, right? Well then you should install Subscribe to Comments. It enables your commenters to choose if they’d like to be notified of recent comments on your page. When this plugin is installed, a checkbox will appear for your commenters to tick whether or not they’d like to be informed via email of new comments.
Last but definitely not least is the WordPress Automatic Online Backup, an automated backup program that’ll save you the hassle of manually backing up all your databases. As you should already know, it’s crucial to have backups, especially for important data. WordPress Automatic Online Backup sends database backups to your free account at its website, but also does it on-demand. It will delete any old backup as soon as it receives a new one. You can also determine which backup version that you do not want to be deleted.
In conclusion, all the plugins listed are basically plug-and-play, so no hassle of long-winded installations; they are also compatible with WordPress 2.7; not to mention LEGAL and licensed under GNU GPL. They’ll make your WordPress experience a million times better!

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How you can Create a Blog Network on your Own

By on May 23, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

How you can Create a Blog Network on your Own

Blog networks have the potential of making thousands of dollars each month and although you use to not be able to run your own network, you now have the possibility to do so. All of the blog networks that have been around the past couple of years all had a large amount of employees to create content and build links. Now a single person has the chance to own and operate there own blog network without having to spend any money outsourcing work. Your blogs won’t be as good as the blog networks generating millions a year, but you could earn thousands a month with very little overhead.

In order to run your own blog network you’ll need to spend some money initially on your domains, hosting and tools. The investment to start a blog network is cheap for most, but if you’re just starting out in the online world then this might not be for you. I suggest that you’re familiar with blogging and everything else that goes along with running a blog. If you expect to run your own blog network then you’ll already need to possess certain internet marketing skills. If you feel you have the experience and time to run a blog network then continue reading through this article to see the initial investment you’ll need to spend.

The first two things you need are domains and a hosting plan. The good thing about blogs is that they don’t take much hosting space up on your hosting so you don’t need a large plan. You will need to have different C-Class IP’s though in order to keep out of the eyes of Google. I personally use the SEOHosting plan which gives me 5 C-Class IP’s for $35 per month. As I increase my network they also allow you to upgrade your hosting account without having to change anything which is a feature I liked.

Once you have your domains and hosting ready then you will need to invest in the tools to run your blog network. If you don’t plan on outsourcing then most of your blogs will most likely not be able to be unique content as it’s impossible for you to write for tons of blogs everyday. To avoid having to update each blog yourself you can use an RSS Scraper which will automatically post to your blogs from the feeds you’ve uploaded. For instance you can upload the Yahoo Sports RSS feed into your blog and then every time there is a new post on the Yahoo Sports section it will be posted on your blog. This way your blogs are constantly getting content. If you’re worried about the content not being unique then you should get BlogSlammer which makes the content unique. The content isn’t very easy to read though so you might not like the results. If you don’t like the rewritten content from BlogSlammer then you should get the WordPress Unique Content Plug-In. It adds HTML code to your posts that isn’t seen on the blog, but the search engines see it and it makes all the content unique. This way your readers can read real content and you’ll still be indexed at the same time.

Other tool you should consider getting to make your life a lot easier is the Social Bookmarking Demon software tool and also the Article Post Robot software tool. SBD allows you to quickly and effortlessly submit your content into many of the popular social bookmarking plug-ins. APR lets you submit articles to hundreds of directories and saves you a ton of time.

You don’t need these tools right away, but if you want the quickest results then you should spend the money to get the few tools listed above. As you begin to make money you should invest a certain percentage of this profits into more software to run your network. You always want to work smarter and not harder as a webmaster which is why you need the right software. So if you were considering starting your own blog network now you have the knowledge you need to get the project underway.

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