Retiring In Paradise

I have to admit that I’m starting to slow down a bit. I am definitely in my final career – and quite comfortable working a 40 hour schedule. I even take a day off here and there to golf/ bike/ ski, although I’m thinking of selling my windsurfing equipment .

For the past two years I have been looking for a spot in paradise to retire to in five years or so - and I think I found it!

I have been traveling all over the Western US looking for the perfect spot to retire. But my idea of retiring is not the same as my Dad’s - and then again, maybe it is. Let me explain.

My Dad had a pre-WWII high school education. He worked in government service for 30 years. He grumbled about his job the whole time – that is until the last few years. In his last assignment, he finally found a role that made him happy.

He was mentoring a group of programmers as they built a new system for the state of Pennsylvania. They were clueless about Health and Human Services. They really needed somebody that new how the system should work – he loved it. Then he hit mandatory retirement age and they kicked him out.

My Dad wasn’t a dummy. He knew that he had a good deal, but he really missed his job.

He never moved from Harrisburg, PA. For years, he made a monthly visit to his old department, to visit the folks he trained.

Now - I never did anything the same way as my Dad. I went to Carnegie Mellon. I spent some time as an over educated ski bum and I traveled a lot before I settled down. As a management consultant, I worked all over the world. I moved from company to company and even started a few, but I made a mountain top on the coast of California my home base.

But, guess what? My dad and I ended up in just about the same place after all.

I now own my own business and I work with a solid network of business professional. I spend most of my time mentoring and consulting with entrepreneurs and business owners. My role is remarkably similar to my Dads – but there is nobody that can kick me out.

I just returned from two weeks in Kauai. My bride and I had a great time in one of the loveliest places in the world. But toward the end, I was really ready to get back to my office. Unlike my Dad – I am looking forward to my working retirement in paradise – doing more of the same that is.

Own Affiliate Website

Here is a free 10 step program that will guide you through the steps to build and publish your own website.

Follow these easy 10 steps, and grab your part of the $54 million dollar internet boom. You can own an

incredible affiliate website of your own, and take advantage of the many outstanding money making

opportunities on the internet.

What is an Affiliate?

An affiliate promotes products and services on their website for a commission. They choose

merchants that fit within the context of their site's offerings. If you have a website devoted to

automobiles, for example, you would select merchants that sell automotive products. You can build

websites that specialize in anything you prefer, such as travel, shopping, automotive, sports, gifts,

food, gambling, casinos, and just about anything you are interested in.

Affiliates enter into an agreement to place links on their websites that lead to the merchant, for the

purpose of promoting goods and services. In return, affiliates can earn commissions on click-through

leads, or purchases made through their sites

10 Steps To Becoming A Successful Affiliate

Affiliate websites are both challenging, and profitable. If you are willing to devote some time and energy into creating, and promoting your own website, it can be very rewarding. It takes time, and a lot of hard work to develop a successful affiliate website, but the rewards are phenomenal. Thousands of Merchants have realized the tremendous value of having affiliates sell their products, and are actively seeking new ones. It does not cost anything to become an affiliate, but some merchant programs are better than others. Can you trust them to track your commissions correctly, and pay on time? Do they offer dynamic, current, and proven sales aids to help you make sales? If you are going through all the work to create a dynamic and appealing website, to attract customers and make sales, than you need to know that you can trust them to hold up their end of the bargain. This is after all, a partnership between you and the merchant, and you need to work well together. It's not enough however, just to sign up as an affiliate with a merchant. You need to build a website that will create sales, and know how to promote your website so customers will visit it. I have created a 10-step program for the novice that will take you from the beginning research phase, to optimizing your finished site for maximum exposure. I cannot guarantee you will be successful, only you can determine that. I can assure you however, that if you follow this 10 step program, you can build (without any previous experience), an affiliate website that will make you a lot of money

#1 Website Marketing

Before you do anything else, get yourself some good books on Web Site Marketing. There are a lot of good ones available on the Internet. Most are not very expensive, and many are free. You can find a list of free and inexpensive eBooks you can download (here). You can find more if you like, by searching on one of the search engines like Google, or Alta Vista. It's important that you do this first, because you will save yourself a lot of time and aggravation if you learn from the experts what you should be doing, before you build your website

#2 Build Your Website

It is best to build your own website. Most hosting sites have a built in website builder that you can use free. Read step #3 (Web Hosting Companies), to learn more about these options. If you prefer to purchase your own website building program, Dreamweaver and Front Page are probably the most popular programs available. They both offer free 30 day trials, and can be downloaded at Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Microsoft Front Page 2003. This Site Building Tools page, will help you find a variety of tools and software to help you build and customize your website. You will soon find out that building your own website can be interesting, exciting, and challenging. It really is not all that difficult, and if you apply yourself, before long you can become an accomplished Webmaster.There are many prebuilt sites available, but you are somewhat limited in what you can do with them. They are not very expensive, so if you tried one to get your feet wet, and practiced promoting it, the experience can't hurt you. The problem with most of the prebuilt sites is that, what is on them, is what you’re stuck with. A good website should always be improving. Click on Prebuilt Websites for a list of sites you can purchase

#3 Web Hosting Companies

Find a good web hosting company. There are an awful lot of web hosting companies competing for your business, and you should spend a little time researching some of them. Print a list of each sites feature, and compare them. Web site statistics are a must. It enables you to see where your traffic is coming from, and which ads are drawing in customers. Technical support that is open 24/7 is also very important. If you plan on using your hosting companies website builder, you will want to check it out to see if you feel comfortable with it.I use ixwebhosting.com, and have always been satisfied with them. Site Build 1.6 software, which is easy to use, and produces a very professional looking site, is included in their package. Click on (Web Hosting) for my list of recommended Web Hosting Companies

#4 Get Your Own Domain Name

You will need your own domain name. There are hundreds of companies that will help you select a domain name, and register it, for a nominal fee. Check with your web host first. Most offer to register your domain name for you with their package. You should always own your own domain name. Do not use a free domain name. Many sites such as Geocities, or Yahoo will offer you a free domain name, but it does not belong to you. It just doesn't make any sense to spend months or even years building name recognition for your site, only to lose the domain name if the company who owns it changes policy, or goes out of business. You can register a domain name for as little as $8.88 per year. Domain names need to be reregistered every year

#5 Content for your Website

Content is King. Remember this when building your site. People browse the net for information, and you must have good content to attract and keep the attention of people visiting your site. Fill your pages with interesting content about your websites subject. If your website is about shopping, than write about things that pertain to shopping. You can get free articles to paste on your site from a variety of places. Click on Content Sources, for a list of free articles that you can use on your site. You can also get much of the content you need from your merchants, or you can write your own. Use link text and articles to link to your merchants, as much as possible. Banner ads are very good, but you should try to limit the number on each page. A page full of mostly banners can be annoying, and will chase potential customers away.

#6 Sign Up For Affiliate Programs

Once you have your website built, its easy to get merchants that will pay you a commission on sales referred to them through your website. Affiliate programs are available from individual merchants, and from Affiliate Program Companies, that offer a variety of merchant affiliate programs on one site. They supply you with, banners, text, and advertising information that you can use on your site. Many of them offer tutorials, website building tips, and marketing advise to help make you successful. Just click on my Affiliate Programs, and select the merchants you would like to sign up with. They will guide you through the signup process

#7 Site Promotions

Promoting your site is the one of the most important parts of owning a website. A website without any visitors is useless. Once you've built and published your site, you need to promote it properly to attract a steady flow of traffic. There are a lot of Enzines (internet Magazines) and inexpensive or free classified Internet ads that work very well. Most Affiliate programs will offer advise on promoting your site, and they can be a great source for information and advise. Take all the advice you can get. The best I have found, and the one I use the most is Adland Pro, and I would check them out when your looking.

#8 Optimize and Submit Your Site

Next, but by far the most important, you need to optimize your website and submit it to the search engines. There are a lot of services available that you can purchase, that will optimize your site, and offer to get you rated on the search engines. Be careful when looking at one of these services, and remember, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. There are also software programs you can buy for a lot less money, and do it yourself. I definitely recommend buying your own software. It will cost you a lot less money in the long run, especially if you start building more websites, which most of us do.Click on (Website Optimizers) for the latest list of the best and easiest to use software available.

#9 Link to Other Sites

There are a lot of ways to get good ratings on search engines, and you should read everything you can find to get advise, but the most important thing to remember is you need to link to other websites. I can't stress this point enough. The search engine robots place a lot of importance on how many links you have coming into your website. You can make your own link directory, but it is difficult, and you’re a lot better off with a professionally made one. One of the best on the market is Zeus. It’s the one I use, so you can look at my link directory at http://www.budsbestbuys.com to check it out. You can get the basic one free, and it may be all you will need. I recommend you get the free one first. You can always upgrade later if you think you will need the extra features of the pro model.

ARELIS.COM

ARELIS is a top rated software program that helps you to build a powerful business network quickly and easily. Reciprocal links add value to your web site, and you'll get targeted traffic from clicks on your links at other web sites.

ZEUS.COM

Zeus creates traffic to your web site in numbers beyond your wildest dreams and will give you TOP positions in all the Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and AltaVista.

Paid Placement

Campaign strategy for Paid placement:

A Paid Marketing campaigns provides immediate search engines rankings for your most important keywords. It doesn’t determine weather it is a dynamic, static or flash based website. A paid PPC Marketing campaign should be well versed and knowledgeable based marketing that fits your requirements. Your PPC campaign should be unique and designed to your company’s marketing objectives.

Understanding the objective of your Pay per click campaign management should be your first goals. During that state you should determine which PPC search network is a best suit for your which return maximum cost-per-click for your selected key words and key phrases and aim at getting maximum return on investment (ROI)

Goals for PPC Marketing campaign Strategy:

1) Your first goal is to generate leads, increase sales and signup for your businesses.

2) What is the rate of clicks you receive per day per week and per month from what search network and also from which keyword phrases?

3) How does it cost for you per lead from the clicks?

4) What is your cost per acquisition per click?

5) How many order do you receive from your PPC Marketing campaign?

6) What is the conversion rate per click?

7) How good is your profit for PPC Bid campaign and how much is the margin

8) Who are your competing websites?

9) Cross check your campaign with other PPC campaign if you are running one.

The bottom-line is monitor your PPC campaign which is key for a successful pay per click search engine marketing.