Bill McRea

Part of the appeal of being an online solopreneur is the ability to move quickly, think on your feet and launch new business ideas on a short timeline because you are addicted to fast results.  There is nothing wrong with that, however, sometimes it makes sense to take a step back and take the time to do some planning for what lies ahead. Strategic planning is about taking a longer view of your business now, and how you would like for your business to scale up in the future. In this article we’ll take a broad look at the strategic planning process and some tools and resources that small business people can use to execute an effective strategic plan that will help them to achieve their goals.

What do I need a strategic plan for?

One of the most appealing things about starting an online business is that there is the potential to start with nothing but a laptop, an Internet connection and an idea and launch what could become a million dollar business. But, you’ve got to first have a plan for how you will move from zero dollars to positive cash flow. After you have completed your overall business plan, you will create a strategic plan that will mark out a path from where you are to your goal of a million dollar business.

How can a strategic plan help my business?

A strategic plan will help your business in the same way that a map helps you to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B.’ If you don’t know where you are going, any road essentially can get you there. If you do not want to waste a lot of time and money spinning your wheels doing fruitless activities on a daily basis, then you will see the logic behind developing a clear strategic plan for your business—even if your business is just you right now.

Can I develop my own strategic plan?

While it is suggested that you get a fresh set of eyes to review your plan and offer you some constructive criticism, you can come up with your strategic plan on your own. An outside, objective party will not share the same blind spots that you have and they will be able to help you to see things from another perspective, which can be a great resource for you.

Who can help me to create a strategic plan for my unique business?

A business coach would be a great person to consult about helping you to create a strategic plan, or they could simply create the plan for you with your input. There are business consultants that specialize in business planning and they might be a good resource to help you with your own strategic plan.

Regardless of whether you hire a professional or do it yourself, having a solid strategic plan in place can help you to feel more confident as you go about your work. It can help you to become more focused on the individual actions that you must take in order to achieve the goals you have set and to meet the milestones in your plan.

We have only touched on the basics  of strategic planning for small business in this short article. For more information to help you grow your online business, visit, http://www.mcreasite.com/blog today.

When you are running an online business, traffic is the life’s blood of your business. Most every website owner could use more, highly targeted traffic to their websites, but generating traffic takes a lot of time and effort. Well, Bill McIntosh, the developer of a traffic generating software tool called Contest Burner, faced that exact dilemma in his business. He wanted an easy way to generate traffic that was not going to require him to spend a ton of time or money. Sounds like a tall order, right? But he came up with an effective tool that accomplishes all of that and more.

Contest Burner is a software tool that helps website owners generate targeted traffic, backlinks and buzz for their websites by creating fun contests that visitors can participate in. People will sign up for the contest for the chance to win the cash and prizes at stake. Contest Burner makes it both fun and easy for your visitors to promote your links. Here’s how it all works.

Your visitors sign up to join your contest, and with a single click Contest Burner gains access to their Facebook, Twitter and the other social media accounts that their visitor chooses, and then it’s able to automatically post links for them. Each time they post your content to their profile, they earn a specific number of points.

As more visitors sign up and start sharing your content, your backlinks, your traffic and your email subscriber list begin to grow exponentially as will the buzz and exposure for you and your products. 

Every online business needs traffic, but that is only one of the benefits of holding a contest. Here are just a few ideas for how Contest Burner can boost your website:

• Grow a new blog’s readership
• Launch a book blog tour
• Create buzz for a political campaign
• Generate interest in a non-profit program
• Raise money and awareness for a charity
• Generate traffic and subscriptions for affiliate offers
• Increase foot traffic to a local business
• Generate buzz for a new product launch

These are a few ideas, but the possibilities are really only limited by your imagination. If all you do is generate more traffic and opt-in subscribers, you will be the real winner, but your contest participants will also have a ton of fun competing for cash and prizes and for the prestige of being the contest winner.

If you have ever wondered what is the easiest way to get your visitors to gladly spread the word about your website, products and services, hosting a contest is one of the most effective ways to do that. You will enjoy seeing all of the traffic and backlinks being generated, and your contest participants will enjoy the prizes they win with Contest Burner.

Are you ready to discover new ways to build your blog readership and attract new subscribers? Visit, http://mcreasite.com/ContestBurner, to find out how to generate traffic, backlinks and buzz for your blog with Contest Burner.

WordPress is the free, wildly popular blogging platform that millions of bloggers use to power their blogs. Many web hosts offer a quick install script for WordPress that will allow you to have a blog set up and ready to receive fresh content in about 10 minutes or less.

WordPress MU, with the MU standing for multi-user, used to be a separately developed solution for setting up a network of blogs which allowed blogs to have multiple users each with their own dashboard and theme. But since the launch of WordPress version 3.0, all of the functionality of WordPress MU that was once separate has now been folded into the basic WordPress software. So, now there really is no difference between WordPress and WordPress MU as they are now one and the same product.
For a classic example of WordPress MU, take a look at WordPress.com. It represents a sinlge install of the WordPress software that allows you to run hundreds or even thousands of separate blogs. WordPress MU is often used by newspapers, magazines and blog networks. It’s also a great solution for schools and universities as well as small or big companies that want to set up public or private blogging networks. The beauty of the system is that administrators can perform management tasks on a site-wide basis on a single login to the main dashboard.

Can you see now how amazing this is for marketers who previously had to install a new instance of WordPress for each separate blog? That meant logging in and logging out of each blog, doing the same maintenance tasks such as database backups and managing plug-ins over and over.  Imagine if you wanted to set up a network of niche blogs on various topics. Traditionally, you’d set up each blog, set up the adsense or whatever ad network you were using, create the content and then move on to the next one. It’s a labor-intensive process that is now obsolete thanks to Massive Passive Profits.

Massive Passive Profits is a mass deploy autoblogging system that allows users to automate the set up and content generation of wordpress multiuser sites. But isn’t autoblogging an easy way to get your site banned? Absolutely not. Autoblogging, if done correctly can automate the creation of niche blogs which aggregate content on a particular topic that people are searching for. When they land on your blog they will find the information that they were looking for, along with some ads selected to appeal to your niche target market.

Autoblogging takes the sweat out of setting up and maintaining a blog network and puts this lucrative, passive income opportunity within the reach of many more people. If you’ve been running a bunch of blogs the traditional way—that is painstakingly researching and writing the content yourself, or hiring a freelancer to do it, you know that this method is time consuming and expensive on the front end.

But with Massive Passive Profits you install WordPress just once, and then very quickly set up as many niche blogs in your network as you want.  You’ll set them and then forget them and let the autoblogging platform do its thing while you turn your attention to other profitable projects.

“The Traffic & Income Getting Black Box”

All hype, or true game changer?

TheAmazingWidget.com claims to offer a breakthrough new way to generate ‘semi autopilot’ traffic and commissions, with the launch of their new Software and accompanying Blueprint.

Further, they claim to offer a dead simple way for virtually anybody to begin placing their oddly named ‘Amazing Widgets’ in hundreds of free spots around the web, as a foolproof way to make money on autopilot once in place.

But does TheAmazingWidget.com (AWS) live up to these claims?

The answer will definitely surprise you, with an even bigger ‘viral shock’ awaiting as we dig deeper.

Once inside the member area, you’ll find that what AWS offers – both in software and high quality training – truly IS a refreshing change from all the rehashes and copycat products, systems, and formulas we’ve been pounded with lately…

And in fact, I’d venture to say you’ve never seen anything like it.  The owner claims that ‘widget marketing’ will soon become a household term among Internet marketers.

And I’m on fully on board with that prediction…

Just as article marketing virtually EXPLODED in the early 2000′s, ‘widget marketing’ is poised to replace the old standby ‘text article’ as the ultimate high tech traffic magnet for drawing people to your online offers.

It becomes a choice between writing and submitting an article, or, placing a widget online within seconds.

While you don’t have to know what a ‘widget’ is in order to succeed in a BIG way with the amazing widget system, it’s basically a self  contained little ‘program in a box’ that can be placed and shared on virtually any website, blog or social page (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)…

There are widgets that display the local weather in real
time.

There are widgets that enable you to play games directly from within the widget.

There are widgets that play radio stations.

And then, there are widgets that are designed to do nothing but make you money on autopilot once placed…

More specifically, AWS’s Amazing Widgets.

To the untrained eye, Amazing Widgets look like nothing more than an attractive display ad or banner ad.

It’s what lurks beneath the surface that seemingly has the whole web buzzing with excitement – and this was the biggest shock of all..

An entire database powered, VIRAL rotation and tracking system for every Amazing Widget generated…

—————————————————–
SIDEBAR: Yes I said “every” Amazing Widget, being that
you can choose from AWS’s *1 click* Standard Widget that’s
instantly ready to start placing online with a built in
Share Tool…

Or, quickly generate your own *Custom* Amazing Widgets
ready to promote any of over 10,000 ClickBank products
using their slick web based software… Fill out one
quick form, and you have a new custom widget ready to
place online.
—————————————————–

As I discovered in their video presentation and sales material, by referring others to TheAmazingWidget.com, member-affiliates share equal traffic and commission benefits produced by the Amazing Widgets THEIR referrals create and place online!

So let’s say I refer ‘Joe’ to AWS, and Joe starts generating and placing Amazing Widgets online like crazy using AWS’s free Share Tool.  My affiliate links literally rotate 50/50 within Joe’s widgets, meaning I stand to make half the resulting commissions on total autopilot (‘piggy back’ style as they refer to it) doing nothing more than having referred Joe initially.

Now, I could be a total deadbeat and still make money with this system off the work of Joe.  And what does he care? He has the same benefit from the people he refers.  But I’d be a fool to sit back and do nothing, knowing that the more Amazing Widgets I place online, the more my income potential shoots up.

And what’s really slick is that referrals can come easily through the Amazing Widgets I place (provided I choose to promote TheAmazingWidget.com itself within several of my widgets).  Or, through a special external link that AWS provides, called the ‘X-Factor’ link.

Each Amazing Widget promotes TWO products, one through a top (image) ad, and the other through a bottom (text) ad.  So its conceivable that you could promote AWS in every single widget you place, along with another product of your choice.

Perhaps the best aspect of all, is the fact that this system will probably never become saturated or outdated – the fate of most other online traffic and money making methods (and the precise reason why so many have failed
online)…

The simple reason for this is very simple, and that’s the fact that Amazing Widgets can be placed on virtually any of the billions of web pages, social pages and blogs online. There is simply no limit to all the traffic hot spots that you can place endless Amazing Widgets on.

Even at its basic core, the Amazing Widget System is a system that can’t “not” work, precisely as they claim, for the simple fact that people can’t NOT see the widgets you place online.  People WILL click on them if they are
interested in what’s being offered.  And they WILL order if they feel the product being offered will benefit them.

In this way it’s a system that is no different than display ads in newspapers and magazines that companies run time and time again (and have been doing so for a hundred years) for the simple fact that they work. People see the ads.  If they like what they see, they take action to learn more and go on to make a purchase.

It’s marketing in its purest and most effective form.

Bottom line, AWS’s traffic and income getting Software and Blueprint is a major game changer.  Not only will lives be transformed through this opportunity…

The Internet marketing community as a whole will never be the same again.

I’d strongly urge you to get on board and make this an integral part of your online marketing plan immediately. AWS’s software and system works easily in any niche, so there’s virtually no reason this can’t work for you.

Make way for the onslaught of the ‘Widgeteers’.

For More information click here

affiliate Marketing in a Nutshell

What exactly is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is the single fastest growth industry on the Internet. It’s also true that affiliate marketing is one of the fastest and most creative ways to make money and have a career on the Internet.

Simply put, affiliate marketing is selling products on a commission basis. You own a business that advertises and sells products for other companies. You may have a product of your own to begin with or not. The things that a successful affiliate marketer must have are:

Your website is the jumping off point of all your marketing efforts. So the first step in any successful affiliate marketing business is building a good, credible and professional looking website. You must build a user-friendly website, which will attract your prospects and motivate them to click on the links to the products and services you are promoting and make a purchase. There are companies whose business is building websites that you can hire to build one for you.

You must find products to sell, you must be able to determine whether there is a demand for those products and if people will actually buy them.  You may either have your own original product or products that are made by others. Which ever way you go, you must believe in the products.

It will be necessary for you to become an adept advertiser and be able to tell whether the advertising you are paying for is producing more income for you than the advertising is costing you.

It is necessary that you have good mathematical skills. You will need to be able to track your sales and determine profit, as well as, see to it that your suppliers are paid in full and on time.

You need the full and unwavering support of your family so that you can devote the time and energy necessary to launch your affiliate marketing business.