By Miguel Alvarez

Writing all of the copy for your web site yourself can be tiring and time consuming, especially if you are not a professional freelance copywriter. It can also be daunting when you type freelance copywriter into your browser’s search engine and are presented with 44,800 possibilities.

The problem is that it is difficult to determine what sort of service lies behind those possibilities. Although the Internet has its share of excellent writers it also a lot of hacks, plagiarists and tardy writers listed who have paid big bucks to be listed in that search engine too.

Here are a few things that you should look for when looking for a freelance copywriter

A freelance copywriter who knows what Search Engine Optimization is. A freelance copywriter that charges an affordable hourly or fee for their services. If the fee is lower than $25 an hour it is practically understood that your project will be late simply because that is already less than one quarter of writer’s union fees. It also means that the writer will also have to be working on multiple projects in order to finance your project.

A freelance copywriter who can establish a firm date for when you will receive the deliverables. Another thing to keep in mind is that a freelance copywriting service is highly linked or highly rated in the search engine is not necessarily your best choice. Remember that search engine listings and indexing can be paid for.

You may not also not necessarily find the freelance copywriter of your dreams on the Internet. There are plenty of copywriters listed in the phone book and also within creative agencies that are capable of doing the job for you.

Probably the two main sites where freelancers conglomerate on the Internet are guru.com and elance.com. Both of these sites use the auction format. You post your project and name a budget and the writers that belong to these organizations bid on them. These are both reputable places to find writers willing to do your copywriting but keep in mind that both sites charge monthly enrollment fees as well as listing and transaction fees in order for you to do business.

When looking at writer’s profiles on either elance or guru, it is a good idea to take a good look at any samples that they might have posted. You can also tell a lot about a writer by the way their profile is written. If the description of their own services is riddled with grammar and spelling mistakes you can pretty much assume that the copywriting that they produce for you will also be plagued with similar problems.

As these are online market places, they have their share of nuts and wackos. It is well known that really good freelance writers can be a bit eccentric as many of them on the Internet work at home and don’t see a soul all day. Don’t expect a freelance copywriter to deal with you like one of your corporate chums would. Many of them are freelance because they can’t stand the corporate world and its jargon and protocol in the first place.

It is also important not to judge a writer too much on any negative feedback that may have been left for them for other clients. Both guru.com and elance.com slant their feedback systems so that a client can leave feedback even if there has been no contract has been signed or a single word has been written. Even an excellent writer’s rating can be adversely affected by feedback left by a client that has not assigned or paid a cent to the writer!

Another thing to consider is the number of clients that the freelance writer has had as opposed to the actual feedback. For instance if you notice that a writer has completed 90 successful transactions but only ten people have left both positive or negative feedback, then you can pretty much assume that they are good freelancers. This is because on both guru and elance less than 10% of individuals actually leave feedback for a writer.

Another indication that you are looking at the profile of an excellent copywriter is a high number of repeat customers. Both elance and guru allow you to see who has assigned articles to a copywriter and how many times. If the writer has lots of repeat business then that is more of an indication that they offer reliable and accurate copywriting services than a five star feed back rating.

Both elance.com and guru.com also tell you how much money the writer has made that year from selling their services. Chances are that the higher the figure is, the better the writer is.

Another way to find a freelance copywriting service on the web is to type the words “copywriting portfolio” into your search engine. This will lead you to thousands of sites displaying portfolios that feature different types of copywriting. However keep in mind that some of these sites will be off shoots of creative agencies or advertising agencies who will probably want to charge you an arm and a leg for a brochure and some of them may belong to writers who have launched their business on the web. They might betrying to offer customers an option that is a little more expensive than what is offered on elance or guru but not as expensive commissioning the work from an agency.

As is true with all business-to-business enterprises on the web, the type of writer you should avoid is the one that cannot maintain a web site. If the writer’s site has broken links, bad grammar or other problems you might encounter that old adage “You get what you pay for!” if they offer to do your copywriting for next to free!

This article is shareware. You can copy it and post it on your website or blog as long as you keep this resource box and the by-line intact. Discover how to write million dollar advertising and sales letters by teaming up with the world’s top copywriters… Start right now at: http://www.milliondollarads.com/

By Nicole Dean

“I started my business so that I’d have freedom, but I’ve never felt more trapped….”

I come across a statement like that at least once a day on a forum post or in email. You start your internet business because of the freedom of being your own boss and working on your own schedule and then promptly sit on your hind-end for 12 hours/day EVERY DAY. No wonder you feel burnt out. And no wonder family and friends are feeling neglected when all you can think and talk about is your business.

Freedom sounds pretty miserable to me if it means freedom from fun and the ones that I love.

So, how do you break free?

Start by taking a good look at your business and getting your goals and priorities straight. Don’t worry, it’s not nearly as complicated as it sounds. I’ll walk you through it right now. Ready?

Grab a pen and a piece of paper or open your favorite word processor. Divide your page into four columns.

Now you’re ready to brainstorm. Write everything down as it comes to mind. Don’t overthink this. Just start writing.

First, figure out what is working. Whatever it is. It may be one of your websites, your ecourses, a joint venture, a certain marketing method. Where is the bulk of your money coming from, currently? (If none yet, where do you believe will be the place where the largest profits will come from?) Write those items in column #1 under: “Do More”.

Second, figure out what is not bringing in money. Is it hanging out on forums or posting classified ads to freebie sites? Is it endlessly checking your stats, or email? What are your daily time-suckers? Write those under column #2: “Do less”.

Third, figure out what could work better. Do you have upsells in place? Are your websites designed to bring you cash from every visitor? Make a list of ideas in column #3: “Improvements”. (If you don’t know yet, don’t worry. There are plenty of ways to improve your business as you learn and grow.)

Fourth, figure out what can be automated. Which tasks are repetitive and boring, albeit necessary? Many of those types of tasks can be automated with simple tools. For instance, if you’re submitting articles to directories by hand, there are tools and services to do that for you. Add these to column #4: “Automation”.

Now that you’re armed with your list, it’s time to get to work.

Look at your list in Column #1: “Do More”. Those are the tasks that you should focus your energies on. It’s a good idea to tackle one or two of the tasks on that list first thing in the morning – every morning. Believe me, it’s much more productive than checking out your favorite blogs or logging into twitter. And you’ll be amazed at how much you can get done quickly when your mind is fresh.

Look at your list in Column #2: “Do Less”. These activities should be forbidden until after you get your #1 list done, if you do them at all. For instance, hanging out on Twitter is fun, but do not do it until everything in column #1 is finished for the day.

Now, go back to Column #1, 3, and 4. Your “Do More”, “Improvements”, and “Automation” lists.

Look at all of the items that are on those three lists. Now, circle each task that you …

• Can’t Do
• Don’t Have Time to Do
• Don’t Want To Do

Those are the tasks that you’ll outsource.

Freedom means a lot of things. It means freedom to do the things that you want to do. However, it also means freedom to NOT do things that you really dislike doing.

For me, it’s graphics. I have outsourced all of my graphics since 2001. I don’t have the time, patience or inclination to learn how to make my own graphics. I have more important things to do, like write this article and then go on a bike ride with my son. Perhaps when I get back from my bike ride, my graphics will be waiting for me in my inbox.

Now, that’s freedom to me.

Want to outsource but don’t know where to start? Nicole Dean and Jimmy D. Brown invite you to http://www.OutsourceWeekly.com where you’ll learn how you can get free time (and earn more money) while others run your business for you.

By Jimmy D. Brown

Are you a “traffic juggler”?

That is, do you attempt to get traffic to your site by doing all kinds of activities ranging from SEO to PPC listings to buying solo mailings?

In other words, do you “juggle” your traffic generation activities like multi-colored balls – never holding on to one for very long and always moving on to the next one?

As a recovering “traffic juggler” myself, I can tell you this with great certainty … you and I aren’t alone.

Sadly, most internet marketers wear the same hat. They complicate things by trying every new traffic strategy, buying ever new traffic tool and joining every new traffic program.

It doesn’t need to be that way.

In fact, what I want to suggest to you in this article will make your life a whole lot easier, and, as a direct result, will actually get more traffic to your site than ever before.

Brace yourself for a life-changing statement –

** If you have your own product to sell online, you only need to focus on ONE traffic strategy! **

Yep, you read that correctly.

Instead of trying to do a gazillion things, there is a very simple, very effective approach: focus on the ONE thing that really matters, the ONE thing that produces the greatest results, the ONE thing that will get you all the traffic you’ll ever need.

And that ONE thing is to…

** Start, Strengthen and Spread Your Own Affiliate Program*

Let’s look at that statement in 3 steps for simplicity purposes…

Step 1: *START* Your Affiliate Program.

There is one major reason why you need to start your own affiliate program that stands head and shoulders above the rest: every traffic generation concept (past, present and future) can be done FOR YOU, BY OTHERS if you have your own affiliate program in place.

Let that sink in. Chew on that for a while. It’s such a paradigm shift that most people don’t even realize the tidal-wave-like power behind the concept.

Instead of you working with PPC ads and you working on the SEO stuff and you buying the solo mailings, you can get others to do this FOR YOU as a member of your affiliate program.

So, to begin with, you need to start your own affiliate program. A great place to do this is Clickbank.com.

Step 2: *STRENGTHEN* Your Affiliate Program.

After establishing your affiliate program, it’s important to “strengthen” it. That is, you will need to train your affiliates to do all of the marketing for you. You’ll also need to provide them with marketing materials such as brandable PDF reports, articles, advertisements, banners, etc.

But, let’s take this another step.

Instead of loading some marketing and training materials to your affiliate center and leaving it up to your affiliates to figure out how to use them, why not point out how to use them?

Example: List 10 great newsletters where they can purchase solo mailings to promote your offer. Put something in there for every budget. (What a nice treat it will be when one of your aggressive affiliates purchases a $500 solo mailing to promote your offer!)

You’ll be SHOCKED to see what this one additional step can mean to your bottom line.

But, you could take it even another step further.

How about offering to personally train 10 affiliates in how best to promote your offer? You could teach one how to use ezine advertising; another how to buy PPC ads in numerous engines; still another how to distribute ezine articles.

(Here’s an idea: how about you purchase a copy of the latest traffic tool or manual for one of your affiliates and get them involved in using it to promote you?!)

Can you imagine the impact?

Step 3: *SPREAD* Your Affiliate Program.

Finally, you want to continue growing your program by recruiting more and more affiliates. As your numbers grow, so will your results.

The bottom line is simple: instead of “juggling” a bunch of different traffic ideas, a much more effective use of your time is to focus on ONE source of traffic: your own affiliate program.

Juggling is great for clowns, but lousy for internet marketers.

Don’t be a clown when it comes to your business.

Wouldn’t it be nice to attract some Super Affiliates? You know — the type that can make hundreds or thousands of sales by sending just one mailing to their lists. Jimmy D. Brown has authored a report that you won’t want to miss. Check out “8 Irresistible Ways to Get Super Affiliates To Enlist In Your Sales Army” by clicking here. www.infoprofitshare.com

The need for behind the scene writers, also known as ghostwriters, is huge. Content is king and the thought of having to add fresh content on a regular basis to a website, a blog, article directories, etc sends some people running for cover.

That’s where you come in. If you have a love for writing, a knack for words and don’t mind hanging out behind the scenes and letting someone else take credit for you hard work ghostwriting is a perfect avenue for you to take.

Sometimes people have questioned if it’s ethical or right to use material that someone else has written and call it your own. There’s no right or wrong answer, it’s a matter of personal opinion but you might be surprised to find out that a lot of the greatest books by famous people were actually written by ghostwriters!

A ghostwriter can be used to do a project from start to finish with very little input from the person hiring the writer. Or sometimes the person hiring a ghostwriter will have notes or an outline that they just need the writer to put together into an eBook, report, article, etc.

A lot of people complain that it’s hard to find a good ghostwriter or that once they do that writer ends up so busy that they can’t take on more work. That just goes to show that if you have great writing skills and enjoy doing it you can make a nice profit doing it. If you produce high quality work and great customer service skills you will probably find yourself with a few clients that keep you busy on a regular basis.

If you think you have what it takes to be a successful ghostwriter or just want some more information about it pick up your copy of The Ghostwriting Success Teleseminar.

Before we start talking about a bookkeeping business let’s distinguish between a bookkeeper and an accountant. A lot of people interchange the words bookkeeper and accountant often times not realizing they are two different things. In reality they are two very different things.

For the most part a bookkeeper doesn’t have a college degree in accounting where as an accountant does. A bookkeeper does more basic type duties such as data entering. This can include things like creating and mailing invoices to the customer, entering bills, paying bills and processing payroll data.

An accountant is going to handle the more detailed oriented type tasks. They will take care of handling expenses that have occurred but haven’t been entered by the bookkeeper. These entries will need to be adjusted by the accountant. An example of something like this would be bank loans (interest that has incurred since the last payment). Another example would be money earned (wages) by the employees of a company that will be paid next week. It could also include things like miscellaneous expenses, etc. There’s several different things. The other important aspect that the accountant will do that the bookkeeper doesn’t is they will prepare financial statements and work with upper management on understanding these things.

Now that we have distinguished a bookkeeper and an accountant let’s talk about a bookkeeping business and what makes a good bookkeeper. Here are five characteristics that a good bookkeeper should possess.

*Enjoys working with numbers
*Detail oriented
*Time Management skills
*Familiar with current technology
*Analytical

If running a bookkeeping business is something you think you would enjoy, possess the skills necessary and want more information pick up a copy of Mom’s Talk Biz Guide to Starting Your Own Bookkeeping Business. You will find tips on what you need to get your bookkeeping business started, earning potential, keeping your clients satisfied and that’s just to name a few!