Here is a video I founds that explains how to set up a Gravatar that will show up when posting or commenting on blogs. Hope you enjoy!

The short answer is, “No.” You can effectively launch an Internet marketing career without having a single dime. All you’ll need is a computer and an Internet connection, which does cost money, but we’re assuming you have the two components already.

Many a marketer has gotten their start as an affiliate marketer. Aside from shuffling around in your attic to find something you can sell for a profit on eBay, internet affiliate marketing can be your best bet for a zero-dollar start-up business in the Internet marketing industry.

All you need is a free ID that you can get on PayDotCom, Amazon, Commission Junction, LinkShare, or ClickBank (to mention a few), and the capability to learn about free traffic sites and you could begin generating an affiliate income without investing a penny of your own money.

That said, it’s best if you save a few bucks here and there to invest in some tools which will help make your Internet marketing efforts a great deal easier. For instance, you might sit around and brainstorm for five days to get a list of keywords – or, pay for a 7-day subscription to WordTracker and harvest a large number of keywords in less than an hour or so.

You might also use nothing but web 2.0 social sites that are free, like Facebook, Twitter, or Squidoo, to host your content and affiliate links. Or, you could pony up the $9.95 one-time fee to get a domain name and $6.95 a month for hosting and have your own business presence on the ‘net.

You could also spend days and weeks searching for information about how to accomplish a task that will help you make money as an Internet marketer – such as tips on how to master pay per click advertising.

Or, you can invest in a step-by-step guide t shorten your learning curve. What most marketers suggest is to examine your financial budget and then determine whatever you have to invest. If you have to start out with nothing, do it – but put aside some of your profits to pour back into your online efforts.

Everything you’ll invest in is built to ease your workload and hasten the procedures, so your income increases faster and with less input from you as you learn to wield these tools to your benefit.

You can get really cheap hosting with a lot of hosting companies. But usually, that’s all you get -savings on the price. What you gain in savings, you have to pay for in other areas, which is the real cost that you pay.

For example, you might get into a company and pay a small monthly charge, but discover that you’re limited as to just how many domain names they’ll host. One company makes customers pay per domain name.

That means if you have five websites, one company will charge you $25 a month. Another costs $10 per domain hosting, so you’d pay $50 a month. With HostGator plans, you not only save each month, but you won’t pay anything more for hosting regardless of how many domains you purchase provided that you don’t opt for the Hatchling plan.

If you take a look at the HostGator website, you’ll see at a glance the three plans that might interest you. Those plans are the Hatchling, Baby and Business plans. The Hatchling plan is for people who just have one domain and for the foreseeable future, don’t plan to have anymore.

This could be an ideal plan for the fledgling entrepreneur or person who simply wanted to host a family website and keep in contact with family and friends. It’s a great way to host a family blog and share written mementos, photos and more.

The second plan (and one that many people select) is the Baby plan. Using this one, you won’t need to worry about how many domains you want hosted (because it’s unlimited) and you’ve got plenty of space for all of your data.

Even if you don’t choose to go with the three-year plan and pay $6.96 per month, you’ll still end up with a great savings at just $7.96 per month. This is the plan that people who would like to go into affiliate marketing usually select until their businesses grow to a point where they feel it’s time to proceed to the next plan.

That would be the Business plan. With this HostGator plan, you do get more features. You get the same unlimited space for all your data – and just like the Hatchling and the Baby plan, you get unlimited bandwidth.

The extras you will get include SSL as well as an IP – all at no extra cost to you – plus, you’ll receive a toll-free number you can use for yourself. As a bonus, you’ll get credit to use for $100 with Google’s AdWords program. Like the other plans, you also get email and Spam Assassin.

While all of the HostGator Plans are great, you want to choose the one that meets your needs. There’s absolutely no reason to select the Business plan if all you need is something that can host a single website – unless of course you already know that single website is only the beginning. You always need to look ahead for your potential needs and choose your plan accordingly.

Sign up for HostGator hosting now using coupon code “keithbblog” (without quotes) and save $9.94 off your first month!

Visit any Internet marketing forum on the ‘net, and inevitably you’ll find dozens of newbie ‘net marketers worried and intimidated that they’re being inundated with endless offers and promises of fast cash.

Information overload is creating a huge pitfall for Internet marketers who don’t yet know how to make it a profitable venture. They discover quickly that there are many roads to riches, but they don’t know which one to choose.

What often ends up happening is that the Internet marketing novice decides to take many paths at once to see which one has the most profit potential. This is a mistake, because their attention is divided and no one venture ever becomes monetized.

The result is that they give up, soured on the entire Internet marketing experience when all it would take to correct the mistake is focus and follow through. Those who are in the niche of teaching newbies how to proceed from zero to profits in the blink of an eye often recommend they buy this product and that one to get started.

In reality, it’s better to find a mentor who understands that the average newbie Internet marketer should first consume the free information on the Internet – focusing on one aspect of their vision at a time, such as choosing a niche or compiling a product.

Then once they map out one step, they move on to the next. After the Internet marketing prospect has consumed the benefits of the free information on the ‘net, they should then be instructed to invest in only one product at a time – something truly valuable to the reader that will further their success. It should be an item that contains information not routinely spelled out for free on the ‘net.

Part of the problem stems from the true and false claims alike that are emitted from website after website, giving the Internet marketer the hunger and desire to emulate the site owner’s success.

They see one person who made $1 million in one day and they, too, want to do that! Then they land on a page where one guy makes $500 per day on one minisite, and they follow that path, too.

Instead of allowing yourself to fall victim to information overload in the Internet marketing world, make sure you put blinders on and stay in touch with one aspect of the marketing field at a time. Eventually, you’ll learn how everything works, but don’t let anyone fool you into thinking one product or person has all the answers. It’s a combination of lessons that will eventually lead to your profit stream.

[rapbank type=search keywords="WordPress plugins"]

Dave Nicholson has came up with many different products in the past but this one has to be his best yet called ‘Like Page Builder’.

Like Page Builder is a wonderfully simple tool that allows you to create Facebook ‘like’ pages in a matter of minutes.

I have used this product myself and I am going to reveal my thoughts on exactly how well this product does what it claims to do.

First and foremost a like page is pretty much like your own little mini website displayed on Facebook where you can promote yourself and your products to anyone who ‘likes’ your page.

Like Page Builder is a piece of software which allows you to create your very own Facebook ‘like’ page with minimum effort and time. Those of you out there who have already got a ‘like’ page online will know that this can be a very time consuming task. With this piece of software it can be completed in a fraction of the time. All you are required to do is to fill in a few boxes with whatever you want to display on your page and click a few times and you’re done. It really is as simple as that.

But! That is not all, you also receive step-by-step videos teaching you exactly how to use the software to its maximum potential. Meaning anyone who can read and write can create their own ‘like’ page, regardless of their skills on a computer. This I believe will be a huge help to those wishing to get on Facebook but don’t really have the skills to create a ‘like’ page themselves. With this software all of the complicated work is done for you, reducing time and effort needed.

Probably the most impressive thing about this software is that it can be used to do something which NO OTHER software can do. It has been cleverly programmed so that as soon as someone hits the ‘Like’ button they are automatically taken to a page of your choice, this could be a page giving away a free gift such as a report. Why is this so ingenious? There is no opt-in involved! The gift is received instantly! All the subscriber must do is click ‘Like’ and then go and read the report or course they have received.

All of these benefits from a simple, easy to use piece of software which costs next to nothing! It appears that Dave has once again released something the Internet Marketing world has never before seen but desperately needs. I wholly endorse this product and for those of you out there who thought you would never be able to create your own Facebook ‘like’ page, think again!

==> http://www.keithbowman.com/BYOFacebookLikePages <==

Download your FREE report: Building Your Own Facebook Like Pages

As a respected Internet Marketer John Thornhill is sickened by the
state of the affiliate marketing industry today.

This has mostly been caused by countless launches put together by
the churn and burn syndicates who all have each others backs and
promote sub standard products, all promising easy riches for a few
clicks of a mouse.

It’s easy to see why Affiliate Marketing is getting a bad name, but
worse still it’s easy to see how any newbie affiliate could be lead
down the wrong path by copying these churn and burn tactics.

Well John has had enough and is about to put a stop to it all. He
has created an ‘Affiliate Master Plan’ and in it he details how you
can become highly successful as an affiliate without using churn
and burn tactics, he also reveals why 99% of affiliates are failing
online today.

As a marketer who has generated over 1 million dollars in sales as
an affiliate I think he’s someone you should take seriously so go
and see what he has to say.

http://www.keithbowman.com/affiliatepromoformula

It doesn’t matter what type of blog you have, or want to have, you can blog about virtually anything under the Sun and still have the potential to make money. How? Easy, just start adsense blogging.  Don’t let the term scare you off, it’s really quite easy.  All you have to do is sign up for Google’s Adsense program, for free, and they will place adds directly on your site for products and services related to your site.  When someone clicks on one of the ads on your site you will get paid.

Now I want to make sure that you have realistic expectations.  The amount of money you can earn will vary dramatically based on the topic of your blog.  If your blog is about something that is hugely popular and there are a lot of people who are going to pay money to buy ads for that topic, you’ll make more with every click.  On the other hand, if your blog is about something a little more obscure each click will earn you considerably less.

No matter how popular the topic of your site is or how much Google will pay you for each click, you will need a lot of traffic if you want to make a lot of money.  Please don’t expect to put some ads on your blog and retire from your full time job. In most cases that simply won’t happen.  What can, and often does, happen is that you’ll make some extra money every single month just by doing what you’re already doing… blogging.

If you want to increase your earning potential there are a few things you can do to optimize your Adsense revenue:

1. Get more traffic.  There are a lot of ways you can do that and the processes can be as simple and free or as advanced and technical as you like, it really depends on whether you are online to make a living or just online to have some fun and making some extra cash is just a bonus.  For the most part, more traffic to your site equals more money from Adsense.

2. Leverage your money making potential by setting up many blogs.  If you have 10 blogs and each of them is making just $10 a month that comes out to $100 a month.  That’s $90 more a month that you would have made with just one blog. True, you won’t get rich on it but again, it’s more money in your pocket for doing what you are already doing… not bad.   Now, don’t let the idea of having multiple blogs scare you off, there are easy ways you can automate the system to make it very easy to build your own ‘blog empire’.  If you want to make a full time income online, that’s one of the best ways to go.

Adsense blogging is a simple and easy way for anyone to make a little extra cash online.  Just by going to Google and signing up for adsesne you can make money on your blog.  And for those of you that want to make a full time living online, there are many ways you can leverage the power of your ads to really ramp up your earning potential.  The bottom line is that it’s really all up to you and what you want to accomplish with your blog.

Here is a video that shows you how to install WordPress manually from files. Please leave a comment and let me know how you like it and I will upload some more “How To” videos if enough people like this.

A few weeks ago I joined Virtual Online Learning. I had known about it for some time, but kept putting off joining. But, now I wish I had joined sooner! I’ve learned more from Virtual Online Learning than I have from the past year from any other sites about blogging, social networking, ecommerce, eBay, and more.

Danna Crawford, aka Powerselling Mom, is the founder of Virtual Online Learning and has been online since 1997. She makes a living today using eBay, blogging, affiliate marketing, online writing, and more.

Virtual Online Learning is full of great information on topics such as blogging, affiliate marketing, eBay, Twitter, Facebook, email marketing, and more.

Membership includes a MINIMUM of 2 free webinars a month. There are some “special” webinars available for a low price which are optional. And you can even purchase the webinars on DVD to view at your leisure for a very low price.

Virtual Online Learning also has a GREAT Message Board that is open 24/7 that provides you with exchange of information from members. Virtual Online Learning members, aka Virtualites, are some of the nicest people I have ever met online and are there to help you whenever you need it.

There’s never been a better time to join Virtual Online Learning than NOW. You can purchase a LIFETIME subscription for only $50. There’s never a monthly fee. Get in now because on January 1, 2011 the LIFETIME subscription fee will be increasing to $100, which will still be a bargain!

Want a tour Of Virtual Online Learning? Head on over to the Virtual Online Learning Blog and watch it here.

And there you have it, why I love being a Virtual Online Learning Member!

Let me know if you have any questions, or you can leave a comment below.

The hardest part of writing is the first sentence. When you look at the whole project, it seems like an impossible task. That’s why you have to break it down into manageable tasks. Think of climbing a mountain. You are standing at the foot of it and looking up at its summit vanishing into the clouds. How can you possibly scale such an immense and dangerous mountain?

There is only one way to climb a mountain , step by step.

Now think of writing your ebook in the same light. You must create it step by step, and one day, you will take that last step and find yourself standing on the summit with your head in the clouds.

The first thing you have to do, as if you actually were a mountain climber, is to get organized. Instead of climbing gear, however, you must organize your thoughts. There are some steps you should take before you begin. Once you’ve gone through the following list, you will be ready to actually begin writing your ebook.

Beginning Steps to Writing an eBook

First, figure out your ebook’s working title. Jot down a few different titles, and eventually, you’ll find that one that will grow on you. Titles help you to focus your writing on your topic; they guide you in anticipating and answering your reader’s queries. Many non-fiction books also have subtitles. Aim for clarity in your titles, but cleverness always helps to sell books, as long as it’s not too cute. For example, Remedies for Insomnia: twenty different ways to count sheep. Or: Get off that couch: fifteen exercise plans to whip you into shape.

Next, write out a thesis statement. Your thesis is a sentence or two stating exactly what problem you are addressing and how your book will solve that problem. All chapters spring forth from your thesis statement. Once you’ve got your thesis statement fine-tuned, you’ve built your foundation. From that foundation, your book will grow, chapter by chapter.

Your thesis will keep you focused while you write your ebook. Remember: all chapters must support your thesis statement. If they don’t, they don’t belong in your book. For example, your thesis statement could read: We’ve all experienced insomnia at times in our lives, but there are twenty proven techniques and methods to give you back a good night’s sleep.

Once you have your thesis, before you start to write, make sure there is a good reason to write your book.

Ask yourself some questions:

* Does your book present useful information and is that information currently relevant?

* Will you book positively affect the lives of your readers?

* Is your book dynamic and will it keep the reader’s attention?

* Does you book answer questions that are meaningful and significant?

If you can answer yes to these questions, you can feel confident about the potential of your ebook.

Another important step is to figure out who your target audience is. It is this group of people you will be writing to, and this group will dictate many elements of your book, such as style, tone, diction, and even length. Figure out the age range of your readers, their general gender, what they are most interested in, and even the socio-economic group they primarily come from. Are they people who read fashion magazines or book reviews? Do they write letters in longhand or spend hours every day online. The more you can pin down your target audience, the easier it will be to write your book for them.

Next, make a list of the reasons you are writing your ebook. Do you want to promote your business? Do you want to bring quality traffic to your website? Do you want to enhance your reputation?

Then write down your goals in terms of publishing. Do you want to sell it as a product on your website, or do you want to offer it as a free gift for filling out a survey or for ordering a product? Do you want to use the chapters to create an e-course, or use your ebook to attract affiliates around the world? The more you know upfront, the easier the actual writing will be.

Decide on the format of your chapters. In non-fiction, keep the format from chapter to chapter fairly consistent. Perhaps you plan to use an introduction to your chapter topic, and then divide it into four subhead topics. Or you may plan to divide it into five parts, each one beginning with a relevant anecdote.

How to make your ebook “user friendly”

You must figure out how to keep your writing engaging. Often anecdotes, testimonials, little stories, photos, graphs, advice, and tips will keep the reader turning the pages. Sidebars are useful for quick, accessible information, and they break up the density of the page.

Write with a casual, conversational tone rather than a formal tone such as textbook diction. Reader’s respond to the feeling that you are having a conversation with them. Break up the length and structure of your sentences so you don?t hypnotize your readers into sleep. Sentences that are all the same length and structure tend to be a good aid for insomnia!

Good writing takes practice. It takes lots and lots of practice. Make a schedule to write at least a page a day. Read books and magazines about the process of writing, and jot down tips that jump out at you. The art of writing is a lifetime process; the more you write (and read), the better your writing will become. The better your writing becomes, the bigger your sales
figures.

In an ebook that is read on the screen, be aware that you must give your reader’s eye a break. You can do this by utilizing white space. In art classes, white space is usually referred to as “negative space.” Reader’s eyes need to rest in the cool white oasises  you create on your page. If your page is too dense, your reader will quit out of it as soon as their eyes begin to tear.

Make use of lists, both bulleted and numbered. This makes your information easy to absorb, and gives the  reader a mental break from dissecting your paragraphs one after the other.

Finally, decide on an easy-to-read design. Find a font that’s easy on the eyes, and stick to that font family. Using dozens of fonts will only tire your readers out before they’ve gotten past your introduction. Use at least one and a half line spacing, and text large enough to be read easily on the screen, but small enough so that the whole page can be seen on a computer screen. You will have to experiment with this to find the right combination.

Of course, don’t forget to run a spell and grammar check. You are judged by something as minor as correct punctuation, so don’t mess up a great book by tossing out semicolons randomly, or stringing sentences together with commas. (By the way, that’s called a “comma splice.”)

Last of all, create an index and a bibliography.

That’s it! You’ve written a book! Now all you have to do is publish your ebook online, and wait for download request from your website visitors.