Issue #2073
- WEALTHY: Now is NOT the time to take a vacation from your investments (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: How to protect yourself from heavy metal – and we don’t mean Black Sabbath (Jon Herring)
- WISE: Chris Edwards on the power behind a website
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Getting laser-targeted traffic to your website (Paul Smithson)
- How hard do you have to work? (Michael Masterson)
- It’s Good to Know… about fire ants
- Add "Argus-eyed" to your vocabulary
Your Personal Invitation to Join a Small Cadre Of “Freedom Fighters”In Our Nation’s Heartland This July!
Dear ETR Reader,
Coming this summer, Early to Rise presents a five day challenge for you, should you decide to accept it…
The stakes? Reclaiming your personal liberty… declaring your self-reliance… and seizing financial independence forever.
This July 10th to 14th, we’re going to take a small group of ETR readers and work alongside them to build your own Internet business – the whole shebang, from soup to nuts – in an intensive, 5-day, business-building program better than anything we’ve done before.
You’re going to walk in with nothing – no product, no marketing skills, no technical know-how – and you’ll walk out with your own online business.
What you will learn flat-out works. You will build a professional, popular, and profitable Internet business. When you walk out the door, you’ll be super-prepared for success in a way that very few entrepreneurs ever are, online or off.
ETR’s “Five Days in July” Internet Business-Building Workshop is going to deliver success. Actually, it will OVER deliver. And your success, of course, is the bottom line. Sound good?
Okay, then let’s get going… let’s build something that WORKS… your own, REAL Internet business.
It only takes a few minutes to take that first key step. Find out how easy it is to join us and get all the details here.
Looking forward to seeing you there,
- Patrick Coffey
Why Summer Is the Best Season for Investors
By Rick Pendergraft
Summer’s heat and humidity not only makes you feel a little sluggish, it has the same effect on the markets. This time of year, as investors shun trading in favor of taking a vacation, the number of stocks being bought and sold slows way down.
But despite the fact that this is the slowest time of year for trade volume, it’s also one of the more volatile times for price action. The CBOE Volatility Index (a measurement of expected volatility in the market – its symbol is VIX) has spiked each of the past four summers.
It may seem odd to see more extreme fluctuations in price when you have fewer trades. But with fewer participants, less money moves in and out of the market, and it becomes harder to move large sums. So what happens is that markets get pushed up or down with relative ease as institutions attempt to move their money around. This leads to increased volatility.
As an options trader, I welcome increased volatility. Volatility is good for options traders, because it increases the potential gains on the options we are buying. The worst enemy of the options buyer is a flat market that moves sideways. As long as there is movement in one direction or the other, we should be able to make money. Granted, you have to be on the right side of that movement – but if you are playing both sides of the market and the overall market moves sharply up or down, you should make money on either your calls or your puts.
Options traders, get ready! The summer can be a very profitable time of year for us. So even if you take a vacation from work, don’t take a vacation from trading. And if you don’t trade options, it’s never too late to learn. You can follow my recommendations in The ETF Options Trader. Increased volatility provides great opportunities for the growth of your portfolio.
[Ed. Note: Rick Pendergraft is a market expert and two-time winner of the "Top Trader" award at Schaeffer's Investment Research. Frequently quoted in Reuters, BusinessWeek, Forbes, USA Today, and The New York Times, Rick recently made his debut on Bloomberg television. Find out how he can help you make money - no matter what the market is doing - with ETR's investment service, The ETF Options Trader.]
"The power of a website comes from the people using it, not the people making it."
Chris Edwards
How to Bring the Right Customers to Your Website
By Paul Smithson
Whether you already have an Internet business or you’re thinking of starting one, you should have one major thing on your mind: driving traffic to your website. Learning how to do this is crucial to your success. After all, if you don’t have people browsing through your products or services, how can you sell them anything?
Let’s say you give tap dancing lessons in Orlando, FL, and you’ve set up a website to help you find more students. Now, you probably know how important it is to get as many people as possible to visit your site. But you may not realize that there are two types of traffic – and only one of them is going to be worth your efforts to attract it.
In general, traffic is targeted or untargeted.
Targeted traffic is the best. It consists of people who come to your website already knowing something about your niche and what you are selling. They’re often ready to purchase your services or products even before they get there. Targeted traffic for your hypothetical business would be residents of Orlando who want to take tap dancing lessons.
Untargeted traffic could come from anywhere. Their purpose in visiting your website is unknown. They may or may not have any interest in your offers. For instance, you could get visitors who are researching Orlando or tap dancing, but who may not live in Orlando or be looking for dance lessons. This type of visitor seldom results in any significant sales.
So how do you get the right kind of visitors to your site? There are a couple of different marketing methods you can use.
One of the most effective ways to generate targeted traffic is to master one specific tool: Keywords. It’s important to understand how vital keywords are to your success – and how to use various tools on the Web that can help you maximize your findability.
When creating content for your website – product information, staff member bios, even articles related to what you’re selling – you want to make sure you include plenty of keywords that your potential customers could be searching for. The goal is for your site to show up in search engine results pages (SERPs) after a targeted visitor searches for those particular keywords online.
Amassing a Keyword Arsenal
Most Internet business owners make the grave mistake of not taking the time to conduct thorough keyword research. They brainstorm the first 10 words that pop into their heads for their niche (like "tap dancing" and "Orlando dance lessons") and never dig deeper into the minds of their prospective customers.
Effective targeted marketing methods rely on proper keyword research. A keyword can be a single word (like "dance") or words strung together to create a keyword phrase (like "tap dance lessons for adults"). The more specific you can get with your keyword phrase, the better. That helps narrow down the people searching in your niche. Plus, it usually means fewer competitors for the phrase in search engine results pages.
Use keyword tools – such as those from WordTracker, Yahoo/Overture, and Google – to really dig down to come up with the best keyword phrases for your website. The more in-depth you get, the more you’ll be able to find the words or phrases that your best prospects will type into a search engine. If you can hit upon some of these phrases, you’ll see huge increases in the right kind of traffic.
You can look at keyword phrases from a number of different angles. Many keyword research tools provide information on how many searches are being done for a particular keyword phrase, but that’s not all there is to it. You should also look at how much competition there is for that phrase, as well as its Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI).
KEI refers to the ratio between the amount of competition for a particular phrase and the number of searches done for that phrase. The higher the KEI value, the better. You’ll usually want to use phrases where the searches for it have been plentiful and the competitors scarce.
WordTracker not only allows you to find the number of searches being done for a particular keyword phrase, it also lets you see how much competition there is for that phrase, along with the KEI value.
There are two ways to do keyword research through WordTracker – with a free trial or a paid option. The free trial allows you to research 30 keyword phrases, but only provides search results from MSN. The paid option gives you a number of different ways to research as many keyword phrases as you like. Plus, you can choose which search engine you want to receive results from.
To start your keyword research in WordTracker, enter a basic keyword or short keyword phrase that describes your business. For instance, you could type "Orlando tap dance lessons" into the search box.
WordTracker would then spit out a list of related words and phrases for you to choose from – like "tap dancing," "dance lessons," and "instruction." Click on any of them to see related keyword phrases on the right side of the screen. Clicking on "tap dancing," for example, might elicit a list that includes "tap dancing shoes," "history of tap dancing," "tap dancing steps," and "tap dancing lessons." Clicking on "tap dancing lessons" might then elicit a list that includes "tap dance lessons for adults" "tap dance lessons for children," and "free online tap dancing lessons."
The next step is to pick, from these options, the keyword phrases that are most closely related to your product or service. In WordTracker, this adds them to your "keyword basket." For our hypothetical business, we’d choose "tap dance lessons for adults" instead of "tap dance lessons for children" or "free online tap dancing lessons."
Try to come up with as many specific keyword phrases as possible, and use WordTracker’s "dig-down" feature to get even more precise choices. Once you’ve filled your keyword basket, the next step is the competition analysis.
The competition analysis page is where you’ll get the most information regarding your chosen keyword phrases – the number of searches that have been done on them, the amount of competition for them, and their KEI values.
WordTracker recommends using keyword phrases with a KEI greater than 10, but it’s even better if you can get keyword phrases with a KEI over 100. A real gift is a phrase with a KEI greater than 400. A high KEI value means that you’re likely to be ranked within the first few pages of your targeted visitors’ search engine results pages … if you optimize your website pages for that phrase.
By choosing very specific keyword phrases with a high KEI value, and sprinkling those keywords throughout your website and inside your advertisements, you’ll be able to get the most targeted traffic to your website – people who actually want to buy your product or service.
As your list of keyword phrases grows, start putting it to use by including those phrases on your website, in your blog, in content you post in article directories, and in pay-per-click search engines. As time goes on and you see how important keywords are to the success of your online business, you’ll continue conducting thorough research and bulking up your list for a greater reach on the Web.
[Ed. Note: Ready to step up to the plate and start your own Internet business? If so, online marketing expert Paul Smithson and ETR's team of friendly experts are standing by to help you. We've partnered with Paul, creator of the XSitePro website-building program, so you'll be able to come to ETR's 5 Days in July conference with nothing - no product, no marketing skills, no technical know-how - and walk out five days later with your own online business. No experience required, and it only takes a few minutes to get started!]
Novice Investor scores over $21,000 on his first deal.
Thanks to your awesome investment program, my net profit on my very 1st deal was over $21,000! I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am. Having gone through your investment program, my approach to the real estate investment business has changed ten fold!
- Thomas P.
Pasadena, California
The Advantage You Have Over Every Other Up-and-Comer in Your Company
By Michael Masterson
In terms of productivity, employees fall somewhere on a bell-shaped curve. At the bottom of the curve are the loafers and goof-offs. In the middle is the silent majority that does just enough to get by. At the top are the relative few who are motivated to achieve.
When you understand the dynamics of any such group, you understand that a modest amount of hard work will put you beyond both the terminally slothful and the lump-along middle crowd. Just by being modestly ambitious, you will rise to the top third of almost any organization.
But getting up the last few rungs of that ladder will be tough, because the few you are competing against are competing hard. Chances are, they are as smart and talented as you, with the same (or more) basic resources. They may even have better contacts. But there is one thing they don’t have more of, and that is time.
If you can use your time more effectively than they use theirs, you will move ahead of them. Hard workers eventually succeed even against those who have advantages. You can do better than someone who is smarter, richer, and luckier than you – so long as you are willing to work harder than that person does.
[Ed. Note: This article was adapted from Michael Masterson's book, Automatic Wealth for Grads… and Anyone Else Just Starting Out, one of Amazon's Top 10 Finance and Investing Books of 2006.
Have you used any of the techniques from Automatic Wealth for Grads or Seven Years to Seven Figures to start your own business, get a great raise, or successfully invest in real estate? We'd love to hear how you put Michael's suggestions to use at ReaderFeedback@gmail.com .]
Silly Name… Powerful Protection
By Jon Herring
A few years ago, I had several mercury ("silver") fillings removed by my dentist. As a protective measure, in case I somehow ingested or inhaled mercury during the process, I started taking an herbal supplement called silymarin.
Silymarin is a potent bioflavonoid found in the herb Milk Thistle. It has been studied extensively and has been conclusively shown to protect the liver against numerous toxins, including heavy metals. It also stimulates the growth of liver cells and has strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
New research shows that this miracle of nature can also benefit those with Type II diabetes.
In a study published in Phytotherapy Research, 51 adults with Type II diabetes were given either 200 mg of silymarin or a placebo three times per day. During the four-month study, the average fasting blood glucose level of the silymarin group fell 15 percent, compared to an increase of 13 percent in the placebo group. In addition, the triglyceride levels of the treated group dropped by 25 percent, while those of the placebo group increased by 12 percent.
There are a number of highly effective nutritional supplements – such as chromium, cinnamon, and magnesium – that can help improve blood sugar control. You can add silymarin to that list.
It’s Good to Know: About Fire Ants
Scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have discovered a naturally occurring virus that kills fire ants. These invasive South American insects do $6 billion worth of damage annually nationwide, destroying crops, damaging farm equipment, and eroding soil. The ants also attack livestock and humans, with a painful sting that can even cause death. The USDA is now looking for commercial partners to help develop the virus into a pesticide.
(Source: CNN)
How I Went from Working in the Sub- Sub-Basement of a Bank in Minneapolis… to Living on a Small Island in Maine in the House of My Dreams!
Money in the bank, the house you’ve always wanted, and the freedom to enjoy it all. That is the “American Dream”!
Can you still achieve it?
Absolutely… The best way left for you to achieve that dream is by starting your own business.
But how do you get started? What do you do?
We hear questions like these daily. So here is what we did. We’ve done all the hard work for you.
We’ve researched hundreds of the best businesses out there and we report on only the best. The ones that make real money and are the easiest to start.
We’ve done all the hard work. All you have to do is connect the dots. Ask yourself what you like to do and how much money you want to make.
It couldn’t be any easier. Click here to read on…
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Argus-eyed
Someone who’s "Argus-eyed" (AR-gus-ide) – from Argus, the hundred-eyed monster in Greek mythology – is extremely observant or sharp-sighted.
Example (as used by Ralph Blumenthal in Stork Club): "Even the foliage at the Stork is apt to conceal a celebrity, as Argus-eyed star-gazers discovered the other night when they peeked behind three carefully combed fronds and found writer Ernest Hemingway, actor Monty Woolley, and sculptor Jo Davidson."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007
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I was given your site address by another minister who has written a course on the art of delivering sermons. When I asked him for some tips, he only referred me to your site. I am very grateful to find you. I read you every day now, and save things to remind myself.
Thanks for the quality of your writers. Thanks for thinking of others.