Issue #2385

• WEALTHY: Should you be worried about the soaring cost of food? (Rick Pendergraft)
• HEALTHY: 3 characteristics of high-quality protein (James LaValle)
• WISE: Ivan Pavlov on being passionate about what you do

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• A surprising Internet business opportunity (Marc Charles)
• You’ve got to be careful when asking questions… (Suzanne Richardson)
• It’s Good to Know… about the "miracle fruit"
• Add "recherche" to your vocabulary

== Highly Recommended ==

Cherry Pick The Ripest Profit Opportunities Out There Today

ETR Biz-Opp guru Marc Charles is about to reveal the single most POWERFUL and PROFITABLE success secret he’s learned during his 25-year career launching businesses. It’s a secret YOU can use to cherry pick the ripest profit opportunities out there today.

To help celebrate Issue #200 of Marc’s weekly, industry-leading Profit Center Dispatch (PCD) newsletter, we’re going to GIVE you this very special teleconference this Thursday evening, June 19.

I’ll grill Marc about his exclusive “windfall profit formula” and how you can use it to find the best cash-generating opportunities in the marketplace right now.

This teleconference is totally free to you. All you have to do is register and we’ll email you all the details

See you on the call this Thursday evening!

- Charlie Byrne

No Relief in Sight for Rising Food Prices

By Rick Pendergraft

Food prices are rising as fast as, if not faster than, energy prices. And it doesn’t look like consumers will get relief anytime soon. But if you know where to look, this can be a moneymaking opportunity for you.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced that corn inventories are expected to be down to their lowest levels since 1996. Part of this is due to the recent flooding in the Midwest.

The worst thing about corn prices rising to record levels is the residual effect it will have on the price of beef, pork, and poultry. With ethanol producers, livestock producers, and food companies all trying to get their hands on as much corn as possible, prices will continue to soar. And if livestock farmers have to pay a higher price for the corn they use as feed, you can bet they will pass the cost along to the consumer.

If you are looking for a way to invest in the agricultural boom without investing directly in commodities, there is an ETF that can help you take advantage of rising food prices. The PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (DBA), introduced in January ‘07, is designed to rise as the price of agricultural products rise.

The fund has rallied recently and is a little overbought on a daily chart, but it’s worth buying on any dip.

[Ed. Note: Don't get too worked up about increases in food and gas prices. One of the biggest secrets of successful investing is that market fluctuations are good. The more the market moves, the more money you stand to make. Learn how to make money no matter which way the market is moving right here.]

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 "Be passionate in your work and in your searching."

Ivan Pavlov

You Don’t Have to Dethrone Google to Be Search Engine Royalty

By Marc Charles  

Nobody denies that Google is the king of the search engine kingdom. But there’s a lot more to the searchable Internet than Google. For instance, you can make money on the Internet by launching niche search engines. And when you’ve cornered the market on your own niche, you can be a king – or queen – in your own right.

A niche engine is a targeted searching tool. So instead of searching millions of Web pages on Google to find, say, a resort, a person could search with a niche engine that’s devoted to websites in just that one particular market (niche).

The big advantage to running a niche engine? You don’t have to overcome the impossible task of becoming as popular as Google to make money. By focusing on the core group of users that make up your niche, you can be successful. In fact, one of the niche engines I developed has fewer than 10,000 unique users per month. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the millions Google gets. But this site was profitable the first month it went live.

Popular and Profitable Niche Engines

You’ve probably used, or at least heard of, niche search engines… even if you didn’t know it.

In many ways, Amazon.com is a niche engine devoted to books. Newegg.com is a niche engine devoted to computer supplies and technology products and reviews. BestRatedTravel.com is a niche engine (and ratings service) devoted to travel websites.

BestRatedTravel was one of the first niche engines with a "paid-inclusion" program, where companies can pay to have their websites included in the search engine database. Today, hundreds of search engines, including Yahoo! and Overture, offer these programs.

EquiSearch.com is a profitable niche engine developed by a group of entrepreneurs in Kentucky. It serves the thoroughbred horse racing and breeding industry. Most of EquiSearch’s users and prospects are horse buyers, stables, trainers, brokers, and racing speculators. Its revenues come from multiple sources, including online and print advertising, Google AdSense, directory listings, affiliate partnerships, and classified ads.

Choosing Your Niche

When it comes time to create your own niche engine, the first thing you have to do is choose your niche. Countless opportunities are out there just waiting for you. But don’t forget, your aim is to make a profit, so you want to choose a niche that will help you do so. You don’t want to develop a niche engine on an area that is so tight almost no one will ever search for it. Instead of going with something like Naso Tang tropical fish, a better choice would be tropical fish in general (buy/sell, products, accessories, information, etc.).

Here are a few of the hottest niche engine markets:

• Travel
• Stock trading
• Real estate
• Matchmaking (dating)
• Online education (courses, seminars, e-books, tutorials)
• Images (non-adult)
• Vacation rentals
• Precious metals
• Online gaming (cheats, strategies, tools)
• Live Web cams
• Specialty automobiles and parts
• Business research
• Restaurants (reviews, forums, images, live video)
• Retirement communities
• Resorts
• Apartment rentals
• Programming code
• Pets
• Global positioning systems (GPS)

Not interested in any of those? There are lots more niches out there. Do your research. Find out what’s popular. Figure out how you can cater to the latest trends with your niche engine.

Building a Profitable Niche Engine

Developing a profitable search engine takes some tech savvy. Fortunately, sites like ScriptLance, DICE.com, CraigsList, and eLance make it easy to track down freelance programmers and software developers that can help you out. And once the programming of the search software and database is completed, the rest is easy.

Here are a few requirements that you and your programmer should be familiar with before you get started.

1. Your niche engine needs to have a database program like Microsoft Access, SQL, or Oracle that will store information until a user makes a query. Linux has some nice database applications too.

2. In order for users to be able to search your database, you need a program like Autonomy or Google’s Custom Search Business Edition.

3. Your niche engine needs a graphical user interface (GUI). This is what people "see" when they come to your website. It includes the site’s graphic design, color scheme, navigation, "look and feel," etc.

For example, Google’s home page GUI is designed with 97 percent white space, a search box, and three text links below the search box. It is simple and easy to use. What’s more, Google hasn’t changed its GUI very much since the first day it went live… because it works.

Google has a full-time graphic artist who draws unique designs around the word "Google" for special occasions and holidays. But they don’t clog up the site with graphics, JavaScript, Flash, videos, interactive media, advertising, or anything else. The end result is a super-fast search engine that queries millions of pages in a split second. The Yahoo! home page, on the other hand, has a lot more going on. But most of those graphics, ads, and interactive media disappear when you reach the search results pages.

Promoting Your Niche Engine

The key to success for any niche engine is Internet marketing. And to ramp up Internet traffic to your niche engine quickly, I recommend the following four fast-start promotional tactics:

• PPC (pay-per-click) advertising. Google and Yahoo! are the most popular PPC networks, and they can be very effective. But there are some lesser-known networks too, including ABCSearch.com, 7Search.com, Kanoodle.com, and LookSmart.com.

• High-end search engine optimization (SEO). This is the type of SEO that analyzes every aspect of your niche engine, especially as it relates to the top 10 search engines. Two companies that provide high-end SEO are eBrandz.com and BruceClay.com.

• Targeted advertising. This means advertising with e-zines, blogs, websites, directories, and social networking sites that are a natural fit for the subject of your niche engine. Keep in mind that publishers and website owners will always negotiate – so avoid paying retail to place your ads.

• The mass media. If your niche engine is featured in a prominent publication that reaches a large audience, you could receive mind-boggling levels of traffic. But chasing mass media editors and journalists can be a lot of work – without a corresponding return. One alternative is URLWire.com. They offer unique URL announcement services to targeted media, editors, and journalists.

By the way, one of the best kept secrets on the Internet is that all the major search engines and directories tend to give other search engines high rankings on their results pages. Why? Because they give more "weight" to sites that have relevant content. And there are few things on the Internet more relevant than search engines!

You can submit your niche engine into all of the major search engines, and if your site is ranked prominently, you could receive monster traffic… absolutely free.

Advantages of the Niche Search Engine

One of the benefits of having your own niche engine is that it can become an "automatic profit center" for you. (I once developed a niche engine that focused on precious metals dealers. It took less than 30 days and cost me less than $2,500!) It might even develop into multiple profit centers.

On top of that, once set up, niche engines often require minimal administration, babysitting, and maintenance.

The important thing to remember is that they are fairly easy to develop and activate on the Internet.

Don’t get bogged down by the details of launching a niche engine. Put your ideas together on paper and then on a website, and get it live as soon as possible.

Ready, Fire, Aim! You’ll have plenty of time for "tweaking" once it’s up and running.

[Ed. Note: You don't have to limit yourself to traditional ideas when you're thinking of ways to make money. Plenty of profitable opportunities exist just out of sight. Marc Charles - the "King of Business Opportunities" - can show you just where to look for unique and sometimes unusual possibilities.]

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== Highly Recommended ==

How Would You Like To Turn $3,500 Into $50 Million?

Power and money decisively travel toward those who are persuasive. Marketing legend Gene Schwartz helped turn Boardroom Inc from a $3,500 idea into a $50 million powerhouse company with his persuasive ideas.

Many marketers who have since studied Schwartz have built multimillion-dollar empires using those same ideas.

What’s stopping you from doing the same? Why not get started today.

-Charlie Byrne

Choose "Clean" Proteins When on a Low-Carb Diet 

By James B. LaValle, RPh, MS, ND, CCN  

A healthy low-carb diet can and should include plenty of low-glycemic plant foods (non-starchy vegetables, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds). That being said, following a low-carb diet still means eating large amounts of protein and the fats that come with them. So you need to make sure you get your protein from high-quality sources.

High-quality proteins are:

1. Non-Toxic. Toxins from the environment can accumulate in the fat and tissues of animals and fish. Mercury in fish, for example. Or chemicals from pesticide-treated grain fed to animals. 

To avoid consuming too much mercury, eat smaller fish – tilapia, cod, and sardines vs. shark and swordfish. Since toxins tend to accumulate in the fat, eat the leanest cuts of meat possible. And choose organic meats, which ensure the animals were fed only non-pesticide-treated feed.

2. Raised on a Healthy Diet. The meats you eat should be from animals raised on their natural food source. Free-range chickens, for example, are usually fed some grains. But they are also allowed to roam around and peck in the ground for insects and worms, which is what they do when allowed to feed naturally. And the natural diet for cattle includes plenty of grazing in grass.

The more an animal can feed on its natural foods, the richer the nutrient content will be in the meat. Grass-fed beef is not only much leaner than grain-fed beef, it also contains a significant amount of omega 3 fats.

3. Free of Hormones. Selecting organically raised beef or dairy products ensures the animal was raised without growth hormones. Protein from growth-hormone-treated animals may increase your risk of breast cancer, may be linked to early puberty in children, and may be linked to lowered sperm counts in men.

[You really CAN enjoy wonderful food and hearty meals even while losing weight. James B. LaValle, RPh, ND, CCN. - founder of the LaValle Metabolic Institute and a nationally recognized expert on natural therapies - has uncovered a simple way to stay healthy and take total control of your own body with just a few changes to your diet and lifestyle. See how easy it is to start feeling better almost instantly.]

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The Danger of Questions

By Suzanne Richardson

Every trial lawyer knows that it’s a mistake to ask a question unless they already know the answer. The same applies to sales copy.

Take, for instance, a TV commercial for Zyrtec. I’ve seen it several times, and my reaction is always the same. The first line is something like, "Do you remember that old song, ‘Time in a Bottle’?" Well, I am not familiar with that song, so click. I stop paying attention.

This is an example of "exclusionary copy." As the term implies, it excludes part of your audience right off the bat. And the last thing you want your prospective customers to do is think your sales message isn’t aimed at them and skip your ad.

The purpose of your first line is to pique your prospect’s interest… and compel him to read (or listen) further. So before starting any sales letter or ad with a question, make sure you know the answer. And if the answer could be "no," find a new angle or risk having your readers tune out.

[Ed. Note: Learning how to write sales copy that gets your customers to buy is just one reason to get ETR's Internet Money Club Independent Learner Edition. This program is an entire Internet business in a box - everything you need to set up a website, attract traffic, create products, and more. Get all the details right here.]

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It’s Good to Know: The Miracle Fruit

ETR health experts are firm on this point: Sugar is seriously bad for you. But what if you’ve got a sweet tooth? Maybe the miracle fruit can help. This tiny red berry – Synsepalum dulcificum – can transform the way other foods taste.

Linda Bartoshuk of the University of Florida’s Center for Smell and Taste explained to The New York Times that the berry contains a protein called miraculin that binds with taste buds. And then, when it comes in contact with acids, it induces sweetness.

Of course, "miracles" tend to come with a hefty price tag. According to the Times, these berries can cost upward of $2 apiece.

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== Highly Recommended ==

An Opportunity To Skyrocket Profits In Your Business

I’m talking about the opportunity for you to profit massively. I’m also talking about a once-in a lifetime chance to learn fortune-building business secrets.

Jay Abraham knows nearly 100 different ways (that you probably don’t know) to more successfully sell your products or service – offline or online. He knows over 50 ways to make more money from the same effort, time and opportunity just by changing the marketing strategy and approach you follow.

Anthony Robbins says, "One idea Jay gave me in the first hour increased our company’s marketing effectiveness by more than 100%."

If you want to start making a ton more money and have a clear, direct path to real prosperity and business wealth, you owe it to yourself to look into this program.

Word to the Wise: Recherche

Something that’s "recherche" (ruh-sher-SHAY) – from the French for "to seek out" – is either (1) rare or exotic, or (2) pretentious.

Example (as used by Angela Carter in Shaking a Leg): "She was mocking the pretensions of the cookery writer who insists on recherche ingredients not because of their qualities but their snob value."

[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.]

Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 5:10 am and is filed under Daily Issues .