Balancing Your Promotions

Promotion of your online business may take a variety of directions. Some will bring more success than others. Every one is important to consider when you are trying to open the door to visitors to your site.

This article discusses several of the more useful ways to promote and the necessity of keeping some balance in your promotional efforts.

-- SEARCH ENGINES

Everyone needs to make an effort to get their site indexed to the major search engines. If you have no idea how to do this, here is one of the most important links you will ever locate and it comes at no cost.

http://www.Selfpromotion.com/

If you want more people to visit your website, you must know how to create search-engine-friendly web pages, and then submit your URL to all the major search engines. That's what this site is all about.

-- LINKING

Think of links on other websites as road signs that point to your site. That's what links do. They will be useful if they are on high traffic sites that are relevant to your site's content.

Now there are many ways to create and maintain links. Too many for this article to discuss. Here are a couple of pointers about linking.

Avoid "link farms" that create a load of useless, irrelevant links to your site. They may do more harm than good with the search engines.

I recommend that you create a links page and manually add and delete links. Avoid purchasing and installing scripts or other such methods.

If you don't have the skills to do that then, there are some good paid services that will manage your links. A simple search on one of the major search engines will turn up a bunch.

Here are a couple that I can recommend:

http://www.linksmanager.com and
http://www.websitetoolbox.com/

-- JOINT VENTURES

This is simple. I have something to promote. You have a website or newsletter. I will pay you a portion of my profits to promote it.

It can work well if you can endorse the item with a personal statement and recommendation.

Be careful of jumping on all offers. Make sure they are legitimate.

-- ARTICLES

One of the least expensive and most effective ways to get some exposure for your business or newsletter is to write and distribute articles.

Publishers are looking for good, fresh content for their newsletters and ezines. You provide it with a well-researched article.

The trade off is that they are required to include a short resource box at the end of the article that links back to your site.

It's a Win-Win situation.

One of the ways to let your article gain exposure is to list it in several of the online article directories like:

http://www.marketing-seek.com and
http://www.articlecentral.com

There are many others. Just search "article directories".

-- A^D SWAPS

Great way to get some no-cost exposure. If you have an ezine or newsletter, just locate some similar publications and offer to swap a^ds with them.

-- EZINE A^DVERTISING

Probably the easiest ways to get some exposure quickly is to locate and a^dvertise in some selected publications.

Be sure that the newsletter is likely to reach your target audience. It won't do much good to promote your "Yellow widgets" to an ezine which is made up of readers who are mothers of newborns interested in learning about how to mix baby formula.

You can also spend some serious money quickly with this type of promotion. Be sure and track your a^ds to make sure you are making money above your a^dvertising expenses.

Depending on the nature of your online business, some of these promotional types may have more or less relevance for you.

Whichever means you use, try and keep a balance in your efforts that will allow you to most effectively reach your target audience.

Best regards,

Larry Johnson http://www.BizSiteBiz.com/

This article is available for reprint in your newsletter or online publication by keeping the resource box below.

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Don't Overpay Uncle Sam By Peg Bastin

Congress has told the IRS to give huge refunds and deductions to taxpayers who have a h*me-based business, AND anyone who operated one any time in the past three years.

It's true. If you had a h*me-business in any of the past three years, you can easily file an Amended Tax Return (Form 1040X), and get a refund for up to thousands of dollars or more ...PLUS interest!

In most cases, h*me business tax deductions (including vehicle deductions) can reduce your taxes by $3,000 to $5,000. If you had a h*me-based business during 2008, that may mean you're owed a $3,000-$5,000 refund.

In 2004, it may mean you could reduce the amount of taxes being withheld from your paychecks, putting an extra $200-$500 or more extra cash in your pocket, every single month.

ALL of these deductions are the direct result of Congressional Laws, IRS Tax Code and U.S. Tax Court Rulings.

To qualify for the deductions the taxpayer has to be able to prove that they are running their h*me-business like a business (not like a hobby), and that they are trying to make a profit.

Congress wants taxpayers to run h*me-based businesses because it helps strengthen the overall economy. So they told the IRS to authorize deductions, even if the business does NOT make a profit.

Here are some more tips you can use:

If you employ your family members in your business, you must have an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS.

The new IRS procedures for obtaining an EIN, are both easy and fre*e. The easiest way is to do it online by going to http://www.irs.gov, and then, in the field on the left, labeled "Search for Forms or Publications," type in: SS-4.

Even if you don't have any employees, just having an EIN helps show the IRS that you are operating a Business, not a hobby. Use that number (instead of your Social Security number) for filing all future Tax Returns.

Getting The Most Out of Your Vehicle Deductions

Get 4 file folders or envelopes. Label them:

1. GAS receipts for 2004
2. TOLL receipts for 2004
3. REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE for 2004
4. OTHER Vehicle Expenses for 2004

All year long, whenever you incur expenses related to the use of your car (business OR personal), get a receipt and place it into one of these folders. At the end of the year, you and your tax preparer will be able to pick the best method for you.

The IRS only requires four pieces of data in your Vehicle Use Log:

1. Date
2. Destination
3. Purpose of trip
4. Starting/ending odometer readings, OR total number of miles for that trip.

You do NOT need to record every movement of your car all year long. The IRS gives you four options for documenting the business use of your vehicle(s).

Option 1. Keep daily records for a "typical 90-day period". Then apply the business-use percentage to your annual mileage total. You can use any consecutive 90-day period of the year, as long as it represents the average use of your car(s).

Option 2. Keep daily records for the same week of every month of the year. Say, the third week of each month. Then apply those results to your annual mileage total.

Option 3. Keep records all year long, but just record the trips that are EITHER "personal" OR "business." Let's say you keep records just of the personal use of your vehicle(s).

If the odometer reading on December 31, 2004 is 15,000 miles higher than it was on January 1, 2004, and your total "personal" use of the vehicle(s) was 3,000 miles, 20% of your mileage was "personal," so your tax-deductible business mileage will be 80%, or 12,000 miles.

Option 4. You can still record every movement of your vehicle all year long if you want to.

There are many other tax tips that will benefit you, such as:

Writing-Off Meals and Entertainment...
Yes, you can tax-deduct Rent...
Make ALL medical costs tax-deductible...
Some over-the-counter drugs can now be tax-deductible...

I hope that these tips will help you save more of your hard-earned mo^ney this year. Don't wait any longer to help yourself to the mo^ney you've earned this year. I'll be back soon with another installment of IRS tips and tricks for you.

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Written by Peg Bastin, who is an avid internet marketer, glad to help others get started in their own online biz, with Ron Mueller, author of "It's How Much You KEEP, That Counts! Not how much you Make" © =01/01/2004

Warning: Do Not File Your Tax Return Until... You Find Out How To Keep What's Yours. Fre*e details

Since I review business opportunities and internet gurus all day for a living, you can guess I know which ones work and which ones don't. Click here to see how I make my money.