Search engine optimization can be a frightening prospect for many people, which is why there has been such an increase in SEO consulting firms and consultants. Because SEO is not an exact science, it is easy for fly-by night SEO firms to convince people to spend thousands of dollars while they provide only limited results. You need to know what to look for in order to identify inferior SEO consultants.  Here are 2 of the scariest statements that your SEO consultant can make.

1.   Guaranteeing Results

Guaranteed results are not possible. If they promise that your website will be on the first page of Google, then there is a good chance that they are talking about an Adwords campaign (which will ending up costing you a lot of money). Perhaps they just might have some basic misconceptions about SEO.  It is important to understand that Google has a fleet of people tweaking the search engine algorithm on an almost constant basis.  Even though the changes are often only slight in nature, they still can have an affect on your website.

2.   Recommends Buying Links

If your SEO consultant primarily wants to buy links (which can cost thousands of dollars), then it is time to move on. Your consultant is nothing more than a link broker, and you don’t need a consultant for this because everyone can buy links. If all they do is buy links for you, why do need them?  It is important to have a comprehensive SEO strategy and if your SEO consultant cannot provide one, then find one who can.

These are a couple of warning signs and there are others which include spamming social sites. However, these 2 signs make it obvious that you need to look elsewhere for your SEO help. Remember search engine optimization is not an exact science any way so you should not waste your  time and money with a consultant who claims to guarantee results and wants to become your link broker.

Cash Crate is a program you can join for free and get paid to take surveys. It’s actually much more than that and you really should take a close look at it.

This money making opportunity contains a forum where people talk about how much money they are making. You see average ordinary people earning everywhere from a few dollars a month to a four figure income.

To be truthful making over $1000 a month with Cash Create is only going to be possible if you refer new members. Actually the opportunity to make more money is available for referring people as much as it is for taking surveys yourself.

Cash Crate runs contests every month. One month they’ll give bonuses to people who complete the most offers. The next month they will offer cash incentives to the top 10 people who refer the most new members.

There are opportunities to complete surveys from legitimate companies. These businesses will pay you for your opinion if you’re willing to take the time to complete a survey.

It is interesting that Cash Crate has a two-tier affiliate program. Not only do you make money when you take surveys, you also make money on two levels of people underneath you when they take surveys.

This is a very good way to develop another income stream and you definitely should care about Cash Crate!

Social media has taken the internet marketing industry by storm in recent years.

If you are using social media, have you ever wondered how much your contacts there are worth? People are no longer surprised that they may have more than 1,000 Twitter followers, but hardly any of them are converting into solid leads.

One of the major problems with social media is that most internet marketers get so caught up in building a massive number of followers that they never take the time to set up the proper metrics to determine how valuable these followers are.  In fact, there is a good chance that most of your Twitter followers have no idea who you are.  Most of them probably followed you in hopes that you would follow them back.

To get a better idea of how effective social media contacts are, let’s take a look at some other popular internet marketing communication methods.  The most obvious method of communication has been around long before the internet.  At one time list-building, was done by collecting business cards, and is now done by email. List-building is much more valuable than Twitter, for example, which is estimated to have a top value per contact of about $3.50..

On the other hand, an IBM study reported that a single loyal email contact is worth just under $950.  This is because when someone signs up for your list, they are trading personal information for something else, normally a free resource, such as an ebook.  This instantly builds a more personal relationship, which is a major reason that a person on your list is worth so much more than a Twitter or Facebook follower.

Blogging fits somewhere in between social media contacts and people on your list. Subscribing to your blog’s RSS feed takes as little as two clicks, which is much faster than signing up for email, but longer than following someone on Twitter. Therefore, it is no surprise that your RSS subscribers are more valuable than Twitter followers, but less valuable than someone who has subscribed to your email list.

There are several conclusions that you can draw from this and none of them involve ditching social media all together.  In order to monetize your social media contacts, it is essential that you get them to take another step.  It is important that you get your followers to sign up for your blog’s RSS feed or email list.  This will give you a greater opportunity to build a lasting relationship with them, and of course monetize them a little better.  The second conclusion is that while social media contacts can still be useful, they should not be the primary factor of your internet marketing.

A strong social media presence will help you achieve credibility among your readers, which can be leveraged in a variety of ways that are not directly tied to your Twitter followers or Facebook friends.

There certainly are a lot of ways to make money at home today. Rather than talk about specific opportunities let me give you 4 home business money making ideas you can ponder.

1.Provide a service.  For example you could build websites for people.
You could even target local business owners who are off-line and do not have a website. There are millions of those.

Other services that are very popular right now include blog writing, graphic design, becoming a virtual assistant, and so on. Internet marketers will pay you to do things they don’t have time to do or cannot do themselves.

2.Email marketing.  There are people who earn a full-time living online just building a mailing list and promoting to it. You can combine information products such as ClickBank and make money selling to your mailing list. This is the type of asset that can really pay off for you in the future if you build a large enough responsive list.

3.Network marketing.  Choose opportunities that are Internet-based.
MLM programs such as domain names, membership sites, home business training, and so on, all provide an excellent opportunity to build a worldwide business without shipping a product.

4.Affiliate marketing. You get paid to sell other people’s stuff and millions of people make money every day doing this. There are ways to make money by the click, by the lead, and by the sale so you have plenty of choices.

These are 4 good home business money making ideas that anyone can start and develop into an income generating business.

I have been doing Internet marketing long enough now to know what the best legitimate home business opportunity is. Although this could vary from individual to individual let me give you my favorite opportunity here.

As you can tell by the theme of my website I am a big believer in affiliate marketing. I specifically like the Affiliate Power Group and think it is a great opportunity to get involved with.

This is an actual membership site that will teach you how to do niche affiliate marketing. My Affiliate Sales System blog was developed because of my membership in the APG.

This is a good niche to be in because you never run out of prospects. Every day millions of people come on the Internet looking for ways to make money.

More of them are gravitating to affiliate marketing because of how easy it is to start. However making money as an affiliate marketer is not necessarily easy until you learn how.

For this reason I think this makes the Affiliate Power Group a true legitimate home business opportunity. You are dealing with a real program that you can make money with and a discussion forum that helps teach you how.

What more can you ask for when it comes to a real way to start making money!

Every real work at home business provides at least three things. We are going to break those down in this brief article.

1. Your Own Website

You should have your own website or blog on which to promote your products.

The company you join will usually furnish you with a website.

Even if you do network marketing or affiliate marketing you should be

marketing your own website first.

Products and programs will come and go, but hopefully your home business

will be around for a long time. You can make it a real work at home business

by making it about you and making it interesting, not about the products and

programs you are selling.

2. An Autoresponder

Use an autoresponder to capture prospects names and email addresses. You should have a sign-up form on your primary home page.

You should also add it to all of the webpages you build. This should be included in the sidebar of your blog which makes it easy to have it on every page as you publish a blog article.

3. Offer Training

Real work at home businesses offer training. Although you might be in business for yourself you are not in business by yourself.

You are going to need some help and there is no better place to look for it than in the company you have joined! You should be able to find this help in the form of a discussion forum and archived online training provided by the program owner.

Internet home business opportunities are often difficult for some people to make money. Let’s take a look at 3 of the reasons why this is often true.

1. Lack of Basic Skills.  Many people do not have the skills needed to take an opportunity and turn it into a money making Internet business. You do not have to be a “techi”, but if you are going to compete online you do need to take the time to learn some basic computer skills.

2. Not a Self Starter. Some people are so used to having a boss and following directions that they have difficulty working on their own. It’s too easy to talk yourself out of working when you do not have a boss to supervise you.

There are a lot of distractions at home and this can sidetrack you as well. Although working at home sounds good in reality it can be more difficult than you would think.

3. Lack of Focus. Many internet marketers, especially newer ones, are distracted by all of the promotions that promise easy ways to make money. It is very competitive on the Internet today. So whether you have chosen to become an affiliate marketer, develop your own product or provide a service you should focus on marketing your chosen niche.

There are many ways you can market your product including: advertising, article marketing, blogging, participating in relevant forums, email marketing etc. The best approach is to learn and use one form of marketing at a time and then continue to add others.

These are only 3 of the many obstacles you will face in marketing your internet home business opportunity. However, if you learn the basic skills, plan each work day and stick to your plan, and maintain your focus you will make a good start in becoming a successful internet marketer.