Increase Your Sales and Search Engine Rankings

Article Marketing Background: Most companies today favor soft sell marketing. A lot of consumers also prefer this way of marketing because it creates a connection between seller and consumers. Businesses ensure products and services can improve the lives of the consumers or suit their wants rather than pressuring them to immediately buy. This more personal approach convinces the consumer that a much thought is placed on their personal needs rather than making a sale.

Article content marketing is a soft sell marketing method rapidly gaining dominance in Internet marketing today. As a marketing method, it predates the World Wide Web. It was used in print media before its Internet popularity grew. It is still being used in offline publications up to this day.

In online Article Marketing, particular attention is given to giving useful information regarding a topic. This topic usually caters to particular niches. The article also contains a bio box and a byline. These contain links pointing to other sites related to the article topic or pages with contact information of businesses operating in related industries. These articles are published by online article directories. Most (if not all) offline publications have online directories.

Publishing Articles Online: Article directories are websites that publish articles to do with a variety of topics and make them available to users looking for updated relevant information as well as to syndicated content publishers interested in publishing the articles on their sites. Apart from providing information on certain topics, articles also have the author\'s links pointing to sites with relevant information/advice, products or services. Most of these directories post the articles for free. The directories make their money from advertisements shown on published article content pages.

A well crafted article may have the opportunity to be published in many article directories. This means greater exposure and more clicks by target readers on the author\'s links. This then increases the chances of the author to make a sale.

One most likely difference of offline content marketing from online Article Marketing is the consideration of search engine optimization. Authors place keywords in articles targeting a particular marketing niche. The search engines then index these articles based on those keywords.

Effective keyword placement has a certain method to it. When too many keywords are present, article directories may not publish the article at all. They regard this as spam since the presence of too much keywords may turn the articles into unreadable overly keyword-stuffed content or its information could be less useful.

Readability and usefulness of information is important because this is what readers want. They will most likely read other articles of the same author or even share the articles to their friends and loved ones this way. This: (1) drives more targeted traffic to article directories; (2) increased chances of readers clicking ads and the author\'s links; (3) higher PR and search engine rankings of the author\'s linked pages for target keywords and (4) higher popularity which may lead to better sales margins.

Benefits of Article Marketing: Target readers benefit from article content marketing through added knowledge of relevant topics. They also get useful and updated relevant information or advice quickly.

How to Make Money Online

Many people would like to earn extra money by being involved in online businesses. It is a fact that the internet is a perfect tool in order to become profitable especially in times of economic decline. If you are one of those people who want to make money online, several factors should first be considered in order to achieve success.

In order to make money online, it is best to obtain technical knowledge as well as gain sufficient experience in various online activities. This would allow you to earn the confidence of customers. Technical knowledge refers to the data, contents, or information that can be found in your website. Make sure that you are aware of the ins and outs of your own website. In addition, make sure that you have enough lessons learned from successful online marketers regardless if you want to pursue a home based business or a huge online venture.

Besides obtaining technical knowledge, you can be assured to make money online if have a website with appropriate design and functionality. It is best to consider a website design that is simple and easy to navigate in order to turn on potential customers. Some people get discouraged when they enter a website that is unreasonably artistic. Your website should be able to address your offer to visitors directly but subtly.

When creating or building a website, keep in mind that you would use it as a means of interacting and communicating with your visitors and potential clients. More so, you should have a part in your website, which is able to allow visitors to share their feedbacks about the product or services you are offering. In addition, your website can also be a means for advertising your customers' products and services. The website that you create should be able visitors and customers to exchange ideas, which are beneficial to you as well as other online marketers.

You can make use of different methods in order to make money online. However, it is still advisable to apply and implement some traditional principles and strategies, which many successful online marketers use for their businesses. You can integrate these traditional strategies to current techniques to ensure you address every generation that enters or visits your website.

Interview With Fairview Capital's Senior Analyst, Aakar Vachhani

If you have considered working for a venture capital firm, you have probably discovered that obtaining a position as an investment analyst is extremely challenging. Recently, I have been in the process of determining if this is the career path that I would like to pursue. Before exhausting all of my efforts to attain a spot in this incredibly competitive and exciting environment, I decided to interview Aakar Vachhani, a Senior Analyst at Fairview Capital.

Aakar joined Fairview's team in 2008, where he is involved in research, due diligence, investment monitoring, and business development. Before joining Fairview, he was an Analyst in the alternative asset performance group at Cambridge Associates where he was responsible for tracking fund and company performance metrics for private equity, venture capital, and real estate funds, as well as analyzing and producing due diligence reports for select funds. In addition, Aakar has also worked with consulting teams to provide portfolio performance reporting to endowments, foundations, colleges/universities, public pensions, and family offices. Furthermore, at Cambridge Associates, he led quantitative research and analysis projects on private equity and venture capital benchmarks. Aakar has studied at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Economics - Finance from Bentley College.

I wanted to know the best way to get a job in the venture capital industry, so I asked Aakar how he landed his position at Cambridge Associates and Fairview Capital. He told me that the industry is relatively small and that there are not a lot of positions available for younger people. It is difficult to find employment with a firm, especially straight out of school without any relevant experience. Aakar said that Bentley's career service department helped him connect with Cambridge Associates, one of the most well respected consulting firms that specialize in consulting pension funds, endowments, foundations and family offices on private equity and venture capital investment portfolios. They happened to have an opening for an internship in their performance reporting group. Unfortunately, getting this position was difficult. Aakar got through two rounds of interviews and was turned down. The next year, Cambridge Associates posted a full-time position. Aakar decided to apply during his fall semester, went through three rounds of interviews, and was ultimately rejected. In the spring, he applied again and after another three rounds of interviews, and an incredible amount of persistence, he was finally offered the position.

Working at Cambridge Associates was a great way for Aakar to learn about the venture capital industry. He said that he was constantly looking for ways to get involved and increase his knowledge. After two years of experience, Aakar decided to look for other opportunities. He noticed that Fairview Capital had an opening for a research analyst and decided to apply for the position. Since obtaining the position, he has been promoted to a Senior Analyst on the investment team.

After learning about how Aakar got involved in venture capital, I asked him about what he does on a daily basis. In any given day, he accomplishes a variety of different aspects of the business. While he is performing due diligence on potential investments, he is meeting with venture capitalists, analyzing performance and crafting recommendations. With regards to business development, he builds presentations for clients or potential new investors and puts together marketing material for new funds. Aakar also assists with annual and semi-annual reporting and writes summaries on fund activity and performance. In correlation with research, he explores investment themes and writes about them in newsletters and research reports. Aakar has also helped developed hosting symposiums, web conferences and even podcasts with venture capitalists.

Aakar has a broad role and it was important for me to learn about his daily responsibilities. Having the drive to be involved in venture capital is certainly not common among most individuals. I went on to ask Aakar about when he knew he wanted to be involved in the industry. He said that he started to develop interest when he was in his third year at Bentley. In his senior year, he became interested in venture capital, but he never knew that working for a fund of funds would be a good fit. Aakar's defines his interest of the venture capital industry to be more of an evolutionary process.

One Business Partner or Many

The great thing about the internet is that we are all connected and we can all talk to each other very easily, whether that is over the phone, text messaging, Skype, Instant Messaging, Twitter, Facebook or any other avenue. But that is also the problem, there are tons of choices and it is very tempting to try to network and partner with every single person in your niche, that way you will have access to everyone you need.

The problem with that is that also means you will have to manage multiple people they will have to manage you, you will have to make commitments to them and there is also the issue of splitting up the money. Let's talk about which is better, having one business partner with internet marketing or many business partners.

The good thing about having multiple business partners when you are working online is that you can delegate or outsource much of the work. If you want to pay a copywriter, pay an article writer, pay a graphic designer a set amount of money for them to complete a preagreed task, that is great. That is less learning curve for you, less time you have to spend, and less work in general for you.

That is great because you can focus on the one thing you are great at, for example it might be video creation or webinars, and let someone else worry about the things you might not be interested in such as copywriting or graphics.

Another interesting thing about working with different partners is that they all motivate you in different ways. You might be motivated to help one person because you simply don't want to let them down, or you want to make them proud. You might help someone else because they are simply enthusiastic and energetic about what you are working on, and you want to match that level of energy.

If you are working on a team of five or ten people and you all have websites or you all have lists, and all are marketing each other there is a huge exchange of ideas, and resources, and excitement. The problems with working with many people is the distractions, and that you have to split up the money.

What I mean by that is if you have a mini syndicate of 10 marketers and you all promote for each other, it's a double-edge sword. If they all promote you that is going to be great because now you are getting ten times as much traffic, ten times as many clicks, ten times as many sales as you would otherwise. The problem is that you are now dedicated and expected to promote those other nine people at a later date. If you do some kind of affiliate program or revenue sharing program now you are going to have to split your money many different ways.

What I would recommend is stand on your own at first, make your own product, make your own business, have other people come on as affiliates and promote other people as affiliates as well, but don't necessarily hook up with and make commitments to many people right away. Start marketing alone then maybe work on one business partner and then expand to other business partners later.

How to Find a Lawyer Who is a Perfect Fit

If an organisation is in a situation where it needs to deal with legal knowledge, sound analysis and proper business sense, it is important to engage the services of an attorney who can play the role of "business advisor". In fact, most experts agree that fostering relationships with specialized legal eagles is the key to successfully navigating issues which can hamper the economic growth of any organisations.

The question that needs to be asked now is "How do we go about finding this so-called specialized attorney?" It would be a folly to just flip the telephone directory and appoint the first lawyer that comes into view.

A good management practice is still by word-of-mouth recommendations - that's getting referrals from friends and colleagues. When requesting for their referrals, make very sure you tell them very clearly what you need solved and the kind of attorney you need.

Another way is to do an advanced search on the Internet. The websites that pops up every time you do a search, no matter what keywords or phrase you had typed into Google or Yahoo! do not mean that they are top class. It is possible that they are top class in terms of advertising only!

If your firm is in the healthcare business, it is wise to focus on getting a lawyer whose niche is healthcare law, meaning a healthcare attorney. Don't go for those "Jack of all trades, master of none" lawyers.

After some soul searching, if, for instance, you fancy law firms A, B and C, the next logical thing to do would be to go to review sites, forums and blogs to see what people have to say about A, B and C. Read testimonials too, but be careful because some testimonials are fakes.

If you can get hold of Speakers' Lists at academy meetings etc, it would come in very handy in your search for an attorney who is a perfect fit for your organization.

Do knock on the doors of the state attorney's office, relevant societies and Bar associations in your area and ask them whether they can give you referrals for the kind of lawyers you are looking for.

Yes, getting a good lawyer requires a lot of leg work but it will be worth it. If you simple grab any Tom, Dick and Harry that come along, you may live to regret it.