It is not unusual to think of changing to a new career if you are not happy with your present job or if you are interested in taking up something new. Starting out in a completely new field may seem scary to most people initially, but a well-planned change is guaranteed to be the right choice in the long run.

Research, Plan And Then Decide

Planning plays a vital role in ensuring success when you set off on a new job. While planning a change in your career, the first thing to do is to research the prospects of the new job. Understand what the job will offer you personally and professionally. If possible, it would be great to decide on a job that will allow you to tap into the skills and experience that you may have acquired from your previous job.

For instance, if you have been working as an engineer for some time, it may not be obvious how to use those skills while planning a career in writing. However, if your new career is going to be writing on subjects related to engineering, it is definitely a wise choice that will allow you to make good use of your valuable experience.

Great Tips On Making A Career Shift

Here are some tips that will help make your career switch easier and less stressful.

- Recognize your strong points.

Are you like most people who consider shifting to a new career because they were not happy about something in their previous job? If yes, keep this in mind and make sure you do not repeat the mistake. Understand your weaknesses and try to improve those areas in which you lack talent.

- Utilize your skills.

A new job does not necessarily mean abandoning all your previous skills. Some skills are absolutely essential no matter what career you choose. Skills like motivation, planning, leadership and communication are a few such skills that will come in handy in your new career.

- Update your education

To ensure you have adequate education and training required for the new job, it would be a good idea to enroll in online courses or night classes.

- Get relevant experience.

If you are shifting to an entirely new industry, you may not have relevant experience to get into a good company. In this case, it is highly recommended that you take up a part-time job that is related to your new career.

- Seek advice from a mentor.

It would be great to get a mentor who can guide you through the difficult phase of shifting to a new job.

- Be up-to-date with emerging careers.

As science and technology continue to evolve, there are exciting career options sprouting up regularly. Keep track of these career options and research your options well before making a choice. The IT sector in particular is a fast growing one with plenty of wonderful opportunities.

- Create a great resume.

The first impression that an employer gets from your resume is going to be a lasting one. So, update your resume and include details relevant to your new job.

Adopt all or a few of these tips to give yourself a great start on your new career.

Social Networking has become immensely popular over the last couple of years. It has proven to give value both for the individual and for business owners. Social networking sites enable you to socialize, meet new people, connect with old friends and create new business opportunities for your network marketing company.

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn are just a few sites you should participate actively in for your Internet business. Joining these sites will help you build your list of contacts, create traffic to your website, establish yourself as a leader in the network marketing industry, and share your business opportunity with prospects. Participating in forum discussions will also give you more exposure and will help you generate leads - the life blood of any MLM business.

Social networking websites allow you to be more efficient because you will be able to learn more about certain prospects through reading their profiles in the social networking site before contacting them. You don't need to find and connect with them one at a time in chat rooms and ask them about their interests to know if they are likely to join your network marketing business. After you have read their profiles and learned a bit about them, you can tell right away if they are a good fit for the kind of business you are offering. After which, you can then invite them to be on your friends' list so they can have a look at your profile as well and eventually follow the links going to your website.

Small and large business owners get value from these social networking sites by helping them to build alliances and business partnerships. They can also help to build a strong web presence and reach people globally to inform them of the products and business opportunities they are offering. So instead of going door to door to tell people about their business, they just have to create a powerful profile on these social networking sites and upload their product and business information for the world to know what they have to offer.

Before you can enjoy the many benefits of social networking, you need to carefully choose the social networks that you wish to join. I would personally recommend Twitter, Youtube and Facebook just to start. There are other social networking sites that you can branch off to later on like Squidoo, LinkedIn, and Hub Pages just to name a few. I have gotten the most results from the first three I've listed so they are definitely a good bet.

As more and more marketing functions move to the web, businesses are at least starting to understand the requirements of ranking for keywords relevant to the business. Most however still don't understand how Google and other search engines determine who gets top placements. The guidelines here will at least put you in position to achieve higher search engine ranks.

For businesses that want to wade into this arena, here are some guidelines that might save you the cost associated with website optimization. Bear in mind that there's no free ride here. Expect to put some time in this effort if you really want to see results.

Consider this a short lesson in "on-page" SEO, things that you can do to your website to improve search engine visibility. This list should be applied to EACH PAGE of your site. (You should measure your results by tracking site rank and monitor your traffic with Google Analytics).

For all pages on your website, you should:

1. Pick a primary keyword phrase that you want the page to rank for (a keyword phrase can be one or more words).

2. Pick a couple of secondary keyword phrases related to the main keyword phrase.

3. Put the primary keyword phrase at the beginning of the list of keywords in your metatags.

4. Include the secondary keyword phrases also in the keyword metatag list.

5. Use the primary keyword phrase in the description metatag. (try to also include the secondary keywords in the description)

Don't load in keyword phrases that you won't be discussing on the page in either the keyword or description metatags. (It doesn't help).

6. Put the primary keyword phrase in the url (if you can). Use underscores to separate words.

7. Put the primary keyword phrase in the Title of the page (this is a biggie!)

8. Use the primary keyword between H1 Header tags in the content area.

9. I usually recommend the content follow a five paragraph essay broken up with graphics etc. Open the page introducing the main keyword phrase and mention the secondary keywords in context (1st paragraph). Each paragraph after this should discuss a secondary keyword and relate it back to the primary keyword. You can highlight sub-paragraphs with H2 or H3 Header tags using the secondary keyword terms to make them stand out. The closing paragraph summarizes the importance of the primary keyword as it relates to secondary keywords (again using those terms in context)

10. Put keywords in alt-text of the images. Use images to break up the text and enhance the content. Keep the images relevant. .

Note: Secondary keywords could become primary keywords for sub-pages. In that way, your site is a never-ending work in progress.

NEXT STEP: When you've shored up the content of your site, you should then take a look at your internal linking. Use keyword loaded hyperlinks. For example, if you have an inner page about wedding flowers and find occasion to call attention to that page, hyperlink the words "wedding flowers" to that page. The point being: the words that you use in the hyperlink define what Google thinks the target page is about. Same goes for your home page. Instead of "Home", you should link "Keyword Phrase" (whatever that keyword phrase is) to the home page. One way to do this: Imagine creating an index to your site that enumerates the keywords that you want to rank for and links those keywords to appropriate pages within the site (for example). You can get creative but again keep your link text focused on the keywords that you want to show up for in the search engines. Include a "mini" index of keyword links on a page linking the reader to related pages of content. You can see that this will make it easier for the site visitor to find related information AND it will also send the search engine spiders in a frenzy (in a good way).

Need a mantra? THINK LINKS!

NEXT STEP: That pretty much covers all you can do for your site. Next, pay attention to the in-bound links you have coming to your site. The same rule above applies to those links as well. So first, approach your existing link partners whom you already have inbound links with and ask to redefine the links that they have. You should provide the code to them if they don't know how to do it. Use keyword defined hyperlinks instead of just linking the URL. If you redefined all the links that you had TO your site with your primary keyword phrase instead of your URL, you very likely will see a significant bump in your rank relative to that keyword phrase.

I think once you get this far, you should be seeing significant improvements in your rank. The key to SEO beyond this is finding ways to generate inbound links of this nature.

I don't want to waste you time with hype and other useless garbage so I'm going to get right down to it. In this article you are going to find out about 2 methods of making money online. The first method for making money online using free techniques will make you a decent amount of bank if you really work hard at it but the real money lies in using the second method.

The second method will allow you to make six figures online. How? Because this method is a real business model which requires very little effort on your part. So, keep on reading to find out about these 2 simple methods for making money online...

Fill Out Free Offers And Make Money Online...

The first way to make money online with ease is to fill out free offers using a website called CashCrate. CashCrate is a website that allows you to fill out surveys and free offers in exchange for money. It is entirely free, very simple to use, and best of all a guaranteed way to make money online.

Now, I will not lie to you. You aren't going to be making hundreds of dollars a day just by filling out free offers and surveys. However, it is possible to earn several thousands of dollars every single month by using CashCrate if you know how to work the system correctly.

You see, the real money starts rolling in once you start referring other people to CashCrate. When you do this you will be making money on complete autopilot. You won't see a whole lot of money right away but if you keep on referring new people to CashCrate then you will begin to see a very nice side income roll in you way. Just click the link below to visit CashCrate for yourself.

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Keep on reading to find out about a method of making money online which has the potential to make you six figures a year...

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about getting potential customers to visit your website. It is also about building a quality website full of great content. It uses keywords appropriately and gets links "naturally" because people love what you have on your site. SEO companies can provide very useful services including keyword research, site review, providing technical advice on your website development and also management of online business marketing campaigns. They can also help with content development, article marketing and article distribution. Although it's not brain surgery, it is hard to do and usually requires a lot of thought and real work.

Some unethical SEO firms attempt to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. These practices could get your website ranked lower or even banned. When looking at SEO - either to optimize yourself or if you are looking to hire a company, here are some things to take into account.
Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Say They Will Get Thousands Of Links To Your Site

It is not the number of sites that make the difference - it's the quality of the sites. When firms promise huge numbers of links, or say that you will become part of their "network of sites", it usually means a link farm is involved. A link farm is any group of websites that all hyperlink to every other site in the group. Search engines don't like this and it can lead to penalties. Instead, practice reciprocal linking with legitimate and related websites for better search engine ranking.

Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Guarantee A High Ranking On Google

No one can guarantee a high ranking on Google. Some SEO companies provide a guarantee on their services. This is fine. What's not fine is guaranteeing high ranking in an incredibly short period of time. When these unrealistic results fail to happen, the company will balk at giving a refund, suggest other services instead and start to become unreachable or disappear.

Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Send "Spammy" Emails

These emails are unsolicited and usually begin with "We've noticed that you are not lísted in some search engines..." You should be searching for a high-ranking SEO company; they will not be searching for you. Spam means scam. You don't buy your medications from spammers so why buy SEO services from them?

Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Are Secretive Or Don't Clearly Explain What They Are Going To Do

Most reputable SEO firms are upfront with their clients and like to share their knowledge. They are confident that even if their clients understand their process, they won't leave them. If the SEO firm claims it's too complicated for you to understand, or if they say they have trade secrets and proprietary technology, it's a sign that they may not be ethical in dealing with your website.

Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Say They Will Submít Your Site To Thousands Of Top Search Engines And Directories

Besides the small fact that there aren't that many search engines, consider that the guidelines of the search engines themselves tell you that it doesn't do any good anymore. Search Engines are good at what they do - searching for sites - and you don't need to pay someone to submít your site to a search engine. If they make this claim, they will probably use Free For All (FFA) junk sites that might damage your site's standings.
Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Say They Can Optimize And Promote Your Site For A Low, Low Monthly Fee

Not all monthly SEO or SEM (Search Engine Management) service contracts or monthly fees are a scam. There are real reasons to pay a monthly fee to an SEO expert. These would include conditions when you would require SEO management: when you or someone else is constantly generating new content or new features for your site; implementing link-building campaigns; implementing PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns; or starting a brandcasting campaign. Press release distribution, email campaigns and article marketing campaigns could also require a legitimate monthly fee.

Not-so-legitimate fees could include monthly re-submittíng of your site to search engines, "tweaking" your code to keep up with changes and regularly submitting your site to hundreds of useless free-for-all directories. The worthwhile companies that charge a monthly fee will usually be able to tell you exactly how much it is per month to generate blog entries or generate and distribute articles or press releases. And it won't be for the low, low price of $79.95.

Choose Your SEO Company And Services Carefully

Do your research and don't make the decision lightly. If you were hiring a contractor to remodel your kitchen you would want to see other kitchen projects they've done and speak with the owners about the company's business practices. You should do the same thing when hiring an SEO company. Get referrals and really speak with them.

There are many online tips about choosing and hiring SEO firms that you can check out as well. Remember, SEO is a long-term strategy and you should take the time to do your research before buying or you'll probably be buying again.

One of the biggest measurements of a website's success is the stickiness of its visitor base. Generally web masters would rather have 1,000 visitors who return regularly (they are "stuck to the site") as opposed to 3,000 visitors who only visit once or twice. These days the web is massive, carving out a niche for your site and gaining a following within that niche is the key to success.

There are many reasons why you should try to make your website as sticky as possible. Visitors who return regularly are more likely to purchase some of your products or content. If you have a membership site, then retaining your member base is critical for growing your íncome and long term success. Also, a faithful following will encourage viral promotíon of your site.
Search engine optimization can be a costly and time consuming task and your site's listing can be hammered down by the powers that be (Google) in the blink of an eye. If you gain a faithful user base though, they will tell their friends and family about your site and encourage them to use it as well. Viral marketing is the cheapest and most effective type of marketing there is and making your site and content desirable is the only way to achieve this phenomenon. There are "five C's" of stickiness to remember, and they are:

Content

Regardless of the site's design, without good content, the visitor will not come back or stay at the site for more than a few minutes. "Content is King" is a cliché, but true. High quality content is far and away the most important factor in attracting people back to a Web site consistently, and keeping them there for more than a few minutes when they do visit. It is said, in fact, that content is what drives 75 percent of consumers to return to their favorite sites.

In addition to your site being content rich, try to also keep it fresh. At least part of your site will be regularly updated, preferably at least once a month. This is why web sites which resemble online brochures fail. Delivering the same content in a blog, posted in installments, can be much more effective. This will encourage users to come back regularly, as they check in to see what new content you've added lately. This is stickiness in a nutshell.

Community

When a site attracts enough visitors with similar interests it has the potential to develop into a "community." That can be very powerful for the site owner. Providing message forums, chat rooms, podcasts, user profiles, blogs, etc. are all tools to allow your visitors to interact with both you and each other. This also makes your site VERY sticky if you are able to develop a thriving community.

Rather than visiting your site once a month people may begin to visit it multiple times a week. Having a thriving community can be viewed as developing a site which is constantly developing its own content. Rather than requiring you to spend hours developing content, you can instead monitor the postings on your site to ensure they retain the kind of atmosphere you want for your site. As time goes by you may also be able to appoint some of your more responsible members to monitoring positions to do this job for you as well.

Communication

Communication is equally important as content and community. Communication includes building and maintaining your list, reaching out to people on it and interacting with visitors to your site. Try to respond to any question, comments, or feedback you receive promptly. This builds relationships with your visitors and will keep them coming back.

One of the best ways to reach out to customers is to provide quality, free information. This is basically a sample of what your site has to present, and should always help address the questions your visitors came to your site for answers for. The very nature of the web stresses that you consider offering more free content to your customers than most other mediums do. You have too much competition to be stingy. One of the most effective means of providing content to customers and developing a slate of potential customers at the same time is to give a free guide to visitors who provide you with a name and email address.
For example, if you run a site teaching real estate tips and tricks, after your visitors have seen your "foot in the door" content located on your "splash page," provide them the first lesson of your course on real estate for free in exchange for their name and email address. You benefit from this by having names to attach to the IP addresses of your visitors. This provides you with more information about who is being drawn into your site. It is also important you use a quality auto-responder for this step, as communication is a critical part of your site and must be handled professionally.

One last note on communication: Be sure to provide your name and contact information clearly throughout your site. It will frustrate and turn away visitors if they have a question or comment and cannot figure out how to reach you. By providing a name and place to reach you it also helps contribute to the last two "C's..."

Commerce and Consumer Confidence

These are perhaps the two most important things that get overlooked in websites. First, effectively promote your site by using professional marketing and search engine optimization for the niche your site seeks to fill. Provide reliable, safe, and secure means for your customers to purchase your for-pay content. If your ordering method does not look safe, all your efforts working to sell your content to your visitors will be lost if they get to the order page and you look like an unprofessional, fly-by-night operator. Always use a secure ordering form. Offering a monëy back guarantee can be extremely helpful to reassure customers.

Lastly, respect your customer's privacy. Make it clear you will not sell their names, personal information, or email addresses. People hate spam and will be hesitant to identify themselves to you out of fear of having their information sold if you do not provide some kind of assurance against this. A clear and easy to locate privacy policy is necessary.

Hot Wholesale Tips You MUST Follow!

1. Thorough market research is the foundation for success

Meticulous market research doubles your chances of making a tidy profit from the wholesale goods you buy. Start off with a list of 5-10 different ideas. Then check completed listings searches on eBay to see what the item generally sells for and the sell-through rate for each one. Use Yahoo's free keyword tool http://inventory.overture.com to find out how many people are searching Yahoo for your product per month. You can double this figure for Google. Add the numbers together. If there are ten thousand or more searches per month for an item, this indicates a healthy market.

2. Calculate the REAL cost of your item

One big reason why people fail at the wholesale game is that they don't do the numbers. In other words, they don't treat wholesale like a real business. To accurately discover your true profit potential on an item, you need to add the shipping cost and insurance, eBay fees (or equivalent for other advertising), Paypal and/or credit card fees (these can be a real profit killer), packaging costs and labor involved packaging, and any storage costs to the cost of your item.

3. Verify ALL suppliers found on the Internet

Getting caught out by scammers is a common stumbling block for people new to wholesale. If you are searching for suppliers off your own bat (rather than using a wholesale directory like SaleHoo), it is CRITICAL to check authenticity before making a purchase.

Always take the time to:

• Check that the website gives a full business name and a registration number.
• Check for a legitimate contact telephone number - this will involve ringing the number. Do not accept a mobile phone number alone. All real companies should have a land line number.
• Go to http://www.whois.sc/ and search for the name of the website. A legitimate company will have a domain expiration date in several years time. Most legitimate companies reserve their domain names for 3-5 years or more at a time.
• AVOID suppliers who won't agree to use secure payment methods such as Escrow.com, Credit Card and Paypal Verified.
• Still uncertain? Ask other sellers what their experiences have been with the company you are interested in on eBay forums.

4. Chinese suppliers give the competitive edge

Chinese suppliers are an essential source for anyone wishing to make money selling online. Manufacturing costs are currently extremely low in China, thus it is the secret to gaining a competitive edge. Dealing with China does have risks, but these can be alleviated if you place a small order first, use secure payment methods, get shipping insurance for 110% of the cost of the items, and use suppliers with a good reputation.

5. A common stumbling block for liquidation and closeout

Always obtain the reasons for liquidation and closeout sales before you buy. Liquidation and Closeout sales can be a fantastic source for cheap products, but you usually have to buy by the pallet load and these can sometimes include broken or returned goods that aren't in saleable condition. To be safe, ask specifically whether broken items and returns are included before you buy.

6. Negotiate on shipping and save

Shipping economically is critical to importing success. Profits can easily get swamped in shipping costs, so take time to get a good deal on shipping. If possible, negotiate CIF (Cost, Insurance & Freight) or DDP (Delivery, duty paid) shipping terms with your supplier as this takes much of the risk - not to mention organization - off your shoulders. FOB (Freight on Board) is the most common shipping term, but don't be afraid to negotiate for better.

7. Drop shipping - can you really afford it?

Drop shipping sounds great in theory - someone taking care of packaging, wrapping and postage - but it can be difficult to profit from this method. Think about it, drop shipping can add another $2-10 to your costs - sometimes even 10% of the cost of the item. By the time you add in eBay fees and any other costs, you may find it is not worth it.

8. Warehouse storage checklist

Asset management is the most important consideration when locating warehousing to store your items. Believe it or not, items can go missing while in storage, causing massive disruption for you. When comparing warehouses, ask questions specifically on how you will authorize the release of stock (by phone or fax?), what will happen if you need to cancel an order, frequency of damage claims, dust management, and whether there is an area you can use to photograph items.

9. Powerseller wealth

It's a fact - eBay powersellers are able to command higher prices for their items than ordinary eBay sellers. To get the best profits on your wholesale items, you need to aim to get and maintain powerseller status.

10. Growth with a website and eBay store

The way to increase profits from wholesale is to build your own website and/or open an eBay store. This allows you to cross sell items plus it also makes it easier for people to find what they are looking for. For example, if you sell shoes, then customers can easily navigate to browse all black shoes in size 9 and so on. Always include a sentence at the bottom of your descriptions encouraging visitors to check out your other listings - most people will.

If you are looking for genuine and trusted wholesale suppliers then look no further than SaleHoo! SaleHoo's directory contains over 4000 drop ship, wholesale and closeout suppliers that are independently reviewed and rated by eBay Powersellers and Industry experts. SaleHoo also purchases off them and reviews each supplier in depth afterwards.

About the Author: SaleHoo is one of the fastest growing product sourcing portals on the internet. It contains a database of drop ship, wholesale, closeout and manufacturing suppliers offering thousands of product suppliers to consumers! Located at http://www.salehoo.com, visitors are allowed to sign up for unlimited and lifetime access to the completely searchable database of products and suppliers. The database is regularly updated, ensuring that the latest retail products are always available for purchase and SaleHoo carries the BBB Reliability Seal!

Join SaleHoo Today for their Special Startup Offer!