Archive for December, 2008

by Amy Nutt

Internet marketing has become increasingly popular over the past few years and many people are just starting to venture into earning money online. Unfortunately, if you don`t know what you`re doing, you`ll be quite likely to make some mistakes that could cost you big time. Being aware of what the biggest mistakes that newbies make is a good step toward being successful.

Here, we`ll be looking at the top five mistakes that internet marketers make in their first year. By understanding what goes wrong, you will be better able to avoid these same errors yourself.

1. Underestimating the workload. If you believe everything you read online, it seems that you can simply throw up an automated website, grab some email addresses and you`re off to the races. Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t work that way. Even the big name gurus who would like you to believe that you can magically rake in the money overnight had to work at it. Internet marketing is definitely a good way to earn money and it can eventually become relatively passive income, but you definitely need to put in the work at the beginning to make it work.

2. Jumping into the “earn money online” niche. Just look around the internet and you`ll find hundreds of people telling you how to earn money online. How many of these people actually earned money online before telling others how to do it? You`d be amazed at how many internet marketers are struggling, even as they attempt to lead others. If you aren`t earning online, don`t even think about trying to teach others. Look for a niche that is less competitive and one that you can actually stand out in.

3. Throwing money at the problem. Every business requires some start up money, but that doesn’t mean you have to go crazy about it. You can learn a lot online just by reading articles and then making a few well thought out purchases. Most newbie internet marketers go ahead and start up pay per click campaigns to help drive traffic. While PPC can be a great way to bring in traffic, if you don`t fully understand how to use it, you`ll just end up losing money. Take the time to research and understand where your money is going.

4. Being too general. A sporting goods website might do alright, but in most cases, there is just too much competition for general ideas. Instead, look for micro-niches, like “protective sports footwear”, which will have less competition and still a healthy amount of traffic. It pays to get specific. Even if you are thinking of doing this with several micro-niches, stick to one until it works, then you can branch out.

5. Giving up too soon. It`s a sad fact that most new internet marketers give up just before they could have been successful. Just because your idea didn’t hit pay dirt in the first week doesn’t mean it`s a bad idea. If you continue on, you`ll likely find that with a bit more publicity and hard work, you can make it happen, just so long as you stick with the original idea.

Internet marketing isn’t quite as easy as the gurus make it sound, though it is definitely a great way to earn a living. As long as you go into it with realistic expectations and ready to stick with your plans and ideas for the long haul, you are quite likely to find success. Make sure you do your research, investigating everything you can on your topic and then just go on and do it. You`ll never succeed if you don`t try.

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Making a CAT5 Cable

Good Song By: Offspring
I spelled it wrong because more poeple would watch

by Matthew Fletcher

Excel’s AutoFill feature relies on the program’s ability to recognize patterns in the data that you enter. For example, if you type “Week 1″ in a cell, you can have the program automatically fill in “Week 2″, “Week 3″, etc. by using the AutoFill handle. This is located in the bottom right of the cell. As the cursor moves over it, the cursor changes appearance to a plus sign (+). When it does so you simply click, hold, drag in any direction and Excel will pick up the pattern and extrapolate it to create automatic data entries.

Whenever you make use of the AutoFill handle Excel displays the AutoFill Options drop down menu below the last cell which has been generated. If the program has not entered the required data, you can choose one of the entries in the AutoFill Options so that it knows what you actually meant it to do. For example, choosing Copy Cells, gives you an exact copy of what was in the original cell.

Excel also has the ability to automatically enter arbitrary series of data using a feature called Custom Lists. Certain lists are built into Excel, for example, the months of the year. To use the AutoFill feature, enter the first value in the list, for example, “Jan” or “January”. Next drag the AutoFill handle (located in the bottom right of the active cell) in any direction to automatically enter the rest of the custom list.

As well as these built-in lists, Excel allows you to create your own custom lists. For example, suppose you work for a company that has branches in several towns. It’s a safe bet that you’ll need to list these towns quite frequently in your spreadsheets. You could therefore save yourself considerable time by setting up the towns as a custom list.

Creating a custom list is really easy. First, select the cells in one of your worksheets that contain the necessary information. Second, click on the Office button and choose Excel options. Third, click on “Edit Custom Lists” in the “Popular” category. Excel displays the entries that were in the cells that we highlighted. Finally, to convert the selected data into a custom list, click on the “Import” button.

This custom list can now be used in any of our worksheets, not just the sheet that contained the original information. Whenever we need out list, we simply type the first value. We then use the AutoFill handle to generate the remaining entries. When using AutoFill, you can drag in any direction and you don’t have to start with the first element in the custom list.

Custom lists can also be entered directly in the “Custom Lists” dialog box. To do this, click on the “List Entries” button and type the list separating entries with a carriage return. After entering the list, click on the Add button to make it permanent.

To delete a custom list, simply click on it and click on the “Delete” button. Excel verifies that you want to delete the list and when you click “OK”, the list is gone.

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