Niche Info Online Business

One accepted column can accompany your added cartage and links than a month's account of your accepted content. Accomplish the abutting column you address your best accepted column ever.

The afterward ten tips anatomy my key admonition for arrest this task. There's no adapt you can chase to address an abundantly accepted post, but you won't accept a adventitious unless you try. I'm assured these tips will accord you a acceptable attempt at success.

1. Time is added important than talent

Work on article for eight hours and you can bet it will be good. You don't charge to absorb that continued actually. Added time agency you can refine, architecture and ample your column with affluence of value. Take the time to absolutely ability your content. It will appearance in the accomplished product. It's the affection that matters.

2. Use your best idea

A column will never become berserk accepted unless it fulfills a need, and does so emphatically. What's article your alcove wants but hasn't got yet? Can you accumulate a accomplished lot of absolutely alarming (targeted) assets in one place? The added your posts helps people, the bigger it will do.
3. Use formatting to your advantage

These days, amusing media is key aback it comes to ablution your posts into the stratosphere. Amusing media users are awfully baby for choice, however. Use formatting to accent the best aspects of your post. Hone in on your funniest lines, your best abstruse $.25 of advice, your best resources. Accomplish them angle out.

4. Steal the headlines

There are apparently one or two bloggers who've absolutely baffled the art of autograph account for amusing media. The blow of us haven't been adored with such skills. Aback you see a abundant headline, affairs are it's advantage #12 of a dozen choices. Few of us can anticipate of a abundant banderole beeline away. Absorb ten account brainstorming and you're apprenticed to blunder beyond article that works. A anemic banderole will attenuate your post's affairs of success. It's capital that you put a lot of assignment into accepting it right.

5. Invest affluence of amount in your post

Ever bookmarked or voted for article after absolutely account it? We've all done it. It's because of the 'Wow' agency - the attendance of abundant promised amount in one abode gets the clairvoyant agog about the column beeline away. Instead of 5 tips, why not allotment 50? Instead of 9 resources, why not 40 or more? This will accomplish a company to bookmark your blog and arch appropriate aback for more!

6. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

If your column looks good, it will draw readers in. Take the time to add images, thumbnails and formatting to what you create. Accomplish your column a beheld feast. With so abundant web agreeable presented in a banal way, your column is affirmed to angle out.

7. Let them apperceive what to expect

Readers will skip your changing introduction. You can say the aforementioned in beneath words, decidedly aback you're autograph for an abrupt reader: addition who wants to get beeline into your tips/resources/opinions. Use your addition to highlight why the clairvoyant should stick with your post.

8. Accelerate letters with links

The best way to get a blogger to investigate your blog is by bond to them. We've got a accustomed admiration to apperceive what's actuality said about us. If your column becomes absolutely popular, anniversary articulation central it should accelerate abundant cartage outwards to be account investigating. Be acceptable with your outbound links aback autograph your best accepted post. It gives added bloggers an allurement to articulation to you, because it's ultimately added advance for them.

9. Utilize your network

If you appetite bodies to Digg, Blunder or Reddit your post, there's no acumen why you charge to sit aback with fingers beyond and achievement it happens. Ask them. Your loyal readers like you. You absorb them, or advise them, or advice them. If voting is a simple amount of beat a articulation they'll be added than blessed to do so. Ask for votes in your column and email readers and amusing media influencers. In best cases you will charge to get the snowball rolling. After that, others will do best of the assignment for you.

10. Analysis antecedent posts

It's acceptable to analysis your antecedent accepted posts to assay what formed before. Explore what was arresting with it. It's consistently acceptable to apprentice from example. You can alteration these qualities into what you write.

By: eminem

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article writing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

by Fred Collins

If you are looking to buy cheap link cloaking software then you are in the right place. Link Cloaking Software doesn't come cheap, almost all link cloaking Software is extremely overpriced. You don't want to use Tinyurl and I will explain why later on.

The cheap link cloaking software I use and recommend in Mylinker. I was about about to drop $150 on link cloaking software, aMempublikasikan Postingnd I haven't seen decent link cloaking software for less than $100. There are 3 main advantages and benefits that Mylinker has over other link cloaking software and places such as Tinyurl.

Benefit # 1-No Tracking Homepage For Mylinker

One of the disadvantages of using Tinyurl or anything similar to this is that many people use these to hide affiliate links and they have a homepage that consumers can go to. Consumers can see that you are trying to hide something especially if they go Tinyurl.com. You will lose the trust of any potential customers if they think they are going to some random site called Tinyurl. When you do the research for yourself you will find you make better conversions using Mylinker over Tinyurl. Mylinker has a more legit url, that doesn't look like affiliate linking. You simply put your affiliate link in and Add a tracking name and The layout for your url will change to 'http://www.my-linker.com/hop/XXXXX'. The X's are where your tracking ID would go. Mylinker is both a tracker and a cloaker so you can put all your affiliate links in one spot.

Benefit # 2-Bonus Tools To Boost Your Sales

The second benefit of choosing this high quality yet still cheap link cloaking software is all the bonus tools that come with it. Mylinker is not sold as a single tool but rather with many other tools that will help make you a more efficient internet marketer. Mylinker is a tool at The Wealthy Affiliate University. It would take to long to describe all the tools at WA so I'll give you a brief rundown.

Rapid Writer-This is an awesome new tool from WA that just came out recently. Rapid Writer is an article editor that allows you to spin your article easily without using sites such as Jetspinner. Jetspinners tool does not compare to WA's Rapid Writer, especially since no one can even access the 400 directories they claim to post to. Besides spinning articles Rapid Writer has PLR articles that you can spin already and a built in thesaurus and spell checker so you don't have to think of a bunch of words yourself. Rapid writer also comes with a Key Word research tool that allows you to find keywords and phrases that are untapped. This is great for people who have trouble finding niches. This alone will make all your article marketing campaigns go smoother. You can research keywords on Google, Yahoo, and MSN all at the same time.

Site Rubix-Site Rubix is the easiest tool to use if your looking to build an affiliate landing page, squeeze page, or even website. I actually built a 40 page website using Site Rubix and it turned out great. You don't have to learn any html and you can literally have a website within an hour. Site Rubix also has a built in FTP and FREE Templates and Hosting to get your started.

8 Week Action Plan-This is the Ultimate Guide To Making Money Online. If you follow the 8 week action plan there is no doubt in my mind that you will be making online in no time. I was making money by the second week, some people on there forums have made money within the first day! This guide has over 3 Ebooks worth of information, so you don't have to go buy some guide that will rip you off and link cloaking software that will rip you off even more. You can get it all in one place!

WA is not limited to these tools, Here is what else comes with this cheap link cloaking software. Personal Profile(Like Myspace for Internet Marketers), Keyword List, Competition Spy Tool, Videos, Task Manager, KW Research Tools, Jobs(People paying each other to do all kinds of internet marketing work) and of course the Famous WA forums(The most comprehensive IM forum on the internet).

Benefit #3-The Price

There is already a lot of advantages that Mylinker has over other link cloaking software but the Price is definitely the reason I signed up for WA to get Mylinker. Like I said previously decent link cloaking software is going to cost you at least $100. These link cloakers talk about all the benefits of their software but in the end they only cloak links so you don't need a $200 program to do this. WA is offered at the low price of $49/mo and to make it even lower if you Sign Up Through Me I will take an additional 20% off the first month just so you can see for yourself. With the money Ive made using Wealthy Affiliate and Mylinker I have already paid for a whole year of Wealthy Affiliate. Thats how efficient and useful these tools are.

You are not guaranteed to make more money when you buy some overpriced link cloaking software and you certainly don't have access to these many tools and resources at that low of a price. $49 at an additional 20% off is much cheaper than the $150 I was about to blow on high priced link cloaking software. Using Mylinker alone was well worth the price. I would have paid double for that tool alone. I almost payed triple for link cloaking software just like Mylinker.

Beware of people that tell you that cloaking is about redirecting people by saying your page is one thing and then sending them to someplace different. This is "Bad Claoking" and Google as well as most other search engines are banning pages forever for using these tactics. These are Black Hat tricks and will get your articles or pages removed from Google forever. Can you imagine if this happened to you? You would lose all your money buying link cloaking software and lose all your articles and pages after Google gives you the boot. You don't have to worry about such a thing with Mylinker.

Cheap link cloaking software is very rare and is usually poor quality. Mylinker comes as a part of the WA package and is high quality enough to the point where they could sell Mylinker alone for at at least $100 possibly more.

About the Author

Visit The Wealthy Affiliate University yourself to get access to Mylinker and these other powerful tools. If you want to get 20% off for signing up through me visit the Mylinker/WA Discount Page to claim your special discounted link today!

Good luck on your internet marketing career and I look forward to see

by Peter Lee

If you use a blog you definitely would like to get repeat visitors to your blog. As an internet home business owner, getting a person to visit your blog for the first time may already seem hard work, but what do you need to do to entice the same reader to visit your blog continuously. How do you get repeat visitors to your blog? It certainly is not hard work, but it does require a conscious effort from you to learn a few easy yet effective techniques to make this happen. If there is something that I can share with you, it is that if you can succeed in making your new blog visitors feel really at home, well half the work is already done.

First impressions Last

It is a common human behaviour that the first impression of an event, a person, or an activity stays with you forever. In internet marketing, this is still valid when your reader visits your blog for the first time. It is important therefore that your blog’s font size is large enough with a good and nice design. If you have a unique design, this is even better and it may lead to a certain branding that people can identity as yours. Remember always that your blog is being read by many readers, not just yourself, so how you personally like your blog to look like may not be that important after all.

Dona Over Focus On Your Keywords

There is a general tendency for many people to place too much emphasis on SEO in their blogs as they wish to get top search engine ranking for their internet home business site. It has been an acceptable practice that when you write to repeat your keyword or keyword phrases and sprinkling them throughout the article post. Although this is a good practice to follow and eventually your search engine ranking does improve due to this blogging technique, there is unfortunately a downside to it. Your readers may eventually get a little bored with your posts and stop visiting your blog. You should therefore try to focus on a narrower topic but mix it with other content to attract your blog visitors, new and old. You should also consider content swap in which you exchange blog posts with other bloggers. This offers your readers fresh content as well as present a different style of writing too. It is a first step towards getting your repeat visitors to your blog and ultimately to your online business opportunity.

Squidoo Lens, Blog and RSS Feed

There is a relation among your squidoo lens, your internet home business website and your blog. With squidoo, you can create a lens or a free page. This lens consists of various modules that you can choose from. Every module contains a different category such as text, eBay opportunities, Reader Feedback, RSS Feed, Your Tube videos etc. However, many marketers seem to neglect the RSS module. Simply putting your blog RSS Feed address into this module allows your latest blog posts to appear in your squidoo lens. To create a good lens, it is important to choose a topic that is related to what your blog offers to your readers. It is easy to create a squidoo lens but it is important to make a good one so as to generate free targeted traffic and repeat visitors to your blog.

Blog Frequency

You have to blog frequently if you want to see repeat visitors to your blog.. The more often you blog the better it is, but I would say you should blog at least weekly. You can also consider blog posts from other bloggers, which provide your readers some variety and a different perspective to your usual work at home business ideas.

Also remember that your visitors subscribe to your blog because they like what you have written, the service you provide and the internet home business ideas your blog offers. So if you dona blog frequently they may be tempted to just unsubscribe. Remember that your subscribers contribute to your free targeted traffic to your blog, so not only do you need to bring in new visitors, but it is important also to keep those in your subscription list satisfied as well.

Value Readersa Comments

Your readersa comments on your blog posts are important and you should review and reply them as soon as they are received. A comment posted by your reader may arise as a result of his agreeing, disagreeing with you or seeking clarification on whata your have written.

There are some very good techniques that you can use to encourage your internet home business readers to give their valuable comments on your blog. A good blogging technique that I have learned is to engage my readersa feedback and responses. You can do this by asking a question in your post, usually towards the end of your post. Do remember that writing a blog post is a lot different than writing for a newspaper article, in which you present all possible scenarios of the topic to a very passive audience. In a blog, you should try to encourage and engage the reader to provide comment and feedback and share his experience on the topic. Inviting participation like this is good for getting your traffic and your visitors. The reader may be interested to find out more about the topic and like to read up on the new responses that are received. Getting high traffic and repeat visitors to your blog in this way is common, if the topic is thought provoking, interesting ant the right blogging technique is used.

About the Author

Peter Lee Is A Banker As Well As An Authority On Developing Home Based Internet Businesses Part Time. Learn his Work At Home Business Ideas And How To Get Repeat Visitors To His Blog. Discover How He Uses Dead Simple Techniques To Make Passive Income On Autopilot.

Keyword and description meta tags optimization tutorial for better search engine rankings. Have you ever wondered why some web pages get higher search engine rankings than others? Of course you have, if you are a web developer. You may have read or heard of a hundred ways to improve your page ranking and tried them all. Only to see dismal results and wonder what the heck went wrong.

Been there and done that. So I thought I would let you in on the secrets I use to get my pages to rank high in the search engines. Once you read these tricks you might think that is so obvious I should have thought of it.

Here are the 10 rules I use to search engine optimize a page for keywords and description meta tags.

1. First let's assume that you already know what the page is about and have already created it. This is not a tutorial on how to write web pages. Rather guidelines for search engine optimization using your meta keywords and description tags.

Depending on the type of page you are creating determines how many keywords you should use. For instance a sales letter is typically 2000 or more words. In that type of page you need to describe all the advantages of your product and why it is the right solution. You will want to get testimonials and place them in appropiate places. You may even want to tell a story relating to how well the product has performed. Don't over do the page or you will lose your prospect to boredom.

The product page (different from the sales letter) should be between 500 and 750 words. All you are trying to do here is sell a product. Visitors that make it to these pages probably already know what they are looking for and are only looking for specific information. Your job is to convince them that your product is the right one. Beyond that and there is more opportunity for your visitors to disagree with your pitch and move on.

The article page should be at least 1000 words and not more than 5000 words. Okay some might say that 5000 is too long and others have said that isn't 1000 words aren't enough words to describe what they have to say. Too long - some say that 500 words is good for an article page. So lets look at this: a person who can read 10 words a second will be through your page in 50 seconds. Not enough time for them to soak up your message. A person reading 3 words a second will take about 2-1/2 minutes. Plenty of time for your message to sink in.

The average reader can read somewhere around 6 words per second. Which would take them 83 seconds to read your 500 word article. Barely enough time to get your visitors comfortable. At 1000 words the avearge reader will read your page in roughly 3 minutes. At 6 words a second your reader needs around 3 minutes to read a 1000 word article. This plenty of time for the reader to make a decision to click on your most wanted response.

At over 2000 words the average reader will need 5-1/2 minutes to get through it. This is stretching the limit of time most visitors will spend reading one web page. At 5000 words the average reader takes over 13 minutes to read your page. This is well past the amount of time a visitor will need to decide to click on your most wanted response. If your article is really good most people will read all the way through it. If not they are off to the next website in a flash. If you have more than 2000 words you may want to consider breaking the article into 2 pages.

Okay, back to rule #1 use the right amount of words for a particular type of page. Not too many and not too few.

2. Primary meta keyword (the first one) must be an exact match with the file name of your page. This lets the search engines match up your keyword with your page and give your page higher relevancy. Here is an example from: Ocular Defense Formula (Pr2 and #2 in Google). The first keyword for this page is "Ocular Defense Formula." This seemingly obsure product gets 33,000+ search engine results in Google alone. So it is not that obscure after all. And makes for a good example.

3. Use only 5 keywords in your meta keywords tag. More than that and the search engines might think you are keyword spamming and won't list your page. The search engines rank your keywords in the order that they appear. This makes the first one the primary keyword and the second one a secondary keyword and so on. You should line your keywords up in the order of relevance to the page. Here is the meta keyword tag I used in this example.

"Ocular Defense Formula, Lutein, Bilberry, eye health, vision"

4. Use all of your keywords in your meta description, with the primary keyword as close to the front as possible. Definitely within the first 5 words of your description. The search engines don't read your description verbatim, but can find and match them with your keyword list. So try to use them all but don't repeat them if at all possible. Again if your meta description repeats your keywords too often the search engines might think you are keyword spamming and not list your page, so don't do it.

5. Meta description should be between 100 and 200 characters. It is important to get a solid description of your page. Less that 100 characters and the search engine may not find it relevant enough to list. More than 200 characters and the search engines may truncate it. Which looks unprofessional on your part. Truncated meta descriptions may leave searchers with the impression that your content will be too wordy and full of you know what. Too short a description and your visitors may think there is not enough information on your page and move on to the next result. So try to get your description just right, not too long and not too short. Here is the meta description for ODF.

"Ocular Defense Formula with Lutein, Bilberry and herbs to support eye health and protect your vision from aging and oxidation. Learn how to improve your visual acuity."

6. Line up your meta keywords up too resemble a sentence. Although search engines don't read your keywords as a sentence verbatim, it should reflect well what your page is all about. See the meta keyword tag above.

7. Proof read your content twice. You should always proof read your work before you post for a lot of good reasons like spelling, grammar, placement and paragraph distribution. Once your page looks great proof read it again with your focus on keyword placement and repitition. You want your keywords placed in your content sparingly. What? you say. Again over use of your keywords might result in the search engines thinking you are keyword spamming. That isn't to say you shouldn't have too few. My rule of thumb is 3 uses of a keyword for every 300 words. This lets the search engines know that there is a lot of supporting content for the keyword.

As you are proof reading you may discover that you have a much better keyword for your meta tag than what you originally thought. For instance in ODF I discovered that I had left out the keyword "vision". After proof reading my page I added that keyword to my list and used it a couple more times in the page.

8. Put your meta description all on one line in your html code. This will ensure that the search engines reads it all. I have noticed that some search engine results leave off the second line of a description. That may leave out some of your meta keywords if that happens.

9. Never use more than 3 words for your primary keyword (and file name). People rarely search for a keyword phrase over 3 words long. Too many words in a keyword phrase and the search engines may not find enough relevancy to list your page in the results. Two words in a keyword phrase (and file name) is ideal. For Ocular Defense Formula, I thought 2 words weren't enough to describe the page. "Ocular Defense" would have been too vague and misleading. I could have named the page something else and optimized for those keywords, but, ODF is a product page and optimizing for something like "Eye Health" would have been misleading and probably not get listed high in the search engines.

10. Use your primary keyword in the first and last paragraph of your page. The search engines will give more relevancy to your page if they find your keywords at the beginning and the end of your page. Also your primary keyword should appear in the first 90 characters of your content.

Bonus tip - Use your primary keyword as a text link in your page only once. Not twice but definitely once. If you don't want your visitors to leave your page make that link an "add to favorites" bookmark. On a product page this works great because you don't want to give your visitors the opportunity to go else where.

In summary use these tips to increase your search engine rankings. Optimizing your keyword and descriptions should improve the relevancy of your page and boost your search engine rankings. Notice how I used my primary keyword and description meta tags in this last paragraph.

About the Author: Tim Koen - web developer, http://www.best-website-tools.com. Tool Time blog. All the best website tools, tips and techniques to grow your online business.

By Michael Small (c) 2008

If you're serious about getting great ranking on Google you need to be serious about linking. Of course there are lots of ways to get links so we'll focus on just the methods that are fast, low cost or free and get the best results. Here are three that can put you on top of Google in no time flat!

First let's start with getting inbound links from directories. A link from a directory gets a lot of weight from Google because they value it as a form of endorsement. You've probably used some directories yourself, like Yahoo. Or maybe you've used some without even knowing it, like The Open Directory Project (DMOZ.org) that powers many of the most popular search engines, including Google!

Each directory is different and offers different options for obtaining links to your site. Here's a rundown of how different directories will link to your site...

1. Free Submission: Just like it sounds. No charges for inclusion. DMOZ.org is the best one and powers Google, AOL and even Yahoo Search (not Yahoo directory.) Just be sure to follow their submission guidelines and pick the most appropriate sub category possible for inclusion. This is extremely important.

2. Paid Submissions: They charge a fee to review the submitted link and possibly list the page. You might pay a few dollars one time, a recurring annual fee or as much as the $300 that Yahoo charges for commercial site review.

3. Reciprocal Link: These usually require you to link to the directory before they will even consider linking back.

4. Featured Link: Your link gets a premium spot that you pay for.

5. Featured Homepage Link: This is a featured link on the homepage. As you've probably guessed, this can get real expensive.
   

• htt://www.dmoz.com

• htt://www.directoryvault.com

• http://www.domaining.in

• htt://www.getlistedrightnow.com

• htt://www.visitalink.com
  

Do you have a job that's just like everyone else's? Are you looking for a 9-to-5, but wish you weren't? Do you wish there was another option, one that would lead to an exciting, unique, and fulfilling line of work?

I recently interviewed more than 100 people who currently hold their dream jobs as research for a new book called "How'd You Score That Gig?" These individuals, who are travel journalists, event planners, fashion designers, forensic scientists, interior decorators, Internet business owners and more, have one thing in common -- persistence.

As unattainable as a dream job might sound, with the right amount of forethought and preparation, you can make the move as well. Following are six tips to get you started.

1. Learn about yourself.

Take time to do a self-assessment of your values, how you like to work, and what you'd be compelled to do even if you never got paid. Research careers and industries that map to your skills and interests. Hit the Internet, set up informational interviews, take relevant coursework, and arrange to go onsite at a company in your chosen field.

2. Don't be deterred by a lack of experience.

In developing a resume and other promotional materials for the field you want to pursue, think about how your current skills and talents apply to the responsibilities you'll hold in the new job. For example, knowledge of project management, client relations, information technology, and sales will take you far in most types of careers.

3. Ease into a new career one foot at a time.

Perhaps this means earning a paycheck at your current job while doing a part-time internship in your new field, or taking an adult education class or workshop on the weekend. The only way to find out if you're passionate about something is to try it -- ideally with as little risk as you can manage.

4. Remember that any progress is good progress.

Even confident people stay in unsatisfying jobs because they feel safe, and because they're afraid of making a bad decision. But in the quest to uncover a source of meaningful work, though, your worst enemy is inertia. Make an effort to do one thing, like emailing a networking contact or attending an event -- that moves you a bit closer to your big-picture goal.

5. Start early.

Twenty- and thirty-somethings have more flexibility when it comes to test-driving different careers. The process of self-discovery is much easier when you're unencumbered by family responsibilities and substantial financial burdens, and when you haven't yet reached a level in a career where it's tougher to turn back. That said, it's never too late to pursue your passion. More and more baby boomers are leaving the world of traditional employment for alternative career paths that will fulfill them well into retirement age.

6. Have realistic expectations.

Even if you're lucky enough to hold your dream job, there's no such thing as the perfect work situation. Every job has its ups and downs, and aspects we love and aspects we don't love. And "dream job" doesn't mean "cushy job." As your mom always told you, anything worth having in this world requires some effort. There will be some days you feel like shutting the alarm off and going back to sleep, but many more where you feel more energized by the prospect of work than you ever thought possible!

Alexandra Levit is the author of "How'd You Score That Gig: A Guide to the Coolest Careers - and How To Get Them" (scorethatgig.com). She speaks at corporations, universities, and conferences around the country about workplace issues facing young employees, and her career advice has been featured in more than 800 media outlets.

Midas: Rexam | Griffin Mining

The Financial Mail on Sunday's respected stock picker tips a struggling drinks can giant. Last year was a difficult 12 months for packaging group Rexam, the world's biggest drinks can manufacturer, as it was buffeted by high commodity prices and the weak dollar.

The troubled times naturally took a toll on its share price. But with hopes that 2008 will see a turnaround in fortunes, that price now looks quite attractive.

The key blow to Rexam profits last year was the rising price of aluminium, the main raw material of its can-making business, which supplies PepsiCo and Red Bull among others. Aluminium was on average about £50 a ton more expensive in 2007 than in 2006.

The weak dollar meant its large American earnings were worth markedly less when converted into sterling. The combined effect was that while sales rose 11% to £3.6bn, underlying profits before tax fell by 7%.

So why should this year be any better? First Rexam has taken steps to reduce the damage done by high aluminium prices. It has struck new deals with some of its customers, allowing it to pass on more of the rise in raw material prices.

At the same time, it has taking out hedge positions in the commodity, which will help to insure against those price rises it cannot pass on.

The effect is that this year Rexam should be pretty much immune to commodity price fluctuations. The wisdom of that move is all the more clear given the 30% rise in aluminium prices so far this year. But the effect of the falling dollar is harder to counter. However, as UK interest rates are cut there is the chance that sterling will continue to drift off its highs against the dollar.

Market ups and downs aside, Rexam has also struck some key deals in the last year that should stand it in good stead, offering both significant growth opportunities and more of a defensive stance against the expected slowdown in developed economies.

Its biggest deal was buying plastic packaging division of Owens Illinois for £920m. The group expects to reap cost savings of £25m a year from integrating this with existing operations.

Its other key step was buying Russian drinks can maker Rostar for £149m last summer, giving it in one swoop a 90% share of the drinks can market in Russia, a sector that is growing extremely rapidly.

While not recession-proof, Rexam's business is not in the front rank of likely economic cutbacks. At the same time, its growth opportunities in emerging markets such as Russia and the savings it may be able to reap from its acquisitions should provide bottom-line growth, even through tough times. Analysts are forecasting profits will jump to about £319m this year.

•• Midas verdict: Rexam is well placed to bounce back from last year's difficulties and to keep growing thanks to its acquisitions strategy. Recent weakness in its share price makes the stock look slightly undervalued at 408¾p or 12 times forecast earnings. Its forecast dividend of 21p, up from 20p for 2007, represents a yield of about five per cent.

Rexam may not be about to set the world on fire, but at the current share price it is - as far as it can be said of any company these days - a defensive investment for the long term. Buy.