Most article marketing slogans will try to pull you into the bandwagon with slogans like "You can earn money by blogging!" or "Make your blog generate cash!" However, beginners make a lot of mistakes when they try to submit their articles online. Below are the most common misconceptions about the business of writing content for the web.
Avoid the hype text.
Whether you are writing for a website, or writing an online review about a certain product, you should always try not to sound like a hawker with a megaphone. Putting too many exclamation points (!!!) in your text is a big no-no. For one, it makes your readers feel like you think they are stupid, and secondly, it gives you away. When you write in an exclamatory (!!!) tone, you only end up sounding insincere. This is not the way to gain your readers' trust.
Stick to informative articles.
Whether you are writing for your own affiliate web site or an ezine that pays you depending on your word count, it is always safe to stick to informative topics. How-to articles are big right now. Everyone seems to be looking for self-help tips online, whether it is about carpentry or losing weight. Because how-to articles require a lot of research, it is safer to stick to topics you are familiar with. You would not want to be stuck with a lot of jargon you cannot understand. Writing articles is about translating your understanding of the subject matter onto the screen. If you cannot get anything about what you are reading, chances are, you will give nothing in what you are writing as well.
Do keyword research.
You can do this simply by typing in what you think your prospective readers will search for when they are looking for your topic. This way, you can compare why one page is ranked over the other and what keywords actually reap a lot of results.
Using less common keywords will probably help you rank higher on search engines, although you stand less chance that this keyword will actually be keyed in by any prospective online reader. On the other hand, using common keywords will help you be included in one of the index pages of a search engine, but you will stand very little chance of actually being ranked in the first page.
The best place to start is with the master of search engines, Google. Who better would know what people are searching for than the most used search engine on the web? Google's Keyword Research Tool can give you a list of related keywords in your niche, as well as the search count, competition, monthly trends, etc. You can find it here:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Do not overdo the SEO.
Although it is necessary to know how to manipulate keywords in your articles so it can attract search engine spiders, it is not very good to overdo it. For example, repeating "hypertext inclusion" 40 times in a 400 word article will not only make what you have written sound like gibberish, it can get you banned from the most popular search engines online.
You should write for human readers first. Worry about the search engines later once you have come up with web content that is actually worth reading. There is nothing more irritating than looking at 400 words of garbage. If you are going to occupy a domain's precious bandwidth, anyway, you might as well try to make your text useful.
Try to be original.
Repeating information that has been recycled over and over online will not give you much of an edge as an article marketer. If you cannot get any new information about the topic you are writing about, you might as well try to be creative with your delivery. Again, we do not mean hype when we say creative. Keep your text readable, conversational, and entertaining. You should also never underestimate the power of a well written web article. Proofread your articles before publishing them, and make sure that you do not have any filler text that readers might find useless.
Keep your web content short, sweet, and strong. People who read through their screen do not have the time to filter junk information.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
SEO - Natural Linking Strategies
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be the difference between a small, barely profitable or visible website and a traffic magnet website. There are a lot of ways, both good and bad, to influence the search engines. Some search engines react to certain strategies better than others. Some even have conflicting strategies that they react to. To document all of these things would require a significant number of pages and research that goes beyond the scope of this article.
However, there are a number of things that can be documented that will work for most if not all search engines. And let's face it; there are really only 3 that make a difference between a successful and an unsuccessful SEO strategy. They are the big three: Google, Yahoo and MSN. These three search engines in any given month are responsible for over 90% of all internet searches.
So, what is this article about? It's about what you can do as a website owner that will influence the search engines using commonly accepted practices of linking to other websites (outbound) and getting website links (inbound) back to you. There are basically 4 strategies that a website owner usually will employ to increase their website value in the eyes of the search engine. They are reciprocal linking, one-way linking, multi-site linking and directory linking. A website owner should not think that using just a single strategy is the right answer - sure it will help your SEO but it won't be the Best answer. The Best answer is to employ all 4 techniques and to do it naturally.
Each of the four linking strategies has specific descriptions that can be summed up as:
1. Reciprocal Linking = Site A links to Site B, Site B links back to Site A
2. One-Way Linking = Site B links to Site A
3. Multi-Site Linking = Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, Site C links to Site D, and Site D links back to Site A. Could be 3..N number of sites involved.
4. Directory Linking = Site Directory A links to Site A
That seems simple enough but it takes time and effort to perform all 4 strategies and most website owners aren't willing to spend the time or don't have the time to spend on it. As a website owner, SEO needs to be one of the highest priority tasks that you need to address, just after Order Processing and Fulfillment and Customer Service. Without free traffic from the search engines, other traffic generation strategies that usually require payment must be engaged.
Now doing the 4 strategies above is great, but it gets even harder because you have to do it in a way that doesn't trigger the search engines to enforce a penalty upon your website. No one except the search engine engineers know all of the exact penalties but we have some good theories for some of them.
The first is the rate at which links are created. There is a certain threshold for creating links that is too fast. It's possible that the threshold is a sliding scale and is related to the age of the website according to the engine. For example, a young low-traffic website should not normally be getting 1000 links a month whereas an older website that gets a lot of traffic could be OK to get 1000 links a month. As you progress in your linking strategies make sure you keep this in mind, especially if you are thinking about buying links.
The second is that having a link to every site that links to you will likely reduce the value of the links. In other words, if all you ever get is Reciprocal Linking, you will likely move up the SERP's (Search Engine Results Page's) but you won't reach your sites full potential. Having a mixture of all 4 strategies will appear more natural to the engines.
The third is having all inbound links to your site on "linking" pages will make those links less valuable than having a natural link on a contextually relative page for a percentage of the inbound links. The higher you can drive this context percentage, the better your website will rank. These types of links are often some of the most difficult links to generate an exchange for because it requires more time and effort for both website owners.
The fourth is to have links inbound from all different ranking sites. If all you have linking to you is page rank 6 and 7 sites then you are likely to be sending the message that you purchased your links and that is not natural to the engines. Some would argue that purchasing links for driving traffic is just fine and it is. However, you should not expect the search engines to give those inbound links very much weight when calculating your SERP positions. It is significantly more natural for you to have a large number of rank 1 and 2 inbound links and a decreasing number of inbound links as you move up the page rank scale (0 - 10).
The fifth is to have the text of you inbound links varied. It isn't natural to have every website that links to you to have the same text on the link description. The natural tendency would be to have a certain percent be the sites name, but after that it should be a wide variety of description. Your link text description is a key factor for how your site/page will rank, so make sure that you keep that in mind as you specify your preferred link text description on your website.
Finally, it would be best for a good percentage of your inbound links to appear within the text of a page that appears natural for the reader of that site. And for those links to not all point back to the home page of your website. It's most natural for a good high quality link to appear in the text of a page and have it point internally within your site.
So, when you begin or continue your SEO activities keep all of these things in mind and don't be impatient. Impatience could incur penalties or worse. Your website could end up in the "sandbox". It is rumored and becoming more concrete that Google supposedly uses a sandbox that questionable sites are put in until they have aged to a point that Google no longer feels that they are being manipulated. Many of the search engines use similar protection schemes to eliminate spam sites and manipulation sites to keep their SERP's from being cluttered.
However, there are a number of things that can be documented that will work for most if not all search engines. And let's face it; there are really only 3 that make a difference between a successful and an unsuccessful SEO strategy. They are the big three: Google, Yahoo and MSN. These three search engines in any given month are responsible for over 90% of all internet searches.
So, what is this article about? It's about what you can do as a website owner that will influence the search engines using commonly accepted practices of linking to other websites (outbound) and getting website links (inbound) back to you. There are basically 4 strategies that a website owner usually will employ to increase their website value in the eyes of the search engine. They are reciprocal linking, one-way linking, multi-site linking and directory linking. A website owner should not think that using just a single strategy is the right answer - sure it will help your SEO but it won't be the Best answer. The Best answer is to employ all 4 techniques and to do it naturally.
Each of the four linking strategies has specific descriptions that can be summed up as:
1. Reciprocal Linking = Site A links to Site B, Site B links back to Site A
2. One-Way Linking = Site B links to Site A
3. Multi-Site Linking = Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, Site C links to Site D, and Site D links back to Site A. Could be 3..N number of sites involved.
4. Directory Linking = Site Directory A links to Site A
That seems simple enough but it takes time and effort to perform all 4 strategies and most website owners aren't willing to spend the time or don't have the time to spend on it. As a website owner, SEO needs to be one of the highest priority tasks that you need to address, just after Order Processing and Fulfillment and Customer Service. Without free traffic from the search engines, other traffic generation strategies that usually require payment must be engaged.
Now doing the 4 strategies above is great, but it gets even harder because you have to do it in a way that doesn't trigger the search engines to enforce a penalty upon your website. No one except the search engine engineers know all of the exact penalties but we have some good theories for some of them.
The first is the rate at which links are created. There is a certain threshold for creating links that is too fast. It's possible that the threshold is a sliding scale and is related to the age of the website according to the engine. For example, a young low-traffic website should not normally be getting 1000 links a month whereas an older website that gets a lot of traffic could be OK to get 1000 links a month. As you progress in your linking strategies make sure you keep this in mind, especially if you are thinking about buying links.
The second is that having a link to every site that links to you will likely reduce the value of the links. In other words, if all you ever get is Reciprocal Linking, you will likely move up the SERP's (Search Engine Results Page's) but you won't reach your sites full potential. Having a mixture of all 4 strategies will appear more natural to the engines.
The third is having all inbound links to your site on "linking" pages will make those links less valuable than having a natural link on a contextually relative page for a percentage of the inbound links. The higher you can drive this context percentage, the better your website will rank. These types of links are often some of the most difficult links to generate an exchange for because it requires more time and effort for both website owners.
The fourth is to have links inbound from all different ranking sites. If all you have linking to you is page rank 6 and 7 sites then you are likely to be sending the message that you purchased your links and that is not natural to the engines. Some would argue that purchasing links for driving traffic is just fine and it is. However, you should not expect the search engines to give those inbound links very much weight when calculating your SERP positions. It is significantly more natural for you to have a large number of rank 1 and 2 inbound links and a decreasing number of inbound links as you move up the page rank scale (0 - 10).
The fifth is to have the text of you inbound links varied. It isn't natural to have every website that links to you to have the same text on the link description. The natural tendency would be to have a certain percent be the sites name, but after that it should be a wide variety of description. Your link text description is a key factor for how your site/page will rank, so make sure that you keep that in mind as you specify your preferred link text description on your website.
Finally, it would be best for a good percentage of your inbound links to appear within the text of a page that appears natural for the reader of that site. And for those links to not all point back to the home page of your website. It's most natural for a good high quality link to appear in the text of a page and have it point internally within your site.
So, when you begin or continue your SEO activities keep all of these things in mind and don't be impatient. Impatience could incur penalties or worse. Your website could end up in the "sandbox". It is rumored and becoming more concrete that Google supposedly uses a sandbox that questionable sites are put in until they have aged to a point that Google no longer feels that they are being manipulated. Many of the search engines use similar protection schemes to eliminate spam sites and manipulation sites to keep their SERP's from being cluttered.
Monday, June 29, 2009
How to benefit from Social Sites
Social sites have become the latest craze on the Internet. Social Marketing can also be seen as the next wave of internet marketing. Everyone has heard about social sites and benefits from such sites. Social sites provide a lot of freedom and interactivity to the user. Such sites are powered by the latest technologies like AJAX and allow users to personalize page backgrounds,style,post their music, post videos, store documents, share their favorites and connect with people. Users can also post their pictures, share them with friends and even invite or search for new friends.
But how exactly do these sites help your site and its rankings? By sending huge amounts of traffic and getting you a good ranking on search engines.
There are two types of social sites. One is social networking and the other type is social bookmarking. Social networking sites provide you an easy way to connect with people who share similar interests like you. Sites like MySpace, Orkut, Bebo, Facebook, Hi5, Friendster are popular among users. These sites have a huge user base and provide an excellent opportunity for advertising your site. There are also specialized social networking sites like 43Things, MomJunction, Mothersclick which cater to specific interests.
Some social networking sites group people with common interests, but some sites are "traditional networking sites" and allow you to search for friends based on your interests. In any case you will always have a larger audience for showcasing your site. Sites like Facebook and MySpace allow you to post your advertisements and promote your products, provided you are not spamming. If you have a really good site, you will surely find a large visitor base just by showcasing your site on your profile.
Social bookmarking sites provide you easy way to store, organize, manage your bookmarks as well as share them with your friends. You can bookmark any URL or page you liked and even mark them for public or private viewing. Social bookmarking sites also provide you with the option of tagging your bookmarks. Some of the bookmarking sites link directly to your URL’s thus helping your site in getting valuable back links and quick indexing. Sites like Stumbleupon, Digg, Delicious are known to send huge traffic to your site. If you manage to get on the front page of these sites, you should be prepared to handle a huge number of visitors to your site.
Search engines spiders love social sites and usually follow links on these sites. This means if you have your site link on social networking and bookmarking sites, your site will be indexed quickly.
If you happen to be using Wordpress for your blog, you should use some good plugins like Socialmarker, Socializer and Addthis. These plugins provide your site visitors a quick option to bookmark your site. Getting bookmarked from different users and different bookmarking sites will definitely help your site rank better on search engines. Some plugins like Onlywire automatically bookmark your post to 20 different bookmarking sites as soon as you publish your post.
It is a known fact that the video and photo sharing sites like Youtube and Flickr are visited by millions of people everyday. If you think out of the box and use your creativity, your published video will get your site the traffic you've always wanted. Some video sharing sites like Metacafe also pay you a part of their revenue just for publishing your video.
Like it or not, social sites have become an integral part of the internet. You need to use this opportunity to you advantage before it is too late.
But how exactly do these sites help your site and its rankings? By sending huge amounts of traffic and getting you a good ranking on search engines.
There are two types of social sites. One is social networking and the other type is social bookmarking. Social networking sites provide you an easy way to connect with people who share similar interests like you. Sites like MySpace, Orkut, Bebo, Facebook, Hi5, Friendster are popular among users. These sites have a huge user base and provide an excellent opportunity for advertising your site. There are also specialized social networking sites like 43Things, MomJunction, Mothersclick which cater to specific interests.
Some social networking sites group people with common interests, but some sites are "traditional networking sites" and allow you to search for friends based on your interests. In any case you will always have a larger audience for showcasing your site. Sites like Facebook and MySpace allow you to post your advertisements and promote your products, provided you are not spamming. If you have a really good site, you will surely find a large visitor base just by showcasing your site on your profile.
Social bookmarking sites provide you easy way to store, organize, manage your bookmarks as well as share them with your friends. You can bookmark any URL or page you liked and even mark them for public or private viewing. Social bookmarking sites also provide you with the option of tagging your bookmarks. Some of the bookmarking sites link directly to your URL’s thus helping your site in getting valuable back links and quick indexing. Sites like Stumbleupon, Digg, Delicious are known to send huge traffic to your site. If you manage to get on the front page of these sites, you should be prepared to handle a huge number of visitors to your site.
Search engines spiders love social sites and usually follow links on these sites. This means if you have your site link on social networking and bookmarking sites, your site will be indexed quickly.
If you happen to be using Wordpress for your blog, you should use some good plugins like Socialmarker, Socializer and Addthis. These plugins provide your site visitors a quick option to bookmark your site. Getting bookmarked from different users and different bookmarking sites will definitely help your site rank better on search engines. Some plugins like Onlywire automatically bookmark your post to 20 different bookmarking sites as soon as you publish your post.
It is a known fact that the video and photo sharing sites like Youtube and Flickr are visited by millions of people everyday. If you think out of the box and use your creativity, your published video will get your site the traffic you've always wanted. Some video sharing sites like Metacafe also pay you a part of their revenue just for publishing your video.
Like it or not, social sites have become an integral part of the internet. You need to use this opportunity to you advantage before it is too late.
A Beginners Guide to Social Media Marketing
In the past few years, Social Media and Social Media Marketing have become buzz- words. This is due to the popularity of sites like MySpace, Digg, etc. The social media have two components - user generated contents and the ability to form networks of friends for sharing contents.
In sites like MySpace and Facebook users create their profile pages and use texts, pictures, and videos to embellish the pages. They can then share those contents with others in their friends' network, or the social network
In sites like Digg, YouTube, Flickr users submit a summary of news articles, pictures, videos and they vote on the contents submitted by others. Popular contents are featured on the homepage and it drives massive amount of traffic.
There are many variations of the two models described above, including a combination of the two.
Using the social media sites to promote your product or services (or a website) is called social media marketing. There are two types of traffic you get when your content becomes popular in a social media site.
The primary traffic or the direct traffic comes from the site where it becomes popular. For sites like Digg, it can be huge and your site should be ready to handle the surge in traffic without crashing.
When your site becomes popular in a social media site, people talk about your site and the post that becomes popular. They will put links to the content. The secondary traffic or the indirect traffic flows from those links long after the surge due to the primary traffic is over.
So, what are the benefits of primary and secondary traffic from the social media sites? The primary traffic exposes your site to people who have no other means of knowing about your existence. Some of those visitors will become regulars to your site if you are providing something that they want on a regular basis.
The greatest benefit is the natural links to your site given by others because they want to discuss your offering. Natural links from a large number of relevant sites improve your search engine rankings and organic search traffic.
Social media marketing lets you expose your site to a large group of people. If your search engine traffic has leveled off, shifting your focus to the social media marketing and becoming successful in that will take you to the next level in search engine traffic.
The only other alternative for increasing your search engine traffic is pay per click advertisement. If you are already running a PPC campaign, you can continue your PPC campaign through out the year to sustain increased traffic from search engines at a cost.
Social media marketing is free and making your site popular a couple of times in a year is enough to sustain increased traffic through out the year.
In sites like MySpace and Facebook users create their profile pages and use texts, pictures, and videos to embellish the pages. They can then share those contents with others in their friends' network, or the social network
In sites like Digg, YouTube, Flickr users submit a summary of news articles, pictures, videos and they vote on the contents submitted by others. Popular contents are featured on the homepage and it drives massive amount of traffic.
There are many variations of the two models described above, including a combination of the two.
Using the social media sites to promote your product or services (or a website) is called social media marketing. There are two types of traffic you get when your content becomes popular in a social media site.
The primary traffic or the direct traffic comes from the site where it becomes popular. For sites like Digg, it can be huge and your site should be ready to handle the surge in traffic without crashing.
When your site becomes popular in a social media site, people talk about your site and the post that becomes popular. They will put links to the content. The secondary traffic or the indirect traffic flows from those links long after the surge due to the primary traffic is over.
So, what are the benefits of primary and secondary traffic from the social media sites? The primary traffic exposes your site to people who have no other means of knowing about your existence. Some of those visitors will become regulars to your site if you are providing something that they want on a regular basis.
The greatest benefit is the natural links to your site given by others because they want to discuss your offering. Natural links from a large number of relevant sites improve your search engine rankings and organic search traffic.
Social media marketing lets you expose your site to a large group of people. If your search engine traffic has leveled off, shifting your focus to the social media marketing and becoming successful in that will take you to the next level in search engine traffic.
The only other alternative for increasing your search engine traffic is pay per click advertisement. If you are already running a PPC campaign, you can continue your PPC campaign through out the year to sustain increased traffic from search engines at a cost.
Social media marketing is free and making your site popular a couple of times in a year is enough to sustain increased traffic through out the year.
3 Reasons Social Marketing Must Be A Part Of Your Business
If you are trying to sell things on the Internet and you do not have a blog you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. Would you go to play golf without a putter?
Your competition is blogging and they are beating your pants off every day with ease. A part of blogging is submitting your articles to social directories.
Here are 3 reasons social marketing must be a part of your Internet business.
1. Social marketing is a popular way to get information. Directories like Digg and Netscape are quickly becoming the choice of people all over the world as a way to keep up to date on what is going on.
If you are not blogging and submitting to relevant social directories you are missing out on this easy form of traffic.
2. Social marketing is easy to do. Here's what you need. You should get a WordPress blog and set it up so that you can quickly bookmark the top directories. Then you should post in your blog everyday. If you can talk and type you can blog.
3. Social marketing is an interactive way to develop relationships with your readers. This has become know as Web 2.0 and it is important to the future of your business.
People still like to deal with people. This is an age-old sales trick that sometimes gets lost on the Internet. By making yourself and your blog interactive you become a real person. This will help increase your chances for sales and repeat sales.
4. Search engines love social marketing. You are making their life easy when you blog around keyword rich topics that a person researching can find. When you master the techniques of social marketing you will find you can get on page one of Google and other search engines very quickly.
The reason for this is search engines are spidering Digg, Reddit, Newsvine, and many more non-stop looking for fresh relevant content to put online. This may as well be you as opposed to your competition.
If all of this seems confusing it really shouldn't be. Read "The Authority Black Book" by Jack Humphrey. It is a free ebook you can get online. In it you will learn everything you ever wanted to know on social marketing and how to use it to increase your business.
Do not wait until tomorrow to get started. Do it today and your Internet business will thank you.
Your competition is blogging and they are beating your pants off every day with ease. A part of blogging is submitting your articles to social directories.
Here are 3 reasons social marketing must be a part of your Internet business.
1. Social marketing is a popular way to get information. Directories like Digg and Netscape are quickly becoming the choice of people all over the world as a way to keep up to date on what is going on.
If you are not blogging and submitting to relevant social directories you are missing out on this easy form of traffic.
2. Social marketing is easy to do. Here's what you need. You should get a WordPress blog and set it up so that you can quickly bookmark the top directories. Then you should post in your blog everyday. If you can talk and type you can blog.
3. Social marketing is an interactive way to develop relationships with your readers. This has become know as Web 2.0 and it is important to the future of your business.
People still like to deal with people. This is an age-old sales trick that sometimes gets lost on the Internet. By making yourself and your blog interactive you become a real person. This will help increase your chances for sales and repeat sales.
4. Search engines love social marketing. You are making their life easy when you blog around keyword rich topics that a person researching can find. When you master the techniques of social marketing you will find you can get on page one of Google and other search engines very quickly.
The reason for this is search engines are spidering Digg, Reddit, Newsvine, and many more non-stop looking for fresh relevant content to put online. This may as well be you as opposed to your competition.
If all of this seems confusing it really shouldn't be. Read "The Authority Black Book" by Jack Humphrey. It is a free ebook you can get online. In it you will learn everything you ever wanted to know on social marketing and how to use it to increase your business.
Do not wait until tomorrow to get started. Do it today and your Internet business will thank you.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Promoting Top Affiliate Programs for a Better Chance to Success
Affiliate marketing has become increasingly popular over the years. In addition to the fact that many affiliate programs are easy and free to join, it is commonly believed that it is also the easiest way to make money on the Internet. Whether you have a website or not, you still can promote affiliate programs and generate income. However, if you want to build a career as an affiliate marketer, you must find top affiliate programs to promote.
Some programs have certain characteristics that allow them to be categorized as top programs. What are those characteristics?
1. They have a good reputation for paying their affiliates on time. Keep in mind that in a hot market such as this, there are always people who will take advantage of others. Do your best to avoid such programs yourself.
2. They have products that are in high demand by the public. We all know that the public determines the market. It is a waste of time and energy promoting programs that the public is not interested in buying.
2. They provide their affiliates with marketing tools to promote their programs. Affiliate marketing is a partnership between the merchants who own the programs and the affiliates who promote them. As an affiliate, it is important to have partner who cares about your success.
3. They have good customer service and affiliate support systems. Things change very quickly online; and affiliate marketing is a very competitive business. Having a good support system will help you get the answers you need in a timely manner.
4. They have accurate affiliate statistics. As an affiliate, you need to be able to alter your campaigns and make necessary adjustments when needed. With an accurate system to track your campaigns performances,you will be able to immediately know what part of your campaigns need to be changed.
Everyone's circumstances are different. The best program for one is not necessarily the best one for others. Therefore, it is necessary to test different programs. By monitoring the results, you will be able to determine the program that best suit your purpose.
It is critical to very carefully choose the affiliate programs to promote, as choosing the wrong program can have a huge negative impact on your business. It is always wise to conduct your own research before deciding to join any program. Ultimately, only you can decide which program will help you reach your goal as a successful affiliate marketer.
Some programs have certain characteristics that allow them to be categorized as top programs. What are those characteristics?
1. They have a good reputation for paying their affiliates on time. Keep in mind that in a hot market such as this, there are always people who will take advantage of others. Do your best to avoid such programs yourself.
2. They have products that are in high demand by the public. We all know that the public determines the market. It is a waste of time and energy promoting programs that the public is not interested in buying.
2. They provide their affiliates with marketing tools to promote their programs. Affiliate marketing is a partnership between the merchants who own the programs and the affiliates who promote them. As an affiliate, it is important to have partner who cares about your success.
3. They have good customer service and affiliate support systems. Things change very quickly online; and affiliate marketing is a very competitive business. Having a good support system will help you get the answers you need in a timely manner.
4. They have accurate affiliate statistics. As an affiliate, you need to be able to alter your campaigns and make necessary adjustments when needed. With an accurate system to track your campaigns performances,you will be able to immediately know what part of your campaigns need to be changed.
Everyone's circumstances are different. The best program for one is not necessarily the best one for others. Therefore, it is necessary to test different programs. By monitoring the results, you will be able to determine the program that best suit your purpose.
It is critical to very carefully choose the affiliate programs to promote, as choosing the wrong program can have a huge negative impact on your business. It is always wise to conduct your own research before deciding to join any program. Ultimately, only you can decide which program will help you reach your goal as a successful affiliate marketer.
Top Two Free Traffic Methods for List Building
Top Two Free Traffic Methods for List Building
If you want to learn how to get more traffic to your squeeze page for FREE then this is the perfect article for you. In this article, we will discuss Article Marketing and Forum Marketing. After reading this article you should be able to implement these free strategies into your current methods and shoot up the traffic to your squeeze page.
Article marketing is the process of submitting unique written content usually at least 400 words to article directories. It is a great traffic tool if used correctly; it is especially great because it is free. Usually when someone uses article marketing they use it to promote an affiliate product, but for list building it is even better. This is because the reader is able to get something for free, which enhances click through and subscribers. Article marketing is one great method to attract subscribers to your squeeze page, but not the only free way.
Another method that can be used is to use forum marketing. This is a great, easy, and fast way to get your squeeze page out onto the internet. For whatever your niche is on there are dozens of forum websites that one can exploit for their benefit. When searching the forums, look for threads that you can participate and not SPAM in, this is crucial. If you spam the threads, then people will not see you as a knowledgeable person on your niche and click on your signature link. The signature link is a link of some sort that is posted with every post that one makes; this is where you will put your link to your squeeze page. Try to post around 10-15 posts a day that are relevant and use full to the current conversation within the thread; this will raise your Google ranking and also bring traffic to your squeeze page. Forum marketing is another great method to build your double opt in subscriber base, video marketing is one last great free way to receive targeted traffic.
List building will put you on your path to financial success and to the freedom that you deserve, especially when one can use free methods that are very easy to implement into your list building efforts. Whether you are using article marketing or forum marketing, or both there is no limit to the amount of targeted traffic you can receive and above all, for free.
If you want to learn how to get more traffic to your squeeze page for FREE then this is the perfect article for you. In this article, we will discuss Article Marketing and Forum Marketing. After reading this article you should be able to implement these free strategies into your current methods and shoot up the traffic to your squeeze page.
Article marketing is the process of submitting unique written content usually at least 400 words to article directories. It is a great traffic tool if used correctly; it is especially great because it is free. Usually when someone uses article marketing they use it to promote an affiliate product, but for list building it is even better. This is because the reader is able to get something for free, which enhances click through and subscribers. Article marketing is one great method to attract subscribers to your squeeze page, but not the only free way.
Another method that can be used is to use forum marketing. This is a great, easy, and fast way to get your squeeze page out onto the internet. For whatever your niche is on there are dozens of forum websites that one can exploit for their benefit. When searching the forums, look for threads that you can participate and not SPAM in, this is crucial. If you spam the threads, then people will not see you as a knowledgeable person on your niche and click on your signature link. The signature link is a link of some sort that is posted with every post that one makes; this is where you will put your link to your squeeze page. Try to post around 10-15 posts a day that are relevant and use full to the current conversation within the thread; this will raise your Google ranking and also bring traffic to your squeeze page. Forum marketing is another great method to build your double opt in subscriber base, video marketing is one last great free way to receive targeted traffic.
List building will put you on your path to financial success and to the freedom that you deserve, especially when one can use free methods that are very easy to implement into your list building efforts. Whether you are using article marketing or forum marketing, or both there is no limit to the amount of targeted traffic you can receive and above all, for free.
Does AdSense Belong on my Blog?
So you're setting up a new blog and you have lots of decisions to make. Which design should you use? What plug-ins should you add? How do you monetize your blog?
When considering how to make money with your blog, the question always comes up about whether or not to place AdSense ads on your site. Let's go over the plusses and minuses of mixing ads with the content of your site.
+Plus+
An easy way to monetize your blog, especially if you are a beginner blogger, is to place AdSense ads on it. You decide on the format, size, and color and AdSense walks you through the whole thing. Look around at other blogs to get ideas of what you like. Keep in mind, AdSense has restrictions as to the number of ads you can add, but you don't want to overdo it anyway.
Ads are passive income. You make money if people click on them (PPC). You just stick them up there and let them do their job. You don't presell or tell people to click on them. Experiment on placement, type, color, etc. and track which works best.
It's true that blogs are a creative outlet, but if you're not doing anything else to make money with your blog, why not use AdSense? The money you make may not replace your income, but it's still money coming in.
-Minus-
Placing ads on your site may feel like a cop-out if you want your blog to remain a pure artistic creation. Your readers may not like it if you suddenly start throwing up ads. If your blog is already going strong before you start using AdSense, then make the ads small, unobtrusive, and few to start with.
AdSense may not make you much money. It depends on the amount of traffic coming your way and the relevancy of the ads. Sometimes there is a better use for that spot the ads are on, especially if that spot is above the fold.
When you put ads on your site you are asking people to click away. This is not a good idea on every site. For example, if you have a one page sales page where you are selling your product, you don't want people to click away, you want them to buy now.
It might be a big decision whether to put AdSense ads on your blog, but it's easier to put them on in the beginning and take them off later than to add them after the fact. Either way, though, your decision can be changed. Just remember your blog content should always be your main concern.
When considering how to make money with your blog, the question always comes up about whether or not to place AdSense ads on your site. Let's go over the plusses and minuses of mixing ads with the content of your site.
+Plus+
An easy way to monetize your blog, especially if you are a beginner blogger, is to place AdSense ads on it. You decide on the format, size, and color and AdSense walks you through the whole thing. Look around at other blogs to get ideas of what you like. Keep in mind, AdSense has restrictions as to the number of ads you can add, but you don't want to overdo it anyway.
Ads are passive income. You make money if people click on them (PPC). You just stick them up there and let them do their job. You don't presell or tell people to click on them. Experiment on placement, type, color, etc. and track which works best.
It's true that blogs are a creative outlet, but if you're not doing anything else to make money with your blog, why not use AdSense? The money you make may not replace your income, but it's still money coming in.
-Minus-
Placing ads on your site may feel like a cop-out if you want your blog to remain a pure artistic creation. Your readers may not like it if you suddenly start throwing up ads. If your blog is already going strong before you start using AdSense, then make the ads small, unobtrusive, and few to start with.
AdSense may not make you much money. It depends on the amount of traffic coming your way and the relevancy of the ads. Sometimes there is a better use for that spot the ads are on, especially if that spot is above the fold.
When you put ads on your site you are asking people to click away. This is not a good idea on every site. For example, if you have a one page sales page where you are selling your product, you don't want people to click away, you want them to buy now.
It might be a big decision whether to put AdSense ads on your blog, but it's easier to put them on in the beginning and take them off later than to add them after the fact. Either way, though, your decision can be changed. Just remember your blog content should always be your main concern.
5 Tips on Using Private Label Content
Private Label Content is becoming increasingly popular as people join the rush to fill their websites with high-quality information. Admittedly, you can have articles written by freelance writers at sites like Elance or Rentacoder, but it gets expensive. For those who are not yet generating a high income through AdSense or affiliate sales, Private Label Content (PLC) provides a welcome alternative.
=== What is Private Label Content? ===
PLC generally refers to articles, e-books and manuals that are free for subscribers to use as they wish. There are a few restrictions, however: you cannot claim copyright to PLC, or submit it to article sites, unless you change the content significantly. (Interpret 'significantly' as 'unrecognizable as the original article'.) The cost of membership varies, but typically ranges from around $24 to $67 a month. For this you might receive anywhere from 150 to 300 articles per month. Some sites also offer graphics (e-book covers and site header graphics) and even ready-made sales letters.
To use PLC to the best advantage, you need to be aware of a few things.
=== 1. How Can You Use PLC Articles? ===
The most common use for PLC articles is to provide useful, interesting content for websites. There are other uses, however. Think about your immediate needs. If you require an incentive for people to sign up for your newsletter, you can offer an e-book or training manual made up from PLC articles. It's easy to tweak these to be more relevant to your website and your clients. (As well as putting yourself in Google's shoes, put yourself in your clients' shoes. What do they most need to know?)
You could also create an e-course (anything from 6 to 52 articles - a short e-course, or one that offers an article for each week of the year). This gives you an excellent reason to stay in touch with your clients.
=== 2. How Can You Alter PLC Articles? ===
Submitting articles to public article directories along with your resource box is a great way to generate traffic to your web-sites. However, many directories don't allow you to submit duplicate content - ie, you have to submit your own unique article. Therefore, when submitting an article that you obtained from a private label content resource, it's advisable to first alter the article before submission. Here are a few tips in that regard...
(a) Change the title of the article. If you are using keyword-optimized articles, make sure you keep the keyword in the title - but be creative about the words that surround it. So if your article is based on the keyword "Mongolian Guinea Pig", your title might be "Where to Find the Mongolian Guinea Pig" or "Taking Care of Your Mongolian Guinea Pig" and so on.
(b) Change the opening paragraph. All you need to do (usually) is make sure that your keyword appears once. Take a look at the rest of the paragraph. How can you say the same thing in a different way? Look for synonyms - using your thesaurus - or alter the tone. Perhaps you can adopt a more casual approach (this might work better for your readership anyway). You might prefer write a different introduction altogether.
(c) Work through the article. Add a sentence here; subtract one there. Present the facts in a different order. Expand by adding some new points. Break a long article into two shorter articles. (If you do this, make sure each article seems complete in itself.)
(d) Rewrite the ending. When you do this, think about what you want the reader to do. Is this a good place to put your own affiliate link, or write a lead-in to your own product or services?
=== 3. Blend Several Articles Into One ===
You can get a whole new look if you take two or more PLC articles on the same theme and blend them into one longer, fact-packed article. Sometimes you might find you HAVE to do this, if an article seems a bit 'lightweight'. Not all PLC articles are created equal! Sometimes it's obvious that the writer was low on inspiration.
=== 4. Think Outside the Square. ===
Most PLC articles are presented in batches relevant to one niche. For example, you might find that over the course of a month you get 20 articles on golf, 20 on cell phones, 20 on credit cards and 20 on travel. Let's say that you are busy building a golf site. It might seem at first glance that only 20 of the 80 articles are relevant to your needs.
Not so! Golf vacations, for example, are very popular. Could any of your travel articles be massaged to fit the theme of golf vacations? It's very likely that they could. And what about communication while you travel - or while you play golf? Does the golfer need a new cell phone that will easily adapt to overseas communications? How will the golfer pay for a new set of clubs or a golf vacation? Might he need to explore credit card options?
You see how it's done. Be creative in your use of Private Label Content, and you will definitely get your money's worth.
=== 5. One Final Tip - Hold Out For Quality! ===
Now that Private Label Content is becoming popular, more and more PLC sites are opening up. You can afford to be choosy. Check out the quality of the articles on offer, and especially the niches being targeted. Niche areas like golf and credit are popular, and that's exactly what you want. You want to go where there is an *existing* demand. You do NOT want obscure niches where there is little activity. You WANT to go where there is competition. Naturally, the profitable niches will always have competition. Where there is competition, there are buyers! So you want to look for demand, look for competition, and carve your niche!
Finally, consider being a member of more than one PLC site. Is it worth it to you to spend $150 a month on quality, no-strings-attached content? That would get you membership of 3-4 sites and upwards of 400 articles each month. Even if you can use only 50 of those articles, you're getting them for $3 each - a bargain!
=== What is Private Label Content? ===
PLC generally refers to articles, e-books and manuals that are free for subscribers to use as they wish. There are a few restrictions, however: you cannot claim copyright to PLC, or submit it to article sites, unless you change the content significantly. (Interpret 'significantly' as 'unrecognizable as the original article'.) The cost of membership varies, but typically ranges from around $24 to $67 a month. For this you might receive anywhere from 150 to 300 articles per month. Some sites also offer graphics (e-book covers and site header graphics) and even ready-made sales letters.
To use PLC to the best advantage, you need to be aware of a few things.
=== 1. How Can You Use PLC Articles? ===
The most common use for PLC articles is to provide useful, interesting content for websites. There are other uses, however. Think about your immediate needs. If you require an incentive for people to sign up for your newsletter, you can offer an e-book or training manual made up from PLC articles. It's easy to tweak these to be more relevant to your website and your clients. (As well as putting yourself in Google's shoes, put yourself in your clients' shoes. What do they most need to know?)
You could also create an e-course (anything from 6 to 52 articles - a short e-course, or one that offers an article for each week of the year). This gives you an excellent reason to stay in touch with your clients.
=== 2. How Can You Alter PLC Articles? ===
Submitting articles to public article directories along with your resource box is a great way to generate traffic to your web-sites. However, many directories don't allow you to submit duplicate content - ie, you have to submit your own unique article. Therefore, when submitting an article that you obtained from a private label content resource, it's advisable to first alter the article before submission. Here are a few tips in that regard...
(a) Change the title of the article. If you are using keyword-optimized articles, make sure you keep the keyword in the title - but be creative about the words that surround it. So if your article is based on the keyword "Mongolian Guinea Pig", your title might be "Where to Find the Mongolian Guinea Pig" or "Taking Care of Your Mongolian Guinea Pig" and so on.
(b) Change the opening paragraph. All you need to do (usually) is make sure that your keyword appears once. Take a look at the rest of the paragraph. How can you say the same thing in a different way? Look for synonyms - using your thesaurus - or alter the tone. Perhaps you can adopt a more casual approach (this might work better for your readership anyway). You might prefer write a different introduction altogether.
(c) Work through the article. Add a sentence here; subtract one there. Present the facts in a different order. Expand by adding some new points. Break a long article into two shorter articles. (If you do this, make sure each article seems complete in itself.)
(d) Rewrite the ending. When you do this, think about what you want the reader to do. Is this a good place to put your own affiliate link, or write a lead-in to your own product or services?
=== 3. Blend Several Articles Into One ===
You can get a whole new look if you take two or more PLC articles on the same theme and blend them into one longer, fact-packed article. Sometimes you might find you HAVE to do this, if an article seems a bit 'lightweight'. Not all PLC articles are created equal! Sometimes it's obvious that the writer was low on inspiration.
=== 4. Think Outside the Square. ===
Most PLC articles are presented in batches relevant to one niche. For example, you might find that over the course of a month you get 20 articles on golf, 20 on cell phones, 20 on credit cards and 20 on travel. Let's say that you are busy building a golf site. It might seem at first glance that only 20 of the 80 articles are relevant to your needs.
Not so! Golf vacations, for example, are very popular. Could any of your travel articles be massaged to fit the theme of golf vacations? It's very likely that they could. And what about communication while you travel - or while you play golf? Does the golfer need a new cell phone that will easily adapt to overseas communications? How will the golfer pay for a new set of clubs or a golf vacation? Might he need to explore credit card options?
You see how it's done. Be creative in your use of Private Label Content, and you will definitely get your money's worth.
=== 5. One Final Tip - Hold Out For Quality! ===
Now that Private Label Content is becoming popular, more and more PLC sites are opening up. You can afford to be choosy. Check out the quality of the articles on offer, and especially the niches being targeted. Niche areas like golf and credit are popular, and that's exactly what you want. You want to go where there is an *existing* demand. You do NOT want obscure niches where there is little activity. You WANT to go where there is competition. Naturally, the profitable niches will always have competition. Where there is competition, there are buyers! So you want to look for demand, look for competition, and carve your niche!
Finally, consider being a member of more than one PLC site. Is it worth it to you to spend $150 a month on quality, no-strings-attached content? That would get you membership of 3-4 sites and upwards of 400 articles each month. Even if you can use only 50 of those articles, you're getting them for $3 each - a bargain!
If I Had Only Known Then What I Know Now!
Hindsight, we all know only too well, is a wonderful thing. For example, if we had only known that the ceiling on membership at a popular site was going to be subscribed so quickly - we would have joined up the minute we heard about it.
If we had only known that niche marketing was going to be so wildly popular we would have focused on that instead of MLM.
If we had only known that Google was going to change its algorithm and the rules of AdWords were going to change we would have...
Stop.
Stop, stop, stop.
In the world of Internet marketing, you can safely bet that the only constant is the rate of change! There's always news of the latest product dropping into your email inbox. There's always another promise of quick and easy money. Google will keep changing its algorithm, and new search engines are quite likely to pop up to challenge Google.
What can you do about this? Four main things:
(1) Continue To Educate Yourself.
Understand that those who rise to the top of any field - whether it's internet marketing or something else - are good at what they do. This means that they never stop learning. There are always new materials, new techniques and probably new 'experts' showing the way.
Most of us learn in three main ways: (a) from experts who specialize in a certain niche related to our field; (b) from others who are following the same path as we are, and (c) by trial and error, from our own results.
You will find that the more you immerse yourself in the world of internet marketing, the more you will be able to analyze which products, services and opportunities are right for you.
(2) Focus. Pick One System And Give It A Fair Go.
Countless people who start out on the internet with high hopes follow the same pattern. They get excited about a new product or system. They throw themselves into it and invest long hours (and potentially quite a bit of money) in getting it up and running. It might be e-books sold from mini-sites; it might be setting up an eBay business; it might be directory-type sites with text manipulators; it might be AdWords or content sites optimized for AdSense.
Then one day they get wind of another new system (probably one created by someone who claims "the gurus are angry with me for giving away all their secrets..."). Discouraged by the lack of results with the first "opportunity", they decide to let it rest for a while and try the new one. Back they go into the cycle of try-the-new-product, get-discouraged, discard-it-and-try-the-next-thing.
And so it goes on. Months pass. Perhaps years pass. They struggle to pay the credit card bills mounting from buying into every new system that comes along... with very little money coming in to offset their 'investment'. As they look back, they start muttering "If I had only known then what I know now..."
If you can recognize yourself in this scenario, the good news is this: Now you DO know better. You don't know what the next new product will be that's going to set the internet world abuzz, but you do know enough to choose a system that's right for you and stick to it.
(3) Take The Time to Plan.
Give yourself from two to four weeks to regroup. Go through all the products you have on your shelves or on your computer. Make a list. Decide which products you now know (so wise with hindsight!) to be worth keeping. Then analyze the 'keepers' and pick on the best system for YOU to use at this time. (This will depend upon your level of knowledge and which one you would enjoy most. Work with your strengths.)
Finally, devise a game plan. You are going to focus on this ONE method and devise a practical time-line to achieve results. Don't be in a rush. Make sure you give yourself enough time to see it 'take hold' so the money starts flowing in. That will give you the motivation to continue.
Clear the decks, physically as well as mentally. Put all the products that don't fit in with your plan in boxes or on disk for safekeeping. You may return to them one day, but if you've chosen the system that's right for you, you probably won't.
4. Don't Get Distracted by New Products.
Resolve to buy ONLY products or services that will save you time or money in implementing the system you have chosen. Never buy anything on impulse. Print out the sales letter, read it through, then put it aside. Read it through again the next day. Does it still seem so appealing? Check out a few forums to listen to the buzz. If a product doesn't deliver, you'll soon hear about it. If it is exceptional value, you'll hear about that, too.
Some questions to ask: "Will this help me to streamline the business I have chosen? Is it worth the money? Will it make a significant difference?" And above all, "Do I need this, or is it just another distraction?"
Resolve to make this the year you will succeed. No more pocket change. No more "If I had only known..."
You DO know.
So make it work.
If we had only known that niche marketing was going to be so wildly popular we would have focused on that instead of MLM.
If we had only known that Google was going to change its algorithm and the rules of AdWords were going to change we would have...
Stop.
Stop, stop, stop.
In the world of Internet marketing, you can safely bet that the only constant is the rate of change! There's always news of the latest product dropping into your email inbox. There's always another promise of quick and easy money. Google will keep changing its algorithm, and new search engines are quite likely to pop up to challenge Google.
What can you do about this? Four main things:
(1) Continue To Educate Yourself.
Understand that those who rise to the top of any field - whether it's internet marketing or something else - are good at what they do. This means that they never stop learning. There are always new materials, new techniques and probably new 'experts' showing the way.
Most of us learn in three main ways: (a) from experts who specialize in a certain niche related to our field; (b) from others who are following the same path as we are, and (c) by trial and error, from our own results.
You will find that the more you immerse yourself in the world of internet marketing, the more you will be able to analyze which products, services and opportunities are right for you.
(2) Focus. Pick One System And Give It A Fair Go.
Countless people who start out on the internet with high hopes follow the same pattern. They get excited about a new product or system. They throw themselves into it and invest long hours (and potentially quite a bit of money) in getting it up and running. It might be e-books sold from mini-sites; it might be setting up an eBay business; it might be directory-type sites with text manipulators; it might be AdWords or content sites optimized for AdSense.
Then one day they get wind of another new system (probably one created by someone who claims "the gurus are angry with me for giving away all their secrets..."). Discouraged by the lack of results with the first "opportunity", they decide to let it rest for a while and try the new one. Back they go into the cycle of try-the-new-product, get-discouraged, discard-it-and-try-the-next-thing.
And so it goes on. Months pass. Perhaps years pass. They struggle to pay the credit card bills mounting from buying into every new system that comes along... with very little money coming in to offset their 'investment'. As they look back, they start muttering "If I had only known then what I know now..."
If you can recognize yourself in this scenario, the good news is this: Now you DO know better. You don't know what the next new product will be that's going to set the internet world abuzz, but you do know enough to choose a system that's right for you and stick to it.
(3) Take The Time to Plan.
Give yourself from two to four weeks to regroup. Go through all the products you have on your shelves or on your computer. Make a list. Decide which products you now know (so wise with hindsight!) to be worth keeping. Then analyze the 'keepers' and pick on the best system for YOU to use at this time. (This will depend upon your level of knowledge and which one you would enjoy most. Work with your strengths.)
Finally, devise a game plan. You are going to focus on this ONE method and devise a practical time-line to achieve results. Don't be in a rush. Make sure you give yourself enough time to see it 'take hold' so the money starts flowing in. That will give you the motivation to continue.
Clear the decks, physically as well as mentally. Put all the products that don't fit in with your plan in boxes or on disk for safekeeping. You may return to them one day, but if you've chosen the system that's right for you, you probably won't.
4. Don't Get Distracted by New Products.
Resolve to buy ONLY products or services that will save you time or money in implementing the system you have chosen. Never buy anything on impulse. Print out the sales letter, read it through, then put it aside. Read it through again the next day. Does it still seem so appealing? Check out a few forums to listen to the buzz. If a product doesn't deliver, you'll soon hear about it. If it is exceptional value, you'll hear about that, too.
Some questions to ask: "Will this help me to streamline the business I have chosen? Is it worth the money? Will it make a significant difference?" And above all, "Do I need this, or is it just another distraction?"
Resolve to make this the year you will succeed. No more pocket change. No more "If I had only known..."
You DO know.
So make it work.
10 Ways to get Your Sites 'Slapped' by Search Engines
Of course your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts should be targeted towards high search engine ranking for your keywords, but you must beware of the over optimization penalty. This happens when the search engines consider your page has been designed for the unique purpose of ranking well.
Most SEO experts teach you how to optimize a web page for good search engine ranking, but very few tell you what you must NOT do if you want to avoid over optimization penalty and see your page rank drop or your site get de-indexed.
Here are 10 things you should consider if you are serious about SEO:
1 – Website Content Theft:
Never steal content from other websites. If you are reported you will immediately be banned. Not to mention other legal issues.
2 – Standard Language:
Do not use slang or rude words in your copy as it can get you de-indexed.
3 – Outgoing Links:
Do not exceed 100 outgoing links, always link to good quality sites and never link to farm links. Extra tip: you must check your outgoing links on a regular basis to make sure they are still working and the quality of the sites you are linking to is still good.
4 – URL Length:
Keep your URLs less than 100 characters long and avoid using more than 3 hyphens "-" in your URLs.
5 – Keyword Density:
Keep your keyword density under 5% or it could be considered keyword spamming.
6 – Title Tag:
Your title tag should contain less than 60 characters and should not contain any special characters.
7 – Description Tag.
Keep your description meta tag under 200 characters or your site ranking will drop.
8 – Keyword Tag.
Put less than 10 keywords in your keyword meta tag and make sure every keyword appears in your web page copy. Also, avoid putting the same keyword twice in your keyword meta tag. The fact is that nowadays search engines (mainly Google) do not really consider the Keyword meta tag for ranking, but if you do not follow these simple rules, you will get smacked in the face!
9 – Proper use of Alt Text.
If you use pictures and put your keyword in the alt text, your alt text must describe the picture. You could write something like: "keyword header", "keyword image" or "keyword logo" but never stuff lots of keywords in your alt texts. Again, this would be considered keyword spamming.
10 – Cloaking.
Never, ever, use cloaking. Cloaking consists in coding the page in such a way that parts of the content will be seen by search engines but will not be displayed to users. If you do that, you will get banned!
Finally, remember that search engine algorithms change frequently. So keep up to date by browsing the SEO sites and forums.
These 10 simple rules are no guarantee that you will rank well in the search engines, however one thing is sure, if you break these rules you will be penalized in the search results, lose page rank and maybe even get de-indexed altogether.
Most SEO experts teach you how to optimize a web page for good search engine ranking, but very few tell you what you must NOT do if you want to avoid over optimization penalty and see your page rank drop or your site get de-indexed.
Here are 10 things you should consider if you are serious about SEO:
1 – Website Content Theft:
Never steal content from other websites. If you are reported you will immediately be banned. Not to mention other legal issues.
2 – Standard Language:
Do not use slang or rude words in your copy as it can get you de-indexed.
3 – Outgoing Links:
Do not exceed 100 outgoing links, always link to good quality sites and never link to farm links. Extra tip: you must check your outgoing links on a regular basis to make sure they are still working and the quality of the sites you are linking to is still good.
4 – URL Length:
Keep your URLs less than 100 characters long and avoid using more than 3 hyphens "-" in your URLs.
5 – Keyword Density:
Keep your keyword density under 5% or it could be considered keyword spamming.
6 – Title Tag:
Your title tag should contain less than 60 characters and should not contain any special characters.
7 – Description Tag.
Keep your description meta tag under 200 characters or your site ranking will drop.
8 – Keyword Tag.
Put less than 10 keywords in your keyword meta tag and make sure every keyword appears in your web page copy. Also, avoid putting the same keyword twice in your keyword meta tag. The fact is that nowadays search engines (mainly Google) do not really consider the Keyword meta tag for ranking, but if you do not follow these simple rules, you will get smacked in the face!
9 – Proper use of Alt Text.
If you use pictures and put your keyword in the alt text, your alt text must describe the picture. You could write something like: "keyword header", "keyword image" or "keyword logo" but never stuff lots of keywords in your alt texts. Again, this would be considered keyword spamming.
10 – Cloaking.
Never, ever, use cloaking. Cloaking consists in coding the page in such a way that parts of the content will be seen by search engines but will not be displayed to users. If you do that, you will get banned!
Finally, remember that search engine algorithms change frequently. So keep up to date by browsing the SEO sites and forums.
These 10 simple rules are no guarantee that you will rank well in the search engines, however one thing is sure, if you break these rules you will be penalized in the search results, lose page rank and maybe even get de-indexed altogether.
Google Adsense - 8 Tips to cash in 30$ a day :
Adsense is really easy money if you know what you are doing. So here are 8 Google Adsense tips I use to make 30 to 35$ per site every day.
Tip 1 : Keep your ads above the fold
The fold is what you see when your page loads. You must make sure that your Adsense ads can be seen without having to scroll down.Most people have no time to waste and will not bother to go below the fold.
Tip 2 : No more than 4 Ads per page
I am not talking about ad blocks, but about Ads. Google places the best ads to the top so the less ads you display, the more you will get paid per click.
Tip 3 : Stick to the Medium rectangles.
My best choice would be the 250x250 rectangle displaying 3 ads. You can also split test the large rectangles. But as far as I am concerned the medium rectangle works the best.
Tip 4 : Blend, Blend, Blend
It has been said before, but the truth is that people have become Ad blind. What ever is perceived as an ad is ignored. Therefore your ads need to look like being part of your site. Use the same background color, the same text size and color. Blend the border into your background. But...
Tip 5 : Keep the links Blue
Whatever your text or background color, keep you Adsense links blue. In peoples mind, if it is blue, it is a link -- and the idea is to get your visitors to click on your links (mainly on your Adsense links).
Tip 6 : Set up Channels
If you have more than one ad unit per page,set up a channel for each unit (remember tip 1 no more than 4 ads per page).If you only have one ad unit per page, set up a channel per page. Channels will help you keep track of what ads are working and what are not.
Tip 7 : Keep an Eye on your CTR
CTR stands for Click Through Ratio. Number of clicks divided by number of page views multiplied by 100. If one of your pages has a lower CTR than others, you might want to change the content to make it more relevant. If you follow the previous tips, you should expect at least a 5 to 10% CTR. If not, you may want to start shifting things around.
Tip 8 : check your Adsense ads to make sure they are relevant to your content.
Sometimes, you will see non relevant Adsense ads appear on you pages. If that is the case try and figure out what is going on... Maybe you need to change you meta tags, or maybe a word in your content is messing things up.
These are the tips I use to make at least 30$ per site per day. I can't guarantee that you will make as much money as I do, but what I know for sure is that if you ignore these 8 easy to follow Adsense Tips, you are leaving lots and lots of money on the table
Tip 1 : Keep your ads above the fold
The fold is what you see when your page loads. You must make sure that your Adsense ads can be seen without having to scroll down.Most people have no time to waste and will not bother to go below the fold.
Tip 2 : No more than 4 Ads per page
I am not talking about ad blocks, but about Ads. Google places the best ads to the top so the less ads you display, the more you will get paid per click.
Tip 3 : Stick to the Medium rectangles.
My best choice would be the 250x250 rectangle displaying 3 ads. You can also split test the large rectangles. But as far as I am concerned the medium rectangle works the best.
Tip 4 : Blend, Blend, Blend
It has been said before, but the truth is that people have become Ad blind. What ever is perceived as an ad is ignored. Therefore your ads need to look like being part of your site. Use the same background color, the same text size and color. Blend the border into your background. But...
Tip 5 : Keep the links Blue
Whatever your text or background color, keep you Adsense links blue. In peoples mind, if it is blue, it is a link -- and the idea is to get your visitors to click on your links (mainly on your Adsense links).
Tip 6 : Set up Channels
If you have more than one ad unit per page,set up a channel for each unit (remember tip 1 no more than 4 ads per page).If you only have one ad unit per page, set up a channel per page. Channels will help you keep track of what ads are working and what are not.
Tip 7 : Keep an Eye on your CTR
CTR stands for Click Through Ratio. Number of clicks divided by number of page views multiplied by 100. If one of your pages has a lower CTR than others, you might want to change the content to make it more relevant. If you follow the previous tips, you should expect at least a 5 to 10% CTR. If not, you may want to start shifting things around.
Tip 8 : check your Adsense ads to make sure they are relevant to your content.
Sometimes, you will see non relevant Adsense ads appear on you pages. If that is the case try and figure out what is going on... Maybe you need to change you meta tags, or maybe a word in your content is messing things up.
These are the tips I use to make at least 30$ per site per day. I can't guarantee that you will make as much money as I do, but what I know for sure is that if you ignore these 8 easy to follow Adsense Tips, you are leaving lots and lots of money on the table
Beyond This Point There Be Dragons
In the days of Columbus, Magellan and other great explorers, much of the earth,(which many believed to be flat), was uncharted territory.
Legend held that sea monsters and other scary and dangerous creatures lived in the unexplored waters.
As a result, map makers commonly placed the words "Beyond This Point There Be Dragons" on areas that were unknown. This warned the early explorers to avoid these areas at all costs. This kept the discovery of many wonders hidden for years.
Even though we now know that we will never fall off the edge of the world, we have marked our mental charts with the same "Beyond This Point" warnings. We experience similar fears and anxieties when we just think about stepping outside of our own comfort zone into "new waters".
Those fears produce imaginary dragons such as fear of failure in something we have never tried. Fear of ridicule from peers if we do not succeed. The fear of finding the proper business and deciding how to get started. The greatest fear of all, the loss of that security you feel in your job.
Even though you may hate what you do, those dragons keep you imprisoned in the day to day grind that is necessary to produce your livelihood. That dreaded job becomes like an old badly worn easy chair. We fear that someday the arms will fall off but we have been sitting in it so long it just seems to offer some sort of security.
It wraps us in a false hope that someday some magic will occur which will change our lives before it becomes too late and we discover that our productive years are gone and we just never got around to fulfilling that dream of owning our own business. This is our comfort zone.
This is a terrible waste of a life. Especially now that the means of building your business are available. Through the magic of the internet all you need to do is apply yourself. Focus on your goals and find the right sources for information you need to began your journey.
A good tool to start with as an example is Google Adsense as a jumping off place. As with any worthwhile endeavor you will encounter a learning curve. Improperly used, like a badly used power tool, your project will fail. Properly used Google can produce a shop full of the latest power tools.
However there is no excuse for using the Google program improperly. There is so much good information available from those that have achieved success and have laid the groundwork and developed the necessary skills that to fail only means you have not applied yourself and made the time and effort to study what is available and put it to use.
Many successful entrepreneurs who derive great satisfaction from "giving something back" to others through sharing what they have learned to achieve amazing success are making their knowledge available with both free and paid programs. A quick search on any of the more popular search engines will produce plenty of good sources. Some time devoted to forums can produce much good first hand information.
Those waters are no longer uncharted. Those that have gone before you have produced a very detailed chart that is waiting for you to follow. All it takes is for you to get out of your comfort zone.
The choice is yours. Keep dreaming or set a course to building the dream of owning your own business. Conquer your personal dragons and you will soon realize that through the magic of the internet your chart will show this warning. "Beyond This Point There Be Success".
Legend held that sea monsters and other scary and dangerous creatures lived in the unexplored waters.
As a result, map makers commonly placed the words "Beyond This Point There Be Dragons" on areas that were unknown. This warned the early explorers to avoid these areas at all costs. This kept the discovery of many wonders hidden for years.
Even though we now know that we will never fall off the edge of the world, we have marked our mental charts with the same "Beyond This Point" warnings. We experience similar fears and anxieties when we just think about stepping outside of our own comfort zone into "new waters".
Those fears produce imaginary dragons such as fear of failure in something we have never tried. Fear of ridicule from peers if we do not succeed. The fear of finding the proper business and deciding how to get started. The greatest fear of all, the loss of that security you feel in your job.
Even though you may hate what you do, those dragons keep you imprisoned in the day to day grind that is necessary to produce your livelihood. That dreaded job becomes like an old badly worn easy chair. We fear that someday the arms will fall off but we have been sitting in it so long it just seems to offer some sort of security.
It wraps us in a false hope that someday some magic will occur which will change our lives before it becomes too late and we discover that our productive years are gone and we just never got around to fulfilling that dream of owning our own business. This is our comfort zone.
This is a terrible waste of a life. Especially now that the means of building your business are available. Through the magic of the internet all you need to do is apply yourself. Focus on your goals and find the right sources for information you need to began your journey.
A good tool to start with as an example is Google Adsense as a jumping off place. As with any worthwhile endeavor you will encounter a learning curve. Improperly used, like a badly used power tool, your project will fail. Properly used Google can produce a shop full of the latest power tools.
However there is no excuse for using the Google program improperly. There is so much good information available from those that have achieved success and have laid the groundwork and developed the necessary skills that to fail only means you have not applied yourself and made the time and effort to study what is available and put it to use.
Many successful entrepreneurs who derive great satisfaction from "giving something back" to others through sharing what they have learned to achieve amazing success are making their knowledge available with both free and paid programs. A quick search on any of the more popular search engines will produce plenty of good sources. Some time devoted to forums can produce much good first hand information.
Those waters are no longer uncharted. Those that have gone before you have produced a very detailed chart that is waiting for you to follow. All it takes is for you to get out of your comfort zone.
The choice is yours. Keep dreaming or set a course to building the dream of owning your own business. Conquer your personal dragons and you will soon realize that through the magic of the internet your chart will show this warning. "Beyond This Point There Be Success".
How a Major Ski Resort Uses Podcasts for Online Marketing
Podcasts are short radio-style audio programs that users of online audio, mobile audio and iPods (or other portable digital audio players) can download and listen to whenever and wherever they like. The Podcast medium is still in its infancy as a marketing medium.
The most effective use in these early days of marketing with Podcasts involves subjects that appeal to tech-savvy listeners. Obviously, that includes topics in computing, multimedia, and high technology.
Another smart approach is to match Podcast marketing with the lifestyle of the target audience. For example: skiers. The target market for a typical ski resort includes young professionals in the 20s and 30s, with an adventure-loving attitude to recreation, and plenty of disposable income so that they can afford the sport. That's right on target for the core market that buys iPods and other high-tech gadgets.
Marketing Sherpa reports that New England ski area Killington Ski Resorts recently tapped into this useful convergence of market niches to create a Podcast-driven marketing campaign.
The challenge was to reach the ideal demographic of young urban professionals, who are typically hard to get at through traditional ski industry marketing media such as radio, TV and magazines. Their lives are cluttered with a blizzard of conflicting media, their attention fragmented and hard to hold.
Killington Resorts communications manager Tom Horrocks recognized that one unifying factor of this demographic is their almost cultish love of iPods and portable digital audio. He decided that Podcasts would be an ideal way to connect with them on their own terms.
Here's how he put the campaign together:
1) Bought software and digital microphones that his team could use right in the office to create Podcasts.
2) Hired a "snow reporter / media writer" to act as a personable and enthusiastic character, to become identified as the Podcast voice of the resort.
3) Developed and produced 3 separate Podcasts: a 3-minute "Snowcast" of daily weather and snow condition reports; a 12-minute weekly "Driftcast" that delivered interviews, tips and stories from the mountain; and a 3-hour weekly music production, more like and FM radio segment, with music appealing to the target demographic.
4) Delivered the Podcasts regularly, on schedule, through popular distribution services including Apple's iTunes online music service, Podcast Alley, and Yahoo!, as well as through the Resorts' own Web site.
The results were impressive. Over a period of 2 months at the beginning of 2006, the Podcasts were downloaded nearly 30,000 times. The downside of Podcast marketing is that it is hard to track results. Once the audio is downloaded, there's no built-in way to measure how the listener responds or takes action.
However, Tom Horrocks is sure the Podcasts delivered a good return on investment. He credits the campaign's success to the flair of the resort's Podcast personality, known as Anna of the Mountain. "She epitomizes Killington: young, passionate, crazy about skiing."
The most effective use in these early days of marketing with Podcasts involves subjects that appeal to tech-savvy listeners. Obviously, that includes topics in computing, multimedia, and high technology.
Another smart approach is to match Podcast marketing with the lifestyle of the target audience. For example: skiers. The target market for a typical ski resort includes young professionals in the 20s and 30s, with an adventure-loving attitude to recreation, and plenty of disposable income so that they can afford the sport. That's right on target for the core market that buys iPods and other high-tech gadgets.
Marketing Sherpa reports that New England ski area Killington Ski Resorts recently tapped into this useful convergence of market niches to create a Podcast-driven marketing campaign.
The challenge was to reach the ideal demographic of young urban professionals, who are typically hard to get at through traditional ski industry marketing media such as radio, TV and magazines. Their lives are cluttered with a blizzard of conflicting media, their attention fragmented and hard to hold.
Killington Resorts communications manager Tom Horrocks recognized that one unifying factor of this demographic is their almost cultish love of iPods and portable digital audio. He decided that Podcasts would be an ideal way to connect with them on their own terms.
Here's how he put the campaign together:
1) Bought software and digital microphones that his team could use right in the office to create Podcasts.
2) Hired a "snow reporter / media writer" to act as a personable and enthusiastic character, to become identified as the Podcast voice of the resort.
3) Developed and produced 3 separate Podcasts: a 3-minute "Snowcast" of daily weather and snow condition reports; a 12-minute weekly "Driftcast" that delivered interviews, tips and stories from the mountain; and a 3-hour weekly music production, more like and FM radio segment, with music appealing to the target demographic.
4) Delivered the Podcasts regularly, on schedule, through popular distribution services including Apple's iTunes online music service, Podcast Alley, and Yahoo!, as well as through the Resorts' own Web site.
The results were impressive. Over a period of 2 months at the beginning of 2006, the Podcasts were downloaded nearly 30,000 times. The downside of Podcast marketing is that it is hard to track results. Once the audio is downloaded, there's no built-in way to measure how the listener responds or takes action.
However, Tom Horrocks is sure the Podcasts delivered a good return on investment. He credits the campaign's success to the flair of the resort's Podcast personality, known as Anna of the Mountain. "She epitomizes Killington: young, passionate, crazy about skiing."
Get your website to the top of Google!
Have you come across adverts like these on the Internet? Every business wants their website to get to the top of Google. Why? Because the level of competition on the Internet is so fierce that if your site is not on the first few pages, it is likely that your web site will never get seen - except by you!
Adverts like these are only partially true. No one can really guarantee you the number 1 spot in Google or any other search engine, and if they can, it may only be for keywords that none of your potential visitors are seeking.
How come? Google's programmers keep the exact basis on which websites are rated and positioned secret. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts have been able to find out many of the factors that Google weighs to determine which position to assign any particular website. However, no one knows exactly how much weight Google attaches to each factor. So even the experts can get it wrong and spending huge amounts of money on SEO can turn out to be futile.
How does this affect you as a business trying to maximize your web site visibility? Can your site rise to the top of Google? Yes. Possibly. You can get into the top 10 positions - with hard work and depending on a number of factors including what you are promoting, your sites domain name, how much competition there is, the number of pages your website has and how well you use keywords on your site - among others.
What can you do to boost your website sales and position?
a) Try to make your website the best one possible for the services and products you offer. If your site appears unprofessional, is difficult to use, unattractive or lacks the products people want - then even if you get to the top search engine positions, you will not be able to make sales.
Add regular features, articles and special offers to your site. Pay attention to what your competitors are doing and to new trends. Research, update and improve constantly, innovate. Capture details of your visitors in website forms and communicate with them.
b) Identify the best keywords for your website. When you surf the Internet, you type in relevant words. The search engines then find and list websites whose content matches those words. Help your website to be found by including the items people are searching for in your site's text. Think about what people seeking your products would type in Google. What words do your competitors emphasize on their websites?
c) Apply standard website optimization techniques to your website. Any good website developer will know the basic technical aspects of SEO (Keyword density, using keywords in page titles, keyword selection, tags etc.) So let us focus on the things you as the site owner can influence directly.
As the content provider, sprinkle your keywords throughout your website (e.g. see how often the words "website" and "position" can be found in this article). But make sure you use your keywords in context. Mix up your phrases, but make sure they don't come across as stilted or un-natural. The last thing you want to do is gain search engine positions and lose customers.
d) Get other websites to link to your website. The links count as votes in your favour.
In summary, while SEO is important and worth paying for if you can afford it, there are many things you can do to optimize your website if you can't. Remember that optimizing your site will take time to yield any results.
Even if your site never gets to be number 1 in Google, doing these things will benefit both your website and your business.
Adverts like these are only partially true. No one can really guarantee you the number 1 spot in Google or any other search engine, and if they can, it may only be for keywords that none of your potential visitors are seeking.
How come? Google's programmers keep the exact basis on which websites are rated and positioned secret. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts have been able to find out many of the factors that Google weighs to determine which position to assign any particular website. However, no one knows exactly how much weight Google attaches to each factor. So even the experts can get it wrong and spending huge amounts of money on SEO can turn out to be futile.
How does this affect you as a business trying to maximize your web site visibility? Can your site rise to the top of Google? Yes. Possibly. You can get into the top 10 positions - with hard work and depending on a number of factors including what you are promoting, your sites domain name, how much competition there is, the number of pages your website has and how well you use keywords on your site - among others.
What can you do to boost your website sales and position?
a) Try to make your website the best one possible for the services and products you offer. If your site appears unprofessional, is difficult to use, unattractive or lacks the products people want - then even if you get to the top search engine positions, you will not be able to make sales.
Add regular features, articles and special offers to your site. Pay attention to what your competitors are doing and to new trends. Research, update and improve constantly, innovate. Capture details of your visitors in website forms and communicate with them.
b) Identify the best keywords for your website. When you surf the Internet, you type in relevant words. The search engines then find and list websites whose content matches those words. Help your website to be found by including the items people are searching for in your site's text. Think about what people seeking your products would type in Google. What words do your competitors emphasize on their websites?
c) Apply standard website optimization techniques to your website. Any good website developer will know the basic technical aspects of SEO (Keyword density, using keywords in page titles, keyword selection, tags etc.) So let us focus on the things you as the site owner can influence directly.
As the content provider, sprinkle your keywords throughout your website (e.g. see how often the words "website" and "position" can be found in this article). But make sure you use your keywords in context. Mix up your phrases, but make sure they don't come across as stilted or un-natural. The last thing you want to do is gain search engine positions and lose customers.
d) Get other websites to link to your website. The links count as votes in your favour.
In summary, while SEO is important and worth paying for if you can afford it, there are many things you can do to optimize your website if you can't. Remember that optimizing your site will take time to yield any results.
Even if your site never gets to be number 1 in Google, doing these things will benefit both your website and your business.
How to Boost Your Traffic and Profits with Content!
Are you aware of how vitally important and valuable CONTENT is to your online business? In fact, content can do more to build your business and profits than just about any other resource or service available.
Following is a list of 5 key ways that content can help build your traffic, subscribers, and customers starting today!...
1. Boost your search engine ranking and daily visitor count by posting keyword rich articles and content on your web-site. For example, if your business involves offering products and services related to fitness, posting fitness related articles and content will attract unlimited prospective customers on a regular basis!
2. Generate double or even triple the number of newsletter subscribers you do currently, simply by offering content in the form of "special reports" or manuals as bonuses for subscribing to your publication. People love freebies, so give them what they want and watch as your results increase!
3. Create an automated cashflow by using content to formulate multi-part email training courses with related web-site or affiliate links "sprinkled" throughout each course. Use an autoresponder service to automate the delivery of your training course (such as a 5 part training course delivered over a 5 day period).
Training courses can also serve as excellent bonus offers for your prospective newsletter subscribers.
4. One of the most important keys to a successful online business is not JUST having a list of mailing list or newsletter subscribers... It's about building a trusting relationship with your subscribers (ie, "cultivating" your list)...
By sending informative articles (content) to your list on a regular basis you will establish yourself as an expert on your topic of business, as well as gain the trust of your subscribers over time. As a result, your subscribers will be EAGER to take advantage of your "paid" product and service offers. (Just make sure that you NEVER take advantage of the relationship you develop with your list by offering products or services of poor quality just to make a quick buck!)
If there is one "constant" in Internet marketing, it's this: A cultivated list of subscribers is as good as money in the bank. Write that down and never forget it!
5. Another excellent way to generate no cost traffic is by submitting ready-made articles to "content hungry" web-site and newsletter publishers with your "resource box" attached. A resource box is nothing more than a little 3-6 line "bio" about you and/or your web-site - including a link to your site (or even instructions on how to subscribe to your newsletter)...
When submitting or offering your article(s) for reprint purposes, just make sure to specify that each article is to be reprinted "as is" with your resource box attached.
...Even one article can go a LONG way towards generating no cost traffic and visitors for you. Just imagine your article being sent out to a newsletter subscriber base of 100,000 individuals - many of whom will be reading YOUR included resource box and clicking on your URL to learn more about what you have to offer!
Well there you have it, 5 sure ways to build your online business exponentially with the help of articles and content...
With the declining effectiveness of many of the online advertising methods that we've relied on in past years, content is only strengthening its position as the ultimate KEY to generating unlimited traffic, subscribers, and customers!
Following is a list of 5 key ways that content can help build your traffic, subscribers, and customers starting today!...
1. Boost your search engine ranking and daily visitor count by posting keyword rich articles and content on your web-site. For example, if your business involves offering products and services related to fitness, posting fitness related articles and content will attract unlimited prospective customers on a regular basis!
2. Generate double or even triple the number of newsletter subscribers you do currently, simply by offering content in the form of "special reports" or manuals as bonuses for subscribing to your publication. People love freebies, so give them what they want and watch as your results increase!
3. Create an automated cashflow by using content to formulate multi-part email training courses with related web-site or affiliate links "sprinkled" throughout each course. Use an autoresponder service to automate the delivery of your training course (such as a 5 part training course delivered over a 5 day period).
Training courses can also serve as excellent bonus offers for your prospective newsletter subscribers.
4. One of the most important keys to a successful online business is not JUST having a list of mailing list or newsletter subscribers... It's about building a trusting relationship with your subscribers (ie, "cultivating" your list)...
By sending informative articles (content) to your list on a regular basis you will establish yourself as an expert on your topic of business, as well as gain the trust of your subscribers over time. As a result, your subscribers will be EAGER to take advantage of your "paid" product and service offers. (Just make sure that you NEVER take advantage of the relationship you develop with your list by offering products or services of poor quality just to make a quick buck!)
If there is one "constant" in Internet marketing, it's this: A cultivated list of subscribers is as good as money in the bank. Write that down and never forget it!
5. Another excellent way to generate no cost traffic is by submitting ready-made articles to "content hungry" web-site and newsletter publishers with your "resource box" attached. A resource box is nothing more than a little 3-6 line "bio" about you and/or your web-site - including a link to your site (or even instructions on how to subscribe to your newsletter)...
When submitting or offering your article(s) for reprint purposes, just make sure to specify that each article is to be reprinted "as is" with your resource box attached.
...Even one article can go a LONG way towards generating no cost traffic and visitors for you. Just imagine your article being sent out to a newsletter subscriber base of 100,000 individuals - many of whom will be reading YOUR included resource box and clicking on your URL to learn more about what you have to offer!
Well there you have it, 5 sure ways to build your online business exponentially with the help of articles and content...
With the declining effectiveness of many of the online advertising methods that we've relied on in past years, content is only strengthening its position as the ultimate KEY to generating unlimited traffic, subscribers, and customers!
The Problem with Internet Marketing Newbies
Internet Marketing newbies are those who form the largest portion of those who fail to make a living on the internet. This article is to help newbies not only survive but succeed and ultimately make a living online. If you are a newbie, chances are, these characteristics describe you.
You dream of making a lavish, full-time income on the internet, mostly on autopilot. This allows you the freedom to live the kind of lifestyle you desire without financial worries.
You are on many, many lists. Every internet marketing guru has your name and email address on their lists. As a result, you get bombarded with at least 100 emails from these guys everyday.
You are on the internet everyday trying to figure out how to run a successful online business. You probably learn new things almost daily. You are constantly watching videos, listening to audios or reading e-books learning the newest money-making system on the internet.
You buy more info-products, software, scripts, systems, 'how-to' methods etc than you actually use. As a result, you have tons of PLR, MRR and RR e-books, the latest software and scripts, memberships to all sorts of programs that promise to be the silver bullet that answers the basic question, "What Must I Do To Succeed On The Internet?" sitting in your hard drive gathering virtual dust.
The combined effect of these characteristics is information overload and analysis paralysis. In other words, you hardly take any action based on what you already know or have in hand. You may think this article is irrelevant to you because you do take action. If that is so then why are you not succeeding beyond your wildest dreams? And why is there such a high failure rate (some say as high as 95%) among internet marketers?
The reason is that 'take action' is far more than just putting up a webpage, setting up your autoresponder, writing some articles, bidding on keywords in Adwords, advertising on Craigslist or even creating your own product. All these are necessary but the way to big bucks online is far more than that. Here's what to do:
Firstly, reduce the number of lists you're on. Do not worry about losing out on the latest information. You already have enough information to put yourself on the path to success if you just use whatever you've got now instead of perpetually reading, studying and learning the so-called latest method in internet marketing. Do you think the gurus got to where they are by constantly reading e-books without doing actual marketing?
Secondly, spend your time such that it gives maximum returns everyday. Reading e-books, watching videos and listening to podcasts are good but they don't make you any money in itself (not to mention it takes half a day for some videos to download). Website design and creating graphics do not make you money by itself. All these activities are essential but if you spend too much time on them, you drastically minimize your income potential. You must proportion your time wisely between that which actually makes you money and that which does not.
Thirdly, focus on taking action, one step at a time. Every internet marketing project involves roughly the same steps. Find a profitable niche, identify keywords, create your own or find an affiliate product, create your website with a lead-capture form, drive traffic and track your progress. Thereafter, build a relationship with those who subscribe to your list through a series of emails. Do not merely shove offer after offer down their throats but be personal and give good tips and contents that would benefit your subscribers.
Most internet marketing gurus say that making money on the internet is not rocket science. Actually, it's true. The steps above are simple but if done regularly, will produce results sooner or later. It sure beats all the hit-and-miss efforts that so many newbies make, that result in ultimate failure. Online success comes by doing the right things the right way.
You dream of making a lavish, full-time income on the internet, mostly on autopilot. This allows you the freedom to live the kind of lifestyle you desire without financial worries.
You are on many, many lists. Every internet marketing guru has your name and email address on their lists. As a result, you get bombarded with at least 100 emails from these guys everyday.
You are on the internet everyday trying to figure out how to run a successful online business. You probably learn new things almost daily. You are constantly watching videos, listening to audios or reading e-books learning the newest money-making system on the internet.
You buy more info-products, software, scripts, systems, 'how-to' methods etc than you actually use. As a result, you have tons of PLR, MRR and RR e-books, the latest software and scripts, memberships to all sorts of programs that promise to be the silver bullet that answers the basic question, "What Must I Do To Succeed On The Internet?" sitting in your hard drive gathering virtual dust.
The combined effect of these characteristics is information overload and analysis paralysis. In other words, you hardly take any action based on what you already know or have in hand. You may think this article is irrelevant to you because you do take action. If that is so then why are you not succeeding beyond your wildest dreams? And why is there such a high failure rate (some say as high as 95%) among internet marketers?
The reason is that 'take action' is far more than just putting up a webpage, setting up your autoresponder, writing some articles, bidding on keywords in Adwords, advertising on Craigslist or even creating your own product. All these are necessary but the way to big bucks online is far more than that. Here's what to do:
Firstly, reduce the number of lists you're on. Do not worry about losing out on the latest information. You already have enough information to put yourself on the path to success if you just use whatever you've got now instead of perpetually reading, studying and learning the so-called latest method in internet marketing. Do you think the gurus got to where they are by constantly reading e-books without doing actual marketing?
Secondly, spend your time such that it gives maximum returns everyday. Reading e-books, watching videos and listening to podcasts are good but they don't make you any money in itself (not to mention it takes half a day for some videos to download). Website design and creating graphics do not make you money by itself. All these activities are essential but if you spend too much time on them, you drastically minimize your income potential. You must proportion your time wisely between that which actually makes you money and that which does not.
Thirdly, focus on taking action, one step at a time. Every internet marketing project involves roughly the same steps. Find a profitable niche, identify keywords, create your own or find an affiliate product, create your website with a lead-capture form, drive traffic and track your progress. Thereafter, build a relationship with those who subscribe to your list through a series of emails. Do not merely shove offer after offer down their throats but be personal and give good tips and contents that would benefit your subscribers.
Most internet marketing gurus say that making money on the internet is not rocket science. Actually, it's true. The steps above are simple but if done regularly, will produce results sooner or later. It sure beats all the hit-and-miss efforts that so many newbies make, that result in ultimate failure. Online success comes by doing the right things the right way.
Little-known Methods To Get Visitors To Your Blog
Once you have your blog live on the Internet, it is now time to find people who are interested in your topic to visit your blog. The saying, Build It And They Will Come could not be more wrong. Just because you have a blog does not mean anyone will visit it or even know it exists. It is your job to attract visitors to your blog. This article will show you how.
There are paid methods and free methods to get visitors to your blog. Unless you have an advertising budget at your disposal, you would have to rely on free methods. Free methods means getting organic traffic from the search engines or other sources. There are some well-known ways of doing so like article marketing and SEO. Besides those, here are two other ways of getting search engine traffic that are just as effective as the other more conventional ways.
The first method is using Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo! Answers is a website for people to ask questions about anything and for other people to answer them. You must have at least two Yahoo! accounts to use this method (the more the better). The first step is to log into Yahoo! Answers using one of your Yahoo! accounts. Enter a keyword phrase related to your niche into Yahoo! Answers in the form of a question. For example if you are in the weight loss niche, one of your keyword phrases might be Lose Weight Naturally. So just type in How Can I Lose Weight Naturally? into Yahoo! Answers as a question.
Then exit from Yahoo! Answers and log in again but this time using your second Yahoo! account. Go back to the question you asked earlier and answer your own question. Of course, your answer should be informative and as accurate as possible. You can either get the answer from your own blog content or from another related website. If you take the answer from another website, be sure to re-word your answer so that you would not be plagiarizing. Along with your answer there will be a field called, Know your source? List it here: Now here is where you put in your blog URL.
Besides answering your own question, you could do a search within Yahoo! Answers for other similar questions asked by other people and submit your answer there also. What is happening is you are building quality backlinks to your blog with each answer you submit. It goes without saying that the more questions and answers you submit, the more backlinks you get to your blog. And everyone knows that backlinks push your blog ranking up the search engine.
In addition to getting visitors to your blog from search engines, you will also get visitors from those who read your answer on Yahoo! Answer.
The second method is by using forums. Find a forum related to the niche topic you are blogging about. Choose forums that allow you to put links into your signature file. Edit your signature file to include a catchy caption and your blog URL. When you visit the forum, search for threads that are relevant to your blog niche topic. As far as possible, visit threads with as few replies as possible. This is because people reading through the threads would normally not read more than the first page of replies. So if your reply is listed on the second or third page, the chances of people reading your reply is low.
Once you find such a thread, post your reply. Most forums have a check box to indicate you wish to show your signature file. Always make sure this check box is ticked. Another little twist to this method is to start your own thread in the forum. This way, everyone who visits your thread will see your post and signature file.
Using these little-known methods over time, you will start seeing more visitors to your blog from the search engines and from Yahoo! Answers and relevant forums.
There are paid methods and free methods to get visitors to your blog. Unless you have an advertising budget at your disposal, you would have to rely on free methods. Free methods means getting organic traffic from the search engines or other sources. There are some well-known ways of doing so like article marketing and SEO. Besides those, here are two other ways of getting search engine traffic that are just as effective as the other more conventional ways.
The first method is using Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo! Answers is a website for people to ask questions about anything and for other people to answer them. You must have at least two Yahoo! accounts to use this method (the more the better). The first step is to log into Yahoo! Answers using one of your Yahoo! accounts. Enter a keyword phrase related to your niche into Yahoo! Answers in the form of a question. For example if you are in the weight loss niche, one of your keyword phrases might be Lose Weight Naturally. So just type in How Can I Lose Weight Naturally? into Yahoo! Answers as a question.
Then exit from Yahoo! Answers and log in again but this time using your second Yahoo! account. Go back to the question you asked earlier and answer your own question. Of course, your answer should be informative and as accurate as possible. You can either get the answer from your own blog content or from another related website. If you take the answer from another website, be sure to re-word your answer so that you would not be plagiarizing. Along with your answer there will be a field called, Know your source? List it here: Now here is where you put in your blog URL.
Besides answering your own question, you could do a search within Yahoo! Answers for other similar questions asked by other people and submit your answer there also. What is happening is you are building quality backlinks to your blog with each answer you submit. It goes without saying that the more questions and answers you submit, the more backlinks you get to your blog. And everyone knows that backlinks push your blog ranking up the search engine.
In addition to getting visitors to your blog from search engines, you will also get visitors from those who read your answer on Yahoo! Answer.
The second method is by using forums. Find a forum related to the niche topic you are blogging about. Choose forums that allow you to put links into your signature file. Edit your signature file to include a catchy caption and your blog URL. When you visit the forum, search for threads that are relevant to your blog niche topic. As far as possible, visit threads with as few replies as possible. This is because people reading through the threads would normally not read more than the first page of replies. So if your reply is listed on the second or third page, the chances of people reading your reply is low.
Once you find such a thread, post your reply. Most forums have a check box to indicate you wish to show your signature file. Always make sure this check box is ticked. Another little twist to this method is to start your own thread in the forum. This way, everyone who visits your thread will see your post and signature file.
Using these little-known methods over time, you will start seeing more visitors to your blog from the search engines and from Yahoo! Answers and relevant forums.
What Makes A Blog Post Viral
The best type of advertising has three characteristics. It is free, impactful and viral. What kind of advertising fulfills all three characteristics? Word of mouth! It is free because it is spontaneous, unsolicited and natural. It is impactful because the persons spreading it were impacted and they spread the news out of their own impacted emotions. And it is extremely viral because it spreads exponentially. Imagine if your blog posts could be passed around this way.
What kind of blog post can achieve such a viral nature? A viral blog can be one of several kinds:
1. A HOW TO blog post
The HOW TO blog post shows the reader how to do something that many people want to know. If you know how to do something that most people do not, you could post a step-by-step guide on how to do it to your blog. Once the right people discover your blog post, they will naturally and spontaneously spread your blog post to others. You could write about how to speak in public, how to write HTML, how to play the piano by ear, how to take great photos etc. There are literally thousands of 'how to' things you could post about.
2. A UNIQUE TWIST blog post
This type of blog post is closely related to the first HOW TO type. This is where you blog about something that is common knowledge but you put your own unique twist to it, something that most people have never thought of. It may well be totally contrary to conventional practice. One example is article marketing. The conventional practice in article marketing is where you write articles and submit them to article directories. But if you have a better and more effective way of article marketing, post about it in your blog. For example, instead of submitting articles to directories, you could offer your articles to blog owners or newsletter owners in your niche. Tell them they can make your article available to their readers for free as long as no changes are made to any of the content. This way you get much more targeted readers reading your article and more powerful link juice back to your blog because it comes from another blog that is related to your own instead of from a general article directory.
3. A HOT REVIEW blog post
This type of post follows the principle of the early bird catching the worm. This is where you blog about the latest hot topic in your niche and give an honest appraisal of what is good and what is bad about whatever is happening. Since the topic is new, virtually no one has much knowledge, much less a view about it. This works tremendously well for political blogs. But the review can also be about the hottest gadget or the latest book or the newest trend in your niche. One great place where you can find out the latest happenings is Google Trends. If you are the first to blog about whatever is happening, you can capture the initial interest of the public and people will start passing your blog post around like wildfire. When that wave dies down, simply find the next sizzling development and review it and the process repeats itself.
These are just three ways you can make your blog viral. Obviously, you will not succeed every time, but if you keep at it, you will hit the jackpot sooner or later. And as a result, the readership of your blog experiences an exponential spurt of growth.
What kind of blog post can achieve such a viral nature? A viral blog can be one of several kinds:
1. A HOW TO blog post
The HOW TO blog post shows the reader how to do something that many people want to know. If you know how to do something that most people do not, you could post a step-by-step guide on how to do it to your blog. Once the right people discover your blog post, they will naturally and spontaneously spread your blog post to others. You could write about how to speak in public, how to write HTML, how to play the piano by ear, how to take great photos etc. There are literally thousands of 'how to' things you could post about.
2. A UNIQUE TWIST blog post
This type of blog post is closely related to the first HOW TO type. This is where you blog about something that is common knowledge but you put your own unique twist to it, something that most people have never thought of. It may well be totally contrary to conventional practice. One example is article marketing. The conventional practice in article marketing is where you write articles and submit them to article directories. But if you have a better and more effective way of article marketing, post about it in your blog. For example, instead of submitting articles to directories, you could offer your articles to blog owners or newsletter owners in your niche. Tell them they can make your article available to their readers for free as long as no changes are made to any of the content. This way you get much more targeted readers reading your article and more powerful link juice back to your blog because it comes from another blog that is related to your own instead of from a general article directory.
3. A HOT REVIEW blog post
This type of post follows the principle of the early bird catching the worm. This is where you blog about the latest hot topic in your niche and give an honest appraisal of what is good and what is bad about whatever is happening. Since the topic is new, virtually no one has much knowledge, much less a view about it. This works tremendously well for political blogs. But the review can also be about the hottest gadget or the latest book or the newest trend in your niche. One great place where you can find out the latest happenings is Google Trends. If you are the first to blog about whatever is happening, you can capture the initial interest of the public and people will start passing your blog post around like wildfire. When that wave dies down, simply find the next sizzling development and review it and the process repeats itself.
These are just three ways you can make your blog viral. Obviously, you will not succeed every time, but if you keep at it, you will hit the jackpot sooner or later. And as a result, the readership of your blog experiences an exponential spurt of growth.
What Is Social Networking All About?
There are many different reasons that social networks exist. Likewise these social gatherings serve many purposes for those who use them.
If you consider yourself Internet savvy, then you probably already have a pretty good idea what social networking is. Whether you are that savvy or just getting introduced to the Internet, social networking web sites are increasing and doing quite well for the network creators as well as those who join them. So what exactly is social networking and what’s it all about? Read on as we explore this phenomenon.
A basic definition of social networking is paramount to understand what it’s all about. A broad definition is the gathering of people in an online community for the purpose of sharing interests and activities together. This leaves a world of possibilities when it comes to what social networking is all about.
SOCIALIZING
This may speak for itself on the surface but actually socializing is one of the primary ways that we communicate with each other. And thanks to the Internet, it is now possible to socialize on virtually whatever level you desire with people from all walks of life. Networks exist for every interest; from the simply frivolous to the absolute essentials. And because the Internet affords a level of anonymity that many people appreciate, this electronic form of socializing can be intimate, therapeutic, confidential and just plain fun.
NETWORKING
This normally brings to mind the idea of people gathering together to create a group of people with a common goal such as finding jobs or raising funds for a charity. Today the Internet connects people from around the world into social networks for sharing pictures, blogs, live chats, instant messaging, emailing and virtually any other social idea you can come up with.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
Here are opportunities to promote products and services through exposure that comes with belonging to a social network. You’ve probably seen the advertisements that are placed on the pages of social network members. Additionally, when you have the necessary coding, you can place their notices on the pages of other members. It has become one of the greatest ways to get affiliate sales by marketing your business on every available social network.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Many website owners are turning to social networks to gain added SEO with general information about a particular subject. These articles can be placed as blog comments or stand alone pieces that must be placed in the applicable forums. With the proper use of certain key words placed as back links in the articles, an article can create a wonderful search engine placement benefits for those working to generate new customers and increase profits.
FUN
It may be overstated but with so many pressing situations being broadcast in the media, the opportunity to connect with others in a social setting such as the ones that social networks provide is fun. After a hard day at work or searching for work, there is plenty of pleasure to be derived from sitting down in front of the computer and finding several messages from friends in your social network. Whether it is games such as role playing or sharing such as how-to features, the fun aspect of social networking can relieve stress and provide hours of enjoyable time online.
So if you have not joined a social network yet, go to your favorite search engine, and search for some social networks related to your interest. Find one that you are comfortable with, one that looks active, and join the crowd!
If you consider yourself Internet savvy, then you probably already have a pretty good idea what social networking is. Whether you are that savvy or just getting introduced to the Internet, social networking web sites are increasing and doing quite well for the network creators as well as those who join them. So what exactly is social networking and what’s it all about? Read on as we explore this phenomenon.
A basic definition of social networking is paramount to understand what it’s all about. A broad definition is the gathering of people in an online community for the purpose of sharing interests and activities together. This leaves a world of possibilities when it comes to what social networking is all about.
SOCIALIZING
This may speak for itself on the surface but actually socializing is one of the primary ways that we communicate with each other. And thanks to the Internet, it is now possible to socialize on virtually whatever level you desire with people from all walks of life. Networks exist for every interest; from the simply frivolous to the absolute essentials. And because the Internet affords a level of anonymity that many people appreciate, this electronic form of socializing can be intimate, therapeutic, confidential and just plain fun.
NETWORKING
This normally brings to mind the idea of people gathering together to create a group of people with a common goal such as finding jobs or raising funds for a charity. Today the Internet connects people from around the world into social networks for sharing pictures, blogs, live chats, instant messaging, emailing and virtually any other social idea you can come up with.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
Here are opportunities to promote products and services through exposure that comes with belonging to a social network. You’ve probably seen the advertisements that are placed on the pages of social network members. Additionally, when you have the necessary coding, you can place their notices on the pages of other members. It has become one of the greatest ways to get affiliate sales by marketing your business on every available social network.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Many website owners are turning to social networks to gain added SEO with general information about a particular subject. These articles can be placed as blog comments or stand alone pieces that must be placed in the applicable forums. With the proper use of certain key words placed as back links in the articles, an article can create a wonderful search engine placement benefits for those working to generate new customers and increase profits.
FUN
It may be overstated but with so many pressing situations being broadcast in the media, the opportunity to connect with others in a social setting such as the ones that social networks provide is fun. After a hard day at work or searching for work, there is plenty of pleasure to be derived from sitting down in front of the computer and finding several messages from friends in your social network. Whether it is games such as role playing or sharing such as how-to features, the fun aspect of social networking can relieve stress and provide hours of enjoyable time online.
So if you have not joined a social network yet, go to your favorite search engine, and search for some social networks related to your interest. Find one that you are comfortable with, one that looks active, and join the crowd!
How to Use Article Marketing for Affiliate Profits
If you have a small advertising budget, but you want a proven way to spread the word about your affiliate products or services, article marketing is the perfect solution. By offering informative, easy-to-read content that appeals to the search engines, you can drive significant traffic to your web pages for affiliate profits.
The key to effective article marketing is to offer useful and interesting content that is optimized for the search engines.
To start the article, choose a topic that pertains to your affiliate offerings and find the best keywords related to the topic. You can use a free resource such as Keyword Playground to research the popularity of certain words and use Google to research the competitiveness of the keywords.
Informative, well-written content with a keyword density of three to five percent is a good step to getting your article ranked in the search engines. Do not, however, overuse keywords or else your articles will be ranked lower due to the spam flag.
Make sure to research the topic you are writing about through Google searches, encyclopedias and/or library research so you offer meaningful content.
Choose an attention-grabbing title to raise interest, such as posing a question or a challenge to your readers. As you write the article, check your spelling and grammar so your writing has a professional appearance.
If you find the process difficult, you may choose to invest in a program such as Fat Content that guides you through SEO writing step-by-step and includes an optimized search engine browser for outstanding research.
Unique articles providing outstanding information will bring the most traffic to your affiliate pages. Once you prepare an original, well-written article, proofread your work or ask someone else to read your article so you know it makes sense.
Once the article is perfect, it's time to submit it to article directories such as Ezine Articles, Article City and Go Articles. You can also feature your article on blogs, forums and newsletters. Make sure, however, that your bio box includes the link to your affiliate website before you submit to the directories.
Although it can be time-consuming, writing great articles is an affordable way to boost your affiliate profits even if you have a small advertising budget. And if you're able to to write an over-the-top article that goes viral, you'll be amazed at the traffic it will bring you.
The key to effective article marketing is to offer useful and interesting content that is optimized for the search engines.
To start the article, choose a topic that pertains to your affiliate offerings and find the best keywords related to the topic. You can use a free resource such as Keyword Playground to research the popularity of certain words and use Google to research the competitiveness of the keywords.
Informative, well-written content with a keyword density of three to five percent is a good step to getting your article ranked in the search engines. Do not, however, overuse keywords or else your articles will be ranked lower due to the spam flag.
Make sure to research the topic you are writing about through Google searches, encyclopedias and/or library research so you offer meaningful content.
Choose an attention-grabbing title to raise interest, such as posing a question or a challenge to your readers. As you write the article, check your spelling and grammar so your writing has a professional appearance.
If you find the process difficult, you may choose to invest in a program such as Fat Content that guides you through SEO writing step-by-step and includes an optimized search engine browser for outstanding research.
Unique articles providing outstanding information will bring the most traffic to your affiliate pages. Once you prepare an original, well-written article, proofread your work or ask someone else to read your article so you know it makes sense.
Once the article is perfect, it's time to submit it to article directories such as Ezine Articles, Article City and Go Articles. You can also feature your article on blogs, forums and newsletters. Make sure, however, that your bio box includes the link to your affiliate website before you submit to the directories.
Although it can be time-consuming, writing great articles is an affordable way to boost your affiliate profits even if you have a small advertising budget. And if you're able to to write an over-the-top article that goes viral, you'll be amazed at the traffic it will bring you.
Using Forums To Build Backlinks
An important part of generating traffic to your website or blog is to rank highly in the search engine result pages. In addition to having good, relevant content on your site one of the best ways to increase your search ranking is to get high quality backlinks to your site.
Backlinks are hyperlinks placed on another website which link to your site. The most powerful backlinks are one-way backlinks. This means that another website has links pointing to your site, but you don't have reciprocal links pointing back to theirs.
Using forums is a great way to get high quality one-way backlinks to your site. These links can generate direct traffic to your site, as people browsing the forum click your links in addition to raising your search engine ranking. But you have to be careful when using forums in this way. Do it wrong and you will be branded a spammer and most likely get your forum account closed. But if done correctly, forums can be a very powerful tool in your traffic generation arsenal.
Step 1: Find relevant forums
The key word here is 'relevant'. You want to be sure to find forums related to your niche - the topic of your website. The easiest way to do this is to go to Google and type in your topic along with the the word 'forum'. Let's say you have a blog on coin collecting. You'd type this into Google:
coin collecting forum
There are two reasons you want to find forums related to your niche. First, the search engines will usually give more weight to links pointing to your site if they come from sites centered around the same niche as your site. Secondly, you'll get much more direct traffic from a forum where the members are interested in your niche.
Step 2: Pick the best forums and join them
Now that you have found some forums you need to check them out and choose which ones to join. Click the links to visit about half a dozen of the top search results. Most forums will allow you to view the content without having to join, it's only when you want to start posting that you have to register. If you land on a forum that won't let you view unless you join, forget it and move on.
When looking for a forum to join you want to find ones that are popular, so look for those with a decent number of members. You also need to make sure those members are active. Go into one of the more popular forums categories and scan down the list of threads to see when the last posting was made. This information is usually in the right hand column of the forum threads table. If you see a lot of posts made in the last 24 hours, you've found a forum with lots of active members. With the content changing this often, the search engines should be all over that forum, which means that your links will get picked up quickly. Search engines tend to love sites with lots of frequently updated, relevant content. This is the type of forum you want to join.
Now there is just one more step before joining. You need to make sure this forum allows you to have a 'signature'. Jump into one of the more popular threads on the forum. Scroll down and look at the posts to see if anyone has a signature showing at the bottom of their post. There will usually be a horizontal line after the body of the post and some text and/or links underneath it. Often people just have a quote or witty saying, but sometimes they will have links as well. Not everyone will have a signature, but try to find some members who do. Signatures are crucial, because this is where you are going to put the links to your site.
When you find a forum that meets the criteria, follow the steps to register and confirm your membership. If you find just three or four forums that's plenty to start with.
Step 3: Set up your signature
After you login to the forum you should see a link to your user profile. Often this will be called 'User CP' or 'User Profile'. In the user profile area you can edit things like your avatar, your bio and preferences. Look for a link that says something like 'Edit signature' and click that. You'll see a text field where you can type in the text you want to appear beneath all your posts. This is where you'll put the backlinks to your site.
Forums use a special kind of code to allow members to format their posts. It's called BBCode and it's quite simple to use once you get the hang of it. Copy the examples below and change the URL and text to your URL and some catchy keyword-rich text. Paste the code into you signature box and save it.
Link to your website or blog with this code:
Learn how to start [url=http://www.mycoinblog.com/]Coin Collecting[/url] the easy way.
You can see in the code above where you need to edit the domain to be your domain. In this example, 'Coin Collecting' will be the anchor text for the link. This is where you want to put your keywords. Almost all forums will allow you to have a link in your signature.
If you want to make your signature bold, just add the bold tags around it like this:
[b]Learn how to start [url=http://www.mycoinblog.com/]Coin Collecting[/url] the easy way.[/b]
Most forums will allow you to bold the text in your signature. If you add the bold code and your signature still doesn't come out in bold then it's you know the bold formatting is not allowed.
Some forums will also allow you to change the color of the text, although the anchor text will come out as the default link color, usually blue. Here's how you change the text color:
[color=red]Learn how to start [url=http://www.mycoinblog.com/]Coin Collecting[/url] the easy way.[/color]
You can also combine formatting. This would make your signature red and bold (except for the link text which will usually be blue bold).
[color=red][b]Learn how to start [url=http://www.mycoinblog.com/]Coin Collecting[/url] the easy way.[/b][/color]
One final tip for creating your signature. Less is more. If you make your signature look spamming people will treat you like a spammer. You don't have to use up all available lines in your signature. Make it short, sweet and to the point. If you post great content and people are interested they will click your link.
Step 4: Participate!
The first three steps were all preparation. Now you get to start creating backlinks to your site! It's simple, just participate in the forum. Post good content, ask questions. Try to help people out by answering questions. Be nice, be helpful.
Every post you make will give you a backlink to your site. The higher the quality of your post, the more powerful your backlink will be, at least in Google. Because Google looks at the text surrounding a link to determine the relevancy of a link having good content in your posts is much more valuable than having a post that says something like, "great post, I agree". If you simply participate in the forum and try to be friendly and helpful chances are your content will take care of itself.
That's it. Have fun. And remember, you can change your signature any time you want. You might changing the text a bit from time to time to find out what generates the most clicks through to your site.
Backlinks are hyperlinks placed on another website which link to your site. The most powerful backlinks are one-way backlinks. This means that another website has links pointing to your site, but you don't have reciprocal links pointing back to theirs.
Using forums is a great way to get high quality one-way backlinks to your site. These links can generate direct traffic to your site, as people browsing the forum click your links in addition to raising your search engine ranking. But you have to be careful when using forums in this way. Do it wrong and you will be branded a spammer and most likely get your forum account closed. But if done correctly, forums can be a very powerful tool in your traffic generation arsenal.
Step 1: Find relevant forums
The key word here is 'relevant'. You want to be sure to find forums related to your niche - the topic of your website. The easiest way to do this is to go to Google and type in your topic along with the the word 'forum'. Let's say you have a blog on coin collecting. You'd type this into Google:
coin collecting forum
There are two reasons you want to find forums related to your niche. First, the search engines will usually give more weight to links pointing to your site if they come from sites centered around the same niche as your site. Secondly, you'll get much more direct traffic from a forum where the members are interested in your niche.
Step 2: Pick the best forums and join them
Now that you have found some forums you need to check them out and choose which ones to join. Click the links to visit about half a dozen of the top search results. Most forums will allow you to view the content without having to join, it's only when you want to start posting that you have to register. If you land on a forum that won't let you view unless you join, forget it and move on.
When looking for a forum to join you want to find ones that are popular, so look for those with a decent number of members. You also need to make sure those members are active. Go into one of the more popular forums categories and scan down the list of threads to see when the last posting was made. This information is usually in the right hand column of the forum threads table. If you see a lot of posts made in the last 24 hours, you've found a forum with lots of active members. With the content changing this often, the search engines should be all over that forum, which means that your links will get picked up quickly. Search engines tend to love sites with lots of frequently updated, relevant content. This is the type of forum you want to join.
Now there is just one more step before joining. You need to make sure this forum allows you to have a 'signature'. Jump into one of the more popular threads on the forum. Scroll down and look at the posts to see if anyone has a signature showing at the bottom of their post. There will usually be a horizontal line after the body of the post and some text and/or links underneath it. Often people just have a quote or witty saying, but sometimes they will have links as well. Not everyone will have a signature, but try to find some members who do. Signatures are crucial, because this is where you are going to put the links to your site.
When you find a forum that meets the criteria, follow the steps to register and confirm your membership. If you find just three or four forums that's plenty to start with.
Step 3: Set up your signature
After you login to the forum you should see a link to your user profile. Often this will be called 'User CP' or 'User Profile'. In the user profile area you can edit things like your avatar, your bio and preferences. Look for a link that says something like 'Edit signature' and click that. You'll see a text field where you can type in the text you want to appear beneath all your posts. This is where you'll put the backlinks to your site.
Forums use a special kind of code to allow members to format their posts. It's called BBCode and it's quite simple to use once you get the hang of it. Copy the examples below and change the URL and text to your URL and some catchy keyword-rich text. Paste the code into you signature box and save it.
Link to your website or blog with this code:
Learn how to start [url=http://www.mycoinblog.com/]Coin Collecting[/url] the easy way.
You can see in the code above where you need to edit the domain to be your domain. In this example, 'Coin Collecting' will be the anchor text for the link. This is where you want to put your keywords. Almost all forums will allow you to have a link in your signature.
If you want to make your signature bold, just add the bold tags around it like this:
[b]Learn how to start [url=http://www.mycoinblog.com/]Coin Collecting[/url] the easy way.[/b]
Most forums will allow you to bold the text in your signature. If you add the bold code and your signature still doesn't come out in bold then it's you know the bold formatting is not allowed.
Some forums will also allow you to change the color of the text, although the anchor text will come out as the default link color, usually blue. Here's how you change the text color:
[color=red]Learn how to start [url=http://www.mycoinblog.com/]Coin Collecting[/url] the easy way.[/color]
You can also combine formatting. This would make your signature red and bold (except for the link text which will usually be blue bold).
[color=red][b]Learn how to start [url=http://www.mycoinblog.com/]Coin Collecting[/url] the easy way.[/b][/color]
One final tip for creating your signature. Less is more. If you make your signature look spamming people will treat you like a spammer. You don't have to use up all available lines in your signature. Make it short, sweet and to the point. If you post great content and people are interested they will click your link.
Step 4: Participate!
The first three steps were all preparation. Now you get to start creating backlinks to your site! It's simple, just participate in the forum. Post good content, ask questions. Try to help people out by answering questions. Be nice, be helpful.
Every post you make will give you a backlink to your site. The higher the quality of your post, the more powerful your backlink will be, at least in Google. Because Google looks at the text surrounding a link to determine the relevancy of a link having good content in your posts is much more valuable than having a post that says something like, "great post, I agree". If you simply participate in the forum and try to be friendly and helpful chances are your content will take care of itself.
That's it. Have fun. And remember, you can change your signature any time you want. You might changing the text a bit from time to time to find out what generates the most clicks through to your site.
Search Engine Optimization Basics
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a collection of techniques that can be applied to a website to increase the search engine ranking of the site. Search engine ranking is the position that your site occupies when a search is done using keywords you are targeting on your site.
Why is search engine ranking important?
The higher your site's position in the search engine results pages (SERPs) the more people will see it and potentially click on your listing, bringing you more traffic. Google, one of the most popular search engines, list 10 search results per page. Most searchers never look beyond the first page of search results. SEO is important because if you can get your site listed in the Google top ten for your search terms you will get significantly more traffic than if your listing shows up on any subsequent pages.
SEO techniques fall under two broad categories, on-page factors and off-page factors.
On Page SEO
On page factors are all the things you can do on your website to increase SEO. The on page factors usually revolve around keywords, and you use these techniques to let the search engines know what you site is about. On page factors include things like the use of keyword and description meta tags, the use of the alt tag for images, HTML header tags, keyword placement, etc.
Off Page SEO
Off page factors revolve around backlinks, but also involve the use of keywords. Backlinks are the links placed on other sites that point to you site. Backlinks are also known as "inbound links", a term which is often easier to understand. Inbound links are those links pointing towards your site.
Steps You Can Take To Improve Your SEO
1. Always use keyword and description meta tags.
For every page on your site you should have meta tags unique to that page. Meta tags are HTML code found between the tags near the top of the page when you are looking at the HTML code. There's a good reference for using meta tags here: http://www.freelancedesigners.com/tools/meta_tags.cfm
For the keywords meta tag create a comma-separated list of keywords relevant to your site. Keywords don't have to be single words. They can, and should, be keyword phrases relevant to the content of that page.
For the description meta tag write a description of your site that would make someone want to click your link. This meta tag's description is used by some search engines, including Google, as the text description of your site. So it's not just for the search engine's benefit, it's also likely to be seen by a human and it may be the difference between that human clicking on your site's link or another site.
2. Where you have images on your site, always include an alt tag.
The HTML code for including an image in your page has an optional attribute called the 'alt' tag. It's short for 'alternative text'. It was originally intended as a text description to aid viewers surfing with images turned off or using a screen reader so they could get an idea of what an image was about, since they couldn't see it. But search engines also use the alt tag to find out more about what your page is about.
You want the alt tag to contain keywords relevant to your site and the image they are describing. Instead of just putting "header" in the alt tag for your header image, use the opportunity to tell the search engines what your site is about, with something like "Puppy Training Header", if your site is about puppy training. Don't over do it though, you want this description to be concise rather than stuffed with every keyword relevant to your site. Here's a good reference for learning more about image tags: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/html/article.php/3478181
3. Use header tags wisely.
The header tags H1, H2, H3 etc. are used by search engines to figure out what the important keywords for your site are. You can easily change the appearance of the header tags by using stylesheets, so try to use the standard HTML header tags instead of custom styles for your headers. Then just make sure you've got relevant keywords in the headers. The H1 header should contain the primary keyword for your page, the H2 header should contain the secondary keywords for your page, etc.
4. Get backlinks with relevant keywords.
Get backlinks. Lots of them. This should be an ongoing part of your SEO. The more backlinks the better, but you want to grow your backlinks naturally. It looks a lot more natural if you work on getting a handful of backlinks every week than if you suddenly got 10,000 backlinks overnight because you bought them from a link farm. The search engines are watching for these unnatural patterns, and you are likely to be penalized for engaging in such practices.
There are many ways to get backlinks. You can develop relationships with other webmasters to get traditional reciprocal links from other related sites. Participate in forums related to your topic and be sure to have a link to your site as part of your 'signature'. Write articles for article directories which include a link back to your site in the 'bio box'. Create Squidoo lenses or HubPages with, you guessed it, a link back to your site. If you have a blog submit your RSS feed to RSS Aggregator sites, and add it to your Squidoo lens or HubPage. Use Social Bookmarking services to bookmark your pages and encourage your visitors to do the same. Use Twitter to send out a 'tweet' when you post a new article. This is just to get you started, it's not an exhaustive list by any means.
Now that you have some ideas for where to get backlinks, it's important that you choose good anchor text for your backlinks when you can. The anchor text is the text that turns into the hyperlink (it's often blue, sometimes underlined). The search engines also use this text to figure out what your site, or page, is about. So where you can, specify what the anchor text will be. You want to use your main keywords, and variations on your main keywords. Try to vary it a little (that looks natural), while still keeping it relevant of course. Keep in mind that the keywords you use when you are linking to a specific page are not necessarily going to be the same as when you are linking to your homepage.
In some cases you don't have the option of specifying the anchor text. But don't miss the opportunity to specify it where you can. If you trade reciprocal links with another site, specify what you want your anchor text to be. The other webmaster will probably appreciate it because it saves them time having to decide what it should be. When you create Squidoo lenses and HubPages, or for your forum signatures you have total control over your anchor text. Use it wisely.
We've covered just a few basic, but very important, aspects of SEO in this article. This is a very good place to start if you want to improve your sites search engine optimization. Keep applying these techniques until it becomes second nature and you should see an improvement in both your search engine rankings and an increase in the traffic to your site.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a collection of techniques that can be applied to a website to increase the search engine ranking of the site. Search engine ranking is the position that your site occupies when a search is done using keywords you are targeting on your site.
Why is search engine ranking important?
The higher your site's position in the search engine results pages (SERPs) the more people will see it and potentially click on your listing, bringing you more traffic. Google, one of the most popular search engines, list 10 search results per page. Most searchers never look beyond the first page of search results. SEO is important because if you can get your site listed in the Google top ten for your search terms you will get significantly more traffic than if your listing shows up on any subsequent pages.
SEO techniques fall under two broad categories, on-page factors and off-page factors.
On Page SEO
On page factors are all the things you can do on your website to increase SEO. The on page factors usually revolve around keywords, and you use these techniques to let the search engines know what you site is about. On page factors include things like the use of keyword and description meta tags, the use of the alt tag for images, HTML header tags, keyword placement, etc.
Off Page SEO
Off page factors revolve around backlinks, but also involve the use of keywords. Backlinks are the links placed on other sites that point to you site. Backlinks are also known as "inbound links", a term which is often easier to understand. Inbound links are those links pointing towards your site.
Steps You Can Take To Improve Your SEO
1. Always use keyword and description meta tags.
For every page on your site you should have meta tags unique to that page. Meta tags are HTML code found between the tags near the top of the page when you are looking at the HTML code. There's a good reference for using meta tags here: http://www.freelancedesigners.com/tools/meta_tags.cfm
For the keywords meta tag create a comma-separated list of keywords relevant to your site. Keywords don't have to be single words. They can, and should, be keyword phrases relevant to the content of that page.
For the description meta tag write a description of your site that would make someone want to click your link. This meta tag's description is used by some search engines, including Google, as the text description of your site. So it's not just for the search engine's benefit, it's also likely to be seen by a human and it may be the difference between that human clicking on your site's link or another site.
2. Where you have images on your site, always include an alt tag.
The HTML code for including an image in your page has an optional attribute called the 'alt' tag. It's short for 'alternative text'. It was originally intended as a text description to aid viewers surfing with images turned off or using a screen reader so they could get an idea of what an image was about, since they couldn't see it. But search engines also use the alt tag to find out more about what your page is about.
You want the alt tag to contain keywords relevant to your site and the image they are describing. Instead of just putting "header" in the alt tag for your header image, use the opportunity to tell the search engines what your site is about, with something like "Puppy Training Header", if your site is about puppy training. Don't over do it though, you want this description to be concise rather than stuffed with every keyword relevant to your site. Here's a good reference for learning more about image tags: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/html/article.php/3478181
3. Use header tags wisely.
The header tags H1, H2, H3 etc. are used by search engines to figure out what the important keywords for your site are. You can easily change the appearance of the header tags by using stylesheets, so try to use the standard HTML header tags instead of custom styles for your headers. Then just make sure you've got relevant keywords in the headers. The H1 header should contain the primary keyword for your page, the H2 header should contain the secondary keywords for your page, etc.
4. Get backlinks with relevant keywords.
Get backlinks. Lots of them. This should be an ongoing part of your SEO. The more backlinks the better, but you want to grow your backlinks naturally. It looks a lot more natural if you work on getting a handful of backlinks every week than if you suddenly got 10,000 backlinks overnight because you bought them from a link farm. The search engines are watching for these unnatural patterns, and you are likely to be penalized for engaging in such practices.
There are many ways to get backlinks. You can develop relationships with other webmasters to get traditional reciprocal links from other related sites. Participate in forums related to your topic and be sure to have a link to your site as part of your 'signature'. Write articles for article directories which include a link back to your site in the 'bio box'. Create Squidoo lenses or HubPages with, you guessed it, a link back to your site. If you have a blog submit your RSS feed to RSS Aggregator sites, and add it to your Squidoo lens or HubPage. Use Social Bookmarking services to bookmark your pages and encourage your visitors to do the same. Use Twitter to send out a 'tweet' when you post a new article. This is just to get you started, it's not an exhaustive list by any means.
Now that you have some ideas for where to get backlinks, it's important that you choose good anchor text for your backlinks when you can. The anchor text is the text that turns into the hyperlink (it's often blue, sometimes underlined). The search engines also use this text to figure out what your site, or page, is about. So where you can, specify what the anchor text will be. You want to use your main keywords, and variations on your main keywords. Try to vary it a little (that looks natural), while still keeping it relevant of course. Keep in mind that the keywords you use when you are linking to a specific page are not necessarily going to be the same as when you are linking to your homepage.
In some cases you don't have the option of specifying the anchor text. But don't miss the opportunity to specify it where you can. If you trade reciprocal links with another site, specify what you want your anchor text to be. The other webmaster will probably appreciate it because it saves them time having to decide what it should be. When you create Squidoo lenses and HubPages, or for your forum signatures you have total control over your anchor text. Use it wisely.
We've covered just a few basic, but very important, aspects of SEO in this article. This is a very good place to start if you want to improve your sites search engine optimization. Keep applying these techniques until it becomes second nature and you should see an improvement in both your search engine rankings and an increase in the traffic to your site.
Friday, June 26, 2009
7 Steps to Creating Human and Search Engine Friendly Web Pages
After making your Website human friendly, you have to make it search engine friendly so that human searchers can easily find your site in the search engine result pages. By following the steps described below, you can optimize your Website for search engines.
1. Use a keyword research tool for mining keywords related to your site's offerings. One of the most effective and free keyword research tool is Google Adwords Keyword tool. Do a Google search for the URL of the site.
You start with some broad keywords like "golf ball" and the tool lists all the related keywords people use in their search queries related to "golf ball". The tool also displays the monthly volumes of those search queries.
2. Get a domain name that is not too long and has relevancy to the products or services your site is offering. Using the keyword research tool, pick a few keywords related to your site. Pick a domain name based on one of these keywords.
All the domains based on broad keywords are already sold out. So you cannot get a domain based on a broad keyword, like golf ball. If you find one, grab it without any delay. However, most domain registrars, like Godaddy, have domain finding tools that suggest available domains based on broad keywords.
3. Your Website title that is located in the HTML TITLE tag should be meaningful and at the same time it should contain related keywords. Limit the title tag to 50 characters so that is is not truncated in the search result page.
4. The most important meta tag in a web page for a search engine crawler is the description meta tag that has two attributes: NAME="description" and CONTENT="your site's content". Describe your site's contents using a few sentences in the content attribute of the META tag. Your site description should contain related keywords.
5. Create quality contents using texts and graphics. Use short paragraphs for text and separate texts using headings or H1 tag, and sub headings or H2 tags. Use one H1 tag per page. Don't forget to use keywords in your paragraphs, H1, and H2 tags.
Use plenty of white spaces and bulleted items so that visitors can scan your page easily. Most people don't read web pages but they scan to find texts that are of particular interest to them.
6. If you are using images, use keywords in the ALT and TITLE attributes of the IMG tag. Use keywords for image file names. Most people use meaningless image file names like image1, image2, etc. Search engine crawlers have no way to understand what image1 and image2 are all about.
7. Cross links your web pages using keywords in the anchor texts. For example, if your web site is about golf ball, you can use anchor text "callaway golf ball" on your home page to direct visitors to a page dedicated to "callaway golf ball".
Search engine optimization is the art of creating contents for human readers using keywords. Don't create contents for search engines. Create contents for human and use keywords strategically placed in your contents for the consumption of search engine crawlers.
1. Use a keyword research tool for mining keywords related to your site's offerings. One of the most effective and free keyword research tool is Google Adwords Keyword tool. Do a Google search for the URL of the site.
You start with some broad keywords like "golf ball" and the tool lists all the related keywords people use in their search queries related to "golf ball". The tool also displays the monthly volumes of those search queries.
2. Get a domain name that is not too long and has relevancy to the products or services your site is offering. Using the keyword research tool, pick a few keywords related to your site. Pick a domain name based on one of these keywords.
All the domains based on broad keywords are already sold out. So you cannot get a domain based on a broad keyword, like golf ball. If you find one, grab it without any delay. However, most domain registrars, like Godaddy, have domain finding tools that suggest available domains based on broad keywords.
3. Your Website title that is located in the HTML TITLE tag should be meaningful and at the same time it should contain related keywords. Limit the title tag to 50 characters so that is is not truncated in the search result page.
4. The most important meta tag in a web page for a search engine crawler is the description meta tag that has two attributes: NAME="description" and CONTENT="your site's content". Describe your site's contents using a few sentences in the content attribute of the META tag. Your site description should contain related keywords.
5. Create quality contents using texts and graphics. Use short paragraphs for text and separate texts using headings or H1 tag, and sub headings or H2 tags. Use one H1 tag per page. Don't forget to use keywords in your paragraphs, H1, and H2 tags.
Use plenty of white spaces and bulleted items so that visitors can scan your page easily. Most people don't read web pages but they scan to find texts that are of particular interest to them.
6. If you are using images, use keywords in the ALT and TITLE attributes of the IMG tag. Use keywords for image file names. Most people use meaningless image file names like image1, image2, etc. Search engine crawlers have no way to understand what image1 and image2 are all about.
7. Cross links your web pages using keywords in the anchor texts. For example, if your web site is about golf ball, you can use anchor text "callaway golf ball" on your home page to direct visitors to a page dedicated to "callaway golf ball".
Search engine optimization is the art of creating contents for human readers using keywords. Don't create contents for search engines. Create contents for human and use keywords strategically placed in your contents for the consumption of search engine crawlers.
What Makes Great Eyeball-Grabbing Sales Copy
Selling services or products over the Internet can be done in two ways. You can either sell through catalog style e-commerce marketing or through direct response marketing. Catalog style e-commerce marketing involves putting a range of services or products with their specifications, functions and uses before the eyes of prospective buyers. Pretty easy. The buyer makes his choices based on the information he sees. But direct response marketing often involves selling only one product or service. The buyer has only two choices - to buy (or take some other form of action the seller wants) or leave. Not easy at all, but immensely rewarding if you can do it well.
In direct response Internet marketing, you must be able to move your reader to take action (often it is to buy your product) simply by communicating through the written word. Doing that successfully takes a very specific set of skills. You must be a master at writing eyeball-grabbing sales copy.
Here are three elements of great sales copy.
Firstly, your copy must have an attention-grabbing and captivating headline. It must stop the reader in his tracks so that he reads nothing else except your copy. There are two ways of doing that. Firstly, you write the main benefit of your product into your headline. Notice it's benefit, not feature that you must highlight. Suppose you are selling an automated blog post making software. Writing, "Introducing the World's Best Software that Makes Blog Posts to Your Blog Automatically" is writing about the feature. But writing, "Discover How You Can Update Your Blog on Autopilot and Never Have to Look at it again for One Entire Year", is writing about benefit.
Features of your product are important, but not in the headline. The second way to make a captivating headline is by writing something in your headline that puts a question into the mind or your reader. This makes him think that the answer must be in the body of your copy and he will continue reading. If you read the headline above, your most natural question would be 'How is this accomplished?' and you will likely read on. Once you get your reader thinking like that, then your headline has done its job. Now comes the body of your copy.
The body of your sales copy must be riveting and engaging. Every word must be written for the sole purpose of getting your reader to read the next sentence. Here's one simple technique to accomplish that.
Think about the old bucket system of dousing a fire. Each person in the line passes a bucket of water to the next person until it reaches the end of the line and the water is poured onto the fire. That is exactly what your sales copy must do. It must move the reader to read the next line and subsequently the next paragraph until he comes to the end.
To do that, your each sentence must lead on to something in the next sentence that your reader wants to know. And the last sentence of each paragraph must leave the reader with some missing piece of the puzzle such that he is compelled to read the next paragraph. Look at the last line of each paragraph of this article. They were designed to lead you to the next paragraph. Can you see how it is done?
Simple, by using certain words like 'if' or '...you must be a master at...' (as in the first two paragraphs), you covertly challenge the reader to find out something he does not yet know. Another way is by stipulating a certain number of points beforehand (as in the fourth paragraph) then your paragraph does not cover all the points you said you would bring up. The reader then concludes there are more points in the following paragraph and reads on.
Another way to write like a 'bucket system' is by using the last line of a paragraph to 'introduce' what's in the next paragraph (as in the 5th and 6th paragraphs). Yet another way is to pose a question in the last sentence (as in paragraph 8).
Finally, great sales copy must have a clear call to action at the end. Your call to action must be convincing and compelling enough for your reader to take the action you want of him (usually it is to buy your product). Your call to action can be made more convincing by answering your reader's objection, favorably comparing the price of your product with another similar product or challenging him to make a change by buying your product instead of remaining the way he is.
A clear call to action is a big topic by itself which can be written about in another article (can you see the 'bucket system' at work here?).
In direct response Internet marketing, you must be able to move your reader to take action (often it is to buy your product) simply by communicating through the written word. Doing that successfully takes a very specific set of skills. You must be a master at writing eyeball-grabbing sales copy.
Here are three elements of great sales copy.
Firstly, your copy must have an attention-grabbing and captivating headline. It must stop the reader in his tracks so that he reads nothing else except your copy. There are two ways of doing that. Firstly, you write the main benefit of your product into your headline. Notice it's benefit, not feature that you must highlight. Suppose you are selling an automated blog post making software. Writing, "Introducing the World's Best Software that Makes Blog Posts to Your Blog Automatically" is writing about the feature. But writing, "Discover How You Can Update Your Blog on Autopilot and Never Have to Look at it again for One Entire Year", is writing about benefit.
Features of your product are important, but not in the headline. The second way to make a captivating headline is by writing something in your headline that puts a question into the mind or your reader. This makes him think that the answer must be in the body of your copy and he will continue reading. If you read the headline above, your most natural question would be 'How is this accomplished?' and you will likely read on. Once you get your reader thinking like that, then your headline has done its job. Now comes the body of your copy.
The body of your sales copy must be riveting and engaging. Every word must be written for the sole purpose of getting your reader to read the next sentence. Here's one simple technique to accomplish that.
Think about the old bucket system of dousing a fire. Each person in the line passes a bucket of water to the next person until it reaches the end of the line and the water is poured onto the fire. That is exactly what your sales copy must do. It must move the reader to read the next line and subsequently the next paragraph until he comes to the end.
To do that, your each sentence must lead on to something in the next sentence that your reader wants to know. And the last sentence of each paragraph must leave the reader with some missing piece of the puzzle such that he is compelled to read the next paragraph. Look at the last line of each paragraph of this article. They were designed to lead you to the next paragraph. Can you see how it is done?
Simple, by using certain words like 'if' or '...you must be a master at...' (as in the first two paragraphs), you covertly challenge the reader to find out something he does not yet know. Another way is by stipulating a certain number of points beforehand (as in the fourth paragraph) then your paragraph does not cover all the points you said you would bring up. The reader then concludes there are more points in the following paragraph and reads on.
Another way to write like a 'bucket system' is by using the last line of a paragraph to 'introduce' what's in the next paragraph (as in the 5th and 6th paragraphs). Yet another way is to pose a question in the last sentence (as in paragraph 8).
Finally, great sales copy must have a clear call to action at the end. Your call to action must be convincing and compelling enough for your reader to take the action you want of him (usually it is to buy your product). Your call to action can be made more convincing by answering your reader's objection, favorably comparing the price of your product with another similar product or challenging him to make a change by buying your product instead of remaining the way he is.
A clear call to action is a big topic by itself which can be written about in another article (can you see the 'bucket system' at work here?).
6 Hot Tips For Using Google AdSense
What is AdSense? A program run by Google providing ads to be placed on your websites or blogs (you are called a publisher). When an AdSense ad is clicked by a visitor to your site, you get paid. AdSense is an easy way to monetize your blog. The ads are contextual, meaning they are relevant to the content of your site. The ads are provided by advertisers using Google's AdWords program.
Hot Tip Number 1 - Just Do It
All you need to get started is a website or blog with interesting content and a regular flow of traffic. Then you can get started. Google needs you. You have traffic coming to your site and they want a piece of your action. So, open an AdSense account with Google. It's free, easy to apply and essential to your business partnership with Google. You are only allowed to have one account. Go to:-
http://www.google.com/adsense and click on the big "Sign Up Now" button.
There is no complicated software to install. If you know how to cut and paste simple code into your website you can use AdSense.
Hot Tip Number 2 - Comply
Read the Google Terms of Service (TOS) carefully. It's important to understand the service guidelines and your responsibilities. Basically, the do's and don't's of using AdSense. Find Google's AdSense TOS (by country) here:-
http://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms
Hot Tip Number 3 - Don't Get Banned
Your AdSense income could become very important to you, so be very careful not to do anything to get your account banned. Of course, when you have read the TOS you'll understand more, but put very simply here are some points to remember:-
- never click the ads on your own sites
- follow the guidelines about the number and type of ads you can have on your page
- follow the guidelines about placement of the ads, e.g., you can't place an Adsense ad on a page without content, like a registration page or a page under construction
- remember that you can't tell visitors to click on the ads
- you can't entice visitors to click on the ads
- you can't make any changes to the code generated by Google
- you can't use other contextual ad providers on the same page as AdSense
- any automated method of ad clicking is banned
The aim is for your real visitors to click on ads which genuinely interest them.
Hot Tip Number 4 - Use All The Options Google Provides
There is more to AdSense that you might think. The available formats are:-
- AdSense for Content
- Text Ads - various styles and shapes to fit the available "real estate" n your site. Ads "above the fold" (viewable without scrolling) often get more clicks.
- Image Ads - not as popular as text ads. You could try them out and see how they work for your site.
- Link units - like a list - in both vertical or horizontal formats.
- AdSense ads in RSS feeds - giving your subscribers another chance to click on an ad. Recently FeedBurner was acquired by Google. You must migrate your RSS feeds to Google to use this service.
- New - YouTube video with ads - providing both contextual content and ads in one go - you need to link your YouTube account with Google AdSense to use this service.
- AdSense for Search - you create a custom search engine - probably offering the most control over what your visitors can view.
- you decide how it looks (you can add your own logo and graphics)
- you decide what sites it searches
- you get paid when someone clicks on an ad
Use all the ad formats Google will allow. You can use 3 ad units, 2 AdSense for Search boxes and 1 link unit per page.
Hot Tip Number 5 - Use Channels
Google provides channels as a way of tracking your AdSense income ad by ad. When you create an ad you can assign it a channel name. This helps you to determine which ads are making you the most money and gives you the chance to "fine tune" your ads to increase their click through rate (CTR) by seeing which ad formats, placement and colors are being clicked on most often.
Hot Tip Number 6 - Ad Design
Match the colors of your ads to the colors of your site. This means you can get the ads to blend in with your other content, so it's not so obvious that it's an ad. The words "ads by Google" will still appear.
Select a background color to match your sites' background, make the ad border disappear by choosing the same color. Select the title and text colors to match the heading and text colors used in your web pages. You can get exact matches by using hexadecimal color codes. Though if you color choice doesn't provide enough contrast you may find Google will ignore your exact colors. What about the URL? The most recognized color for a clickable link is blue. So, don't fight the habits of millions of people, use blue.
While using these Hot Tips will improve your AdSense income, it's also vital to realize the quality of your sites content and the traffic volume are huge factors in establishing a viable AdSense income stream.
Hot Tip Number 1 - Just Do It
All you need to get started is a website or blog with interesting content and a regular flow of traffic. Then you can get started. Google needs you. You have traffic coming to your site and they want a piece of your action. So, open an AdSense account with Google. It's free, easy to apply and essential to your business partnership with Google. You are only allowed to have one account. Go to:-
http://www.google.com/adsense and click on the big "Sign Up Now" button.
There is no complicated software to install. If you know how to cut and paste simple code into your website you can use AdSense.
Hot Tip Number 2 - Comply
Read the Google Terms of Service (TOS) carefully. It's important to understand the service guidelines and your responsibilities. Basically, the do's and don't's of using AdSense. Find Google's AdSense TOS (by country) here:-
http://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms
Hot Tip Number 3 - Don't Get Banned
Your AdSense income could become very important to you, so be very careful not to do anything to get your account banned. Of course, when you have read the TOS you'll understand more, but put very simply here are some points to remember:-
- never click the ads on your own sites
- follow the guidelines about the number and type of ads you can have on your page
- follow the guidelines about placement of the ads, e.g., you can't place an Adsense ad on a page without content, like a registration page or a page under construction
- remember that you can't tell visitors to click on the ads
- you can't entice visitors to click on the ads
- you can't make any changes to the code generated by Google
- you can't use other contextual ad providers on the same page as AdSense
- any automated method of ad clicking is banned
The aim is for your real visitors to click on ads which genuinely interest them.
Hot Tip Number 4 - Use All The Options Google Provides
There is more to AdSense that you might think. The available formats are:-
- AdSense for Content
- Text Ads - various styles and shapes to fit the available "real estate" n your site. Ads "above the fold" (viewable without scrolling) often get more clicks.
- Image Ads - not as popular as text ads. You could try them out and see how they work for your site.
- Link units - like a list - in both vertical or horizontal formats.
- AdSense ads in RSS feeds - giving your subscribers another chance to click on an ad. Recently FeedBurner was acquired by Google. You must migrate your RSS feeds to Google to use this service.
- New - YouTube video with ads - providing both contextual content and ads in one go - you need to link your YouTube account with Google AdSense to use this service.
- AdSense for Search - you create a custom search engine - probably offering the most control over what your visitors can view.
- you decide how it looks (you can add your own logo and graphics)
- you decide what sites it searches
- you get paid when someone clicks on an ad
Use all the ad formats Google will allow. You can use 3 ad units, 2 AdSense for Search boxes and 1 link unit per page.
Hot Tip Number 5 - Use Channels
Google provides channels as a way of tracking your AdSense income ad by ad. When you create an ad you can assign it a channel name. This helps you to determine which ads are making you the most money and gives you the chance to "fine tune" your ads to increase their click through rate (CTR) by seeing which ad formats, placement and colors are being clicked on most often.
Hot Tip Number 6 - Ad Design
Match the colors of your ads to the colors of your site. This means you can get the ads to blend in with your other content, so it's not so obvious that it's an ad. The words "ads by Google" will still appear.
Select a background color to match your sites' background, make the ad border disappear by choosing the same color. Select the title and text colors to match the heading and text colors used in your web pages. You can get exact matches by using hexadecimal color codes. Though if you color choice doesn't provide enough contrast you may find Google will ignore your exact colors. What about the URL? The most recognized color for a clickable link is blue. So, don't fight the habits of millions of people, use blue.
While using these Hot Tips will improve your AdSense income, it's also vital to realize the quality of your sites content and the traffic volume are huge factors in establishing a viable AdSense income stream.
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