Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Focus Is The Best

You are still interested in doing business online? Good. Okay.

This hook I will give a simple but important tips, which unfortunately many forget their online business, especially a beginner. About what? About FOCUS IN BUSINESS.

Take a good look:

Yesterday there was an acquaintance of mine complained, why I did not succeed in business online?

Then I asked: did you already tried anything online business?

Then he mentioned the businesses that he struggled. Quite a lot and big businesses all. But because of that I became suspicious, how he could wrestle these businesses properly and correctly?

Finally I asked: how much you try to wrestle (one only) business?

Apparently, not too deep. Why? Because of fragmented thoughts into a business, to business B, C business, and so on ...

So there he was the answer, he did not focus on one particular business.

As a beginner he should (and probably you) are just learning to do business online Focus on one area of business first. Do not try that stuff.

The problem is, your time is limited, your funds, your concentration too limited. So you should not ever try to run many businesses at once before you settled on one particular business.

If you're in business now Adsense, focus there. If the PTC business, focus there. If the play affiliates, focus was also there. Do not ever confuse many businesses at once!

It is far better to wait a business that you're living now a well-established first, and start another business.

Focus, focus, focus, focus, focus! That's what I teach to my clients.

Focus on one business, get into to the. Focus, focus, focus, focus, focus!

With a focus in business, you will know more about the business. With know more you can better optimize the way you work, how you use your time, your way to make big profits with minimal capital, and so on.

Dna the most important, any attempt at first though difficult, will eventually be able to be easy, can even be successful with your focus there.

Once with the story of the stone with the hole because the water is always continuous ditetesi at a point (focus jatuhnyya water)? Well, that's what the focus, that's the power of focus.

Do not be too worried if your business is not yet so advanced, I also used to be so kok, even I failed once. But I learned a lot from these failures, one that I learned is that I failed because it did not focus on the business which I live.

As a result, I do not know the ins and outs of the business with detail, I do not know the tricks tips related to that business, and I do not know to what and how. In the end, failed.

Well, you certainly do not want to experience the same thing with me right? Therefore learn from my experience (and thousands of others), that is: you have to focus on whatever business you are running now.

Focus, focus, focus, focus, focus!

Hopefully helpful!
Hail most successful success!
Haryo "The Gold Hand" Prabowo
Doing business with the heart, to do business with ethics.

How to Make and Publish an EBook - The 5 Simple Lessons

Did you know that you can turn your every day experience into a master ebook? It is not just the experts but anyone can easily and quickly make an ebook . The latest advancements in technology have made it really simple and idiot proof to write an eBook and ordinary people are doing it all the time. And this is now one of the easiest ways to make some money on the Internet. You can also use the ebooks to share experience or knowledge that can help others even if you were not keen on making any money.

May be you do not think that you have anything to write about? Yes, you have something you can write about. Your own life is a unique personal story waiting to be told. Ordinary people living ordinary lives are writing eBooks’ about everyday little things. You know something, even if you have no roof over your head, you can write an ebook about how latest economic crisis has made some people homeless! So do not quit even before you start – this is the best time to write something and you will see that many people are willing to pay and read your book.

This is how you make an ebook:-:-

1. Got an idea? Any idea will do. Think about the things that you have experienced. Do you have a happy dog or cat or whatever pet? There are many people are many people worried about their pets and would like to know your secrets! Are you good in construction, algebra or even washing clothes? It is that simple and you can tell others in an ebook
2. The next step is to comfortable sit with your computer and start typing. Type excitedly. Do not think about good grammar and other nice things at this stage. If you run short of words, just leave and go about other business. Keep a small note with you and jot down ideas as they come. Then sit and type some more. Within a short while, you have one chapter after another.

3. Once you have some sizeable amount of typing done, make use of your computer tools like your spell checkers. As the volume grows, organize your ideas into a story. The idea is to write the way you would speak to a friend using simple ordinary words.

4. Are you almost finished writing? At this point, you need some simple technology to convert your pages and make your ebook ready for publication on the Internet. There are many ebook software tools or compilers that you can use but you need to choose the best. This is how to make an eBook from ordinary document.

5. Finally, you need to know how to make a publication of your page turning ebook. At this stage, you will upload your eBook to the Internet either at your own website or at a someone else website. There are excellent eBook software tools that will guarantee the security of your eBook.

The above steps are very important to successful publication. The quality of your ebook and the benefits you get will be determined by how well your tools work. Most ebook writers loss nearly all their profits in illegal copies of their ebook. So make sure you have the write tool.

Source

How Much Should Good SEO Cost?

Should search engine optimization services be free? Should they be expensive? Flat rate? Commission only? What should the SEO charge?

It is difficult to answer this question because not everyone needs the same SEO services. Some people need a little tweak on their website and that is all. Other people need a complete overhaul. Some businesses would do fine to trade out their template with another one. Others would benefit greatly from a long-term link building plan.
Every situation is different, every business is different, and every optimization plan is different. Because of the differences in businesses and the needs of SEO clients, no reputable firm can guarantee results in a certain period of time and if someone tries to sell you a one-size-fits-all SEO plan then you should run for the hills as fast as you can.

Some SEOs are great at on-page optimization. Others are better at link building. You should first identify your need and that might mean getting a consultation or an assessment of you website. But there’s no way someone can tell you what it will cost you to SEO your website until they’ve had a chance to evaluate you need and tell you what activities and services are necessary to help you reach your goals.

You Must Use Social Media to Promote Your Brand

If you think Twitter, Facebook, and other online social media communities are only for teens, you're missing out on valuable and free marketing platforms for your brand (book, business or product).

Further, if you're not on social media, you're risking losing your potential clients/customers to those smart business people who are utilizing social media.

Which social media platforms you focus on depends a great deal on what your brand is. Here are seven excellent reasons why you must use social media no matter what you are promoting:
Reason 1: It's the Most Cost-Effective Online Advertising

The current most popular social media platforms being used for business are free: Twitter.com, Facebook.com and LinkedIn.com. (LinkedIn does have an upgrade that costs, but it's not necessary to get this upgrade.) And this is "relationship" marketing to targeted markets. "Free" is definitely more cost-effective than spending money on online advertising techniques such as Pay Per Click or banner ads.

Reason 2: You Can Have Global Reach With Social Media

The world is now a global marketplace. Why not reach this global market? Many of the most popular social media platforms have this global reach, and you can see this clearly illustrated on Twitter. At any time of day or night you can see real-time "tweets" from people in Japan, England, the U.S., India and many other countries.

For example, if you have a book that might appeal to anyone in the world who reads in English, why limit yourself to just promoting in the U.S.? Thanks to Amazon people outside the U.S. can buy your book even if it is only available in U.S. stores.

Reason 3: You Can Attract Targeted Groups of People as Potential Clients/Customers for Your Brand

Social media enables you to join groups of people with the same interests and goals. On LinkedIn and Facebook you can join groups as varied as Children's Book Writers to eMarketing. If you choose groups to join based on your brand, you'll be putting yourself in front of the exact groups of people you want to reach as potential clients/customers. This can pay off in increased sales for you.

Reason 4: You Can Form A Community by Using the Community Aspect of Social Media

Once you are active on social media platforms and have people who are your followers (Twitter), your friends (Facebook) and/or your connections (LinkedIn), you can start groups of highly targeted interests. You can create a niche market in your brand, book or business and share your knowledge with others who join your community. 

These people can become your loyal followers, friends and connections - and they can help spread your marketing message to their followers, friends and connections.

Reason 5: You Can Use Social Media to Establish Your Expertise

People like to do business with people they know, like and trust. By sharing your knowledge for free online with the people in the social media groups you belong to, you can establish yourself as an expert. This can pay off in increasing potential clients/customers' trust in you.

And you can also receive invitations for blog "interviews" or BlogTalkRadio show interviews or podcasts. And these interviews lead to more free exposure for your brand and more free exposure for your expertise.

Reason 6: You Can Use Social Media to Find Cross-Promotional Partners

Amazingly in the world of social media, people who would be considered competitors in the off-line world are teaming up to provide products and services to their combined clients/customers.

And these clients/customers are very responsive to these cross-promotions (often called joint ventures) - especially when introduced to a second expert by a first expert they already know, like and trust.

You and your cross-promotíon partner can each get access to the other person's "list" (the names of interested clients/customers collected at a website) and thus you've greatly expanded your potential client/customer pool.

Reason 7: With a Few Keystrokes You Can Announce New Updates of Your Activities

Your updates on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn take seconds - and you've announced to your followers, friends and connections what you're doing or what you're offering or what you're speaking on. And there are even online applications that allow you to update your status across several of your social media accounts simultaneously. So it is as easy as 1-2-3 to keep in front of your potential clients/customers.

In conclusion, once you become active yourself on social media platforms, you'll find many more reasons to promote your brand, book or business on social media in order to attract targeted potential clients/customers. And you'll look back at your pre-social media days and wonder how you ever did marketing without using online social media.

About The Author
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is an Internet business consultant whose company website www.MillerMosaicLLC.com has lots more useful advice like this. Grab her free report on "The Top 3 Internet Marketing Elements" to maximize your Internet marketing experience. Claim your report now from www.TeachMeBranding.com.

Friday, September 18, 2009

How To Find Undiscovered, Low Competition Markets Instantly To Explode Your Income!

I’ve always believed in giving real content and today’s no different!

This is a quick read but very useful - you’ll learn about an extremely simple but powerful “advanced” technique that will allow you to:

- Expand your markets for selling stuff instantly
- Reach millions of “undiscovered” prospects easily
- Reduce your competition DRASTICALLY - even if you’re promoting the same
products as thousands of others!
- Minimize your advertising cost, including PPC
- and more!

Most of the time, we’re told that we need to find a niche first?

That’s not entirely true.

What if you find a high-converting PRODUCT to promote first, then create your markets later??

Sounds strange? Not really.

Here’s what you can do (by thinking out of the box):

1. Find a hot sellable affiliate product (eg. Clickbank products with high gravity)

Now, instead of advertising to the same group of people as most affiliates usually would (using product name, author name, obvious markets, “weight loss” etc.) you…

2. Create YOUR OWN MARKETS by sub-segmenting by demographics!

With this, you will have entire new and unexplored sub-markets that are not obvious, and not used by your many competitors.

Here’s an example:

If you’re an affiliate for “Panic Away”, a top Clickbank product, intsead of advertising with the “usual suspects” keywords like “cure panic attack”, “panic attack help” etc., you could target different groups of people looking for this solution, like…

- panic attack help for internet marketers lol
- panic attack help for insurance agents
- panic attack help for real estate agents
- panic attack help for men over 30
- panic attack help for women over 40
- panic attack help for teenagers

These are just some examples and the possibilities are HUGE.

This is a great way to promote products “outside” the usual markets it caters to.

For example, you could promote “Super Mind Power System” to different groups of people like:

- mind power for students
- mind power for sports
- mind power for magicians
- mind power for job seekers
- mind power for people over 50

Use your creativity and do some research!

This one tip will put MORE money into your pockets.

Take care.

Ewen Chia

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Reverse-Marketing Twitter Checklist: 8 Steps to Marketing Success on Twitter

This article was written by Jeff Machado, an Inbound Marketing Implementation Specialist with Modern Marketing Support, an Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant company.

One of the hardest things about marketing on Twitter is that it doesn't even look like marketing.

In fact, the closer you watch those who have made a success using inbound marketing techniques, you'll see that it seems that they're not doing much of anything at all. Sure, they're talking to people and sharing some great resources, but that can't be marketing ...

But it is marketing - and it's a powerful kind of reverse-marketing. It's relatively easy, it's fun, and it's really effective.

Looking for ways to tap into this almost effortless style of business promotion? Here are eight easy steps you can follow:

1. Choose Topics Outside Your Niche

As hard as it may be to swallow, you are not your niche. A niche is something you have. But it is not who you are. Choose 5 other things you could possibly Tweet about. On my list are cooking, origami, personality tests, colors, and office supplies. Find more opportunities to Tweet and talk about other things than what your business is. Getting people to like you first is a great place to start on Twitter.

2. Define the Personality You Want To Reach

Thanks to David Meerman Scott, we have the concept of buyer persona and a method for applying it to marketing. Thanks to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, we have a tool for getting inside that buyer persona's mind. It was easy for me to choose ENFPs (Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving) as my target market. They're the types who get lots of ideas and are natural entrepreneurs but struggle with things like internet marketing implementation. 4 little letters can give you a lot of potential Tweet ideas.

3. Use the Search Button at Least 3 Times Per Day + Tweet at Least 15 New People

Lots of Twitter help articles will say "Join the conversation!" but if the people you're following don't seem to engage in conversation and only promote themselves or send out quotes for Re-Tweet bait, what are you supposed to do? That's where the search button comes in. Search for something you're interested in. Find someone you'd like to talk to. Then repeat as much as possible. Use your @ function more than anything else. Engage, don't broadcast.

4. Ask 5 Questions on a Daily Basis

Once you start to find more followers, just ask questions. Will they always get answered? No. But did it cost you a ton of money to ask? Absolutely not. You can't take it personally if no one answers the first time around. But if you're focusing on your buyer persona, you get closer to getting inside their mind. You'll know you're asking the right questions when you start to get responses. Easy to do, easy to measure.

5. Answer at Least 3 Questions Daily

The fewer questions someone has on their mind, the more at peace they are. Questions, especially ones that don't get answered, are the things that keep us up at night. Though it might seem extreme to say, it's very likely that anytime you answer someone's question via a Tweet, you're helping them sleep better at night.

6. Send Out 10 Useful or Entertaining Links (But Be Sure To Track!) Every Day

While desktop applications like TweetDeck or Twhirl offer convenient URL shortening, they are not necessarily the best. You're missing out on one of the best features of Bit.ly and other URL shortening tools like it: click tracking. This is the simplest way to find out if you're Tweeting things that your Followers actually want to know about. Just sign up for Bit.ly's service and Tweet from there when sharing articles and blog posts.

7. Share at Least One Blog Post, Article, or Video Per Week

There are so many options for connecting your blog posts, articles, videos, and all your content to your social media venues. But self serving promotional content just doesn't cut it. Remember the question theory? Use it to your advantage. Think of the questions your target market (or even better, your buyer persona) has and make sure your content answers those questions. Provide content that makes it easier for that person to sleep at night.

8. Test a Different Landing Page from Your Twitter Profile Weekly

If you're doing everything above, you're getting closer to people being more interested in what you have to offer. What will they find when they visit you? Are they going to know exactly how you're going to help them sleep better at night? If not, you need to create landing pages that express just this. As with all good landing page practices, keep on testing.

So what do you think? Is Twitter about as reverse-marketing as it gets? And what other ways are there to measure your success on Twitter? Let's get the conversation rolling in the comments.
Source

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Search Is Your Best Source of Traffic? Don't Be So Sure.

For many inbound marketers, search and search engine optimization is Holy Grail of marketing.

Google is their most significant traffic referrer, so they focus on showing up in search results pages at the exclusion of almost everything else.

Search is as important a marketing channel as ever, but data we recently collected at HubSpot show that it's not quite the Holy Grail.

In fact, if you care about converting your traffic into leads and sales, social media and blogs may be even more important than search.

The chart below compares traffic and leads by referral source for a sample of 40 HubSpot customers in four industries. In this unscientific survey, traffic that converted to leads came from a far broader range of sources than all traffic, which search dominated more.

The left bar for each set shows the percentage of visitors coming to a site from different referral sources. The right bar in each set shows the percentage of leads from each referrer.

The "Other" category includes links from other websites, directories, etc. that don't fall into the listed categories. For example, some companies in the analysis generated lots of traffic and leads from links to their sites from large partner companies.

Other companies in the analysis were written up on popular media sites such as TechCrunch, generating a large amount of traffic and leads. Twitter.Grader.com and Website.Grader.com make up a large percentage of HubSpot's other category.

Free Seminars Teach Marketers How to Improve Web Site ROI With Dynamically Driven

Free Seminars Teach Marketers How to Improve Web Site ROI With Dynamically
Driven, User-Centric, Persuasive Content

WOBURN, Mass., Sept. 15, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bridgeline Software, Inc.
(Nasdaq:BLSW),a developer of SaaS-based web application management software and
award-winning interactive business technology solutions, is offering a series of
free breakfast seminars that show marketers how they can ascertain visitor
intent, drive behavior, and improve traffic and conversion rates by integrating
analytics software with their website's content management system (CMS).

"Understanding your website users and how to drive their behavior is a
fundamental step to the success of your online marketing initiatives," says
Becki Dilworth, Director of Interface Design at Bridgeline and one of the
seminar presenters. These complimentary 1-hour presentations will take place in
Boston on 9/22/09; Atlanta on 9/23/09; Cleveland on 10/6/09; Washington DC on
10/7/09; and Chicago on 10/8/09.

During the free breakfast seminar "Steer Intent. Drive Behavior. Improve
Traffic." attendees will learn how directly integrating analytics with a CMS can
dynamically drive persuasive content to users based on visitor behavior. An
integrated analytics package results in a common data set with the CMS and other
web applications. Data communication between the website and analytics software
takes place in real time, giving web marketers the capability to react to user
behavior and dynamically serve content that their visitors would expect to see,
are looking for, and will most likely convert.

Topics to be covered during the morning seminar session include:

-- How to leverage
web analytics
to drive more relevant content
to visitors based on their needs and interests.
-- How to optimize web content to generate more targeted site
traffic and higher online conversion rates.
-- How to understand user intent and build user profiles
automatically in real time based on user behavior.
-- How to develop strategies to maximize your web site revenues
and ROI.
-- What techniques to use to increase the effectiveness of
search engine optimization initiatives.
"With truly integrated analytics, the analytics package can automatically assign
user profiles to website visitors based on their activity," explains Brett
Zucker, Chief Technology Officer at Bridgeline Software and also a presenter at
the seminar. "A user on a financial services website who interacts with
particular content on retirement plans can be automatically assigned to a user
profile of 'planning for retirement'. When that user clicks into a financial
calculator section, for example, he could be served links that more prominently
feature financial calculators that pertain to retirement scenarios so that the
content is more relevant and engaging."

Attendance at the breakfast seminar "Steer Intent, Drive Behavior, Improve
Traffic" is free, but seating is limited, so reserving a seat in advance is
required. To register for any session, call Bridgeline Software at 800-603-9936
or register online at: http://www.bridgelinesw.com/resource_center/seminars.

About Bridgeline Software

Bridgeline Software is a developer of web application management software and
award-winning interactive business technology solutions that help organizations
optimize business processes. The iAPPS Product Suite is an innovative SaaS
solution that unifies Content Management, Analytics, eCommerce, and eMarketing
capabilities - enabling business users to swiftly enhance and optimize the value
of their web properties.

Combined with award-winning interactive technology services by Microsoft Gold
Certified development teams, Bridgeline Software helps customers to
cost-effectively maximize the value of their rapidly changing web applications.
Bridgeline Software's teams of developers specialize in web application
development, usability engineering, SharePoint development, rich media
development, and search engine optimization.

Bridgeline Software is headquartered near Boston with additional locations in
Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, New York, Washington, D.C., and Bangalore,
India. Bridgeline Software currently has over 600 customers ranging from middle
market organizations to divisions within Fortune 1,000 companies that include:
Healthcore, The Bank of New York Mellon, Marriott International, Berkshire Life,
PODS, Honeywell, Budget Rental Car, Washington Redskins, AARP, National
Financial Partners, The Packard Foundation, DTCC, Cadaret, Grant & Co., National
Insurance Crime Bureau, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Georgia
Lottery. To learn more about Bridgeline Software, please visit
www.bridgelinesw.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

All statements included in this press release, other than statements or
characterizations of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and
projections about our industry, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions
made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can
often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends,"
"plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should,"
"would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and
variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements are not
guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and
assumptions including the risks described in our filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission that could cause our actual results to differ materially and
adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. We expressly
disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Top 10 Most Egregious SEO Mistakes

As an Internet Marketing Advisor at HubSpot, I get to talk to all of the people who are interested in learning more about our inbound marketing system and who want to do internet marketing more effectively.

Some of them know that they want our help; know what they need to do and they have a pretty good idea of how to do it. They just need some guidance and the right tools and systems in place.

Most people, though, still have a lot to learn. Search Engine Optimization, although only a piece of what we help people do, seems to be the most common challenge that causes people to initially seek our help. It's also the thing that people seem most confused about, as well as the thing that people make the most mistakes doing, whether they have a SEO consultant involved or not.

The name of the game for search engine optimization is extremely simple. Once you're up and running with the right tools and systems, all you need to do is....

Publish new GREAT content on new pages on your website REGULARLY.

People get so confused about SEO. They are usually just wrapped up in all of the details.

But, if you want to do SEO correctly, there's one thing that you will spend the majority of your time doing: Writing Great Content.

We're talking 90% of the time you spend doing SEO should be spent writing about you, your industry, your business, your products, your services and the problems you solve for your clients. All stuff that should be second nature to you.

Yeah. You need to learn a few other things.

But, if you can write, you can do SEO. The rest can be taught. And the rest should not distract you from writing.

Unless... you fall victim to one of these mistakes.

Top 10 Most Egregious SEO Mistakes

David Letterman Style, here it is:

#10. You're optimizing your website around really common (probably really popular) keywords that you'll never be able to rank for. In the last week, I've had two people tell me they wanted to optimize their site around "leadership". I said, good luck competing with Wikipedia and About.com.

#9. Everyone of your title tags has the same keyword phrase in it. And it's your company name. The title tag on a page is probably the most important On-Page SEO factor to consider when creating new pages. You probably already rank well for a search on your company name, so you can safely leave that out and still get that traffic. So, make sure you pick appropriate keyword phrases for each page that are phrases that someone is going to type into a search engine in order to find a product or service like yours.

#8. Dynamic URLs without your keywords in it. You bought a fancy shopping cart or content management system (CMS) that uses dynamic urls with all kinds of random numbers and random letters in the url. Your URLs should be readable by humans because search engines read words like humans too. The words in your URLs is another very important signal to search engines what that page is about. So, get yourself a CMS that allows you to control your urls or get yourself a URL rewriter. Include your keywords in your URLs.

#7. You used images as headings. Headings are usually the big bold letters right above the content at the top of a page usually below your navigation. See "HubSpot Inbound Internet Marketing Blog". That's a heading. If these are "words built with images" (designers do this to control the font of the text), search engines aren't reading them. These should be text. Pick a web safe font that's close to what you want. Go with that.

#6. Number 6 is equally egregious, but a little less common nowadays unless your website is circa 1997... If your navigation is built using image buttons instead of text, you're giving search engine one less signal about what that page is about. See #7 for a fix: Use text.

#5. All of the above. I've seen it happen. I've seen sites with all of the above mistakes. Really. Honest.

#4. Doing SEO after the website is designed and built. For some reason, people think SEO should start afterwards. I've been racking my brain for an analogy, but it's really pretty simple: Do you go on a trip before you pack? Do you launch a business before writing some sort of business plan? Do you visit to a friend's new house without printing out driving directions?

SEO done right allows you to determine what content to write in order to get traffic from search engines. And you shouldn't design a site before you know what content will be on it. I'm not saying that you should change your business model or product name based on what keywords will be easiest to rank for, but you should consider it. I guarrantee you that your competitors or smart internet marketers are doing this homework. Why not claim the search traffic for your business? It only takes a little bit of planning.

Plus, if you go to a designer or web developer that isn't an expert at SEO (Most aren't - even though they say they are), they may not implement a system that allows you to publish new pages and optimize your site around your keywords without paying them $100/hour to make the changes and additions for you. Someone that knows SEO will launch your website in a system that allows you to easily do SEO on a continous basis.

Which brings us to...

#3. Our design firm "DID" SEO for us. This one is probably the most common. There is no such thing as "BEING DONE" with SEO. It's an ongoing thing. Just the other night, I logged into HubSpot's Keyword Grader tool and found 2 new keywords that we should target. We rank not-quite-on-the-first-page for both of them and both of them could deliver several several hundred visitors/month once we get to the first page. That's hundreds more visitors we could attract to our site - with a bit of effort. And we already rank for "internet marketing", "internet marketing software" and a bunch of other great phrases that are relevant to our business. Doing SEO once is like doing prospecting once. If your salesperson said "I called prospects last month" as a reason for not calling any new prospects this month, what would you say to them right before you fired them?

#2. You built your website entirely in flash. You might as well put an invisible shield up between you and the search engines because they don't see you.

#1. And the number one most egregious mistake. Drumroll, please... Your site is built entirely in flash, you're a web design firm and you advertise that you do SEO. I've run into two of these people recently. I won't link to them even though they deserve to be called out.

That about covers it. I hope this was a fun way for you to learn HOW TO DO SEO and not just HOW NOT TO DO SEO. I recently wrote a more detailed post on my blog about how to continuously identify new keywords for your content creation and link building efforts which details the few things that you need to know besides content creation to do SEO effectively. It should dispel any misconception that SEO is some mysterious science not comprehensible by mere business mortals.

source

Microsoft Releases New Key SEO Features of Bing

by Peters Williams
Posted on August 10, 2009

Microsoft recently released a new 24 page document titled Bing: New Features Relevant to Webmasters. The PDF file detailed not only interface updates on Bing, Microsoft's own decision search engine, but also provides SEO tips for webmasters and web publishers. In addition, the white paper document contains instructive guidelines on how to create friendly, easy to index websites, as well as ways to make sites look attractive to search engine spiders.

Webmaster's center

Bing's primary function is to bridge users with websites and content across the Internet, a target all search engines aim for. So, what is different from other search engines you may ask? Unlike ordinary search engines, Bing offers categorized choices. Users can select options from the side tool bar, picking more to-the-point selections which, in the end, will reduce the amount of irrelevant sites popping up and saving the Bing users a lot of valuable time.

Long tail strategies

Did you know that more than 300 factors are used in determining categorization and that the categories that appear are entity-dependent? For example: if you search for [baby monitor], the search results may offer you options, such as "shopping", "reviews", "ratings", and "videos", splitting up the search in convenient sections . Microsoft believes that this innovative way of organizing results provides new long tail opportunities for website owners.

Best match

A key objective of Bing is to deliver premium search results and one of the ways the search engine approaches this goal is through a new feature called "Best match." Watch what happens when you conduct a search for a particular brand, such as Adidas, Toys R Us, Campbell's, or Chrysler. The result is amazing. Bing will actually separate the official sites of these brands from the rest of the results, featuring a "Best Match".

Bing Hover Links preview

One of the cool features Bing has to offer is "Bing Hover links". Just hover your mouse over your search results and a window will pop up on the right of it. It will show a summary of that specific query result, as well as and important links related to that result. Webmasters feel this feature increases qualified traffic and helps searcher to find the information they want without having to leave the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). This time-saving feature is truly appreciated by Bing users.

Data Extraction for previews

Through intelligent data extraction, Bing is able to compile useful information in the hover link section. This includes addresses, phone numbers, and email links the search engine has gathered not only from the content of a specific page, but from anywhere else on the Internet.

Flash recognition

Websites saturated with Flash and Silverlight-based content often lack readable Meta data text. Titles and descriptions in the HTML source code are so poor, web crawlers hardly notice them. In an effort to bring these empty-tagged websites out of obscurity, Bing implemented a new technology capable of extracting limited data.

Instant answers queries

Recently upgraded, Bing's "Instant answers" feature now offers even more comprehensive and richer results to informal queries than ever. Type in a short question in the query box and wait to be impressed by the result!

Local listing center
Businesses should take advantage of the opportunity to list their company with Bing's newest addition, the Local Listings Center
Searchers and Surfers

Searchers who do not know how to start a new or specific search often refine their keywords and phrases halfway through their query. Furthermore, the more information is available, the more people adapt the way they search and surf the Internet. Microsoft has done a number of intense studies to analyze specific search patterns and behaviors. As a result, updates and additions were initiated. Microsoft's goal is to improve searcher satisfaction by delivering faster, more accurate and complete results. It is a tough objective that, perhaps, is closer in reach than you think.


Visit Shout SEO to find out more.

Shout SEO is a premium SEO Services business based in Melbourne. Shout SEO will help increase your traffic and sales through achieving top rankings on the major search engines. Visit Shout SEO to find out more.

Zource

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Affiliate Marketing Money Machines

It's a little too late now that I've gotten the hang of the hype in affiliate marketing, and I mean "hang" in several different ways.

You might be new to internet marketing, or you might be reading this precisely because internet marketing is your cup of tea. So, I thought I'd just shamelessly highlight all the strategies that people have used over time to make money online with affiliate marketing.

Method 1 - Direct from Advertising to Affiliate links

You run an advertising campaign and get people to actually click on the ad links to your affiliate link, thereby driving traffic direct to your affiliate landing pages.

Method 2 - Viral ebooks

You write a viral ebook with plenty of affiliate links in them, then unleash them into the marketplace.

Method 3 - Teleseminars

You run a teleseminar, and tell people to go to a website address which you own, that redirects to an affiliate link.

Method 4 - Podcast

You record an MP3 with content, but have ads recommending a specific product during the time of your podcast.

Method 5 - Viral video

Video is uploaded to video sites like YouTube.com and you make people come to your website for more. The website is a redirected domain name to an affiliate link.

Method 6 - Screencam video with redirection

You send out video content using Camtasia Studio, but there is a URL redirect at the end of the video that leads people back to your affiliate landing page.

Method 7 - Domain name redirect

You buy a domain name which is similar to a well-known product being sold, and redirect this to the actual affiliate product landing page. Misspelt words often become profitable instantly.

Method 8 - Website article

You write an article and get people to click on a link in your website.

Method 9 - Email/Ezine to blog article

Similar to #8, except you send emails or an ezine regularly to people, then you drive them to an article you write on a blog.

Method 10 - Resale rights products

You offer resale rights to products that already have your affiliate links in them. While people make money on the front end, you make money on the back end.

Method 11 - 2-Tier Affiliate program

You run your own affiliate program leveraging on the principal product creator's 2-tier scheme. You then hire more people to sell on your behalf, leading you to focus primarily on training your sub-affiliates.

Method 12 - Classified Ads

The most undermined, but definitely a good working model - place a classified ad and run people to the site you are advertising. Many classified sites are free of charge.

Source
http://www.internetmarketingsingapore.com/blog

Common SEO Myths

There are many common myths surrounding good & bad SEO practice which you should be aware of.

Not everything you hear from supposed SEO experts are true. The problem with this industry, is everyone has an opinion, and in most cases there is no way to prove one way or another what's right and what's wrong.

Even the most universally respected and well known SEO experts find it hard to agree amongst themselves how important one factor is over another.

And because this industry is one where opinion is often so divided, and there is so much open discussion, it is very easy for SEO myths to spread on message boards and forums like wild fire.

Below, I've listed some of the most common and widespread SEO Myths:

SEO Myth #1:

You need to submit to search engines regularly - No you don't! Actually you don't need to submit to search engines at all. So long as your site is able to be indexed, the search engines will find you all by themselves. That's what they do! You can help your site along, by getting at least one back link, but even that isn't vital. Submitting to search engines isn't wrong or bad, but it's not essential. What you should be careful of, is regular submitting to search engines, such as every week or every month. This can be interpreted as trying to spam the search engines and may result in penalties. The best practice is simply to add a sitemap.xml file and let them find and index you that way.

SEO Myth #2:

You must update page content frequently - Get real! Are you seriously expected to update and change pages regularly when you've got 5000 pages on your site? Once a page has been optimized properly and effectively, you can leave it alone and never touch it again. If it's doing it's job and keeping your users happy, why would you need to change it? The only kind of content updates you should concentrate on, is adding new pages with new content, so that your site is constantly updated and always growing.

SEO Myth #3:

You need a site map to rank better - A site map has absolutely nothing to do with page ranking. The only reason why a site map is a good idea, is because it helps the search engines index all your pages. It has no impact whatsoever on ranking. Best practice is to use a sitemap.xml file, but even that isn't essential for indexing. So long as your site is constructed properly and all your links flow naturally, and every page can be access from a correct linking pattern, your site and all your pages will be indexed with or without a site map. Ranking and site maps don't relate in any way!

SEO Myth #4:

PPC ads will help/hurt your natural ranking - Really? The fact that 50% of people argue that they help your rankings, and the other 50% say they hurt your rankings, should be enough to tell you that both are wrong. PPC ads on any site or search engine make no difference to your ranking in the natural results in any way. The two things are not related in any way. PPC are "adverts"...... they don't carry link weight, PR or relevance with them, when they point to your site.

SEO Myth #5:

The goal of SEO is to be #1 on page 1 - Actually the goal of SEO is to provide the highest return on investment by bringing the most targeted traffic to a website which will convert into sales. Being #1 for a keyword that generates no sales, even if it attracts 50,000 per day, is a complete waste of time. Most new webmasters get caught up in thinking being number 1 for the most competitive keyword is the be all and end all. Smart SEO is about returns and profits!

SEO Myth #6:

The Meta keyword tag is useless - Just because Google have said they pay no attention to the keyword meta tag, doesn't mean the thing is useless. Ask and Yahoo definitely still use it, as do many of the smaller search engines. Google is NOT the only search engine, and is NOT responsible for 90% of internet searches as some sites like to claim. Microsoft are now the only search engine that publish recent data about how many search queries they process, and they process 3 Billion searches per month. Do you really want to miss out on an extra ranking factor against billions of searches just because everyone else jumps when Google say "boo"?

SEO Myth #7:

Page Rank (PR) is the most important factor for back links - Actually Page Rank is not something you should be overly concerned with, because the search engines aren't even that concerned with it. Google's own advice is to not get too hung up on this. It's so un-important that they only update PR a couple of times a year. If it was that important, they'd update it every day. PR is one of over 200 ranking factors their algorithm use when assessing non-linguistic (off page) factors for ranking a page. To say PR is more important than any other Off page factor is a fallacy. This is probably the biggest myth of them all. PR is an easily identifiable factor that new webmaster love to jump on. Truth is, there's far more important things to worry about, such as the relevance of the site linking to you.

Source

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

How To Takeover The First Page Of Google

by David Michael Wood
Posted on September 7, 2009

Instead of giving you a cheap 'I'm the guru' explanation, I want to actually SHOW you how I rank in Google, by getting one of my brand new videos to pop up in the first few results for a competitive search term.

What I'm actually going to do is get the video "Efusjon Review" to be listed in the top few results in Google over the next few days to a week. By the way, that phrase is being competed for by a million people right now, so it won't be the easiest result in the universe - also, the video isn't really an Efusjon Review, it's actually a commercial for my website. I know, I know, I'm brilliant.

Here's the general principle of how this works:

To make a bunch of Google nonsense calculations easy to understand, Google looks at two key areas when ranking a page. They ask 'how popular is this page?' And they also ask 'how relevant to the search term is this page?' Search relevancy is simply measured by some complex indexing formulas where Google looks at the actual written content on a website. Google search bots have no ability to spider videos, so they simply trust what's in the video description and index the content according to that info.

Popularity is easier to comprehend, and Google ranks how popular your website is by the following criteria:

1. How many external websites are linked to this piece of content? (i.e. the video, article, site, etc that you want listed on the top of Google)

2. How high do the pages rank that actually link to the content?

3. How much search engine authority does the website with the promoted content have?

Make sense?

So, now that my Efusjon Review is up on YouTube and has been spidered by Google, what I'm going to do is follow a 3 step process:

1. First I'm going to broadcast my video to 10 or so different video sites using a free service called TubeMogul (Google it for details), and I'm going to point the link from the videos back to my original video on YouTube.

2. The second step is to broadcast this article all over the internet through specific article directories using a piece of software I recommend in my blog. (See my 'David Recommends' on my blog for more details).

3. I'm going to use a social bookmarking service called OnlyWire to post social bookmarks back to my video, my blog post, and a couple of my articles. OnlyWire is free to use. Google 'OnlyWire' for more information.

After I'm done, I'll have accomplished one thing - I'll have more links to my video than any other YouTube video on a similar subject. Google will perceive these links as votes of popularity, and within a week my video will be in the top 3 spots in the Google search engines for the phrase 'Efusjon Review'.
Brilliant, I know…
This information is valuable enough to charge for, but you can do us both a simple favor by bookmarking this content with the OnlyWire button on my blog entry to help share this information across different social networks you're apart of, that way we can help your friends rank in the search engines, too. I hope you enjoyed this information, and that it helps you dominate your niche in the search engines.

Remember, it's not what you do today, but what you do consistently for the next six months that will determine how popular your site becomes. Just imagine, if you learn to rank for ONE key phrase per day in Google, in a year your site could easily be ranking for several hundred niche phrases, and you could be getting thousands of visitors per day - would that help your business out?


David Wood is a master at Dominating Google for whatever he wants. If you want to see the video that this experiment is based on, visit his An Efusjon Review now.

Source

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Internet Marketing 101 - A Look at the History of the Internet

Throughout the history of man, our accomplishments have been marked by various ages. There was the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.

These were primarily marked by the material used in the weapons of the day. In modern days we have gloried for a brief time in the Nuclear Age, but this rapidly fell from favor when we figured out we either could destroy the world, or die from all the waste from our reactors. With the advent of the Internet, we find ourselves in the information age.

Although most people think that the Internet is a recent development, it actually has its roots over 40 years ago. The US military saw the need to interconnect radar facilities all over the country. Later this ability would allow the exchange of information between educational facilities.

What we know as the Internet today actually got its start in the early 90's. The advent of the personal computer in the late 1980's spurred the growth of the internet. What started with a few college students talking to each other's computers has grown to an international information exchange.

Remember the days when you would mention you had a computer to a friend and they would say, "Hey my friend Joe has a bulletin board, do you have a modem?" Once you figured out what a modem was, you went down to your friendly computer store and either bought one, or most likely had it installed. (I remember the days when I was scared to death to open up a computer case.) So you had your 1200 baud modem hooked up, listened to all those tones and viola, you were connected. It took maybe 2 weeks if you downloaded a picture, but you were actually talking to another computer. Heaven forbid that you even thought of video. No one could call you because the phone was always busy as you were exploring this strange new world.

Now we have DSL and satellite so we can talk on the phone while we text our friends on our cell while we post to Facebook.

Information is king in this day. You can find most anything within seconds. We have new words, "I'll Google that," or "I Googled that yesterday." A word that a few years ago did not exist has become a noun and a verb for finding information.

With the rise of the internet we have seen a new economy develop. "Ecommerce" has become the byword of the day. Today it is quite possible to live and never leave your home. This new economy has given birth to a new generation of entrepreneurs, the Internet Marketer. Selling information on the Internet has become a multi-million dollar business.

People like Armand Moran, Alex Mandossian, and Rich Schefren are among the top Internet Marketers in the US, as well as Michael Green, Michael Cheney, and the up and coming Alex Jeffreys in the UK.

Although the main advantage of selling information on the 'Net is it is a fairly level playing field that most anyone with a few skills can be successful in, it is becoming a bit more difficult now. There is quite a bit to process from web site design, content, sales copy etc.


Unless you are very self-directed, and disciplined, one of the better ways to become successful is to find a mentor. A mentor can provide the information and inspiration to guide you along the way. After all, they have been down the route before and already made the mistakes.

Finding the right mentor can be a challenge. You must take care that you don't get one who is willing to take your money and leave you standing. Some of the best places might be forums directed to the Internet Marketing niche.

Look for people with a good reputation check references. You can also try typing the potential mentor's name and "scam" to see if there is any negative feed back about them, but do this with an open mind. Sometimes disgruntled people will leave undeserved negative feedback.

Can anyone know how long the "Information Age" will last? What is next on the horizon, implants that bypass the computer and let your brain directly access the Internet? Can you make it "big" on the "Net?" The only way to know is to find a mentor and give it a try.

About the Author: Gene Ilten has been involved in Internet Marketing for 5 years. You can find out more on his blog at geneilten.com.

How To Become An Authoritative Website

If you conduct a search you will often find there are one or two results, usually near the top of the SERP, that have a set of links below the description. This is particularly true at Google. Those additional links are for internal pages to that website. How does one become one of those sites that has these additional links and is that a beneficial thing to have?

To answer the second question first, yes, it is beneficial. It sets your website apart from every other website that shows up for that search query. It also means the search engine considers you a trustworthy and authoritative site for that search result.

But that doesn’t answer the question, How do you get there?

The answer to the hows and wherefores is a bit more complicated. The short answer is, you don’t. That’s the search engine’s job. But there is a little bit more to it. It isn’t arbitrary.

No. 1, you have to have something going for you that other websites related to that search term don’t have. But what?

No one knows. It’s as much a mystery as the search engine algorithm itself. But we can guess. Here are a set of criteria that I believe could be factored in, though I have to evidence to prove any of it:

  • Age - If your domain is older than any other domain for a certain search phrase then that could make you a candidate for authoritativeness. What it shows is that you pioneered a search phrase, sort of like creating an industry with others who have followed you. They may be better, but you were first and for that you deserve special recognition.
  • Size - Let’s face it, size counts. If you have 100,000 pages on your website and all of your competition has fewer than 10,000 then you are different. There’s a bit of a loneliness-at-the-top going on there. Your size could be a contributing factor.
  • Quality of Inbound Links - Back links are still important. But more important than quantity is quality. Ten quality links is much more important than 100 average links. And if you get the right mix of inbound links from the right sites then you could be considered an authoritative website for a particular search term.
  • Quality of Content - Look, quality is important and content is still king. If your content really shines and stands out above the rest, hey, who’s to argue?

While no one, save the search engine, can say definitely why some sites have special recognition and others don’t, I think at least these four factors are prime running for consideration. What factors or qualities do you think a website need to be considered special and authoritative?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com