Keys to Website Success

Getting your website done up for your online marketing business? What are your expectations for a good website? What are the important factors that you are emphasizing on to get the desired results from your website? How do you plan to achieve such desired results that will project your website favorably with visitors and customers alike?

Designing a good website and making it work for you and your online business requires tremendous effort in meticulous planning, serious consideration and purposeful fine-tuning. Without all these factors, the vast amount of time, money and effort spent on starting up the website can all be wasted easily.

To achieve website success, it is imperative to consider the following points:

(1) Planning

Draft the plan for your website. What is the exact purpose for the website? This is important because it will set the direction that should be taken for the whole process of designing your website.

(2) Content consideration

Content is the meat and forms an integral part of the website. It is important to think about what content should be included on the website. Another aspect will be how often the content should be updated and how to get reoccurring content.

(3) Designing the website

This plays an important role in keeping your visitors for the first four seconds. The design of your website must speak its intention and desirability very clearly. What it has to show to the visitors must be made known in that very short time span. No beating around the bush whatsoever. It must be distinctly clear in sending its message across.

(4) Encouraging visitor participation

The website for whatever reason it is being designed must attempt to bring in visitors not only for the sake of traffic but also getting them involved by participating in the signing up of the free articles and newsletters that you are offering. The whole process must one of interaction, not just a one-way communication.

(5) Setting up the website

This poses no problems simply because there are professional web designers that you can approach for a certain fee, or alternatively, there are nowadays user-friendly software that you can purchase to design and build your own website, bearing in mind that the design has to be somewhat agreeable within limits to the intention of the website.

(6) Execution of follow-up

It will be extremely damaging if some visitor poses you a question but it is not being followed up within the same day. This reflects poorly on the efficiency on your part. It tarnishes the image of your online customer service.

(7) Promoting your website

In any marketing campaign, there is the element of promotion. After having posted your new website, it is crucial to spend some time in promoting it. It is new and therefore it has not garnered recognition or publicity withing this short period of time. It must be given some push through promoting it. There would be teething problems initially, so the website must be given close attention and nurturing, at least in this initial phase of being hosted.

(8) Executing maintenance of the website

Having set up the website on the internet, it is very important to maintain it. Enliven it with new and fresh content. Make it appealing as each day passes by and visitors returning looking forward to reading new information. Put a warm smile on your website everyday. It will be like what honey is to bees. The path to website success is being subtly laid ahead.

The prerogative after the website is being hosted is obviously getting visitors to know and come to your website. Without visitors to your website, the whole purpose of designing and hosting it will be defeated.

How do you plan to attract visitors to your website? There are several ways of realizing this plan:

(1) Submission of your website to various search engines

Submitting your site to various search engines will help in some way. Of course, it would be advisable not to place full reliance on them as they can be inconsistent. If budget permits, bidding for a spot on the search engine would be a more viable alternative simply because an extra bit of control can be exercised. Overture.com is one good choice.

(2) Put up various free offers

Who would not want to accept free offers if given? This can be best executed by explaining why the visitors in accepting the free offers would understand more about their problems on hand. "Grab free information relating to your backaches. You'll receive more of such information if your just sign in and allow me to mail you these free related information on a weekly basis".

(3)Put up ads online

It is a good opportunity to put up ads online. Run your paid ads in e-zines. Put your ad buried in another person's e-zine, or you can choose to buy a full page ad. The whole process will induce the source of incoming traffic to your website.

(4) Use word-of-mouth

This method is viral and is usually effective. Let the world know about your website by inserting your personal signature file on your name cards, brochures, leaflets, just to name a few. Inevitably, as this usually turns viral, it will lead to more website visibility.

The internet provides the opportunities for online success. All that is needed to be done is to leverage ourselves with technology. It is equally crucial to understand that website success needs good effort in planning, designing, hosting, promotion and maintenance of the website. Nothing is further from the truth that a well-maintained website is one guaranteed of success in the long run.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/website-success-339899.html

For latest updates on how to increase traffic, raise page ranking, write effective articles and powerful squeeze pages, create explosive blog marketing system, learn about viral marketing, and bring in massive income from your internet marketing business, please Click here Webmaster: Jeremy Long Chia Teik

5 Keys to a Thriving Internet Business

Your dream may be to have a thriving internet business. Perhaps you have a small internet business now. Perhaps you have tried a few online 'programs' that didn't work. Perhaps you are just starting to look into what's available.

This article isn't going to tell you which program to try or which 'get rich quick' scheme will work---but what it will do is give you the essential keys to developing a long-term successful internet business.

Unfortunately, 'get-rich-quick' schemes and fast-start programs and the like, are not geared towards your long-term success. They are geared towards making money for the guy that sells it to you.

Keys to Starting a Successful Internet Business:

Key 1) You must have something that is based on real sales and real value. You cannot develop long-term success online with the various pyramid and ponzi schemes online. Your avenue for success online must be grounded in selling something that other people want.

Key 2) You must develop an online presence. You need a web site and an auto responder with which to communicate to your leads. Do not think you can subscribe to some system and use their program and simply sit back and make money. If that were possible, the whole world would be rich by now, right?

Key 3) You must be willing to commit x number of hours online working everyday. It can be 1 hour or 8 hours, but it must be an unbreakable commitment. You must be consistent. If you are not, then when things get boring or sales don't happen, you take a few days off. Before you know it, you aren't making enough money online, but it is not because you haven't started right, but because you didn't finish what you started.

Key 4) You must be committed to the long-haul. Internet marketing expertise and income does not come quickly to most people; however, if you stick with it, once you figure it all out, the success will continue to come in. Things tend to build momentum slowly on the web, but once they are unleashed, the income can be long-term. You must work really hard at the front end to make continued, real income on down the road.

Key 5) You must invest in your education. I do not mean go out and spend 10s of thousands of dollars buying books and programs you will never use. But you weren't born knowing how to make money online. Others who have learned the hard way have written books and programs to teach you what to do and how to do it fastest and most efficiently. Be willing to spend some money on your education.

These five keys may seem really simple, and have nothing to do with the latest fads and crazes online, but by following these keys you can be successful at just about anything online.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/5-keys-to-a-thriving-internet-business-337604.html

About the Author:

Westly Lager is a success mentor and coach helping teach people how to work online. With Westly's experience and expertise you can't go wrong. See how Westly can help you today by visiting Niche Annihilation Method also checkout Foreclosure Network USA for more tips.

YouTube- Business Blog vs. Normal Website

Great video discussing the many business advantages of a blog.

On Site Search Optimization - 11 Practical Tips

Google has raised the bar. If you misspell a word, it tells you. If you perform a search returning millions of results, they prioritize the results by showing you the most relevant page (usually). Compare that to most internal site search features on eCommerce sites. Not only can they not handle misspellings, they usually do a poor job of ranking results. Combine a poor site search feature with a confusing navigation, and you've got a usability nightmare. Why optimize your internal site search? For one, some research suggests internal site search users convert 3 times better than users who don't use search, assuming their query returns relevant results. Below I've gathered up 11 ideas for improving your internal site search feature.

1. Know What Visitors are Searching For: Optimizing internal site search begins with understanding what visitors are searching for, how often, and why. Do users resort to site search because of poor site navigation? Are certain queries performed over and over? Your website analytics must answer these questions (Google analytics recently launched a site search feature). In addition, track what percentage of search queries return no results. As you improve this feature, you’ll have a metric to benchmark your progress.

2. Intelligent Search Suggestions: An intelligent site search feature, that suggests common searches as you type, is an excellent usability feature that can prevent website visitors from making queries that return no results
or irrelevant items. Checkout Foodnetwork for a great working example of an AJAX intelligent search feature.

3. Show Non-Product Results: If you analyze your log files, you’ll likely find that many search queries using your internal site search are not related to products. For example, visitors will commonly search for terms such as “return policy” or “employment.” Make sure your site search can display results from your site content as well as your product database.

4. Handle SEO Keyword Searches: If you rely on SEO or PPC to drive site traffic, make sure that your internal site search can return results for the keyword phrases you rank for or bid on. For example, if your site ranks for “ipod accessories”, you may find that visitors immediately perform that same query on your internal site search. If the search returns no results, you’ll probably lose your visitor.

5. Filter by Department, Size, & Color: It can be frustrating when a site search query returns too many results. Allow your visitors to filter down the results to increase the relevancy. Common filter criteria are age, product
department, color, and size.

6. Sorting by Price, Age, & Rating: At times, prioritizing search results is more important than narrowing them down. Many customers will expect to be able to sort by price, the newness of the products, or user submitted ratings.

7. Handle Misspelled Search Terms: By analyzing searches that return no results, you should be able to identify commonly misspelled search terms. Because search engines such as Google have become sophisticated enough to
suggest corrected spellings of words, your customer may expect the same from your site.

8. Eliminate Expired Page Errors: There’s nothing worse than hitting the back button on a browser, and getting “This page has expired” error. This preventable error occurs frequently on search pages that submit queries via the “post” method.

9. Search by Item Number: Make sure your site search can handle item number queries. When a user enters an item number that matches a product in your inventory, take them directly to the product page rather than the search results.

10. Show Last Search Query in Search Box: After a user performs a search, populate the search form field with the exact query the customer entered. This will allow them to realize if they make a typo when searching, and easily adjust the search query.

11. Focus on Short Tail Searches: While long tail searches have been the focus of organic SEO for quite some time, you may find it more effective to optimize for more frequently searched keywords. You may find that a small percentage of unique queries make up a large portion of overall queries. In other words, grab some low-hanging fruit by optimizing for the most frequently searched terms on your site.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/web-design-articles/on-site-search-optimization-11-practical-tips-303414.html

About the Author:

Justin Palmer is a Web Marketing consultant who writes an

e-Commerce and Website Marketing webblog. Justin offers informational internet
marketing products such as an

e-Commerce optimization tips ebook and an "How-To" Guide for Email ISP Whitelisting.

The Top 4 Mistakes Made By Internet Marketing Newbies

If you are new to internet marketing you may find yourself a little overwhelmed. There is so much to learn, but there are 4 mistakes that are the biggest barriers to online success. If you can learn to avoid them you will succeed online, because the rest will work itself out.

Internet Marketing Mistake #1: FAILURE TO TAKE ACTION

The number one reason that new internet marketers don't succeed is that they never get started. To succeed in internet marketing you need to take action. It almost doesn't matter what action as long as you actually start something and follow through on it.

If you don't put your product on a website, you won't sell it no matter how much you have learned. If you don't find some product to sell, you won't succeed no matter how much you know about product creation or affiliate marketing. The point is if you do nothing, you will gain nothing. Take action!

Internet Marketing Mistake #2: TRYING TO BE PERFECT

Another major mistake new internet marketers make is they try to be perfect. Just a few more tweaks of the site and then it will be perfect. Just a few more, just this little adjustment, you can go on and on. Nothing you do will ever be absolutely perfect. If you wait until you think your product is perfect or you wait until your website is perfect you will always be waiting.

Nothing is perfect, but it doesn't have to be perfect. Does it do the job it is supposed to do? Does it look like it will sell a product? Then that's good enough to start with. Trying to be perfect is really another way of procrastinating. Get it going. You can improve the product or the website or anything else as you go along. Nothing happens until you finally decide to move ahead.

Internet Marketing Mistake #3: AFRAID YOU DON'T KNOW ENOUGH YET

Many new internet marketers don't ever get started because they think they need to know everything before they start. They buy every course and every ebook they can get their hands on. They study and read and study and read, but that is all they ever do. You will never know everything there is to know about internet marketing. Learning is an ongoing process. You will learn more by doing than you ever will learn from a course or a book. Just start and the knowledge will come.

Internet Marketing Mistake #4: AFRAID OF FAILURE

This may be the mistake that holds more new internet marketers back more than any other mistake. They are afraid if they market their product it will be a failure, so they never market it. How can you know something will be a failure before you try? If you don't try it's guaranteed you will fail.

New internet marketers, heck even great internet marketers fail alot. But there is no such thing as failure. All failure means is the next time you need to make some changes. It was failure that ultimately taught every internet marketer how to really market. Failure allowed them to find out what didn't work so the next time they could do different things that would work.

If you are aware of the 4 mistakes that most new internet marketers make, then you are already ahead of the curve. Don't fall into those traps.

Get started, don't try and be perfect, don't worry about how much you don't know and don't be afraid of failure. If you can do those things avoiding the 4 mistakes, you will be on your way to online success.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ecommerce-articles/the-top-4-mistakes-made-by-internet-marketing-newbies-and-how-to-avoid-them-303449.html

To find out how you can successfully make a living online, and follow a successful and highly profitable advice to making money online, talk with Ray Johnson - Google.com No.1 Ranked eSeller: http://www.ray-johnson.co.uk/

How Tagging and Pinging Work

A must read if you are using social bookmarking as part of your marketing strategy.

Tagging and pinging are common terms used in social bookmarking and web publishing, and it's important to learn how to do both effectively when you need the top rankings on sites and search engines. Search engines and social bookmarking aggregators work in very similar ways, and the most effective strategy for gaining prominence in either of these is to code your copy correctly!

TAGGING: WHAT IS IT?

Developing search-engine friendly copy has become even easier with the introduction of tagging widgets on a variety of web publishing interfaces. Tagging is simply a process of breaking down your submissions into keywords. Keywords of relevance are usually general in scope, and will make your copy fit into a variety of indexes and categories with a few simple tweaks.

Consider tagging to be a condensed version of your main idea. This is an effective approach when you are trying to make sense of the process, and the best way to do it is to start with your heading and title. Your title will serve as the main source of indexing by search engines, and you can make it stand out even more by adding relevant tags.

As a general rule, you'll want to make sure you are also using the appropriate tags and meta-tags in descriptions and heading titles. Both Yahoo! and MSN use these areas to index anything you publish, and it's important that they are relevant and free of spam.

Still, tagging within a social bookmarking site offers multiple benefits. Many social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Technorati make use of tag clouds that break out each article and section it off to different categories. Using keywords such as 'internet' or 'computer' for example will automatically list your article or submission in both areas. It's just another way for users to find articles or entries of relevance; whenever they click on one of these tag clouds, a full listing of articles with those tags will show up on their screen.

A growing number of portals and websites are offering tagging systems to index content. This is especially helpful for blogs and other larger resources where context is highly important. Think about the millions of articles and entries on the web today, and how difficult it would be for someone to find your specific article if they could only find you with a few keywords. tagging helps to create context and relevance within different categories, and once a user has reached the social bookmarking platform; it makes it much easier to find you.

More people are becoming comfortable and familiar with using tag clouds to group and find the information they need; your website can reach a much wider audience when it's easily found in a variety of areas, instead of just under one content page or index.

As each social bookmarking site indexes and aggregates the incoming data, patterns of tags start to emerge; the more popular a particular theme or idea becomes, the larger the tag cloud. You'll notice this as you review different tag clouds, and you'll see some words standing out far more than others. This means that more people are submitting articles with the same tags, and more people are viewing them. it's an easy way to monitor and review how well specific topics are doing at any given time.

TAGGING: HOW TO DO IT

Tagging each entry you submit will become a habit, but you do need to make sure that the tags are relevant and free of spam. Only use keywords that actually apply to your entry; if you start using extra words simply to gain exposure or search engine placement, another user may report it and you may be forced off the network.

Think of tagging as labeling all of your data; you are creating an easily index-able system so that search engines and social bookmarking sites can find and place your article. Breaking down your article into a 'notes' form is a very effective strategy for rising to prominence!

You'll need to break down your main idea into general topics, then narrow it down to more specific keywords. Titles in your article are a good way to start, and you do not need to include words such as 'the', 'it', or 'a'. If you do, the tagging system will usually just take them out. Be sure to pick keywords that classify your submission the best; while there are no limits to the number of tags you can add, it's important to limit them to only those of relevance.

PINGING: WHAT IS IT?

Pinging has quickly become a popular activity with the social networking boom, and in most cases it is an automatic process. Pinging is the process of identifying your IP address and making sure that it is a valid address for search engines. Pings identify the web address to various hosts, and once the address is verified, it can be networked and updated in search engines and indexes.

Bloggers make use of pinging when in cases where posts are not updated automatically. Pinging allows the user to update search engines and various indexes that a new blog posting has been submitted. This is necessary for indexing purposes only, and can help search engine spiders and indexers 'pick up' your submission much faster. Old search engine strategies required manually entering sites and submissions for pinging; today, however, most publishing platforms take care of this process automatically.

Sean S. Sampson provides valuable resources, and information to help the home business owner, and online business owner prosper with their business. For more information about Social Bookmarketing, please go to www.makinglotsofmoneyonline.com

How to Find Free Internet Marketing

Here are some great ideas that you can employ when marketing your website.

New ecommerce businesses are caught up in SEO and web optimization. They view Google as the holy grail of making profits via the internet. Their internet marketing budget is sank into buying traffic, optimizing pages, and establishing major PayPerClick programs with the major search engines. All the work, and expense, involved in following the pack, is virtually unnecessary in today’s ecommerce world.

Marketing the Website

Submitting to search engines is only the first step toward a strong Internet Marketing campaign – it should never be the full focus. There are several ways to market a website.

- search engine optimization
- Pay Per Click
- Search Engine Submission
- Generating Inbound Links and increasing Page Rank
- Building Content
- Adding Social Networking Tools such as forums

Each one of these tools have a benefit. Recently a blog community went from PR0 – PR4, and receiving 300 000 hits a month with a budget of $50 a month. The blog community invested $20 a month in a PayPerClick program to ‘boost’ their exposure on Google and be accepted and ‘ranked’ faster.

www.communati.com submitted the website to more than 3000 search engines, free, using www.webceo.com. Despite the ‘old’ search engine hype, this should only be done once or twice a year. They embarked on an article writing, forum promoting, and encouraging members to ‘put the word out.’ The inbound link campaign increased their Page Rank to PR4 within 5 months, an incredible feat.

Next, communati added social networking features like points and a chat. The important ‘trick’ to remember is that search engines give more rank to pages inside the website, not the index or home page. Building links to the home page is becoming a waste of time. Five articles with specific topics that contain high keywords, links to the rest of the ecommerce website, and ‘hooks’, will generate more PR than links to a buy now page, the index page, or a page with heavy images and graphics.

Marketing the Blog

All websites should include a blog. Not because a blog is necessary, or because people read them. The number one reason for putting up a blog is to increase keyword density, but keep in below the 5% ‘red flag’ level. It also generates dozens of extra content pages, increases the number of ‘in house’ links which are also important to increasing page rank.

A blog can also be submitted to blog directories. The best way to submit is using a service. When an Internet Marketing manager submits a blog to a directory, they must include a backward link. When they use a service they can submit to about 1000 directories without back links. The price ranges from $200 - $500. http://www.lazyurl.com/, http://www.submitcomfort.com/

One advantage of a blog is that it is submitted to the blog directories every time someone writes a new post. Web sites that are submitted more than 4 or 5 times a year may find themselves banned. However, a blog can ping the search engine several times a day without risk of being banned.

In turn, the blog search engines ‘ping’ the big search engines who give the ‘new’ content high page rank for the first few hours.

Marketing The Podcast

No podcast on your ecommerce website? Why? Submitting it to the podcast directories is another way to generate free exposure. The podcast only needs a few streaming or downloaded files to qualify. Podcasts can also be listed on dozens and dozens of free services, each building links to the main site, as well as increasing the exposure to the website. AmigoFish.com, Digg Podcasts , Podcast Pickle , www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts or http://podcasts.yahoo.com.

The most popular podcatcher software is iTunes, which is available as a free download from www.apple.com/itunes/download.

Promote Video

Does your product Appeal to younger people? Then load video at facebook, youtube, etc and then submit those videos. Don’t make a dry workshop or seminar style tutorial, but make it interesting. It is amazing how many younger people click in keywords, and then use the ‘search video only’ link to view relevant videos instead of reading articles.

The list continues. Submit your newsletter, forums, and chat directories. A single article can be submitted to more than 50 000 article submission ‘free content’ sites. No cost involved, except time, and the exposure will create a ripple effect sending your message farther across the web than a $100 000 SEO, traffic buying, and search engine submission campaign.

About the Author:

Mark Walters is a third generation entrepreneur and author. He offers free training andinvesting videos designed to speed you towards financial independence at http://www.cashflowinstitute.com/videosignup.htm

What Really Holds You Back in Business

A great read for anyone planning to take the plunge and launch their own business.

This may or may not surprise you, but I have learned that regardless of age, it usually isn't lack of skill, time or money that gets in the way of starting or growing your business.

Most of the entrepreneurs I work with are between 40 to 65 years young, and when they hit a wall or spin their wheels, it's rarely associated to lack of ability, desire, physical or monetary means.

Physically, they have what it takes, but mentally -- there's a lifetime of baggage blocking access to real progress.

Many have raised children, have been supervisors at work, devoted and hardworking employees, and creative geniuses, and despite their lifetime of accomplishments, something seems to come up when they begin the journey from employee to entrepreneur.

Some of it is tied to the transition into the business world, but much of it also comes from reaching a certain point in life where you can start putting your needs ahead of others. You have raised your children, supported your spouse in his or her career, served as a loyal employee to your boss and now, it's time to focus on following your dream.

The problem is the dream is clouded by old programming.

How many times in the past did you do or say things you didn't want to simply to please your parents, teachers, spouse, church leaders or children?

Did you take courses you didn't want to take or jobs you hated because someone told you it was best for you? Did you marry someone you shouldn't have because you were told it was the "right" thing to do?

How many times were you told you had dumb ideas, weren't smart, pretty or strong enough?

How many times were you told not to bother pursuing a professional sport, music or writing because you'd never make it -- only the exceptional few did?

If you're struggling to get clear on what you want or if you're not taking the right actions even though you know what must be done, look inside yourself and try to uncover what's really holding you back.

How much of other people's "stuff" are you allowing to influence how big you dream and the actions you do or do not take?

I recall a colleague of mine who today is a millionaire, but when he started his business he struggled to succeed. He had done well in corporate, but when he started to promote his new business, he couldn't attract clients.

It was only after he locked himself in his office for a full day and began looking at his marketing materials that he realized he had designed everything to appease his father and gain his approval. He wasn't communicating to his target audience at all.

He re-wrote his material, changed the way he promoted himself, and within months attracted numerous clients.

Another client realized in her late 50's that because she was allowing her father to make her feel guilty because he had helped her out when she was younger, every day was dictated by his mood and the demands he placed on her.

She couldn't grow her business because she allowed her father to determine the amount of time and activities she could focus on each day.

It took almost two years to release the guilt and feeling that she had to be at his beck and call, but when she did, doors began to open. She started receiving phone calls and orders from large organizations and she started meeting people with huge networks who loved her products and wanted to share her with all of their friends.

She became a vibrant, confident woman and started attracting other vibrant people into her life.

I share these stories not to encourage you to blame your parents or loved ones for the obstacles in your life, but to create awareness of the fact that what often holds us back is our belief that we must be responsible for everyone else's happiness and comfort.

One of my former clients works with people who struggle with what she calls People Pleasing Syndrome because it is more often than not the biggest obstacle to personal and professional growth.

If you're facing challenges in your business, take some time to look at the behaviors and beliefs you hold. What thoughts may be holding you back? What actions do you take that you know for a fact aren't moving you forward?

Make the effort to uncover the reasons behind your thoughts and actions. If this is too hard to do on your own, seek the assistance of a coach or trusted professional.

Your life, your business and your ultimate happiness depend on your ability to give yourself permission to follow your dream without guilt or embarrassment and if you need help to make that happen, give yourself that gift. You deserve it.

2007 © Laurie Hayes - The HBB Source

Laurie Hayes, founder of The HBB Source, and creator of The Complete 12-Step Guide To Starting A Home-Based Business, helps entrepreneurs build loyal client relationships and attract more quality referrals. Get her free ezine packed with helpful resources at http://www.thehbbsource.com and learn how to build your business through customer appreciation at http://www.hbbsourcecards.com

Pressure To Rank High In The Search Engines

The following article discusses other ways to increase your traffic without relying solely on search engines.

The ultimate goal for any webmaster is getting quality traffic to their website and therefore customers. In the past web masters felt they had one choice and one choice only but to get placed in the top 10 position in order to get traffic. Times have changed. They are now given more than one method to generate traffic to their web site. The pressure to rank high in the search engines is lessened.

With the great uprise of social bookmarking, blog and article directory sites, more and more webmasters are turning to these alternatives to get traffic. These sites have come as a relief to those who have struggled to gain a piece of the pie of the search engines without success. These social media sites without bias make it possible for any web master great or small to get traffic in as little as 24 hours unlike the search engines which can take months.

There are blog sites for just about any subject, and you can be assured that there are some that relate to your products and/or services. The true origin of the word "blog" found on the Book of Joe web site shows that Dr. Seuss actually created blogs. At first people thought the word "blog" came from the word "web-log". Some blog sites provide commentary or news on a particular subject while others function as a personal diary. Blog sites are great for generating traffic to your web site because you can express yourself in an interesting way that gets people to respond to your blog. You can simply sign up with a site such as Word Press and begin blogging away. You can even have your own blog site!

Article writing is a great marketing method. Depending on who you talk to you might just hear that it is the best marketing method to generate traffic to your web site. One thing for sure is that if you can provide people with some great information, sharing valuable tips that they can use right away, you will get your article read. Article writing plays a very active role in getting out there and finding people who are interested in what you are saying. Search Engine listings on the other hand wait for people to search your keywords in order to find you. It's role is a passive one. You can get your article out there for thousands of people to see for free!

Social Bookmarking is another great method for generating traffic to your web site. Millions of people are using social bookmarking sites to find information. They have become so popular they are even considered to be a new type of search engine. If you are new to bookmarking sites, they allow you to store your bookmarks online and use tags to organize and remember your bookmarks. Tags are keywords chosen by you to remember the subject, name, category, etc. of an article or web site. In order to get social bookmarking to work for you, create quality content, tag it, and get other people to see your content and tag it themselves. This can do wonders of getting traffic to your web site.

Knowing that there are other methods of generating traffic to your web site other than being place in the top 10 of the search engines, have significantly lessen the pressure to rank high in the search engines.

About the Author:

Rosemarie Bryan is an experienced web marketer who helps small online businesses get the best web marketing services at a fraction of the cost. Visit her web site at: http://www.websitemarketing.friendlyfirm.com

Web 2.0, Internet Marketing, The Easiest Way To Generate Massive Exposure

Many people feel that they are running in circles when trying to improve the traffic to their site. The following article looks at the many marketing opportunities that exist in today's Web 2.0 world.

If you’ve ever been involved in a small business, or possibly even a home-based business then you’ve most likely hit the brick wall, just as many people do. No, I’m not talking about start up capital, or operating expenses, because starting a home business is actually one of the most affordable ways for the average person to break into the world of business, and break out of the world of 9 to 5 slavery.

The brick wall that I’m referring to is that of creating exposure for your products and services, and generating traffic for your web sites, presentations, and business briefings. In fact, one can very quickly find themselves pulling out their hair with shear frustration and confusion.

What once was a world of duplication, manipulation, and old school marketing, has in a matter of a few short years been swept aside by those on the cutting edge of the Internet landscape. The cutting edge of what has become the world of web 2.0. Unfortunately, despite the trends, most people really do not know what web 2.0 really is.

Of course, it’s cutting edge, it’s now, it’s happening, but are you using it?

Don’t get me wrong, web 2.0 Internet Marketing is not rocket science, but you do need to be armed with the basics. Just putting a few video clips on your site, or tossing up an audio file or two that people can access or download does not make your site a web 2.0 experience. In fact this has been done for years, but what does make it web 2.0?

Here are a few things to consider before jumping head long into the world of web 2.0 Internet Marketing, and possibly a few suggestions that may make your transition into this world a bit easier.

Architecture of Participation

The first element of a well-designed web 2.0 experience is something called the Architecture of Participation. You might also hear things like RIA (Rich Internet Applications), or even SOA (Service Oriented Applications).

Despite the use of fancy buzzwords, this simply refers to the user experience. Is the site pleasing to the eye, easy to use, and most importantly does the site make it possible for visitors to participate in the content of the web site?

This could best be demonstrated by taking a look at sites such as YouTube.com, EzineArticles.com, as well as social networking sites like MySpace.com. Each of these examples has a very well planned Architecture of Participation.

Mash Ups & Integration

The next element of a true web 2.0 experience is often called the mash up, or content integration. This is actually quite simple. Again, going back to sites like MySpace.com, you’ll see that participants can implement many different sources of web content. You’ll not only see video and audio, but you’ll also see blogs, comments, and networks of friends. Many sites will also integrate content from multiple sources or sites onto a single, new web site that generates fresh content on the fly, ready for eager site visitors.

Mashing multiple streams of content onto a new web site is where the term Mash Ups actually came from, which here again, is not rocket science when you determine what content your visitors might like to see, hear, or read. It’s simply a matter of pulling the appropriate content and mashing it up into one convenient place.

Social Networking

Finally, social networking is a big part of web 2.0. Of course, it’s deeply routed in the Architecture of Participation, and it almost always implements the mash up to create unique content, but the unique factor in social networking is that it’s designed to bring like minded people together.

Networking is the key to building successful long-term business relationships, but if you’ve ever hit your friends and family up with a business opportunity, you’ve probably discovered that they’re not always as like-minded as you might have originally hoped.

Tapping into such social networks can put you, and your business or opportunity in front of literally millions of potential prospects and future business partners, and because you are networking with like-minded people, you’re not forced to go old school when it comes to pitching your opportunity or product.

Over all, web 2.0 is a major departure in traditional marketing, and is light years beyond the days of mass mailing and classified ad submission. It is a whole new mindset in terms of building relationships, by simply rethinking the design process of your next web site, and oh yeah, the best part is that web 2.0 will cost you absolutely nothing to implement into your business.

Basically, the key to web 2.0 Internet Marketing is in the user experience. Gone are the days of sit and stare web sites. With a little creativity, and a touch of web 2.0, it’s now possible to turn a one way experience into a two way stream of communication, which is the key to any business success.

About the Author:

Troy Berlin has been actively involved in the home-based business industry for nearly 15 years and has been a stay at home dady for the past 10 years thanks to his home business. He now helps others develop their own online home business incomes so that they can enjoy more time freedom as well. Learn more about the Prosperity Cast Network, and Troy Berlin at http://www.ProsperityHomeNetwork.com

Unleashing Web 2.0: From Concepts to Creativity

Unleashing Web 2.0: From Concepts to Creativityis a must read for anyone wanting to put the power of the internet into their business site. From the review:

The emergence of Web 2.0 is provoking challenging questions for developers: What products and services can our company provide to customers and employees using Rich Internet Applications, mash-ups, Web feeds or Ajax? Which business models are appropriate and how do we implement them? What are best practices and how do we apply them?

If you need answers to these and related questions, you need this booka comprehensive and reliable resource that guides you into the emerging and unstructured landscape that is Web 2.0.

Gottfried Vossen is a professor of Information Systems and Computer Science at the University of Muenster in Germany. He is the European Editor-in-Chief of Elseviers Information SystemsAn International Journal. Stephan Hagemann is a PhD. Student in Gottfrieds research group focused on Web technologies.

• Presents a complete view of Web 2.0 including services and technologies

• Discusses potential new products and services and the technology and programming ability needed to realize them

• Offers how to basics presenting development frameworks and best practices

• Compares and contrasts Web 2.0 with the Semantic Web

If you really want to understand what is happening on the web today, Unleashing Web 2.0: From Concepts to Creativityis a great place to start.

Scam Alert- Domain Name Appraisal Scam

My purpose in writing on this blog is to share the many tips that I come across that relate to making money online. Unfortunately, there is a flip side which must be discussed as well and that is the topic of internet scams.

Scams have been around since the beginning of time, but the internet has bred a high tech, and often hard to recognize type of con game. Here is one of the latest that I read about this morning.

I recently received several e mails from domain sellers who had fallen victim to a domain appraisal scam. The scam starts with a mail the seller receives concerning a domain they own and the scammer showing interest in buying it.

The scammers find information about their targets on Ebay and on Whois.

In the first mail they tell you that they are a new player wanting to invest money in the domain market as a side business and inquire how much you want for the domain.

Next step is the mail in which they accept your asking price for the domain. The scammers tell you that they want you to get the domain appraised as they don’t want to make a bad investment. The scammers want the appraisal from a certain manual appraisal website which they believe to be a good one, ofcourse this appraisal website is part of the scam. This appraisal website gives a highly inflated appraisal value and asks a high fee for it ( up to over a hundred dollars) as they know you need the appraisal to sell the domain.

The end of this story is that once you have mailed your appraisal you never hear from your buyers again. leaving you one hundred dollars poorer and an absolutely useless appraisal richer. This is a very cunningly operated scam and to show you how such a scam mail looks i give you a real example of such an email below.

Email 1:

Hello,

We ‘ve found your domain name listed for sale..

If you are still interested in selling please send your quote and I will

consider it with my partners.

Main direction of our business is software development and technical

support.

Domain names is not our business but a new way to earn on reselling. We are

going to buy domains to resell them at higher prices since we have a large

database of clients interested in good domains.

Looking forward to do business with you.

Regards,


Email 2:

You want 13,500 USD. Ok.

Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?

If it’s just the name it’s ok. A web site is not necessary.

Have you had your domains appraised already? Can you show me your valuation certificates? As far as I know it’s a common practice to show appraisal of domain name (even without traffic and web site) before doing business.

Without an appraisal I risk to overpay. In other words I won’t be able to make a profit on reselling this name. It’s very important for you and me to know the current market value of your domains.

Of course, we must be sure that you are engaging an appraisal company with REAL manual service. I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate auto-generated appraisals. I will only accept appraisals from independent sources I trust. To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies in a forum. (they now give you a link of a forum you have to check out)

Just check this posting.

If the appraisal comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly. I also hope you can give me 10 discount of the appraised value.

After I get an appraisal from you we’ll continue our negotiations.

How do you prefer to get paid: Escrow.com, PayPal.com check or wire?

Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

Looking forward to your reply.



So if you ever get an email like this, you know what to do. Scrap it. Just remember this wise saying that if something sounds too good to be true it probably is.

About the Author:

Brian Holland works as a moderator for GoogleGoogle.net and gets first hand information on new trends and scams on the web.

http://googlegoogle.net

Scams & Swindles: Phishing, Spoofing, ID Theft, Nigerian Advance Schemes Investment Frauds: How to Recognize And Avoid Rip-Offs In The Internet Age

Scams & Swindles: Phishing, Spoofing, ID Theft, Nigerian Advance Schemes Investment Frauds: How to Recognize And Avoid Rip-Offs In The Internet Ageis a good resource that covers just about every type of scam on the internet today. From the review:

Phishing. Spoofing. Spyware. Swoop and squat. Malicious spam. Chain letters. Ponzi schemes. ID theft. The Internet Era has created a whole class of frauds and schemes that separate people from their money. It's also given new life to older cons and scams. This book organizes various rip-offs by type and severity. Then it explains how each type of scam works -- and how an ordinary person can recognize it before getting taken in. Drawing on interviews with law enforcement experts, victims and even crooks, this book gives readers a state-of-the-art primer on financial crimes and the sleazy dealings that fall slightly short of illegal. It also uses real-life case studies of frauds, to show how they start and how they end -- all in a plain-English style that everyone can enjoy. And this book does more than just tell stories; it gives readers questions, checklists, worksheets and other tools to make sure they're not being scammed -- or to take the right actions if they have been.

Home Based Web Business- Is it Legit?

Get Rich Quick! Make money while you sleep! No inventory needed! You see and hear these types of advertising everywhere. If only it were that easy. There are several things that you need to consider before jumping on the bandwagon of any internet home-based business opportunity. The following article provides some insight into some of the things that you should be on the lookout for.

There are so many opportunities on the internet offering to set people up in their own home based internet business that it can be difficult to separate the real, legitimate opportunities from the ones that only want your money. Knowing what to look for hidden within the offers can mean the difference between finding a legitimate business to operate and ending up helping someone else make money while losing your own.

With most fraudulent offers for in internet business there are four red flags that need to be thoroughly investigated before signing up to work for the website. Understand that not all of the companies that make these claims are out to take your money, but these are four things that many less than honest companies have in common:

1. Large upfront investment
2. The chance to make big money with little work
3. Do not clearly state what you will be selling
4. Lack of available contact information

While it is not uncommon for business to want a fee to become a representative for their business, you have to consider the amount demanded from you before you can start selling their product or service. You should also have a clear picture of what you will get in return for your investment. It is common for the term training to be listed, but many times the training consists of links to other sites where you are expected to learn about the company’s business model.

The training may also focus on how to recruit others into the business, offering to pay a “bounty” for bringing in new people. A company that focuses on bringing in more people instead of selling the product may be on the border of being illegal.

Anyone who has ever been involved in a business knows it takes work. One of the most common pitches is the promise of a big payday without having to work more than an hour or two a day…or even a week. There is no such thing as a free lunch and those who try to convince you otherwise and not being totally honest. That disclaimer about income may not a representative of the potential earnings, should beg the question about why even bother to list it.

If you have been reading an online based business opportunity for several minutes and have no idea about the product or service you are being asked to sell, it could be an indication of a scam. Many keep it a secret until you have spent your money and find out there is no way you can sell this to others with a clear conscious. Know what the product is, and how much it will cost, before considering the offer any further.

Look for contact information. If the only means of contacting the company is through an email address, it could be they don’t plan to be around long enough to answer any questions or complaints. Money back guarantees are also only about as good as the contact information. Email addresses and post office boxes are not good contacts.

About the Author:

Eric Baucom
Record-breaking growth has driven us to the top of Internet marketing businesses. You can build a profitable home-based business working part-time from your home computer! Training, support, Websites, and products all provided! Enroll FREE!
http://www.HomeFreeWealth.com

Traffic Conversions In As Little As Hours With These Revealed Secrets

The following is a great article that looks at converting your online visitors to customers. I found it very helpful and easy to understand.

This is a list of website conversion tools that I use and recommend to my clients so that they can add "bells and whistles" quickly, easily, and inexpensively.

If you're a website owner who's unhappy with the business your Internet presence is generating, I wouldn't be surprised if you think your copy is the culprit, too. A lot of people think that if there's a problem with conversion that the sales copy must be at fault.

This is WRONG THINKING...and potentially fatal to your website's success.

The world's most brilliant sales letter for the world's most incredible product won't necessarily generate the through-the-roof results you might expect. The truth is that turning a casual site visitor into a "here's my credit card take whatever you want" buyer takes MUCH MORE than just effective copywriting.

Converting prospects into clients and customers takes more than a super headline... More than a list of "what's in it for you"... More than an ironclad guarantee and more than a page of testimonials from celebrities and authorities.

This isn't a war that will be won with words. You need more...much more.

If you think of your website as a high-powered sports car, your sales letter is the engine. But as any racer on the NASCAR circuit will tell you, without the right fuel and other essential components, an engine can't run smoothly and a car will never be first to the checkered flag.

I don't care if you have the most powerful "engine" in the world...the greatest sales letter ever written. If you're not taking advantage of technology and leveraging human psychology in your sales and marketing efforts, you're simply out of the race.

I usually wear my copywriter's "hat" when I do the rant and load you up with lots of ideas for creating great sales messages. The how's and why's...the do's and don'ts... the nuts and bolts.

But this time around, I don't want to focus on the engine. Instead, we're going to make a "pit stop" to look under the hood of "killer" websites and talk about everything that's working to power their success.

Conversion Secret #1 - Less Can Be More (Why the QUALITY of Your Traffic is More Important than the Quantity)

The number of people that visit your website is meaningless if they don't buy anything when they're there. You can have ten thousand people hitting your site a month, but if they're looking for camping equipment and you're selling baby strollers, you're not going to convert a single visitor.

And if you're paying per click, this will kill you. Your marketing dollars are going up in smoke.

On the other hand, you can have less traffic, but if they're targeted, you'll have a very high conversion rate. If your baby stroller site has a banner ad at a baby formula store, chances are the people who click through will be more likely to buy from you.

Here's something you MUST keep in mind: "more likely to buy" doesn't mean that they will buy. That's why tracking your traffic is so important. You have to know exactly where your traffic is coming from.

Are they from Per-Pay-Click? Are they from affiliates? Are they from offline marketing? What percentage is from what promotion? Unless you know the answers, you can't build on your success.

You can't improve something you can't measure." says W. Edwards Deming, a management expert.

A steady flow of QUALITY traffic and information about where it comes from will affect your conversion rate just as much as the quality of your sales message.

Conversion Secret #2 - Don't Let A Good Answer Get away (Exit Poll)

No one expects a 100% conversion rate, of course. You may dream about it, but, depending on what you're selling, if you're getting a 2-3% conversion, that's pretty damn good.

Okay, you're not converting 97% of the people that come to your site... But does that mean that their visit has to go into the "lost cause" column? No way!

If you paid to have those people visit, you can't just let them get away! You need to get some kind of return on your investment. Why not do an exit pop-up survey, asking them why they're not buying?

Want to really get a visitor's attention. Use an audio pop-up. When people leave your site you can have a pop-up with an audio portion like this:

"Wait, before you go, could you please help me out? I'm not trying to sell you anything, I just need some information. Could you tell me the single biggest reason that you're not giving us a try today? What's the ONE reason that's stopping you from purchasing (my product name)? Just fill out the box below and click on the submit button. Your opinion matters to me..."

Boom! You've just created your own "consumer feedback forum" and you haven't spent a penny on some high-priced focus groups. Once you get a bunch of responses to your exit poll, you'll be able to identify patterns in what people say. Use what you learn to make the changes that you know for certain will bump up your conversion rate.

Success and failure shouldn't be based on guesswork or assumptions. It doesn't matter what you think is the reason people aren't buying. It doesn't matter what I think is the reason people aren't buying.

The only thing that matters is what your customers think...that's the "pulse" of the marketplace and the lifeblood of your future business. And with an exit survey, your customers will tell you what you need to do in order to convince them to buy your product!

People consider me a marketing wizard because I'm so good at market research. Well, I may be a "wizard," but I'm not a genius, and I certainly didn't earn my Ph.D in marketing. That's because you don't have to be a marketing genius to get your finger on the pulse of your industry.

Here's the secret: I am not the marketing wizard. You're not the marketing wizard. Your CUSTOMER is the marketing wizard.

All you have to do to learn the "mysteries" of more sales is ASK your customers... And make sure you ask the people who decided not to be your customers, too.

Just ask and they'll tell you. Then take what you've learned, incorporate it into your sales message, and watch the "no sales" turn into "sales" so fast that you'll get a speeding ticket for all that fast-moving, fast-buying traffic!

Conversion Secret #3 - Take a Tip from the Tortoise (slow and steady wins the race)

Far too many Internet marketers try to close the sale with one step. Are you one of them?

Do you run an ad in some ezines, post a couple of Pay-Per-Click ads, then sit back, relax and wait to enjoy "the show"? Do you assume that people will notice the ad, read the ad, get excited by the ad, go to your site, read your sales pitch, pull out their credit cards and buy from you?

Do you expect to accomplish all that with ONE STEP? Give me a break. What are you thinking?

That's like you're trying to have sex on the first date.

You might get away with it. (You might get some sales and be profitable). But chances are, without a little coaxing from you at every step in the process, you'll be going home alone.

Take it slow, will ya?

Show some class. Have some manners. Get to know each other. Share some stories. Make a connection. Develop a relationship before you try to close the "deal". People buy from people they trust. So you'll make a lot more sales if you take the time to develop a solid relationship.

How do you convince website visitors that you're one of the "whit hats"? Start building that relationship. One way is by giving more than you get.

Give them a free report. Give them a free mini-course. Give them a free ebook. Give them a free chapter. (Are you getting the idea that "free" may be the most important word in relationship-building on the Internet?)

Bribe them and get them to give you their name and email so that you can follow up with them using an auto-responder. And don't forget to make it simple.

One easy-to-use option is a hover ad that drops down on your visitor's screen when they visit your site, inviting them to "opt-in" to your free offer. Why a hover ad? Testing shows hover ad gets more attention than traditional pop-ups.

A more advanced way...and to some a less "savory," but extremely effective way...to capture contact information is to make your home page an opt-in request.

Basically, a visitor can't get to the rest of your site without providing contact information. You qualify them before you let them read your sales pitch! That's pretty brilliant if you ask me!

The opt-in doesn't have to be fancy. And it definitely shouldn't be very long. Just a killer headline and some equally killer benefits. That'll do it.

Don't blow it! When you follow up with them, you don't just want to pitch them. You want to deliver value in your auto-responder messages. Educate them. Teach them something. Then just have a little plug at the end.

Remember I said that people buy from people they trust. If you're constantly selling things, then you're a salesperson...and your motives are immediately suspect.

But if you're constantly giving things away, sharing ideas, giving more than you're getting, you're a valuable resource...a good friend...a trusted adviser. (There's the secret password -- trust!)

And the beauty is...what you give away doesn't have to cost you a penny.

Let's say you're selling an ebook, you can actually take the first 3 chapters of your ebook and turn them into a series of auto-responder messages. This is a great way to give them a taste of what you're selling and to prove that you're the "real deal."

Conversion Secret #4 - Hear Ye, Hear Ye (Audio on the Internet)

When I talk about copywriting, I often talk about how important it is to engage the reader's senses. Make them see with word pictures... Make them feel with hot-button language. The more senses that are involved, the more likely it is that your prospect will be sold.

Using audio on your site is a sense-sation.

With audio, you appeal to a completely different sense than the average site. The web is full of visual appeal, but with audio, you suddenly connect with a visitors ears with a whole new component -- a verbal component.

Your spoken words will strike an emotional chord with visitors and connects on a "human" level in an otherwise electronic world.

And here's something that every website needs: excitement. Because it's rare, audio is unusual and attention-getting. It's brand new, instead of the "same old," same old."

(This won't be true forever, of course, but for now, you can take advantage of audio's scarcity.)

Don't let your fear of the unknown or a fear of failure hold you back. You don't have to be a techie to utilize and implement these technologies. If you've got the will, I'll show you the way:

Okay, now my secrets are your secrets. The same tricks and techniques that I've used to achieve astronomical traffic conversion levels are now at your disposal.

They've been tested and refined and re-tested. They've worked for me...and they've worked for my clients (who, by the way, paid me a fortune to implement them on their behalf).

I know they'll work for you. Let me know when they do. I'd like to add your success story to an upcoming issue of the Rant.

Stay Lok-ed and loaded for success.

About the Author:

Nickolie Greer

Download a Free AdTracking Guide and to learn how Adtrackz will improve your sales. Go to http://www.squidoo.com/AdTrackZ-Review/ and read my AdTrackz Review.

Search Engine Optimization (CD-ROM)

Search Engine Optimizationis a helpful CD-ROM which allows you to watch in action what is involved in optimizing your site online and achieving good placement in the top search engines.

If you're out of sight on the Web, says Search Engine Optimization specialist Richard John Jenkins, you're out of mind. Braving the wilds of search engine myths and facts, Richard offers essential tips on how to appear at the top of search results in Yahoo!, Google, and other popular search engines. From purchasing placement to optimizing keyword variations, from avoiding "black hat" SEO practices to setting up a search-friendly site, Richard covers it all. He also shares how to best submit your Web pages for indexing, how to monitor page rank, and how to build a solid base of links to your site. A must-watch video tutorial for experienced website publishers and for those just getting into the Web game.

Topics Include

* Search engine optimization (SEO) vs. search engine marketing (SEM)
* Getting to know your searchers
* Crawler-based search engines
* Keywording to rank high in searches
* Keyword combinations, variations, and stop words
* Setting up a site the wrong way: what to avoid
* Creating a search-friendly site
* Submitting websites for search engine indexing
* Building link relationships

About the Author

Richard John Jenkins, founder of Web Search Engineer, (www.WebSearchEngineer.com) is a search engine optimization and marketing specialist based in Santa Monica, California. Richard is a member of SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization). He uses Bruce Clay's SEOToolSet and abides by Bruce Clay's SEO Code of Ethics for all of his SEO clients. Richard brings years of experience and a wealth of multimedia and Web publishing knowledge to his SEO/SEM company and to the training he offers. For many years he was a top multimedia trainer at the American Film Institute in Hollywood. He was also a popular staff software evangelist for Macromedia Corporation and a successful business development manager for Corel Corporation.

How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Website with Little or No Money

Interested in promoting your business and/or Web site, but don t have the big budget for traditional advertising? This new book will show you how to build, promote, and make money off of your Web site or brick and mortar store using the Internet, with minimal costs. Let us arm you with the knowledge you need to make your business a success! Learn how to generate more traffic for your site or store with hundreds of Internet marketing methods, including many free and low-cost promotions. This new book presents a comprehensive, hands-on, step-by-step guide for increasing Web site traffic and traditional store traffic by using hundreds of proven tips, tools, and techniques. Learn how to target more customers to your business and optimize your Web site from a marketing perspective. You will learn to target your campaign, use keywords, generate free advertising, search-engine strategies, learn the inside secrets of e-mail marketing, how to build Web communities, co-branding, auto-responders, Google advertising, banner advertising, eBay storefronts, Web-design information, search-engine registration, directories, and real-world examples of what strategies are succeeding and what strategies are failing.

How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Website with Little or No Moneyis a must for those currently selling online or those who plan to do so.

Blog Marketing for Your Business

It is no secret that I feel strongly that blogs are an excellent way to advertise any online business. This article goes in depth and explains the many advantages of using this approach.

7 Key Benefits to Blog Marketing for Your Business

By: Craig Cannings

While Experts predicted that blogging as a whole would slow down in 2007, it is evident that Blog Marketing for web businesses continues to emerge as an increasingly powerful tool for dialoguing with prospective customers and increasing audience reach on the Net.

Many business owners may have uncertainties or misconceptions as to the value of business blogging. Some believe that too much time and effort will be required to effectively implement a blog marketing platform into their existing promotional efforts, with little return on investment.

Those business owners who use blogs regularly will concur that they are simple to create and relatively easy to maintain once you gain an initial comfort level and identify your blogging persona. It typically will only take 10-30 minutes out of the day to properly submit a blog post. The results, however, are far-reaching and surprisingly effective.

So,

What are the major advantages of blog marketing?

1. Low Cost Marketing Channel
Blogs are cheap - even free. Blogs are easily built into an existing website. Blogs can also be maintained at dedicated hosting sites all over the web for low or no cost. Typically it would be recommended that a web business create their own blog domain for brand awareness purposes. It also looks that much more professional in my opinion.

2. Excellent Avenue to Build a Network
Every business needs a network; an internal network between divisions and an external network with other companies and customers. Staying in contact with so many individuals, however, takes large investments of time. A regular blog on the other hand is quickly written (particularly when you are close to and well versed in your subject matter). Blogs can reach thousands of targeted readers at any time in any place.

3. Enhanced Company Visibility
Closely related to networking, Blog marketing benefits a company by keeping it visible. The next time a customer or collaborating company is in need of your product or services, your business will be foremost on their minds.

Part of the benefits of blogging visibility has to do with links. On-site blogs can link to other areas within your site, but off-site blogs can link directly back to it. As you build your blog presence, you may eventually swap links with other high-traffic blogs further adding to your traffic and search engine results.

4. Increased Product Exposure
Blog marketing is extremely useful for gaining mainstream visibility for your products. Your product line may be the focal subject of your company blog - a place where you educate consumers or prospective customers on product features and use, or a place to debut new additions to your line.

Product advertising is of course not limited to company blogs. Blogs on every imaginable subject span the net. Paying high quality bloggers to speak about your products or review your company is another effective blog marketing technique. There are Blog networks like Loudlaunch.com or Sponsoredreviews.com where you can tap into a network of bloggers that work on a pay per post model. This can be a low cost and effective way to grow your product awareness.

5. Enhanced Company Persona
Blog marketing is one way to come down to a more personal level with customers. The voice and style of the blog lets customers get a feel for who you are as a company and whether you are the kind of person they would like to be involved with.

When one individual regularly maintains the blog, customers get to know that person, and feel they have built a relationship with them. The result from this aspect of blog marketing is a more trustworthy, lasting relationship.

6. Improved Customer Interaction
Comment features on blogs are ideal ways to get to know your customer base. An engaging business blog is a place to hear kudos and complaints, as well as conduct informal focus groups, determining how else customers needs might be fulfilled. In this new Web 2.0 frontier, healthy customer dialogue is a key ingredient for successful web endeavors.

7. SEO Optimized Content
We have all heard it said, "Content is King" on the Internet. Adding a blog to your site adds to your featured content, providing yet another indexable content source. It is essential to employ tools like Wordtracker.com and Hittail.com to identify targeted keywords that you want to write some blog posts on. The key is to include the keyword in the blog title as well as in the post and technorati tags.

Blog marketing is quickly becoming known as one essential wave in a progressive web company's future. The minimal cost, both financially and time-wise, coupled with unlimited potential for exposure and connection make business blogging a no-lose proposition.

Article Source: http://www.articlestoreprint.com

Craig Cannings is the owner and managing director of ESalesGuru.com, a innovative marketplace connecting ebusinesses with niche Internet Marketing Specialists and Firms worldwide. Visit us at: www.esalesguru.com.

Internet Marketing- Brand Yourself

The importance of branding is of utmost importance for anyone planning to derive an income from online sales. Read the following for a better understanding of what is involved in this process.


Brand Yourself And Success Will Come!
by: Royleena Nicholas

The internet is growing daily with folk who are looking for ways to earn a comfortable living from their home base. However, the sad truth is many online business owners never make a profit online! Sadly, even in today's online market, many business owners have no idea how to effectively market their internet business. In addition, they don't understand the importance of "branding" their name to build a quality online presence and reputation.

To welcome online success, "branding you" should be the number one online business owners' priority. When beginning an online Internet career, it is detrimental to online longevity that the online promoter cultivate a squeaky clean image.

Many online business owners tarnish their name, by promoting worthless downloadable software and eBooks. It is a good idea to test-drive any eBook or software package before you decide to promote the product as an affiliate marketer. It's not an intelligent idea to promote worthless products to your opt-in list, so be careful what you endorse online.

Another way you can ruin your branded name and good reputation is opportunity jumping or program hopping. To highlight this point, I will talk about only five popular online business programs that are heavily promoted online. The programs are Perfect Wealth Formula, edc Gold, Passport to Wealth, Wealth Magnet System and Roadmap to Riches.

Lets go back a few months to when Passport to Wealth launched in February 2007. Since February I have seen the same top earners, jump from (1) edc Gold to (2) Passport to Wealth to (3) Perfect Wealth Formula to (4) Wealth Magnet System and now to (5) Roadmap to Riches. What a great way to earn instant cash daily! Now. I am not saying, that all these business opportunity promoters are all tarred with the same brush, but in amongst this group of business promoters are a few bad eggs, that like nothing more than to take your hard earned money and thereafter never return your emails or phone calls.

The good news is it doesn't take long before the online internet community, catches onto these dirty quick cash generating tricks and unlike the offline business world, this type of underhanded home business owner can't move to another state or country, and start all over again!

To profit quickly on the net, firstly brand and protect your name. Next make sure you do your research and only promote quality products. To explode your success online, in your first year, it is a good idea to find yourself a personal eCoach to educate yourself in online advertising and marketing methods.

To conclude, every new internet business promoter should understand that online marketing success doesn't happen overnight; sometimes it can take 2-3 years to build a successful online presence. I believe, perseverance is the key to success, with any Internet business and online marketing endeavor.

Royleena Nicholas, aka "The Success Diva", has been successfully promoting online for over 7 years, is an eCoach and author of eBook “The Secret 2 Financial Freedom”. http://www.75pureplantminerals.com/TheSecret2Freedom%20e-Book.pdf Royleena is a Double Diamond Distributor of US Naturals product Sizzling Minerals http://www.75pureplantminerals.com and an Executive Affiliate of GIC Affiliate Program http://www.my-royleena.com

Doing Business in Second Life

Second Life, the virtual online community, has been featured in many news stories lately. While many users adopt virtual lives and use the medium as a means to meet others, businesses and individuals have also joined the community as a mean to earn extra income.