Web Internet Marketing

Way to promote your Dental Web Site

2006-12-09T07:39:00.000-08:00

As this blogs new fresh coat of paint is being completed, I thought I'd drop two hints on promoting your Dental Office Web Site, which these tips can also be used to promote your Real Estate marketing efforts.

1. If you are emailing clients or distributors remember to include the link to your web site on the bottom! You will be amazed at how people will follow this link.

2. Tell everyone with whom you communicate about your dental or real estate web site to start a viral marketing effort!

More dental and real estate marketing tips to come!

Regards, MK
If your in need of that new car, visit the car buyer guide to learn features and upcoming car selection to pick the right car for you!

Dental and Hotel Web Internet Marketing

2006-10-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

This blog will be undergoing a large makeover fairly shortly with a focus being put on Dental Internet Marketing and Hotel Internet Marketing, although all tips mentioned in the blog will be applicable to almost any type of business wishing to pursue Web Internet Marketing.

We will outline how to get your site on the web, how to build a web site on a budget without experience or with hiring a web designer, and finally how you can market your web site yourself and promote it to increase business and profits!

Stay tuned for the revamp of the Dental and Hotel Web Internet marketing blog!

Regards, MK
Web Internet Marketing techniques have been applied to my Car Buyer Guide blog and Sump Pump Tips Blogs!

5 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog without Using Search Engine

2006-07-24T15:57:00.000-07:00

5 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog without Using Search Engine by Keng Hui Tan

The ability to drive traffic to your blog without using search engine is the best safety net you can have. Search engines' algorithm changes every now and then, it is not easy to follow them. While on-page and off-page optimization is always important, you should also be equipped with skills to drive traffic without waiting for search engine. We will harness 5 underestimated powers to drive traffic to your blog. All can be done immediately and will bring you good amount of traffic.

1. Bookmark your pages using various Social Bookmarking Services. This is the first thing you have to do if you have not done so already. Signup with Social Bookmarking Services and bookmark every of your page. Do them slowly; do not attempt to submit all your pages in one day as you will annoy other users. Submit two to three of your pages everyday and track the traffic. Making your pages visible in Social Bookmarking Services usually brings immediate traffic within a few minutes after submitting. Do not forget to tag your keywords appropriately. Tagging allows other users to locate your page after your submission. Some of the popular Social Bookmarking Services are:

* Del.icio.us
* Technorati
* Digg.com
* Furl.net
* Spurl.net
* Ma.gnolia.com

You may also consider using OnlyWire.com which allows you to add pages into many Bookmarking Services at once.

2. Write articles and submit them to article directories. This is the most popular technique used by bloggers to get their blog noticed widely. If you have been looking for inbound links, submitting articles to article directories will quickly build your inbound links. Organize your blog content, group some similar topics together and you have a good article to submit. Always submit only useful and helpful article. Some of the popular article directories are:

* Ezine Articles
* Article City
* Valuable Content
* Isnare

Write only articles that will benefit readers. Give them some action points that they can start doing immediately. Your objective is to solve the readers' problem. Inspire them to take action rather than just read. Establish a boundary on how much you feel comfortable to share if you have only limited resources or your resources are guarded secrets. Remember to always add value to your readers and respect their time spent on reading your article. Make sure to include a link to your blog so that readers can follow for more information.

3. Master trackback and use it often. When you are reading another blogger's blog and found something interesting that you want to share with your readers, always send a trackback ping back to the blogger. Your trackback ping will be recognized and an excerpt of your post will be included in the blogger's comment. This allows readers to follow the conversation and finally land on your blog for more information. It will bring some unexpected visitors to your blog and can increase your loyal reader base. Always trackback only if the content of the original post were similar to the theme of your blog. You do not want readers to get disappointed after landing on your blog.

4. Participate and share insights in forums Participate actively in forums about your niche. Answer question appropriately in the forums. Provide quality content to the forums even if you feel the content is so original that you do not want to share. Sharing your insights helps to build your profile as an expert in your field. Forums are a big resource for traffic. Other than simply including your signature under each of your post, you can also write a few articles to answer most frequently asked questions in the forum. This will drive a huge amount of traffic to your site if you have done it with respect.

5. Content! Add value to your readers! Before you do all the four steps above, go back to your blog and think of some ways to make the readers stay. You are going to get good traffic by doing the steps above and you want the readers to stay for more. You do not want readers to come and forget about you. You want them to remember about you and return. Build more articles that are valuable to your readers. You may also consider writing article series. Encourage them to subscribe to your newsletter or RSS feeds. If you are giving value to your readers, you will notice your readers are always waiting for you to offer more information.

Getting traffic without the help of search engine can be some extra effort that you need to do constantly, however, it will increase your survivability in the competitive internet market space. The above 5 steps will build your readership and traffic even if there is no search engine. The snowball effect will build itself and you will get more and more traffic from the above sources which ultimately builds a safety net to your traffic, and most importantly, your revenue.

About the Author
Daniel Tan is the author and blogger of the blog My Money Note, which takes note of tips and techniques on Blogging for Dollar. Read more on blogging for dollars from My Money note: http://www.blogcharm.com/MyMoneyNote

To become more visible in search engines register your domain name and use traffic blazer to promote your web site.

Boost Your Site's Ranking, Traffic and Sales

2006-07-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

How to Use Simple Tag and Ping Marketing Techniques (To Boost Your Site's Ranking, Traffic and Sales) by Titus Hoskins

If you're just heard the phrase 'Tag and Ping' and scratching your head in puzzlement - this article may be worth your time. Not that Tag and Ping is some magic marketing formula that will deliver untold riches. It won't.

It is just one more marketing tool professional online marketers are using to give their site or sites a competitive edge over their competition. It will help put your site on the Internet map and if done right, Tag and Ping will deliver plenty of very targeted traffic to your sales pages. It will boost your rankings and increase your sales.

Tag and Ping is one of those simple, yet relatively unknown marketing techniques savvy Internet Marketers have been using and trying to keep quiet for years. To truly understand how Tag and Ping works, you will have to know some basic background information on keywords, blogging, tags, and how all these can work in sync to deliver traffic, links and sales to your site.

What are Blogs?

Most web users will know a blog is an online journal where bloggers post their daily or hourly entries (their opinions, views, info, links) on any subject that interests them. The most popular blogging systems are Blogger.com (owned by Google) Bloglines (owned by Ask Jeeves),
LiveJournal, and many professional marketers use the free WordPress software which they can host on their own websites.

Each blog has its own RSS feed - RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication although its original acronym stood for Rich Site Summary. These RSS feeds broadcasts the information in the blog posts to all concerned parties - those who have subscribed and use an RSS reader
or aggregator. Or more commonly, subscribers use the FireFox browser, Google Desktop, or MyYahoo to access their favorite RSS feeds. The next version of Windows will have RSS embedded into its operating system.

What are Tags?

Tags are really another name for keywords. Most surfers will know keywords are the exact words Internet users type into search engines to find what they're looking on the world wide web. Tags work in the same way and are a form of social bookmarking, a way of classifying and accessing all that content in all those countless blogs.

Many major blogging directories such as Technorati use tags to serve up the information to its patrons. One simple technique to create a tag in Technocrati:

<*a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Laptops" rel="tag">Laptops<*/a>
(remove asterisks in actual code)

Or if your blogging software supports categories; this will be recognized by Technorati as a tag.

What the heck is a Ping?

A ping is a simple way to notify the different search engines to let them know that your blog has been updated. You call up or ping your blog post.

You bookmark or place an entry in any one of the countless blogging sites such as Technorati, Furl, del.icio.us, Blinklist, Flickr --- you go to these sites and click your blog or tag to inform them you have updated your blog. Many blogging systems will automatically ping your blog updates.

Or you can do this manually, for example Technorati's ping form is here: http://www.technorati.com/ping

Simple Way to Ping

If this is still confusing to you, one simple way to ping your tags/blogs is to use a site like: http://pingomatic.com/

and it will automatically ping your blog in many of the most popular blogging services.

Enter The Online Professional Marketers and It All Hits the Fan

Of course, online marketers have long discovered that the whole blogging system - blogs, rss, tags, pinging - is an excellent marketing vehicle. One great marketing system delivering targeted traffic to their products and services.

It really is a corruption or commercialization of blogging and this surely wasn't the idea the original designers of blogs had in mind. But the whole blogging system is so lucrative, many professional marketers (the author is pleading the fifth!) are using blogging systems like WordPress to create mainly marketing sites that may have little resemblance to a real blog. It just uses the backbone structure of blogs, RSS, Tags to give their sites a slight competitive edge in a very competitive world.

As we saw with the 'comment spam' there is a great likelihood that Tag and Ping will be misused and further antagonize the blogging purists. So if you are going to use Tag and Ping make sure you're creating valuable, usable content - then most sites will want to link to your site anyway. Content is still king no matter what tricks the professional marketers want to use. Always will be!

Using a Simple Tag and Ping Marketing Technique With Technorati

To explain further the whole idea of Tag and Ping. Lets just walk through a marketing system you can quickly create using Technorati - one of the most popular blogging services.

First, sign your blog up with Technorati. This is quite a simple procedure. Just upload a photo, doesn't have to be of you - your site's logo will do. Register your profile with your 20 or so tags relating to your blog. Make sure these are keywords you're marketing with your blog. Then you have to place the Technorati code on your blog for a link back.

Next, you must understand that Technorati creates a landing page for each tag in their system. This page is made up of four parts:

- Flickr Photos

- Recent blog posts tagged with that keyword or phrase

- Who's Blogging About sidebar which links to any profiles of blogs that those same keywords or phrase in their profile

- Links from Furl for the same tag

So to take full advantage and to use this marketing technique you have to sign up with both Flickr and Furl. Your aim is to get your links in all four spots on this Technorati landing page for your tag or keyword.

When signing up for Flickr, many marketers use their site's name for their Flickr username - just use a dash instead of a dot in your site's url. You can use a photo of the product they're promoting to get a link from Flickr in the top spot on the Technorati landing page. Pick your tags and description for the product.

Set up a Furl account and download the Toolbar - bookmark a few sites to get the hang of how its done.

Now You're Really To Put Everything Together To Tag and Ping

1- You can start with the Flickr photos at top of the Technorati page.

Just post a photo or cover image into your Flickr account, making sure you tag it and use a catchy headline in your description. Link it to your landing or affiliate page url.

<*a href="http://www.marketingtoolguide.com">Don't buy another
marketing tool until your check out this site.<*/a>

2 - Next, make the first of your blog posts on your particular subject or product to your blog, making sure you tag it with your keywords and then ping Technorati. Make all your posts good content, reviews, product information or free downloads. Your entry will appear on the top of the list for that tag shortly in Technorati.

3 - Furl your blog post and your landing/affiliate page with your tags to make sure your entry/post is listed the bottom section of the Technorati page for your tag.

To work this system, add another blog post every few hours, Tag and Ping, plus Furl your posts. For better results you can sign up for countless other social bookmarking sites and bookmark your pages. Here are just a few good ones: del.icio.us, blinklist, moreover, icerocket, weblogs...

Flickr, Blog, Tag, Ping, Furl

This is just one Tag and Ping method - professional marketers have countless systems and sites working many variations on this relatively new marketing technique. But the information given above should get you started on your own Tag and Ping marketing system.

Remember, blogging and RSS are the wave of the future, make sure you're geared up to take advantage of all they have to offer. You must have at least one blog on your site. Use WordPress if you can - Blogger will do in a pinch!

Just make sure you're using some Ping and Tag marketing techniques to harvest all those links, traffic and sales for your site. This is one marketing technique you should now be using. Just
remember to Flickr, Blog, Tag, Ping, Furl - Rinse and Repeat!

About the Author
The author operates numerous sites on the web, his latest site is Marketing Tool Guide where you can find all the latest helpful and effective marketing tools, including Free Internet Marketing manuals:
Internet Marketing Tools
Copyright © 2006 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Internet Marketing Partners

2006-07-04T16:47:00.000-07:00

Web Internet Marketing Partners:

Here you will find a list of Supporting Sites, who have been kind enough to link back to our web site or are affiliated with our Site.

Web Design Burlington - Provides website design, custom programming, and graphic design solutions for Ontario businesses (Hamilton, Burlington, Toronto areas)

Cheap Domain Name Registration at prices of .com, .net, .info domain registrations for $7.95 US / year. Web site Hosting for less than $60 per year!

Free Classifieds Ads for the Greater Toronto Area. Post items for sale and items you are looking for. We offer free classified ads in toronto, hamilton, niagara falls and all surrounding areas.

Ontario Car Buyer Guide - learn about buying a new or used car, including what you should look out for and getting the best deal.

Bidets - learn to use a bidet, its health benefits and how to install a bidet in your home.

Sump pumps - learn to install a sump pump, repair a sump pump and find the right sump pump for your needs.

Ultrasonic Liposuction Tips- learn about liposuction, where to get it, and the benefits and alternatives to liposuction.

Diabetes Diet- learn about Diabetes from a Diabetic of over 10 years!

Increase Traffic to Your Website with These Top Seven Linking Tips!

2006-06-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

Increase Traffic to Your Website with These Top Seven Linking Tips! by Colin Evans

Are you one of those who got conned by the SEO experts into believing that reciprocal linking was only a search engine optimization tactic and was frowned upon by the search engines and therefore a bad practice?

Perhaps they should have told the whole truth... Indiscriminate reciprocal linking is frowned upon by the search engines, but careful tactical reciprocal linking benefits everybody and not only is it a good way of getting "quick traffic" it's a good way to get fairly stable traffic - I have websites that still get traffic from links I swapped over two years ago, and this traffic has steadily increased over the years (both ways).

Getting good quality links is far more important than getting lots of links, so here are seven tips for getting decent reciprocal links to your websites:

1) Don't worry about a website's PR (i.e. Google PR) because many websites end up with an inflated PR through their own reciprocal linking campaigns. What's the point of linking to a high PR website which receives very little traffic?

You need to link to a website which gets a lot of traffic, so do a little research using Alexa.com - create a spreadsheet to record the traffic stats of likely link partners - you want to make sure their traffic is either stable or increasing (so you will be maintaining these stats for the life of your link partnership, hence the spreadsheet).

2) Only link to websites of a similar or related theme. I have found that linking to all and sundry might increase the traffic to a website but doesn't necessarily increase earnings. For example, a visitor who clicks through to your website from a reciprocal link on a similarly themed website is looking for information, which makes them far more inclined to click on a Google Adsense ad if it looks interesting to them.

3) Only link to partners who use categorized link pages or use a categorized link directory (unless they have less than 10 links in total). Your link must be easy to find, which means it needs to appear in a logical, orderly and easy to search system.

4) Never add your link to a page with more than 20 links - less than 10 is even better. If there is more than one page of links for a particular category, don't bother adding your link - people hardly ever look past page one...

You would be better off finding a related category for your website which has fewer links. For example - you might have a website on diamond rings... When the time comes to add a link to a reciprocal directory nearly everybody will add their link to the diamond jewelry category, but not many people think of engagement rings, or wedding rings or bridal jewelry.

5) Never link to a website which tries to hide the link to their link pages. You're doing this for traffic so your link must be easy to find. You will get a lot more traffic from a website which has a link to their links/resources near the top of the webpage (or within the normal navigation menu system), and hardly any from a link at the bottom of the page.

6) Your link is an advertisement for your website, so spend a bit of time writing a good one. You need a title which gets attention and a description which arouses interest or gets the reader curious.

7) You are engaging in a reciprocal link, so reciprocate. Make sure that your linking system allows your reciprocal link partners to apply the previous six tips...

If you apply these seven tips to your reciprocal linking while being very selective in your choice of link partners you can increase the flow of targeted traffic to your websites which in turn will increase your website income.

About the Author
Colin Evans creates and sells "Plug'nProfit" websites which are the ideal solution for people who are simply too busy to build money making websites and for those who have no idea where to begin.

Get yours now... http://www.nichesiteprofits.com

Dental Internet Marketing tips are right at your fingertips.

The A to Z Guide to Getting Website Traffic

2006-06-19T16:46:00.000-07:00

The A to Z Guide to Getting Website Traffic by Shawn Campbell

In September of 1999, Brett Tabke wrote "26 Steps to 15k a Day" in the Webmaster World forum. A lot has changed since then, and now is the time to consider a new 26-step plan that meets the current needs of webmasters in 2006. Some of the old ones still apply (writing new content everyday, for example), and some don't (submitting to the search engines is no longer necessary), and we're here to tell you which is which! As you probably already know, bringing in traffic is not easy - it takes hard work, determination and lots of elbow grease. So if you're ready, roll up your sleeves and follow these 26 simple steps, and within just one year you will generate enough traffic to keep you busy for a long, long time!

A) Keyword research

Before you do anything else, use a keyword research tool and do an extensive job researching the right keyphrases to use for your site. What keyphrases are your direct competitors using? Are there any keyphrases that create a potential for market entry? Are there any that you can put a spin on and create a whole new niche with?

B) Domain name

If you want to brand your company name, then choose a domain name that reflects it. If your company is Kawunga, then get www.kawunga.com. If it's taken, then get www.kawungawidgets.com. No dashes, and no more than two words in the domain if appropriate.

C) Avoid the sandbox

Buy your domain name early, as soon as you have chosen your keyphrases and your company name. Get it hosted right away and put up a quick one page site saying a little about who you are, what you sell, and that there will be more to come soon. Make sure it gets crawled by Google and Yahoo (either submit it or link to it from another site).

D) Create content

Create over 30 pages of real, original content on your site. This will give the spiders something to chew on. It will also give you more opportunities to been seen in the search engine results for a wide variety of keyphrases.

E) Site design

Use the "Keep It Simple" principle. Employ an external CSS file, clean up any Java Scripts by referring to them off the page in an external file, don't use frames, use flash the way you would an image, and no matter what, do not create a flash site. Do not offer a busy site with lots of bells and whistles to your visitors. Keep things nice and simple. Make it easy for them to find what they are looking for and they'll have no reason to look anywhere else.

F) Page size

The less kilobytes your page uses, the better - especially for the home page. Optimize your images and make sure the page loads quickly. Most people and businesses in the Western world may have high speed, but cell phones and other countries might not. If your site loads slowly, you may have already lost your visitor before they've even had a chance to browse around.

G) Usability

Make sure that your site follows good usability rules. Remember that people spend more time on other sites, so don't violate design conventions. Don't use PDF files for online reading. Change the colours for visited links, and use good headers. Look up usability for more tips and tricks, it will be worth your while.

H) On site optimization

Use the keyphrase you have chosen in your title (most important), your headers (when appropriate), and within the text. Make sure that your page/content is ABOUT your keyphrase. If you are selling widgets, than write about widgets. Don't just stick the word widgets into the text.

I) Globals

Globals are the links that remain the same on every page. They are the reference for new visitors to keep them from getting lost. Sometimes they are on the left of the page, sometimes they consist of tabs at the top. Often they are in the footer of the page as well. Make sure that you have an old style text version of your globals on every page. I usually create tabs at the top, and put the text versions in the footer at the bottom of the page. Find out what works best for you.

J) Headers

Use bold headers. On the Internet, people scan they don't read. So initially, all they will see are the headers. If your headers don't address their concerns, they won't stick around long enough to read your content. Use appropriate keyphrases when you can.

K) Site map

Build a site map with a link to each of your pages. Keep it up to date. This will allow the spiders to get to every page. Put a text link to the site map on the main pages.

L) Content

Add a page every 2-3 days: 200-500 words. Create original content, don't copy others. The more original and useful it is, the more people will read it, link to it, and most importantly of all - like it enough to keep coming back for more.

M) White hat only

Stay away from black hat optimizing techniques. Black hat optimization consists of using any method to get higher rankings that the search engines would disapprove of, such as keyword stuffing, doorway pages, invisible text, cloaking and more. Stick to white hat methods for long-term success. People who use black hat optimization are usually there for the short-term, such as in porn, gambling, and Viagra markets (just look at your email spam for more black hat markets). These black hat industry sites are usually around just long enough to make a quick buck.

N) Competition analysis

Who is linking to your competition? Use Yahoo's "link:" service to see the back links of your competition. For example, type in "link:http://www.yourdomain.com" into Yahoo search without the quotes). Try to get links from the same sites as your direct competitors. Better yet, see if you can replace them!

O) Submit

Submit to five groups of directories:

1. Dmoz.org and Yahoo (local, such as Yahoo.co.uk, or Yahoo.ca, etc... if you can). 2. Find directories in your field and get into them. Pay if you must, but only if the price is reasonable. 3. Local directories that relate to your country or region. 4. Any other directories that would be appropriate. 5. If you are targeting the local market, make sure that you are in the Yellow Pages and Superpages (because search engines use these listings to power local searches)

P) Blog

Start a blog about your industry and write a new entry at least once a week. Allow your visitors to comment or, better yet, write their own entries. This will create even more content on your site and will keep people coming back regularly to see what is new.

Q) Links from other sites

Simply submit your website to appropriate sites, asking that they link to your site as a reference because it will benefit their visitors. Don't spend too much time on this, if your content is good and original, they will find you and link to you naturally. Remember that Linking is Queen (www.redcarpetweb.com/promotion/0409.html#feature). Stay away from reciprocal linking, links farms, link scams, and any other unnatural links. They may not necessarily hurt you, but Google tracks when you get a link, how long you have had a link, who links to the site that links to you, where you live, what you had for breakfast, and more (not really... but kind of).

R) Statistics

Make sure your server has a good statistics program. Use it! If you don't have access to a good program, then pay for one. Without the knowledge of who is coming to your site, from where, and how often, you will be missing out on some essential tools to improve your site.

S) Pay-per-click (PPC)

Sign up for Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing. Spend money getting people to your site. Use it for branding too. This will create a steady flow of visitors to your site, and will make your site more accessible to your potential clients. You don't have to be #1, you don't even have to be #5... just make sure you are on the first page of search results for most of your keyphrases, when the cost is right.

T) Look ahead

Stay informed of what is coming up in your market. If a new product will be out next season, write about it now. Take advantage of being a first mover. The search engines, and linkers, will reward you.

U) Articles

Write an article once every week and get it published in as many online publications as you can (with a link back to your site). Include the article on your site. Not only will this create many links to your site, but it will also get people to click to your site, and most importantly you will become an expert in the eyes of your visitors. They may even begin looking for your site by querying your name!

V) Study your traffic

After 30 to 90 days you will have enough results to analyze in your statistics program. Go over them with a fine toothed comb. Get the answers to these questions:

- Where are your visitors coming from? - Which search engines do they use? - What queries do they type in? - What pages on your site do they visit the most? - What are the entry pages on your site? - What are the exit pages? - What path do they follow when they browse your site?

Use this information to tweak your site.

- Use the most popular page to encourage the visitors to make you money. - Adjust the paths they use to send them where you want them. - Figure out why they leave from the exit pages.

Also, see what search terms people use to find you, and fine tune your keyphrases. If you targeted "green widgets", but your visitors are finding you with the query "green leather widgets", then start creating content about "leather widgets"!

W) Verify your submissions

After 3-4 months, check that you got into Dmoz.org and all of the other directories that you submitted to. If you have not been included, then submit again, or better yet, write a polite email to the editor and ask why. Also, find any new directories that would be worthy of your submittal time and submit to them.

X) RSS feeds

RSS (Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) is becoming a powerful tool for Internet marketers. You can quickly and easily add fresh content to your website. Article feeds are updated frequently, so you can give your visitors (and the search engines) what they want - fresh content! You can use RSS to promote any new content, such as new pages, articles, blogs, press releases, and more!

Y) Press releases

A press release is a written communication that you submit to journalists in the media (newspapers, radio, television, magazines) which are used to make announcements that are newsworthy. Create press releases announcing publication of any new articles or new company information or products. If it is interesting/original enough, a journalist may pick it up and write an article about it. Before you know it, your website address may get published in the NY Times.

Z) Keep your content fresh

Remember to write a new page every 2-3 days. I only mentioned it briefly, but it is probably the most important point in this article. Keep writing! Without fresh content, your site will gradually drop in the search engine results. To stay on top, your content has to be the most up-to-date, freshest, and most interesting and original content in your field.

Follow these 26 simple steps and I assure you that within one year you will call your site a success. You will bring in a massive amount of traffic from within your industry and watch as your business grows!

So start writing, and write yourself to the top!

About the Author
Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce marketplace, and co-founded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc. He has been researching and developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field.

10 Essential Blogging Tools

2006-06-12T18:20:00.000-07:00

10 Essential Blogging Tools by John Jantsch

Copyright 2006 John Jantsch

So, you finally decided to take the blog leap. You've heard all about the marketing and search benefits so you stepped up to the plate and signed up for a TypePad, MovableType or WordPress blog software package and now you're a blogger.

Okay, now what? Add the ten essential blogging tools listed below and you will also be well on your way to creating and promoting a blog that is a powerful marketing tool. I'll explain the use of the tool and offer some suggestions, including the tools I use on my own blogs including the DuctTapeMarketing blog.

Feed reader

The best way to learn about blogs and blogging is to read, or at least scan, lots of blogs. One of the wonders of blogs is that you can have every new post from every blog you want to read delivered to your desktop or to online location via RSS, so you can easily read and scan the posts of many blogs in a very short time. Newsgator is a good online choice for feed reading and also has a version that integrates with Outlook. I use a free online service know as Bloglines. http://www.bloglines.com

Subscriber center

You need to make it easy for your blog visitors to subscribe to your blog's RSS feed - so they can read your blog in their favorite feed reader. The best way to do this is to go to FeedBurner and burn your own RSS feed their and use the tools they provide to set up automatic subscriber links so people who want to use Bloglines, Google Reader, MyYahoo or Pluck, for instance, can click on one button to subscribe. Tech types can figure this out without the buttons but why not make it easy for anyone to figure out.

Side note - subscribe to each of these yourself and you will force some blog spiders to visit your site. http://www.feedburner.com

Email subscription option

A lot of people will never get the whole feed thing, but everyone gets email. Create an option for people to subscribe by giving you their email address - they will simply receive your blog posts like an email message. FeedBurner offers this service for free. FeedBlitz is another option or, if you already have an autoresponder email list service they may offer this service. AWeber offers this and helps me integrate these blog email subscribers into my other mailing lists.

Blog and RSS directories

There are hundreds of blog and RSS directories and getting listed in many can be a good thing. I use a piece of software called RSS Submit, but you can also visit Robin Goode's frequently updated list and submit your blog and feed by hand.

Hint: subscribe to the RSS feed he offers and you will be notified when new directories are added.

Ping service

Pinging is a term used for letting the various blog and RSS directories know when you have posted new content. Again, FeedBurner offers this as an automatic option called PingShot and you should activate it. PingGoat and Ping O Matic are other options but they require that you visit and update your record each time you post new content.

Bookmark manager

As you surf around the web or hop from blog to blog you may find sites that you want to point out to your readers. Online bookmark managers allow you to bookmark and categorize web and blog pages as you collect them and are a great tool for managing all of the stuff you find on the web. I use del.icio.us but BlinkList does a fine job as well. http://del.icio.us

Blog stats

I like to track a few key stats in real time because it shows what other blogs might be linking to you or posting about your blog. A lot of people just like to track this kind of thing for fun and frequently visit sites like Technorati. I like to track it for networking opportunities. I use a tool called MyBlogLog because it allows me to see where traffic is coming from but also tracks what links on my blog visitors are clicking on. It's amazing how this data can help you write more effectively. (MyBlogLog also ranks your links so visitors can see which links on your site are the most popular.)

Desktop posting

With most blog software you must go online and post using a set of tools provided by the blog software. Many bloggers like to use a desktop application to create and submit their posts as it gives them some extra tools and allows them to more easily integrate content and files on their computer. http://w.blogger.com

I use w.blogger but also like Performancing, Qumana and ecto (apple folks) (w.blogger also doubles as a really simple HTML editor.)

Tell a friend script

My blog software (pMachine) has a feature that allows a reader to click a link and send the post to a friend. This tactic brings me lots of readers. You might try looking here for some simple scripts that do that same
http://www.javascriptkit.com/script/script2/tellafriend.shtml http://www.stadtaus.com/en/php_scripts/tell_a_friend_script/

Republish your feed headlines

The ability to republish your blog posts on other web pages, sites you own or sites of strategic partners is a great way to expose folks to you blog content. One more time we turn to FeedBurner for a painless way to republish your blog post to any web page you choose with something they call BuzzBoost

About the Author
John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide published by Thomas Nelson - due out in the fall of 2006 He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system. You can find more information by visiting http://www.ducttapemarketing.com

Internet Dental Marketing can be found on our web site!

Social Bookmarking - The Ultimate Viral Marketing

2006-06-07T19:27:00.000-07:00

Social Bookmarking - The Ultimate Viral Marketing by Matt DeAngelis

Social Bookmarking could be one of the best things that ever happened to websites and blogs.

Basically Social Bookmarketing sites allow users to create a set of content bookmarks. These bookmarks are organized by tags, which are (usually) arbitrary words or phrases the user can assign to content. This gives the user a way to classify, rank and organize content using tags. The most popular Social Bookmarking Site is del.ici.ous, which has millions of users.

Social Bookmarking sites have an intrinsic advantage over search engines and other bots -- people choose what to bookmark rather than relying on a program to categorize and qualify content. There is an implied quality in something that someone has taken the time to select.

Social Bookmarkers read other people's bookmarks and add them to their own if they like them. There are also RSS feeds so people can see what others are tagging, which I think is really cool, and a textbook example of viral marketing.

About 4% of my referrers this month are del.icio.us related, including .8% off the home page, meaning that people click on my link when they see it pop up in their RSS feed. I get a goodly amount of traffic from technorati as well, but I would call that site a business bookmarking site, so I'm not going to mention it here.

I only provide a facility on AffiliateBlog for del.icio.us tagging. There is a terrific WordPress plugin called Sociable that allows direct tagging for tons of Social Bookmarking sites. If you don't have it as part of your blog you should get it and install it today. This blog is being redesigned and should be done in a few weeks. The new design will incorporate Sociable.

So...what can YOU do to get the social bookmarking virus ramped up? I see two basic considerations:

1. Write good content. Darren Rouse had an interesting observation about del.icio.us items that make it to the top of the site. You can take a look, but basically he observes that lists, how-tos, technical articles and humor get to the top faster.

2. Give people the tools to bookmark easily. If you have a blog, use Sociable. It's terrific. If you have a site, there are plenty of interesting tools that will help you make it easy for your visitors to bookmark your content. AddtoBookmarks.com is a good one.

There are Social Bookmarking sites popping up all over the place. Here are the Top 10. Where did I find them? In someone's bookmark list on Listable, of course.

Del.icio.us Listible Digg StumbleUpon BlinkList Spurl Magnolia Furl BlogMarks Reddit

About the Author
Matt DeAngelis runs Affiliate Blog. Matt is the former CTO of Modem Media, a pioneer in the Internet ad space. As a foot soldier in the Internet revolution, Matt devised the technology behind many of the most successful ad campaigns of the time.

Secrets to Successful Blogging

2006-05-31T16:33:00.000-07:00

Secrets to Successful Blogging by Anthony Yap

Blogs have become very successful and popular lately, and SEO consultants say that they can be very profitable if they are managed and marketed the right way. Generating profits from a blog doesn't require selling anything. Profits can be from ad placements, banners, or contextual advertising. The best blogs draw the attention of a large audience and keep them coming back for more.

There are many types of blogs available. The most common types are:

- Professional blogs: These blogs are focused on discussions about professions, job aspects and career building

- Personal blogs: These blogs take the form of an online diary and contains thoughts, poems, experiences, and other personal matters

- Topical blogs: These blogs focus on a certain topic or niche, discussing specific aspects of the chosen subject

- Business blogs: As its name suggests, these are discussions about business and/or stock market

Other types of blogs include but are not limited to science blogs, cultural blogs, educational blogs, and photo blogs.

In order to have a successful blog that attracts a lot of visitors and keep them coming back, you need to follow some simple rules. Here are some tips from SEO consultants:

Before you begin blogging, carefully consider what you are going to write about in your blog as there are lots of interesting topics out there, waiting to be discussed. You can find them in every day life, in the media, in the news - anything that attracts attention and a loyal following is good. You can look for blog subjects in many places, the most important being the Internet of course.

Put quality content in your blog. If you have quality content people like to read, they will return to your blog and tell other people about it as well. Posting articles containing useful information on your blog is very beneficial for attracting more traffic. Make sure you add your URL address below your posted article! If other web site owners find your articles useful and decide to include them within the content of their web pages, the added link will contribute to increasing your popularity every time it is hyperlinked.

Update the blog on a regular basis. If you don't do this, visitors will not return and they will move on to reading another blog that is updated more often. You should try to update your blog daily. Many newcomers have blogging fear, fearing their inability to update it daily. If your blog is interesting enough, offer your readers the ability to keep it updated by posting their own personal thoughts and share stories so you won't have to do all the updating work yourself.

Listen to what your readers have to say. Always pay attention to the readers' suggestions and try to find out what people were actually searching for when they found your blog. Try to focus on that theme and even consider developing it by encouraging the visitors to discuss new aspects of that particular theme.

Keep it short and concise - You don't need material that takes hours to read, people usually like to quickly skim a blog for quick tidbits of useful information and if you post materials that are difficult or take a long time to read, you will most likely drive them away.

You can also include some artistic work or pictures in the blog, to make it more visually appealing. Blog picture managers such as Picasa are freely available on the Internet to accomplish this.

If your blog has interesting, original content, bloggers might decide to add links to it on their web sites and comment on your suggested topic. By gaining back-links to your blog from other web sites, your web site will place higher within search engine queries, thus boosting your link popularity.

Announce the launch of any new blog with press releases. Free publicity through press releases are powerful tools for increasing incoming traffic. Search engines love press releases and it gives them a good reason to spider and to index your site quickly.

Include free downloadable viral reports on your blog to turbo-charge visitor traffic and build a subscriber/viewer base quickly.

In order to simplify the creating and updating process of a blog, take advantage of the many blogging tools and software readily available, a number of them are free. Blogging software such as WordPress or Movable Type helps you update a blog easily. There are even free blog generators such as Blogger which allow you to host your content on Google's servers without having to install any software or obtain a domain and host content.

Offer to inform readers of your blog with free email management services like Feedblitz (if you don't have an email list management solution) in addition to offering RSS feeds for subscription. Readers and visitors can be kept updated of any new information being added to your blog without having to check the site constantly.

Utilize blog and ping to get sites indexed quickly by the search engines. By notifying popular ping servers monitored by blog search services such as Google Blog Search, you attract search engine spiders to a blog. A blog can automatically be setup to ping certain web sites. An easy method of doing this is by adding the Pingomatic service to the sites to ping in the blog software which pings many popular ping servers at once.

Finally, remember to submit to popular, high quality blog directories such as Feedster, Technorati, Blogstreet, and Best of the Web Blog Directory to boost your web traffic and link popularity!

If you respect these rules you will most likely have a successful blog, and you will be rewarded in the process. Ask a SEO consultant for further information and assistance if you are stuck for ideas to promote your new blog.

About the Author
This article was written by Anthony Yap of http://www.anthony-yap.com. Anthony Yap is a SEO Expert and internet entrepreneur. He works with many businesses to maximize their profit potential through cost-effective search engine optimization. For select clients, he offers a guaranteed top ten rankings package in the major search engines.

Learn about Dental Internet Marketing here!

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

2006-05-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

What Is Search Engine Optimization? by Adrijus Rudaitis

If you build it, will they come?

"If you build it, they will come," is the famous quote from the movie Field of Dreams. However, as all too many webmasters and business owners have discovered, just building a website is no guarantee of receiving visitors.

Visit Google.com and type in a few keywords like "real estate". You will be immediately presented with thousands of results organized in a ranking that takes up several pages (by 10 in each page). How many of those results are you going to glance through? The first 100, which would be 10 pages? Probably not. The first 30, or 3 pages is more likely. Some surfers won't even go past the first 5 results.

This means that just because a website is listed in the search engines it doesn't mean that it will be found.

What is search engine optimization?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Website by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. In order to rank higher among your competitors, you have to make the search engines like your website. The higher Website ranks in the results of a search, the greater chance that site will be visited by a user.

What are search engines?

There are three basic categories of search engines:

1) Spider based search engines, such as Yahoo, Google and etc.
2) Directories powered by humans such as Open Directory (DMOZ).
3) There are also combinations or "hybrids" of search engines and directories.

How do search engines work?

Just in case you're unfamiliar with how search engines work, here's a brief explanation: Most search engines "spider" the Web looking for new pages to add to their database or index on a daily basis. You can also manually submit your site or use a software.

Once your pages are added to the index, people can do a search on the Internet for various keywords to find pages that "best" match their search criteria. Appearing within the first few pages of the search is critical to people finding you.

These matches will be ranked or positioned in order of importance (algorithm). The exact rules they use to rank pages for relevance are generally kept a secret and change often. Different search engines use different ranking criteria and is constantly changing.

How do search engines rank web pages?

After submitting your site to search engines, your website is indexed into a search engine's database. Search engines rank websites using a technology - called algorithm. Websites are ranked in order of importance (relevance). The most relevant site based on a search criteria makes it to the top of search engine results.

When a search engine spider analyzes a web page, it determines keyword relevancy based on an algorithm, which is a formula that calculates how web pages are ranked.

Most of the major search engines (including Google, Yahoo, MSN) uses sophisticated techniques to search billions of documents, files and websites within a span of few seconds and returns the information to the user a list of files that matches your topic of interest. Search engines will also sort in the order of relevance - called search results.

People finding your site via search engines are more qualified targets for your products and services because they have actively sought out your site by typing a search phrase directly related to your site content. It's the perfect web site promotion!

Why do you need search engine optimization?

Below are a few facts which should leave you in no doubt that search engine optimization should form an integral part of every web promotion strategy.

* Over 80% of Internet users find websites through search engines.
* 90% of Internet users do not go past the top 30 search engine results. They simply type something else in if they can't find a relevant site.
* 75% of Internet users have the intention of purchasing a product or service when using search engines.
* Professional search engine optimization is about twice as effective as all other Internet marketing methods and eight times more effective than costly banner advertisements.

Therefore, ranking highly in search engines and directories should be critical to your Internet marketing strategy. Unfortunately, many online businesses fail to address the importance of search engines, building their site without any regard to search engine compatibility at all.

Summary.

Question: How does your website compete against thousands of other websites?

Answer: Search Engine Optimization. The number one most effective way to drive qualified visitors to your website.

----------------------------------------------------------------

I'm a search engine optimization specialist who offers the highest quality services:

* Search engine optimization
* Directory submissions. Search engine submissions
* Link popularity building
* Website ranking report

Adrijus Rudaitis http://www.searchengineoptimization.lt/en

About the Author

I'm search engine optimization specialist who offers the highest quality services:

* Search engine optimization
* Directory submissions. Search engine submissions
* Link popularity building
* Website ranking report

While it is true that anyone can learn to optimize and promote their website, it takes time and true creativity to perform exceptionally.

Hidden Ways to Get into Google

2006-05-08T17:26:00.000-07:00

Hidden Ways to Get into Google by Kim Roach

Everyone is concerned about their Google rankings. An algorithm change or an update can leave many a webmaster in tears.

However, I often like to sneak in through the back door. So today I'm going to reveal to you some of my Google secrets. After you look closely, you will find that there is much more to Google than meets the eye and I want you to take advantage of every resource. So, let's look behind the scenes into Google's lab.

Google Base

Google Base was launched in November of 2005. Google base describes itself as "a place where you can add all types of information that we'll host and make searchable online". Now, if that isn't a webmaster's dream, I don't know what is.

Your item could be almost anything: your products, research papers, articles, or press releases. You can describe all of your items so that you can zone in on your targeted visitor. In addition, your items may also get included in the main Google search index, Froogle, and Google Local.

Anyone with a Google account can use this service, so why not give it a try. Google base is the perfect way to get an additional audience for your content. To find out more about Google Base, visit http://base.google.com/base/about.html

Google Local

Getting your products into Google local can put your items in front of some serious buyers. People often go to Google Local looking for a specific item or service in a particular geographic area. So, if you own a small business, Google Local is the perfect opportunity to increase your reach without spending lots of advertising dollars.

Froogle

Froogle offers searchers a directory of products by category, a searchable index of online products, and the ability to narrow searches by price range. By putting your products into Froogle, you can get some very targeted, qualified traffic to your website.

So, how do you get into Froogle? Well, Google has already been actively searching the web for online product catalogs. For many online merchants, there's a good chance that Froogle already has some of your products listed.

However, one of the best ways to get into the Froogle directory is by providing them with a data feed that lists your products, descriptions, pricing, and URLs. This allows you to fully optimize your listings.

To get the most out of Froogle, you'll want to make your product description clear and enticing. Create titles that not only have targeted keywords, but also encourage the visitor to click-through to your site.

Once they are at your site, it is important to upsell and cross-sell. Otherwise you will be throwing potential profits down the drain. Make the most out of every Froogle referral.

When someone does decide to make a purchase from you, be sure to capture their name and email address. This way you can develop a relationship with them and offer them related products in the future.

Now, onto a facet of Google that you certainly won't want to miss out on.

Google Blog Search

This is one of the best ways to get some additional listings in Google. If you have a website, why not start a blog. By starting a blog, you can be indexed on a number of blog searches, including Google Blog search. This area of marketing is largely untapped, so it is the perfect time to get your particular niche grounded in these specialty search engines.

To get your blog listed you simply need to ping an updating service such as weblogs.com. It's as simple as that. If you are using Wordpress, you can set it up to where your blog pings the major services every time you make a post.

You can have multiple listings in the Google Blog Search because they list specific posts as well as entire blogs.

Google Video

Google Video allows you to have your very own tv show on one of the largest search engines on the internet. This is a form of multimedia that is certainly gaining popularity online. Right now it is in a growth stage and it's one of the perfect times to get in and be one of the first one's in your particular market. Videos are also a great selling point if you have a product that can be demonstrated. With Google video, you can now have your very own infomercial indexed in the search engines. Of course, you'll want to provide some great content too. To check out this new technology, go to http://video.google.com

Google News

Want to get your article and even your picture into Google News? Well, it's really not that hard. The first step is to go to www.americanchronicle.com, Scroll down to the very bottom of the page and click on the link that says "submit work". From there you can sign up to be a contributor.

If accepted as a contributor, you will then be able to submit articles along with a picture. Many of their articles are syndicated on Google News and will be available to the millions of searchers who go to Google News each and every day.

If you are looking to get your press release into Google News, all you have to do is submit your press release to prleap. As you can see, there's certainly no need to pay money to get into Google News.

Now that you know about the many faces of Google, you will be able to use many of these hidden tactics to your advantage. You see, there are so many people who just don't put in the extra effort required get exceptional results.

This puts you at a great advantage over atleast 70% of webmasters online today.

About the Author
Kim Roach is the hip marketing gal at http://www.unleashthetraffic.com , where you can learn exactly how she increases her targeted web site traffic using techniques she acquired straight from the trenches.

Also, if you are need of small business domain hosting, visit Domains at Retail.

White Hat vs. Black Hat SEO

2006-05-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

White Hat vs. Black Hat SEO

Internet Marketing Tip of the Day:

Black Hat SEO may get you up in the rankings quickly through deceiving the search engines, but White Hat SEO, though it may take longer, will keep you there once you get there. Black hat SEO can cause sudden banning of your web site!

Stick to White Hat search engine optimization! Content is King in staying Number 1!

Regards,
Michael Kralj

Strategic Online Internet Marketing

2006-04-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

Strategic Online Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is a lot like Offline marketing, but it opens up a whole new can of worms. The same thought process goes in, I need to market so people know about my product or business. With marketing my product, people will buy it and I will make money.

This is true online, but the methods to drive people to your Online Web Site is different. Offline, people see brochures and call to find out more information. People come to your website to find information. You can market your website and drive traffic, but if your site does not look up to par, and you dont market your website in terms of its own content to finalize the deal, all your marketing efforts will be lost.

A starting point for marketing online, is getting people to find you. How do they find you? Well here are some methods:

- Search Engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN Search. You come up number one on a competitive search, and you are bound to get inquiries.
- Ezines: Online newsletters delivered to potential clients in their Email Inbox. Place an ad, and catch the readers attentions. Very much like placing a newspaper ad, but in an online format.
- Pay Per Click: Sign up for a program where you pay money to be at the top results for different searches. Google Adwords works quite well for this, and allows you to pay yourself to the top to be number 1 on the "Sponsored" right hand side column of their Google Search site. Being number one is not always capable, as many with more funds to pay will pay more and be at number one. This also can get quite expensive if the clicks turn into false prospects, or if click fraud happens.

Well here you have a starting point to marketing online. Learn more about Internet Marketing at my blog to further yourself in the Online Universe called the "World Wide Web".

Regards,
Michael Kralj
Get Cheap Domain Name Registration for your Strategic Online Internet Marketing Web Site.

Affiliate Marketing Programs

2006-03-30T17:49:00.000-08:00

Affiliate Marketing Programs

"Where is all the help I'm supposed to get. I have been buying ezine and classified ad builders and signing up for Echecks and Virtual credit cards. In the meantime I have no business and no ads set up. When does all this happen? Let's go here. I spent all day on this. I'm running out of time."
I kid you not, this is the sum total of an actual email that hit my inbox this week. Not only did I not know this person from Adam, this was the first and only email I had ever received from her and to this day, I have no idea what she's talking about. Presumably, she signed up for one of the affiliate programs I promote from my site and was asking, in her own inimitable style, for my help. Although I am always ready and willing to help anyone I can, this is most definitely NOT the way to go about asking for it. Needless to say, I let her know what I thought of her approach in NO uncertain terms.

The attitude displayed in this person's email to me (and she is by no means an isolated example) exemplifies why so many people fail to make a success of their online businesses. Leaving aside the utter rudeness of the approach, notice the impatience, the expectation to be up and running in a day, the HURRY, the apparent belief that real world principles such as courtesy and good manners don't apply online (they do). Think this person is going to last the distance? What kinds of tactics do you think she is capable of resorting to in pursuit of the almighty dollar?

So, let's take a realistic look at affiliate programs, what they can and can't do for your business and how to maximize your chances of creating a successful, long-term business with them.

WHAT IS AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM?

An affiliate program (also known as a reseller, associate, referral or partnership program) is essentially a revenue-sharing arrangement whereby you, the affiliate, receive payment from the owner of a product or service that you promote on their behalf.

Affiliate programs are an excellent way for the new internet entrepreneur to start an online business.

TYPES OF AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

There are various types of affiliate programs.

The most simple involves you, the affiliate, placing a banner ad, graphic or text link at your site which is linked to the site of the business you are promoting. This link is coded with your unique affiliate ID so that the site visitor is recorded at the target site as having originated from your site, thereby allowing you to be credited with the sale.

Payment is generally a fixed percentage of the sale value (commission) or "pay per click", where the affiliate is paid a certain amount for every time a site visitor clicks on the link at the affiliate's site, whether or not a sale is made.

The more sophisticated affiliate programs are multi-tier and allow the affiliate to earn commissions not only on the traffic they directly refer to the target site but also a proportion of sales generated by their sub-affiliates.

BENEFITS OF AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

The greatest benefit of affiliate programs is that when you are just starting out in your own online business you don't have to worry about creating your own product or service. You just promote someone else's and get a share of the revenue pie for your efforts.

You also don't have to concern yourself with warehousing, transport or logistics headaches. All of this is handled by the business whose products/services you are promoting. All you need concentrate on is driving traffic to that business's website. This means that a high proportion of your revenue is profit.

The owner of the product/service is also responsible for collecting payment, customer service and the myriad other details that come up on a day to day basis in running the business.

DISADVANTAGES OF AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

The main and obvious disadvantage of affiliate programs is that it is the owner of the product/service who earns the lion's share of the profit on the sale.

You're working on commission. You will NEVER earn by way of affiliate program commissions as much as you can earn by way of profits from producing and selling your own product/service.

As a result, affiliate programs represent a high opportunity cost when you consider what you could earn if you instead channeled the time and energy you spend on promoting affiliate programs into creating and promoting your own product/service.

For this reason, it does not make sound business sense to rely solely on affiliate program income for the longer term growth of your business.

Instead, think of them as a way of dipping your toe in the water when you're first getting started, and a nice little sideline once you've created your own product/service. Do NOT build your business around affiliate programs with the intention this will always be the backbone of your business. You'll be stunting your own growth if you do.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT AFFILIATE PROGRAMS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

So, keeping in mind what affiliate programs can and can't do for your business, let's turn to what you should look for when choosing an affiliate program or programs to promote in your business.

=> Synergistic Products/Services

First off, and this is a cardinal rule, only promote those programs which will allow you to create synergies with your site. This means selecting programs that naturally complement the subject matter of your site and that will therefore be of interest and relevance to your site visitors. This will ensure your prospects (ie your site visitors) are pre-qualified which will result in a relatively higher conversion ratio (the ratio of visitors to purchases) than would be the case if your traffic is untargeted (which will be the case if you promote unrelated products and services from your site.)

=> Quality In All Things

Keeping the need for synergy uppermost in mind, look for quality programs first and foremost. The last thing you want to waste your time, money and reputation on is a shoddy product or service. There are just too many quality programs out there to settle for anything less.

=<> References

Look for testimonials and references from other affiliates. If the company you're interested is not forthcoming when it comes to putting you in touch with other affiliates, move on.

=> Affiliate Agreement

Look for a professional, considered and detailed affiliate agreement (contract). This shows that the company is serious about its business.

Watch out for exclusivity clauses and other restraints. Some affiliate agreements will require that you not promote competing businesses' products and services. This is not to say you should avoid such agreements. As a general rule, it is your interests not to promote competing programs anyway. Just be aware of what the agreement says on the subject to avoid getting yourself into hot water.

Look also for an agreement that treats spammers harshly. This protects not only the company but other affiliates as well. The last thing you or any other reputable affiliate needs is to have your reputation and the reputation of the product/service you are promoting besmirched by these sorts of tactics.

=> High Commissions

Promoting someone else's affiliate program necessarily requires that you divert traffic away from your site and towards someone else's. Make sure you're properly compensated with a high commission structure. And be sure to set up your link so that when the visitor clicks on it, a new browser window is opened for the target site. This at least keeps your site in front of the visitor so they can go back to your site once they've finished at the site your link has taken them to.

=> Lifetime Commissions

Look for affiliate programs that will credit you with not only THIS sale but all other sales the customer may make in the future. Many programs are set up so that the customer is identified as "yours" so that when the customer returns to the target site in three months time, the sale is recorded as having been generated by you.

=> Residual Commissions

Include programs that offer residual commissions in your portfolio. Good examples are webhosting services, autoresponder services and the like where customers sign up for a continuous service that requires periodic, regular payments. You receive periodic, regular commissions as a result.

=> Tracking of Commissions

Look for programs that allow you real-time access to your stats so you can keep easy track of your commissions.

=> Reliability of Payment

When checking with affiliate references, find out what the business's record is on paying out commissions. If they're slow or there appears to be a pattern of problems, keep looking.

=> Frequency of Payment

Make a note of payment schedules too. Some programs pay weekly, some monthly, some quarterly. Some only pay once you accumulate commissions of a certain amount. None of these arrangements are necessarily good or bad in and of themselves. Just be sure you know what to expect.

=> Programs that Require Payment Up Front

Two words: MOVE ON!

=> Affiliate Support

Finally, take a look at what support the business offers its affiliates to make sales. Do they provide resources such as sample ads, banners, logos and the like? Do they provide useful advice about maximizing your sales? A good affiliate program provides affiliates with a LOT of support in these areas.

MAKING MONEY FROM AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

OK, now you know what to look for in an affiliate program. Here's how to maximize your sales of those products and services and, therefore, your commissions:

=> Get Your Own Website

No ifs, no buts. DON'T rely on the you-beaut self-replicated job the company provides all its affiliates. Link to that site from your main site.

=> Get Your Own Domain Name

This presents a much more professional image. Many people won't give the time of day to a business that thinks so little of its prospects that the owner won't shell out 70 bucks for a domain name. So mean business and look like it.

=> Get Traffic To Your Site (Duh!)

As a rough guide, you will need at least 500 targeted unique visitors a day to your site to make reasonable money from affiliate programs.

=> You Must Have A Site That Will Attract Repeat Visitors

If your website is nothing more than a splash page consisting of little else other than banners for umpteen different affiliate programs, forget it. Your site must be worthy of your visitor's time and interest before you can even begin to think about converting that visitor into a paying customer. So create a real site with real content that will keep them coming back for more.

=> Personal Testimonials

A personal testimonial will result in more sales than a mere link or advertisement. So take the time and trouble to write a personal endorsement of the product or service you are promoting. And, of course, it goes without saying that in order to write a personal endorsement, you must know that of which you speak. NEVER promote a program you haven't first purchased yourself. If you don't think enough of your program to invest in it, how do you expect to persuade others to?

=> Promote With Your Sig File

Include a link to your site in the signature of every email you send.

=> Promote In Your Own Ezine

Finally, if you're not already publishing your own ezine or newsletter to stay in touch with your site visitors, start. It's a great way to promote not only your site but also the affiliate programs you promote from your site.

MAKING SERIOUS MONEY FROM AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

The only way of making SERIOUS money from affiliate programs is by creating your own product or service and recruiting affiliates to sell for YOU.

The affiliate program phenomenon is one of the Internet's true success stories. It provides a toe-hold for the would-be internet entrepreneur to begin a real, live business of his or her very own. But the real beauty of affiliate programs lies not in what they can do for you, as an affiliate, but what they can do for you, as a recruiter of affiliates for your own program. By all means jump on the bandwagon and start promoting other people's products to get your start. But don't wait too long to start developing your own product line. There is a ready-made salesforce numbering in the millions ready and waiting to sell it for you.

About The Author

Elena Fawkner is editor of the award-winning A Internet Marketing Home Page-Based Business Online ... practical Internet Marketing Home Page business ideas, resources and strategies for the work-from-Internet Marketing Home Page entrepreneur.

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Strategic Internet Marketing

2006-03-30T17:48:00.000-08:00

Strategic Internet Marketing

Have you ever been lost in the woods - wondering around aimlessly, not knowing where to go or what to do next?
Most online marketers are lost in the woods of the internet.
So if you want to get out of the woods and be an online marketer, you better start thinking strategically! That is, you need to practice strategic internet marketing techniques.
You're probably asking, what are strategic internet marketing techniques?
Let me start by telling you what it is not!
Strategic internet marketing is not buying 100,000 guaranteed hits.
It is not aimlessly placing banner ads all over the internet. It is not about using free classified ads and it is certainly not about depending on surfing for traffic sites.

Strategic internet marketing is simply about having an advertising PLAN that utilizes proven marketing tactics to get high converting results. Every promotion must have a purpose and it is critical to track the results of each and every advertisement.
Tracking is vital to finding ads that are successful and more importantly finding those that are NOT. Ads that do not perform need to be thrown out and those that do convert need to be rolled out on a larger scale.
If you are going to be serious about marketing online then you have to get serious about tracking your marketing methods. I will only say this once, if you do not track the results of your advertising methods you might as well throw your money out the window of a moving vehicle.

Now, that you know the importance of tracking your ads, let's talk about marketing techniques that work! To make a living marketing on the internet, you need to use these methods. If you don't, you will join the long list of people that say you can't make any money selling on the internet.
Below I have listed some of the marketing techniques I have used to build a profitable online business from the ground up:
Pay per Click Advertising - For the fastest and most predictable results Pay per Click can't be beat. If done properly, you can get immediate traffic that is laser targeted and high converting.
Write and Submit Articles - This is one of my favorite marketing techniques because it does two things for you. The first is that it builds credibility for you and your web site. Second, it is a tremendous way to drive tons of targeted traffic to your site for free. You don't have to be Hemingway, your articles just need to be informative and have very few grammatical errors.
Start Your Own Ezine - This is probably the most powerful marketing tactic on the web today. Having your own list of subscribers to send a newsletter to on a regular basis is powerful! I would much rather obtain a new subscriber over a single hit to my web site.
Banner Ads - Banner ads can be extremely successful and are a very cost effective way to drive traffic to your site. The most effective banner ads are text rather than graphics. Write a compelling ad that forces them to click, and this technique can provide you lots of sales.
Viral Marketing - Give something away that people can use and put links to your web site in it. Information is a powerful tool in marketing. Allow them to share it with their friends and family. Before you know, you will be getting a stampede of traffic to your site.
Linking - Reciprocal linking is critical to your online success. This is a time consuming tactic but it is well worth your time and effort. Search engines judge the importance of your web site by the number (and quality) of incoming links pointing to your site. By the way, writing articles is a great way to get high quality incoming links pointing to your site.
Ezine Ads - Purchasing ads in quality ezines is like doing joint ventures without sharing the profits. You need to identify ezines in your niche that you can run promotions in. This is an excellent way to get your ads in front of thousands of potential customers at an excellent value.
Search Engine Optimization - You need to make sure that your pages are fully optimized for the search engines. The cheapest and most targeted traffic you can receive still comes from high search engine rankings! Make sure your site is optimized and anchored to certain keywords that are relevant to your site.
If you will stick with these proven marketing strategies you will get more laser targeted traffic to your site than you know what to do with. You may even have to get more server space and buy a wheel barrow to get your deposits to the bank!
So forget about the gimmick marketing tactics that are all over the internet. Stick to what works! This list is not that long and online marketing is not that complicated. To be successful you need to implement proven marketing methods and have a strategic internet marketing plan. Make sure that every ad is tracked and that it has a definite purpose in your marketing plan.
So quit wondering around aimlessly in the woods and start thinking about marketing strategically!
Mark Williams ©

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Effective Internet Marketing

2006-03-30T17:47:00.000-08:00

Effective Internet Marketing

Anyone who owns a website knows the importance of internet marketing tools. You may have a terrific idea for a website with an excellent product or service, superb design, content and functionality but if you do not use the right tactics, your site may not attract the all important highly targeted traffic. Getting a lot of traffic into a site has very little to do with the site itself but with how the webmaster or site owner advertises it. With hundreds of competing sites, you must employ the most effective internet marketing tools that will truly deliver results.

There are different internet marketing tools that you can use. All these techniques and methods aim at increasing your website traffic. You must find a way for web surfers to find your site. To do this, you must put yourself in the shoes of your prospective visitors and future clients and see the internet through their eyes. Where do they usually go whenever they are looking up something on the web? The answer is the search engine; in fact, the two most popular websites on the web today are both search engines and portals. Thus, you should focus your internet marketing efforts on the search engine.

Get more information here: http://www.ukisolutions.com

People will usually search for something using a search engine and click on the top results that these engines give. Therefore, you must use the right internet marketing tools to get a high search engine ranking. To gain a high ranking in search results, you can use several internet marketing tools. Search engine optimization is a set of methods that are aimed at improving the visibility of your site in search engine results. Since a search engine indexes sites by looking at its keyword density, your site's content must have favorable keyword density that is search engine friendly. Content is one of the most important internet marketing tools itself. If you have excellent content that is geared towards achieving a high search engine ranking as well as provide information then you can expect a high search engine ranking. However, this is not as easy as it sounds. Countless other sites may be using the same internet marketing tools as you do. Thus, you must continuously find new ways of attracting more traffic.

Aside from the traditional marketing techniques such as print ads, billboards, brochures, testimonials, flyers etc. you must use other more effective internet marketing tools to gain more traffic. One of the most popular internet marketing tools today is the use of Pay per Click advertising. In this method, you will bid for a particular keyword in a specific search engine. If you have the highest bid then your sites link will be the top result. This internet marketing tool is now being used by thousands of sites. It is also gaining popularity because of its relatively high success rate in attracting high traffic.

For more information go to http://www.ukisolutions.com

Internet Marketing in a Nutshell

2006-03-30T17:44:00.000-08:00

Internet Marketing in a Nutshell

The internet is a place where people often throw darts into the darkness hoping that someday, somehow they'll hit a bulls eye. Most people nurture a mistaken notion that huge amount of traffic can eventuate good business without paying any attention to what sort of people are coming to the website. This is the worst sort of Internet Marketing.

No matter how revolutionary your product or service is, unless it is backed by a well-thought-out Internet Marketing strategy, it is as good as being non-existent. You have got to be as sure as any of the conventional brick and mortar businesses.

Breaking the great wall of non-presence is the biggest challenge one faces while trying to set up an online business. When you set up your online shop, you don't know them and they don't know you. You need to make your presence felt; you need to set up an identity for yourself that tells your visitors that you are not an unemployed weirdo trying to dupe visitors from your dark and unheated basement. Your website should seem to represent a genuine business that can really deliver. How can you do that?

Find out more at http://www.article-planet.com

==> HAVE A WELL-MADE WEBSITE <==

A good website is quintessential to your online presence. It is your online office; people come there and draw an impression. Even the first glance can make or break a great business transaction. Your website should be neat and clean. It should be accessible to people of all abilities and it should have a well-structured navigation system. There should be no broken links and all the essential pages should be there.

==>> CONTENT IS, OF COURSE, KING <<==

If having a decent website is important, then so is having the right kind of content on your pages. As mentioned above, your website represents you amidst the din of the World Wide Web. Since you are not there to directly talk to your visitors, your website accomplishes that task. Make your content -- whether graphic or textual -- as convincing as you can. Utmost care should be given to the language and the tone to make sure your visitors get all the right information they need to take their visit to the next level.

==>> KEEP PERSISTENT CONTACT <<==

Establishing an identity takes time, and this is not just unique to the internet. Companies invest millions of dollars on establishing their brands. On the Internet, you need to establish your identity, you need your name to sound familiar, and you need to be there almost all the time. You should be accessible to your present and future customers and clients; you should always be in a constant conversation. A good way to carry out a regular conversation is publishing a regular newsletter (ezine) or blog where you post regular updates about your business.

Finally, although there are numerous "killer" methods being sold as the ubiquitous reports that claim to make you millions, there is no substitute for a thing called good old hard work. As in any form of business, hard work is need to build trust, to initiate a two-way communication, to render a countenance to your online presence your customers can relate to, and to deliver goods and services that set you on a path of long-term profitability.

For more information visit http://www.article-planet.com

Top Internet Marketing Techniques

2006-03-30T17:43:00.000-08:00

Top Internet Marketing Techniques

The Internet offers many means of affordable marketing, often with full-color imagery to go along with text. And multimedia components add some spice to the mix and increase online visitors and purchases. Here are some top Internet marketing techniques to help increase your sales and income.

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1. DIRECTORY - Create your own directory on a specific industry topic, placing your own ad or banner along the top. Then invite others to add their website links via a link exchange program, listing themselves in your directory. This will result in lots of free advertising for you as your directory expands with links across the World Wide Web. Enter "link exchange software" into your favorite search engine for help with setup.

2. TEACH A COURSE - Write out a simple step-by-step instructional class in your area of expertise. Then break it up into smaller segments and set them up in an autoresponder as email messages with your ads included at the top and / or bottom of each message. Invite website visitors to sign up through on online form or email subscription address offered through the autoresponder service. Then as people sign up, they will learn more about you and your products and services.

3. EZINE EBOOK - Forget about small daily or weekly ezines. Try publishing one large monthly e-zine as an e-book format, preferably an Adobe .pdf file. Include a large number of articles with each issue and regularly featured areas like inspirational quotes, industry tips, favorite sites and advice from the pros. Also insert full-color graphics, multimedia components like audio file links, if you like, and ads. Then you can charge a monthly rate, with an annual discounted package purchase, and sell advertising spots.

4. TIP OF THE DAY - Set up your own Tip of the Day targeting your own area of expertise, relating to your own products and services. You can set it up on your website in a targeted box, via autoresponder, a blog, an RSS feed, an audio file or others means of communication. Add your own ad along with your tip for whichever product or service you want to target or maybe even your own online store for all. This will gently remind your target audience where to go to learn more.

In summary, by using Internet Marketing techniques customized to fit your own products and services, you can reach out and increase your website traffic and purchase opportunities. Internet marketing can mean a more affordable way to grow your business.

For more Information on this subject visit http://www.ampleadvice.com