Save the Stuffing for the Turkey Not Your Keywords

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As I’m writing this post I am just wrapping up a very relaxing Thanksgiving weekend with my family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you here in the states.

I’m sure most of you, like me, enjoyed way too much food this weekend. One of my favorites is my mother-in-law’s stuffing. It’s the best ever! She always makes an extra pan of it just so we all have plenty of left-overs to take home. As a matter of fact, as soon as I finish writing this post I’m headed straight to the fridge.

Stuffing is great when it comes to enjoying a big holiday dinner. But what about keyword stuffing when it comes to optimizing your web site or blog? Is that a good idea?

No it’s not!

What is Keyword Stuffing?

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How Do I Drive Traffic to a Brand New Website?

by Sudhir.K.Sharma

Every single day, more and more people upload brand new websites to the Internet. I don’t have any figures but there must be hundreds of thousands of new pages being added daily (if not considerably more!)

The one thing that all of these new websites need in order to make their existence worthwhile is traffic, which leads me to one of the most common questions I am asked and the subject of this newsletter:

‘How can you generate traffic to a brand new website?’

Of course, there are a number of different answers to this question and what I would do myself is probably very different to what a completely new Internet entrepreneur would do. The reason I say this is that the first thing I do when launching a new site is make use of my existing website traffic by advertising the new site on my other established sites. In addition, I have the luxury of a large mailing list which I can use to drive traffic to the new site.

I appreciate that anyone starting out in online business won’t have these options open to them (and in fairness, neither did I when I first started), so let’s look at things from the beginning. Day one of your first website…..

It is a fact that the quickest and probably most effective way of bringing targeted traffic to your website is by paying for it. Now before you rush off and sink $50 into one of those ‘50,000 hits for $50′ schemes, DON’T, this isn’t what I mean. Those schemes are largely a complete waste of money. Even if you get the traffic that you are promised (as opposed to some software script visiting your site and pretending to be a visitor), it will not be targeted and therefore there is a very low chance that the traffic will generate sales. When I talk about buying traffic, I mean by using the pay- per-click services offered by most of the big search engines.

You probably already know the sort of thing I mean - for example, Google Adwords. Pretty much any search on Google will display a list of adverts down the right-hand side of the page and these are all paid adverts. Every time you click on one of them, the advertiser pays Google a fixed amount which could be anything from 5 cents upwards (depending upon how competitive the keyword is).

Pay-per-click allows you to be very selective about which keywords your advert is shown for and this allows you to target your advertising perfectly. Other big names in the pay-per-click market include Overture, Espotting and Findwhat.

Now, before you all start emailing me and saying that you already knew about PPC let me just say that I am well aware that people know about it. The problem (as I see it), is that people aren’t using this type of service because of the fact that they don’t want to spend any money on advertising. That’s all well and good but the fact is that the Internet is getting more and more competitive each day and the chances of you building a successful website business from scratch without investing any money are tiny to say the least.

If you want to attract a decent level of traffic to a brand new website in a short period of time, it is almost a necessity that you use pay-per-click on one of the main search engines. If you don’t, then the growth of your traffic levels will be painfully slow and inconsistent at best.

When I launched my very first websites I invested heavily in pay-per-click advertising. At one point, I was spending over $6000 a month on Google Adwords alone!!! Seriously I really was spending that much money. It was a constant battle to tweak the website sales copy and continue to test the advertisement text just to make sure that my sales were covering the advertising payments each month. At the time I was probably just about breaking even but buying traffic in this quantity meant that I was able to fine-tune my sales pages and start to build up a list of mailing list subscribers.

Once you have got to the stage where you know your sales pages are converting visitors into buyers, then you can start to gear up with other methods of getting traffic to your site - writing articles, linking strategies, viral methods (eBooks etc), using your eBay ‘About Me’ page, using your link as a signature when you post on forums etc. All of these methods will win you traffic (and in most cases it will be completely free) but it will take time for the traffic to build to a worthwhile level. If you rely solely on free traffic, you really will be building your business one hit at a time.

Of course, once the free methods of gaining traffic start to pay off, you can begin to wind down your paid methods, though you may not want to - after all, if you are earning more in sales than you are paying for your pay-per-click traffic, why stop it?

As your portfolio of websites grows, you will also be able to share the traffic around a bit by linking to your own sites and of course, if you are capturing your visitors email addresses, you will be building a mailing list of people interested in the products you are offering.

Like I say, I appreciate that the above may not be the ground-breaking secret that you were hoping for but as with so many things online, there really is no secret. Achieving success is simply about taking action and whilst you can succeed online by spending very little money, the chances are that you will succeed a lot quicker by making a bit of an investment. You don’t have to be spending thousands of dollars a month as I was but any new business owner should be prepared to invest a few hundred dollars a month in order to get things off the ground….

www.greatpromotionsite.com

Article Source: Articles Directory - ArticleGOLD

5 Reasons Why Blogging is the New Internet Marketing Tool

Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s. It used to be a way to comment an existing web page, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page. What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun. As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential. Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

1. Blogging is simple. The simplest way to get your piece on the net is through blogging. No skills are necessary an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse. It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, new products, and hope that the truth behind your articles comes out and entice your reader to also try your product. If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t) then you can blog and advertise.

2. Blogging is authentic. In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters claims. However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising. Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience. You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.

3. Blogging is free. Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free. Any opportunity for free web time is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up. Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business.

4. Blogging builds credibility. As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs. As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs. As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

5. Blogging builds your market. Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts. Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is. But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base.

Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging:

-By using your e-mail. Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market. In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site. Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site. If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.

-By using subscription. An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blog site. Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address. Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

-By understanding your readers. Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences. Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared. In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

-By joining a blog network. A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc. Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject. Clearly, more bloggers are better than one.

-By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today. As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base. Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

About the Author

I am a successful Internet marketer teaching other people how to earn a living using the Internet.

http://www.simplyrichsg.com/um

Ecommerce & Shopping Cart Web Design SEO Standards To Live By

When you build an ecommerce shopping cart, you obviously want your store to do well in the search engines. To accomplish this you must take a few Search Engine Optimization tactics in to consideration. Your web site is going to need to adhere to certain guidelines for your products to show up with good rankings in the search engines. When you adhere to all of these important steps, your store will improve in the search engines.

First off, You need to determine what key words you want your home page to be found under. Then you must include these key terms throughout your home page. Now I will explain some important things to do with your ecommerce store for it to succeed. To begin you must use keyword filled product names. For example, if you are selling car parts, within your product name you must include the entire car part name, model, year, and any more information in the product name that people will search for. Product names must be included in your title tag, keywords tag and description tag for each and every product. If possible, the URL should include the product name for each product. Some shopping carts allow this, others do not (without custom programming).

Below is an example of a bad product name and product page title if you were selling a honda civic bumper.

Name of product - Front bumper Name of Page Title - Car Parts

Below is an example of a good product name and product page title Product Name - Front Bumper for Honda Civic - parts, 1998, 1999, 2000

Page Title - Front Bumper for Honda Civic - parts, 1998, 1999, 2000 - Car Accessories

As you can tell by looking at the two examples, the search engine can find a lot more relevance for someone selling a honda civic bumper on the 2nd example than the first. Sticking with these fundamentals is bound to improve online business.

Something else to focus on when building ecommerce shopping carts is to make sure that you have good category names. Your categories should be worded well with key terms people search for. The search engines value category names highly when ranking products. Our products is a terrible category name; a better category name would be car parts or something of that nature (in this example)

If you have a large shopping cart design, you must make sure that you create a sitemap. If you have thousands of products some times google and other search engines will have trouble indexing all of your products - depending on the hierarchy of your web site. XML site maps are recommended and can be created easily with a sitemap generator.

Additionally, you must make sure that your shopping cart product’s have good content within their descriptions; Keyword-rich content to be exact. Search engines love content.

Now that you have a good understanding of how your ecommerce store should act for the search engines, you must now get links to your web site that are relevant to your own web site. You can either hire someone for link building services or do this on your own. Many web sites require you exchange links with them in order to gain their link. Don’t only link build for a week or two and then give up - this needs to be an ongoing process. A great ecommerce shopping cart web site is one that is always changing and improving.

Joel Mclaughlin DataFlurry Ecommerce Shopping Cart Design and SEO

About the Author

Joel Mclaughlin DataFlurry Ecommerce Shopping Cart Design and SEO

Tips for Publishing a Membership Web Site or Online Newsletter

Like immutable laws of nature, some rules are ironclad. Follow these directives and you can expect to succeed. Ignore even one of them and your business and personal achievements will be significantly diminished.

1. You shall believe.

The first step in accomplishing anything is embracing the belief that it is possible.

You must believe in the viability of your project and you must believe in yourself. If you don’t, stop right now.

You simply cannot succeed without the firm expectation that your idea is sound, that you have all the resources necessary to succeed, and that you deserve success!

These are self-fulfilling prophesies. If you believe you can succeed, you’re right. If you don’t believe you can succeed, you’re right, too!

2. You shall find your passion!

If your sole motivation for starting an online newsletter is to make money, you’ll probably soon tire of the topic. Making money seldom gets boring, but profit alone usually is not enough to stir your imagination and creative juices.

A niche market membership web site succeeds best when the publisher has unbridled enthusiasm for her topic.

Finding your passion may require some introspection. It can be an exhilarating process of self-discovery. It may even require you to change your lifestyle.

3. You shall become a marketer!

Don’t get into the information product development business if your only care about your niche topic and have no enthusiasm for learning how to sell.

You must enthusiastically learn everything you can about marketing and sales promotion copy writing. Because in the final analysis, you will realize that, regardless of your newsletter topic, fundamentally you are in the direct response marketing business. Study the great direct marketers and copywriters. Immerse yourself in their courses. Devour their books. Read and reread their most successful sales letters.

4. You shall be unique!

One of the first rules of marketing: Establish your unique selling proposition (USP).

Define the essence of your online publication. What distinguishes your newsletter or membership web site from all others?

Define your targeted member or subscriber. Who is he or she in terms of age, income, social status, occupation, etc.?

Try to answer these questions before you develop your information product.

5. You shall create value!

When you develop your marketing message, how will you capture your subscriber’s attention and interest?

Make certain your subscription web site addresses your member’s heartfelt desires. Remember that customers buy what they want, not necessarily what they need.

6. You shall over-deliver!

Make it a bedrock principle of your business to keep and exceed your promises.

When you start your online newsletter or membership web site, create at least 20 stories, videos, or other units of content. Then put a few of them in a public section of the site for anyone to view, read or download without charge.

You must create value by giving some of your content away before you can reasonably expect subscribers to pay for more. And after you create a customer for the members-only, premium content, reward her with unexpected bonuses of additional value.

7. You shall not deceive!

Creating and selling an information product is fundamentally about trust. If your readers don’t feel you are treating them fairly, your information products will have no credibility.

From your very first day in business, you must be scrupulously honest with your subscribers. If you’re not perceived as being 100 percent trustworthy, ultimately you will have no customers and no business.

Beyond being the ethical thing to do, honesty makes good business sense. It decreases returns and cancellations. It promotes happier customers and enhances your reputation.

8. You shall profit!

There are numerous reasons why you must charge a sufficiently high price for your products and services.

First, the perceived value of your information is directly reflected in your prices. That means you’re very likely to sign up more subscribers at a higher price than you will at a modest price. And those subscribers are more likely to be happier, more loyal and require less maintenance than those who join at a lower price point.

9. You shall adjust!

The online marketing business is in a constant state of flux. Learn to be flexible.

Expect to make adjustments to your business model after your set your objectives. Resist the urge to dig in your heels and be foolishly stubborn about your initial assumptions, or about changes that loom on the horizon.

Online publishers survive and succeed because they are nimble and quick to adjust to changes in market conditions. Try to be objective about your business plan, making necessary course corrections as you proceed.

About the Author

Partho Chatterjee - Kolkata

Eating Crow About Twitter

OK… OK… I admit it. I may have been wrong about Twitter.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post titled “Twitter Could Make You Stupid(er)”. In it I posted Lisa Nova’s You Tube video “Twitter Whore” (Hilarious) and basically said that Twitter is stupid and has no real value.

While I still don’t get the appeal that it has for some people to sit around and tell the world every little detail of their life, there is no denying that there is some serious web site traffic to be gained from using good Twitter strategies. (My 4th largest traffic source for the last 2 months.)

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Ask for the First Date before Proposing Marriage

A good friend of mine, Mark Widawer, is a list building and landing page specialist. He loves to use the analogy that attempting to sell customers before getting to know them is like proposing marriage before asking for the first date.

It sounds pretty ridiculous right? But a lot of people treat their online businesses this way. Instead of asking permission to get to know the prospect better many web sites go straight for the sell.

The number one goal of your web site should NOT be to “sell” your visitors on your products or services on their first visit.

The number one goal of your website should be to start a relationship with your potential customers/clients on their first visit.

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