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09 2007 Tuesday
25

Take The Slow Road To A Passive Online Income

By Titus Hoskins in Marketing
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The promise of instant wealth and riches has always been a successful marketing ploy by marketers. Unfortunately, more times than not, they are the only ones raking in the big bucks. Don’t be fooled by any quick fixes, building a passive online income takes time and a whole lot of planning to get the job done properly.

Still, many people are tempted by the offer of a quick fix and the promise of overnight success. Don’t be.

Building a solid lasting online business requires some planning and time. Don’t be under the illusion that building a steady online income can be done overnight or with just a few clicks of the mouse. It usually doesn’t happen that way even in the virtual world.

This is probably not what you want to hear for in our hastily created “Instant Society” we want everything five minutes ago. We want immediate gratification. We want it done already.

We want the quick fix.

To make matters worst, we are constantly bombarded with stories of how ordinary people have struck it rich and made money very quickly online. The swift speed of the Internet has fueled these ‘get rich quick’ scenarios up to a fever pitch. A virtual fiery inferno!

But don’t be taken in by all this marketing hype and stories of people who have made money quickly and easily. Slow down. Take a deep breath and use your brain cells in at least multiples of 10!

Sure there are online marketers who can generate thousands, even millions within a few days but in almost all these cases these marketers have built a solid foundation first. They have built their sites, created products, cemented business deals, formed JV (Joint Venture) partners, built their contact lists and they have done their SEO work…

In other words, they have done the ground-work first and have created the means to generate income quickly and steadily.

Regardless of what these successful online marketers will tell you or want you to believe - it didn’t just happen overnight. Of course, there are a few exceptions to that statement (people do win lotteries) but what most of these marketers have in common are long tern marketing strategies which played a significant role in their success.

Long tern marketing strategies which helped them build a steady passive online income. The same strategies you can use to generate your own passive online cash flow.

Here are some suggestions from someone who is drawing a healthy passive online income, actual strategies you can copy.

1. Think Long Term

Save your quick fixes for roof repairs and Las Vegas weddings. Have a long term goal in mind when you set out to create your online affiliate income. Don’t expect it to happen in a couple of days, instead plan on months and even years of building your online business from the ground up.

Have the mind-set that you’re creating long term relationships and objectives. Have a long term business plan in place or at least realize you will have to put time aside to build your business. If you need income to live on, don’t quit your day job. Work on building your online income in your spare time and after working hours.

Along the way, take time to obtain a solid knowledge base. Learn everything you can on Internet marketing. Learn how it’s done. Knowledge and ‘know-how’ will be your main ingredients for success.

2. Your Unique Selling Position

The Internet is mainly based on the transfer of information. Make sure you have some to offer. Base your online business on something you have expertise in or something that you would enjoy becoming an expert on - play to your own interests and hobbies. If you love what you do it will not be work.

Create your own corner of the web on something that truly interests you. Something as simple as creating “How To Guides” and “Comparison Shopping Sites” do extremely well online. Information on the web is scattered all over the place, simply compiling this information in an easy to read and access manner will produce surprising results. One of your main goals should be to get your site seen by all the search engines as an “Authority Site” on your particular subject matter.

3. Target and Dominate Your Niche Keywords

Do your keyword research homework first. The web is powered by keywords - the exact phrases people type into search engines to find what they’re looking for on the web. Find the highly searched for keywords in your niche or subject area and target them in your online marketing. Please remember, achieving top keyword rankings may take months ( more likely years) of consistent SEO work.

Use sites like WordTracker or GoodKeywords to find your useful keywords. Create web pages and content related to your keywords. Build quality one-way links to these keywords by writing helpful and informative articles on your niche. Submit these articles to online directories like Ezinearticles, Goarticles…

Invest in a professional keyword research software such as Keyword Elite if you do extensive keyword marketing and PPC advertising. The idea is to dominate the main keywords in your niche market; if you can get high rankings for these profitable keywords, be assured companies in your industry will quickly come knocking at your door with lucrative offers.

4. Build Relationships

Along the same lines, go out of your way to build long term relationships with the companies and affiliate managers you’re promoting with your site. If you supply the sales and traffic, you will be rewarded with special incentives and bonuses. Don’t be afraid to bargain for private affiliate arrangements and compensation, companies will go out of their way to reward and keep their top performing affiliates happy. Money talks, that other stuff walks!

Join the major Affiliate Marketing networks such as Commission Junction, LinkShare, ClickBank, Shareasale… these companies are professionally run and offer affiliate programs for all the Top 500 companies. Remember, the Internet is still seen as a very untrustful place by many customers, promoting well known established Brand Name companies and products will prove more lucrative for any affiliate marketer.

5. Build Your Own Lists

One of the most effective and proven marketing strategies is to build your own ‘opt-in’ or contact lists. Creating and nurturing a loyal and responsive list should be one of your main goals as an affiliate marketer.

Building a series of ‘follow-up emails’ for each of your major affiliate products can produce more sales. Capture the contact information of your site’s visitors for further marketing and contact. Your follow-up emails should be both helpful and offer special discounts or offers to your subscribers; everyone loves a deal.

6. Create Multiple Income Streams

Don’t put all your eggs… but you know that already and the same applies to affiliate marketing. Don’t concentrate on one product or company. Create affiliate relationships with hundreds, even thousands of companies and you will see a steady flow of affiliate checks. If one industry or market area slows down, you can rely on others to fill in the gap.

Don’t forget an easy way to monetize your site or sites to produce passive income is to place ads with your content. Google Adsense is just one example of this, there are many more. Just place a few lines of code and these companies will supply targeted ads for your content. Simple and easy way to earn passive income.

Over time, as you build up your online business and affiliate relationships, one of the most rewarding things is getting all those affiliate checks arriving each month.

7. Aim For Residual Income

Make it your goal to market/promote products and companies that pay residual income. You have to put in the same time and effort to make the sale but with a residual sale it keeps paying for months and years into the future. Make one sale and receive residual income for the life of that client.

The most successful tactic here is to choose affiliate programs that offer monthly services such as membership sites, hosting services, business services, cable services… once customers sign up for these ongoing services they usually keep them for years. Building residual income is not a difficult feat and can be one of the main sources of a steady passive income for years to come. Imagine getting paid for a sale you made five years ago.

To sum up, creating an online passive income is not a difficult task but it usually takes some time and planning. Instead of going for the quick fix, build up your sites and affiliate relationships over the long term. You will achieve a higher degree of success and in the process you will build a much more secure and reliable source of passive income.

Take the slow road, you will get there much quicker!

Author:  Titus Hoskins is a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites, including two sites on Internet marketing. For the latest web marketing tools try: www.bizwaremagic.com For the latest Internet Marketing Strategies Go here: www.marketingtoolguide.com

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09 2007 Tuesday
25

A Website Without Video Is Like Jell-O Without Whip Cream

By Jerry Bader in Web Design
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Do you like Jell-O? It’s Okay I guess; I mean it’s not a hot fudge sundae is it? But if you add a little whip cream, then my friend you’ve got something worth calling dessert. My question to you is, does your website have that something extra, that dollop of whip cream on top that says, “oh mama let me at it,” or does it just lie there squirming in your dish with the sound of Peggy Lee’s voice ringing in your ears, “is that all there is?”

If your website disappointments, you need something that provides the ‘eureka factor’ and that can be provided with a creative, informative Web-video.

The Chicago Bulls Without Michael Jordan

How the mighty have fallen, at least in terms of brand personality. I mean it’s not like the Chicago Bulls stink? It’s just that without MJ they’re not the Chicago Bulls of old. When Michael played we all watched, he was magic, he wasn’t just a great basketball player, he was a great personality and he gave the team it’s character; no Michael, no personality.

Is your website like the new Chicago Bulls, a talented group of players with skills but no singular personality? Time for a humanity injection, add a Web-video featuring a signature character host who can generate some excitement and establish your unique business personality.

Television Without Sound

You’re watching your favorite television show, say CSI, the Vegas one not Miami, and the phone rings. It’s your mother. You turn the television’s sound down so you can hear her but you’re still watching the show. You love your Mom but Grissom has just discovered a new miniature killer clue and you need to know what is going on, but your Mom is carrying on about how your Dad needs new dentures or something… Frustrating. No audio, no information.

Does your website have the same effect as watching television without the sound. It’s there, people visit, but they leave without getting your message. Time to add a little life to your presentation in the form of a Web-video that tells your story out loud.

Words Without Meaning

Have you ever reread someone’s website copy several times and still not understood what the heck they’re trying to tell you, or maybe you understand every word but still can’t figure out what they’re selling?

Words have meaning, they are meant to convey a message not hide it. A lousy video script is no better than lousy print copy. Your Web-audience has no patience for mumbo-jumbo that masquerades as information or for text and dialog that says nothing in as many words as possible in an effort to attract the search engines. Words have meaning, say them with style and deliver them with conviction.

The Rumba Without Rhythm

Have you ever sat at a wedding and watched people dance? There are the people who know how to move, how to respond to the their partners and to communicate with the slightest of gestures or movements. And then there are the others who look like they’ve got something icky stuck to the bottom of their shoes and are trying desperately to remove it.

If you want to communicate to your audience, you have to use all the techniques available. Communication is more than just copy, its voice, gesture, movement and meaningful dialog.

Romance Without Kisses

Ah … the first kiss, something special that can seal a relationship or sour it forever. Your landing page is like that first embrace. Is yours as exciting as it could be, or is it like the guy who spends the entire first date talking about his double entry booking keeping skills?

A well-crafted, expertly presented marketing message is like a seduction; if you’re not generating any excitement don’t expect to produce any sales either. Boring mission statement gobbledygook and keyword-laden palaver are not the same as an enticing video. An engaging business story, well told, is like a juicy wet-one planted right on your audience’s lips.

A Joke Without A Punch Line

Everybody likes a funny story. A good joke is nothing more than a short story with a set-up, an escalation, and a twist, but the real key to a good story lies in the telling. Even comedians with second-rate material can get their audience’s howling if they know how to deliver their material.

It’s all well and good to repeat the mantra, “websites are about content,” but if that content isn’t delivered with some style and panache, don’t expect anybody to pay much attention.

A Song Without A Hook

Hit songs are highly structured stories with verses that function as chapters or acts, and a chorus that provides the hook that sticks in your audience’s heads. Add a toe tapping beat and some instrumental flourishes and you’ve got something that people will listen to over and over again.

Does that sound like your website presentation? Are people willing to come back to your site just to watch your presentation, or does your website leave visitors with a ‘been there, done that’ impression?

Information Without Knowledge

Just because you’re in business doesn’t mean you’ve got to be boring. And just because you dump a lot of facts and figures and bulleted points onto your Web-pages doesn’t mean you’re making a convincing argument for anyone to buy your stuff.

Web audiences demand more. If you won’t give it to them, you can be sure someone else will, like maybe your competition.

Interactivity Without Purpose

Can we all just stop and take a breath and think about this whole interactivity thing. Let’s all get interactive, why? I mean what is interactivity anyway? Is it developing a hugely expensive game that people can play on your website to avoid working, or is it getting them to click on the “Tell Me More” button?

I vote for the interactivity that leads to opening a dialogue with a potential client, one that gets visitors to pick up the phone and call you to discuss their needs, not the one that generates a “Game Over” message. Of course that assumes you’re willing to actually talk to customers.

Frequency Without Resonance

I happened to like vinegar on my fries, Okay it’s weird I admit it, but the Dutch like mayonnaise on theirs, even weirder. I once had a chef in a Tucson restaurant come out of the kitchen and confront me when I asked the waiter for vinegar (it’s a Canadian thing). The chef approached the table and asked who ordered the vinegar? I reluctantly raised my hand. “You must be from Canada,” he said, “I’m from Victoria, where you from?”

Good advertising is all about delivering a message that resonates with your audience. It doesn’t matter how many times you run an advertisement if that advertisement doesn’t make an impression on your audience. You can’t be afraid to be creative or even a bit weird.

Humor Without Laughter

Dr. Max Sutherland in his e-mail newsletter report, “False Alarm Theory: How Humorous Ads Work” describes how laughter is a hardwired residual mechanism that developed in our ape days as an ‘all clear’ signal once a danger had past. The ‘all clear’ message is passed on from one ape to another, until the entire troop is screeching with the ecstasy of survival.

A guy slips on a banana and breaks his neck - that’s not funny. A guy slips on a banana, jumps up and looks around to see if anybody saw - that’s funny. Humor is based on creating some sense of uncertainty or tension that is ultimately relieved with a humorous punch line or comforting resolution. The safe or amusing resolution creates a chain reaction in the audience that signals, “hay guys, all is well; everything is back to normal.”

Without tension there can be no relief, no opportunity for an entertaining resolution that creates a cascading viral reaction among your audience. So don’t expect your website to be passed on to friends and colleagues unless you deliver a compelling presentation that offers the opportunity to signal the rest of the world that all is well.

Author:  Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

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09 2007 Monday
24

Wealth Magnet System Tips on Using Social Bookmarking Sites

By Gary Fritts in Web 2.0
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Google’s PR rating – the page rank of your site – is one of the factors that Google uses for ranking most relevant items when it pulls up a search engine. Higher PR ratings are considered more relevant, and getting the highest PR for your site is one of the keys to doing traffic building.

Google generates its PR numbers by an arcane process that they don’t reveal, and they tweak the algorithms all the time, to avoid spamdexing and link farming. Three elements that go into the page ranking are keyword validity, the number of links that tie back to your page, and the PR rating of those back links.

We’re going to discuss how all three of those can be made to work for you, in the context of social networking sites.

First of all, we’re going to look at keyword validity. Because the presumption is that social indexing sites are rated by and voted on by real human beings, Google’s PR system trusts social networking sites to give keyword validation. This is in comparison to assorted search engine optimization plans that result in pages of near utter gibberish, designed to be read and indexed by web spiders, not human beings. Remember, it doesn’t do you any good to get on Google’s first search page results if doing so means that the person reads two sentences and hits their back button! We realize that’s a heretical position among internet marketers, but it’s the absolute truth.

The second component of PR is how many links feed back to your site; this gets a little dicey, because there are techniques to build huge arrays of meaningless back links to sites called spamdexing (an attempt to artificially boost your site’s rankings by using short term links on places like Digg to put lots of links back to your site) and link farming (where you join a network that automatically adds a link back to your site on everyone else’s). These are pretty easy to filter out, so these techniques (like badly over-SEO’d text) tend to only be used by cut rate marketers who havn’t kept their search engine knowledge up to date.

The real trick is to get links back to your site from high PR sites themselves. Since Google tends to give high PR ratings to pages on sites like Netscape.com, Digg, and del.icio.us, and they tend to have community voting, a good article with a link back to your site can generate a few hours at a high PR rating back link…or, for topics that don’t get a lot of churn in their discussion, you can get a whole day or so. The reason this is important is that those front pages of social networking sites have PR numbers of 8 or 9, and that, applied consistently, will give your site a PR of 4 or 5 right out the gate. Even their archives have high PR numbers, in the realm of 5 to 7 – and the links can persist in the archives for months.

This all ties back to getting multiple links and link relevance through keywords. If you’ve got good content linked to on those sites, the users get to vote if it’s relevant. The more positive votes you get, the longer you stay on that front page “news service” page, and the longer you take to drift out of the archives. Furthermore, the longer you stay there, the likelier it is that outside people will both follow the links to your site, and will link to your site of their own volition…but this gets back to the mantra that content is king.

It doesn’t matter how optimized your site it, it has to give people a good reason to come back. It’s got to build a sense of community and trust, and it’s got to give the readers valuable information. This is why we advocate things like a multi-part tutorial with the parts linked in on these sites every second day or so), and giving your readers blog posts and things like that to comment on. You don’t have to give away the whole farm, but you do have to make sure that you give enough out that the people who vote on these social networking sites don’t decide you’re a spider-bait website and vote you into oblivion. You also need to make sure that your site’s presence on these pages doesn’t come off as being too overly commercial. It’s far better to have someone link to your site and say “Woah, this is cool…”

Indeed, cultivating the “woah, this is cool!” referral is the height of internet marketing….and depending on where it happens (such as slashdot.org) it may shut your site down as you burn two months of bandwidth in six hours. So be aware of what can happen if this really takes off.

Author:  Gary Fritts has been a full time internet business owner and online marketing trainer for 10 years and is the Senior Trainer at the Wealth Magnet System. A visit to his website will provide many more valuable tips from the vaults of the Wealth Magnet System

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09 2007 Monday
24

Top 5 Ways To Generate Low Cost Website Traffic

By Steve Ashton in Website Traffic
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There is one hard and fast rule in generating income for your website: A steady flow of website traffic. If no one goes to your site, it hardly bares a chance of generating an income. Many sites have tried and failed in doing so, and these results to the sites demise. It takes money to maintain an income generating site; it also takes money to make money.

BUT, it doesn’t take a whole caboodle of cash to generate website traffic for your site.

Ever wonder how some drive a large amount of web traffic to their sites? Most of them are spending tons of money to drive the traffic to their sites, investing in many advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes and gimmicks. This is all worthwhile because, well, they are what they are now, high earning and high hitting websites.

You don’t have to do this if you don’t really have their resources. There are many ways to generate low cost website traffic without having to spend what you don’t have or can’t afford. Many people have banked on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirt over it.

Here I present to you the Top five ways to generate low cost website traffic that could help your site a whole lot. Even if you only get a small percentage of successful visitors in to client ratio it still works especially if you get a high number of website traffic.

Exchange Links

This is a sure and proven method. Rarely would you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they could produce more public awareness about their sites. You’ll soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming in to your site from other sites.

A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having the same niche or content as the other site. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic.

Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a high ranking in search engine results. It is common knowledge that search engines ranks high sites that have inbound and outbound theme-related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic in your website without the high costs.

Traffic Exchange

This is like exchanging links but on a different higher level. This may cost a bit more than exchanging or trading links but could be made cheaper because you get to earn credits. You can use those credits when viewing others traffic, while you earn credits when someone views yours.

Traffic exchange services are the viewing of another’s site or page. This is done vice versa where a site can use your sites contents and so can you to his or her site. You both benefit from each others efforts to generate traffic. The other sites visitors can go to your pages and know more about your site as well as theirs. Once again the public awareness of your sites existence is boosted.

Write and Submit Articles

There are many e-zines and online encyclopedias in the internet which provides free space for articles to be submitted. If you want to save costs, you can do the articles yourself. There are many freelance writers who are willing to write for you for a small fee, but to save money, it is wise to do those articles yourself.

Write articles that are themed along with the niche of your site. Write something that you have expertise on so that when they read it, they can feel your knowledge about the subject and will be eager to go to your site. Write articles that produce tips and guidelines to the subject or niche your site has.

Include a resource box at the end of your article that can link them to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide a light, information-laden and interesting article, they will go to your site for more.

Make a Newsletter.

This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to use to build a newsletter but on the contrary, this is not so. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in on your newsletter. This will also provide free advertising for them as well.

As your newsletter gets pass around, you can widen your public awareness and build an opt-in list that can regularly visit your site.

Join Online Communities and Forums

This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche with your site.

Share your two cents and let them see how knowledgeable you are with the subject. As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, making it a reputable and honest business that could be frequented and trusted by many people.

Author:  Steve Ashton http://www.webdevshed.com/signup.php Learn how to make money online and find work at home opportunities at http://www.moneymakingshed.com

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09 2007 Monday
24

How to Turn Around an Unprofitable PPC Campaign

By Kalena Jordan in Advertising
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Did you know that 80% of new advertisers fail to achieve a Return on Investment from their Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns? I didn’t either because I just made that up. But seriously, I bet the percentage is very high. I seem to be spending more and more time helping clients and Search Engine College students to tweak their AdWords campaigns these days. Unless they live and breathe search marketing, I think it is difficult for most people to allocate the time and resources necessary to maintain a successful PPC campaign. Plus there are just so many little tricks and secrets that most people don’t know about. I’ve heard so many horror stories about PPC campaigns hemorrhaging money in the hands of new advertisers and I’ve seen a few shockers first hand.

As one of their first assignments, our PPC Marketing students at Search Engine College are required to set up a new Google AdWords campaign, complete with carefully considered strategies for keyword selection, ad copy and matching types. More often than not, what they come up with is a campaign that is destined to fail. I then spend the rest of the course teaching them what’s wrong with their campaign, how to correct the errors and how to make sure their campaign has a good chance of succeeding.

But it’s not just first-timers that make mistakes with Pay Per click advertising. I’m often asked to review PPC campaigns for my clients, some of whom have been advertising for years. I often cringe at what I find when I login to their account. Campaigns that have been unprofitable for years are left to flounder and waste thousands of dollars because the staff are too busy to manage them or are simply ignorant of what it takes to fix them. Unfortunately, the “Set and Forget” mentality is alive and well in PPC.

The Unprofitable Campaign

Take last week for example. A client asked me to take a look at their Google AdWords campaign because although it brought traffic to their site, it didn’t seem to be resulting in any direct business. They had decided that PPC was simply unprofitable and they were ready to abandon it as a marketing channel. I logged into their account and had a good look around. It wasn’t the worst campaign I’ve seen but it was pretty close.

Here are the problem areas I discovered and rectified:

Not Enough Ads

This was the single biggest problem with the campaign. There weren’t anywhere near enough ads to cover the number of keywords the client was targeting. Some ad groups had 18 keywords and only 1 ad! Ideally, each keyword should have it’s own ad, sometimes two, because it is important that each ad is laser-focused on the keyword and includes repetitions of that particular keyword. You should always create multiple text ads for each keyword so that you can measure which ads work best. Not everyone will click on the same ad so you need to create and test multiple ads with different wording to see which convert best. AdWords will gradually show only the best performing ads over time.

Using Ads That Don’t Reflect Target Keywords

One or more of the ads didn’t use the keyword in the ad headline. For example, one Ad Group targeted the keyword phrase ‘bridesmaid dresses’ but that specific phrase was not in the headline or ad text. The single ad they had in place actually related to wedding dresses so it wasn’t relevant to be triggered for ‘bridesmaid dresses’ and related keywords. The client had tried to cover all bases with a single ad, but this was never going to be effective. To entice people to click, they need to see the keywords they’ve just searched for appear in your ad. You should always use your target keyword in your ad headline and first or second line of ad text.

Not Using Enough Ad Groups

This was the second biggest problem with the campaign. There weren’t nearly enough ad groups to cover the keyword themes the client was targeting. Many of the keywords in each Ad Group required dividing into several other Ad Groups based on unique keyword themes. For example all “bridesmaid” related keywords and ads needed to go in their own Ad Group, while all keywords and ads relating to ‘used wedding dresses’ needed to go into their own Ad Group and so on. Then several new ads needed to be drafted for each new Ad Group to laser-focus on those keywords as described above.

Not Using the Quality Score Column

The client didn’t have Google’s Quality Score column showing, so it would have been difficult for them to know the quality score of their keywords so they could tweak bids and ads. I switched it on immediately. To find the Quality Score, look at the Keywords tab and click on “display columns”. This column will show “Poor”, “OK” or “Great” for each of your keywords. The better your score, the lower the minimum bid Google requires you to pay for each keyword.

Opting into the Content Network

The client had opted into Google’s Content Network as well as the Search Network. Using the Content Network will almost always produce a lower ROI and higher click charges because the network includes many personal and irrelevant web sites that show AdSense ads. These often have content only loosely related to your subject matter but it is often enough to trigger your ads to appear as a contextual match. In my experience, Click Fraud also seems to be more common in accounts that utilize the Content Network. I advise my clients to avoid the content network like the plague unless they have an e-commerce style site where they can expect some drive by sales. Needless to say, I flicked the Content Network off on this campaign pretty quickly.

Not Using Content Bids The client had opted NOT to use Content bids, even though they had opted into the Content Network. If you must use the Content Network, you should always use separate, lower bids for your keywords on that Network because the ROI is so much poorer. The number of clicks you are likely to receive on the Content Network is much larger, but of a much lower quality and less likely to convert so you shouldn’t pay as much for them. You can set your maximum bids to a lower amount than the search network by opting in to use Content bids.

Not Using Position Preferences

Still under Campaign Settings, the client had NOT enabled Position Preferences. This is a powerful feature of AdWords that gives you the ability to tell Google what positions you want your ad placed in for particular keywords. For example, you can set it to positions 1-3 for some keywords, meaning that you want your ad shown in ranking position 1 to 3 for those keywords or not shown at all. For keywords where you don’t need to maintain top positions, you can set it to 1-10 to indicate to Google that you want your ad shown in whatever position is available for the bid amount you’ve set. This is a particularly useful feature for more competitive keywords, where you can specify lower positions for your ads where keywords have too high a price tag for positions 1-3. Obviously if your bid amounts aren’t high enough to secure you the positions you want, your ads won’t be shown, but this still gives you more control over when your ads appear and how much you spend.

Unnecessary Use of Multiple Campaigns

The client had actually created two campaigns, but they both had the same regional target markets and other settings. There is generally no need to set up multiple campaigns unless you have totally unrelated products or services, you are targeting different regions/countries and/or you have multiple advertising campaigns with different start and end dates.

Not Using Targeted Landing Pages

Some of the ads created by the client had destination URLs that led to pages on their site specifically relating to those products/services, which is ideal. But most ads led to the generic home page of the client’s site, which was never going to be effective, especially now that Google takes landing page relevancy into account when determining a keyword’s quality score. The destination URLs for all ads and keywords should be reviewed to ensure they are laser-focused to the search query. If there aren’t suitable landing pages for a keyword or phrase, the development of tailored landing pages for each keyword set or Ad Group should be considered.

Incorrect Use of Keyword Matching Options

Most of the client’s keywords were set to broad match. Broad match means that you want your ad shown for variations of your keyword/phrase. So if you target ‘wedding dress’ using broad match as my client had done, it means you want your ad triggered for ANY searches using those two words in any order. So your ad will automatically be shown for ‘hideous wedding dress’, ‘I need a dress to wear to my friend’s wedding’ etc. To avoid your ad being shown for inappropriate search queries, I highly recommend using “phrase match” and/or [exact match]. You can read more about the different keyword matching options here.

Not Using Negative Keywords

The client was not using negative keywords. The use of negative keywords is a very powerful but often overlooked feature of a PPC campaign. A negative keyword is a keyword that prevents your ads from being shown for irrelevant search queries. Adding a negative keyword to your campaign means that your ads won’t show for search queries containing that term. For instance, the negative keyword “–free” tells the PPC system not to show your ad for any search query containing the term “free”. This feature is extremely useful because it helps you rule out any searchers who are less qualified and less likely to be interested in your offering. For example, if you run an e-commerce site selling DVDs, you probably want to add “-free” as a negative keyword so that persons searching for “free DVDs” don’t see your ad. You should always include some negative keywords in your PPC campaign to ensure your ads are not triggered for inappropriate search queries.

Not Using Tracking URLs

Tracking URLs were NOT being used. As with any advertising campaign, results need to be tracked to determine overall ROI. Pay per click campaigns lend themselves to this because you can add a simple piece of code to the end of your landing page URL and most site statistical packages will allow you to track click-throughs. This code is called the tracking URL and looks something like this:
http://www.mysite.com/mypage.htm?source=adwords-mykeyword. Everything from the question mark onwards is the tracking code. Many of the larger PPC providers provide automatic tracking of your ads, but the statistics you get are not always detailed enough or, in my experience, accurate. I recommend implementing your own tracking code to the end of the destination URLs of all your ads, based on keyword, ad group name or unique ad creative. You’ll then need to set up your web analytics program to be able to track these individual parameters to determine which keywords, ad groups and ad creatives are the most effective.

Setting the Daily Budget Too Low

The daily budget was set too low. Because the client had been targeting very generic keywords using broad match and had also opted in to the Content Network, their ads were attracting thousands of irrelevant clicks (including some fraudulent ones!) and the costs of the campaign were skyrocketing. To try and curb this, the client had lowered the maximum daily budget for the campaign, meaning their ads were only being shown for around 2 or 3 hours per day until the budget was used up. What they should have done was to use more targeted 2 or 3 word keyword phrases, used phrase or exact matching options and opted out of the Content Network. That way, their ads would be shown 24 hours a day to a more targeted audience, they wouldn’t miss out on any traffic, they would reduce the amount of click fraud they were experiencing, yet they wouldn’t exceed their maximum daily budget.

Not Using Conversion Tracking Finally, I noticed that Conversion Tracking had NOT been switched on for the campaign and no conversions were being measured. This is because what constitutes a conversion for the client hadn’t been determined and conversion tracking code had not been integrated into the site. Not using conversion tracking makes it very difficult to measure the effectiveness of the PPC campaign. PPC advertisers should always define a successful conversion and establish conversion goals and targets prior to campaign launch. A successful conversion might be a sale, submission of an enquiry form or a newsletter subscription. Tracking such conversions is a simple matter of embedding some javascript tracking code into the conversion page. Tracking this data lets you identify how effective your PPC campaign is in isolation from your other marketing efforts.

The Turnaround

So what were the results of my investigation? Well, after I pointed out the problems to the client and made the changes, the campaign made a complete turnaround. One week after my changes, the campaign was experiencing Click Through Rates of up to 40 percent and the client began receiving higher quality traffic, more enquiries and a huge increase in conversions as a result. The turnaround has renewed their faith in Pay Per Click and they are now excited about increasing their PPC marketing efforts.

If you ensure your campaign avoids the 14 common blunders listed above, you too will be well on the way to a profitable PPC experience.

Author:  Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

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09 2007 Friday
21

Five Internet Marketing Strategies Proven To Work

By Diane Corriette in Marketing
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There are so many different internet marketing strategies and products online that if can be difficult to know the best one to invest in to ensure your online business success.

The new internet marketing strategy for some is to create a product telling people how to make money doing something without the author having actually made money doing it themselves.

Even worse with the huge number of private label right products available where you can create yourself as an instant author simply by adding your name to the front of the eBook you can never really tell whether the author has actually made money or not and who’s going to ask!

That might seem a little cynical, but it is true that hosts of self-proclaimed experts are willing to offer you their special “insider secrets” and “millionaire strategies” for internet marketing. Whilst some of the information and programs are valuable others are filled with exaggerations or simple restatements of principles already proven successful.

In order to separate the wheat from the chaff and to understand how to put new information to use as part of your marketing strategy, it pays to understand a few of the proven techniques for producing significant sales figures.

Below are five internet marketing strategies worth considering that have proven to work time and time again.

Selling to the List

As a marketer it is important that you spend time creating a targeted opt-in list of potential, current and former buyers and prospects that you communicate with and provide value to on a regular basis.

As well as providing value you also teach your list how to buy from you by offering a P.S. with a product link or including a product that is relevant to the information you have provided as a “for more information buy this product” type recommendation.

Sometimes when there is a product launch or special promotion you will actually just send an email to your list relevant to that product.

This tried and true method never seems to fail. The conversion rate from lists is very high, as all people on it are pre-qualified prospects for the materials being offered.

The expression “the money is in the list” is an internet marketing mantra because of this fact.

Offering a Bonus

Internet marketers learned long ago that customers love getting something for nothing.

The “free bonus” has developed because of that longing on the part of consumers. Instead of simply selling the primary product, the marketer bundles it with one or more other products that are offered along with the main item of interest at no additional charge.

A good free bonus offer can turn a mediocre campaign into a massive success. Bonuses are used frequently by the most recognized names in the industry. That is not a coincidence. They work.

Back End – Cross Selling and Upselling

Successful marketers don’t let products get into their customers’ hands until they are equipped with a potential back-end moneymaker. The back end of your product and/or business is the area after someone has bought something.

Back end in an ebook could involve adding a series of affiliate links embedded into an ebook, a special offer coupon for another project, a chance at a one-time deal for another purchase or something else. The idea is to give the product residual value so that it continues to sell while meeting the customer’s needs at the same time.

Cross selling is the process of saying “you bought that so you might also like to consider buying this” It provides you with a way to promote similar products to your customers.

Upselling is the process of saying “you bought this for that price, how about buying this package that includes what you already paid for plus these other things”

It’s like being super sized in Macdonalds and is an excellent internet marketing strategy that has become an essential component for all successful internet marketers.

Information Only Websites/blogs

Some people just want information, they want to find out how to care for their new kitten or places to visit when traveling to Australia. The most that they require is to read some great information at their leisure without being sold something.

Of course that doesn’t mean you don’t have products for sale on the website or blog because you do. An image strategically placed that will catch their attention.

You also fill these information only websites and blogs with Google Adsense to help you monetize them for extra profits.

I once met a marketer who makes a lot of money using Google Adsense and he said it is all about volume. Having one information only blog on golf will not exactly make you a six figure monthly income in the short term but having 100 blogs out there, all providing information on different areas will definitely help your online profits!

Use a linking strategy

One of the most important things I learnt during an internet marketing conference I attended in Atlanta was to get noticed by the search engines by developing a linking strategy.

One way links is the best online strategy there is because your site is seen as an “expert or authority” on the subject if all these different websites are linking in to you.

A great way to do this is to have a number of websites online that are hosted on different hosting platforms, which all link into one main website. They can be blogs or websites but the important thing is to ensure they are on all separate hosting accounts.

Its important that you don’t do two way linking by linking all your websites/blogs to each other, but that you have all 15 (or more or less but at least 10) linking to one main site that you want to promote.

This is great if you want to set up the information only sites mentioned above.

Better still, if you have friends who are willing to link to you then get them to do that and use one of your 15 information sites to link to them but not the main one you are looking to promote.

Keep your eyes open for new strategies and idea. The internet marketing world is active and always in a state of flux but it is still important to approach new options with an understanding of what has worked in the past. There really are very few new ideas anyway just re-written versions of classic internet marketing strategies that work.

Techniques like those listed above are proven means of improving sales figures. This list, obviously, is by no means exhaustive but it does demonstrate that there are known and tested systems for marketing success.

Author:  Diane Corriette runs Women Internet Marketers at http://www.wimsite.com and How To Booklets at http://www.howtobooklets.net

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09 2007 Friday
21

10 Factors Google and Yahoo Consider For a Top Search Engine Ranking

By Tim McGaffin in Google
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Want to get into the top 5 of either Google or Yahoo? Make sure your website contains the top 10 factors for deciding a top search engine ranking.

It does not matter if you have the cure for cancer, if nobody knows about it you are not going to make any money. A top search engine ranking in either Google or Yahoo is the surest way for buyers to find your products so you can become a wealthy marketer. Google and Yahoo are responsible for about 80% of all search engine traffic in the world.

Make sure your online business or website contains these top 10 factors used for determining sites with a top 5 search engine ranking in Google and Yahoo.

Factor #1: Number of Quality Sites that Link to Yours

Google and Yahoo put a lot of significance on how many quality sites link back to yours with a page rank of at least 4 and above. This is probably the most important factor when considering a top search engine ranking.

When search engines see lots of important sites link back to yours it must mean that your site is also pretty important.

Remember the purpose of the internet is to provide information back to the end user. As someone is conducting research on the World Wide Web, sites must also participate and flow and connect to other related sites allowing those searching for your keyword terms various paths to the information being inquired.

Factor #2: Number of Pages Your Website Has

A website with less than 50 pages is really going to struggle to get a top search engine ranking unless it has more quality back links coming into it than their competitors.

Factor #3: Keywords in Your Title Tag

Google and Yahoo look to see if your keywords are contained in your page title and description. Make sure your keywords are also listed within your heading and subheading tags.

Factor #4: Keywords Showing in Links

Keywords that are highlighted within a link are considered more significant than those not at all highlighted within a link.

Factor #5: Keywords in Bold

Likewise words in bold are also considered more important than those not in bold.

Factor #6: Keywords in URL

Websites that are in less competitive markets that contain the keywords within their URL are considered more important than those sites that respectively do not.

Also keywords in the URL that come before unrelated words are considered better than a URL that follows an unrelated word within the URL. For example if your keyword is televisions, a URL with `televisions’ followed by unrelated words such as your name `Mike’ is better than putting your name `Mike’ before `televisions.’

Factor #7: More Significance Given to First 25 Words on Page

The first 25 words of each page are given more weight than all other words on the page. Make sure your keywords are in the first few words of your page. However, if you try and just list the same word or phrase 25 times repeatedly Google and Yahoo will penalize you.

Factor #8: Greater Than 300 Words on Your Homepage

Make sure you have at least 300 or more words on your homepage.

Factor #9: Keyword Density

Keyword density is not as important as it once was in the past but it still is an important factor. In order to get a top 5 search engine ranking look at your competitors sites and compare the density of their sites to yours and try and match their density.

Factor #10: Page Rank

Want to find out the page rank of your website or the page rank of another site? Download the Google toolbar and make sure the page rank indicator is activated. One major factor in determining your page rank is the first factor listed in this article. Quality back links are the most important factor for formulating your page rank.

A top search engine ranking in Google and Yahoo is decided most often by the combination of these 10 factors. If you want to get into the top 5 of the two most important search engines than make sure your website applies these major search engine ranking factors.

Author:  Tim McGaffin has helped many online businesses achieve their financial goals. Vist: http://www.WealthyMarketerDirect.com

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09 2007 Friday
21

How To Get A Pagerank 7 In 200 Days

By Ross Dunn in Google
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With a reported 22.1% of search traffic Yahoo is second only to Google’s 64.4% (src: Hitwise) for search user volume so it is extremely important not to forget that attaining a top ranking in Yahoo can be a big boon to the bottom line. As a result, I decided to write this update on how to attain superior rankings in Yahoo using today’s useful tools and tactics.

OVERVIEW: Optimizing for Yahoo!
Algorithmically Yahoo is Google’s much younger sibling. I say this because many of the requirements for a successful ranking mirror Google’s requirement about 4 years ago and they sum up to one distinct fact; optimize your content boldly on Yahoo and you will be rewarded. When I say “boldly” I do not mean use SPAM; by nature SPAM and optimization do not mix… they are two entirely separate concepts (black and white in fact).

The following are the current generalized specifications for achieving solid rankings in Yahoo.

WEB SITE OPTIMIZATION
SEO tactics have not changed a great deal over the past 10 years I have been an SEO. In general terms the only effect time has had on SEO is to vary the intensity of the optimization for particular page elements. That is the rub of course; some search engines appreciate the optimization of particular page elements over others. In the case of Yahoo, this old property with a relatively young algorithm tends to favour the following elements:

Title Tag: Keep your title tag as short as 5 small-medium sized words and include one complete incidence of your keyphrase. Yahoo! blatantly favours sites that include the keyphrase in the title tag. For an example check out “car sales” or for that matter any phrase. Within the top 10 results you will notice that the majority of sites listed will include at least one incidence of the keyphrase or a crucial portion of it (i.e. “cars”). The ones that do not include the keyphrase tend to be sites that have are extremely popular so even basic title tag optimization is not required to attain a top ranking.

Meta Description Tag: Start this tag with an incidence of your keyphrase and then produce a short 15 – 18 small-medium sized word sentence clearly describing your site. Include one more incidence of your keyphrase in the sentence. Keep in mind that the description tag is often utilized as the description for any rankings you achieve so it is best to make it alluring.

Meta Keyword Tag: Keyword tags have long been considered ineffective and no longer have any importance on Google; however Yahoo does still consider the keyword tag so it cannot hurt to include it. The keyword tag should start with the keyphrase and then all following words or phrases should be ordered according to their relevance to your website; place the most important ones up front. The max size of a keyword tag should be 250 characters – comma-delimited. Do not over repeat words; no more than 3 repetitions of a single word within the tag.

Keywords in URL: Create keyword-based filenames that closely represent the content within the file. Yahoo rewards keyword-based filenames a small amount – perhaps enough to push past your competition.

Headings: Heading 1 and 2 tags should be applied on every page where appropriate to embolden the relevance of the page. In other words, use the page’s keyphrase within a Heading 1 tag to further enhance the visibility of the keyphrase on the page.

Alt text for images: Don’t forget to provide appropriate ALT text for each image on your website. The ALT text must not provide information that is already written on the website. ALT text is supposed to provide a clear and concise description of what the image is. Fortunately this means that adding an incidence of the keyphrase or a portion of the keyphrase is totally appropriate which can add slightly more credibility to your page score when Yahoo’s crawler (Slurp) indexes the page.

Inline Links: In the midst of your page it is beneficial to include links to related pages from related content. These links will apply relevance to the linked page; which is optimized for the same keyphrase you linked from.

Site Structure: Site structure is a vital component to ranking success on Yahoo; especially in competitive marketplaces where every advantage is required to reach the top. One method that would be successful at Yahoo (and happens to work as well on the other major search engines) is a tried and true technique that revolves around the linear progression of related content throughout the website; it is commonly known as Themeing. The following example should shed some light on this subject:

Your site is a car sales site focused on Audi. In order to create a linear site structure you would focus each section of the site on an individual relevancy. Say you pick “Audi A5” as the relevant topic (see Figure 1.0). As you move deeper into the Audi A5 section you only see A5 relevant content. The search engine spider and your users will not be distracted by links to other vehicles – only information on the A5. This progresses as you proceed deeper into this arm of the website and because this section of the site is utterly focused on the subject “Audi A5” the odds of achieving a ranking for that term increase considerably.

Your site is a car sales site focused on Audi. In order to create a linear site structure you would focus each section of the site on an individual relevancy. Say you pick “Audi A5” as the relevant topic (see Figure 1.0). As you move deeper into the Audi A5 section you only see A5 relevant content. The search engine spider and your users will not be distracted by links to other vehicles – only information on the A5. This progresses as you proceed deeper into this arm of the website and because this section of the site is utterly focused on the subject “Audi A5” the odds of achieving a ranking for that term increase considerably.

Optimized for Yahoo

LINKS
When building links for Yahoo concentrate on quality not quantity. Quality links would be one way links from sites that specialize in content directly relevant to the content on your own website. Building these links can be done by creating content and syndicating it to your own industry for link love and to build credibility. In addition, if your website is a worthwhile resource it is entirely reasonable to tell the world about your site in order to build links; hopefully they will link to you because they like your site so much.

Finally, there is another tactic that has mixed results; send out press releases once a month using PRWeb or an associated press release agency. A good press release can easily build the links you need in no time at all. Unfortunately the mixed results I noted occur when press releases inevitably become archived, at which point the link relevance will fade. As a result, link building with press releases is only useful as an ongoing practice and should be considered a small facet of a robust link building campaign.

SITE EXPLORER SETTINGS
Yahoo’s Site Explorer is a fantastic tool for monitoring your website(s) and running basic link reports. If you have not already done so you should create an account at Site Explorer and then validate your website (prove you own it) so that you can manage the information Yahoo has for your website. Once you have validated your website I have noted some Site Explorer functionality that may help your website perform on Yahoo:

  • Make certain to create a sitemap and submit it to Yahoo:
    If you haven’t already done so use a XML sitemap generator to create a sitemap for your website and then submit it to Yahoo using the “Add Feed” form within your website’s Site Explorer profile.
  • Removing unnecessary dynamic content from your URLs with new add-on within Site Explorer:
    Does your URLs content session ID’s or other dynamic content that is unnecessary within the URL? If so, this information can be indexed by the search engines and ultimately can cause havoc with your rankings. Thankfully Yahoo has implemented a new tool within the Site Explorer domain management section called “Dynamic URLs Beta”. Here are the instructions to use the Dynamic URLs tool.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
After reviewing our notes from current and previous Yahoo promotions and taking a look at a variety of top 10 results the following points appeared noteworthy:

  • Ensure open indexing by using Robots.txt wisely
  • A lot of our client’s older content appears to be sticking to top rankings with little or no monthly tweaking. As a result, I think it is fair to assume that fresh content is not currently gaining much weight in the Yahoo algorithm.
  • In many cases top ranking sites have pushed the envelope and their sites border on SPAM. Considering the top ranking these sites have it appears Yahoo’s SPAM filters are far less sensitive than Google’s. I expect Yahoo will change this in the near future but then again I have been surprised how long this has been the status quo.
  • One common claim throughout forums is that achieving a placement in the Yahoo Directory provides an instant boost to Yahoo rankings. Unfortunately we have not seen conclusive evidence that the annual $299 fee will increase rankings dramatically in the short term. That said, I strongly believe that a Yahoo Directory placement is a very reputable incoming link that does pay dividends in the long run at any search engine that weighs incoming links (the ones that count).
  • Yahoo Search Submit was re-introduced back in February 2007 to significant criticism due to the potential favouritism to those who pay to get into the Yahoo index. Despite the negative feedback there appears to be some potential benefits to paying for submission. For one, in July I noted an interesting story where a website was banned from Yahoo and the webmaster got the site back into Yahoo’s index by paying for inclusion (“Banned from Yahoo?”). A second reason Search Submit may be worthwhile is the guarantee that your site will be indexed. Furthermore, the Yahoo’s Search Submit Pro service allows you to recommend your own title and description tags for each page submitted and to submit pages that may not normally be indexed by Slurp.

Author:  Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc. Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

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09 2007 Thursday
20

Search Engine Optimization: Ten Golden Rules For Beginners

By Leo Jackson in SE Optimization
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The following are the ten simple ways to optimize and increase traffic to your website. The guide is meant for those who intend to or are just starting out in Search Engine Optimization. It shows you all the basic things you need to know and what do to improve your rankings with the search engines and increase traffic to your website. No geek speak. No technical jargons. Just practical, easy to follow tips.

Directory Submission:
Submit your site to online web directories. There are several directories you can list your site with. There are free ones as well as paid services. Directory registration can be a time-consuming elbow grease so the temptation is to go for a paid service whereby you pay a company or any other concern to help submit your site to all relevant directories. However you do not really need to shell out to get listed in the right directories with decent traffic and pagerank. The search engines have their own directory services and is a great place to start. Yahoo has its directory service www.dir.yahoo.com. Visit the site and submit your URL and feed in the category that matches the kind of website you run and / or your kind of business. It might take a while but your site will be listed. Getting listed in a directory like that offers all the exposure and presence a major player like Yahoo has to offer. Another directory to aim for is the Open Directory Project (dmoz). It does take some effort to get listed here but given the fact that this directory is highly valued by most of the big search engines, then it must be worth every effort. It can be found at www.dmoz.org.

Search Engine Registration:
Register with the search engines. Registering with the search engines is introducing your website to them, inviting them to visit the site and help announce your existence to the world wide web. This can be explained simply without getting into geek mode. Forget about algorithms, spiders, crawlers and all that. In plain terms, the search engines on being registered with, will visit your website and index it. Hopefully they like what they see and they keep coming back and once someone searches for the contents they have found on your site, they point that person towards your site. So a sure way of being noticed by the search engines is simply to register with them. Of course Google should be your number one target here. Other prominent search engines you should register with include Alexa, Entireweb, Scrub The Web, Jayde, Info Tiger, Exactseek, Lookseek and Lifetips.

Article Submission:
Submit articles to online article publishing and syndicating websites. When you do this, put a link to your website at the end of the article or any other appropriate place depending on the website you are submitting to. Be aware that this does not correlate to just a blatant plugging of your site. The article should be well written, informative and most preferably relevant to what your line of business or website is about.

Build Links:
Link building is perhaps the most important and influential factor to consider when looking to increase your standing with the search engines and increase traffic to your website. Basically link building can be seen in two broad terms: Viral and Organic. Viral links are from websites who belong to a link building group or association of websites all exchanging links for the basic purpose of having as many links as possible irrespective of any other considerations. In other words people join certain websites where all the members are there for the sole express reason of populating their link list. This is deemed as cheating by the search engines and is frowned upon. Some of the sites could have been blacklisted or penalised by the search engines. Some may have no relevance to your website. So you want to avoid this kind of link building like the plague. If your website gets blacklisted by Google for instance, it takes up to the better part of six months to get back in their good books. Organic link building is the way to go. These are links that that you acquire naturally. Examples are websites that link to your website due to its relevance or quality. Organic link building can be attained by various ways. See below for some of these.

Join online Groups and Forums:
By joining a group or a forum you can network with people with the same interest as you thus it follows that these people will visit your site. Not only that your group members will visit your site, they might mention your websites on their own sites thereby giving you more exposure. Since most of you in the group are members because you share a common interest then this can also serve as a source of quality links for your website thus improving your pagerank. Remember that the relevance of links to your website is considered by the search engines in ranking your site. You increase your exposure by posting on forums that relate to your website. A lot of people read forum postings even without being members and i even know people who use forums as a search method. Yahoo Group is one of the earliest and is my choice. However there are now a plethora of groups and forums that will deliver just as well.

Closely related to these two is Yahoo Answers. Here you can establish yourself as a source of reliable information regarding the subject matter of your website or the business you are in. Put a link to your website when you post an answer to a question. If people find your answers useful and relevant of course the tendency is that they will visit your website.

Advertise:
Paid advertising is a more direct strategy in increasing or improving your web traffic. A very effective strategy it must be said. The best idea is to go for a Pay Per Click deal. Google Adwords is the one to target here. Basically, a banner of your website is displayed on Google search results and if the banner is clicked the person is automatically directed to your website. You can find more information on Google Adwords and how to start at http://adwords.google.com

Use Web 2.0 and Social Media:
Open accounts with sites like MSN Windows Live,Yahoo 360, Blogger and Wordpad. Register with sites like Technorati, Flickr, Stumbleupon, Ryze and Facebook. They all afford you to maintain a presence on the web. You can reach a wide audience or potential customers through these pages. Even big business concerns have realised the power of Social Media and are making use of it to maintain a competitive edge. Also you need to register with pinging websites. These are sites that work for you while you sleep so to speak. All they ask is you let them know once you have new contents on your site and they will bellow it to the whole world wide web. My pick here is pingoat.You can join pingoat at www.pingoat.com.

Content is king:
This fact is a dog eared expression in Search Engine Optimisation these day. So much so it is fast attaining the status of a cliche. I am not one easily caught dropping cliches but if it is a crime to do so then i plead guilty on this instance and will gladly do my time. Your site`s content should be well written. No grammatical errors or spelling howlers. Such errors make a bad impression on visitors to the site. Keep your sentences short and compact. Aim for clarity and try to make the site as easy to understand as possible. Again it is paramount that the content of your website should be relevant to it`s title or your business. This is important for two main reasons: If the site contents and site description do not tally, your standing with the search engines might be adversely affected or worst still they might suspect you of being a spamming or other dubious site. And you do not want that. The other reasons is that visitors might be disappointed and discouraged from re visiting a website they thought was about fishing but found out, on visiting the site that it was about computing. Sure you can have some computing talk on a fishing oriented website but your main focus should be on fishing. As implied in your website`s name or description. Update your website with new contents regularly. The search engines love new contents. The search engines periodically scan the net for new contents. As i mentioned earlier, they send out feelers (robots, spiders or crawlers in geek speak) to see what is there in cyberspace. If time after time your website is visited they have something new to report back then they will always come back. The result of which is that your pages are constantly updated. This improves your standing in their search queries for a keyword related to your website

Use your e-mail as a campaign tool: You can do this by using the url of your website as a signature. So every mail you send carries a clickable link to your site. This is quite easy enough to do. Most e-mail clients have this facility. For example if you use hotmail go to Options> Preference >Signature and insert the full address of your website.

Create a sitemap:
A sitemap outlines the structure of your website. It arranges your website into sections. This makes the website easy to navigate by search engine robots and spiders. This of course makes the indexing of your site easier. To learn more about sitemaps go to