Monday, June 23, 2008

Viral marketing is a methods of list building

There are multiple methods of list building, and if you are just getting started, until you have gained mastery over one or two methods, it is advisable to use multiple methods of list building strategies. You’ll see every step of the process, no matter how small, in exacting detail so

You've probably created an awesome looking website, perhaps spent good money at it too. You may also have submitted this beautiful website to a few search engines and prayed and hoped that people would mysteriously show up at your side and buy whatever it is you were selling.

Well this may well be what many marketers did 10 years ago, but not anymore as you've probably found out by now, hopefully not through the hard way. This is the reality today and you might even know that to optimize your website around your main keywords helps you to rank well in thousands of search engines.

There are just too much to cover in this type of optimization but for interest of space and your time in deciphering what I have to impart to you, I will share with you some good tips and focus only on some important aspects of on-page optimization and off-page optimization, which are essentially the two types of search engine optimization, that you can immediately practiced and benefit.

On-page refers to things you can do to your own website. Off-page refers to the things that happen to your website from other sites (usually referring to incoming links from other sites), and therefore you may not have much control over this if you don't have good knowledge or strategy.

On page optimization essentially refers to:

Header tags - use and placing specific keywords within those tags

Title tag - your title tag, should contain your main keyword in the title tags

Bolding, italicizing, underlining your keywords that are found anywhere in the body of the webpage.

One misconception people sometimes have is putting too many keywords in the Meta Tags. This may not help in SEO optimization at all. In fact it might even hurt you. Many people do not know that ideally the title tag should contain fewer than 100 characters while the keyword and description tags should contain fewer than 256 characters each. Most search engines will only consider data within these character ranges when indexing a web page.

On the contrary, some SEO experts even suggest combining your keywords in the page title. Combining keywords to cut down on the total number of keywords displayed in the title is a great way to boost the strength of each individual keyword. This will greatly have an immediate impact on your SEO ranking.

Having said all the good things about on-page optimization, and I agree that it is something every marketer really ought to do, you may still not see dramatic changes in the seo ranking. It's the off page optimization factors that will drive this eventual result.

It's for this reason that you should focus more on off-page optimization. While this is far more important of the two types of SEO optimization, it is also the harder of the two. Off page optimization basically consists of all off page ranking factors like:

Which websites and how many of them link to you

The Google page rank of the website linking to you

The page title of the website linking to you

The anchor text used in the link linking to you

The number and type of links linking to the website that's linking to you.

The number of outbound links on the website that is linking to you

The total number of links on the website that is linking to you

Whether or not the websites linking to you are deemed by Google as an authority website.

Link popularity and link development are related to off page optimization and there is just too much to go over in this article. What I can share with you here and it comes from many SEO experts too, is that getting links from webpages that contain your main keyword in the page title is extremely powerful and is something many people often overlook.

I hope that I leave you with some good seo tips which you can immediately use, and be convinced that SEO optimization, link development and keyword optimization are instrumental in bringing you free, natural and organic traffic to your website.

To find the best Work At Home Ideas and Opportunities so you can work at home visit: http://www.PeterLeeHC.com

Making Money with Your Blog!

A place for finding the Nuts and Bolts for Making Money Online with Affiliate Marketing Business Opportunity!

Even if you have a ton of money to pay for advertising, there are four key strategies to marketing on a shoestring that will in the long run that will build your brand and create links that will ultimately be far more effective than any paid advertising that you may do. In fact, paid advertising is typically only effective while you are using it and after the money has run out, you are back to square one. If you use these strategies, however, the effect is long lasting and provides a solid basis for a real internet business. The four strategies are:

1:List building. You have always heard that the money is in your list and this is a time proven method of business building. You will need a good opt-in page and a good autoresponder. For an opt-in page, you have several options. You can find free ones on the net just by doing a Google search, you can easily build your own or some of the better business opportunities will have a built-in opt-in page. The other thing that you need is a good autoresponder an this is one area that spending a little money will save you a ton of heartache. You can get a top of the line autoresponder for less than $20 a month and be assured that you will have a near 100% delivery rate. With the free or cheap ones, you will get what you pay for.

2.Article Marketing. The internet has a voracious appetite for fresh content. Ezines, newsletters, websites and blogs are always looking for fresh content. In article marketing, you write a simple content rich article that people can use and you will find you name being spread all over the internet. Make sure that you adhere to the article directories policies and don't ever try to advertise in an article. If your article is interesting, the reader may click on your signature information and this is what links to your business offering. This is probably the single best method of free marketing. Not only does it build your reputation as an expert in the field but, it also produces links back to your website or blog.

3. Forum Marketing. No matter what your niche is there is a forum that is dedicated to it. It doesn't matter if it is internet marketing or dog grooming, there is a community of like minded individuals who want to hear what you have to say. Typically, unless specifically allowed, you should not try to advertise in your posts. Let your signature do your advertising. If you can help someone answer a question and your comment is information rich, they will click on your signature for more information about you. There is a land-mine to watch out for. If your comment is not valid, contains misinformation or is overtly commercial, you can destroy your reputation just as fast as you can build it.

4.Blogging. Not only do you want your own blog but, you also want to comment on other peoples blogs. Just remember to treat this just the same as you would Forum Marketing. On your own blog, you can, of course, directly advertise but people came to your blog for information and not simply to hear a sales pitch. Let your links do your advertising for you and make sure that your blog is content rich. If you can help your reader become successful, they will also help you to also become a success. Wordpress has recently prohibited blogs that are for the purpose of affiliate marketing. However, you can still use Wordpress on your own site and there are also a number of companies offering your own blog with free hosting. Just Google "free blog hosting". Make sure you read the Terms of Service (TOS) before signing on to one of these free hosts.

Although these methods will not have the sudden impact that PPC ads have, they will have long lasting results that will build a solid business base for you.

Stan Pontiere has been an online marketer since 1997. At first part-time and then full-time since 2004. For further information on Marketing on a Shoestring please visit: http://www.myezybizonline.com or my blog at: http://www.internetbizops.myccblog.com Please feel free to reprint this article as long as the article and resource information are left in tact.

Three Things You Must Do Before You Submit To Article Directories

To all writers and non-writers out there, now is the time to start digging up those creative writing skills.With modern communication technology comes the popularity of information-based marketing, which is one of the oldest and most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers. This is

If you're an online business owner or manager, you have probably heard a bit about article marketing and directories. However, many people aren't aware of the different benefits that come with directories. It is quite possible to make your article viral with directories, and this article will outline how to do that as well as the benefits of article marketing.

When you are thinking of submitting your articles to directories, you should know that there are millions of people who read articles in directories every month. For this reason, it is very important for the article to meet specific guidelines and standards. The first and most important requirement for a great article to become viral is originality. The article should also be quality and keyword-rich. Search engine optimization is very important for your article marketing campaign to be effective. The proper keyword density is around 3 to 5%, or around five to six times within a 550-word article. Adding more keywords than this will simply be considered 'spam' by the search engines and you can likely be penalized as far as your search engine ranking.

Another thing you want to consider is how the article prepares the readers to visit your page and purchase a product or service. This is very important, as the reader should be left wanting more and ready to purchase. A great freelance writer or ghostwriter can help immensely with this. Because they are experienced in writing for the customers, the good ones know how to pull this off successfully. You can easily get a great writer to handle your articles for you if you don't have a lot of time. Many of them are very familiar with article marketing campaigns. Should you decide that you want to write your own article, the tips below can help you with the different directories.

There are several directories that you can use in order to drive traffic to your site and make your article viral. One of them, and perhaps the most popular, is www.ezinearticles.com. When you submit your article to Ezine Articles, you will be considered for publishing, and then when you do get published, you will have a byline that accompanies your article. This byline can include a link to your website, allowing readers to click right through to your website. The trick is to sell them subtly, without presenting sales articles or hype to the readers.

Another directory is www.associatedcontent.com. This one works much like Ezine Articles, but with Associated Content, you earn money either upfront for your article, or through the page views on your article. Of course, it's not enough money to make a living, so don't count on that, but it can be a valuable directory providing that you have great SEO within your articles. There are many other things you can do to make your articles viral with directories, but these are the most important and common tricks. Utilize them to be successful today!

Are you a freelance writer who is tired of others profiting from your hard work and effort? Do you want to maximize your online income and secure financial freedom for you and your family? Now you can! Combine your writing talents with the power of Internet Marketing and watch your income soar! Visit http://www.internetmarketingwriter.com and join the new revolution of financially secure and joyous freelance writers.

Making Money with Your Blog!

A place for finding the Nuts and Bolts for Making Money Online with Affiliate Marketing Business Opportunity!

What would happen if? I'm a person to always ask that question. I love testing and tracking to see what factors can improve or worsen a situation. So, it was only natural for me to track the moves of a little experiment I did involving SEO copywriting recently. I'll gladly share my findings with you.

Before I do, however, I want to make a couple of things very clear. The outcome of this experiment will not be the same for every keyphrase on every page of every site. There are too many unknown factors at play in the overall SEO equation. Not to mention, all keyphrases are not the same, and all sites are not the same. In addition, this experiment takes no account of link popularity, which is a huge factor in achieving high rankings. With that said, let me show you how I took the home page of one of my sites - that didn't even rank in the top 50 - and caused it to rank in the top 10.

First of all, I'm not a big fan of checking rankings on a regular basis. I don't run ranking reports for all my sites to be sure they are all in the positions I want them in for every given keyphrase. I'll do it from time to time just to satisfy my own occasional curiosity. This experiment began when I noticed the home page of one of my sites was ranking highly for a keyphrase that didn't seem to appear anywhere in the text. Upon further investigation, I saw that the keyphrase was included in the ALT tags (a.k.a. image attribute tags) and that it was also included in the title tag.

I knew ALT tags previously carried a lot of weight with the engines, but had been downgraded in importance because site owners had badly abused the tag. Had ALT tags been reinstated in their level of importance? I decided to find out.

Keyword #1 was currently in the ALT tags and the title tag, so I decided to eliminate the keyword in the title tag. This would let me see if the ALT tags alone could hold the position in the search engine results pages (SERPs). To make things more interesting, I also decided to research and find a keyword that was a little more competitive and insert it into the title tag. On the same day I removed Keyword #1 from the title tag, I inserted Keyword #2. My home page was not ranked in the top 50 at that time for Keyword #2.

A few days later, the Googlebot came by and boosted my home page to position #18 for Keyword #2. Not bad! The page fell one spot (from #17 to #18) for Keyword #1 since the removal of the phrase from the title tag.

Keep in mind, these are not the most competitive keywords ever known. They each got between 100 to 200 searches a day. Also, the home page of this particular site had been (and still is) well ranked for years for other keyphrases and had a positive legacy with Google.

Five days later, Keyword #2 was moved up three notches to a ranking of #14 while Keyword #1 stayed the same. Things remained in their status quo for roughly 10 days and then began to shift again. Keyword #1, the original that was previously in both the ALT tags and the title tag, vanished completely. It was not found in the top 50. Keyword #2, that was only found in the title tag and nowhere else, dropped to position #25.

Four days later, Keyword #2 was back up in the rankings and was now at #16. To see if I could improve rankings further, I began to make small tweaks to the page attributes. I added Keyword #2 to the ALT tags (taking the places where Keyword #1 had once been), and I also added Keyword #2 to the body copy. The keyphrase was added to one, bold sub-headline and at three places within the body copy: none of which were above the fold. It was not added to any primary headlines that used tags, and no keyword density formula was followed for the body copy. No other pages on my site used this term as anchor text in links pointing to the home page. That gave the page keyword placement in the:

Title tag

ALT tags

Body copy

Seven days later, the home page hit the top 10 for Keyword #2!

So, what does all this mean? Simple. There is no single primary factor in search engine rankings. It takes balance, testing and tracking to find out what works for your particular pages. Your best bet is to do exactly what I did begin one step at a time and track your progress. Did something cause a positive movement? Keep it. If something causes a negative shift, take it out.

I'm not finished with this page yet. I'll keep trying different things from time to time just to see what happens. Maybe I'll add anchor text links from the internal pages to the home page. I might try writing articles with keyword-rich anchor text links to help boost the rankings more. There are many acceptable practices I can implement for this page (or any page) that will allow me to observe the shifts in ranking. As the old saying goes, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." A diversified approach to SEO copywriting that includes tags, copy and links is always a wise start down the road to top 10 rankings.

2006, All Rights Reserved

Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO and online copywriting that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out Karons report How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy) at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

Viral marketing is a methods of list building

There are multiple methods of list building, and if you are just getting started, until you have gained mastery over one or two methods, it is advisable to use multiple methods of list building strategies. You’ll see every step of the process, no matter how small, in exacting detail so

Do you know the truth about article marketing? Article Marketing is one of the most powerful ways of creating a flow of traffic to your website, but you should know the whole truth.

If you are looking for a shot in your wallet over night then you are going to be disappointed. Article marketing is not designed to create this kind of income.

The major benefit of article marketing is longevity. The articles that you write today will serve you long into the future. In time you will find that the traffic visiting your website this month may have been generated by an article you wrote 3 months, 6 months, or more than a year ago. It is said that the older a fine wine is the better it gets. Article marketing works in much the same way. The longer you have been writing articles the more traffic will generated.

No, article marketing will not cause your bank account to grow by a number of zeros over night. You will see the zeros but they will come over time.

Think of article marketing kind of like a $1 membership site. The first month you get 100 subscribers. I know $100 per month does not sound like much but think of the growth over a six month period. The second month another 250 members join. Then 500 the third month, another 500 the fourth, 750 the fifth, and on the sixth month another 1000 join your membership site. You have grown from a mere $100 the first month to $3100 in the sixth month. This type of site has a cumulative effect. So does Article Marketing.

I know from experience that article marketing can be a bit frustrating in the beginning. Sometimes it seems like you are working so hard and seeing nothing in return. To be honest I hated it and almost quit on more than one occasion. When you are using article marketing as your entire source of advertising there is a virtue that you either must have or must develop and that is patience.

I set a goal for myself by deciding that I wanted 1000 articles published in one years time. Then I divided that number by 260 (52 weeks divided by 5 work days per week) and came up with a total of 4. Therefore I need to write a minimum of 4 articles per day.

Writing is the hardest but most important part. Decide how many articles you need per day and make sure you write them. Be consistent. Be diligent. Be disciplined. Be successful.

Lee Ruleman is an article marketing professional specializing in assisting others in achieving their goals in the internet business marketplace. To get Lee's brand new product A Complete Internet Business in an Easy Open Can please visit http://www.successfularticlemarketing.com

Viral marketing is a methods of list building

There are multiple methods of list building, and if you are just getting started, until you have gained mastery over one or two methods, it is advisable to use multiple methods of list building strategies. You’ll see every step of the process, no matter how small, in exacting detail so

When submitting to directories there are several things you need to consider to make sure that you maximize the link popularity you receive from each directory.

First when choosing directories to submit to, look for ones that have been indexed by Google and have at least a page rank of 0. If their page rank is showing no data or a gray bar, you may want to wait before submitting to that particular directory. (You can see page rank and find out if a site has been indexed by Google very quickly by downloading Google's tool bar).

Second, be sure to choose the most relevant category to submit your site to. Browse through the directory and find sites that are very similar to yours and submit to the same category that they have submitted to. This will put your link and description with other similar links and descriptions thus making the link more relevant to your site.

Third, when choosing titles make sure you choose terms you want to rank in the search engines for. This is going to be the anchor text of the link that you will get in the directory. Anchor text plays a huge role in where your website will rank. So many times I see people submit titles that no one would ever search and for the most part I would say it is a waste. Choose titles that you know will bring valuable traffic if you ever ranked for the term.

Fourth, mix up the descriptions. It is easy to keep using the same description for every submission that you do, but easy is not always better in link building. You must always keep in mind that search engines want to see links that appear to happen in the natural evolution of the internet. In other words they don't want to see purchased links or links that have the same description attached to it over and over. Chances are that if they see either of those two things, your link will be discounted. Try to write as many unique descriptions as you can. Yes it can be tedious and boring but if you are willing to put in the hard work, chances are your competitors are not and that gives you a decisive advantage over them.

Fifth, try to make your submissions as random as possible. If you do 100 directory submissions every day, that doesn't appear natural to a search engine because they could see you getting 100 new links each day. Make it as random as possible so that you avoid any red flags being put up. (This suggestion is not as critical as the others because search engines wont find every link at the same time but its always better to be safe than end up on page 53 of Google's results).

If you are doing a lot of directory submissions a good resource is found at OneWayTextLink.com. They have a list of about 2500 free web directories you can submit to and have a free tool that allows you to keep track of all of your submissions so you don't forget which directories you have already submitted to.

Adam White is the president of Website Breakthrough LLC (http://www.websitebreakthrough.com) an SEO consulting firm based out of Phoenix, Arizona and has done small business SEO for over 250 clients since 2002.

Three Things You Must Do Before You Submit To Article Directories

To all writers and non-writers out there, now is the time to start digging up those creative writing skills.With modern communication technology comes the popularity of information-based marketing, which is one of the oldest and most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers. This is

We've dealt with many companies and websites in a search engine optimization capacity. The search engine optimization world is one surrounded by mystery. Although there is a thriving online community, search engine optimization is not typically offered as a course at schools or universities around the country. It is very much a skilled learned through experience.

But, often time's companies or "SEO experts" don't know exactly what they're doing. Not only is this unacceptable as you may be paying these companies or individuals good money, but in the long run some techniques employed by less experienced search engine optimizers or those willing to take short cuts can cause your site to become permanently banned by the search engines.

Over the years we've learned that education is the key to success. Whether you've just begun the process of looking for a company to provide search engine optimization services, are well along the process, or already have a company you're dealing with and want to make sure they're doing things correct this is a helpful and simple 5 question guide:

1) Can you get my website to the top of the search engines?

This is an important question, and one you may have already planned to ask. What you want to look for is whether or not the company digs deeper and what their response is. For example you should expect to hear things like:

  • what would you like to rank for?
  • are their competitors in your market that you believe have a great web presence with search rankings you would like to emulate?

Without intimate knowledge of your industry as well extensive research it is hard to know what you really need to rank for and whether the terms you think are important will actually drive results. Additionally watch out for too quick of an answer. Although a great search engine optimizer may be able to get you to #1 for something you want, it should never be guaranteed and it isn't an overnight process.

2) Once my site is created, how do you make sure I show up on the search engines?

Many search engine optimizers or firms will talk about website submission. In reality all that is really needed for search engines to know that your website is there is a link (from any site on the Internet) back to your site. Some firms may talk about repeated search engine submission, but this is completely unnecessary and could actually end up hurting your rankings as the repeated blasts may be considered spam. One key thing to look out for when discussing this question is the mention of sitemaps and webmaster tools. Many powerful websites (content management sites, shopping carts, etc.) can automatically create a sitemap (a single file that shows the location of every page on your site). When this file is setup under a search engine's webmaster tool console it can help significantly to increase your rankings and should be a staple of any search engine optimizers toolset.

3) What is link building, do I need it, and how do I do it?

3 questions in 1, I know, but this one is important.

Although on-page optimization (the way your website is built, text, etc.) is important, link building comes in at a very close second. Yes you do need link building! And the company you commission needs to assist in this process. If they don't mention this run the other way. Your website needs links-in from other websites across the Internet to help you rank well. Links act like votes of confidence - the more you have, the more powerful your site. There are a number of quick ways to get links, but link building is a long process, but well worth the time or expense.

One thing to watch out for in link building campaigns is the creation of many smaller websites that then link back to your main site. Although in theory it is not a bad idea the truth is because of the nature of the search engines it is a colossal waste of time and money that would be better spent actually building quality links to your main site - from existing established sites throughout the Internet.

4) How do you measure the SEO process?

The advent of new tools and technology has made the measurement of search engine optimization and your website's overall success easier than ever. Another key component to a successful search engine optimized site or campaign is the installation of proper metrics tools and the review both by the company being commissioned, as well as you the site owner. Like many things search engine optimization varies depending on a number of different factors, so implementing techniques is important, but measuring and refining are key next steps.

5) Do you start with pay per click marketing?

A good search engine optimization campaign should start with pay per click marketing and the company you commission should at least suggest this, even if you are opposed to it.

Why should you start with pay per click marketing?

Well, to understand why you have to start with pay per click marketing you have to first understand the difference between paid search (PPC) and organic search (search engine optimization). Organic search engine optimization is a long process. When you first launch your site it can take weeks or months for the search engines to even place you. On top of that, it will take months and sometimes years to rank well for competitive terms. Additionally, organic search engine optimization is not done for thousands of different key terms and phrases. It typically involves just a handful of terms, and is very specific.

Pay per click marketing or paid search on the other hand is immediate; allowing you to get in front of your audience right away and usually includes thousands of key phrases. You will literally pay for ads or listings when certain key phrases are searched for.

So, before you spend the time and money on all of the little details that help your site rank well organically (search engine optimization) how do you know what terms to select?

Research! And the best way to accumulate that research (while bringing in qualified customers) is through paid search. Paid search is the ultimate research tool and will help weed out less popular or less desirable terms and illuminate well performing key terms all while driving desirable traffic that will help your site get customers, leads, sales, etc.

Ask these five questions, analyze the answers questions carefully, and use your best judgement!

Zachary Katkin is the founder & CEO of Fort Myers Web Design Firm, Atilus Web Development & Internet Marketing.