SEO Blog and Web Hosting News

Archive for October, 2010

So what’s the difference between promoting your website and a brick and mortar store? That’s a common question asked by new internet marketers. It turns out the principles are the same but the methods are different. Let’s take a look at how.

The main object of promoting either store is to first create awareness of the stores existence. Secondly you want them to know what you offer and why it will improve their life. Next you want to show them how yours is better than others in the market. This is all to achieve your final goal of visiting your store or site. Making the sale is another topic all together.

If you have real deep pockets you can start by advertising in the New York Times or on NBC for a brick and mortar store or on MSN or Yahoo sites if you’re on the internet. Of course you have to remember your AOL users won’t see you there just as your CBS watchers won’t see you on NBC. Most start ups aren’t going to worry about this problem as they don’t have the money to do this kind of advertising.

So what method do you use to advertise and drive traffic cost effectively to your site?
• Tell your friends and family about your site. The average person has about 250 people they would invite to their wedding. Let them know what you’re doing.
• Sign up for a leads service that will refer leads to your site. This will be a nominal expense in relation to the leads if you use the right service.
• Post your helpful opinions on forum web sites. This will add credibility to you as an expert and refer people back to your site.
• Place Solo Ads in targeted ezines. Ezines are electronic newsletters that are directed to select groups. This is a very effective method.
• Google Adwords is another way to reach your potential clients. Google adwords allows you to promote your website anytime someone searches for the words or phrases you have selected.
• Another effective method is to make promotional handouts that can be passed out to those you meet. Of course this must direct people to your website.
• Place newspaper classifieds. You can put together a very cost effective campaign using weekly papers that are less costly and can reach your target market.
• Write and publish articles just like this one that show your expertise and direct clients back to your website.
• Start your own blog. Your own blog allows you to ad more pages of content that refers potential clients back and forth from your website to the blog and vise versa.
• Write, have written for you or find an eBook you can brand. The eBook should refer and link to your website throughout the book. This not only shows you to be an authority but also where they can learn more. Advertise your FREE eBook and give it away.

There you have ten ways to promote your website. It’s like advertising a garage sale with yard signs all over town. It’s like putting signs all down the interstate that directs people to which exit they need to visit you. The internet is continually growing. The potential is endless. Go get your share.

Rod Hey

http://www.WinningLifeChoices.com/pips.html

3 Easy Steps to Work at Home Now!

Search engine companies are constantly changing their algorithms to keep their results up-to-date. Optimization used to be the primary factor search engines used to determine a website’s ranking. However, it currently makes up only about 10% of their total algorithms. What carries the most weight with search engines now is linking.

Linking is the process of connecting to other sites that are relevant to your target market and that are highly ranked, and of getting them to connect to you. Google has, by far, the largest percentage of the search engine market, and they’re link-driven. The other search engines tend to follow Google’s lead, so the market is moving faster in that direction.

3 Tips for Building Smart LinksM

When choosing which sites you want to link to, keep in mind what the search engines want to see:

• Search engines are looking for organic results. According to Bruce Chapman of http://Linkateer.com, the number one search engine positioning firm on the web, “One of the things we try to do is make sure every single one of our links is pertinent to that particular type of business.” If your website sells makeup, a natural link would be to a site that gives makeup application techniques. An unnatural link would be to an actor’s fan club site. Says Chapman, “If it’s not natural, it’s going to be a problem.”

• Search engines are looking for consistent results. More links aren’t necessarily better. In fact, getting too many links at once, such as by joining a link farm, can actually hurt your rankings. Gaining 20,000 links this month and 13 links next month is going to trip their filters and, for all your work, you’re going to find yourself dropping in the rankings. With links, the search engines are more concerned with quality than quantity.

• Search engines are looking for one-way links. Reciprocal links are often just people exchanging links to mutually increase their link counts. The search engines have grown wise to this practice and adapted their algorithms. Says Chapman, “When one website wants to link to another website, that’s showing that the second website has got something of value… The one-way link is probably worth 20 times as much as a reciprocal link.”

Achieving Natural Results

It takes time to achieve good positioning in the search engines, especially with the more competitive keywords. Any attempts to trick the engines may work for a while; but they’re getting more and more sophisticated, and they’ll eventually catch up with you. Not only will your trick no longer work, but you may get blackballed or be penalized in your rankings. The best way to achieve high rankings is to give the search engines what they’re looking for—good fresh content and relevant links.

Dear Fellow Internet Marketer,

It is vital to create a product that will allow you to eventually expand into other markets. The goal is for the people who initiallly buy your product to also buy your next products. Since you have proven that you can be trusted by delivering a product to your clients they love it should be much easier to obtain their business when your new item hits the online marketplace. We need to understand a seed is truly important indeed. You need to see your first product as that seed.

You see this is about creating an Internet marketing kingdom, a virtual empire of products that all start with one tiny seed that is planted in the fertile soil of those hearts that are eager for your particular product. For example, I am in the process of creating a set of onlline videos where I teach students the various techniques needed to speak English. My area of expertise lies in the field of ESL(English as a second language) of which I have been blessed to have over 10 years of experience teaching to adult learners. My target market would be foreign adults who wish to learn English via video. I realize though that if I wish to branch out and sell different yet similar products later I will have to pick a product that these learners would also enjoy. This led me to recall the great end of the semester food parties in the classes that I taught where both myself and my students brought in dishes from other countries that many enjoyed. Now I know that my second product launched will be an esl cookbook with recipes submitted from actual students. The cookbook will be sold to other esl students online. Branching out even further, a cooking forum would be established as well as an online cooking class with graduates of my esl video courses eventually teaching the course. It is amazing to see how all this began from the planting of one little seed. The online esl videos seed grew to become a cookbook, an online cooking school and a cooking forum. As we all know marketing is a numbers game and the bigger number of people you have on your marketing list the better your chance of survival and dominance.

Think about your online marketing seed before you plant it. You want to plant something that will grow into something huge. When you look into the jungle you see an incredible array of trees. That is what you should want your seed to turn into. The trees in your Internet jungle will be represented by the vast amount of names on your email list who want your first and additional products. The product you create should also appeal to as many people as possible. I know those who may not be interested in esl may be interested in cooking and vice versa. I could use the cooking bait to reel in the esl fish and use the esl bait to reel in those who love cooking. When your Internet marketing seed is sown you will reap the harvest of personal freedom. This translates into having the freedom to spend time doing what is really important. Even though I am blessed to be doing well working from my home right now, my goal is to create an online marketing kingdom. God is of course the king, I am the king, my wife is the queen and my daughter is the princess. I plan to give my little girl the choice to attend college or as the princess of the family become the boss while the queen and I enjoy our travels. It all starts with that tiny Internet marketing seed. The Bible talks about having the faith of a mustard seed and what can happen if we have just a bit of faith. We have to have dreams, big dreams and seeing those dreams become realities is quite inspirational and shows that this Internet marketing thing is real. No one in your circle of naysayers can argue with your results unless they choose to be up against the truth of your success.

Much Continued Success,

The creator of “The Online Treasure Box”