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A Network Of Web Sites Is Not Enough! by: Martin Lemieux The big thing these days is your ability to capture the market. So how do you do that? Do you... 1) Use spam tactics? 2) Have a massive banner campaign? 3) Spends lots of money of PPC Advertising? 4) Build a huge web site? 5) Link to everyone in the world? or do you... 6) Own a network of more than one web site? - Thinking that your network will help your search engine rankings since you can control your own link popularity! #6 is starting to be the norm out there. Companies are just consuming a mass amount of domain names in order to increase their chances of being found online. But does it really increase their chances? Let's see... Since recently, Google has been crawling through "DNS"information in order to sniff out who owns what. So for instance, if you own 20 web sites, google will find that out by the information you have on all the registered domains. Given that you own these 20 web sites, doesn't that give you the ability to create your own high page ranking, link popularity building campaign? Answer is yes, so what happens from that? Absolutely nothing. Nothing happens to increase your rankings I mean. For instance, let's say you are trying to build everything off of one mainly large web site of yours. Let's also say that you intend to link to site #2 for this key phrase "Boosting Rankings". You've done a lot of work to add that title and link pointing to site #2 on all of your pages within your one, main, larger site. Here's what happens to your rankings for both of them. It is known now that google has come up with this "Sandbox" effect. This is simply known as keeping an eye on certain network of web sites and the targeted key phrases they are after. So your site #1 isn't the target of this sandbox effect, it's your smaller, networked web site that is. Instead of getting any type of rank for the phrase "Boosting Ranking", this site is added to a pool of web sites that are doing the same thing. The catch is that this "pool" is nowhere to be found, unless you know how to look for it. On the other hand, your main, large web site will now take over the ranking for "Boosting Ranking" and will probably do pretty good within a search!!! So does owning a network really help you? NO, not unless you know how to better your "smaller", network web sites so that they don't get caught in this "Sandbox Effect". So how do you do that? Simple, instead of relying on your network to boost your page ranking, outsource some of that strategy elsewhere. See, "Google" is only saying, if we don't do this to your network, then it gives you the sole ability to control your search engine rankings for all your sites. We are merely stating that we know you have a network and worked really hard to build it but we also want you to promote other peoples sites as well. It's that simple. If you start today and keep building more links on other peoples web sites with your network, your entire network should see a big difference within 30 days of starting. I hope this article helps you out! ------------------------------------- Content is Crucial! Content is undoubtedly the most important element of a website. It is the defining factor for a website, that which catches the interest of your visitors and keeps them hooked to your site. Unless what you say holds the attention and interest of the visitors to your site, the rate at which they would they hit the “back” button and say “bye - bye” to your site, will astonish you!!!! So it is right to say that CONTENT IS KING!! And make sure you treat it like one! It is imperative for website owners to understand and follow the right process to develop content for their site. Here are some of the basic points which should be kept in mind while developing content for your website – 1. TARGET AUDIENCE The first step is to define your target audience. You should have an absolutely clear picture in your mind as to who exactly will visit your site. Once you know that, you should write your content in such a way that talks to them. 2. CONCENTRATE ON BENEFITS NOT FEATURES When describing a product you are selling or a service you are offering, concentrate on their benefits not their features. Make the visitor realize that they just have to buy your product. After all, that’s the only reason why he would stay on your site. 3. GIVE THEM WHAT THEY’RE LOOKING FOR, OH! AND QUICK!! Visitors to your site are there for a purpose: They either want to buy your product, access the information you are offering or subscribe to your offer. And don’t forget! They don’t have much time to spare …so you have to give them what they are looking for quickly, without any delays! Hence, your first few paragraphs of content ideally should hit the bull’s eye and get the message across!! 4. MAKE IT EASY TO READ AND FOLLOW Keeping in mind your target audience, write and structure your content in such a way that it is easy to read, grasp and follow.
5. KEEP THEM HOOKED Whatever you do, don’t let them leave your site without making your point. Your content must talk to your visitors: Keep them reading on …It should be able to make a sale..and yet be subtle and informative….. Follow these simple steps and see the difference!!! |
How To Promote Your Business – A 10 step guide for
beginners by: Trent Brownrigg Often times when people start an internet business they don't have a clue how to go about their marketing campaign. They end up posting ads aimlessly to places that do nothing but send them spam and waste time and money. Then, after a couple weeks without results, they give up. It almost happened to me and I know it happens to others everyday. So, in order to help the newbies, I decided to give a quick overview of some of the widely used techniques for marketing your business. When used correctly these marketing techniques will dramatically increase traffic and sales without emptying your bank account. Here they are, in no particular order: 1) PPC's (Pay Per Click) - These are a very widely used method of getting traffic to your website. Pretty much everyone uses PPC's at one time or another. The concept is really simple… you bid a certain amount on keywords related to your product or service. Then when someone searches for those keywords they find your ad (assuming you bid high enough). Finally, they click on your ad and you pay the amount you bid. This is great because you only pay for traffic that actually goes to your site and all the traffic is targeted. PPC’s may sound intimidating because of the word "pay" but you can usually find keywords to bid on for a very low amount. The highest bid I have on a PPC right now is 25 cents per click which is actually considered high for some. You can also frequently find deals where you get money put into your account just for signing up. Then the traffic you get doesn’t cost you anything. Send an email to webmaster1@gmail.com and I will send you a list of some PPC’s that do this. For a list of the top PPC's go to www.payperclicksearchengines.com -Note: Google Adwords is not listed in their top 10 but it should be. Overture and Google are widely considered to be the two best. You can find Google Adwords at http://www.google.com/ads/programs.html 2) COOPS - This one is also really simple. You just pay a certain amount for guaranteed prospects. Usually someone that generates very high amounts of prospects, due to their marketing efforts, will allow you to participate in the coop for a small fee. They are also a super time saver because you don't have to do anything to get the prospects, except pay a little. Coops are a really great deal when you are new because you typically aren’t real great at getting your own quality prospects without spending a lot of money or tons of time. 3) Article Writing - Writing articles is another great way to generate a lot of quality traffic as well as make a name for yourself on the internet. All you do is write on a topic you know about and submit it to places that accept article submissions. This one scares people at first because they don’t think they can write. Trust me it's not as hard as you may think to find a topic you know something about. Then just write a couple pages about it. For example: I never used to think I could write articles but you are reading this one right now, aren’t you? 4) Forum Submissions - Basically all you do with this one is go to internet business forums and post answers to people’s questions. This one is more for making a solid reputation for yourself as a knowledgeable and trustworthy individual. I have already written an article on this so I won’t go into much detail here. The article will give you a lot more info, you can find it at http://www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com/forumsuccess.html It tells a lot about what to do and not do in the forums as well as provide you with some good forums to get started in. Note: Do not post ads in the forums. The only way this technique is effective is to offer answers and advice to people. This is also a really great way to learn a lot from the masters just by reading the posts. 5) Link Exchanges (for search engines) - This technique is only effective if you have your own website. You search for sites related to yours (such as “work at home”) and then you place a link to the website into the links page of your website. Then you ask the webmaster to return the favor by placing a link to your site on theirs. Link exchanges are great for getting your website ranked highly in search engines such as Google. Then when people search for your keywords they find your site. This takes a lot of time and work but is great for a huge amount of targeted traffic in the end. 6) Ezines – Ezines are one of the best sources of information on the web. They can make a huge impact on your marketing success if used correctly. Most Ezines offer ad space that you can buy for fairly cheap. Some even accept ads for free. You can also write articles (explained above) and submit them to Ezines to get free exposure. The Directory of Ezines (DOE) is well-known as the premier resource for the best Ezines. You can find the DOE at http://tinyurl.com/39do4 To help ensure you find quality Ezines to advertise in you should check to see how many subscribers they have. The more the better but make sure their list is 100% opt-in because some will try and make themselves look more popular than they really are. Also, make sure there aren’t too many ads to compete with. Some Ezines will accept virtually unlimited ads. Your ad will probably never be seen in an Ezine that allows this. I really like the DOE (link above) because they have already checked the Ezines for quality to make it much easier on you. 7) Word-of-mouth - Well, this one’s easy. Tell everyone you know or meet about your business and tell them to tell everyone they know about it too. Here is a great article about this topic: http://www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com/300rule.html 8) Fliers - Post fliers in places where a lot of people go. Supermarkets, sign poles, under windshield wipers in large parking lots (you might want to ask the owner of the lot before doing that), universities, anywhere else you can think of---you get the picture. You can also just hand them out to people at large events. 9) Ads on high ranking sites – Similar to classifieds… there are many websites that offer space for people to place ads. You can usually get an ad for a very good price. Just search for websites on your topic and if they offer ad space then ask them about it. If they are in the top 10 on the search engines for the keywords you type in then there is a good chance they get a lot of traffic. Your ad could be seen by thousands of people every month. 10) Classifieds – There are many classified ad directories on the internet. How popular the site is will usually determine how much you pay for an ad. Most places offer pretty fair prices. There are also plenty of places to post classified ads offline such as newspapers. There are tons of classified sites so it’s very easy to get confused or overwhelmed when trying to figure out what ones to use. You should definitely do some research on the site before you spend money to advertise there. Here are a few things to look for – Number of visitors to the site (the more the merrier), make sure your ad will stay visible without being pushed off the page by other ads, and make sure the site offers value to visitors, meaning it isn’t just full of ads and nothing else. What NOT to do when promoting your business – Do not send out unsolicited (spam) emails to people. All that will do is get you in trouble and won’t produce very good results anyway. Don’t post to FFA (free for all) sites. All you will get back from them is a bunch of junk in your inbox so it’s not worth your time. Also, don’t use unethical business practices of any kind. If you are not sure about something then ask someone. Always use your better judgment. Well, that’s all I have for now. There are many more marketing techniques that you can use so don’t assume that this is an all-inclusive list. The promotion methods above are just some of the more commonly used ways to get traffic/customers for your business. I didn’t go into detail on any of the techniques because this article would have turned out to be a book. If you need any more information or help with anything send me an email and I will answer your questions or direct you to someone that can. Finally, please remember that any business online or offline takes hard work and time to build. Do not expect to be making a lot of money in a short amount of time. Put in the effort and you will be greatly rewarded in the long run. Copyright© Trent Brownrigg
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How to Create A
Homepage That Works by: Mike Cheney Want to know what the worst thing to say on a homepage is? "Welcome to our homepage." And yet, time after time, we all come across such homepages on the Internet. The reason that this is such a poor opening gambit is the fact that the visitor already knows he / she is looking at your homepage, what's the point in teaching them to suck eggs? Your website's homepage needs to contain much more important messages than a simple welcome statement or brief history to your company. Why has someone landed on your website in the first place? What problem are they looking to solve? What type of information do they seek? If your homepage doesn't convey that your website has the answers to these questions in the visitors' minds then it's game over - they will leave, never to return. 3 Seconds To Make The Right Impression So how you can retain visitors and grab them as soon as they view the homepage of your website? Well, try condensing the key selling points of your business. Why are you different? Why should they do business with you as opposed to anyone else? A lot of businesses also lose sight of the fact that their homepage should not only convey what the business is about but also what the website is about. What can visitors do on the website? What types of information can they find here? What are the best things about the website? If you don't convey all these vital messages quickly via the homepage people will not stick around trying to find the answers themselves deeper within the site. Put Yourself In The Shoes Of Your Customer As with many marketing approaches the key here is to take a step back and imagine yourself as a customer viewing the homepage for the first time. What would you want to see? Perhaps client comments to instil a sense of trust. Or maybe press clippings that illustrate the profile and respectability of the company? Whatever you decide to place on the homepage keep it snappy. Less is more. It's a cliché but it holds 100% true as far as your website's homepage is concerned. ----------------------------------------------
Top 5 Search Engine
Optimization Mistakes There are a lot of ways to promote your website and, unfortunately, a lot of these methods are mistakes. Here is a list of some of the more common mistakes (often referred to as Black Hat SEO) that you should steer well clear of. 1. Bad Neighbourhoods These sites are also known as free for all (FFA) pages and link farms. They serve no other purpose other than to list tens of thousands of unrelated websites. Not only will these sites not provide your site with any traffic, certain search engines will ban sites who participate. 2. Over Optimization Optimizing your web pages for a particular search engine can be a good thing. Over-optimizing can defeat the purpose, however. Search engines are catching on quickly to pages that appear ‘over-optimized’. Stuffing keyphrases into your pages is the most common problem. Never use hidden (invisible) text to add keywords. You will get caught, and your site will get banned. 3. Doorway Pages Doorway pages are orphaned web pages that are typically optimized for a particular keyphrase and a particular search engine. They are promoted to the search engine in an effort to achieve high rankings. They are not linked back to by any other page on the website and, as such, search engines are able to flush them out quite easily and penalize the entire site. 4. Traffic Generation Scams Services that purport to drive lots and lots of traffic to your website are typically not very useful. The traffic tends to come from seedy places like domain names that have lapsed in payment or commonly misspelled domain entries. Most of the traffic that hits these pages is accidental and is therefore of no value to you. Other traffic may come from other participants in the program who are required to visit other websites to gain ‘credits’ for their own site. Again, this traffic is not targeted and therefore of no value. Some traffic may even be generated by automated software! 5. Shadow Domains Shadow domains are small, optimized, supplementary websites designed to drive traffic to a different website. The way this works is that an SEO company will design and optimize a website on your behalf. The danger here is that the you do not own this new website; the SEO company does! This means that if the relationship sours, they may choose to redirect this site’s traffic to whomever they choose (see #4 above), or even sell the site to one of your competitors! Be very, very careful of this technique, as some supposed search engine ‘experts’ even use this method (no naming of names here, however). One final note: Any company that tells you that it can achieve ‘guaranteed’ rankings is either lying to you or using some of these Black Hat techniques. Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee a number one result within (unpaid) search results. When choosing a search engine optimization company to work with, be sure you feel comfortable with them and trust them (e.g. money back guarantee). And if you decide to promote your website yourself, consider yourself a little better educated against these common mistakes.
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