There are a number of important factors that go into the production of a first-class blog. Quality of content, the layout of the page, how best to integrate video, formal versus informal tone, each of these is a decision that must be made during the creation of the project. That all comes before more esoteric concerns, which include the integration of meta tags, link building, traffic generation, and keyword/SEO implementation.

Yet underlying these important issues is one that many people wrestle with: How often should the thing be updated? Innocuous as it sounds, post frequency is actually vital to the success of any content project, and especially to blogs. Equally, it is a surprisingly complex decision that can involve numerous factors. Time, place, and availability of content all have parts to play in determining just how often you need to update your blog.

Finding the Right Frequency

Blogging is an extension of the principles of marketing. You want to get your content the exposure you feel it deserves, so you market it as best you can to cultivate an audience. This involves doing the legwork and research necessary to act on good information, and testing your ideas while allowing room for adjustment as you work and grow. Chances are you will not hit the right rate of posting immediately, and that is all right as long as you’re prepared to adjust when it’s required.

No single article can cover every eventuality of course, but we can break down a few core principles to get you thinking in the right direction. The key is to consider these ideas and extrapolate from them, using the other lessons you’ve learned, to build a solid, whole-picture approach.

1 – Make content king.

More than almost any other community, web users are keenly attuned to fluff pieces that don’t really say much. This isn’t true for 100% of the community of course, but those who can pick out an airy, pointless piece will almost invariably be sure to point it out, leading to some word of mouth you probably didn’t want. Don’t pick an update schedule that can’t live up to the content you have available. Stick to a schedule that you know you can provide a quality post for, every single time you sign on.

This has a twofold effect. One, it keeps the ‘pressure to post’ at a minimum. Content drives the posting, and you aren’t struggling every third day to come up with more information, or worse to rehash the information you’ve already posted. Secondly, it shows you have respect for the community, and keeps them interested and coming back.

2 – Set the time and day.

Even though the web never sleeps, a great part of the world still functions on a Monday to Friday, 9-5 schedule of sorts. Taking these rhythms into account can help you build the ideal web traffic for your project. For example, a blog focusing on home and family concerns and selling books related to it might not find as much of an audience during traditional business hours as during the time when people are at-home with their families. Granted this is only a rule of thumb, as many people surf the web for their favorite blogs during lunch breaks.

Another part of this element is the Monday-Wednesday-Friday cycle. Many business blogs and publications settle on a three-a-week update schedule, and the MWF routine works out very well for this. They’re all business days, and the schedule covers the start, middle, and end stretches of a workweek.

Of course since this ends up being something of the default, it means that Tuesdays and Thursdays end up with comparatively little content for people to peruse. Sundays suffer a lack of content as well, for the obvious related reasons. If you find yourself preferring less frequent, longer posts, consider a T-Th routine to take advantage of the ‘gap’ between other updates.

3 – Have a conversation.

One of the most interesting contributions to modern marketing is the blog comments section. Every blogging software out there has some feature for allowing or disallowing comments. As we’ve discussed before, consumer input can have an incredible effect on any brand, and blogs are no exception.

Taking advantage of this resource requires a certain amount of patience. Conversations develop in the comments section as people discuss, dispute, and debate the merits of what you’ve posted. In short, you need to not just let this happen, but cultivate the effect. Allow reasonable discussions to grow, and comment yourself on the more relevant points. Let the consumer know their input is being seen, and that you care enough to respond to it. Posting new blog posts too frequently overruns this tendency, and could rob you of vital feedback.

4 – Be nimble.

As we’ve mentioned, you are not likely to get it right just out of the gate. You may bite off too much to chew, or update too infrequently for people to care. Evaluate the data, ask your consumers questions, and be prepared to change as needed. Flexibility is the ultimate survival tool on the web, and your blog will benefit if you approach the affair with an open mind and a willingness to try several approaches. Pick an update schedule, observe it, and then experiment with others until you have the one that best fits your needs.

I got this great list of Marketing Tools in an email today and wanted to pass it on:

Thousands of free online marketing tools clamor for attention, with new ones popping up every week it seems. You know you should be doing more to reach out to your customers, but just researching which tools to use can be a vast time investment, even if they don’t require a big financial outlay.

Below is a compiled a list of the most popular (or most useful) low-cost or free small business marketing tools. You might be using some of them already, but you’re sure to find a couple that will round out your small business marketing toolkit nicely. And, if you’re just starting out marketing a new business online, this list may help point you in the right direction.

Directories

The Open Directory – A staple of the SEO crowd, this directory can be tricky to get into but well worth it for the link juice it passes along to your site.

Yahoo! Directory – It’s not free – this directory will set you back a couple hundred bucks a year – but it’s well worth it for inclusion.

Best of the Web Directory – This directory has been around a while and can pass along some good PageRank to your site.

Niche Directories

Find the directories in your industry that pass along good link building opportunities. Some examples to get you started: SBDGraphics.com for ad agencies, web developers, printers and other graphics professionals; sbdpro.com for small businesses and businesses that serve them; Cpapro.com for the accounting industry; SEOAlpaca.org for alpaca breeders, and so on.

Press Release Distribution Services

Marketwire – The most bang for your buck from an actual wire service, Marketwire’s prices are lower than PR Newswire and Businesswire. This newer service is built for powerful online exposure, and you’ll enjoy the full online distribution with any geographical AP wire distribution. (Sometimes you can get statewide wire distribution for nearly the same cost as only your local metropolitan area.) It’s great for building inbound links – just choose the SEO Enhanced option.

PRLog – A good-performing free press release distribution outlet, PRLog press releases rank really well and for a really long time if they are written with SEO copywriting best practices. Press releases include three links, though they are URL based (starting with http) rather than text anchor. PRLog also lets you create your own newsroom where all your press releases reside, as well as an “about us” page and product showcase area.

PitchEngine – A relatively new PR-for-social-media site that promises to let you create and share press releases easily and for free and syndicate content to Google News. Lets you include HTML in your press release, so you can use keyword text anchor links. The site is marketing itself quite aggressively and will likely build a big presence quickly. The only catch is your release will disappear off the site after 30 days if you aren’t a paid member ($50/month for your own press room).

Email Marketing

AWeber – AWeber makes it easy to start building your email marketing list, if you haven’t already. For less than $20/month, you can build unlimited newsletter lists, send unlimited email blasts, and email unlimited autorespond messages to up to 500 subscribers/list. (Then it’s $29/month up to 2500 subscribers.) Also offers a recurring 30% commission – a pretty good affiliate program for a service you’ll appreciate enough to recommend to others. (Disclosure note: the link above is our affiliate link. We’ve been using the service for 3 years now, after trying out Constant Contact and researching about 20 other providers! Most either do autoresponders or email blasts/newsletters – not both.)

Content Sharing Websites

Squidoo – Create a lens around your business area. A good one with lots of information will even rank in the search engines and can bring traffic to your web site.

Scribd – Share your expert content like white papers and articles. You can make them available for free or sell them. You can submit documents in PowerPoint, Word, PDF and many other file formats.

SlideShare – Post your presentations and documents online for others to view and share. This is a great way to get exponential exposure for your sales or marketing materials – or share documents privately. See some tips for getting more visibility with SlideShare: http://bit.ly/aNXmS2

Flikr – Does your product or service translate well visually? Use this popular photo sharing site to get more eyeballs.

Blip.tv – A video-sharing alternative to YouTube, blip.tv lets you embed links in your descriptions and create a TV station showing all your videos in one spot.

Social Networks

Facebook – Create a page for your business. Feed your blog in. Start a group. Get fans. Advertise to targeted users if your products appeal to the Facebook crowd (which is basically everyone nowadays). See using the new Facebook business page layout to learn more. Stop by our page and become a fan, too!

MySpace – Take a second look at this medium for social networking. According to MarketingProfs, more than half of MySpace.com users are 35 or older. Explore using MySpace for your business.

LinkedIn – Like a virtual Rolodex. Build your professional profile, link up with other professionals, join groups or even start a group. Participating in Q&A’s related to your profession is a great way to build credibility and visibility.

Ning – Build your own social network around your business. You may even get your network into the search engine results pages. Learn more about using Ning for business. (http://bit.ly/amLKcE)

Read “Utlize Social Media to Gain Additional Exposure for Your Site” (http://bit.ly/bcoWEQ) for more information about social networks and how they can drive targeted traffic to your site.

Social Bookmarking

Digg – Getting your content on the home page of Digg is one way to bump up your web site’s traffic by thousands within minutes. This can result in valuable links to your site. Start with this beginner’s guide to Digg.

StumbleUpon – Build friends and send them your articles to rate. More thumbs up will get your article shown to more people outside your network and can result in thousands of visitors every day. Tips for using StumbleUpon.

Reddit – Even if your content gets buried on Digg, it can flourish on Reddit – which can be a catalyst for jumping to the home page of other social bookmarking sites. Learn more about the types of topics that do well on Reddit.

Blogs

Your own blog -

Write great content relevant to your business area that people will find useful. Use it to link to deep pages on your site to help them get indexed in the search engines. Build your thought leadership and let your customers get to know your business better. Try WordPress for an easy-to-use platform that’s also search engine friendly.

Others’ blogs -

Read and comment on other blogs in your industry. Use your comment signature to link back to your blog or web site. Build relationships online and spread the link love from your own blog to others’.

Twitter

Micro-blogging. Update your status daily or a couple times a week. Use keywords in your posts and profile to help gain followers on Twitter quickly. Link to your unique content in your updates and take advantage of the multitude of new applications created to help you manage your Twitter experience.

Affiliate Marketing

Post Affiliate Pro

Traditionally links generated through affiliate marketing have not been helpful for search engine optimization – until Post Affiliate Pro, that is. This easy-to-use affiliate program lets you set up a referral program in minutes and keeps your links simple and search engine friendly.

Technorati

Claim your blog at Technorati to make sure it’s indexed in the blog search engines and have your updates broadcast across the network.

Your Own Web Properties

Create A Knowledge Center

Build a content area on your site where you can add articles regularly. This can be as formal as white papers or case studies, but it can also work with less formal articles, as long as they further your company’s thought leadership position and credibility. They will also boost your search engine rankings if you contribute regularly and ensure your site architecture is optimized. See how we’re doing this with SEO Advantage’s new knowledge center.

PowerReviews

People are going to look up user reviews whether on your site or elsewhere – might as well take advantage of the user-generated content for additional search engine visibility. You’ll also rank higher in trust with your efforts at transparency.

SurveyMonkey

Voting/polling/surveys. A tool of engagement that lets you gauge interest, measure customer satisfaction or just provide some fun. (People love to give their opinions.)

Awards and Contests

Enter them and host them. Winning an industry award can add to your credibility, and giving them out can get you lots of press coverage and links. Get creative.

Search Engine Optimization

Make sure your site architecture is optimized for maximum exposure in the search engines. Create link-building campaigns. Add to your content regularly. Enlist the services of a search engine optimization company to guide your efforts or handle implementation completely.

Research

Google

Designate the keywords you’d like to keep track of, and Google will send you alerts of news and pages indexed on those topics “as it happens” with Google News Alerts. You can also enter multiple terms at Google Trends to compare the general level of buzz around those terms.

AllTop

An “online magazine rack”, this site aggregates content and organizes it. Select your topics and have the latest content delivered to you, or just browse the site when you’re in research mode. Also, be sure to submit your site so it shows among the related content.

WordTracker

Find keywords with a more comprehensive tool than free pay-per-click research tools, which may skew results. A free trial will give you an idea of how it works.

Yahoo! Pipes

See who’s talking about your company or brand by pulling together RSS feeds from different sources around the Web using the beta Yahoo! Pipes. This handy video shows you how.

Analytics

You need to measure all your online marketing efforts. If you’re looking for a free analytics package, try Google Analytics or Yahoo! IndexTools. (Which is better?) However, you’ll probably want some help implementing and interpreting your analytics package to get the most from it – ask your SEO company if they offer this.

Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers to your websites. But in order for visitors to reach their destination—your website—you need to provide them with effective signs that direct them right to your site by creating carefully chosen keywords.

Think of the right keywords as the “Open Sesame!” of the Internet. Find the exactly right words, and presto! Hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if your keywords are too general or overused, the possibility of visitors actually making it all the way to your site—or of seeing any real profits from the visitors that do arrive—decreases dramatically.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the right people may never get the chance to find out about it. So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and phrases.

You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven’t followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. It’s hard to be objective when you are right in the center of your business network, which is the reason that you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers as you can. You will most likely find out that your understanding of your business and your customers’ understanding is significantly different.

The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you probably never would have considered from deep inside the trenches of your business.

Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from outside resources should you add your own keyword to the list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for the next step: evaluation.

The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a small number of words and phrases that will direct the highest number of quality visitors to your website. By “quality visitors” I mean those consumers who are most likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three elements: popularity, specificity, and motivation.

Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective quality. The more popular your keyword is, the more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a search engine which will then bring up your URL.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating based on real search engine activity. Software such as WordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and phrases. The higher the number this software assigns to a given keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect to be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the search engine position you will need to obtain. If you are down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will probably never scroll down to find you.

Popularity isn’t enough to declare a keyword a good choice. You must move on to the next criteria, which is specificity. The more specific your keyword is, the greater the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase your goods or services will find you.

Let’s look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have obtained popularity rankings for the keyword “automobile companies.” However, you company specializes in bodywork only. The keyword “automobile body shops” would rank lower on the popularity scale than “automobile companies,” but it would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of getting a slew of people interested in everything from buying a car to changing their oil filters, you will get only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled fenders being directed to your site. In other words, consumers ready to buy your services are the ones who will immediately find you. Not only that, but the greater the specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer rather than the seller to figure out what motivation prompts a person looking for a service or product to type in a particular word or phrase.

Let’s look at another example, such as a consumer who is searching for a job as an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose between “Seattle job listings” and “Seattle IT recruiters” which do you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were looking for this type of specific job, which keyword would you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second keyword targets people who have decided on their career, have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or her life in between beer parties.

You want to find people who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires subtle tinkering of your keywords until your find the most specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most motivated traffic to your site.

Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done. You must continually evaluate performance across a variety of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how many of your visitors actually made a purchase.

Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you judge the effectiveness of your keywords in individual search engines. There is now software available that analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic. This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you the most valuable customers.

This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your product. This is the most important factor in evaluating the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better profits.

Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for search engine success. This may sound like a lot of work—and it is! But the amount of informed effort you put into your keyword campaign is what will ultimately generate your business’ rewards.

Think of regular media as a one-way street where you can read a newspaper or listen to a report on television, but you have very limited ability to give your thoughts on the matter.

Social media, on the other hand, is a two-way street that gives you the ability to communicate too.

Getting started on social media can often be deceptively simple – What’s the big deal? You sign up. – or intimidating – Why am I being asked for my date of birth? – or overwhelming – How do I find people to friend or follow?

In actuality there are official and unofficial rules. It is easier if you start out knowing what’s what, and this is probably especially important if you’re more of an introvert.

Let’s imagine you already use email, search for information on Google, and read blog posts. But you’ve never joined any social media sites. How do you start?

1. Decide how comfortable you are sharing information about yourself. And the corollary to this – how wide a sharing of this information are you willing to do.

If you’re a book author and want people to buy your book, it’s a good idea to decide that you will share personal (although not private) information to as wide an audience as possible. If you only want to connect online with former high school friends, your target audience is much smaller.

If sharing information makes you somewhat nervous, think about what it means to be personal as opposed to private. Personal is a good marketing book you just read that you can recommend to help others; private is a fight you had with your business partner over implementing the marketing steps recommended in the book.

2. Ask online savvy friends that, based on your goal, which popular site they would recommend you first join. (And do start with just one while getting your feet wet in this brave new world.)

• If your goal, for example, is to have a wide audience, then Twitter may be the best choice because of its “open to everyone” format. – If you only want to search for high school friends, then Facebook may be the best choice as you can confine your information to a very small circle and can search by name for those long-lost friends.
• If you want to make connections to help with a future job search, then LinkedIn, whose format is set up for such a process, may be the best choice for you.

3. Once you have chosen the site you’ll start on, do a Google search for information on effectively using that site. That’s right, before you ever sign up, read some blog posts that provide guidance on effectively using the site.

Now this isn’t a research project that serves as an excuse for postponing actually joining the site. Just learn a few of the basic “rules.” And if you do this step, you’ll be way ahead of most other people who start on social media without first doing any research.

And why not learn this on the site itself? Because most of these sites have inadequate information for newcomers or an abundance of information that overwhelms newcomers.

Plus, to encourage you to sign up, the site’s home page says something like: To join now just do this. And it’s only after you’ve provided your name, email, password, etc. that you’re left wondering “What do I do next?”

4. If you’re starting on a site that doesn’t require your real name, choose a username carefully. You want to think about seeing this name used all across cyberspace as lots of social media sites pull information from other social media sites (with your permission, of course).

You may initially think, for example, of choosing the name of your first book. But what happens when you write a second book? Or perhaps using the name of the book won’t work well for a site that is focused on a non-book arena.

Keep in mind that whatever you do on the Internet can live forever. So this choice of a username should be considered carefully and for continued use in the long-run. (Once you’ve established a good online reputation with one username you don’t want to start at square one again with a new username.)

5. Immediately post a photo of yourself – a headshot in which sunglasses and a baseball cap are not blocking people from totally seeing your eyes. (This does not have to be professional-photographer quality but should not be blurry.)

This photo should be one that will also work on social media sites you will join in the future because you want consistency across these sites. You want consistency to help people recognize and connect with you on more than one site. (The same for your username).

Keep in mind that the photos for Twitter are quite small. And even if you’re starting on Facebook, only include a headshot of yourself. Do not include other people and preferably not animals and other props.

By posting a good headshot of yourself you’re signaling that you’re interested in connecting with people – real people such as yourself – and you’ll be off to a good start on your first social media site.

Now that you’ve read these five tips for starting on your first social media site, what are you waiting for? Join the cyberspace social media community today.

For anyone looking for a Niche to market and make money Google Trends is something they should not do without.

How to use the Google Trends website Practically?

PPC Marketing – If you are primarily a PPC marketer Google Trends is going to help you in your geo-targeting. I was involved in a niche that was hot in the United States but it gradually tapered off in the USA but got real hot in the Japanese market and so you set up your Adwords campaigns to target Japan. Thank you Google for saving me money on advertising and making me money by knowing where the buyers were.

Spying on Competition – To the right of the trends graph there are a list of links that show you articles that are ranked high for the keyword that you chose. Look over those articles, get some ideas, spin it and submit it. Have you seen our page about Online Article Marketing?

Hot Trends for Bloggers – Google Hot Trends is a separate service and URL. When you are blogging you are in need of content and if you want to have something relevant to your crowd that is timely with world events or something else you can use Google Hot Trends to see what is real relevant. Not long ago Tiger Woods went through his hardship with his family and the reporters. If you type Tiger Woods into the Google Trends website you will see the spike that was created over the bad press. I would not use Hot Trends to determine a niche because it is only reporting the hot things that are very current and as we know, news is changing all the time.

Keyword Analysis – The Google Trends website should be a part of your keyword research in conjunction with a program like Traffic Travis (download Traffic Travis for FREE) and the Google external keyword tool. Google trends will save you money from choosing keywords or a niche that is no longer active in a particular country that you may be targeting.

Another cool part of the keyword analysis that I should mention is something I saw in a webinar. The Google Trends website was used to compare “table tennis” and “ping pong”. Which do you think is more popular? Which country would you think either is more popular? Curious? Well I am not going to tell you. Go to the Google Trends website and check it out for yourself. While you are there play with it and see if you should alter some of the marketing that you are doing.

Note – Remember that this is only Google traffic and does not account for the traffic on other search engines like Ask, Yahoo and Bing. Clearly Google dominates as a search engine and gives a good picture of what is most likely taking place in the other search engines.

Image from selmakoparan

One way to ensure your webpage ranks well is to build links – as many quality links as you can. A backlink is an inbound html code that points to your website. You are probably wondering why you would want a backlink. I will explain it this way -  If you have many websites with one-way links to your website, the search engines interpret this in your favor. You want to make sure that your website is at the “hub of the wheel” so to speak — all the spokes, or links, are pointing to your website.

Your goal should be that the search engines view your site as an “authority site”. If a website provides excellent, interesting articles and other content, and has many readers, that website could be called an “authority site”. Websites mention and point to, or refer to, articles and videos on the authority site.

Let’s step back a bit and explain links in an example:

If Sally’s site links to you, then you have one inbound link. However, if your website links back to Sally’s site, the links balance each other out and nobody wins — that is called a reciprocal link. Don’t look for reciprocal links. You should look for links back to your website from other websites where you don’t have to link to them.

Now who is going to do that? Any website marketer who has been around for some time does not want reciprocal links. That website owner wants inbound links to his site.

Sources of inbound, one-way links:

Links from directories – Directories aren’t as popular as they once were now that people use search engines to find what they want, but directories still offer free inbound links. All you have to do is apply for them. There are several companies that offer free software. Just search for a directory submitter. There are several to choose from. You will find one that is easy to use and makes submitting to directories a snap.

Links from articles you write – There is probably no better way to get people to visit your blog than to write good articles. When you write a good article, you need to send that article to a large number of article directories.

They will post your article at no charge to you and most of them will allow you to put a couple of self-serving links in the “resource box”. The resource box is where you can advertise your website, tell them what they will find, and perhaps send them to your subscription optin page.

As you might guess, sending your articles out to thirty or forty sites can be a daunting task. I would suggest that you do a search for article submitter software.

You may find an article submitter that works very well and saves you hours of valuable time. You type the information into the article submitter once and it will automatically fill it in to the article site. It even keeps track of your username and password for those sites where you have to register.

You should spend the time to find a company that will do this for you. It costs me money every month to submit eight articles to many, many article directories. I think it is worth the money, but if you are just starting out, perhaps the free way is better.

Comment on “dofollow” blogs

Some WordPress blog owners have installed a plugin called “dofollow”. This overrides the default of “nofollow” that the blog comes setup as. If the blog has this plugin installed and activated, you will get a backlink to your website when you make a comment on that site. (Most blog owners aren’t aware that this may be a reason they don’t get as many comments on their articles as they could.)

There is software that I use that finds blogs that have the “dofollow” plugin installed. I look for them and I am more inclined to comment on those blogs because it gets me a backlink.

Search for a blog submitter. It is the software that you use to help find those blogs. Most blog submitters are free too. All you do is type in keywords that refer to your website and it will find blogs that have similar keywords.

Free directories you *must* know about:

Most blog owners and internet marketers have forgotten this one. It is right under their noses, but they haven’t listed their sites in local directories. Here is a short list of local directories that you must do tonight.

* Google Local

* www.yellowpages.com

* Yahoo Local

* Yahoo Yellow Pages

* www.superpages.com

* www.yellowbook.com

* www.atlantaataglance.com

* www.your nearest big city.com

* www.big city chamber.org

Even if you don’t have a physical address where you accept the public, you can still put your website on these various directories. You don’t have to show your physical address, if you don’t want it to show.

To summarize:

Every website marketer needs backlinks. The website marketer’s goal should be to grow their site in size to become an authority site in his area of specialty.

It is not difficult to get backlinks, but it is time consuming and laborious. I would suggest that you use software to help you speed up these repetitive tasks. Get free software called directory submitter. Obtain an article submitter product. Use a blog finder to help you comment on blogs that give you a backlink.

Lastly, don’t forget the obvious. Use the list above to get listed in the local directories.

Image By Mrizclas

“With the rampant proliferation of user-generated content, the opportunity for disgruntled malcontents to damage your firm’s reputation increases everyday. Make sure to evaluate the extent of the problem, consider legal options, and stay within your comfort zone. Take the high road whenever possible, treat your opponent with respect” -Marty Weintraub

Yesterday an Entrecard blogger discovered that some members are cheating when they drop ECs, using a script that just shows the drop box, not the blogs.  Instead of researching this finding to make sure that there is no other possible explanation for these drops to show up -this blogger posted defamatory comments, calling these bloggers cheats and scammers.  It didn’t take long for other bloggers to join in, saying they would be sure to not visit those blogs anymore.  Some of these bloggers  have proven that his findings are not totally accurate.  If I were one of these bloggers, I would be FURIOUS.  These accusations will follow the bloggers forever.  Something like this should have been turned over to EC – let them figure out who is cheating.  I don’ t understand why anyone would post negative statements when they obviously have done a shoddy job gathering facts.  I’m angry for these bloggers – I’d say half of them drop and comment on my blogs often.    The person who wrote the post seems to jump to conclusions often and accuse people of cheating before he has all the facts.    I remember when he had some ad service connected to his blog that redirected you to another page – one time when I was dropping on his blog the page redirected to some porn site (this was not a virus – but something he was doing to earn money) .  What if I followed the same practice as this blogger and posted a long negative blog entry, connecting his name forever to to this nasty ad scheme.  He didn’t realize that porn was showing up and removed the code when I sent him a message, but it seems like maybe I shouldn’t have said anything to him at all and instead just blast him with accusations.

This is not the first time that he has made accusations like this.  Back in January he accused some CMF members of being Ghost-droppers (I was one of them).  Through research Turnip and Ben where able to figure out why these numbers where showing up and came to the conclusion that there were definitely no scammers/ghostdroppers.

Comment -

“The Spikes Ghost Dropper!
Here are my Ghost Droppers…. My official Spikes ended on 31st
December there i got 15 clicks of 10 available (already 5 clicks more).
Now i get since 1st January 2 – 5 visits from the same persons (mainly
Norfolk and four from San Angelo).
Other members told me similar findings. Seems someone wants to game
the system??”

Response -

There are no “ghost droppers” on our end. We prevent users from being
credited for clicking a spike more than once, even accidentally”
Furthermore, we have security in place to prevent someone from creating
multiple CMF Ads accounts and then visiting your blog from each login.
Note that “Credit for clicking a Spike” and “visiting via the Spike URL” are
not the same thing. If a person doesn’t refresh their page, it is possible to
click the link twice, but the buyer won’t be charged, and the person clicking
won’t receive credit. Seems like a fuss over nothing. 44 unexplained visits
over a period of 10 days. But I will look at the stats for that time period and
see if I can find anything unusual on either end just to follow up.
“Shelia, Ben and I also appeared on one of those lists. I assure you I am
also not gaming anything.

Here are a few comments left in my message box:

“Here’s what I wrote to him (and I’m prepared to take legal action against him if he doesn’t do a good job of retracting his statements):

I’m very mad!!!

I went to the extra effort of Googling your blog and opening it from Google’s cache, because I didn’t see your widget.

I then clicked on your widget from the cached page. I do that for any blog I regularly visit if the site is down or I can’t find the widget.

And this is what I get in return!!!

I expect a public apology.. VERY public!”

“I’m prepared to file a libel complaint with Google and request that they take action, so that I don’t have to resort to legal measures.

I wonder how much damage has been done and how this will hurt my EC reputation.”

___________________________________________________________________________

“As far as I know this is down to using a browser cache, hence the reams of major EC members being accused. To be honest I and XXXX are sick of dropping, we’ve spent months doing it now. So we’re off, no time for this unfounded slander. There’s even a comment at XXXXXX saying the same thing, perhaps someone does have a piece of software but it certainly isn’t us! We can’t even afford to get the roof fixed. If a site is sluggish many users will use a cached version of the site, most Macs have this as standard in Safari. If a widget doesn’t load usually it is because the server is slow…I think XXXXXXXX will regret his actions, he should have asked some of those he has accused to explain first.”

So what do you do when someone defames you online?

Tips From Ame Clear Blog

1. Evaluate the authority of the page on which the negative content is published. As with any SEO assignment, start by taking a look at PageRank and inbound links profile using Yahoo Site Explorer and other tools. If the offending result is not on a site’s homepage, then take a careful look at older and similar interior pages along with their archives.Google’s algorithmic regard for any page tends to accumulate over time as a result of numerous factors, known and “black box.” Therefore it’s a good idea to keep in mind that any page’s clout might increase over time. Be advised and plan accordingly.Reciprocally if the problem content is currently indexing on a blog’s homepage, the difficulty may be mitigated when the post cycles off the homepage into archives. While the post is on the homepage, its content has the full “weight” of the homepage’s authority.This won’t be the case in archive unless the post generates great links. That said many blogs’ category pages, author and date archives accumulate PageRank and you might have to wait a while for the post to cycle even deeper into to site over time. (Note: PageRank isn’t everything but it’s better to have it than not.)
2. Since some offending results violate copyright or trademark laws, a strong understanding of and willingness to utilize legal channels can be important arrows in the SEO sharpshooter’s quiver. Sometimes the first salvo we fire is from our client’s law firm in the form of a cease and desist letter.Be aware of laws as pertain to protected marks and intellectual property. Certainly taking the legal route can yield results and sometimes the expense makes sense. Our legal team has scared many an idiot off our client’s back. Some rouges just don’t want to mess with lawyers and can be “encouraged” to take down their problem content.On the other hand be a realist. Some insolent jerk halfway around the world won’t give a rat’s ass about your attorney’s saber rattling. Sometimes firing legal missals can even result in your opponent digging in their heals with an intransigent disregard for reality.When nasty search engine results stem from social media channels, it can be impossible to locate the villain let alone engage them legally. Social site moderators often couldn’t care less because they thrive on the passionate engagement which surrounds controversy. StumbleUpon (eBay) is the worst as they are nearly completely unwilling to enforce Terms of Services as pertain to abusive “troll” users.
3. Determine the likelihood that the substance of proposed defensive content will further provoke and backfire virally. We find it’s best if newly created content and subsequent promotional activity do not appear to be directly related to the problem we’re competing with.My grandmother used to tell me never to “get into a pissing contest with a skunk. Even if you win…you stink. “Instead, create defensive content that builds on strengths of your business to contradict the negatives raised by a bad editorial. Build your content to outrank the perpetrator’s.Though we never take directly refuting offensive results off the table fully, one needs to be extremely careful. We don’t want 5 other bloggers to rally behind their jerky friend and take up a damaging cause they hadn’t even noticed before.
4. Unless you’re an expert, talk to a professional before engaging directly in social channels surrounding the problem results. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen a business person, who has no experience in social media, climb into a comments thread and make things SO much worse. There are very few instances when taking a step back and counting to 10 will negatively impact the end result of defensive activities.If you’re not a regular contributer in a specific social media channel, learning the vernacular while under duress is not the best choice. Also we’ve seen clients make legal mistakes publicly which made a difficult problem much worse. Call an SEO/social media expert. Call your lawyer. Have a glass of wine and some sushi. Chill.
5. If direct engagement in social channels makes sense, attempt to earn the provocateurs respect by your response. Every disaster is an opportunity in the making and vice versa. Whilst measured righteous indignation can be a powerful tool, start with classic high road messages of respect and understanding: “I understand your position,” “respect your right to express your feelings in public,” “am grateful for the opportunity to engage in a dialog” and “what can we do to make things right?”
6. Take the high road over and over. Then take the high road again. If that doesn’t work…you can always nuke em’. There are white hat methods and other, ummmm, not-white hat methods available to “eliminate” the problem. Given recent furor over public discussion of non-candy-ass SEO tactics you’ll have to contact me directly to discuss the options further.
7. Consider paid search as a stopgap and/or ongoing strategy. When weighing the cost of PPC to circumvent damaging organic results, paid search is often an attractive “lesser of all evils’ option, especially in the short term while waiting for other solutions to come online. Google’s content network, in the hands of a site-targeting expert, can be a highly effective channel-especially when clarifying or refuting mainstream damage in news, niche’ and social channels.
8. Get back to SEO basics. The best defense is a good offense. In reality it should be difficult for idiots to crack into direct brand search results if your website is optimized properly.One of our newer clients came to us under assault from a disgruntled former customer. It didn’t make sense at first because the offensive result was on a PR zero site with little authority.Upon evaluation we quickly ascertained that our client’s website was entirely a Flash movie, literally with no deep indexing. Solving the “crises” was as simple as re-publishing the site in HTML with Flash elements instead of a full Flash movie.

I’m a list freak. Every time I come across a good one I’ll print it out and check it off until I’ve completed every single item on the list – no matter how long it takes. I found this awesome list today while I was browsing online. Not only do they have great advice for link-building but you can also download a free e-book with some easy to follow, sure to work information. If you’re new, or stuck in a rut it would be in your best interest to visit this site and take advantage of all they have to offer. Visit Courts Internet Marketing School

From Courts Internet Marketing School – 102 Ways To Make Your Site A Back-Link Superstar:

1.   Provide more value than other blogs and sites. This is by far the most neglected area by all of us! We want to market our sites like crazy, but conveniently forget that we need to offer more to our readers. We want to have 300,000 hits a day but we only want to write five 300 word articles per month. Steve Pavlina said that it should be easy to make a million dollars if only he could figure out how to provide a million dollars worth of value. Sites that have that kind of value don’t have any problem getting the link love.
2.   Add a blog to your site. Blogs are capable of getting a lot more back-link love than regular websites. There are several reasons for this:
* Blogs are tracked in real-time. Blog search engines publish the most recent blog entries they can find. This means your new entries get linked to instantly.
* Blogs are much easier to update than regular websites. You can create a lot more content in the same amount of time. There is no need to design a new page for a new article. You simply write a new article and publish. Your increase in content will increase your visibility and ability to get links.
* Blogs get links from other blogs. If you run a regular website that isn’t a blog, you will have a harder time getting links from bloggers. Bloggers mostly read and follow blogs!

If your site is or has a blog, well done. If you have no idea how to setup a blog you should visit the following entry of this site, “5263 Words On Starting A Profitable Blog.“
3.   Post relentlessly. The more you are able to post, the more you will appear in blog search engines like Technorati, Google Blog Search, and Blog Search Engine. Note: People aren’t going to link to posts that are garbage so don’t sacrifice quality for quantity. If your site isn’t a blog, update often and then go back to #2 and add a blog.
4.   Make sure that your blog is set to ping. If you’re using a WordPress blog you will find this in your admin section: Go to Options and then Writing. Make sure that you have some blog search engines in the Update Services box at the bottom. The ones I’m using are:

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2/

http://pingqueue.com/rpc/

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://www.bloglines.com/ping

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

5.   Use Technorati tags (follow the link to the left for a lesson on what they are and how to implement them. Opens in a new window.). Getting into more categories in Technorati and other blog search engines will get you more links from them, exposing you to other bloggers and webmasters that can link to you. To easily create Technorati tags, use this simple tool: Tag Generator. All you have to do is type in the keyword, and the tool will make the code for the tag.
6.   Create authority posts. An authority post by my definition takes at least 10 hours to write. These are posts that people are likely to be linked to. My post, “5263 Words On Starting A Profitable Blog” has already been linked to quite a bit. Authority posts are more thorough than most other posts. They’re usually longer than other posts. Authority posts must be easy to find (follow this link for a lesson on where you should put your authority posts) on your site, getting them more exposure than other posts.
7.   Have your friends tag your best work in Digg. (Digg is a site that allows people to vote whether they like and article or not.) Your friends can get the article moving in the right direction. There are also other social bookmarking sites that are very popular. Here are a few of the biggies: Reddit, Netscape, Del.Icio.Us, and StumbleUpon. This won’t do a whole lot of good if your article isn’t good, but if it is it can bring you thousands of visitors per day, which will link to a good amount of links.
8.   Encourage readers to Digg authority articles. If they like the article or post, they will vote for it for you. It only takes a few seconds.
9.   Make your articles easy to Digg. If you look at the end of this article, you will find a button for Digg, Reddit, and some other imporant social bookmarking sites. These can make a huge difference and can add to a lot more exposure and links. To install those buttons I used the Sociable plugin for WordPress.
10. Creating list-posts. Examples: “Top 10 Ways To Stop Being A Lazy Pig”, “Top 5 Internet Marketing Gurus”, “Top 25 Reasons Why 99% Of Bloggers Don’t Make It”, “99 Ways To Make Your Blog Or Site A Backlink Super Power”. People love linking to that stuff. Place your list-post in a prominent location on your site (follow this link for a lesson on where you should put your authority posts) or people will never find it.
11. Recognize your field’s gurus. Link to them often. They are going to watch closely the source of their traffic and will definitely see if you’re sending some their way. If you send them traffic, they may start reading your site. If they find something they like, they might link to it. One link from a guru in your field could mean more than 100 weaker links. Gurus are usually pretty generous in spreading the link love. That’s a hint, hint to Darren Rowse, Shoemoney (Jeremy Schoemaker), John Chow, and Steve Pavlina, all of which I read daily.
12. Publish an RSS feed. An RSS feed is a news feed that people can subscribe to. They can see if you have written new entries on your site without having to go there. Many webmasters stay up to date by reading RSS feeds from the sites in their industry. If you don’t have a feed, these webmasters will never see your updates. If you have a WordPress blog, it creates an RSS feed for you. Other sites will naturally syndicate the feed. (They will post it in their site) Some of them will link to you as the source.
13. Setup your feed on feedburner. This makes your feed subscriptions easy to track and allows you to encourage users to subscribe. After you have quite a few subscribers, it makes getting additional subscriptions easy.
14. Comment on other blogs. Always fill in the URL box so that the owner can find your site. Good comments will spark more interest than dull ones. Answering other people’s questions in comments gets them excited – one of the most effective ways to spark an online rambling about you and your site.
15. Respond to comments left on your blog. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been able to get full write ups about this site just because I responded to people’s questions and comments. When people’s questions are answered, you become the authority. People can’t help but link to the authority.
16. Respond to your email. Be kind to people. Be cool to people. Help them with their questions. If it’s a hard question to answer, post the answer on your site so that you get the content. Email the person that asked and give them the URL to their answer. Being helpful to others will earn you respect and link love.
17. Link out to other blogs like crazy. If you link to interesting articles on other blogs, they will link back to interesting articles that you have. Bloggers usually check their site stats every 30 seconds, they’ll see that you have linked to them. (It’s an addiction!) Many people don’t want to link out because it spreads their pagerank thin. Would you rather have pagerank or money? I, personally would rather have money. Pagerank will come. It won’t do you any good to have high pagerank if you don’t have any traffic, and most people don’t realize that the two aren’t as tied together as it seems.
18. Offer to be a guest blogger. If you can write for someone’s site, you will certainly be able to link to related resources on your site. If you’re going to do this one, write a killer article and submit it to an A-lister (leading blogger in your field) who has a high-traffic site.
19. Timestamp your posts. (Timestamping is adjusting your post entry so that it is posted on a certain day, at a certain time. You can finish an article on Saturday and set it to post on Monday.) There are more visitors at Technorati, Google Blog Search, and Digg on weekdays. Never publish an really good article on a weekend, you’ll be off the front page of Technorati before all the visitors are there. If you’re using a WordPress blog, there is a Timestamp option on your “Write Post” page. You can set the date and time you want the article to publish, and then click publish. It won’t show up on your site until that date and time.
20. Show related posts in your blog entries. A blogger might find your site via one article but find a different one that they’re really interested in. Showing your related posts can help them to be found more easily. Interest+Visibility=Links. If you’re using WordPress, you can find out why and how to use the related posts plugin here.
21. Use deep-linking. Deep-linking is when you link to older posts or pages in new posts or pages. This article links to quite a few of my older articles that I think are good resources for the people reading this one. This can help your readers and expose your good work to them.
22. Use meme trackers to find hot topics. Meme trackers are sites that track information published on blogs and news sites, and provide information about which topics are the hottest. The big meme trackers are Memeorandum and Techmeme.com. Technorati also has a type of meme tracker. They show you the hottest tags in real time. When you find hot discussions, contribute to them. Your opinions can bring valuable visitors to your site, and will get linked to from other opinions on the topic. If you’re posts are tagged properly, people will be able to find them easily, so make sure you use tags on your articles, as you learned earlier.
23. Do blog reviews. (Follow the link to the left to find a list of blogs that do review exchanges.) Tons of webmasters will link to you in exchange for reviewing their site.
24. Do link exchanges. You never know if a sitewik or blog will exchange links with you, unless you ask. Since most bloggers won’t have traditional link pages (thank goodness), you should probably find one of their posts that is interesting, and link to it in one of your articles. Ask them to do the same.
25. Add a page that invites people to link to you. Offer to link back. Ask them to link to an interesting article on your site and tell them that you’ll link to an interesting article on their site. Create a contact form so that they can let you know quickly and easily that they have taken you up on your offer. You have to be willing to help others or this method will never work.
26. Trade blogroll links. Some bloggers will trade sitewide (this means on every page) or blogroll links. I would only do it if I felt that the site truly had something special to offer to my readers.
27. Ask me to do a link exchange. Better yet, link to me first and then ask me to linkback. I will! Even better, link to me everyday and don’t ask for me to link back.
28. Get a MyBlogLog account. MyBlogLog.com is like MySpace for bloggers. It it a place where bloggers go to meet each other and find new blogging friends. You can link to your blog(s) from your profile page, and other bloggers will have a chance to check out your work, which could lead to additional links.
29. Start a MyBlogLog.com Community. You can create your own community that members can join. Be extra social and invite members to join your community. This exposes a lot more bloggers to your site.
30. Do article exchanges with webmasters on your field.
31. Do a scheduled, recurring guest blog exchange with someone from your field. Writing for each other can give you both exposure to a new group of individuals that are interested in your field. You can link to resources on your own site each time.
32. Read your posts before publishing. Edit, edit, and edit again. Make sure they’re right before you show them to the world. Make sure your writing is easy to read and grammatically correct.
33. Run spell check. This probably sounds stupid but I’ve been called out in my comments a few times and I doubt that I’ll get any links from the people that noticed my spelling errors.
34. Learn more about your field. If you’re site doesn’t have any good material, you probably won’t have much luck getting links from other bloggers.
35. Create walk-throughs. I created a walk-through for one of my cell phone sites that teaches people how to connect their Motorola Krzr cell phone to their computer. People love me for it, and I got links from Cnet, Mobiledia, and HowardForums because of it. These are 3 of the biggest cell phone sites! You can walk people through installing ads, writing a good post, starting a blog, baking banana bread, riding a bike, or anything related to your field.
36. Use giveaways. Hold a raffle where you give away something cool. The participants have to link to you in order to get in their name into the raffle. If you gave away an Xbox 360 you would probably get a lot more links than you would if you gave away a snickers bar. (This method is only down this far because it costs money, otherwise it would be very near the top because it works like crazy)
37. Write articles tailored to beginners. Most people in your field are beginners! Most bloggers in general are beginners. You can’t connect with them by writing about PHP scripting and dynamic server protocols. You have to assume that your readers know nothing about the topic without talking down to them. They will show you their appreciation.
38. Submit articles to article sites like: Article Dashboard, GoArticles, and Article City. They will also allow you to place a link to your site at the bottom of the article. You can write an article about anything in your field. Most article sites like the articles to be about 500 words.
39. Submit stories to news sites. Even huge sites like ESPN.com accept stories from free lancers.
40. Review products on your site. Most brands are trying desperately to get more exposure. If you provide a thorough, fair review of a company’s product, it might get linked to. For best results review products from new, up-and-coming companies.
41. Review products on other sites like ePinions. You can quickly establish yourself as an expert by writing thorough reviews of products in your field. Some of the traffic that hits your review will follow the trail back to your site, leading to links.
42. Write testimonials for sites whose services have helped you. The testimonials themselves will often turn into links, and the webmasters will surely check out your site.
43. Write a testimonial for me. I’ll let you link to yourself in it. You can see other testimonials that people have left here.
44. Write and submit a press release. Sites like PRWeb will publish them and link to you.
45. Alert webmasters in your field when you write solid content that will be useful for their readers. Don’t bother webmasters by updating them on every little thing you add to your site. Alert them when you have authority articles.
46. Alert friends when you create something that will help them. If you’re helping them they should definitely give you some link love.
47. If you don’t have any friends, get some fast.
48. Write to help others. If you can help other people to find more success, you deserve a link from them. You will probably get one.
49. Mentor other aspiring bloggers. I help out quite a few friends and most of them have me on their blogroll. They also link to me from time to time, and read my site often. Some of them will probably get really big eventually and those links will pay off enormously!
50. Try to meet other bloggers offline. Every city has bloggers and other internet marketers. These relationships can lead to ‘mutual plugging’ and idea swapping.
51. Create surveys. A good survey can make a person (or a group of people) feel important and could lead to some free marketing from them.
52. Poll your readers. People like to participate in polls and are super interested in the outcomes. Many times they will link to the outcome post of a poll just because they participated in the poll.
53. Comment on online newspapers. Most of the links you make won’t have direct SEO benefit thanks to the “no follow” command, but the writers will follow the trail back to your site.
54. Interview other bloggers. Many bloggers want to be famous! They will jump at the chance to be interviewed. Add a page to your blog that let’s people in your field know that you are interested in interviewing them. Tell them how to sign up and they will. I can almost guarantee that they’ll be linking back to the interview once it’s published.
55. Cite the source of your information. This good will often sparks reciprocation. Webmasters and bloggers love to be talked about.
56. Use forums and discussion boards. I sometimes try to find something that people are really confused about. If you answer their question they will automatically start to wonder who you are. Most of the time I have to research the problem myself to be able to answer them. The best way to answer their question is by creating a short walkthrough on your site that teaches them. Show them where to find it and you have yourself a link. That technique will also work on the next few suggestions.
57. Ask your local, public library to link to you with their website.
58. Answer people’s questions on Yahoo! Answers. You are able to link to resources on other websites that will help answer people’s questions. If you don’t already have a resource on your site that will help answer a question, create one. Link to from Yahoo! Answers. You have a link, and some more valuable content for your site.
59. Answer questions on Google Groups. Very similar to the one for Yahoo! Answers.
60. Submit to free web directories. The biggie is DMOZ. (Don’t even bother unless you have at least 100 posts on your blog.) Directories are lists of thousands of sites. One of them should be you!
61. Submit to blog directories like BOTW. Blog directories are thousands of blogs, listed in categories.
62. Submit to paid directories. Don’t do it unless you have to budget. The biggie is Yahoo! Directory.
63. Write controversial content. Sometimes you can really get people talking by criticizing famous people and brands.
64. Write about celebrities. People eat that stuff up and if you write something that people don’t know, you will get links from all over the place.
65. Write about the leaders in your field. Tell others why you think they’re successful.
66. Attack the leaders in your field. (This one I would never do.) Write why they should do things differently. I’m sure I could get a load of links by attacking Darren Rowse, Shoemoney (Jeremy Schoemaker), John Chow, and Steve Pavlina, but I wouldn’t do it because I have too much respect for them. That said, I have to admit that I could get some serious traffic by getting some dirt on them or attacking their business practices.
67. Write in English. English is the major language of the internet and blog written in English cater to a much larger audience.
68. Install a text translator on your site. (I haven’t done this one yet but it’s one of my ideas for the near future.) Surely people that blog in other languages would tell their readers about www.mysite.com that has a version that they can more easily read. I would love to have a version of this site in Chinese, which is the second biggest language of the internet. It will eventually be the biggest.
69. Create a contact page with a contact form. If people don’t have to open up their email to get in touch with you, it will be easier for them to ask you for a link exchange.
70. Create a testimonial page. Allow people to link to themselves in their testimonials. Add your site to our list of sites that want testimonials.
71. Create a Wikipedia page about yourself or your business. Wikipedia links don’t count due to a “no follow” command, but you will gain some exposure that will surely lead to additional links.
72. Create a Squidoo page about yourself.
73. Join the Better Business Bureau – for this one you have to have a business!
74. Join local clubs that have websites. Maybe give them a few pointers for their site and find out if they list members. Include a link on your member’s page.
75. Check for local government directories – it should be easy to get into local, online listings.
76. Donate to an online charity. They usually list contributors. Make sure you donate using the name of your site.
77. Place an ad in Craigslist. (Craigslist is a very large, online classified site)
78. Market your site as a free resource for local businesses. I told an attorney friend of mine about this site so that he could get some promotional ideas for his company’s site. Sure enough he linked to me.
79. Better yet, hire a publicist. They can probably get you on the news so that lots of people and businesses can use you as a resource.
80. Hire a link building consultant. Andy Hagans is a great one. This one is down this far on the list because it costs $ and isn’t guaranteed.
81. Hire a starving student and pay them $8 an hour to do everything on this list for 8 hours a day.
82. Get some interns that you can teach to build links. Create an LLC called MyCompany Marketing, LLC. Set up an internship program with the marketing department at the local university or college. Get 2 students to work 4 hours a day doing everything on this list for free.
83. Get some interns to write for you. Start a second LLC called MyCompany Publishing, LLC. Set up an intership with the journalism department at the local college and get a few free interns (writers) for your blogs. That way you can start a few new blogs that you can use as valuable resources to get links from.
84. Start a few more blogs. You can create free blogs on Blogspot if you want. Give your main blog a link once in a while. There isn’t any reason to make 1,000 links with it, just link once in a while. Maybe you could even update the blogs once a week. Who knows, you might make some money with those as well.
85. Encourage your friends to start blogs. Some of my friends have started blogs and I have links from all of them. I actually didn’t really encourage them, but they asked me and it has worked out great for my blog.
86. Create images and tools that people can use on MySpace, FaceBook, and other social networking sites.
87. Link to your blog from your MySpace page. If you don’t have one, set one up. Try to get a lot of friends in there, because the more friends you have in MySpace, the more traffic your space will get.
88. Ask your friends to link to you from their MySpace pages. These links won’t be majorly valuable from an SEO standpoint, but could bring some extra visitors, which lead to additional links.
89. Create a new MySpace page for your site. Become friends with other pages like yours.
90. Create a WordPress template. I’m not a designer, but if I was I would create hundreds of these. If a person uses your template they will be linking to you with every page of their site. There are millions of pages in the world running WordPress.
91. Create a Mambo template. Mambo is a content management system like WordPress that allows users to create websites.
92. Hold and sponser a writing contest in your field with a giveaway to the winner. Make the contestants publish the article on their sites while linking to yours.

93. Create a certification program for sites in your field. Design a trophy that people can use to display on their sites if they pass the certification. Host the image. (This means that you will not allow them to download the trophy picture. They will just install a piece of code that you will give them that will reference the trophy picture from your site.) You need to save the image on your site and them use this code to give them:Insert the URL where your image is saved where it says, “yourimageurl”.
94. Buy links. You can email webmasters asking them to link to you in exchange for hard green. You can also use a service like Text Link Ads to purchase and rent links.
95. Rent links. Same as buying links except the links won’t be permanent. Usually you pay monthly for this type. Check out Text Link Ads for details.
96. Buy posts from other bloggers. You can offer to pay them directly to post about your site, or you can buy posts through services like Pay Per Post and ReviewMe.
97. Start a design company. Add the design service to your site. You can create small sites for individuals and people, adding designed-by links at the bottom of their pages.
98. Donate sites to non-profit organizations. Non-profits usually get a lot of links from government sites, and so they would be ideal to design for. Make sure to include a “design donated by MySite.com” at the bottom.
99. Setup blogs for other people. Make sure you include, “Designed by MySite.com” or “Inspired by MySite.com.” Help them to achieve success and their links will become a lot more valuable.
100. Help students that are taking HTML classes in college. Your help can probably be traded for ridiculously valuable .edu links on their student accounts. Make sure you link to their little student sites so they get indexed. You may want to link to them from another site you have, or from a forum. I’ve missed the boat on that one a few times with friends that I actually helped. Oops!
101. Donate some time every week to hold Q and A sessions for beginners in your area. They’ll link to you naturally, or you can ask them to.
102. Encourage friends to bring friends to Q and A sessions. Help them all out. You may get some good ideas yourself and some links from your group.

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Just what we need, another social networking site.   Should I get involved in this one or will it end up being a waste of time?  I’ve signed up for quite a few and, honestly, it’s hard to keep up.  I either work one or two full force or not at all.  Maybe with Google running this and their capability to pull info from other social sites into one area this particular social network site will be the one and only site I’ll ever have to use again (yeah, right).  Maybe my reclusive tendencies at home are affecting my ability to branch out online.  I just don’t like going out there and meeting lots of people at a time – it takes me a while to warm up and consider someone a friend, even online.  Hopefully with the magic of google a whole pile of people who are just like me will end up in my social circle and I will live happily ever after.

Refusing to sit still long enough for anyone to catch up, Google has rolled out another Labs experiment to the public. Google Social Search Beta launched last October, hard on the heels of Personalized Search. But this week, Google graduated Social Search out of Labs and into the public sphere.

What Is Google Social Search?

As we become increasingly connected online, we start to build around ourselves a community of people that we have regular contact with and websites where we spend much of our time. This is called our social network. Now Google has worked out a way to measure and leverage these individual social networks so they influence the search results we see. Those results therefore become more relevant to us and more influential over time.

Google determines your social network based on the connections found in your public Google profile. Connections are classed as either direct connections or secondary connections. Your Gmail chat buddies and contacts are direct connections, as are connections from links listed in your Google profile (e.g. people you follow on Twitter, LinkedIn or FriendFeed). Secondary connections are those publicly associated with your direct connections (e.g. the people that your friends follow on Twitter).

To see your social profile on Google, login to your Google account and visit the social dashboard. The first time you do this, Google will collect all the social data it has stored about you, based on your Google Profile and public content, and build what they call your *social circle*.

After Google builds your social circle, whenever Google’s algorithm determines that your search experience will be improved, it annotates regular web index data with social data customized from your social circle and adds this information to the bottom of your search results.

You MUST be signed in to Google to see this. If you’re not happy with the results, say from Twitter, you can delete your Twitter account from your Google profile to prevent published info from your Twitter connections being added to your social circle.

You can also add or block Google contacts so you don’t see information from them in your social circle. In the reverse, you can choose what content you want to make public, based on your published Google profile.

How Does Social Search Work?

Google Social Search has been in experimental mode since October, but this week it’s been rolled out to full public Beta, meaning you should now see social content in your search results on Google.com. Google hasn’t rolled Social Search out to their regional sites at this stage, but this is expected soon.

To see social search results in action, login to your Google account, then run a search. You’ll see the heading *Results from people in your social circle* towards the bottom of the search results page. For example, if I run a search for *music blogs* on Google.com, I get the following social circle suggestions:

Because Matt Burgess and Tim Burrowes are in my social circle and have blogged about music, I see their content at the top of my social circle results.

If you want to see more social results, click on the *Show Options* link at the top left of the page and click on the *Social* link in the side menu under *All Results*. This will bring up search results sourced entirely from your social network. You’ll also see a list of your friends and connections under the menu heading *All People*. You can click on a particular name in the list to bring up more results from their public content.

Next to your social circle results are two links that are new additions to the service added to coincide with the public rollout: my social circle and my social content (pictured). These take you to your social circle dashboard that I linked to earlier.

The *my social circle* tab displays your extended network of online contacts, as well as the pathways that connect you. Clicking on the *my social content* tab brings up your public social media profiles, taken from your Google profile, that might appear in other people’s social results (pictured).

Apart from this social dashboard, the other major difference between the original Social Search experiment and the new public rollout is the addition of Google Images into the mix. If anyone in your social circle has shared images on Flickr or Picasa and Google determines they are relevant to your search query, you may see these in your search results as well.

Judging by my social search experiments to date, I believe Google has been collating social results for some time. A key observation is that relevance seems to win over freshness in the social influenced search results – some of the top results in my social circle were from 2008.

How Do You Take Advantage of Social Search?

1. If you haven’t already done so, create a Gmail account and create and flesh out your Google Profile immediately.
2. Join more social sites if you want your content to appear in the SERPs of your direct and secondary social circle networks, particularly the primary ones Twitter, Flickr and FriendFeed.
3. Optimize your social media content (tweets, FB and LinkedIn status updates, blog feeds, etc) for target keywords to ensure your social content is shown in a wider number of social circle SERPs.
4. Gmail and Chat contacts get top billing in your social circle so choose your Gmail buddies wisely or remove them from your profile altogether.
5. Consider the type of social content that is popular and most often shared within your networks. Concentrate on building similar content in your public social media profiles to ensure it gets syndicated via your social circle.
6. If Universal Search wasn’t enough of a punch in the gut to convince you to optimize your multimedia content, consider Social Search to be that punch placed a little lower. Your shared photos just became another content channel.
7. Become more picky about who you follow and what social feeds you subscribe to. They have just become influencers in your every day search results.

What if I Don’t Like It?

If your particular social circle seems a little lightweight or top heavy, you can control what results you do and don’t see under your social search results. You can choose to either remove a social network from your Google profile (such as Twitter or Facebook), or remove a specific contact from your network.

You can ignore the social results at the bottom of the page when signed in, or if you don’t wish to see any social search results at all, simply conduct your searches while signed out of your Google account.

It’s important to note that Google doesn’t make your social circle public e.g. publish your list of chat buddies. It simply adds your buddies’ public information to YOUR social circle.

What Does it All Mean?

What this really means is that standard SERPs are a thing of the past. Over the last couple of years, we’ve come to expect that a search for *blue widgets* will pull up completely different results for someone in London and someone in New York. But with Google having rolled out personalized search, real time search and now social search, you and your flatmate could be sharing an Internet connection in the same room and be served very different SERPs for identical search queries.

As for how this impacts online marketing? For starters, if you’ve been hoping social media will just go away, it’s time to wake up and smell the pancakes. Not only is online social networking not going anywhere, it is thriving and changing how we search. It is now in your interest to expand your social network and create a presence on as many social sites as you can.

More importantly, your clients will be looking to you to help them understand how to use social search to their advantage. Embrace the opportunity and get socializing.

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This fantastic Article is by 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.

My blog was hacked today.  Somehow someone inserted a huge line of code into my blogs header which caused it to redirect to a bunch of stupid sites.  I wish I could redirect something right back at them that would blow up their damn computers while they’re busy hacking into someone’s private property.  These people make me insane!!!!!   I wasn’t aware of how much I didn’t know about these morons.  I didn’t know that hacker isn’t really an appropriate word for these #$$@^&*(), the appropriate term would be cracker.  Hackers break code for good and crackers break code for evil.   Here’s some info from a great site which helped me better understand the world of a hack or crack or whatever the heck they are. hackingalert.com

A Brief History

One might not suspect that the art, or scourge, of computer hacking was created at one of the havens for technological excellence.  True, at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), a group of students developed the technique and borrowed their name from the “hackers” of the late 1800s who found amusement in pranking the emerging telephone companies.Getting their laughs and skills from hacking and cracking into primitive computers and exploiting the Arpanet (predecessor to the internet), they created a novelty that would become the target of federal crackdown in years to come. To define hacking in short, we can say that an artistic criminal offense of breaking into another remote system without the owner’s consent for the purpose of stealing information is what is hacking.

However, the act of hacking started out innocently, and was basically a method of trying to figure out how computer systems worked. The 1970s saw the rise in “phreaking,” or phone hacking, headed by John Draper. This method allowed the user of a “blue box,”, when used with a Captain Crunch whistle of 2600 hertz which accessed the AT&T long distance system, to make free long distance calls. Hackers initiated with accessing the free phone calls through a varied range of sources, thereby managing to circumvent into the nation’s radio system and the phoning system resulting in a tremendous phone fraud nationwide.

After the age of “phreaking,” computers became not only the target, but also the forum, for a growing hacker population to communicate. The creation of bulletin board systems (BBS) allowed this communication and the technological possibility of more serious government and credit card hacking became possible. At this time in the early 80’s, hacking groups such as the Legion of Doom began to emerge in the United States, giving organization, and thus more power to hackers across the country.

Once this happened, breaking into the computers became a legitimate activity, with its own groups and soon its own voice with the 2600 magazine, launched in 1984. The effects of computer hacking were serious. Two years later, inevitably, Congress launched the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that outlawed hacking. Over the years, there was a series of noticeable occurrences as the worst consequential effect of computer hacking on more high profile cases, such as the Morris Worm, responsible for infecting government and university systems, and the Mitnick case in 1995, which captured Kevin Mitnick, steeling as many as 20000 credit card numbers.

In 1999, security software became widely known by the public, and with the release of new Windows programs, which were littered with security weaknesses, they became successful because of necessity. This fraudulent act of computer hacking is perhaps the major problem, confronting the rapidly expanding population of Internet users today, with the systems still trying to battle online hackers.  Visit  hackingalert.com for more info.

Over the years, I’ve read thousands and thousands of marketing articles, both online and off. But to this point, I have never read any article that was what I considered to be 100% idiot-proof – meaning even a dunce, moron, or complete idiot couldn’t screw up the process.

So I decided to write such an article. And if you read and judiciously apply the ridiculously simple, but profoundly effective and proven success steps presented in this article, I am 100% convinced beyond any shadow of doubt that anyone can absolutely, positively make money with Internet Marketing.

Why am I so confident in these steps? Because these are the exact same steps I’ve used to build nearly 100 profitable websites of my own, in a very short period of time. Here are the steps:

1. Brainstorm Your Domain Name

This is an important process, so don’t rush it. Even if it takes you weeks or even months to come up with a domain name you’re satisfied with. Take as much time as you need. Your domain name is that important.

I’m a firm believer in creating generic domain names that utilize your primary keywords. For example, NewyorkCityHotels.com or NapaValleyWines.com. Having a generic domain name serves two crucial purposes:

First, it will attract a more targeted audience to your website. A targeted audience will give you a much higher conversion ratio – allowing you to make maximum use of the traffic you receive.

Second, generic domain names that utilize your primary keywords will help with your search ranking. While SEO experts have opposing viewpoints whether or not this actually helps, based on my own personal experience, I can tell you that it does.

By the way, because of the astronomical number of domains on the Internet, you may have to get a little creative in order to utilize your primary keywords in your domain name.

For example, if your first choice, NewYorkCityHotels.com is already taken, try playing around with different variations of your keywords.

For instance, try this variation, HotelsinNewYorkCity.com…or this one, CityofNewYorkHotels.com. Also, don’t be afraid to use hyphens in your domain name. Using this technique allows me to utilize my primary keywords 100% of the time.

It also allows me to use the much preferred .com domain. You should try to use .com domains whenever possible, because most people will automatically put a .com on the end of a domain when they type it into a search engine. This puts you in prime position to pick up traffic from domains in your category that utilize extensions other than .com.

2. Register Your Domain Name, and Forget It

After you decide on a domain name, don’t build your website right away. Register your domain name, and forget it.

Why? Because in my opinion, you should never build a website without having a plan to promote, as well as monetize your website. Develop a well-thought-out marketing plan going forward, then when you build your website, you can hit the ground running.

3. Develop Your Marketing Plan

I’m a member of several small business forums, and without fail, the two questions that get asked most often are:

“How do I promote my website?” or, “How do I get free traffic to my website?” Those two basic questions get asked every single day.

That’s why it’s so important to develop a marketing plan in advance. You need to know the answer to those questions, before you build your website. You can’t get to your destination, if you don’t know know where you want to go.

4. Your Budget Determines Your Marketing Plan

If you have thousands of dollars to work with, then you have many more options when it comes to promoting your website. For example, you can buy ads in offline publication, as well as online publications.

A word of advice: Unless you are an experienced marketer with extremely deep pockets, stay away from pay-per-click advertising. PPC advertising will eat up your advertising budget quicker than Usain Bolt breaks world records.

In reality, most people coming online don’t have thousands of dollars to work with. In fact, most people coming online have little or no money at all.

But that’s the beauty of the Internet. Even if you are broke, you can still promote your website effectively, if you know what you’re doing.

For example, you can participate in social media networking, and promote your website via mega-popular sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and a host of other social media websites.

Other free and highly effective promotion methods include article marketing, forum posting, guest blogging, RSS feeds, volunteering your expertise on Question & Answer sites like AllExperts.com and more.

5. Learn How to Implement Your Marketing Plan Effectively

Starting a business – any business without having even basic marketing skills is downright foolish. Competency in marketing is the most important business skill that you can have.

If you become proficient in the art of marketing, it will allow you to become profitable that much quicker. And there won’t be anything that you can’t accomplish.

Some of the greatest sales and marketing books ever written are located right under your nose, at your local library – and they’re free. Do yourself a favor and study the classics. Many of the marketing techniques being used today are based on sound marketing principles established many decades ago.

A few of my favorite marketing books include The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy, Advertising Secrets of the Written Word by Joe Sugarman, Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz, Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples, Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy, Magic Words That Bring You Riches by Ted Nicholas and How to Write a Good Advertisement by Victor O. Schwab.

If you can’t find these books at your local library, you can pick them up for just a few dollars on Amazon.

6. Apply What You Learn

It’s not enough to just read the classics, you have to apply what you learn. Otherwise, what’s the point? That means reading the books more than once – several times if necessary.

Actually, you should read the books as many times as it takes for the information to sink in and become second nature to you.

You should also take copious notes, and practice writing ads over and over and over again. You should give yourself regular written exams on the information in the books, and each time you test yourself, your goal should be to score 100%.

Sounds like hard work, doesn’t it? It is. The question is how hard are you willing to work to get what you want?

7. Monetize Your Website

There are a number of ways that you can monetize your website – from selling advertising on your site to affiliate programs. My preferred method is affiliate programs.

Why? Because affiliate programs are completely hands-off for you. No billing, no inventory, no hassles. You simply choose from among the thousands of affiliate programs available on the Internet, select your program of interest, and promote the living daylights out of it. Then take your checks to the bank…that’s it.

8. Take Your Income to the Next Level

Once you start making $50 per month with affiliate programs, build another website, and start promoting another affiliate program. And when that website starts making $50, build another website and another and another.

Why? Because if you have 10 websites making $50 per month, that’s a monthly income of $500. And therein lies the secret to making money on the Internet.

Why beat yourself up trying to make hundreds – or even thousands of dollars with a single website? Take the path of least resistance. Build a bunch of websites that make just $50 per month. If you can build fifty websites in a year, that’s a monthly income of $2500, or $30,000 a year.

Does your current job pay that much? And the beauty of this method is you can keep giving yourself a raise. If you build another fifty websites the following year, you just doubled your income to $5,000 per month.

And if you can build another fifty websites the following year, you just tripled your income to $7500 per month.

The key to making this method work is building simple, low-maintenance websites. Just add content once or twice a month, and forget about them.

Think it can’t be done? Think again. I’m doing it, and so are thousands of other smart and resourceful entrepreneurs.

9. What About Content?

The key to having a website that other websites want to link to is having quality, content that is relevant to the overall theme of your website. You can either produce the content yourself, import it from somewhere else, or a combination of both.

If you elect to import your content from somewhere else, you can either use free content from article directories like EzineArticles, or you can purchase PLR articles, which I don’t recommmend.

Why? Because hundreds of other people purchased the exact same PLR package as you. So those articles have to be completely rewritten, which is a time-consuming process.

Whichever way you choose to go, just remember, it’s important to have lots and lots of relevant content on your website.

How much content? The more the better. After all, the more content you have on your website, the more often your visitors will return to read that content.

10. Build Your Website

Okay, now that you’ve properly laid the foundation for success, it’s time to build your website. The type of website you build will again depend on the amount of money you have to play around with.

I have a bunch of websites that I paid absolutely nothing for. And I have websites that I paid hundreds of dollars for. My recommendation: If you don’t have to spend money on a website, don’t.

Nowadays, it’s not necessary to spend a lot of money to get a decent looking website.

But whatever you do, be sure to purchase your own domain name. You definitely don’t want the name Blogspot, WordPress or Homestead in your domain name. It just looks amateurish.

I buy most of my domains through NetworkSolutions.com, because I’ve been using them for years, and I’m comfortable with them. Their domains cost a lot more, but they more than make up for it with great customer service.

That’s something you just can’t put a price on. That being said, I’ve also purchased $10 domain names from GoDaddy without any problems.

One last thing, don’t beat your brains out worrying about SEO. Just make sure your primary keywords appear in your title tag, and you’ll be just fine.

http://reviews-by-customers.com

Guest Post:  Lisa Banks, www.seo-advantage.com

Today’s websites are more complex than ever before. Many contain a wealth of information visitors can use to answer their questions and learn what they need to know before contacting a company or making a purchase online.

But with all the information and features packed into many of today’s websites, it can also be more difficult for site visitors to first of all determine whether or not a website will contain the information they need and then find it on the website. Installing a site search box can offer several advantages to help your site visitors—and also benefit your marketing function in the process.

Site search satisfies the customer’s “I want it now” attitude

Installing an internal site search box can help visitors find what they need more quickly. With web users still looking to find what they need as fast as possible, confusing navigation and cluttered design are more likely than ever to prompt an “on-to-the-next-site” response.

Internal site search is undoubtedly the quickest way for someone to find what they’re looking for on a large and complex site. An internal site search helps visitors get around navigational structures that may be confusing to them. This is especially important for sites that are constantly adding new content. As the site continues to grow, many users will find the site search function to be a valuable tool in helping them find what they need.

Site search makes a website more customer centric

Installing an internal site search also means you can transform your website from a static “one size fits all” style to a more “customer-centric” approach. More and more, websites need to simultaneously cater to different types of website users – knowledge seekers, prospects, buyers and long-term customers. Internal site search helps you do this, as it helps those seeking knowledge find and assess your resources more easily.

Site search appeals to the “searcher” type of site visitor

Different people prefer different types of navigation tools. For example, if someone uses a search engine like Google to arrive at your website, they are more likely to prefer the same search method for finding information within your website. It’s not uncommon for site visitors to look immediately for the site search box when they arrive at a website.

Site search arms marketers with data

Marketers can benefit tremendously from installing an internal site search function. With the right analytic tool, internal site search can provide a wealth of information about who visits your site and how they navigate around it.

Site search data can provide insight into customer desires, intent, and behavior. While a customer might tell a different story if asked for feedback in a focus group or online survey, for example, site search data can reveal exactly which pages they looked for and found, which searches intrigued them to continue reading as well as those that prompted them to leave the site. This will contribute to the conversation when analyzing conversion rate performance across content and site sections.

Site search provides insight into personas and usability issues

Site search can provide usability data without the expense of setting up testing facilities. When the usage data and click path from real users is saved and available for viewing and analysis anytime, a marketer can see where searchers encountered difficulty. Looking at this data across multiple users can give clues to areas of the site that require updating and expansion, for example.

Adding typical searched on phrases to flesh out descriptions of the various personas using your site can also help enrich the entire web team’s understanding of the types of people using the site. This information will be particularly helpful to any copywriters who are preparing content for selling pages and product descriptions, etc.

Site search brings ideas for new products

Users’ searches can even inspire new product offerings. If you see that many visitors are searching your site for a particular type of product or service that you don’t yet offer, it may be time to consider developing an offering to fit that underserved need. Especially if your site is already bringing traffic for those particular searches, your company may do well to act on this informal market research.

Site search reveals new keywords

You may end up finding new keywords you were never aware of, allowing you the opportunity to tweak your content so more users will find the information they need on your site. Perhaps some of your pages that you feel are relevant to a specific topic are missing a few of the terms people are actually searching on. In that case, you’ll have the opportunity to add them as appropriate and further refine your content, making it even more targeted to your users.

In addition, those keywords can be added to your search marketing campaigns, perhaps offering a chance to reach a wider audience on the Internet than originally anticipated.

In order for your company to remain competitive online, you need to be open to the new ways people are finding and disseminating information. Site search is an exciting utility for websites looking to evolve their websites according to user demands.

Can you remember when you first started your website or blog – you know, those days when you received one or two visitors to your site?  You worked your butt off to build traffic and slowly, so slowly you began to notice the trickle of traffic was turning into a steady stream of viewers.  The other day I was searching online for something new and interesting in the Field of Internet Marketing and I kept coming across one thing over and over again – MY OWN SITE!   I have a long, l – o – n – g,  way to to go to reach my goal but it’s nice to see your efforts in black and white – to see that your site is coming up in searches for a variety of different subjects.   It gives you incentive to move forward and find exciting, new, inventive ways to continue growing your Web Presence.  It’s complicated, time-consuming, frustrating and stressful but it’s also WORTH every single bit when you get it right.  Here’s a great article from Enzo F. Cesario with some great tips to help you out:

Saying that the Web is complicated is like saying that football is aggressive. Web trends come and go, with success stories and disasters wrestling for attention in the public eye. Sometimes people get it, and you have an amazing case like the advent of Twitter. Others miss the point spectacularly, such as CNN’s short-lived series where newscasters read excerpts from blogs.

With so much coming so quickly, it’s no surprise that some people are hesitant to expand their business into the online marketplace. It’s intimidating, and the penalties for failure can be harsh. However, here are six good reasons that every business can and should establish a Web presence.

#1 – Common Reference

Today, the Web is an integral part of most people’s lives. It’s not surprising that fewer and fewer people each year go to the newspaper or television for information and entertainment. News travels faster on the Web, and the sheer volume of entertainment available via sites like YouTube, Netflix, College Humor and others all mean less time in front of the television, and more time surfing the Web.

This is a warning and an opportunity. Traditional venues do still have a place simply through inertia and ubiquity, but they also are giving ground to the rising force of the Web. Getting a presence online allows you to keep pace with these growing trends; as people grow ever more dependent on the Web as a means of information and conducting business, it is the Web-oriented enterprise that likely will have its customer base grow, rather than shrink.

#2 – Innovation

The Web is so unrestrained that there are all manner of ways people can develop their creative impulses and come up with the next world-winning idea.

In that spirit, it’s healthy for any business to expose itself to innovation and competition. The increased tide of information may seem overwhelming, but managed carefully and studied diligently it can provide a wealth of ideas that can help your business grow. Any organization that cuts itself off from valuable information is just asking to be bypassed.

#3 – Communication

No other system of communication has been so fundamentally universal as the Web. People crave communication and contact, and the Web has affirmed this through every social multimedia network that has evolved and thrived. This is much more than a simple case of friends catching up on the latest gossip; it is a powerful tool that can keep your business ahead of the game.

The Web is bursting with information. Many experts use the Web to publish materials they don’t want to take the time to ram through slower, more traditional channels, because they’re eager to share. If you have an issue for your business, the Web has an expert ready to discuss it. Getting a Web presence allows these experts to see what you have to offer, and to help you refine it, be it through a forum discussion or a friendly email.

#4 – Efficiency of Exposure

This is where the Web truly shines, as demonstrated by the success of bookselling giant Amazon. Advertising takes time and money, so you want to put your advertisements where the greatest number can see them for the smallest cost. So rather than have many scattered retail bookstores, Amazon has one centralized system that everyone can go to, almost anywhere in the world.

These benefits extend beyond the mail-order mindset, as well. Having a well-designed, effective website for your store can get people interested. Rather than take a gamble on an unknown restaurant, for example, consumers can come to its site and see exactly what’s on the menu, for what prices, and even reserve a table with a convenient online form. As a result, the restaurant fills up tables, and its competition misses out.

#5 – Inexpensive Investment

Very few businesses have to incur a massive expense when setting up their initial Web presence. The cases in which you’d need your own server, for example, are vanishingly rare. Bandwidth and hosting space can be acquired for very reasonable rates, with many hosts offering trial periods and special business discounts. For the many benefits a Web presence can offer, the investment is hardly worth mentioning-but the ROI can be staggering.

#6 – A Case in Point

This is a bit of a ‘meta’ reference, meaning it requires a little thinking outside the usual box. But consider for a moment just where you’re reading this article. Consider what probably brought you to this website. Is it a coincidence that an article about establishing a Web presence can be found on the Web? A bit of lighthearted irony, but it does get you thinking a little, doesn’t it?

People are using the Web, and are going to continue using it. Major legislative battles are being fought over just how the Web should be allowed to function, but the Web most likely is going to be the defining arena of all business for the next century and beyond. Do your business the best service you can, and consider not if you should get a Web presence, but what form is the most appropriate to begin with.

To Read more, visit:   http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/

The number one reason I chose to pursue Internet marketing as an online entrepreneur was the freedom it provides. Having an online business allows you to take your business with you wherever you go and work on it at whatever time suits your schedule. Now, that’s the kind of freedom I am after!

But, in order to make your work at home, online business a success, you must possess a certain amount of self discipline so that you can properly use your energy and time productively.

Here’s a few of the most important elements that I learned that will keep your confidence, focus and productivity strong as you pursue your own dream of working at home…and succeeding.

The most important thing I learned was what things produced money for me and what things didn’t. For me it was no question…article marketing and list-building were the two most important elements to pursue for my business.

In other words, they were the best use of turning my time into money as they provided the best results.

Hanging out in forums and chat rooms…although very entertaining, was simply not cutting it. Forums can be productive for you if you monitor the way you use them and don’t just hang out killing what could otherwise be productive time.

Another important step to take is to cut yourself off from the noise…cut off the world that takes you away from your focus.

For example:

1) unsubscribe from your thousands of mailings. That is a chore in itself, but if you don’t do this, you will continue to be bombarded with offers that will only distract you from your goals. Choose to follow 1, 2 or possibly 3 mentors at a time…and no more. Trust me, the others aren’t going anywhere and will still be around when you’re finished with your present ones!

If this idea scares you, then create a separate email account and resubscribe for those hundreds of promos you will be getting and check it occasionally.

2) Do those things that make money for you first such as sending an email to your list, writing articles for the directories, checking your support desk for any help needed etc.

3) Shut your computer down and accomplish any offline tasks that are nagging at you to complete. I have found that if there are things that I am not tending to in my offline life, they will continue to nag me and unconsciously I am not getting the most out of my mind energy because of this subtle disturbance to my peace.

Value your time: Learn to say “no.” Sounds easy enough doesn’t it and yet there are those that have trouble saying “no” to anyone or any offer that comes their way. You need to choose what and whom gets your valuable time…you only have so much of it. Use your time to enjoy your family or to benefit your business in some way.

Learn to say “no” to time wasters. Learn to say “yes” to your life (family and business)

Set up your work hours and stick to it. For me, this was early in the morning. I would get busy on my business…coffee in hand while most everyone else was sleeping.

If you’re busy writing an article or blog post, time yourself! That’s right, buy a typical timer and set the alarm for the amount of time it should take you to complete this task. This will keep you honest with yourself but more importantly it will keep you accountable for your time!

Don’t spend 3-4 hours on a short report or blog post that should be written within 20-30 minutes. After timing yourself for awhile you might be surprised at what you find. Use this information to improve your time management skills.

Create a daily action list. I create mine the night before so that it is ready and waiting for me when I sit down at my desk in the morning and I never have to guess at what needs accomplishing. It is simply a compilation of tasks that I want to accomplish that day. Better to keep it simple…especially at first until you get comfortable with your own time frames. Don’t make the list so long that you are defeated before you begin.

I move from one task to the other until I’ve completed them all. If I have miscalculated my timing and everything does not get done that day, whatever is left undone goes to the top of my “to do” list for the next day.

Don’t forget the breaks! We need to take 15 minute breaks to stretch our body and give our minds a rest. Ideally you should never work more than three hours straight without some sort of break. But, come right back after your break!

And, last but not least, take ACTION. This is the most important step of all. If you don’t take action, your dreams an ideas remain just that…dreams and ideas. Combine your dreams with action steps…persistently and consistently…and watch your dreams manifest before your eyes!

Becoming an online entrepreneur is one of the most exciting opportunities that has ever come along. Becoming a success at it, is all about your self discipline.

After Google, YouTube is now apparently the most-used search engine in the world. YouTube now allegedly sees more searches than either Yahoo or MSN. I think that’s amazing. And I also think it is an amazing opportunity for those of us who want to increase traffic to our websites.

But does YouTube really represent a realistic option for increasing traffic to your site? Last year I set out to test this very theory because, frankly, I was a little cynical. My own suspicions were that most of these searches were from teenage kids looking for clips of their favourite bands or stupid stunts and I doubted that YouTube could be effectively harnessed for the sake of marketers.

So I created a small number of short (2-5 minute) videos on a topic related to one of my websites and published them to see what happened.

And I must say that the results truly impressed me. People were finding my videos either in YouTube itself – or on Google which tends to rank videos highly – and then watching my videos. Over a few months, thousands of people watched them and a decent number then clicked on the link pointing to my site.

As a result I saw a marked increase in my traffic as a result of this experiment and it really turned me on to the possibilities.

So how difficult is it to harness the power of YouTube? Honestly, the answer is not very, and I’d to tell you exactly how I did it in the hope that you too can benefit from the power of online video.

Making The Video

Nothing flashy is need to make a video to market your website. Personally I used a cheap digital camera and just basically spoke into the lens. For YouTube ensure your videos don’t go over 10 minutes in total length. Personally I pretty much read some of my more popular articles and tips so I was able to reuse much of my existing content rather than having to create plenty of new content.

I literally took an article that was generating traffic and then read it to camera.

Upload The Video

Sign up for a free YouTube account if you haven’t already and you will find how easy it is to upload the video. All you need to do is to locate it on your computer and press the upload button.

Once the video is uploaded the final step is to name it correctly. As you are basically reusing the content of an existing article, use the article title as the title for your video and include a link back to your website in the description.

That really is pretty much all there is too it. I recommend doing a number of these videos as they can be a little hit and miss and the more you have out there the greater the difference will be to your traffic levels.

One final tip is to enable comments on your videos in your YouTube account as I have found a surprising number of people are keen to ask questions about the videos I have uploaded and this can also be a good way to lure people back to my site by explaining that the answer to their questions is at this page or that page on my site.

10 Tips for Making the Most of Online Video

1. Make Sure Your Video is Professionally Done.

This is an absolute must. The whole point here is to establish credibility and trust, but you’ll do the opposite with a poorly executed and produced video. Yes, many of the videos you find on sharing sites are mediocre at best, but that is changing rapidly as companies begin to see the value of promoting themselves in this manner. In fact, a recent Permission TV survey found that 67% of 400 hundred top executives intended to focus their online marketing efforts on video in 2009. The rush is coming – find a personable, engaging interviewer and a top notch production crew to really stand out.

2. Submit Your Video to as Many Outlets as Possible.

While YouTube is the clear leader here, there are many other video sharing sites worthy of consideration. Here are some others you won’t want to pass up:

• Google Video
• Yahoo! Video
• Daily Motion
• MySpaceTV

• MetaCafe
• Revver
• Veoh
• Blinkx
• Break

3. Embed Your Video on the Front Page of Your Site.

Don’t hide what’s going to become one of your most effective selling tools on a dusty inside page. Get it out front. Customers and search engines will love you for it.

4. Find Out What Search Terms Your Potential Clients are Using
and Put Them in Your Video’s Title.

If you don’t know what words clients in need of your services are typing into Google and other search engines, get professional help or use some of the resources featured on this page. Once you’ve identified these terms, use the most popular in your video’s title.

5. Make Your Tags and Descriptions SEO-friendly, too.

Most video sharing sites let you tag videos with keywords and post a short description, so get the most out of these by sprinkling in the search terms you’ve identified.

6. Don’t Forget Your Thumbnail.

A thumbnail is a still shot from your video that appears along with search results. Don’t waste this opportunity to present yourself in the best light possible – choose a key moment from your video, preferably one where you’re smiling as you speak with your interviewer.

7. Link Back to Your Site.

Put your URL near the top of your video’s description. You’ll get a higher search ranking and potential clients will quickly learn where to go for more information.

8. Interact With Your Viewers.

Most video sharing sites allow viewer comments. Use this opportunity to answer questions, respond to comments, and further promote your business.

9. Consider a Pay-Per-Click Campaign.

Natural search engine optimization, while effective, takes time to bear fruit. In the meantime, you might want to jump start the process with a pay-per-click campaign that gives you a sponsored search listing. You can learn more about PPC advertising at:

• www.google.com/intl/en/ads

• sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/searchenginemarketing

• advertising.microsoft.com/search-advertising

10. Add New Content Often.

Search engines look for it and so do potential clients. Keep your content fresh and up-to-date and keep visitors coming back for more.

With an ever-increasing stream of competition, it’s more important than ever to stand out from the crowd. These days standing out means maximizing your online presence and leveraging the technology to present the unique advantages of you and your firm. There’s no better way for a growth-oriented business to build a solid and secure future than by using effective and affordable online video.

Use these free resources to get a handle on the terms that potential clients are using to search for you right now.

• Wordtracker
• Google AdWords
• Keyword Discovery
• KwMap
• Google Trends