Let me try to explain to you in simple terms what T3leads does – It’s a new, different, exciting way to work as an affilliate or a marketer in today’s very competitive online world.

Let’s look at the affiliate side. Usually when you work as an affiliate you choose a specific product. You advertise this product to as many people as you can. It’s always hard to figure out which one product will sell and often times you find that you have wasted valuable time, effort and money on a product that won’t sell. This is where t3leads comes in. You know all those people you contacted for that one affiliate product you were trying to sell? Each one of them could be a lead for a group of advertisers to bid on. You will make money based on the amount bid for your lead.

(from t3leads)”Affiliates, T3Leads allows you to turn your website traffic into commission by directing customers to our merchants. Promote merchants through text or graphic advertisements. Our customizable solutions provide you the necessary tools to assemble your business and generate commission. There are no sign-up costs, and our ready-made design templates and support team make it easy to get started. Continue reading to discover more affiliate benefits and how to register for an Affiliate Account.”

T3leads opens a whole new world for marketers looking for fresh leads. T3leads is so easy for affiliates to use it creates an avalanche of fresh, new, undiscovered leads for marketers.

(from t3leads) “Merchants, T3Leads provides a unique experience when it comes to extending our customer reach and opening new revenue channels. Our quality lead generation process ensures lower advertising costs while increasing your sale conversions, bringing you a level of performance that is unrivaled. Open new sales opportunities by partnering with one of the most comprehensive marketing publishers and industry experts available today.”

The T3leads is easy to sign up for. Their control panel is very easy to use. The websites tab displays the sites that are currently advertising through T3leads.com, broken down based on category. Some common categories include home insurance, and payday loans.

They provide affiliate tools to help you get started and the support provided is always timely. Should you sign up for T3leads? I think you should definitely try it. It is so different from other affiliate programs the potential is unlimited. The only problem I see with T3leads is the same thing that makes me think it has so much potential. The fact that you don’t know the specifics on the advertisers or the amount earned for leads is a hindrance for some.

(from t3leads.com)

T3Leads New Platform Features:

Until recently, it has been a legal standard that publications are not liable for the bad behavior of their advertisers. While some print publications do require that advertising conforms to certain standards or follows guidelines that they set, this is almost always based on community sensibility and the personal preferences of the publishers. When it comes to the content, the legitimacy of the claims being made by an advertiser; there usually is no responsibility for a publication in the United States to determine if the claims are true or valid. However, the relationships between the publisher, the advertising network, and the advertiser has changed enormously and everyone should be aware of what this means.

The relationship between the advertiser and the publication in all areas requires that the publisher be independent of any decisions regarding the claims and content of the advertising. Publishers, while they can obviously ask for changes based on esthetics, principles and general guidelines generally do not comment or ask for changes based on the legitimacy of the product.

If an advertiser claims that “this product will guarantee to make you lose 50 lbs a week,” it is never the responsibility of the publisher, to check this claim and ensure the legitimacy of it. The publication, whether it is print, internet or mobile is just taking the content and placing it within the publication. As Bennet G. Kelley of the Internet Law Center explained to in a brief conversation about this topic, once a publisher gets more involved “there is a potential for greater liability. The greater role one takes the greater risk they take.”

When the dynamic changes, therein lies the problem. Advertising networks on the internet, for example, are sometimes becoming more and more involved with the creative process and the actual selling of the product.

For example, there is more than one major display network that also makes creatives for their clients and changes them so that they perform better. In doing this, the display network is no longer just “placing ads” but is actually becoming part of the creation process. Often the reason to be involved is simple: the advertising pays based on a click or conversion and, if there is a better advertisement, the network will be paid more.

An advertisement that once claimed that “you can lose weight” on this product, might have been changed by the network to “you can lose weight while watching TV”. The actual claim is being made by the advertising network since they made the advertisement.

“It is the difference between being passive,” says Kelley “and being an active participant in the process. Once you get involved in the decision making of what the advertisement says you open yourself up to liability.” Kelley mentions an example where a housing website has been sued for violation of fair housing laws because they created the website in a way that one could in the process of creating the ad for listing, include screening of people based on race. They at that point opened themselves to liability.

Similarly, there should be a real concern about any company that receives money based on a commission, cost per lead, cost per action. Affiliate networks have already learned that they are not immune from the bad actions of their affiliates and many of them embroiled in the ACAI and other fraud suits know too well that they can be sued based on the actions of their client.

An “Affiliate” or “CPA network” is no longer an advertising network that just places advertising. Most of them are involved from the ground up with almost every aspect of how the market is created and have little or no defense to the bad-actions and claims of the advertisers anymore. Even without this, there is now a relationship based on commission, based on the performance of the advertisement that goes beyond a simple placing of an advertisement. The affiliate network makes money only if the advertising makes money and there is a real argument that they are no longer acting as a publisher, but as an independent sales person pushing a product.

This should concern publishers who are involved with these programs as well. As the FTC starts to examine the practices of advertisers and their actions, they are going to start examining the relationship of the publishers to those advertisers.

If you getting paid on a Cost-Per-Performance model, your liability is suddenly much greater. Putting a link in your blog that reads “This product can do this” suddenly goes beyond a recommendation or advertisement. You are in fact yourself making that claim and getting paid based on the result of that claim. No longer are you just a publisher with an advertiser, but you’ve become an agent, a salesperson, a product pitcher that could be responsible for your statements and actions. Kelley mentioned that the FTC is closely examining everyone in the chain and what their role is.

Michael H. Sproule, of the firm Akabas and Sproule, explained that in order to determine liability there is often a two prong process. “Endorsement required two things: First the publisher received an economic benefit from the advertisement and secondly a reader would think the publisher was recommending the product. Both prongs must be met.”

He says that any website that recommends a product based on a CPA needs to be careful. “Here both prongs are present: payment to the reviewer, plus a recommendation. On its face, this traditional test could apply to Cost per Sale (Affiliate) advertising without any difference. If the commission was seen merely as analogous to a traditional payment for placement, then there is no difference. The first prong, economic benefit to the publisher is met, but there would be no liability unless placement made the ad appear to be a recommendation.”

Thus a link to a product without a review or recommendation might be okay, but as soon as you recommend the product, or make claims, there lies the liability.

What can be learned from this? If you are engaged in any product marketing where you are doing anything besides just putting an advertisement up for a set cost, you need to examine what you are selling. If a product makes a claim and you are expressing that same claim in anything you do, whether it be posts in your blog or your own personally created banner you need to do some research about those claims. Ask the person involved what studies have been done to show them, ask what proof they have.

Perhaps it’s also time to retain an attorney, if you don’t already have one, to look over these relationships. I know it’s hard for publishers to spend the money in this economy, but the possibility of getting sued for millions based on one poorly worded banner or recommendation might be enough to scare you into doing it.
In perhaps the fastest growing industry ever, one person has made a name for himself as a leader and innovator. Pace Lattin, the publisher of the top newsletters in new media and online advertising, is one of the inventors of many of the technologies and methods that have become standards in the industry. He has been called many things, including a rabble-rouser, a guru, an innovator and a watchdog — but one thing stays the same: he is one of the most interesting leaders and commentators in the online advertising industry. Marketing Sherpa, a leading marketing research publication called him the most influential journalist in online media for a reason. IndustryPace.com

The first step of any online campaign is deciding what you want to be known for, particularly when aiming for a stronger presence on the search engines. These terms or search phrases that you wish to be seen for are called ‘keywords’. Researching and implementing these keywords into your website is crucial to the success of your website. It is vital that you look into both the search volume of each keyword and also the competition levels. By conducting a bit of research first you will gain a good understanding of how your market looks online, and also what keywords you could realistically achieve good positions for.

There are many ways you can conduct keyword research. The internet offers different tools, both free and paid for, and in addition to that there are some commands on the search engines that will also give you some clues. Free tools such as Google’s Adword’s keyword tool give you a basic look into monthly search volumes and competition levels, however it is sometimes questionable as to how accurate these figures can be. If you want to step it up a notch, you could try paying for software such as Word Tracker. Word Tracker will give you a much more thorough analysis of each word and ultimately give you a better view of the market.

For most people, using the free tools and search commands are enough to give a good idea of what keywords you should target with your website. Listed below are a few useful search commands that you could use to do a little research:

1. “In URL : ‘keyword’”

By typing this into a search engine and replacing the word ‘keyword’ with your keyword, you will get a list, and more importantly a number, of websites that are using your keyword in their URLs. This will give you a solid idea of how many websites are directly targeting your keyword.

2. “In title: ‘keyword’”

2nd most important to the URL, the meta title is vital to targeting a particular keyword. By using this command you will be able to see how many websites are using your keyword in their meta titles.

3. “In text: ‘keyword”

This command will give you a really good rounded view of the market. It will produce a list of websites that are talking about your keyword. The perfect keyword is one that has a substantial amount of traffic, yet a relatively low competition level. Of course, the keyword must be highly relevant to your website and business to ensure that any traffic that comes from the search engines is looking for exactly what you offer.

You will probably find that when you start to look into keywords, by varying the phrase slightly you can find keywords with high traffic levels and low competition…this is exactly what you are looking for. Also, don’t ignore keywords with low search volumes; if these keywords are relevant to your website the traffic they could bring could be a lot higher in quality if you are targeting a niche area.
For more information on Keyword Research, please visit www.wise-sites.com.

Here’s a smattering of today’s top Twitter trends:

#breakuplastwords, #ihatequotes, #nowplaying, #OMGIKnowRight, #Justin Beiber.

It may be hard to believe these words are worth repeating, but this chatter could mean traffic for your website and business. How do you run with the word-flow without getting lost in a deluge of diatribe?

Five pointers for smart internet marketing with Twitter trends:

1. Ride The Right Trends – Not every high-flying topic is going to be brand-supportive, so choose trends wisely. Know what your bottom line is, and make sure your chosen keyword won’t detract from your brand equity.

2. Timing Is Everything – Just as today is a chance to introduce your business through exciting, new trend associations, yesterday’s buzz is just that—in the past. It’s best to stick to the day’s trends to attract as many eyes as possible.

3. Be Creative – Engage the banter around trending topics through clever promotional copy. If you own a cleaning company and wanted to catch today’s #nowplaying trend, think about unique plugs and points of reference for your brand. A client’s home entertainment center, perhaps. You could run with this: ” #nowplaying in your living room: Clean, Calm, Collected.” Just remember to link to your service.

4. Pace Yourself – Piggy-back on Twitter trends strategically. Don’t abandon straight-forward promotional tweets as part of your marketing mix just yet. You should still routinely communicate who you are and what you offer to your core market in plain Twenglish. Use trending creatively to boost short-term sales through web-exclusive incentives, or to remind consumers of recently-launched products.

5. Invent The Wheel (Or Word) If You Must – Don’t see enough opportunities to creatively spread the word? Take initiate to get new keywords trending by tagging a concept, category, or catchphrase. Who knows? Maybe you’ll start tomorrow’s top trend—and drive brand awareness through smart internet marketing while you’re at it. Don’t miss an opportunity to promote your brand and your product with personality. Don’t be afraid of using humor (carefully!) when there’s an opportunity to shine. Twitter’s snappy stream of top trends is a high-low stream of abridged messages—the perfect platform to stand out with short, sweet and smart internet marketing. Spread your message by turning your Tweets into a conversation. Make your 140 characters worth a thousand words by knowing which trends work for you, seizing its moment, starting a conversation—and most importantly, using it when it’ll help you most.
Mark Etinger – Ajax Union is an smart internet marketing and business development company. http://www.ajaxunion.com you can view our internet marketing and business development blog at http://www.ajaxunionblog.com

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.

About The Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/

While there may be much discrepancy, these 17 tips for SEO are something most experts seem to agree on. Following these rules, you can avoid some common mistakes and launch a successful campaign.

1. Perform keyword research. This is a very important step in your SEO campaign, before you even begin. Thoroughly research all keywords you may want to use – this can make a huge difference in your strategy.

2. Don’t use the same Metas for every page. All your Meta and Title Tags should be unique for each page. Also, make sure to use keywords and write an engaging title.

3. Don’t try to deceive the search engines. Don’t overuse keywords, hide text, or create doorway pages. These are unethical forms of SEO. With the current trend of search engines favoring ethical SEO, your best practice is to create a well-thought out web page, that has unique content, and is easy to navigate.

4. Avoid low quality links. Not all links are created equal. Instead of getting links from link farms, research the popularity of websites before getting links from them. Alexa ranks are a good way to check popularity, as well as page rank. However, if your own page rank is rather low, fret not, for this will be explained below.

5. Avoid using links with the same anchor text. Search engines do not like links that use the same anchor text and description that are repeated in short bursts.

6. Don’t overdo reciprocal links. Reciprocal linking can be valuable, but only when done in small doses, and if the links are relevant to your business. Also, make sure to have a diverse set of links, including links to blogs, forums, articles, social media bookmarking, and more.

7. Don’t become obsessed with page rank. Page rank is only a small part of your entire SEO campaign. The way pages are ranked is actually rather complicated, and is based on many factors. It is possible for a lower ranked page to actually be quite successful and get lots of visitors. So if your page rank is low, don’t freak out.

8. Do network with other Website owners. This is a great way to learn, get advice, and exchange links. These relationships can be mutually beneficial.

9. Make site updates regularly. Sometimes, an out-of-date website can be worse than no website at all. Make sure you update regularly with current information, news and events, and fresh content. If you want to catch the eye of the search engine robots, regular updates are a great way.

10. Don’t compete for single keywords. Instead, compete for keyword phrases. This will make it more likely that your site will show up as a relevant search result. For instance, if your company sells jewelry boxes, and you attempt to compete for the term “boxes,” many people who find your site will be looking for cardboard boxes, hat boxes, and other types of boxes, and will likely not stay on your page once they realize you don’t sell what they’re looking for. If you compete for the phrase “jewelry boxes,” it’s more likely that potential customers who are looking strictly for jewelry boxes will find you.

11. Research your competition. It’s always good to know what the competition is up to, including what they are doing on their website, where they are getting links, etc.

12. Design your Website to be SEO friendly. There is definitely an SEO strategy when it comes to website design. Avoid heavy Flash and lots of graphics, since search engine robots crawl the text, not images. Good Meta and Title Tags are a must, as well as fresh and engaging content. If you’re hiring someone to design your website, look for someone who is an expert in organic SEO.

13. Use text links instead of images. If using JavaScript, text links are important since spiders won’t follow JavaScript.

14. Keep localization in mind. There are several benefits to reaching out to the local audience. Aside from gaining local customers, including location-based keyword phrases, like “detroit auto body shop,” will help you because you will have less competition for that keyword.

15. Don’t ignore the power of content. Nothing drives a Website like good content. Make sure your content is engaging, original, and well researched. Use keywords strategically (so they fit in with the natural flow of text).

16. Always proofread. This step should be a given, yet it’s not uncommon to see typos and content mistakes on web pages. Aside from providing incorrect information, mistakes, as well as typos, make a web page and its company look unprofessional.

And most importantly…

17. Don’t Give Up! SEO is not accomplished overnight. It can be a long process and takes lots of work and sometimes trial and error. Keep up your effort and don’t give up!

Wendy Suto, President and CEO of Search Circus, has specialized in search engine optimization and search engine marketing, including SEO campaigns for over 10 years. Certified in SEO, Wendy Suto only follows natural and organic search engine optimization guidelines with proven results.

It does not matter what you call them: vodcasts, vidcasts, videocasting, or video podcasting… there are a few behind-the-scenes actions you can take to help attract more attention to your video productions. Just like websites, it does not matter how amazing the content is if interested people are unable to find it.

Use the following suggestions to help increase the exposure your videos receive…

1. Use Keywords

In Video File Name Insert keywords in the name of the video file. When determining what keywords to use, do not simply rely on intuition; do research, just as you would for a website, to see what relevant terms people are searching on.

2. Create Video Feed

Create an RSS feed of all videos in a collection. Each feed item should contain a different video in the enclosure field. Optimize the feed using related keywords. For additional help, there is a Videocasting Feed Creation Tutorial available at http://www.feedforall.com/videocasting-tutorial.htm .

3. Increase Exposure

Host your videos on YouTube, and embed the video into your website, which will increase the video count on YouTube. The more popular a video seems to be, the more exposure it will receive.

4. Video Name And Description

In the video name and description fields, use keywords that relate to the content of the video. Create a compelling yet relevant title and description that will encourage people to click-through.

5. Google Video Sitemap

Create a video sitemap for the search engines. For details on what to include in such sitemaps, Google has provided specifications in their Google Webmaster Central Blog at http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/12/introducing-video-sitemaps.html .

6. Meta Data

Include meta data in the video file. The newer video search engines will often rely on meta data to produce relevant results. Many video editing products will allow you to edit and customize the meta data associated with the video file, and you should use this the same way you would use the meta data for a webpage.

7. Optimize Landing Page

Optimize the landing page on the website, embed the video in a webpage on your website, and then use standard SEO techniques to optimize that webpage for the search engines. Use keywords that relate to the video on the page that contains the video.

8. Transcripts

Provide a text transcript of the video, both on the landing page and in the RSS feed for the video.

9. Embed URL In Video

Brand the video with your logo in the initial video splash screen, and include your website address on the bottom of the video to increase your brand exposure.

10. Leave Them Wanting More

The video should be a teaser and leave the audience wanting more. Engage the audience, but try to encourage the viewer to visit the website or view other videos to learn more.

11. Submit YouTube Feed

YouTube creates an RSS feed for every user account that is created. In addition to manually creating an RSS feed, you can also use the YouTube feed to promote your videos. The formatting details for the YouTube video feeds can be found at http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/username/uploads (replace “username” in the url with your own YouTube account username).

12. Anchor Text

When linking to the video, use anchor text that contains keywords which relate to the video.

13.Video Submission

Submit the video to all the video websites and video podcast websites. Here are a couple of resource sites to get you started…

Podcast & Video Submissions – http://www.podcasting-tools.com/submit-podcasts.htm 140 Places to Submit Your Video List – http://www.stephanmiller.com/my-link-lists/140-place-to-submit-your-video-list/

14. Tag Video

Tag the video on the video networks with relevant keywords, making it is easier for people to find when they search on those keywords.

15. Track Views

Track and review the number of views that a video receives. If you find that a substantial number of viewers are abandoning the video before completion, the chances are good that the video is too long and could benefit from trimming.

16. Social Bookmarking

Use social bookmarking to draw additional attention to videos. This will also help with the number of incoming links, which in turn will help improve search engine ranking.

17. Shorter Videos Rank Better

No big surprise here — the file size of short videos is much smaller than that of longer videos. On the video networks like YouTube, short videos are viewed far more often than longer ones. A length of less than 3 minutes per video seems to be ideal, and absolutely make every effort to keep your video under 10 minutes! If you have a long video segment, consider breaking it into multiple videos. The more popular videos on the video networks are given more exposure, which will also help increase the number of views received.

18. Titles Capture Interest

Just like newspaper headlines, it is important that the title of the video be one that will attract attention. If possible, include important keywords in the video title. This will help the video perform well in video searches for that keyword or phrase. Word order may also make a difference in the video ranking, so try to use the more important keywords at or near the beginning of the video title.

19. Tag The Video

Tag the video with important keywords and phrases that are relevant to the video’s contents. This is particularly important on YouTube. For anyone searching for topical videos, this will help them find yours.

20. Encourage Commenting

Encourage customers or other viewers to comment on your videos. Most video networks increase a video’s exposure if it receives a lot of comments or views. Once a large collection of comments has been posted, you can turn commenting off. To further increase exposure, link to the video from social sites and social media profiles such as facebook, myspace, twitter, linkedin, etc.

21. User Name

Use your company name as the username for your account on video networks like YouTube. The company name will further reinforce your brand.

22. Embed YouTube Video

Embed the YouTube video in your website. YouTube is the largest video network with the biggest following — by embedding the YouTube video on your website, you will further increase the number of views the video receives.

23. Video Anchor Text

When you link to the video, use keyword-rich anchor text in the link to the video file.

24. Add iTunes Tags

Increase the exposure of your video by adding the iTunes tags and submitting the video podcast to iTunes.

25. Video SiteMap

On your website, use a sitemap that shows where the videos are located on your website. This will help both visitors and search engines in locating the videos.

26. Transcripts

Create a text transcript of the video. The text can then be spidered by search engines, giving the content an additional channel.

27. Allow Video Syndication

Allow others to syndicate your videos. This will increase the exposure and the number of views that your video receives.

28. Ratings

Ratings are a plus. Make sure that you allow other viewers the ability to rate your video on the video networks.

29. Compress File

File compression will reduce the file size of the video, and make it faster to download and view. The downside is that more compression results in lower quality. Compress the video file to the smallest possible size, but without compromising the video or sound quality.

30. Include Watermarking

Watermark your video file so that there is no doubt to its origin. Also, add a splash screen at the beginning, and embed your website URL in the video using video editing software. These things will increase your website’s exposure if the video file is syndicated.

The growth of video on the web has exploded in recent years. Competitors will leave you in the dust if you fail to adapt and provide the medium your customers are exploring. Keep in mind that simply having a video is not enough! To make the most of your video content, you should take steps to optimize the video and increase your exposure.
Videos are the latest marketing channel. In order to make the most of it, optimize the video and increase the exposure it receives.
About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company

A common 21st century phrase is ‘podcast’ an odd combination of the words iPod and Broadcast; the iPod being, Apples market dominatingly popular portable MP3 player. This expression is used to define a technology that lets users routinely download available audio files for listening to later, and is no longer exclusive to the iPod as many other software and hardware combinations now be used for the very same thing.

The roots of podcasting most likely lie in the blogging world as it is the natural progression to broadcasting information via the written word. I’m sorry for chucking another buzzword in the form of ‘blogging’, but with technology suddenly becoming cool there are dozens of new ones making their way in to our vocabularies. A blog, for those of you that don’t know, is an online journal that is frequently updated and intended for the general public. I should also just mention a technology known as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) which provides a continuous feed detailing updates that have been made to a particular data source; a podcast site for example.

The conventional media sources like TV, radio or streaming Internet media offer minimum control with regards to when the recordings are heard. Podcasting lets users get their hands on the downloaded content automatically carted over to their compatible player so they can listen to it later. In my opinion this is key to the technologies success and why it became so popular, so quickly similar to the way most technology is going success relies upon on demand content, tailored the users lifestyle, not vice versa.

For arguments sake let’s say, that I get the bus to the office and I want fresh and exciting content to listen to on a daily basis. If I head over to one of the many online resources available (for example www.podcast.com), I can subscribe to as many podcasts as I want from the thousands available. From this point on when I plug my iPod (other MP3 players are available) in for it to synchronize with my PC the latest available from my podcast list will be downloaded for my listening pleasure. The topics covered by podcasting in general are incredible and include everything from the music to technology, gaming, religion and world news.

Assuming you don’t want to individually move podcasts onto your MP3 player upon release, you will require specialist software such as the excellent free download Juice to make the rather tedious job automated. When the software is all setup you can go about adding as many podcasts as you like (and will have the time to listen to) and Juice will make sure it keeps you up to date. Fortunately there are versions of Juice to run on Windows, Linux and Mac OS ‘ it is very much a cross platform compatible application fits nicely with the podcasting ethos of access for all.

A subject as diverse and with as much content as Podcasting cannot really be convincingly covered in one article so the best tip I can give you is that if you are at all interested then download the software, visit the directories and take some time to see what’s out there.
Yes, there is a load of absolute rubbish but all you ever have to do is hit the unsubscribe button; as with many things in life you have to sift through the chaff to get at the wheat.

I do have one last tip I feel I should share – Subscribe to the Chris Moyles podcast; it’s fantastic!
Chris Holgate writes a weekly article of all things tech related. He is a copy-righter of the online Ink and Toner website Refresh Cartridges. These articles can be found in an archive at www.computerarticles.co.uk

Internet marketing efforts need to be tracked so you know if you are using your resources wisely. Google analytics is a good, free tool you can use to track traffic sources, conversion rates, etc.

Make sure you have Google analytics or some other type of analytics installed on your website.

Traffic Sources

You want to know where your traffic is coming from and where it is not coming from. This will help you allocate your resources properly. Google Analytics is able to track where your site visitors are coming from, where they go on your site, etc.

A few examples of where your traffic may come from:

- Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc)

- Pay-Per-Click campaigns

- Twitter, Facebook, etc

- Articles and press releases that include links

- Websites that have your links

- Etc.

Having this information can help you have a more effective Internet marketing plan.

Easy Come, Easy Go

It is easy to find out where the traffic comes from and what page they leave from. Both of these pieces of information are valuable. Knowing them can help you identify if your Internet marketing strategy is working.

The page people enter your site on is important. You want to make sure they arrive on your website on a page that has a focused message for what they are looking for (most websites have multiple entry points, each focused on a different search term). Pay careful attention to what page your visitors land on and make sure it is well designed and well written.

The page visitors leave your website on is also important because it may identify a problem with your site. If you find that a certain page is the primary exit point you want to see if there are any technical or other issues with that page that make people leave your site.

Conversion Rates

Though it is important to learn about where your traffic is coming from it is more important to know where your sales are coming from. Conversion rates in Google Analytics are tracked by traffic source. You can see where your actual buyers are coming from so you can put more emphasis on those resources.

Google Analytics is important to add to a website. Learn about your website traffic, conversion rates and more so you can make important tweaks to your Internet marketing strategy. It’s free to use so all you have to do is go for it.

For most bloggers, Google AdSense is the first and easiest way to start making money online. But reports of how much money you can actually make with it vary widely across the board. While popular bloggers have had a great deal of success with it, smaller blogs often find AdSense to be frustratingly limited. This discrepancy has been perpetuated to the point that many bloggers now believe that to make money with AdSense, you need to have a lot of traffic.

While that’s not exactly wrong; your site’s traffic has a great impact on how much you can earn from it; it’s not the whole truth either. Most importantly, you should not give up on AdSense because of this, because, as famous bloggers themselves have proven: when it works, it works like a charm!

In order to make money with AdSense, you first need to understand how it works. AdSense is a simple ad-publishing tool that can be incorporated into a variety of online mediums and displays ads based on the keywords within the existing text on the page. Every time a visitor to your site clicks on an ad published in your data, you are paid some money. Hence it is called PPC or Pay-Per-Click Advertising. This is usually a figure in cents or pennies, and the exact figure depends most of all on how competitive and profitable your keywords are.

Types of AdSense

AdSense is available for web content (on blogs and web sites), for search (as when you add a Google search bar to your blog and visitors click on a sponsored search result), for mobile content (for mobile-version web sites and pages), for feeds (so that you can display ads even within your RSS and Atom feeds), and for video, parked domains and mobile applications.

How to Make Money With AdSense

1. Understand how AdSense Works

In order to make good profit from AdSense, it’s not enough to just sign up and start publishing ads. First you must know its rules – so that you don’t break them – and its payout method – so that you can develop your strategy accordingly. Take a look at Google’s AdSense center to begin learning.

2. Choose profitable keywords

Even if you already have an existing web site, in order to make money with AdSense you need to choose the most profitable keywords within your niche. If you plan on writing your own content (as opposed to hiring freelancers or copywriters), it is also crucial that you know something about the subjects of those keywords and can research and write useful material on them.

3. Create useful, keyword-rich content

Once you have chosen your keywords, you can actively start creating content while keeping those keywords in mind. Don’t start keyword-spamming, because users will not find your site useful, and while they might click on an ad just to get away from your page, that’s not a profitable or traffic-building strategy. If your content doesn’t make sense, you also risk getting banned by Google; not just the AdSense program but the search engine too!

4. Place your ads strategically.

The placement of your ads within your content really matters. The optimum placement will of course depend on your design and the placement of your text. You also have the choice between image, text and video-based ads, and how well one works for you will depend on your readership, the type of your content and primarily your existing web design. Many WordPress themes and the like come already enabled for displaying ads, but don’t let that prevent you from trying different options and choosing for yourself which one has the best ROI.

5. Build traffic

The more traffic your site has, the more users will click on your ads – it’s that simple. Traffic building is a whole another blog post, but remember that it goes hand in hand with creating useful, keyword-oriented content!

Making money with AdSense is easy – once you understand the program and follow some simple strategies for maximizing your profits, it’s truly a program you can “set and forget”!
Pilar Torres – Access our Free Jargon Free Web Marketing Strategy videos aimed at beginners at www.pickaweb.co.uk. You can also visit our Professional Website Hosting Services website for more services. We also offer Reseller Hosting and other services such as Online Website Builder, Dedicated Servers, Domain Names, Data Backup, Web Design, Web Design Templates, Email Marketing, 0800 Numbers and VPS Hosting.

1. There are over 400 million active Facebook users and over 50% of the users login everyday. This means there is a huge, global audience to market your company to.

2. Facebook is a great place to distribute information about your company including events, photographs, videos, articles, blog posts as well as your business hours and contact information.

3. Social networking sites like Facebook allow you to connect with your customers on a personal level.

4. You can use the discussions feature to create surveys, ask questions and gather valuable information from your customers.

5. Having a Facebook page will give you a stronger presence with the search engines, especially with Google’s new social search function.

6. The Facebook Fan Box is a powerful tool that you can place on your blog, website, YouTube page or even your email newsletter that allows visitors to see your company’s Facebook page and even become a fan without ever leaving your site.

7. Facebook Connect allows users from a multitude of sites to access and post information to Facebook without leaving the site they are visiting, such as eBay, Etsy and all the major social bookmarking sites. If someone sees a product they like or reads an interesting article, they can easily post it to their Facebook profiles.

8. 20 million people become fans of Facebook Pages each day and more than 1.5 million local businesses have Facebook Pages. Your competition most likely has a Facebook page and you do not want to fall behind this important way to build your business.

9. As Facebook Mobile grows in popularity, more and more people are spending time on Facebook since they do not have to be at a computer and can access the site from anywhere in the world at anytime.

10. Facebook is growing internationally so you can easily target those in other countries and add international customers to your demographic.

Forrest Yingling is the Marketing Director for WebNet Hosting, Premier Partner Miva Host since 2004. WebNet Hosting provides fully PCI Compliant Miva Hosting with 100% up-time as well as e-commerce solutions and basic web hosting.

Here are 10 tips to help your mobile website soar in the Search Engines…

1. Top of the list – make sure you create a mobile Site Map. This piece of XML code is directly from Google Webmaster Central, and Google recommends that, for once, you avoid Sitemap Creation tools.

xmlns:mobile=”http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-mobile/1.0″>

http://mobile.example.com/article100.html<;/loc>

(Whatever you do, don’t omit the tag, or your mobile site won’t be crawled.

2. Each mobile Site Map must have a name that is unique – but “URLs serving multiple markup languages can be listed in a single Site Map.”

3. If you use the Google Sitemap Generator to create your Site Map with, Google cautions that you will “need to create a separate config file for each Mobile Sitemap.”

4. Don’t use huge titles. “21 Tips for Turning your Hamster into a Money-Making Machine While Helping Him Lose Weight” is just not gonna cut it, for a mobile site. Think “short blog post headline” instead. Keep it really, really simple.

5. Don’t forget to submit it to Google webmasters, just as you would with a regular Site Map.

6. When it comes to mobile blogs, if you’ve set them up properly with the right plug-ins, SEO isn’t such a problem. But do remember that if you don’t submit your blogs and websites to mobile directories – you’ll be invisible. All the SEO in the world won’t be able to help you, if you don’t seem to exist!

7. Keep an eye on SEOPrinciple.com, which reports all the latest SEO news from Google (specifically, from Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team). (Also check out the YouTube Google Webmaster Central channel for the latest SEO news.) Cutts is the guy with all the facts and figures: He reports more than 4 billion mobiles world-wide to only 1 billion PC’s. Says Cutts about the planned expansion of Google’s Search features: “…mobile is going to be a big part of it.” (Again – get in on the leading edge!)

8. Drive traffic to your mobile website with a YouTube video – with your mobile site URL and a call to action prominently displayed. If you’ve ever used Google’s mobile web index, it should strike you that most of the results are YouTube pages. This may not be a sure-fire SEO strategy for ever – but it sure seems to be working, right now!

9. Check out the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 page, at www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/#d0e1099. You’ll find out all sorts of helpful data, including “keep your pages under 21k” and tips for SEO.

10. Meet Googlebot-Mobile, a very special bot that looks for “mobile-friendly” sites, and includes them in Google’s mobile web index. So far he hasn’t been doing a very good job – but then again, maybe countless people aren’t bothering with those, all important, Site Maps.

Googlebot-Squarepants, er, I mean “Mobile”, is a lot slower than other search bots, according to www.SEOprinciple.com, taking about 2 weeks to complete a “rotation.”

When all is said and done, mobile SEO is still in its infancy. By all means follow the tips I’ve included here – but first and foremost, you need to concentrate on make your blog useful, interesting – and worth coming back to.

For more info about iPhone Applications and making money with iPhone – visit 3g best applications.
Brought you by Aymen.B.Rebah

It is easier for me to use videos rather than writing sales letters. It looks more real and gives an interactive experience to the viewer than just words on a page.

What kind of marketing ideas would make your video be unique?

Gideon Shalwick helps his clients make videos and use YouTube to get them tons of traffic to their video or website. Not just traffic but he also helps them monetize it. Posting videos online has a growing potential and you can earn a decent income from it.

Would you believe that there are videos who get millions of views and there is no link provided?

You can actually use videos to earn recurring income. One of them is YouTube. It’s easy to sign up with YouTube’s partner program and serve Adsense Ads on your channel page.

With the right techniques in place, you can earn about $20 – $50 a day with this partner program.

Another simple technique to start with is to make a video of your review about a product and have your affiliate link in the description box.

You can also put your own site if you want to let your viewers do an extra step.

What kind of videos users love on YouTube? If you focus on sales pitches on your videos, this will turn people off and instantly click away.

Give more value to your videos.

A downside in using YouTube is that you have less control over your videos as they can suspend you at any point in time when you do not follow their terms of service or user agreement.

You can even lose all your videos and channel page.

The only thing you need to focus on is getting people to visit your site and use videos as a means to get bonus traffic.

If you become really good at making videos, you can even do it as a service for people who do not have an idea how to do a good one.

It is so simple to create your own video production with a decent camera and some software. You do not have to spend too much for high end equipment.

Companies would go after you if you master the skill of getting pages to show up in Google’s first page.

How to make your videos truly unique: Show your face – Viewers respond better when they can see you.

It allows you to build rapport and a bond with the people. It captures their attention easily and builds trust. Many people do not like talking to an automated voice.

When making an instructional video, you might want to switch from showing yourself and your screen alternately so that your audience will feel that you are there with them and not fall asleep.

Time to remove your fear of being in front of the camera! Some people get scared or shy showing themselves in front of the camera.

Do not worry, Gideon shares some techniques to overcome that obstacle.

Create Interview videos of yourself and someone else – You do not actually have to look at the camera and pretend you are just having a conversation.

Do a Pretend Interview – you can do an interview video on your own where the questions will come from yourself and focus on an object.

Practice makes perfect – Just keep doing it and you will find yourself improving every day. You will get used to it.

Your fear will be removed in no time.

Gideon has written a comprehensive guide to get you started and get you actual results. You can get it here at Rapid Video Marketing.
Using videos online can give you billions of bonus traffic to your site. Just imagine the many possibilities you could do with this incredible traffic. Get started and get the actual results with Rapid Video Marketing by Gideon Shalwick. http://www.buywithbonus.com/video/how-to-get-billions-of-bonus-traffic-to-your-site-using-videos/

I came across an amazing site today with a great number of tips and ideas for marketing your blog.

Here is one of the lists of ideas for creating a large number of backlinks to your site. If you want to read more from this blog you can visit it here.

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.

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 peice 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.

Focus on your Industry

1. Write 10 ways your industry will change this year
2. Break down the new laws that will affect your niche in 2010
3. Create a list of the best industry resources
4. Talk about why things are better today (or not) than they were 10 years ago
5. Attend industry events and blog about them
6. Your best marketing tips
7. How your industry is like Your Favorite TV Show [I suggest using Glee. Because that's my favorite show.]
8. The ugly truth about your industry
9. The 8 people in your industry you want to meet
10. What someone needs to consider before getting involved in your industry
11. Comment on an industry-related conversation going on in LinkedIn or Google Groups
12. Talk about the “thing” that would rock your industry if invented or put together
13. Create a chart that breaks down a complicated industry issue or problem
14. Interview someone well-known in your world and profile them
15. Rewrite an old post with fresh eyes and new ideas
16. Publish a presentation you gave somewhere else (with permission)
17. Have a chat with a competitor and blog about it (again, with permission)
18. Search Google News for relevant press releases and news about your industry. Write your own take.
19. Debunk a long-standing myth
20. Host a seminar or meetup and blog about
21. Create a list of the 10 books that someone in your industry should read.
22. Post about what you’d like to see fixed in your industry
23. Conferences people in your industry should attend/speak at
24. Your favorite untapped traffic sources in your industry
25. Issues in your space that deserve more attention

Go Social

1. How you’re using Twitter to increase earnings
2. Post a video that has nothing to do with your industry but that you think people would enjoy.
3. Post a picture. [Browse StumleUpon for inspiration]
4. Participate in a blog meme like last month’s Best of 09
5. Share the best social media campaigns you’ve seen, big and small
6. Hold a contest and pit people against each other
7. Create a poll. Blog the result.
8. Invite a guest blogger to post on your blog
9. How social media increased your ROI this year
10. How social media did nothing but confuse you this year
11. Search Delicious for popular posts on your topics and take a new stance
12. Go to your industry’s Wikipedia page and see what people are talking about in the Discussions area.

Comment on it on your blog.

13. Post photos from your company party/team building workshop
14. Find a question on Yahoo Answers or OnStartups and respond on your blog
15. Create a list of the Must Follow Twitter people in your industry

About your Business

1. Why you’re different (and better) than your competition
2. A video tutorial showing how to use your most popular product
3. The problems your sales people hear about most
4. The answer to the most common email you get
5. Share the tools do you use to do your job
6. The secret ways to use your site/product
7. The top 10 WordPress plugins you use on your site
8. How you use your favorite social media site
9. How you built your email list
10. How you’re using Facebook
11. Look at your site logs & answer customer questions
12. How you delegate tasks (or what you mucked up by not delegating)
13. Use Wordtracker’s Keyword Question Tool and answer popular questions
14. Write about why you’re not using social media at all
15. Answer questions left in your comment section
16. Write about the personal branding tactics you use
17. Give 5 reasons to sign up to your email newsletter
18. How you learned to do what you do
19. Create a list of your favorite X
20. What you’re doing to beat the summer slump or winter blues
21. Share a case study
22. Provide an end of the week link roundup
23. Review something
24. Reveal the best niche blogs to guestblog for
25. What keeps you up at night
26. Share a time when you got it wrong in 2010
27. Your strategies for coming up with blog topics.
28. Branding tips that have worked for your business
29. 50 reasons why someone should hire you
30. 5 things people should be focusing on but aren’t
31. What can other industries learn from yours

Highlight Your Customers

1. Put the spotlight on your most active commenters
2. Praise your best customers
3. Post a question and let the community to answer it
4. How customers can woo your customer service department for free stuff
5. Give something away to one of your blog readers.
6. Feature a video detailing a customer’s success with your product
7. Share your biggest screw up with a customerand how you made it right
8. Publish a customer testimonial
9. Explain the benefits of being a customer
10. Share local organizations you support and ask customers to share their favorites
11. How customers can connect with you on social media
12. Hold an event for Twitter followers to meet and blog it
Get Personal

1. What have you read lately that inspired/angered you?
2. Introduce your staff
3. Share the best decision you made as a SMB
4. Your biggest challenge as a SMB owner
5. What you love best about being a SMB owner. What you don’t like.
6. The danger of doing everything by yourself
7. Write about the achievement you’re most proud of
8. A time when you got it right in 2009
9. Create a video introducing your team to your community
10. Get your rant on
11. How to remain productive working at home
12. Introduce a new employee and what they bring to the table
13. Share the local vendors you trust
14. Give people a video tour of your building
15. Describe your company culture
16. Your new baby (whether that’s a real baby, a pet, a new project for 2010, the car you’ve been restoring for the past two years, etc)
17. Share your company’s history or story
18. Tell a story not about your company
19. Share 10 things you’re thankful for
20. What’s next for your company
21. A list of your most trafficked posts

The point is, there are TONS of things for a small business owner to blog about and share with their audience. Now that I’ve helped get the ball rolling, get to it. (find more at smallbiztrends,com)