Here’s the 5 steps to building a solid relationship with your online audience.

Step 1 – Create a Quality Newsletter

Give your customers the option to join your newsletter when they order a product and add a subscription form on your site. Send out your newsletter regularly and do your best to write quality content. You should also include special offers, discounts and new products.

Use a mass email software to personalize your emails, schedule email blasts and keep track of how many people open these emails and which links are the most popular. Analyze these findings to design new emails that correspond to what your audience is interested in.

Step 2 – Offer Something Useful to Build Your List

Get people to subscribe to your newsletter by presenting your newsletter as a way of having access to limited offers and content.

Step 3 – Create Profiles on Social Networks

Find out which social networks your customers are using and take the time to fill out your description and contact information. Your different profiles should look similar: use the same colors, logos and descriptions to stay consistent. Post new updates at least twice a week and share content that interests your audience. Encourage people to ask questions via social networks and to comment on your posts.

You can also create your own games and share them with your subscribers. Organizing contests and drawings is also easy: ask your subscriber to tag you in the picture of video they want to submit to enter your contest. Give people rewards for sharing your content with their friends!

Step 4 – Use Survey to Engage Your Audience

If you are not sure about what your target audience wants, create surveys. Place these surveys on your site and advertise them on social networks and by email. Offer a free sample or a discount to anyone who fills out your survey, or organize a contest or a drawing: have people fill out a survey to enter your contest. Make sure you give out one of your products so that the people who show interest in your drawing or contest actually correspond to your target audience.

Step 5 – Use Blog to Keep Them Updated

If your target audience is likely to read blogs or to have one, create a blog for your business. Post new articles regularly and connect with other bloggers who write about similar topics. Encourage people to comment on your posts and to ask you questions on your blog. You could also feature articles from popular bloggers or ask to have your content featured on their blogs. Make sure you exchange content with blogs your target audience is interested in.

Select your blogging platform carefully since you might not be able to easily connect with bloggers from other platforms once you create your blog. Share links to your site and social network profiles on your blog.

Apply these tips and get to know your target audience. If you do your best to connect with your customers, they will trust you and buy products from you.

Tip #1 – You don’t have to have a website to start promoting it!

Facebook marketing is not new. I spent my first dollar on Facebook ads more than 2 years ago. Back then it was a lot cheaper and has a lot less users. Now, there are a lot more users and you are guaranteed to get loads of clicks to your web page if you could afford it. And, if you target Facebook users in Singapore, be prepared to pay US$0.50 or more per click.

Tip #2 – Monitor your ad spend closely.

Tip #3 – Set up different campaigns to target users from each geographical region.

I spend less than US$500 on this Facebook campaign to promote the travel guide website. The campaign lasted for 3 months – 2 months prior to the launch and 1 month after launch. It was very tempting to spend more money to get more fans but I did not, because budget has to be allocated to promote the new website via other methods e.g. search marketing and link-building campaigns.

Tip #4 – Set a budget and stick to it.

Beside having the money to promote your fan page, you would need good content on your fan page. No one will like your fan page and become fan if they could not find anything interesting.

For a travel fan page, photos work magic. Travel tips illustrated with nice photo are even better.

Tip #5 – Above all, you need great content on your fan page.

Free SEO Tips by the SEO Chef

“Simple, effective and proven SEO tips that work. You’ll learn easy to follow recipes that make SEO as simple as frying an egg”, proclaimed the SEO Chef.

If you want free SEO tips that work, join the SEO Chef fan page and learn from not one, not ten but thousands of SEO fans who will help you to get the ranking you deserved.

Go click at the Like button at this URL: www.facebook.com/SEOchef

He mentioned in the video some of the most important factors which determine your page ranking in Google search result page. Here’s some of the most important questions asked when the Google algorithm tries to determine how to include a page in the search engine result page.

Five of the Most Important Ranking Factors

1. How many times does this page contain your keywords?
2. Do the words appear in the title, in the URL, directly adjacent?
3. Does the page includes synonyms for those words?
4. Is this page from a quality website?
5. What is this page’s PageRank?

SEO your web page to answer these 5 questions and you will be in the top ranking eventually.

More Videos on How Google Works

Visit the following link to see other videos on How Google Ads Works and Google Docs.

http://www.google.com/howgoogleworks/

Well, most web designers will tell you to make your website more interactive and charge you exorbitant fee for creating Flash and AJAX scripts. But is that what your visitors want?

Is there any scientific evidence to back up any changes that will guarantee a better user experience?

Eye Tracking Technology

Yes. Eye tracking technology will help you to improve your website design based on how people look at web page.

One of the most popular eye tracking research is the Eyetrack III. Go study all the results if you can afford the time. Otherwise here’s an excellent article – Eye tracking study reveals 12 website tactics by Direct Creative Blog which summarizes everything into 12 points which you can take immediate action to improve your website design.

12 Tactics to Improve Your Website Design

1. Headlines draw eyes before pictures
2. People scan the first couple words of a headline
3. People scan the left side of a list of headlines
4. Your headline must grab attention in less than 1 second
5. Smaller type promotes closer reading
6. Navigation at the top of the page works best
7. Short paragraphs encourage reading
8. Introductory paragraphs enjoy high readership
9. Ad placement in the top and left positions works best
10. People notice ads placed close to popular content
11. People read text ads more than graphic ads
12. Multimedia works better than text for unfamiliar or conceptual information

Knowing how to SEO your web pages to rank high for your targeted keywords and not have a nice design, simple-to-use navigation and layout for your visitors may eventually drive away potential customers.

Here’s the 10 Ways to Design a Good Web Site according to New York Times Gadgetwise blog.

1. Do Lead By Example
2. Do Make The Website Search Engine Friendly
3. Do Your Research
4. Do Test Your Website
5. Don’t Get Flash Drunk
6. Don’t Eliminate All White Space
7. Don’t Make The User Wait
8. Don’t Bounce Around
9. Don’t Clutter The Home Page
10. Don’t Forget About Content

An Example of Good Website Design

It is believed that Amazon.com has spent thousands of man-hours to study and tweak their home page to give visitors the best user experience and maximum revenue. So go study it and see how the 10 ways were implemented.

Is Your Website Design Good Enough?

Out of the 10 ways listed above, beside item 2, the other way that is related to SEO is “Don’t get flash drunk” which is help to ensure the search engine robots can crawl and index your web pages effectively.

The remaining 8 ways concern your website usability issues.

The bottom line is to make your visitors happy and use your website intuitively.

Web Design and Usability

The rest of the 8 ways improve user experience for your human visitors. Good usability can improve your conversion rate.

Now, look at your website and see if you have implemented all the 10 ways of Good Web Design. If not, start revamping your website today to improve your conversion rates and ROI.

The Best-selling Internet Marketing Course… Find out more

You want to make money online and you’re are convinced that affiliate marketing is the way to go for you. As an affiliate marketer, you don’t have to worry about inventory and shipping. You probably think what you need to do is to get people to click at your affiliate link and buy. So all you have to do is to select the best selling affiliate marketing programs that would pay you top dollars.

Well, if that’s what you are thinking I can guarantee you that you will not make a cent with any affiliate marketing program. Because thousands of people are thinking like you and lost money in affiliate marketing.

How to Make Affiliate Marketing Works for You

The first step to make money with an affiliate program is not about choosing the right product to sell on your web pages. Rather, to understand what makes people want to click at your affiliate links and buy through your link.

First, you need to know the various ways of generating the right traffic to your web pages.

In order to do that you must agree that “Content is king”. In order publish content that is interesting to your readers, you have to know a little bit about that topic than your readers.

Second, you need to know the merchants you are representing.

Don’t just pick that merchant because she pays the highest commission. More importantly, you have to study the merchant’s sale page and try out the check-out process. Better still, buy and use the product yourself so that you can write convincingly when you recommend the product.

Your task is to match the right products to your site’s visitors. Now, here’s an important tip: keyword research. Knowing the right search terms used by your visitors and giving them what they want is key to being a successful marketer.

These are the some of the best Internet Marketing courses for people new to affiliate marketing. Go check out my affiliate links:

1. Affiliate Marketers Handbook – Teaches you how to become an online publisher and make money with affiliate marketing particularly using Commission Junction affiliate marketing platform.

2. Internet Marketing Coaching – A step-by-step training and support program from experienced Internet marketers.

Here’s an account of this blog being ranked among the top 10 positions for Internet marketing coach in Google.com, Google.com.sg, Google.com.au, Google.ca and etc.

To many webmasters and SEO practitioners, this GeoTargeting feature is a pain-in-the-rear. You now have to optimize your page for each country you are targeting to get that Number 1 position.

Top 10 Internet Marketing Coach in Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, India and…

This blog has done pretty well in terms of Google GeoTargeting. It is ranked in the top 10 for the search terms internet marketing coach in several country-specific Google search e.g. www.google.com, www.google.com.sg, www.google.com.au, www.google.co.id, www.google.ca and etc.

In fact, as of this morning, this blog is ranked Number 1 for internet marketing coach in:

• www.google.com.sg (Singapore, my favorite country)
• www.google.com.au (Australia)
• www.google.com.hk (Hong Kong)
• www.google.co.id (Indonesia)
• www.google.com.ph (Philippines)

Many Internet marketers from all over the world are competing for the coveted Number 1 position for internet marketing coach, so my Number 1 position may not hold when you do the search. Anyway, please do and write a comment at the box below.

How to Get Number 1 Ranking

To get that Number 1 ranking in Google, you have to work hard, smart and be very patient with Google. Here’s what I think is the most important… content, relevant content to the search terms you are targeting. Equally important is relevant backlinks. In order to do well in country-specific Google search, you have to first rank well in www.Google.com.

If all these sound unfamiliar to you then you go learn the basic of search engine optimization (SEO). One of the best place to start learning SEO is to read my earlier posts start from Who is Internet Marketing Coach. So far there are less than 20 articles in this blog, so it will take you within an hour to read everything I have done to get top position for this search terms internet marketing coach.

Number 1 SEO Training in Singapore

Alternatively, you may want to attend the SEO Workshop in Singapore which I have been conducting every 2 months since early 2006. Go view the photos at the bottom right of this page. (Photos)

This blog ranking for internet marketing coach has dropped to Number 4, as shown in the screen shot below (click to view large image):

Number 1 Ranking – Just for Ego

I think getting #1 position in Google for this search terms – internet marketing coach – is just for the sake of ego. This is not a keyword with good amount of traffic.

How do I know?

Very simple. Use Google Suggest.

Go to Google Suggest and type in internet marketing, you’ll see a list of suggested search terms. The list consists of:

1. internet marketing center
2. internet marketing forum
3. internet marketing tips
4. internet marketing secrets
5. internet marketing centre
6. internet marketing singapore
7. …

Here’s the screen shot of Google Suggest for internet marketing:

All except internet marketing coach. This shows that it is not a keyphrase which many people search for. In other words, there is not so much traffic and it is not a competitive or even profitable keyword. This is definitely a vanity keyword and it has been a vanity keyword since day 1.

The Internet marketers who are really good in SEO will be found for the search terms internet marketing and not internet marketing coach.

Keyword Research and The Long Tail

Any SEO specialist worthy of his/her salt and competent in keyword research will not be using such an improbable keyword on the home page (unless you are like me doing it as an experiment and for vanity).

Keywords of lesser traffic, such as those found in the Long Tail, are best suited for inner pages. And you want to have as many such pages targeting the Long Tail keywords of your niche as possible.

Be Clear of the Objective of Your Website

Yes, I believe Fione and Harrace should focus on the keywords Internet marketing for the home page and not change it to emphasize the terms – Internet marketing coach – just because a vainpot like me got ahead of your more important site – a leading training organization promoting Internet marketing in Asia.

#1 Ranking is Nothing without Traffic and Conversion

Getting #1 ranking is nothing when there is not much traffic to your site. It is not how high you ranked but how much traffic your website can generate and how well it converts!

I know because my number 1 ranking in Google did not bring me any amount significant traffic over the past 2 months.

Getting top ranking is easy. However finding the right keyword to rank top requires real expertise.

In fact, this blog has been ranked No.1 Internet Marketing Coach since early March 2008. I blog about this No.1 ranking at my newer blog – Who’s #1 Internet Marketing Coach

Proof: No.1 Internet Marketing Coach by Google.com.sg

Click at the thumbnail on the right and see complete picture – proof that this blog has been ranked Number 1 Internet Marketing Coach by Google.

So can I say now that I am the Number 1 Internet Marketing Coach in Singapore ranked by Google?

No, I don’t think so. I am at best just very good at search engine optimization. SEO is my hobby. And I am a SEO trainer so I do get paid for giving advice on SEO and search marketing to business and companies in Singapore.

Go search in Google for SEO trainer and you will see that my sites are ranked among the top 3 positions.

No. 1 Internet Marketing Coach in Malaysia and the rest of the World

So who else is the other No.1 Internet Marketing Coach in Malaysia? The clue is in the following video: