YouTube, a site where literally anybody can upload their videos for the appreciation of others, became the fourth most popular site on the Internet in less than a year. Compare that to newspapers and television, which both have been experiencing decreasing viewership in recent years. People need, want, and will seek out every conceivable sort of information, and the Internet is the place to find it.

Who Wants To Know?

Information isn’t just of use to the casual browser or dedicated auction enthusiast, however. Equally and increasingly interested are the very people posting content to the many pages on the web. Who is visiting which pages? How much traffic is your site getting, and how does it measure up against traffic going to similar sites? What has changed since you put up the big new advertising system last year? Necessity being the mother of invention, this increasing craving for varied and precise forms of information has led to the steady growth of a field called Web Analytics.

What Are You Looking At?

Put simply, Web Analytics is a system of study dedicated to collecting, measuring, and reporting on web and Internet data. This general idea breaks down further into two broad disciplines. The first is on-site analytics, which concerns itself with the journey of each user to a website, and is of primary concern to the owners of that site. It records information ranging from a record of which pages are being visited to a comparison of which pages garner more purchases from visitors. Off-site analytics focuses on information on the Internet as a whole, such as what websites more people are visiting, and what sites are being talked about most frequently. Both methods seek to answer the key question for any website operator – what are people looking at?

But What Does It All Mean?

Proper Web Analytics goes a step further than simple data collection, however. It also concerns itself with interpretation of the data in a context that allows the site owner to take appropriate steps. Let’s use the advertising campaign mentioned earlier as an example. Simple web measurement would be the collection of how many hits and purchases the site gathered before and after the campaign. A serious analytic comparison would explain how quickly purchases picked up after the change, what products and portions of the site drew more traffic as a result, and which pages remained unaffected. In short, web measurement is the gathering of the data; Web Analytics is the comparison and interpretation of that data.

The importance of the analytics field to the modern site owner can be observed in the sheer volume of material available on the subject. Sites offer free programs allowing users to set their own metrics, and others can be purchased, offering extra features and a professional interface. Hardcover and electronic format books have been published dealing with the material, and people have formed associations for the purpose of standardizing Web Analytics methodology and terms.

There is even a Web Analytics conference, the E-metrics summit, held in Santa Barbara, California and London, England each year. Going even further, there are listed job offerings in the field that offer salaries approaching $100,000 a year. Clearly this is not a passing fad, but a serious, vital step for any website interested not just in drawing an audience, but keeping it.

It’s All About Information

Of course this all begs the question – how does a user get started. Moreover, to what degree should they seek to implement Web Analytic tools and techniques? Perhaps a bit counter-intuitively, the quest for information begins with information. Site owners know what they want to accomplish with their sites, be it promoting a specific product or generating an audience for geopolitical discussions in a casual atmosphere. This information is the best place to start because it allows the user to begin understanding what information will help them pursue their goal.

For example, if a page is intended to promote an e-book series, then the user wants to know what information will help them do that promotion. They can then look for analytic tools that will tell them what pages are more successful at selling e-books, and what techniques are less successful.

Taking the time to sit down and think through the purpose that analytic information is ultimately intended to accomplish will make the search easier, and more fruitful from the beginning. With this basic framework established, the next step is the web itself. A simple web search on ‘Web Analytics’ or ‘Web Analytics for beginners’ will return a substantial amount of information. From there users can locate articles, videos, and e-books that will help them make the decisions they need to make their websites successful.

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Web Analytics and Your Website – What You Need to Know

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• Which networks to join?
• How to participate?
• What’s enough, or too much?
• How will it help my business?

So, to answer some of these, I’d like to present my “Social Media For Dummies” overview. First, a quick recap of my favorite networks and what they’re about.

Facebook
The ultimate platform for keeping up with (stalking) friends. I joined Facebook way back in 2005, you know, when it was just for college students and before you could even share photos (gasp!). I’ve witnessed the evolution of this mega-network over the years, and it has become, not only the 4th largest website in the world, but the best place to find people, keep up with them, and inform them. It is the son of Classmates.com on every possible steroid ever ingested by humans. The ability to share and communicate with friends and colleagues is seamless. Overall, Facebook is a great place to start your social networking endeavors.

LinkedIn
A must-have in every business person’s arsenal of tools. If you are (or hoping to be) in business of any sort, LinkedIn is a great place to set up shop. Very similar to Facebook, minus the annoying applications, plus job postings and resumes. This is where you network with those in your industry, join groups, research companies, and prospect clients. Build your credentials by asking colleagues for recommendations or head to the “Q&A” section to offer advice.

Twitter – Share, Learn, Meet
I wouldn’t be surprised if Webster adds a new definition for “tweet” this year. Within the first half of 2009, Twitter has gone from nearly 5 million users to over 23 million. It is the social media platform of choice at Fortune 100 companies. Easily share links, pictures, videos, articles… Oh, and personal updates… with followers. Twitter is kind of like the cocktail party of social networks. Here, you can easily reach out to strangers by tuning in to their tweets or quickly replying to them. A limited amount of customization keeps annoying advertisements and outlandish profiles at bay, unlike the outdated MySpace.

Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, reddit, etc.
Social Bookmarking to share and store your favorite links. You just read an article over at NYT.com that you loved. Use one or more of these bookmarking sites to share it with the world. Looking for information or articles on a certain subject? Head to one of these sites and search your topic, you’ll be able to peruse a list of articles or sites that others have found useful or interesting. Not only are these great for sharing, but storing sites for later use as well. Say you have a home desktop, a netbook for travel, and a work computer… customize your bookmarks and easily access them on each computer without updating each machine.

FriendFeed
All of your networks in one place. FriendFeed lets you put all of your networks in one big stream. Users can see your Facebook status, latest Tweet, pictures posted on Flickr, blog post, bookmarked article and much more when they follow your feed. Much like Twitter, but a whole lot more.

These are the networks that I tend to spend most of my time on and are probably some of the key ingredients that should be in the pot. Every person and business is different and may need to change their recipe accordingly, but the key to all of these is to contribute and become a part of the conversation.

Now What?

So, now that we’ve covered some of the major players in the social networking field, it’s time to discover how we can use them. As a person in business, especially an industry with a significant amount of its target market online (which is really all of them now), you’ve got to understand that these networks are an integral part of their lives. Just like in previous decades where television commercials were considered a major part of any advertising/marketing plan because everyone watched TV… now, as many are leaving cable in the dust and turning to the Internet for their information and entertainment, it’s more crucial than ever to join the ranks of the digital pioneers.

However, the people using these networks are smart. They don’t fall for blatant advertising traps like they used to. They want to know that there’s something in it for them. If your product isn’t it and that’s all you’re talking about on Twitter, then they’ll ignore you. Social networks aren’t about advertising – they’re about building relationships.

Say you run a small business, maybe you own a restaurant, a clothing boutique, a PR firm or a chiropractic firm… What is in it for you?

• Take a look at your customers or clients when they’re in your office or store. Are they on their iPhone or Blackberry checking email? Did they mention finding you online? Did they hear about you from a friend? If you can answer “yes” to any of those questions, then you’re missing out on connecting with your customers and should probably put on a pot of coffee, cause you’re going to be here for a while.
• Social media is a chance to be at your market’s finger tips when they look at their phone or get online in a friendly and non-obtrusive way.
• You can quickly address customer service issues by communicating directly with the customer.
• Prospect new clients.
• Learn about trends in your industry, stay up-to-date with competition and network with power players in your industry.
• Offer existing customers incentives, coupons or interesting information to keep them tuned in to your brand.

Many people will pay thousands of dollars trying to get these things with traditional techniques. Social media is free… despite, of course, any operating costs like time and possibly design fees to add a professional touch. You need to be on here… Do a Google News search for “small business social media”. BusinessWeek, LA Times, NY Times will be some of the publications insisting you buck up and make it happen.

How to Participate Effectively:

• Do not start a social media campaign if your intention is free advertising. No one will listen and you will waste your time. Period.
• Take a minute and figure out what you want to get out of being involved in social networks. Research how other businesses have been successful. Make a plan. Mashable is a great place to learn about social media.
• Twitter is a great place to find people in your area, geographically or by industry, and interact with them. Start a conversation, always give if you ever want to receive and don’t constantly advertise. No one likes spam… so don’t spam your followers with pleas to go to your website or go into business with you. Offer your followers a coupon or discount if you’re hoping for business from them… Keep them up-to-date on any changes to your menu or services… Share fun pictures from happy customers… Follow-up with an unhappy customer or use your competition’s bad customer service as a great way to introduce you into their lives. Just remember to keep it real, be you, because everyone wants to know that there’s a human behind your username.
• Facebook is generally most successful for companies with a large following or customer base. But that doesn’t mean you should skip it… create a personal profile so you can network with friends and family. By being there, you can instantly share things about your business with people who already like you and will probably listen more than the average stranger. By keeping your brand in their mind, they’ll be more likely to spread the word and pass you along to their friends, and so on. Word of mouth, my friends…
• LinkedIn is a must for anyone in business. Very straightforward here, like a virtual resume on steroids. It’s always good to network with past and present colleagues and continue to build relationships, because you never know when you may need them or vice versa.

Last Words:
Keep your brand consistent among all of the networks you decide to join. Monitor your brand using tracking tools. And remember to Collaborate, Communicate, and Participate.

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%%Social Networking for Business Guide%%

Social Networking for Business Guide

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Twitter does break the usual trends somewhat, insofar as anything to do with social networking has an established “trend” of course. Twitter allows you to post messages, either through a web portal or on your mobile phone, letting everyone know what you think, where you are or what you’re doing. Your message is restricted to 140 characters or less, so it’s always succinct. You have the option of selecting who you want to talk to, and who you want to hear from – known as “followers” or “following” in the world of Twitter.

At this particularly early stage of its ongoing development, Twitter doesn’t really seem to have any business model as such. You can quickly sign up and start “tweeting” your message at no cost whatsoever. Marketers take a long hard look at the viral capabilities provided by this service and they begin to salivate. Opportunities await those who seek to harness its power.

Twitter is ideal for communicating news or interacting with your peers. You can send a message directly from your mobile phone using one of the currently available applications, without even having to visit a computer. It’s difficult to estimate the actual number of users because of the fluid nature of the platform, but many experts do caution that the number of avid users, or those who actively follow and get followed, represents a very small proportion of the total user base.

While the number of engaged users may be only a few percentage points of the total user base, the Twitter platform can still be viewed as having good marketing potential. Internet marketers need to approach the task of soliciting followers carefully. Whatever your niche, the first thing that you need to do is to seek out other experts who are regular “tweeters”. You can do this by using a simple search within the program. Once you find these experts, take a constructive look at their list of followers, as your job is to try and add friends or followers to your Twitter feed in a concerted and sensible way.

As it appears that the vast majority of members do not actively keep up with Twitter, it follows that there is no point in adding followers without trying to qualify them. If you can see that the potential follower has an active list of people who he or she is following and, in turn, is being followed by, then they are potential targets for you.

Work toward building a list of followers by initially just following the individuals who you think might have a particular interest in your specific products or services. If you’ve taken the time to qualify them and you discover that they follow you in return, then you’re well on your way.

While you can get away with just including your information in the profile supplied by Twitter, most internet marketing experts recommend that you also design some sort of banner or customised template rather than using a generic wallpaper background. This should include your branding, logo and message and it’s something that all serious marketers maintain.

As is the case with any form of Internet marketing, make sure that you do not spam and that your messages are always relevant, informative and/or entertaining. There is a time and a place for you to include your marketing message, and you must always do this in a subtle way. Happy Tweeting!

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%%Tweet Your Marketing Message%%

Tweet Your Marketing Message

So when it comes to deciding which social media platforms make the most sense to use, the options can be overwhelming – if you let them. However, with a little focus, guidance, and strategic thinking, you can just as easily simplify your choices.

What follows draws from our 6-week “Social Media Kick Start” Virtual Boot Camp, which expands on these topics with self-paced learning modules.

Let’s start by keeping these two very important questions in mind: Where is your audience now? And where are they going to be?

Even if your target audience isn’t on a particular social network right now, consider the fact that involvement is social networks is growing exponentially. (Heck, if Facebook were a country, it would have the 4th largest population in the world!) Not everyone was on the Web 5-10 years ago, but you could see where the trend was going. Same thing with social networks. Here’s how to dive in confidently.

1. Start with the Big Three.

That’s LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. The odds that your audience is on one or more of these platforms right now is very high. And if they’re not on there, they will be by the time you finish reading this. Now, of the three, LinkedIn is the only one that doesn’t get tarred with the “It’s just for kids goofing off” brush. But consider this: The measurement company ComScore reported in April that the majority of Twitter users are 35+, and the 18-34 age group is growing as fast as the 55-64 age group. As for Facebook, InsideFacebook.com reports the largest group of users is between 26 and 44 years old, and the fastest growing demo is women 55 and over.

2. Budget your time and money.

These are your resources, and if you’re a small business owner, you’re using them with care these days. A platform like Twitter is about as simple as it gets – 5-minute sign up, a few communication conventions to learn as you go, then the Twitterverse is your oyster. Facebook, on the other hand, goes about as deep as they get in terms of customization opportunities. Consider learning and growing in this platform as a work in progress, and add, edit, expand and refresh as you go. Even LinkedIn has a lot of detail possibilities, too, but they also have a very helpful tool that tells you how complete your profile is, which can guide you through what options you need to finish to take maximum advantage of its features.

3. Follow the FUN!

It may sound frivolous at first, but there’s sound business sense behind it. First of all, as you play with each of the Big Three platforms, you’ll learn more about your own communication style, and how you like to experience your friends, contacts, and colleagues. Twitter presents quick snippets of insight, links, conversations, and opportunities to brainstorm on the fly. LinkedIn is more professional, following traditional and formal conventions. Facebook is all over the map, with nooks and crannies that’ll surprise you even after months of frequent use. In other words, if control is what you want, Facebook may be your nemesis, but if you dig spontaneity and possibilities from any direction, then hop on board.

The bottom line: if you pick a social network that you dread going to, you’ll find a way to put it off. If you’re not participating in the social network, then you won’t get much value out of it! What’s more, if you hate doing it, that’ll come through in your interactions. No one wants to connect with an unpleasant person. It’s just not good for business.

On the other hand, when you “follow the FUN,” you’ll make time for your social networking. You’ll laugh at the countless pathways – and diversions – available, and you’ll be able to get focused on the results you’re after with confidence and nimble clarity.

Then, as you expand beyond the Big Three, you’ll have a better sense of how to play in the social arena, and what features support your goals and style. Love taking photos? Love talking? Want to try out video? PowerPoint wiz? There are networks that support all media channels.

Some say at least 537, and counting.

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%%3 Tried-n-True Ways to Decide Which Social Media Tools to Use%%

3 Tried-n-True Ways to Decide Which Social Media Tools to Use

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I just gave "sunshine" to some of my followers! Anyone want to send me a gift? http://bit.ly/l4nLk #

I just gave "peace and happiness " to some of my followers! Anyone want to send me a gift? http://bit.ly/KApb9 #

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Free traffic is by far the best, and if you are unsure how to use pay per click advertising such as Google Adwords properly, it could cost you a lot of money to correct inadequacies in your SEO. Only 1% of those that start in internet marketing actually make any money: largely because they do not know how to promote their website. There are other reasons of course, and a website is not always necessary, but if you have one then you must learn how to optimize it to attain as high a listing position as possible.

SEO search engine optimization is about telling search engines exactly what each page of your website is saying, and that it is highly relevant to the keyword, or search term, for which you have optimized it. Having a great looking website with a lot of well writen content on each page is not sufficient to earn you a listing on Google, let alone a high one that will bring you free traffic. It is essential that manipulate the search engine algorithms to calculate a high degree of relevance of your page to the requirements of those using Google and other search engines to find information.

Algorithms are mathematical formulae with no eyes. They are blind to your fabulous graphics and fantastic web design skills. They read the source code of your site, including the text. The way you format your text gives weighting to certain pieces of text, and lets the algorithm know what your important keywords are.

The spiders that crawl your site should be led to where you want them to go to, and good website design, site navigation and internal linking structure is part of achieving that. It is also a component of your SEO. THere is alot more to SEO than just soem H heading tags and keyword meta tags – much more. The majority of people do not understand what SEO is or how to optimize their site, even if learning how to do so could immeasurably improve their chance of online success.

However, there is more to search engine optimization that simply reading about it. You have to see it in action, and fully understand what you are doing when optimizing your website. There are still professionals who believe that you must have 2% – 3% keyword density on your page. They have disagreed with me strongly yet I know that what they say is rubbish: contextual relevance is what search engines are seeking these days, not interminable repetitions of keywords that will achieve nothing but get your site lost in the supplementary results that nobody sees.

There have been a large number of changes in search engine optimization over the last few years, and SEO is no longer what it once was. However, what won’t change is the benefit to you of having a full understanding of the principles behind the actions you are taking when optimizing your website form search engines such as Google.

SEO search engine optimization wil make all the difference to the success of your site, and likely even that of your business. Don’t just read about it: see it in action and understand it.

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%%SEO Search Engine Optimization is Essential for Online Success%%

SEO Search Engine Optimization is Essential for Online Success

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Blog Marketing: With blog marketing you can start a blog about anything related to your company. You can market your business by giving people advice and tips. People always want to get more information or learn something new, which is why blog marketing works so well. Once you get people returning to read your blogs on a regular basis, you will have built quite a fan base for yourself. Leaving comments on other people’s blogs with a link back to your blog will also get you some links.

Blog Marketing also allows visitors to get to know a real person in a company. This kind of “intelligent brand marketing” gives your company an element of a human-ness on your marketing campaign. People like to interact with people, and having a blog gives you that advantage. Also, having a blog allows you to give your personal opinion on any given subject matter and also allows the author to appear as the expert.

Micro Blogging: Twitter is the biggest. Micro blogs allow you to get short bursts of information out to a loyal following. This is great for promotions and other time related marketing tactics.

Social Networks: Using social networks is another way to attract customers to your website. Your friends have friends that will also be able to see your public page where they might find something interesting. Likewise, friends can invite each other to join groups. You can create a group about your business so that people can see what you do and join to be kept updated.

Directory Submissions: Using business directories and community business web pages are another great way of doing advertising. You might find a few directories that can add your website address to their list of online businesses. In this way, people looking for something specific that you happen to be offering will find you easily.

Banner Advertising: One of the most effective forms of online marketing is banner advertising. These advertisements will be placed on other people’s websites. You have to do some research to find the sites where your ad will get the best results. These advertisements can be quite costly, especially if you want to have the best possible presence on the home page of a major website.

Email Campaigns: An email campaign is a perfect way to target specific people for a business or product. You should get help setting up an email marketing campaign because you want to make sure that people read them. You also want to make sure that they do not come through as spam. This is why using a professional sales page or email campaign manager would be a good idea.

Link Exchanges: Another good way to get marketing for your business is to use various link exchanges. This will also help the page ranking for your website on the various search engines. The more websites you are listed on, the more chances there are of customers finding you.

Press Releases: You can submit a formal press release to a press release site that mentions your new blog or website or any new products or services you may have. These press release websites will distribute your release to many other PR sites. Hopefully, you will get links from these press releases. Some PR sites are free and others aren’t. Look online and see what’s best for your business.

Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising: Pay per click advertisements usually appear in a colored box on a search results page. With this form of marketing, you buy search engine traffic based on relevant keywords that you buy in an auction. You are paying for every click, so it’s important to target your keywords. Over time, PPC can be costly and if not monitored closely, can be more costly than traditional Search Engine Optimization techniques.

Article Marketing: With article marketing, you write interesting articles about various aspects of your business and submit them to article distributions sites. These articles contain an author resource box at the end that usually has a link to your website. When different sites pick up your articles, they must keep the resource box intact so if someone finds the article interesting, they can click through to your website. The more interesting and valuable your articles are to your readers, the more traffic you could get.

Using these various marketing methods to promote your business is a sure way to get inbound links. You can make quite a lot of contacts through many of them and eventually get more customers coming to your business. You can try one method at a time, adding another when you feel comfortable or try them all at once. Any way you do it, using these methods will get potential customers to your website and hopefully, ordering your product or services.

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%%Launching Your Online Marketing Strategies%%

Launching Your Online Marketing Strategies

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First, you have to write a quality book that has a clear target audience. And your book must answer a common problem or need that audience shares. Then you have to develop a marketing plan, and stick to it for at least two years.

Let’s begin with the process that should commence before you write your first word. Begin by reading A LOT. Read both books you passionately love and books you can’t seem to make it past page five. Then figure out what the author did in the book you loved, and what was wrong with the book you couldn’t finish. Write down these points so they are crystal clear to you. Read other people’s books for inspiration and to discover what you should avoid as a writer.

The next step is to plan out your book. Narrow down your subject, and then divide it into chapters. Each chapter should address a specific aspect of the problem your book is going to solve. In each chapter, break the specific aspect down into several parts. This will help your readers take in your information a bit at a time instead of overwhelming them with every bit of information clogging up the pages until they feel like they’re about to go blind. It’s not quite spoon-feeding the information to your readers, but it’s close.

The next two steps are obvious. Write your book and then revise it. And then revise it again. And perhaps again. Of course, writing is extremely hard, and writing a book can seem like an impossible task. There are many books out there that give you guidelines to help you become familiar—and even love—the process of writing and revision. Find a number of books about writing. Better yet, find a number of books about writing the specific type of book you aspire to write. These can serve as roadmaps on your writing journey.

Once you’ve written your e-book and revised it at least twice, show it to someone else whose opinion you respect. If you’re lucky enough to know a good editor, see if you have something to barter for him or her to go through your manuscript. Or join a writing group and let the other members critique your work.

Then take all these ideas from other people, and revise your manuscript one last time. And then stop! Put down that pen! Get your hands off the keyboard!

One of the most important steps to actually producing a book is to know when to stop writing and tinkering with it.

You’ve finally written your e-book! Pop open the bubbly! Give yourself a night out on the town!

Okay, now that this necessary celebration is out of your system, what do you do next?

Now the secrets to turning your e-book into profits…

E-books are a revolutionary way to publish your book without incurring the costs of print production. All you need is a relevant and targeted subject and some inexpensive software, and you can transform your manuscript into a book.

The problem, in terms of actually seeing any profits from your e-book, is that the market is overwhelmed with e-books, and many of them are not worth the time it takes to download them. Just because the ability exists to easily produce an e-book, doesn’t make it good writing.

Make sure your book does not simply rehash old material. You will injure your credibility as an author by claiming to offer valuable new insights and disappointing your audience with material they’ve read a zillion times before. So spend enough time writing and revising your book to make sure it’s of the highest quality and presents the most current information. A good book will eventually sell itself; false claims about your book will make it extremely difficult to sell any future books you may write.

Assuming you have determined that you do indeed have a quality product that answers some question or need of your target audience with NEW information, how do you know how much to charge for it? Rule number 1: Set a price for your book equal to its value. An under-priced book will only give the impression that your book isn’t worth very much.

To figure out a fair price, estimate how much time you put into creating it and how difficult it was to transform the necessary information into understandable and engaging writing. Figure out how much your time and effort is worth, and then price it accordingly. The goal is for you to be adequately compensated for your talent, your time, and your effort.

Once you’ve figured out a price that is high enough to convey the value of the book, but not so high as to be out of the reach of your target audience’s mean budget, then it’s time to offer it for sale on your website. To attract sales, you will need to develop a promotional campaign, particularly if you are an unknown author.

There are multitudes of books about self-promotion that will guide you in your efforts. Choose a plan that is both creative and professional. Learn how to write a catchy yet informative press release, and send copies of your e-book to sites that specialize in e-book reviews.

Learn how to write powerful sales copy, or hire someone to write it for you. This is an essential. You absolutely need excellent sales copy to sell your book. Make sure the copy includes all the reasons your target audience needs your book, and the benefits they will derive from buying it.

Use graphics in your promotional materials. Beautiful graphics have the power to instantly convey the quality and value of your e-book. Graphics can also convey the amount of valuable information the book contains, and your careful attention to detail. Professional graphics sell professional books. They reassure the customer that the product is what it claims to be.

Consider excerpting chapters for articles. You can offer these tidbits for free on your website as a sort of demo of your book. Include an order form for your e-book at the end of the excerpted articles.

Finally, when you set up your download link, make sure to simplify the process. It’s a good idea to offer a few bonuses that make your book even more enticing to purchase, but make sure the bonuses are valuable and high quality. Too many bonuses that are basically a load of useless stuff will compromise the impression your audience has of your e-book. The goal is to convey to your audience that they are getting a quality product for a good deal. That means applying restraint, especially when it comes to adding bonus items. Too much free stuff offered diminishes your credibility.

Make sure your book is a quality product. Make sure it is relevant and current. Develop an effective marketing plan that includes excellent sales copy and excerpted articles. Then offer your book for sale, and wait for your audience to discover you!

To recap the 11 steps to publishing success:

1. Start researching in your subject. Read a lot.
2. Plan a content structure for your e-book.
3. Don’t rehash old material.
4. Start writing and sustain your pace. Do not edit and write and the same time. Let the ideas and words flow from your mind first. You get to express more content in less time.
5. Know when to stop writing and start editing.
6. Price your e-book.
7. Design an e-cover for your book.
8. Get external reviews or find creative ways to get testimonies, e.g. barter trade.
9. Prepare a sales copy and set up a site promoting your e-book.
10. Consider creating a free giveaway version of your e-book.
11. Write articles related to your subject and submit them to major article directories. Your resource box points back to your sales page.

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%%11 Steps To Publishing Success%%

11 Steps To Publishing Success

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Several years ago I updated one of my sites. I continued to get phone calls from potential clients who wanted to hire me, but the calls were much different than I had gotten previously. The difference was that I spent the duration of the phone call in sales mode to convince them to hire me, which is something I hate to do. I’d never had to do that before. Typically when someone would call me, they were already sold on the concept of hiring me and just wanted to know when we could get started.

I racked my brain to try and figure out what in the world was going on and what had changed with these prospects. Suddenly it hit me that in the update of my site, my client testimonials had gotten lost in the process and weren’t on the new site. This gave me the motivation I needed to get additional testimonials from satisfied clients and determine how to best display those testimonials for maximum impact. Once I added those to my new site, things returned to normal and those rave reviews did all of my selling for me.

So, now you know that testimonials can serve as an important sales tool on your web site. How do you go about getting testimonials that say something more compelling than, “Jane is great to work with!”, which is useless for all practical purposes.

Here are ten questions you can ask your clients to get results-oriented testimonials for your online business:

1. What factors made you to choose my business to assist you with ?
2. What were your preconceived notions about using . For example, “What were your perceptions about working with an accountant before we started?”
3. How has that perception changed since you hired me/bought my product?
4. What do you like most about working with me/using the product?
5. Did you expect it would work as well as it did?
6. Did you have any objections/hesitations before you decide to hire us/buy the product? If so, what were they? How did we overcome your hesitation and objections?
7. What are the three biggest benefits of working with us/using the product? OR How has your life changed/things changed since you began using our service/product? Please be as specific as possible (i.e. we increased sales by 25% in 3 months; I lost 15 pounds in 20 days; I doubled my income last year). You may also want to ask this as a before/after question, i.e. “How are things different now after hiring us than they were before you hired us?”
8. If you were to recommend me to a colleague, friend, or business associate, how would you describe the way I provided my service to you (or, the way I helped you achieve a certain result)?
9. Is there anything else you’d like to add that I haven’t yet asked about?
10. Can I share this information in our marketing materials?

If you don’t have any client testimonials on your site, it’s not to late to go out and solicit a few. Use some or all of the questions noted above to increase the trust visitors have in your services and products and increase your sales dramatically!

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

%%10 Most Effective Questions for Take-Action Testimonials%%

10 Most Effective Questions for Take-Action Testimonials

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I just gave twinkie to @MayVictor! You should send me a gift http://bit.ly/LlsVp #

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Google Profiles are simple web pages where you can list general information about yourself. Anyone who can create an account on Google and verify their real name through a screening routine can now have a personal profile page on Google. The most powerful aspect of this system, however, is the ability to include links in your profile, which can pack a powerful search engine optimization (SEO) punch for you. Best of all, Google provides this service at no cost to you.

Profiles are public and include your actual name and/or a nickname. You can list your occupation, where you are located (your profile will be used for Google Maps), a list of links, your photo and a short introduction. Google even provides a way for visitors to click a link on your profile to contact you directly.

Here are 5 secrets to creating a powerful Google Profile:

1. Upload your photo. One of the keys to creating relationships online is to let others know you’re a real person. The easiest way to do that is to provide a visual cue, like a photo, to help them remember you.

2. Include keywords in bio. The “About Me” section is where you can use outbound keyword-rich links to your advantage. As you compose this section, be sure and include several keywords others might use to find you, and link those back to your web site. For example, if you’re a divorce attorney in Houston, you might have the keyword phrases, “Houston divorce attorney” and “family law attorney” as links back to your primary web site.

3. Link to your sites and profiles. You can link to any number of sites from your Google profile. Just like in your bio, use keywords to your advantage here as well. So, if you run a cleaning business and have produced several videos demonstrating what you do, instead of listing your link to your YouTube videos as “YouTube.com,” you might instead use “Professional Cleaning Videos,” which links to your YouTube stream instead.

You should add the following links to your profile:

–web site(s)

–blog

–all of your social networking profiles (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Linkedin)

–YouTube.com or UStream channel

–Squidoo lens

–Social bookmarking profiles (Delicious, Reddit, Digg

–Article syndication page

–Free giveaway sign up page

–Products page

–Services page

4. Showcase your products and services. The page editor allows you to upload images through photo sharing sites Flickr and Picasa. Upload images of your physical or information products or shots of you in action delivering your service.

5. Take care when choosing your profile URL. If you have a Gmail account, Google will ask you if your want to use that username as part of your profile URL. Be aware that if you choose that option, you are inadvertently giving away your Gmail address. I chose instead the longer profile URL with the long string of numbers. I don’t like my email address appearing anywhere online, so even though this profile URL is longer and more difficult to reference, it beats filling my inbox with spam.

If you don’t use Gmail, you can select any available username to be part of your profile URL. If later on you sign up for Gmail, you can choose this username as your Gmail username. Once you’ve selected your customized URL, you won’t be able to change it or delete it. However, you can make it private at any time by selecting your old URL on the “Edit profile” page.

Take a few minutes today to claim your name and create a powerful profile for your business. It costs you nothing, creates powerful one-way inbound links back to your site, and will help you get found online.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

5 Secrets to Creating a Powerful Google Profile

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In order to be found online by your target market, you need insight about the terms that they are using to search for a business like yours. The quickest way to gain that insight is by conducting research on possible keywords they use. However, so many of my clients conduct only very basic keyword research and miss many keywords because they don’t really delve into the problems and needs of their target market, which contain prime, keyword-rich topics they can use to be found online.

Here are 7 secrets to a successful keyword research campaign:

1. Define your target topic or interest. Use 1-2 words to describe your topic. In this case, let’s say our interest is pest control businesses because you’re seeking to target owners of this type of company.
2. Define synonyms for your topic area. Use an online thesaurus or Google Sets to help you brainstorm synonyms for your topic. In this example, similar terms for pest control business might be exterminating business, rodent control, insect control, bug business, and pest control company.
3. Use “how” to help define problems in your topic area. When people search online, many times they’re seeking answers to their problems, and they seek answers to these problems by asking “how” questions. I use Google’s free Keyword Tool to help me define some of the problems of a pest control business. I plug in the synonyms brainstormed in step 2 to help me come up with this list. In this case, common questions might be things like how to do one of the following in a pest control business: start, grow, train employees, find employees, market, advertise, price services, bill customers, bid for contracts, buy, insure, find supplies, and write a business plan.
4. Record your action terms. Note the action terms that were used found in this example — starting, buying, growing, marketing, training, advertising, billing, bidding, etc. These are terms that people use to help them solve the problems they have with their pest control businesses. Create a list for each of these terms and brainstorm synonyms for these terms, as well.
5. Group and research. Now, return to your keyword tool and enter your action term combined with your target topic and see what people interested in this topic are actually searching on. For example, for the term “how to start a pest control business,” you would see results like: mosquito control, electronic pest control, ant extermination, roach extermination, how to kill fleas, pest control software, pest control license, etc. Organize the keywords into groups according to the problem being solved or action being taken.
6. Count the searches. Look for the largest clusters in your groups and count the searches on the terms in the groups. A large cluster with lots of searches will contain the initial terms on which you will want to focus. However, don’t overlook the groups with smaller searches, as many times these contain keywords that are less competitive and thus become easier for you to use to rise to the top of the search engines, rather than being one of millions competing for a very competitive term. These keywords with smaller searches are referred to as “long-tail keywords,” and I believe that the traffic you get from high rankings on numerous long-tail keywords is equivalent to and quicker and easier to achieve than entering the contest for very competitive keywords.
7. Use the keywords. With this research you can write articles on these topics, create blog posts about these topics, upload web pages on these topics, update the meta tags on your web pages, make videos on podcasts about these topics, create information products, write pay-per-click campaigns, and design classified ads, to name just a few of the uses for this research.

Have you conducted thorough keyword research for your target market? If you haven’t, you may be missing key opportunities for your target market to find you online. Set aside 2-3 hours one day and discover all the other options at your disposal to help your target market solve their problems.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

7 Secrets to Successful Keyword Research

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How can you make the best use of Twitter in your business? It all starts with having followers in your target market. No doubt you’ve been inundated with email offers of things like “10,000 Twitter followers in 60 seconds for only $19.95!” Trust me — 1000 followers that are members of your target market are much more useful to the growth of your business via social networking than 10,000 followers that come from anywhere.

How do you find members of your target market on Twitter? Here are my top 7 strategies:

1. Add people you know in your industry. Twitter permits people to use fictitious names or business names as their Twitter identity, rather than their given name. So, it may be difficult at times to find the person you’re seeking, especially if she goes by “ShoeDiva” on Twitter and you know her as Miranda Smith. Try Twitter Search, http://search.twitter.com or Advanced Search, http://search.twitter.com/advanced to help you in your quest.

2. Find others with the same interests or serving the same target market. The online yellow pages of Twitter users, Twellow.com, permits users to list themselves by industry and interests. If your business isn’t currently listed on Twellow, take a few minutes to do that right away.

3. Follow those in the same geographic region. If marketing to your local area is an important part of your business, find local members of your target market by using Twellowhood.com or TwitterLocal.com and find the top movers and shakers in your region, as well as some members of your target market. If you want to meet fellow Tweeps face-to-face, search local Tweetups at TwtVite,com, or create your own gathering.

4. Get relevant recommendations. The free service, MrTweet.com, will provide you with info on recommended people to follow based on your current Twitter profile. You do have to follow MrTweet in order to participate. Once you’re logged in, you can see your recommendations, along with how these recommendations are connected to your list of followers. You can evaluate your recommendations, and MrTweet will make changes in your recommended list accordingly.

5. Follow those who follow you. It’s considered good Twitter etiquette to follow those people who’ve chosen to follow you. And, to prevent being labeled a Twitter snob, ideally you should be following more people than are following you. I have automated my ability to follow my followers by using a free version of TweetLater.com.

6. Look for keywords. Another way to find relevant followers is to keep track of people mentioning certain keywords in their Tweets. I do that through the free version of TweetLater.com. I use this same service to keep track of any mentions of me or my company on Twitter in the very same way I use Google Alerts.

7. Find groups. Twibes.com permits you to find groups by industry and interest and join them and/or see the members of each group. And, if you so inclined, you can create your own Twitter group, as well.

Remember, finding your target market is just the beginning. Once you’ve found them, you need to begin to build relationships with them. This means paying attention to what they say so that you can respond when appropriate either with a direct message (DM) or an @ reply that is public or retweeting (RT) their message to your followers when you feel someone has great info that would be useful to those who follow you. Take 10-15 minutes per day to keep yourself informed about what’s happening with your Tweeps and watch your business grow!

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com

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7 Strategies to Finding Your Target Market on Twitter

Whether you send large email newsletters or just use email to communicate with friends, colleagues and customers, following these twelve strategies will make your email more effective. So, here’s my list, compiled and crafted from years of experience and quantitative analysis of tens of millions of messages we’ve sent out for our clients:

1. One Main Message Per Email:

The most effective email messages have one main idea or concept. I spent a summer as an intern at the White House, helping to read and answer the mail. The writing staff taught that the strongest messages were ones that didn’t distract people with extraneous information. Before you start writing a message, write down what you’re trying to communicate. Or at least think about your message before you start writing.

The most effective messages are ones that are crisp, clear and concise.

2. Keep it Short:

If you’re like me, the phone rings off the hook, people walk over to your desk to ask you a question, and other people are instant messaging you. And then your cell phone starts ringing. It’s enough to make anyone a bit crazy and give you Attention Deficit Disorder. Our collective attention spans are very short. People simply have too many distractions to wade through a really long email.

You might think they need all of the information. But when people are faced with dense blocks of text, many people’s eyes glaze over. And then they ignore the entire message. And thus, the most effective email messages are short. Two or three short sentences in length. Perhaps a couple of bullet points. And perhaps the short message is followed by supporting material, an attachment or a link to more information on a website. Enough said. I’ll try to keep this section short.

3. Keep it Relevant:

I believe that attention is the most important asset of any business or organization. What do I mean by this? If your messages are relevant, your recipients will pay attention to what you are trying to say. If you send email that isn’t relevant — they will quickly stop paying attention to your messages.

It’s easy to get into a mentality where you want to send everything to everyone. And with email newsletters or mass broadcasts, it’s not that expensive to do. However, once someone feels your messages aren’t that important, they will simply stop reading them.

4. Reply Early & Reply Often:

With the huge volume of spam, it’s tough to know if your message got through. Right now, four out of every five emails sent over the Internet today is spam. With so much junk, it’s easy for your message to get lost, trapped in a junk mail filter, or simply piled up in someone’s ever-expanding inbox. So you start to worry when you haven’t heard back from someone that you emailed a couple of days ago. Hmmmm, you say. Did that person get my message? Should I send it again? If I do, will that bug them? Am I being too pushy?

So when you’re on the other side of the email message, it’s really important to reply early and reply often. What you’re doing is letting them know you (a) received the message and (b) that you care.

5. From Line:

The single most important part of an email message is the From line. If the person you’re sending to doesn’t recognize your name, your message will be at best skipped over. At worst, it will be simply deleted without opening. Most email programs show a friendly display name instead of the plain email address.

The From line of your email (friendly display name) should have your full name and organization in it. The culprit is that many people have only their first names listed in the friendly From display line. Most of the time the messages aren’t too racy, but with email programs that automatically fill in an email address when you start to type a first name, it’s easy to email the wrong person something that could be seriously career limiting.

6. Subject Line:

After the From line, the subject line is the second most important part of an effective email. If you forget to include a subject line, your message is much more likely to go into a junk mail folder, or just not be opened.

Email marketing professionals live and die by subject lines. A good subject line will sum up what the message is all about, but still entice someone to open the message, read it, and take action. Including the company name in the subject line can increase open rates by up to 32 percent to 60 percent over a subject line without branding. (Jupiter Research)

7. Personalize Each Message:

Except when being called into the principal’s office, everyone likes being called by their name. In this impersonal world of email messages, people like to know that you know who they are, and that you care about them as a person.

Nothing is worse than a highly demanding email that is sent without being addressed to someone by name and is out of context. I’m much more willing to help someone who personalizes the message to me, and gives me a non-threatening reason why this needs to really be done by tomorrow.

8. Always include your contact information:

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve not returned a call promptly because I didn’t have someone’s contact information readily available. In this age of iPhones, Blackberries and cellphones, it’s rare that I have a phone number memorized. So many people rush through their phone number, making it virtually impossible to write down the number without having to go back and listen to their message a couple of extra times.

Ideally, you should always give your phone number, say it slowly, and repeat it twice so that someone can write it down and then make sure it’s correct. Effective emails always include a signature line with contact information. You should include your contact information in every new message or every message you reply to.

9. Strong Call to Action:

In direct marketing or email correspondence, most of the time you want someone to take a specific action when they receive your message. The most effective email messages always have a strong call to action, telling the recipient what you want them to do.

Email is a low context medium. It doesn’t transmit behavioral clues like voice inflection that might otherwise indicate what you want a person to do. So it’s important to be direct and ask what you want the other person to do. It sounds basic, but it’s a key to effective email.

10. Paste Links & Get on the Same Page:

How many times have you felt that the person receiving your email just isn’t on the same page as you? A lot of times it’s literally true. You might be thinking that they are looking at one page on a website, when in fact they are looking at something completely different.

I know I’ve been frustrated by this in the past. Simple pasting a link into an email is the best strategy. Again, it seems simple, but it can mean the difference between confusion and clarity. Sending someone the exact link to the website page you are discussing gets everyone on the same page.

11. Use Folders & Filters:

If you’re like me and you receive a lot of email, you can use folders to store messages from different people or clients. In most email programs, you can set up automatic rules (often called filters) that will place all messages from Joe into a specific folder. That way you can review all of the messages Joe sends over to you, reply to the ones that need attention, and not have to spend the time moving the messages from the inbox to another folder when you’re finished.

This one strategy has made me amazingly more efficient at dealing with the large volume of email I receive each day (usually about 950 messages per day).

12. Know when email doesn’t work:

Pick up the phone instead… Email remains one of the primary ways that businesses communicate internally among their staff, and externally with their customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. However, make sure you recognize when email is losing its effectiveness.

It’s easy to hide behind email when we don’t want to speak to a scary client or team member. I’ve been guilty of that as well when I have a million things going on. But sometimes a three minute conversation can clear up the confusion inherent in five days of back-and-forth email messages.

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12 Strategies for Effective Email Marketing Campaigns

If you’ve spent any time reading Internet marketing blogs you know that link building is a huge part of a marketing campaign. Backlinks – links that point to your website – are a major factor in determining your popularity or ranking with the search engines. And of course, just like in high school, you want to be popular.

You can buy your way into links, but here we’re talking about a few free and easy ways. An obvious and natural way to build links is through content. When you start a link-building campaign for your new website, focus on attracting links that will add value for your website visitors and best represent your most important keywords too. It is invaluable to have visitors go to your site and share your content.

Here are a few easy and mostly free ways to build links for your website.

Blog-Based Link Building

One way to get natural links back to your website is by setting up a blog for your company. Make sure you network online with other blogs that complement yours. If you share industry news and have useful and relevant content, you’ll attract links. Reference other bloggers in your content and link to other blogs in your industry.

For blogs, content is extremely important. Every time you add words to your blog or website, you are presenting yourself to a potentially huge audience. How does your blog’s content reflect your company? This content could be the page that carries your company’s name around the Internet world. Cheap content is just that – cheap. Create content that people want to read and that will make them come back again and again.

Reviewing products and services and posting those reviews on other sites is another way to build links. Your honest evaluations and smart opinions can also build your reputation as an expert in your field.

Link Building with Social Media

Another way to build natural links to your website is through social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter. These sites allow you to set up a user profile where you can add information about you and your company including a link to your website.

Some sites, Facebook for example, also have a way to promote your business with a page, ad or group. Just keep in mind that there are good ways and bad ways to promote your business on social sites and you should observe proper etiquette when you do.

Link Building with Organizations and Directories

If your industry has professional organizations or associations that you belong to, check with them and see if they have an online directory with links to member sites. They may or may not charge a fee for this. If they do, it shouldn’t be much.

Check with your local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau. Links from sites like these can be very helpful. Check with other local businesses and organizations that have lists of businesses and request links from them, too.

Online directories are another opportunity to look into. Yahoo! Directory is a good one. If your business is in a specific geographical area, you might also find some local directories to submit to that will boost your local visibility.

Links from Charities or Non-profits

If your company makes charitable donations to organizations and non-profits, see if they have a “donors” list on their website and ask if they will link to your website.

Links from Press Releases

Has your business just started or have you just launched a new product? A press release is a great idea to announce your news. There are quite a few press release distribution services available and some have a free first time offer.

Links from Partners

If your website offers information about other partner websites like business directories, you should make sure to use all your linking potential. You could have a badge that your partner could put on their site linking to you and one for your site that links to theirs.

If you have an RSS feed or a widget on your site that has good value to visitors, those can be taken from your website and displayed on another person’s website, linking back to your site.

The Internet is constantly evolving and there are thousands of ways to build links. Look around at other websites and see what they have and how they work. Look at your business, think outside the box and you might come up with other ways to develop links. If it all seems like too much, there are many online consulting companies that can help with link building, SEO optimization and brandcasting.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Free and Easy Link Building Tips

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I was watching the News last night and they were talking about the Lakers big win and how unruly people went out of control and started destroying things in plain view for all the news cameras and security cameras to see. Then they followed up with asking people to go to their twitter account and comment on what they think about these events. As you can see this type of social media is very popular and being used now in ways we never thought possible. When the television starts telling you to use twitter you know we are on to something big here.

I am not going to give any real meat here on social networking but wanted to touch on one aspect here which involves the URL which is most commonly used for the micro blogging sites like “spnbabble” and “twitter“. When postings to sites like this since the character limit is 140 then the need to shorten URLs comes into play as some URLs are so long that it can take up the majority of your message. So sites like MyOpenID start appearing all over the web allowing us to use our own tiny URL to help manage this shortening of URLs.

What I find interesting here is with all this new technology like the open ID URLs we are missing some opportunities here. The idea of the open ID is to allow you to shorten a URL and make the URL look clean. It also masks the actual URL until you arrive at the site. You should also be aware that these tiny URLs are not exactly SEO friendly so it is important to come up with a few ideas on how you can make use of this technology so that it gives you an advantage in the online market. Here are a few ideas:

1. Use the tiny URLs to direct people to your affiliate pages.

Most affiliate sites all use a common string of words in the urls which show a users ID name or number. People are catching on and when presenting your product in a creative way to get people to click on those links they stop as soon as they see the actual URL. Though you may be offering the greatest thing in the world, you are losing potential business because people know this is just another money venture for you. So, use a tiny URL which has a social media appeal to get them to click.

2. Use tiny URLs to link to other resource sites

If you have a lot of great sites to link to on your web pages or blog but don’t want to give up too many links for the SE’s then use the tiny URL and save yourself the time of having to block the search engines from counting those links other sites. A one way link is very valuable now and if you are not linking to other sites as a trade off then why give it away?

3. Use tiny URLs to make use of many online marketing tools out there.

There a ton of sites popping up where you can use your open ID URL to make use of their services. These services often have ways of automating sites out there like twitter.com and can be a very useful in gaining new followers, etc. An example is tweetlater.com which allows you to create an auto response to all your followers. It is a one time message thanking them for following you and allowing you to link to any site using a tiny url and maybe your one chance to sell an item or get a new subscriber. For more details about this read my latest article on Advance Twitter.

If you have not currently signed up for an open ID you should do it fast as your favorite names can be taken very soon here. After you sign up for one make sure to go to SPNBabble and create an account there and connect your open ID and micro blog accounts so you can make use of micro blogging on 1 site but having it appear on several others automatically like Facebook and Twitter. We have also created a wordpress plugin for this to save you even more time of having to bookmark your blogs to micro blog sites.

Can you think of more uses for a tiny URL?

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

The Power of a Tiny URL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

How To Find The Right Keywords To Optimize Search Engine Results

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Today I just wanted to give you 10 valid reasons why you need to try Wealthy Affiliate.

I mean, if I cannot provide you with at least a couple reasons to join, then why should you bother? I sat down last night and I put together a list. Within 15 minutes I had a list of 27 different reasons to join WA, but I don’t want to overwhelm you so I decided to keep it to 10 GREAT reasons.

Ready?

Alright, here are 10 reasons you need to join WA for $1 right now:

Reason 1: Over 290 Resources on Internet Marketing (videos, tutorials, guides)

At Wealthy Affiliate we have new “member” generated resources being created every single day. We also have a set of Learning Center resources that we have created based on the techniques we have used to create success online.

These resources range from videos, tutorials, to downloadable PDF guides. They cover topics such as PPC, article marketing, email marketing, SEO, research, website development, and more. Whether you are a complete beginner or have years of experience, there is a lot to learn within the WA ShareZone and Learning Center.

Get Instant Access to over 290 Internet Marketing resources for $1 Here!

Reason 2: 8-Week Action Training Plan

No idea how to get started within this crazy Internet marketing world? Well that is why we created the 8-week action plan. This caters to everyone, however it is specific to pure newbies. If you have no idea as to how to generate a living online, by the end of the 8-week program you will have a good idea (and like already made many sales!). This course is offered for no extra cost within WA. The 8-week action plan faciliates learning and propels the speed of success.

Get instant enrollment to the 8-week action plan now with the Wealthy Affiliate $1 Trial!

Reason 3: Article Writing & Content Optimization Tool

Ever wanted to write articles with greater optimization and keyword density? How about writing content that will get picked up quicker in the search engines? Want to know which keywords will be easiest to get ranked with in Google? Our Rapid Writer tool within Wealthy Affiliate can help you out with all your content development and article marketing needs.

Full Access to Rapid Writer is $1 away! Sign-up now to see this amazing tool!

Reason 4: Your Own Personal Space

As soon as you join WA, you can access your own personal “My WA” section. This will allow you to create your own space with your pictures, personal story, websites, and create your own blog. This is a community where you can create “buddies” with other fellow (and highly successful) Internet marketers to chat about your successes, ask for help, or just hang out. This is a great place to network and build relationships!

You are minutes away from networking with many “millionaire” marketers!

Reason 5: An Easy to Use Website Builder.

Are you scared of the idea of building a website? You are not alone. Site Rubix is a Wealthy-Affiliate-only website builder that is very easy to use. Many members at WA are pumping out sites that are earning them a ton of cash. Site Rubix sites are optimized for Internet marketing and allow you to quickly and seemlessly build professional looking sites. You can build as many sites as you like with Site Rubix!

A service like this is typically $50+ per month….but you get full access to this within WA.

Build as many sites as you like within WA! Access now for $1!

Reason 6: We care about your success.

I know it is easy for many companies to hide behind the Internet, but we ARE NOT one of them. We truly do care about our members and we do take pride in helping people achieve their goals and dreams. This individual attention is why Wealthy Affiliate has achieved the status it has today and why 500,000 independent websites out there rank it as the top Internet marketing community online.

Ready to finally be cared about and join an honest Internet Marketing company? Get started at WA for $1 today!

Reason 7: A Friendly & Helpful Community.

Need help with a campaign? No problem. Need someone to review your content? No problem. Need some help understanding Google Adwords? No problem. The Wealthy Affiliate community is where some of the most successful Internet marketers online hang out everyday. Our top members are very active within the forum at Wealthy Affiliate and always willing to lend a hand.

Whether you are new or experienced, young our old, male or female, the community at WA is really a positive place to hang out with like minded individuals. We have members from just about every corner of the world!

We grew Wealthy Affiliate on the premise that if we help others out, they will return the favour. Well guess what? Now there are 1,000’s of members at WA returning the favour and willing to help YOU out.

Just to put our forum activity into perspective, we now have over 266,000 posts! When you join WA, be sure to check out the posts mark as Sticky posts. These are pure gold and are worth more than most e-books out there combined!

Create your very own forum nickname now at WA for $1!

Reason 8: 5 Keyword Tools

Keyword research is a big part of Internet marketing success. At Wealthy Affiliate we offer 5 proprietary keyword tools that have been developed by our programmers to specifically meet your keyword research needs. These tools perform research, spy on competition, keyword generation, and allow you to format keywords specific for your PPC campaigns.

Don’t pay for another keyword tool EVER. Get access to 5 keyword tools at Wealthy Affiliate for $1 Now!

Reason 9: Full Support from Kyle & Carson

Yes, that is correct. We are real. It is funny because so often people come to us and ask us a question thinking that they will never hear back. In fact, most of the time they don’t even think we are real people! We are 100% real people. I am 27, Carson is 28 and we both live in British Columbia (Canada)! We really do know the in’s and out’s of Internet marketing (we have seen it all) and we love nothing more than to see someone achieve success through Wealthy Affiliate!

We don’t want anyone thinking that all our effort is to try to get you to sign-up. The majority of our effort is dedicated to helping people like yourself within Wealthy Affiliate. Join us today and I might just send you a quick “hello”!

Join WA and never feel left in the dark again (and get personal help from the owners themselves!).

Reason 10: Did we mention that it is ONLY $1!

Need we say more. I didn’t even get to the other 17 “reasons” that I think you should join for. The top 10 should be more than enough. The price of admission to WA is only $1 for an entire week. If you don’t like it, you can cancel anytime before this and not be billed further.

The only reason that we are offering this in the first place is because we know you will like it. Most people are scared to join because they think that it is “too good to be true”. It is true. We offer everything that we say we offer (and more). WA is only getting better by the day and we think that we have left you with absolutely no reason not to join.

Join now for a buck. C’mon, you have nothing to lose and the world to gain!

Have a wonderful day and we hope to see you on the good side (the WA side…lol)!

Cheers,

Kyle
Co-owner of Wealthy Affiliate
www.wealthyaffiliate.com

Niche Marketing Inc.
P.O Box 13243 549 Michigan St.
Victoria, BC
Canada

Great chance to see the Wealthy Affiliate full potential!

What is Wealthy Affiliate?

“Wealthy Affiliate is Ranked the #1 Internet Marketing Training Program
by over 499,000 Independent Websites and Counting…“ We Can Teach ANYONE How to Build a Successful Online Business

What is this $1 7-day Full Access Trial?

Here is what Wealthy Affiliate prepares.

“This is something that we have never done before…

We are going to allow a certain number of people access to Wealthy Affiliate for $1!

That is right, you can become a member to WA for only $1!  If you are not already a member, this is your chance!

There are no obligations.  If you don’t like it, you don’t have to stick around.   If you like it (which we think you will), you can stay a member and take advantage of all the tools, resources, and support that we offer at WA!

We want to show you why Wealthy Affiliate is the #1 Ranked Internet Marketing School in the world…

So when does this start???

The trial starts TOMORROW, June 1st at 12 NOON EST.

Are you ready?

Trial Starts in less than 24 hours. You DO NOT want to miss out on this one!

Cheers,

Kyle & Carson
The Wealthy Affiliates”

Click this link to start!

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You may have started out simply writing articles on the topic of your website–that is a great start, and you can see excellent results by consistently writing and submitting on-topic articles.

But after you get used to the basics of submitting articles, you may want to challenge yourself and see if you can improve your results. One of the ways you can advance to the next level is to integrate keywords into your article submission campaign.

Google and other search engines look for words of special importance on a web page to help them determine what a website is about.

These words are called “keywords” or “keyword phrases”, and if a website owner knows the types of words/phrases that their target customers are typing into search boxes, then he can be sure to use those keywords in his articles to capitalize on the demand for those search terms in Google.

How do you use keywords in your article submissions?

Great question–it’s actually not that complicated.

1) First, figure out the keywords for your website.

Use a keyword suggestion tool such as WordTracker to create a detailed list of keywords and long-tailed keyword phrases.

A long-tailed keyword phrase is a phrase that is anywhere from 3-5 words long that a search engine customer would use to reach a site such as yours. Usually a basic keyword term for your website is more general and is 2 words long, but there is also merit to targeting longer phrases that potential customers do searches for.

For example, your main keyword phrase may be “chocolate recipe”.

Your long tail phrase may be “chocolate birthday cake recipe”.

When you’re doing your keyword research you’ll make a list of the general 2 word phrases as well as several of the more specific 3-5 word phrases.

2) Write an article around each keyword term.

Now, each keyword term has many possibilities for articles–there isn’t just one article that could be generated off of your keyword term. Try taking each keyword term and writing several articles addressing different aspects of that keyword.

If you have a long list of keyword and long-tailed keywords, that list could keep you busy for a while!

Just go through the list, writing a different article around the keyword phrase. Pretty soon you will have a library of articles that are covering virtually every topic related to your niche all pointing readers back to your website.

All of this instruction about keywords comes with a word of caution–there is a good way and a bad way to use keywords in article marketing.

The good way would be to use the keyword phrase to guide your article topic, and use the phrase or variations of the phrase naturally in your article so that the article makes sense to your readers.

The bad way would be to haphazardly spray your article with your keyword term without thinking about how the article will sound to readers or if the article makes sense.

You may have seen articles that were obviously written with the intention of using a particular keyword where you felt like the author was writing for search engines rather than for human readers–that is not way things should be!

You can write articles that please human readers and search engines–what these two groups are looking for is not at odds with each other.

Google wants to provide the search customers with an accurate list of results that is ranked in order with the results most likely to answer the searchers question at the top. Google cares about whether an article is reader friendly–it is not just looking for random words on a page.

When you write your articles, you can use your keywords to determine your specific topic and also use the keywords themselves where they sound natural. For best results keep your keyword density to around 2%.

Staying within these guidelines will give your article submissions the best chance of being recognized for that keyword term by search engines, and it will also produce an article that brings value to your reader.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

How To Use Keywords In Your Article Submissions

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1. What is the website’s purpose or mission?

Sounds simple right? Defining your site’s purpose is the single most important step you should take prior to new website construction. For most, the purpose will be as simple as “produce quality leads for our sales teams” or “sell our products online”. Once the mission of your site is defined, incorporate that goal in every aspect of designing and developing your site. Ask yourself, “how does this feature help the website visitor complete the site’s mission?” It’s important not to lose focus and get caught up in ‘bling’ at the cost of realizing your mission.

2. What am I going to need in order to get this website launched?

• Time

It’s important to have reasonable expectations of time lines. Most business owners budget enough time for the website to be presented in “rough draft” but forget that testing is an important part of the process. This can take much longer than anticipated. While your development team will provide their best estimation of the time it will take, as a rule of thumb, add 50% to the completion time a developer tells you to allow for anything unforeseen.

• Cost

Cost is an important factor in the web developing process. Budget a little extra money over the agreed amount to allow for small enhancements to the project that were not originally specified. Unexpected enhancements costs are a really good reason to have a very detailed project description before you begin. It’s not uncommon for technology based projects to come in slightly over budget and by having extra money at your disposal, you’ll be able to keep the project moving forward.

• Resources

Have all your resources, such as having an assistant to help with planning or a graphic designer to help incorporate your company’s brand into the site, on board prior to starting. You may also need to bring in outside help, like programmers, internet marketing companies, social media marketing agencies and copy writers. Budget these resources into the total cost of your project and include them in the initial planning since having a seasoned professional working with you from the start will pay huge dividends upon completion.

3. How will I bring qualified visitors to my site?

Surprisingly, most small businesses have a website just to have a website with no strategy or plan on how they are going to bring qualified visitors to the site. It’s like having a billboard in the middle of the Sahara Desert – pretty but not bringing in customers. If you cannot hire an internet marketing company, you should tap into the many online resources geared towards small business internet marketing. At a minimum, you should invest into a properly managed Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketing Campaign. Unlike Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the effects of PPC are immediate and can be controlled. I would also recommend working with a SEO professional to lay down the groundwork that will rank you high on the search engines.

Remember offline marketing as well. Your website should be part of your brand – put it everywhere! It should be on all letterhead, business cards, company vehicles, print and TV advertisements. Holding a contest that directs people to your websites is a popular and effective way to acquire a large number of back links to your site, which helps with search engine rankings.

4. How will I track my website’s ROI or gauge effectiveness?

Once your site is up and running, you’ll need to know if your marketing efforts (both “on-site” and “off-site”) are working. Remember your site’s purpose or mission? That now becomes what is known as a “conversion”. A conversion is the action taken by a website visitor that fulfills the site’s purpose. In most cases, this is either entering a sales lead into your site or buying an item. Other conversions could be downloading an “e-book” or signing up for a newsletter. Whatever the conversion is, everything done both on and off the site must be to lead people towards that completing a conversion.

To track your website and marketing effectiveness you need a reliable analytics program installed on your site. I am a big fan of Google Analytics because it’s very user friendly, easy to setup and free! By defining the desired conversion in your analytics program (PPC accounts as well) you will see which marketing efforts produce the highest number of conversions. Keep in mind that you may have a scenario where you get reduced site traffic but more conversions – but this is a good thing! You should review your analytics each month to track if your marketing campaigns are increasing or decreasing your conversions. Internet marketing company can do this for you and suggest ways to increase your conversions

5. How will I use design and technology to enhance my website?

• Design

Websites should be clean, clear and clutter free. Ensure your designers are familiar with your brand and how your company is graphically represented by giving the web designer a copy of your logo and any promotional material. The site must be developed around your existing brand not the brand designed to fit the website. If you are a new company, take the time to develop a rich corporate identity before having your website designed and developed.

• Technology

I’ve found that a web developer’s choice of code is similar to a person’s choice of automobile – personal and really not making any difference in function. There are some cases when you will need something robust like a pickup truck or SUV but in most cases using a common form of programming like PHP HTML or ASP will still get you from A to B. As well, using a common programming language will ensure that you’ll be able to find programming help faster and less expensive than if you went with a lesser known language. Finally, try to keep away from Flash and JavaScript as they can hamper the crawling of search engines on your site.

As you can see, a clear and thought out action plan will greatly increase the effectiveness of your site. Don’t underestimate the power of a well designed, conversion optimized website since this can mean many dollars added to your bottom line. Good Luck!

About The Author:

Oliver Feakins is the President of the Internet Marketing and Social Media Company(http://www.webtalentseo.com) WebTalent SEO. Visit http://www.webtalentseo.com for more information or call 877-496-3327.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

SEO Company Shares: 5 Things to Consider Before Starting Your Next Website

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You can advertise on this site without the worry of getting penalized for it. Most social networking sites won’t let you advertise your products that is a big NO with other social websites.

The Lens

A lens is basically a portal to advertise on it is a unique template that allows you to put pictures on there video’s and products. You can make as many lenses as you want out of as many categories as you like.

Use the lenses to drive traffic to your main business site and create more and more sales for yourself.

How To Use Squidoo

Keywords are most important when using a lens. Lenses are WebPages and therefore get ranked in the search engines, just like your internet business gets ranked.

When you choose a url for your lens make sure that you include your primary keyword in this url, this url is going to be used to link you to other pages.

Long tail keywords are being used like crazy these days because they are so popular, use the Squidoo wizard to setup your lens.

One of the things I really like about the lens pages when your filling out the wizard is it gives you the opportunity to put your RSS Feed into the lens page, and search engines loves fresh daily content.

Update your lens three times a week at least modify it in some way but the RSS Feeds will help you do this as well.

Keep adding new content to your lens. Squidoo recommends that you make many lenses, but what there actually saying is use your long tail keywords for your lenses that you make based on your particular niche.

Start domination your niche by making yours unique, lets say your niche is about affiliate marketing, and you wrote about affiliate marketing handbooks, this would make your niche stand out from the rest because your writing about not just affiliate marketing but affiliate marketing handbooks which would be different from your competitors.

When you make your lenses and you have few up your sleeve link them together this is very powerful when it comes to search engine optimizing having all your pages linked together will bring more visitors to your business site.

The way you have to look at your lens is just pretend its your blog and link to your legitimate home business sites with it.

If you get high ranking lenses on Squidoo then you will receive all that traffic to your main business site. This technique is so powerful yet so easy to accomplish.

You have to remember that Squidoo is a social network site for adults so get involved with other peoples lenses and comment on what you see, ,make your comment truthful and to the point, this will give you more one way links to your website.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Tips On Generating Traffic With Squidoo

Create A Page

Creating a page for your blog is a great way to showcase and gain readers and fans. There are a lot of customization options and you can even add compatible applications to your pages. To get started you will need to click here to create a new page. After you get your page the way you like it, you can start sharing it with your friends and inviting them to become fans. One thing about Facebook pages is that it will not show you as an admin of the page; you will be listed as a fan of the page along with everyone else.

The first application you may want to add is some type of RSS feed importing application but, in my opinion, it’s better to import your posts through the Notes application. Importing your blog posts through notes (which I’ll explain in more detail below) will display published blog posts on the page wall as opposed to the boxes tab or some other small area of the page.

NetworkedBlogs

This is a great application found here, that works on both personal profiles and Facebook pages. If you add it to one of your pages, it can be added as a separate tab that will then display snippets of your latest blog posts. You can also allow the NetworkedBlogs application to update your personal or page status (depending on which you add it to) everyone time a new post is published. This application is kind of like creating a page for your blog but does different in a few ways. For starters, with NetworkedBlogs you will be shown as the author of the blog. Once you have your NetworkedBlog page setup, you can then invite people to follow your blog in which they’ll be able to rate your blog and leave comments.

Import Notes

Notes is an application that allows you to create notes, which are almost like blog posts, for your friends to see. Every time you post a new note it shows in the public timeline for all to see but, many do not know that you can import a blog into your Facebook notes. From the Notes application you will see an option in the right hand column under “Notes Settings” to import a blog. Setting it up is pretty easy, you’ll just need to enter either your blog or RSS feed URL. After going over the preview of an imported blog post and confirming the import you’ll be all set. Facebook will then check your blog every couple hours for new posts. As I mentioned above, this is also great to set up with your Facebook page.

Blog Box

This application is nice because once added, you can add a blog box tab to your profile, making it more easy accessible to those who visit your page. The Blog Box application can be found here. Once again you will need to import your blog into the application after which it will check every 6 hours for new posts. There are not many customization options for Blog Box. The great thing about Blog Box is that it allows you to edit your posts right from within Facebook. Doing this allows you to edit your title, text and tags plus you can even add your mood, what music you’re listening too, and a location.

Simparis Blogcast

Last but not least you can import your blog with the Simparis Blogcast application. Once again you’ll need your RSS feed and then you can choose to have Simplaris handle the updating, manually update yourself or setup your blog to ping Simparis. This application can be added to your info tab, profile column or box tab. Whenever a blogcast is posted it will show under your recent activity section on your wall as well as in the box on your profile if you are using it. There are a few option such as changing the update mode, showing pictures and links versus plain text and even specifying the post length. You can also choose how many post to show on the profile box.

How do you import and promote your blog on Facebook?

Do you use one these methods or is there another way you like better?

Feel free to share.

Written by Charnita Fance from Social Web Tools

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

5 Ways To Import and Promote Your Blog On Facebook

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I’m sure once you go through the list I have put together below and read through what each of these wordpress plugins can do for your blog you’ll soon agree that these are the best wordpress plugins you’ve been searching for.

I’ve spent countless hours searching the web for the best wordpress plugins for my blogs because with them they can simplify a lot of tedious work giving you more time to do what you need to do with your blogs.

My suggestion to you is if you want to reduce the time involved with searching the web for the best wordpress plugins then make a plan now to read through the rest of this article.

Okay, that is enough talking, let’s get to the heart of the best wordpress plugins every wordpress blogger should be using.

Below is the list I have put together with some brief descriptions and hyperlinks to where you can download these wordpress plugins.

#1. Akismet -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/

Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blogs “Comments” admin screen.

#2. All In One SEO -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

Optimizes your Wordpress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).

#3. Broken Link Checker -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/broken-link-checker/

This plugin is will monitor your blog looking for broken links and let you know if any are found.

#4. Wordpress Database Back Up -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/

WP-DB-Backup allows you easily to backup your core WordPress database tables. You may also backup other tables in the same database.

#5. Exec-Php –

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exec-php/

The Exec-PHP plugin executes PHP code in posts, pages and text widgets.

#6. Google XML Sitemaps -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/

This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog.

#7. MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/maxblogpress-ping-optimizer/

Save your blog from getting tagged as ping spammer by installing this plugin.

#8. MaxBlogPress Favicon

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/maxblogpress-favicon/

Help create brand awareness by displaying a little favourite icon (favicon) in the title of our blog next to the URL.

#9. WP-Cache

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-cache/

WP-Cache is an extremely efficient WordPress page caching system to make you site much faster and responsive.

#10. Auto Hyperlink URLs

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/auto-hyperlink-urls/

Auto-hyperlink text URLs in post content and comment text to the URL they reference.

#11. No Ping Wait

- http://onemansblog.com/2007/04/15/no-ping-wait-wordpress-plugin/

The purpose of the No Ping Wait plugin is to prevent Wordpress authors from having to wait for all of the update services to respond to new post pings.

#12. FD Feedburner Plugin

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/feedburner-plugin/

Redirects the main feed and optionally the comments feed to Feedburner.com.

#13. WordPress.com Stats

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/

Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks.

#14. What Would Seth Godin Do

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/what-would-seth-godin-do/

Displays a custom welcome message to new visitors and much more.

#15. Popularity Contest

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/popularity-contest/

This will enable ranking of your posts by popularity; using the behavior of your visitors to determine each post’s popularity

That’s quite the list isn’t it? But they each serve a purpose as you’ll see when you look into each further.

If you wish to search for more wordpress plugins you can at – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

Now if you want to get the very best out of Wordpress then you need the best wordpress plugins, so keep these ones handy.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Best Wordpress Plugins Every Wordpress Blogger Should Be Using On There Blogs

In the 1970’s groundbreaking research was done resulting in a much greater understanding of how the brain functions. The work of a Bulgarian scientist called Georgi Lozanov in the 1960’s laid the foundation for what the West would later call accelerated learning. Various dominant learning modalities were categorized which included audial, visual, and kinesthetic. Although our brains absorb information from all our senses, it was discovered that every individual has a preferred learning modality. Identify it and you can learn must faster.

But now, here is a critical statistic. It was also discovered through many tests that a majority of people like to learn visually. They like to see things as they absorb information. Some studies even put the figure as high as 65% of the population who absorb and recall information best by seeing.

Now can you see where this fits in when we talk of why you should add video to your web site? Pictures can make a huge difference in the way your message comes across. You can state something but when you show a picture of it, well, the effect is immediate.

In the late 1870’s experiments were done with moving pictures. Using 24 cameras, an English photographer by the name of Eadweard Muybridge, photographed a horse in fast motion. The series of photographs settled a debate of the day as to whether all four hooves leave the ground when a horse is running. The resulting ‘movie’ proved conclusively that they do.

From those humble beginnings, motion pictures developed to what they are today. Who can argue that motion pictures have not had an incredibly substantial impact on the 20th and 21st centuries, not only in the arts, but also in technology and politics.

This presents an amazing opportunity for the modern day marketer. Add video to your web site and you capitalize on this highly successful modern medium to get your message across. A large number of people think in pictures. So if you have a video presentation highlighting aspects of your products and services, think of how your sales conversion rates can increase.

Also, when you add video to your web site, you keep visitors there longer. Isn’t that another key aim of any webmaster? Using a tool like Google Analytics, you can measure the average time spent on your web site or on your web page. The longer a visitor stays on your site the greater the chance they will take action, either by browsing further on your site, or clicking on the link that will lead to the action you want.

As an experiment, why not add a video to your web site on one page, and then make a copy of that page without the video. Then do a split test and track the visitor behavior over a period of days or weeks. You may be astonished at the results.

Here’s another idea. In addition to adding video to your web site, why not add video to your blog or ebay auction? You may see your sales or signups soar as a result.

So to boil it all down, why add video to your web site? To make money. Why keep spending out trying to get more traffic when you can increase the sales conversion ratio of the traffic you already receive. Make your web site ’sticky’ by adding video so your visitors will not just click away but engage and actually stay a while. The longer they stay the better for you.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Add Video To Your Web Site: The Number 1 Reason

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