If you just got a small proportion of those visitors to convert to leads or sales, that has cost you nothing but your time.

There are two hard facts of any internet business that you cannot escape.

To make money online, you need to generate traffic to your website and second, you need to convert that traffic into buyers.

You might try to do this directly by sending them to a sales page or you may do it indirectly by sending them to an opt-in page to capture their details or to your information site or blog.

First, you should focus on identifying your killer keywords – the ones that attract the right kind of people into you business.

With a good match between what people are searching for and what you are offering, the actual traffic you generate will be more highly targeted and predisposed to your offer and so more likely to convert into buyers.

If no one goes to your site, it hardly bares a chance of generating an income.

BUT, it doesn’t take thousands to generate website traffic to your site.

While there are ways to jumpstart your traffic flows, the holy grail is knowing how to generate low cost website traffic without having to run up a huge daily advertising bill.

Here I present to you my top 7 strategies to generate low cost website traffic that could help make money online for you.

1. Link exchanges

This is a well known and proven strategy. It’s rare these days to see a website without a link to another site.

Many business owners are willing to exchange links with one another so that they could produce more visibility for their sites.

The more you create back links to your website from other pages, the more the traffic you’ll see coming as you’ll start to rank higher.

If you’re exchanging links with other sites, it’s important that the link is relevant. This usually means it is in the same niche or a relate niche as your own site.

This strategy pleases humans as much as it keeps the search engines happy.

Exchanging links with authority sites or sites with high page ranks will also increase your traffic even more significantly, as it will boost your rankings in search engine listings.

This is known as SEO or Search Engine Optimisation.

2. Article Marketing

There are many electronic magazines (called ezines) and online newsletters around on the internet which provide free space for you to submit articles.

If you want to keep your costs low, you can write the articles yourself. But you can save time, by using the many freelance writers who are willing to create articles on your best converting keywords or keyword phrases. The fees are much smaller than you might think.

Write articles that complement your website, product, business or other offer. Write on topics that you have expertise on so you develop your knowledge researching around the subject and can come across as an authority.

Write articles that produce tips and guidance on the subject or your niche. Looking at existing content on your chosen niche will help you find gaps so less competition and your article will rank more highly for those keywords.

At the end of the article submission process, you can insert a “resource box”. It’s here that can say something about yourself or your business and provide your visitors with a link to your site if they want to find out more.

If they do go there, they are already impressed and predisposed to your offer, wouldn’t you say?

Once you have your article accepted in your primary article directory, you can also send variations to other article directories.

There is a lot of free article submission software available to automate the process and if you are doing a lot of article marketing, a great paid service I personally use is SubmitYourArticles.

3. Video marketing

Video marketing can send literally thousands Of visitors to your primary business. It really is the social medium of the moment. Just look at the popularity of YouTube! 5-10 minutes is all you need to get your point across.

You can either use a camcorder to video your own talking head or create a footage around your product or offer and add the audio later.

If you’re not yet confident on camera, you can also create a series of photos and powerpoint slides and record an audio commentary around that.

Don’t forget to add your website URL as a running title along the top.

Once you have a few videos made, you then need to drive traffic to them. The best way is to submit them to video sites. The most popular are youtube.com, metacafe.com and dailymotion.com.

To really maximise exposure and get the most traffic back to you website, you can use video submission tools. There’s a free video submission service, TubeMogul. An even better tool is a paid service I use is Traffic Geyser.

Once you’re registered on the main video sites, this submitter tool will automatically submit your video to a whole host of video sites for you, resulting in tonnes of free traffic to your website.

4. Forum marketing

This is completely free – it only requires an input of your time. Do some initial sculking around to identify the kinds of problems people have in this niche.

Once you feel you understand the community, you can start to feedback a comment, start a post, here and there, using your knowledge and expertise.

You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche with your site.

With every post, you can add a link to your site. But remember first to give value, not just blatantly advertise your site.

As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site that could be frequented and trusted by many people.

5. Twitter marketing

Twitter and blogging go hand in hand. They help you build your authority and social networks within your niche.

Twitter has totally transformed the way that people communicate online and since it’s free, it really should be an indispensable part of your overall marketing strategy and link to your blog.

Twitter is free to join and you can get set up with an account in a matter of just a few minutes.

Twitter has proven itself to be incredibly addictive and, for business owners, very valuable too.

Technology such as Twitter has the potential to give us more than just an opportunity to tell others what happened in our day. We can use it to reach more people in a meaningful way.

Imagine if you had cost-efficient and fast marketing tools that met existing customers where they are and that also helped you acquire new customers.

Imagine if you had the power to build a network of like-minded peers, a community of shared ideas and creativity.

6. Blog marketing

You blog should therefore be one of the main hubs for your business. It’s all about YOU Inc.

As your name gets passed around, you can widen your public awareness and build an opt-in list and RSS subscribe feed for people who regularly visit your site.

People buy from people they know, like and trust. A blog is like dating – you wouldn’t propose on the first date so why shove your sales pitch down a new visitors throat.

You can point your articles, videos, forum posts and social media activities all through your blog.

This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to use to build a blog but on the contrary, this is not so. There are many many sources of ideas and inspiration for your blog, which come from your day to day activities and your own personal development.

7. Facebook marketing

Social networking has always been a main part of many internet marketers strategy. But most don’t use it effectively at all. They flood the likes of Facebook and Myspace with offers and promotions. This won’t work.

If you want to use social tools like Facebook to generate traffic to your website, you first have to identify the right groups and then invest something of yourself.

You need to be prepared to make a personal connection with other folks in the community. This kind of media thrives on authentic networking.

Posting up useful content on social networks will get you some awesome rankings on Google. The search engines seem to put a premium on sites like Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Squidoo and Hubpages.

In all these free or low cost traffic generation methods, it’s all about giving value to your niche community.

Leads generated in this way will be far more valuable as leads back to you – interested, highly targeted, committed and profitable.

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Seven Inexpensive Ways to Generate Traffic to Make Money Online

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The Emarketing List

Your first task is to obtain contact details. There are many ways of doing this, but a fairly easy way is to use a so called squeeze page asking for their information. You can sugar coat this by offering a free gift or a discount on their first order or something else. Tell them that you will be sending newsletters and always make it easy for them to unsubscribe this service if they so wish. Always make them feel that there is no obligation. Potential and existing customers are more likely to remain with you and buy from you.

Interesting and Factual

Always make information interesting but keep it factual. Do not ramble on and on about things not relevant to your business. Choose topics carefully and attract attention quickly, so do consider your target audience thoughtfully. Keep the reader hooked so that they will visit your website. Perhaps give a couple of useful tips or insights. Do not give the hard sell, people don’t like this and they won’t read your news so give them useful information about your products or services. Try to demonstrate how your products or services can enrich their lives. Depending on what you have to offer, tell your audience how your products or services work and how much you can do to help them. However, do make sure that you can follow up on any promises made as nothing is more disappointing or frustrating than being let down.

Cheaper to Keep an Existing Customer then Get a New One

Fact is, that it is easier to keep an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one, so look after your existing customers and keep them coming back for more. Using email to give special discounts to past customers can give your business a boost. If a customer purchases goods from a company and never hears from that company again, chances are the buyer will forget the name of the company. By keeping in regular contact with your customers means that they are more likely to consider you when looking for the products or services that you offer. This of course is good for business and if you give excellent service, customers are more likely to recommend you to their friends and families.

Choosing How Often to Send Newsletters and Emails

You can choose how often you send out newsletters but be aware of sending too many or too few, you need to get the timing just right. That way your customers will look forward to receiving their newsletters or emails. In the end, it is all about keeping your customers happy.

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Promoting Your Business Using Email and Newsletters

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I was recently going through a discovery process with a Fortune 500 executive who was guiding his company’s Web site redesign, and I inquired directly about the search aspects of the project. His response: “Search is not relevant to this process.” Contrary to what he was saying, search was in fact critical to the overall process; he was just clearly unaware of his company’s campaign history and investment in the search channel. In light of this response, seemingly old and worn advice is worth another spin or two around the block, especially if it will help convey the natural search value of a legacy Web presence.

In enterprise marketing, it is not a question of whether your company’s site is going to be redesigned or not, it is simply a question of when. Most companies do some kind of major redesign or tweak every two years, and if they haven’t just relaunched, they are planning for the next one. So the “when” is most often “now,” no matter where you are in the process. The important thing to remember here is that search should be a key consideration at every stage of the process, whether it is selecting a provider, setting requirements, producing comps, coding or site deployment.

So how do you fit natural search into the process? Here are a few ideas to start:

Use site language and messaging that is consistent with the user’s perception of your product or service.
For the most part, search engines are still very literal, and truly effective semantic intelligence still lies far ahead. Position content and language that reflects the way users search, in order to rank for those terms. The path to understanding this language is through linguistic and keyword research, and also by studying and knowing your target. Language and keywords impact and guide information architecture and content strategies, among other aspects.

Read your log files (and/or review analytics reports).
If you want to know what you stand to lose in a site redesign, take a look at what you are currently gaining in terms of traffic, visibility, revenue, and conversions. Are there any particular Holy Grail terms like “travel,” “shopping,” or “banking” that may be giving you a lot of traffic? See a section of a site that is referring a ton of long-tail terms? You will likely find some areas that are worth preserving.

Ensure that RIAs are both crawlable and indexable by search engines.
Rich Internet technologies that are implemented without search engines in mind can instantly render a once-thriving natural search program into total obscurity. Flash and Ajax are key tools in the design and development toolbox, but considerations must be made for search upfront.

Avoid the creation of URL canonicalization issues.
When you change phone numbers, the phone company will leave a recorded message telling the new number to the person who called your old number. This is the effect a 301 permanent redirect has on a search engine — it applies the old URL and backlinks to the new URL; the search engine is happy, and your site is happy. A canonicalization problem occurs when 302 redirects are pointed to permanently moved pages. I have seen instances where clients have gone through four or five redesigns using 302s, and a string of six-to-eight redirects points to a single page, each with its own set of inbound links. This basically makes it difficult for engines to determine the “real URL” to show in results and apply backlinks to. How do you fix it? See the next point.

Set up a redirection plan.
In just about every redesign project, at least some content is removed, and URLs go away. Help the engines and your users by using a 301 redirect to point them to the most similar page on your site, or the site map, home page, or custom 404 page. Spend the time to map out which URLs are going away, and where they should be pointed. And don’t sit on the plan —do it on the day or evening that a site is pushed out of production.

Don’t remove content that supports coveted rankings without assessing risks first.
One mistake I see frequently is when content is removed from a site, with no replacement content to support the valuable rankings and visibility it has previously created. Before axing existing site content, determine how difficult it would be to re-attain the ranking, the ranking’s importance in terms of traffic and revenue, or if it is your CEO’s favorite pet ranking. Then create a plan for bridging new content, or leaving it alone.

Include search as both a business and technical requirement before planning has even started.
If search is not a consideration and priority early on, then it will be 10 times harder and more expensive to try to re-engineer at the end of or after the project.

Ensure that there is a voice for search within the Web site team structure.
Having a search specialist as part of the Web design team (and implementing their recommendations) will do a lot to ensure a healthy transition in the redesign and relaunch process, in addition to the potential for growth. The list above is useless without some subjective strategy behind it. Get experienced search optimization help that is fit to your company’s unique situation, needs and goals, and make it an integral part of the redesign process.

These are just a few considerations to get you started. Feel free to add your own thoughts and considerations for redesign at the Search Insider blog.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Designing Web Sites For Search Visibility

Your Twitter profile needs to be human

It’s no good to use Twitter for business marketing to consumers if you are hiding behind the “corporate veil.” In other words, your Twitter username can be in your business name, but even if you are representing a large corporation, your actual name should also be on the profile along with your photo. People relate to people, not business logos.

A real person tweeting for a company is able to establish relationships with consumers that an anonymous corporate/company Twitter user cannot. Add bits and pieces of your personal interests to help create relationships.

You need to provide information before you provide sales pitches

If, for example, you are a footwear company using Twitter to attract new customers, it’s not enough to constantly tweet about new shoe styles your company is offering. You need to also provide useful information.

You might tweet links to research reports on the effects of going barefoot most of the time. Or you might tweet a link to a blog discussing cultural differences in what is acceptable footwear for “business” dress.

If you want people to trust your company enough to buy its footwear, you need to demonstrate you are trustworthy by helping consumers to know more about your field of footwear. You want to be known as a source of good information besides good footwear.

You can offer special deals to your Twitter followers

Although the majority of your tweets should NOT be sales pitches, it’s certainly acceptable to offer special deals for your Twitter followers as part of your Twitter marketing campaign. You can do this by providing a promotional code to be used on your site. And Twitter’s 140 characters makes Twitter ideal for getting your offer across in brief messages.

Also consider doing a fundraising campaign on Twitter – your company name is thus linked with a good cause. For example, anyone using the promo code will have 10% of his/her purchase go to a specific nonprofit organization.

Encourage questions from your Twitter followers

Use Twitter for business marketing by getting immediate feedback on issues of importance to your company. For example, if you introduce a new style in limited quantities, solicit opinions. Yes, some of the opinions may be negative. But it is better to know these opinions now while your footwear is in limited production than to find out this information after you’ve produced millions of pairs of this new style.

And make sure you monitor all mentions of your company on Twitter. You want to jump on positive comments – and thank people for those comments – as well as jump on negative comments. It’s much easier to put out a small fire than a large blaze.

In conclusion, how you use Twitter for business marketing to consumers is limited only by your imagination. If you share information first and then gently pitch your products, you should be able to reap the benefit of new customers who are loyal to your products thanks to having a strong connection with a real person from the company.

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How to Use Twitter for Business Marketing

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Getting a top rank in Google may be your dream but you need to understand the keyword density for each of your article. The calculation for keyword density is critical. As a rule of thumb the keywords used should not be more than 5 % of your article. This to me makes perfect sense. Imagine reading an article with so many of the same words being repeated. It turns the readers off and is not good for your marketing. A naturally written article attracts more readers who would likely read to the end of the article before they decide to buy whatever it is that you are selling.

There are many tools that you can use to assist you in getting a top Google rank. Without a doubt, the most essential of all is Google Keyword Tool, a free web-based tool to help you find the right keywords and the number of searches made for that keyword in a 12 month period so that you can use the information to optimize your articles for a top rank in Google. There are also several paid keyword software tools that you can purchase but I find the free Google Keyword Tool is a great tool to start with before you progress to other multiple use software tools.

Original and informative content is what Google and the other search engines value highly. Why would they want to publish something that has already been written by someone before. The search engines are providing a service to the mass public on finding information and the more original and informative your information is with the right amount of targeted keywords, the higher is your chances of getting a top rank in Google.

Besides articles and information, your website has got to look like a normal website and not a sales page with just good copywriting. A normal website has the “about me” page, your contact details, privacy statement, categories, and pages. The more pages you have with the right keyword density, the more the search engines will love your website because they love content. The search spiders eat your content and will push you up the Google ranking if they love eating what you have to offer.

Once the spiders have crawled and you are listed by the search engines, you will need to optimize your site even further. Usually, you won’t rank on Google’s first page on the first crawl. Fine tune your articles with keyword density and build backlinks to your website. Backlinks that point back to your website are extremely valuable because it shows that your website is popular. You can build backlinks by marketing articles with your hyperlink in the resource box, joining forum sites and doing some social bookmarking on popular platforms such as Facebook, Digg and Twitter.

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How To Get A Top Google Ranking

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1. Have a purpose. Of course you need great content to bring traffic to your blog or website but there is something you must do first.

It’s essential to have a goal before you start writing anything at all. You need to know what you want to get out of what you produce, whether that’s to drive more visitors to your site or to educate and inform your market.

2. Focus on getting it right first time. Of course this doesn’t happen without practice, but take an example from a daily newspaper journalist. Their deadlines mean they don’t get time to write, edit, re-write and touch up their copy, so they have got to get it as right as they can first time round.

This is particularly important for any copy to your blog posts; they should be 95% right the first time you write them.

Entrepreneurs fail most often because they don’t realise how important speed and execution are. Being a perfectionist is not a good idea in business, good enough will outperform perfection every single time so do not waste time ‘perfecting’ your copy, just get on with it.

A bonus to this technique is that if you really focus on getting things right first time then you you don’t have to go back and fix them later.

3. Force challenging but realistic targets on yourself. It’s quality not quantity that counts here, so your goal should be to create and share that every single day.

4. Give sound bites, not manifestos. A really great example of this is Twitter – you have to put your point across in140 characters, or less,. That forces you to be succinct and to the point.

Most inboxes are overcrowded and your message is easily lost so make your emails short and punchy.

Save the big ideas for the right medium and time when your customers have the time to sit down and take it in.

5. Have a point of view. People buy from people they trust, and they won’t trust you unless they feel they know you.

I know I say you have to have speed and execution, but it also has to have something of your own personality in there. People are interested in your thoughts and opinions on the topic, so don’t make it neutral and bland but state your views clearly as someone who has a genuine interest in the topic.

6. The Insiders Scoop. This follows on from the previous point, because in order to become an authority to your prospects and customers you want to make a real connection with them. People love to have the insider view, and you can give that to them, so tell them as much of your life and experience as you can.

BUT, it must have a point to it that is relevant to your market or product.

7. Always summarise! Back to school here. You remember with essays you were always told to ‘tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them it and then tell them what you’ve told them.’

That is so true for content creation as well because you will make the greatest impression on your reader by repeating key points and making your message unmistakeable, and unforgettable.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

7 Quick Content Tips To Drive Traffic To Your Site

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1. Shorter Videos Rank Better

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

2. Titles Capture Interest

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

3. Tag The Video

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

4. Encourage Commenting

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

5. User Name

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

6. Embed YouTube Video

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

7. Video Anchor Text

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

8. Add iTunes Tags

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

9. Video SiteMap

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

10. Transcripts

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

11. Allow Video Syndication

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

12. Ratings

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

13. Compress File

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

14. Include Watermarking

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

The growth of video on the web has exploded in recent years. Competitors will leave you in the dust if you fail to adapt and provide the medium your customers are exploring. Keep in mind that simply having a video is not enough! To make the most of your video content, you should take steps to optimize the video and increase your exposure.

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Video Optimization – Part 2

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

1. Use Keywords

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

2. Create Video Feed

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

3. Increase Exposure

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

4. Video Name And Description

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

5. Google Video Sitemap

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

6. Meta Data

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

7. Optimize Landing Page

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

8. Transcripts

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

9. Embed URL In Video

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

10. Leave Them Wanting More

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

11. Submit YouTube Feed

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

12. Anchor Text

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

13.Video Submission

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

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

14. Tag Video

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

15. Track Views

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

16. Social Bookmarking

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

Videos are the latest marketing channel. In order to make the most of it, optimize the video and increase the exposure it receives.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Optimize Video Podcasts

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But in the end, being only human, you do the best you can, and let the readers judge for themselves. Anyway, I present to you my listing of “The 10 Biggest SEO Myths Exposed.”

1. Search Engine Optimization will put you on the first page of Google.

This is without question the biggest SEO myth floating around the Internet today. Here’s the truth: SEO is a tool – nothing more. And any tool is only as good as the person using it. That’s why some people have success with SEO, and others don’t.

Can SEO help get your website on Google’s first page? If the person doing the optimizing is competent, sure, it can help. But it’s far from guaranteed.

Here’s why: There are far too many variables that are involved in the ranking of a website – not the least of which are the age of the domain, relevancy and quantity of quantity of content, number and quality of inbound links, competition, and of course Google’s ever-changing algorithms.

2. Getting on the first page of Google will guarantee your success.

This is false. Let me tell you something: Getting on the first page of Google guarantees absolutely nothing!

Every single day, thousands of websites fail and go out of business. Some of those websites were on the first page of Google’s search results. So being on the first page of Google guarantees nothing.

Don’t get me wrong. While being on the first page of Google’s search results can definitely be an advantage, there are far too many variables involved that determine whether or not a website will be successful – not the least of which is the competency of the people behind the website.

They’re the one’s who really determine a website’s success or failure, not Google.

3. If you get a lot of traffic, you’ll make a lot of sales.

Another popular myth – but just that – a myth. It’s not how much traffic you get to your website that matters. It’s the quality of traffic and what you do with it that matters.

There are websites that get thousands of visitors every single day, that are not making a profit. Why? Because either their traffic is garbage, and/or they don’t know to convert their traffic into profits.

Conversely, there are websites that get only get two or three hundred visitors a day that are doing quite well. How are these websites able to do so much with so little?

Three reasons: 1. Their traffic is quality, targeted traffic. 2. They’ve figured out how to maximize the amount of traffic they get. 3. They’re working with a healthy profit margin.

If you’re not getting a lot of traffic, you’d better be making a lot of profit for each sale. Remember, traffic is wasted if you don’t have the ability to convert it into profits.

4. When your website tumbles in the search rankings, it’s because Google is penalizing you.

While this may be true in some instances, it’s not true in all instances. Here’s the truth: Google is only interested in one thing… Delivering the best and most relevant search results that it possibly can. Its continued world dominance depends on it.

And all things being equal, if your website delivers more relevant results than other websites in its category, then your website will rank ahead of those other websites. Now are there exceptions? Absolutely. Does Google get it wrong sometimes? Sure they do. No system is perfect.

But despite any conspiracy theories you may have heard about how your website is ranked, there’s really nothing conspiratorial about it.

5. All websites on the first page of Google are successful.

That’s the prevailing theory of course, but it’s far from true. The fact of the matter is some categories are more popular and profitable than others. Some categories simply don’t generate as much traffic as you might think.

That’s reflected in the price of pay-per-click advertising. Advertisers pay sky-high prices for some keywords, and mere pennies for others.

In addition, many businesses operate on extremely slim profit margins. That means they have to make an extraordinary number of sales to be successful. And if they aren’t getting the traffic, it’s difficult to generate the amount of income that they need to be successful.

6. Registering your domains for multiple years will help your search engine ranking.

It wouldn’t surprise me at all, if it was discovered that a domain registrar started this particular myth. But that’s all it is – a myth. While I was doing research for this article, I couldn’t find any evidence that registering a domain for multiple years has any impact on rankings at all – none.

That being said, registering your domain for multiple years certainly can’t hurt either.

7. Inactive or parked domains that are several years old have an advantage over newer domains.

This is false. A domain that’s 10 years old, which is inactive or parked does not have a significant advantage over a brand new domain that is active.

Why? Because inactive domains, regardless of age, don’t accrue links or trust. And inbound links and trustworthiness are significant determining factors when it comes to rankings.

8. Any link is a good link.

Nothing could be further from the truth. And if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: ALL LINKS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL.

If you’re under the mistaken impression that exchanging links with any and everybody is helping you – think again. While exchanging links may seem like a good idea, it always isn’t.

For example, if you own a hosting website, how does it possibly benefit you to exchange links with a butcher, baker or candlestick maker? Answer: It doesn’t.

The link has to be relevant to your website’s overall theme, otherwise, it will do you no good. Also, reciprocal links and links from article directories just aren’t as valuable anymore, as links from quality, relevant websites.

Because of rampant misuse, reciprocal links and links from article directories have been degraded over the years. And Google just doesn’t place as much value on those types of links as it once did.

Google places much more value on links from quality, relevant websites. So those are the types of links that you should spend your time trying to obtain.

9. If you build it, they will come.

Just because you build a great looking website doesn’t mean that people are going to be so impressed, they’re going to virally push your website to the top of the search engines. It doesn’t work that way. You have to get the word out.

Building your website is only the first step. You have to advertise your website to the world. In addition, you have to make sure that your website is properly optimized for the search engines. You also need to make sure that your website has plenty of fresh, quality, relevant content to keep visitors coming back again and again.

If you build it, they will come – but only if they know about you.

10. Submitting your website to the search engines will help you get indexed faster.

This is one myth that simply will not die. It has been written about in article after article after article that submitting to the search engines WILL NOT help your website get indexed faster.

What WILL help your website get indexed faster is getting linked to by a website that has already been indexed by the search engines – preferably a website that’s popular. For example, forums, blogs, article directories, etc.

Why is the popularity of the website so important? Because popular websites get spidered much more frequently – giving your website the opportunity to get indexed much more quickly.

About the author:

David Jackson is the owner of http://reviews-by-customers.com – directory of reliable online services! If you would like The Secret to Non-Stop, FREE Targeted Traffic, read this: http://tinyurl.com/yfj6rxk

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

The 10 Biggest SEO Myths Exposed

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Let’s face it, Twitter is a lot of fun! And it has spawned an entire industry of amazing Twitter tools that are not only fun – but can also help you maximize the power of Twitter, as well as enhance your business interests.

Following are 32 Fun and Useful Twitter Tools. Enjoy!

1. BackType Plugins
backtype.com/plugins

Backtype.com is a real-time conversational search engine that helps users find, follow and share comments from blogs, social networks and other social media. Very, very cool.

2. CureCRM
curecrm.com/net

CureCRM is a Twitter CRM (Customer Realationship Management) tool. It works on your desktop and gives you the ability to automatically record email conversations into salesforce cases, contacts, opportunities, and leads entries. It also schedules meetings, manages your calendar, and reminds colleagues to attend meetings.

3. Friend or Follow
friendorfollow.com

This is my favorite Twitter tool. It tells you who you’re following who’s not following you back. This tool allows you to stay on top of your unfollows, as well as “trim your Twitter fat”, so to speak.

4. Featured Users
featuredUsers.com

Featured Users is a Twitter application ad network. It appears to be affiliated with the aforementioned Friend or Follow.  Here’s how it works: When you purchase impressions, your Twitter profile is displayed on the Twitter applications in the Featured Users network. The more impressions you purchase, the more often your profile is displayed.

It actually looks pretty cool. I haven’t tried this one yet, but I’m seriously thinking about it. They also have a user referral program that will allow you to make money when you refer customers to their program.

6. GoTwitr
gotwitr.com

GoTwitr is a Twitter referral service. However, what makes GoTwitr different from other Twitter referal services is the fact GoTwitr gives you the ability to preview in detail everyone you follow or unfollow.

That way, your community will be made up of people who actually share your interests.

7. HootSuite
hootsuite.com

HootSuite is yet another free professional Twitter client. Here are some of the functions that HootSuite performs: Manages multiple Twtitter accounts, tracks how many people click the links you tweet out, pre-schedules your messages, submits your blog feed to Twitter and more.

8. OpenBreak (Formerly TwitterBerry)
orangatame.com/products/openbeak

Billed as “The evolution of TwitterBerry,” OpenBeak is mobile client for posting updates to Twitter. It works over the data network, so you don’t need to use SMS. OpenBeak is the evolution of TwitterBerry, and the new name allows the app to grow beyond both the Twitter platform and BlackBerry smartphones.

9. PeopleBrowsr
peoplebrowsr.com

PeopleBrowsr is a real time data mine and social search engine. It allows you to monitor your brand, manage feedback, share accounts, run campaigns, track keywords, build widgets and engage across multiple social networks simultaneously.

10.Ping.fm
ping.fm

Ping.fm is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to post to multiple social networks simultaneously. This is a really great tool!

11. Qwitter
useqwitter.com

Qwitter is a Twitter tool that notifies you when you get un-followed. Qwitter checks your followers and notifies you as often as it can, depending on how many people are using it and how many followers they have.

Now here’s what’s really cool about Qwitter. Not only will it alert you as to who is no longer following you, but it will also show you the tweet you posted that (may or may not) have caused the person to unsubscribe. Very useful.

12. Seesmic Desktop
seesmic.com

Seesmic Desktop is a Twitter client and desktop app which allows you to view multiple accounts in one window. Not only will you be able to view multiple accounts, you will be able to view the window in columns (similar to Tweetdeck).

13. SocialOomph (Formally known as TweetLater)
socialoomph.com

SocialOomph is a free Twitter tool that lets you set your tweets to be sent at specific time intervals, track keywords, automatically send welcome direct messages (DM’s)to new followers, purge your direct messages and more.

14. Trendistic
trendistic.com/_help

Ever heard of Google Trends? Well, Trendistic is similar to that. Trendistic is a tool that allows you to track trends on Twitter, similarly to what Google Trends does for Google searches. It gathers tweets as they are posted, filters redundant ones and compiles the rest into one-hour intervals.

15. TwitterMail
twittermail.com

TwitterMail is a service for users of Twitter that allows them to redirect email to their twitter account.

Here’s how it works: When you give TwitterMail your Twitter credentials they supply you with a unique TwitterMail email address. For instance, abc123example@twittermail.com. If you send an email to that address it will be posted to Twitter.com (By the way, that’s a fake Twittermail address, so don’t use it).

16. Twitbin
twitbin.com

If you’re a Firefox user, this one’s for you. Twitbin is a Firefox extension that allows you to keep up with all of your Twitter conversations right from your browser sidebar. Twitbin allows you to send messages, receive messages, share links, and more. Great Firefox extension!

17. Twibbon
twibbon.com

Supporting a cause? Twibbon allows you to promote your cause through Twitter. Twibbon overlays a small icon onto supporters’ profile images to create a ‘Twibbon’, making an impactful online statement. The user’s Twitter account automatically tweets to let everyone know about their affiliation.

18. TweetMeMe
tweetmeme.com

If you’re an article marketer like I am, you’re going to love this tool.  TweetMeMe is a retweet button for website and blog publishers who want to encourage viral activity of their content on Twitter.

The button shows a live count of the number of times your content has been tweeted. I love this tool!

19. TweetDeck
tweetdeck.com/beta

TweetDeck is your personal social networking dashboard for staying in touch with what’s happening now on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites. In fact, you can do so many things with TweetDeck, you are limited only by your imagination.

20. Twitterfeed
twitterfeed.com

Twitterfeed allows you to publish updates from any RSS feed to your Twitter account. You then have the ability to decide how frequently you want Twitterfeed to check your feed updates and how many updated articles to post to Twitter.

21. Twitpic
twitpic.com

As its name suggests, Twitpic allows you to share photos on Twitter. You can post pictures to TwitPic from your phone, their API, or through the Twitpic site itself.

22. TwitterCounter
twittercounter.com

If you have a lot of Twitter followers and want to show them off, you’ll find this is an interesting tool. TwitterCounter is a statistics tool which allows you to display the number of Twitter followers you have on your blog.

It will also display whether your followers are increasing or decreasing. The service also has a Twitter Remote widget that you can add to your blog sidebar for more interaction with your followers.

23. Twitterholic
twitterholic.com

Want to know who has the most followers on Twitter? Then Twitterholic is the tool for you. But Twitterholic goes one step further, not only does it allow you to see who has the most followers, it also allows you to check your own ranking in the Twitter universe. Great tool!

24. Twellow
twellow.com

Twellow is a directory of public Twitter accounts. It features hundreds of categories and search features to help you find people in specific niches.

Here’s how it works: Twellow grabs publicly available messages from  Twitter. Twellow then analyzes and categorizes each of the users responsible for those messages into the various categories found on its website.

25. Twaitter
twaitter.com

Twaitter is a tool that allows team accounts, scheduled tweets, RSS integration, tweet calendar and more.

26. Twibes
twibes.com

Twibes is an interesting Twitter tool that allows you to find groups of people who share your common interests.

27. TwitterLocal
twitterlocal.net

TwitterLocal is an Adobe AIR based application that allows you to filter Tweets by location. You can generate an RSS or XML feed, which allows you to receive Tweets from a specified area, including city, state, postal code and  mile radius.

28. TweetBrain
tweetbrain.com

TweetBrain is a crowdsourcing service powered by the Twitter community. It enables you to get quality answers to your Twitter questions quickly – sort of like Yahoo Answers for Twitter users. Very cool.

29. Tweetvisor
tweetvisor.com

Tweetvisor is a web-based, multi-column Twitter interface that enables users to better manage multiple Twitter accounts. Tweetvisor returns real-time updates about favorite topics, news and tweets – plus, much, much more. Nice!

30. TwitterFox
twitterfox.net

TwitterFox is Firefox web browser plugin that TwitterFox is a Firefox extension that notifies you of your friends’ tweets on Twitter. This extension adds a tiny icon on the status bar which notifies you when your friends update their tweets.

It also has a small text input field to update your tweets. In addition, TwitterFox allows you to view Tweets within your own web browser, in a popup menu. This is extremely convenient and eliminates the need to constantly go to the Twitter website.

31. Wickett Twitter Widget
wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wickett-twitter-widget

This is a popular WordPress plugin that display tweets from a Twitter account in the sidebar of your blog. It is without question the easiest way to add Tweets to Wordpress.

32. Yahoo Sideline
yahoo.sideline.com

Sideline is an Adobe AIR desktop application that allows users to create and group custom queries by topics of interest.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

32 Spectacularly Useful Twitter Tools

Site Performance,  an experimental feature added to the Webmaster Tools console courtesy of Google Labs, provides detailed information about your site’s load time and gives suggestions for speeding it up. It includes a chart of your site performance data over time, which can help determine latency triggers.

As explained in Google’s official blog post about it,  the Site Performance console includes examples of specific pages and their actual page load times, plus Page Speed suggestions that can help reduce latency.

I was pretty shocked when I logged into Webmaster Tools today to find my blog pages take an average of 6 seconds to load. Google states that this is slower than 83% of sites! The Example Pages and Page Speed Suggestions revealed the culprit was a banner ad that was not optimized and a couple of extra DNA fetches on some pages so I was able to fix the issues pretty quickly.

The load time data is apparently sourced from aggregated information by users of the Google Toolbar but it’s important to remember that it’s all averaged. A specific user may experience your site faster or slower than the average depending on their location and network conditions.

As a Labs tool, Site Performance is still under development and Google are seeking feedback on it via the Webmaster Tools Forum.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Google Now Helps You Improve Your Site Performance

When I initially started writing this article I was going to cram a slew of various tools and resources into one article, but the article was going to end up running WAY too long to hold your attention (or mine) so I’ve cut it into three EZ parts (as opposed to three EZ payments which you’ll be familiar with if you too watch late night TV with a laptop in front of you writing things like SEO articles). But let’s get to the meat of this article shall we? The series will be divided into three parts:

• Firefox
• Free & Affordable Tools
• Resources

So let’s begin with Firefox. Let me first say, I don’t know if Firefox is officially the browser of SEO’s, but if not – it should be. You can download it at Mozilla.com.

And now the extensions that make this browser invaluable to SEO’s …

SEO Quake

If I had to lose all but one of my SEO tools – this would be the one I’d keep which is why it gets listed first. This little tool allows me to quickly look at the top 10 results in the SERPs and within seconds see all the PageRank, indexed page numbers, backlinks to that page, domain backlinks, the age of the site and much, much more.

This tool doesn’t provide any revolutionary information in that it’s all data that can be accessed directly. However, it reduces the time taken for tasks that would take minutes to seconds. It then provides easy links to more detailed information. A fantastic tool.

Oh, and it also adds a line through all nofollowed links. Very handy when link building.

SEO for Firefox

Aaron Wall over at SEO Book has added a great tool to the mix that duplicates a lot of functions of SEO Quake but which has enough additional features to be very useful. Basically – neither is a replacement for the other.Like most tools – it provides information that can be accessed in other ways, BUT with this Tool Aaron allows users to find tons of relevant site and keyword information quickly and painlessly. From keyword traffic to keyword trends, from backlink counts to social media mentions – this tools gives
quick access to tons of information.

Admittedly, I prefer the layout of SEO Quake and some of the easier functionality.

SEO Link Analysis

A HUGE thumbs way up (two of them in fact) to Joost de Valk who made all our lives simpler when this tool launched. What this tool does is display the PageRank and anchor text of every link when you perform a backlink check on one of the major engines. I suppose you could visit every single site and get this information yourself and there’s value in that to be sure, but when you need a quick analysis of a site’s backlinks – this tool is invaluable.

As a sidenote – it works VERY well with SEO Quake.

Web Developer

With this tool we’re getting a bit more advanced. For those of you who understand coding or are learning (and you should be), this tool is incredible. It allows for quick testing and viewing of a site’s structure including, image info, table and cell information, W3C compliance, CSS details and MUCH, MUCH more.

I can’t possibly list off all the functions this tool offers and admittedly I don’t use them all but I use enough of them regularly for this tool to make my top 10 list.

IE Tab

This is an odd tool to add and it’s purely a convenience tool but like adding a second monitor to your system – once you have it and realize that it saves you just a few seconds dozens of times per day you quickly realize that your productivity relies on it.

With a simple click of a button, this tool loads Internet Explorer into your Firefox tab so you don’t have to go back-and-forth between browsers when testing. I could survive without it, but since you have Firefox anyways…

Search Status

This is another tool with many uses. On the surface it simply displays PageRank, Alexa and Compete rank and mozRank data but with a right-click of the icon you get access to a whole slew of additional information, including fast links to whois, the robots and sitemap files, keyword density information, Archive.org info, and it will even highlight nofollow links.

A lot of these features overlap other tools noted above, but I will say – I have it installed and so should you.

These are the main extensions I have installed for Firefox (read: the ones I use virtually every day). This isn’t to say that’s all there are, and I can’t stress enough the benefits of
visiting addons.mozilla.org and looking for more useful extensions specific to your needs (RSS, Twitter, coding, etc.) I have about a dozen more installed than are listed here, but those above are the main Firefox SEO tools I use daily.

In the next article, we’ll be taking a look at free and affordable tools that you can use to help improve your website rankings. Be sure to keep your eyes open as there will be many invaluable tools listed there too.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

The SEO’s Toolkit Part One of Three: Firefox

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@gwalter that's a good one, Gary There are many more up here in Canada http://twitterholic.com/top100/followers/bylocation/Canada/ in reply to gwalter #

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Top 10 Twitter Tips for Beginners

1. Choosing a Username: A lot of Twitter users choose nicknames that are unrelated to the information they are offering. If you are using Twitter for personal use this is okay, however, if you are going to use Twitter to offer high quality information related to your area of expertise, you should choose a username that reflects your area of specialization. When people see your username they will know exactly what you are about.
2. Retweets: Retweet are also known as RTs and are used to resend a message sent by someone else. If you think the content of the message is relevant and useful, you always have the option of forwarding that person’s message. If you wish to send a retweet, all you have to do is type “RT @name” in front of their message and then proceed to post it. Whenever you post the tweet, always remember to acknowledge the person who originally created the message.
3. Communicating with the @ Sign: In order to reply to people who have posted tweets, the @ sign is used. If you wish to post a reply, simply place an @ sign in front of their username and then type in your message.
4. Locating Your Friends and Searching for Topics of Interest: You can use the Search function to find your friends and topics you may be interested in.twitter.com. It functions much like a search engine with the only difference being that you are using Twitter to find people and information that would interest you.
5. Receiving Mobile Tweets: If you have a cell phone you can receive tweets from Twitter on your mobile device by simply entering your cell phone number under the Devices tab in your Twitter account settings online.
6. Mobile Twitter Clients: Twitter provides mobile clients which enhance your experience with using Twitter. The clients include Twitterific and Twitterberry and work with a cell phone that contains Wi-Fi.
7. Categories: On Twitter, you can easily categorize your tweets so that other users can easily find them. If you are posting a tweet about a topic that is currently popular, all you have to do is place # sign in front of the topic of your tweet.
8. URL Addresses: URL addresses are website addresses that you can provide in your tweets if there is a page you want others to view. More often than not, website URLs are long and exceed the 140 character limit. Because of this, Twitter users prefer to shorten URLs with URL shortening services.
9. Direct Messaging: Any tweet you post on Twitter, the message can be seen by everyone, however, you can use the direct messaging service to send private messages.
10. TweetDeck: If you become a frequent Twitter user, it would be wise to install a desktop client like Tweetdeck on your PC or Mac. A desktop client application will help you to easily manage all of your communications on Twitter

There are a lot of other ways that Twitter can be used but these are the top 10 Twitter Tips that will help you understand the basics and get started using Twitter.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Top 10 Twitter Tips

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.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

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.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

%%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.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

%%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.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

%%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!

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

10 Most Effective Questions for Take-Action Testimonials

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