(c) 2008 By Sean Proskemailto
sean.proske@thewebhostcompany.com
Getting your site listed on the first page of Google'ssearch results is a bit like getting a loan from a bank.You aren't likely to be approved for a loan if you have noincome and no credit history. It's too risky for the bankto extend credit to those who aren't worthy of it.Google trades in a different currency... traffic, and justlike the banks assess risk before lending money, Google willassess risk before "lending" traffic.Google may not care if you've ever paid a bill late, butmake no mistake about it... they have their own version ofa credit check and you need to pass it in order to be foundin their search results.The Google credit check is of course the process ofdetermining "Page Rank".Nobody outside of Google, and probably very few people onthe inside actually know how page rank is calculated. Thereare a number of factors, but exactly what they are and howthey're weighted is about as closely guarded as the recipefor coca-cola.We may not ever know the formula in its entirety, but wedon't need to. The most important ingredients are always
obvious. Sugar and water for coca-cola... Relevance andLink Popularity for Google Page Rank.Relevance is something Google is very good at figuring out.If you sell widgets on your site, as long as Google hascrawled it... they know your site is about widgets andyou're already in the result set for the search term"widgets".The problem is that no matter what you do in terms ofoptimizing the content and structure of your website, it isgoing to start out on the last page of the result setinstead of page 1, and that's where it will stay until youestablish your credit history (link popularity).Google's own assessment of relevance isn't sufficient foranything other than inclusion in a result set. To move youup in the result set, Google has to be sure your site willactually be perceived as relevant and important by humanbeings.That's where the link popularity comes in. If webmasters ofother sites that Google thinks are in some way relevant towidgets see fit to send traffic to your widget site, thenthat confirms to Google that human beings will perceiverelevance.Inbound links form your credit report, which is anindication of human perception of relevance. That's whatmakes Google comfortable with sending their traffic to you.If you want traffic, and the top spot on Google, then youneed to get other webmasters to link to you from relevantsites... period.Fortunately, that is a very easy thing to accomplish. Itsimply involves offering something of value in exchange foreach link you receive. There are literally dozens of waysto do this for free... and on a massive scale.To learn these techniques, refer to the other articles inthis series, which are available by free subscription to theauthor's newsletter.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sean Proske is the CEO of thewebhostcompany.com. Forwebsite marketing tips subscribe to the author's freenewsletter at: http://www.thewebhostcompany.com/
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Succeeding Online - A Simple Internet Business Model
With the myriad forms of information on startinga business on the internet, there's simply too much in the way of software, marketing tips andgadgets and gizmos for your website to know whereto begin. In addition, you've got to manage your-self - your time, your emotions and your energy. Here's some ideas for starting an internet business.
Coming up with a profitable business idea.
Findingyour niche is a first hurdle for many. The balance must be struck between something you have a great knowledge about and something that a huge target market is very hungry for. You don't have to set aside days, weeks and months for market research by any stretch of the imagination. If you can identify a niche where people are searching and buying - or competitors are paying decent amounts for google advertising say - you may well be on to a winner.
Building a website.
Being able to do basic webmaster tasks is an asset - for example, adding pages, being able to refine menu systems and how to set up your site on the net. Providing high quality content to your visitors is going to make them more likely to want to buy something from you either there and then or on a revisit to your site.
Thirdly, you can start finding ways to make your siteas "sticky" as possible - the marketing side.
Firstup adding a signup form and having an ezine you can keep in touch with prospects is a must. Many internet
marketers stipulate "the money is in the list. Afteryou've built a list, either from natural traffic to your site, or selling a budget item on ebay for example, you can start a forum or message board and start a sort of community which drives your presence through the addition of user-oriented content. Your product must be something people will really really want. A starter product would be an ebook thatyou sell through your site that has excellent info in it. You must differentiate from the crowd and decide to provide the best ebook on the subject there is. This will help create leads for further selling of higher end products, and you will be increasing cashflow of the business and generating loyal customers. Converting a visitor in to an ezine subscriber does not mean you have a passport to send a barrage of sales messages. Better to give them value in a content based ezine and announcement list, with subtle sales emails once a week or so. You can also gain repeat visitors to your website by reminding them that your website is there, or informing them you have a new blog or forum that they can get amazing information from - for free! An internet business can be very prospect driven. Your job is to effectively create satisfied, paying customers out of visitors to your website who are willing to buy more from you. Prospects and prospects who are buyers can be marketed to about the higher end products and services you are providing. You can also leverage these people to help you to get more traffic, by encouraging them to use a tell-a-friend script, to spread the word about your site, or by giving them user-driven content experiences such as an interactive forum, messages board or some other feature to allow participation by your people. Traffic techniques to start out with include using
search engine optimisation on your site, generating backlinks from other sites, directories and blogs, social bookmarking and article submission to articledirectories and ezine publishers.
This article was written by Shenmeng Bei ofhttp://www.successfulinspirations.com Checkout one blog used for marketing right here:http://www.gratitudebook.com/blog And hereis a site example http://www.goingfree.org
With the myriad forms of information on startinga business on the internet, there's simply too much in the way of software, marketing tips andgadgets and gizmos for your website to know whereto begin. In addition, you've got to manage your-self - your time, your emotions and your energy. Here's some ideas for starting an internet business.
Coming up with a profitable business idea.
Findingyour niche is a first hurdle for many. The balance must be struck between something you have a great knowledge about and something that a huge target market is very hungry for. You don't have to set aside days, weeks and months for market research by any stretch of the imagination. If you can identify a niche where people are searching and buying - or competitors are paying decent amounts for google advertising say - you may well be on to a winner.
Building a website.
Being able to do basic webmaster tasks is an asset - for example, adding pages, being able to refine menu systems and how to set up your site on the net. Providing high quality content to your visitors is going to make them more likely to want to buy something from you either there and then or on a revisit to your site.
Thirdly, you can start finding ways to make your siteas "sticky" as possible - the marketing side.
Firstup adding a signup form and having an ezine you can keep in touch with prospects is a must. Many internet
marketers stipulate "the money is in the list. Afteryou've built a list, either from natural traffic to your site, or selling a budget item on ebay for example, you can start a forum or message board and start a sort of community which drives your presence through the addition of user-oriented content. Your product must be something people will really really want. A starter product would be an ebook thatyou sell through your site that has excellent info in it. You must differentiate from the crowd and decide to provide the best ebook on the subject there is. This will help create leads for further selling of higher end products, and you will be increasing cashflow of the business and generating loyal customers. Converting a visitor in to an ezine subscriber does not mean you have a passport to send a barrage of sales messages. Better to give them value in a content based ezine and announcement list, with subtle sales emails once a week or so. You can also gain repeat visitors to your website by reminding them that your website is there, or informing them you have a new blog or forum that they can get amazing information from - for free! An internet business can be very prospect driven. Your job is to effectively create satisfied, paying customers out of visitors to your website who are willing to buy more from you. Prospects and prospects who are buyers can be marketed to about the higher end products and services you are providing. You can also leverage these people to help you to get more traffic, by encouraging them to use a tell-a-friend script, to spread the word about your site, or by giving them user-driven content experiences such as an interactive forum, messages board or some other feature to allow participation by your people. Traffic techniques to start out with include using
search engine optimisation on your site, generating backlinks from other sites, directories and blogs, social bookmarking and article submission to articledirectories and ezine publishers.
This article was written by Shenmeng Bei ofhttp://www.successfulinspirations.com Checkout one blog used for marketing right here:http://www.gratitudebook.com/blog And hereis a site example http://www.goingfree.org
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
4 Steps to your first profitable website
A question I often receive from people that want to startmaking money online is "Where do I begin?" A great way to get your first website up and running quickly is to use a web script. Scripts allow you to make a great looking site in almost no time at all, and as long as you put the effort in, it really isn't that hard to start making some money.
Step 1: The first step is to decide on a script. There are all sorts of PHP scripts available, ranging from joke sites, to ebook stores, to membership sites, and more. Basically- if you can think of it- there is probably a script to do it. Research different scripts, and work out what is right for you. Your decision should be based on what your hobbies are, what your skill level is, whether you want to sell something, make money from advertising, how much time you can devote, and what your budget is.
Step 2: Once you have bought and downloaded your webscript, you should read everything you can about it. Look for readme files, help files, and FAQ (frequently asked questions). This is important, because 5 minutes reading now, may save you hours of trouble while your trying to install later! Once you've read the documentation, install the script onto your web server. This will usually in volvecreating a database, importing data into the database, altering a config file, and then uploading the files to the server. Don't worry... this sounds harder than it actually is! If you run into trouble contact the developer- most will be happy to help, and some may even install the script
for you.
Step 3: Now you have to work on modifying your site a little. This is because there will probably be a lot of other customers with the same script as yours. If you don't modify your site, your content will be the same as many other people... which google doesn't like. This may lead to you having less (or even no) traffic from google. Try and find the template file for the script, and modify it in whatever way you want. You should change titles ,headers, keywords, and if your HTML skills are up for it-even the layout. You should also modify the content wherever you can (A lot of web scripts have an admin panel that allow you to do this), and also add your own fresh content. Change as much as you can- it might take a bit oftime, but you'll be better off in the long run.
Step 4: Now it's time to start getting some traffic to yoursite. There are literally thousands of ways to do this. At the very minimum, submit your website to some search engines, write some articles and submit them to article directories, and submit your site to web directories. You should research other ways of gettingtraffic- this is the lifeblood of every internet business. The most important thing is to track what works. Install an analytics program (I highly recommend google analytics), and see what works and what doesn't. When you find something that works- keep doing it. As long as you stick with it, you should eventually succeed. And you can't beat the feeling you get the very first time you make money while your sleeping! Good luck! For a wide variety of great web scripts (including scripts to make baby name sites, car sites, recipe sites, jokesites, ebook stores, membership sites, and more), checkout Dan Fletcher's website:http://www.buymyscripts.net
A question I often receive from people that want to startmaking money online is "Where do I begin?" A great way to get your first website up and running quickly is to use a web script. Scripts allow you to make a great looking site in almost no time at all, and as long as you put the effort in, it really isn't that hard to start making some money.
Step 1: The first step is to decide on a script. There are all sorts of PHP scripts available, ranging from joke sites, to ebook stores, to membership sites, and more. Basically- if you can think of it- there is probably a script to do it. Research different scripts, and work out what is right for you. Your decision should be based on what your hobbies are, what your skill level is, whether you want to sell something, make money from advertising, how much time you can devote, and what your budget is.
Step 2: Once you have bought and downloaded your webscript, you should read everything you can about it. Look for readme files, help files, and FAQ (frequently asked questions). This is important, because 5 minutes reading now, may save you hours of trouble while your trying to install later! Once you've read the documentation, install the script onto your web server. This will usually in volvecreating a database, importing data into the database, altering a config file, and then uploading the files to the server. Don't worry... this sounds harder than it actually is! If you run into trouble contact the developer- most will be happy to help, and some may even install the script
for you.
Step 3: Now you have to work on modifying your site a little. This is because there will probably be a lot of other customers with the same script as yours. If you don't modify your site, your content will be the same as many other people... which google doesn't like. This may lead to you having less (or even no) traffic from google. Try and find the template file for the script, and modify it in whatever way you want. You should change titles ,headers, keywords, and if your HTML skills are up for it-even the layout. You should also modify the content wherever you can (A lot of web scripts have an admin panel that allow you to do this), and also add your own fresh content. Change as much as you can- it might take a bit oftime, but you'll be better off in the long run.
Step 4: Now it's time to start getting some traffic to yoursite. There are literally thousands of ways to do this. At the very minimum, submit your website to some search engines, write some articles and submit them to article directories, and submit your site to web directories. You should research other ways of gettingtraffic- this is the lifeblood of every internet business. The most important thing is to track what works. Install an analytics program (I highly recommend google analytics), and see what works and what doesn't. When you find something that works- keep doing it. As long as you stick with it, you should eventually succeed. And you can't beat the feeling you get the very first time you make money while your sleeping! Good luck! For a wide variety of great web scripts (including scripts to make baby name sites, car sites, recipe sites, jokesites, ebook stores, membership sites, and more), checkout Dan Fletcher's website:http://www.buymyscripts.net
Monday, February 11, 2008
5 Steps to building a large list.
In order to build a profiable list, you have to have the right foundation in place. You need:
1. A domain name.
2. A hosting account.
3. Squeeze/lead capture page.
4. Auto responder.
5. Advertising and marketing.
Actually, the first step is to identify your niche and choose a domain name that relates to your niche. For instance, one of my niches is Day Trading. My domain name is easyonlinetrading.net.
To identify a niche to start with, think about the things you are passionate about. What do you like to do? Next, you will need to do some market research to see if what you've chosen is a profitable market. (More on this in a subsequent post.) If it is, now you are ready for a domain name. I register all my domains at http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=14116024. They have the lowest prices I've seen and good support. I never have any problems with them. Once you have a domain, you now need a hosting account. Your hosting account is the place where you will begin building your webpage, your online empire. There is cheap hosting, there is expensive hosting and then everything in between. The best way to go is with a private hosting account. These run about $97 per month and are well worth it. However, there is a way to get good, private hosting without the montly fee. Again, more on this later.
Features of private hosting include:
1. Lots of hard drive space tohouse your sites.
2. Ability to create an unlimited amount of emails.
3. Unlimited number of sites and subdomains you can add to one account.
4. Your own IP address.
Next, you need a short webpage with compelling, easy to read copy and a sign up form. Your goal is to drive people to this page and with copy, compel them to sign up on the form. This is actually subscribing them to your autoresponder (ezine, newsletter) which allows you to market to them over and over again. Many people would like to charge you $15,000 or more for a well written page like this. I am here to tell you that you don't have to spend a dime on a page that makes you money. You just need to know how to write good copy. You can either learn to write good copy or get someone to write it for you. Lastly, the autoresponder. When a visitor fills inthe form on your webpage, his name and email will be captured in your auto-responder which is where you will have pre-written email messages set to follow up with him at an interval you set. The messages can be written by you or someone else. It is important to include good content related to your niche, or market you are targeting plus, offer promotions periodically to generate income. Occasionally, you will send out a mass email to your whole list, generating instant cash when done right.
There are three types of auto-responders:
1. Desktop autoresponder. Software stored on your computer.
2. Third party autoresponder. A service you pay a monthly fee to use and login to gain access to your list.
3. Server Based autoresponder. Also software but not installed on your computer, it's installed on your hosting account and you have complete control of your lists.
The type I highly recommend is the server based autoresponder. These usually run about $195 one time, then you own it.
Features:
1. Total control over when your subscribers receive your emails.
2. No waiting in queue for your emails to go out as in third party autoresponders.
3. IP based. In a third party autoresponder, everyone who uses that serviceshares the same IP address which means if someone sends out 50,000 spam emails and gets caught, not only does he get shut down but it affects everyone else too. With your own IP, the only one who can get you in trouble is you.
Now your foundation is laid and you are ready to start marketing, driving traffic to your webpage and building your list. I will devote a whole post just to advertising and marketing soon.
1. A domain name.
2. A hosting account.
3. Squeeze/lead capture page.
4. Auto responder.
5. Advertising and marketing.
Actually, the first step is to identify your niche and choose a domain name that relates to your niche. For instance, one of my niches is Day Trading. My domain name is easyonlinetrading.net.
To identify a niche to start with, think about the things you are passionate about. What do you like to do? Next, you will need to do some market research to see if what you've chosen is a profitable market. (More on this in a subsequent post.) If it is, now you are ready for a domain name. I register all my domains at http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=14116024. They have the lowest prices I've seen and good support. I never have any problems with them. Once you have a domain, you now need a hosting account. Your hosting account is the place where you will begin building your webpage, your online empire. There is cheap hosting, there is expensive hosting and then everything in between. The best way to go is with a private hosting account. These run about $97 per month and are well worth it. However, there is a way to get good, private hosting without the montly fee. Again, more on this later.
Features of private hosting include:
1. Lots of hard drive space tohouse your sites.
2. Ability to create an unlimited amount of emails.
3. Unlimited number of sites and subdomains you can add to one account.
4. Your own IP address.
Next, you need a short webpage with compelling, easy to read copy and a sign up form. Your goal is to drive people to this page and with copy, compel them to sign up on the form. This is actually subscribing them to your autoresponder (ezine, newsletter) which allows you to market to them over and over again. Many people would like to charge you $15,000 or more for a well written page like this. I am here to tell you that you don't have to spend a dime on a page that makes you money. You just need to know how to write good copy. You can either learn to write good copy or get someone to write it for you. Lastly, the autoresponder. When a visitor fills inthe form on your webpage, his name and email will be captured in your auto-responder which is where you will have pre-written email messages set to follow up with him at an interval you set. The messages can be written by you or someone else. It is important to include good content related to your niche, or market you are targeting plus, offer promotions periodically to generate income. Occasionally, you will send out a mass email to your whole list, generating instant cash when done right.
There are three types of auto-responders:
1. Desktop autoresponder. Software stored on your computer.
2. Third party autoresponder. A service you pay a monthly fee to use and login to gain access to your list.
3. Server Based autoresponder. Also software but not installed on your computer, it's installed on your hosting account and you have complete control of your lists.
The type I highly recommend is the server based autoresponder. These usually run about $195 one time, then you own it.
Features:
1. Total control over when your subscribers receive your emails.
2. No waiting in queue for your emails to go out as in third party autoresponders.
3. IP based. In a third party autoresponder, everyone who uses that serviceshares the same IP address which means if someone sends out 50,000 spam emails and gets caught, not only does he get shut down but it affects everyone else too. With your own IP, the only one who can get you in trouble is you.
Now your foundation is laid and you are ready to start marketing, driving traffic to your webpage and building your list. I will devote a whole post just to advertising and marketing soon.
The Money is in the List.
If you've been online trying to earn income for any length of time, you've probably heard the phrase, "the money is in the list." Selling ebooks, products etc. online is great and you'll make some money but what about down the road. You need long term, repeat customers. With a large, responsive list, you can market to your list anytime over and over again. You can earn money anytime you need it. Think about this. You have a list of 10,000 subscribes to your list (ezine, newsletter). You send out a $1 promotion to the whole list. If only half of them buy (who can't afford $1?) you just generated $5,000 with one email usually within 24 hours. Plus, you own the list so you can do this over and over again forever. That's exciting.
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