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3 More Steps For Your Online Business
AdvertisingAuthor: Liane Bate
Part two of what it takes to advertise an internet business
successfully includes a short discussion of blogging, article
writing, and linking, which are free, cheap, and highly
effective ways of advertising your online business.
Blogging is a technique that is becoming an extremely effective
and almost necessary method of advertising your online business.
By signing up for a free account on a blog server, you can post
your comments, thoughts, diary, journal, or anything you want
with your links at the end pointing back to your site. You can
submit your blog to blog directories, comment on other people's
blogs leaving your link at the end, and the search engines will
visit a site whose blog is updated regularly! This takes very
little time and no money!
Similar to this method is writing articles, again, another
advertising technique that is almost a must these days since
search engines are looking for quality content on websites.
Keyword rich articles will be spidered by the search engines,
increasing your page rank and number of visitors. Article
writing can be completely free and your own creation, or you can
pay to have a service like Just Articles write one for you for
$12 for example. You can then submit your article to article
directories for free if you do it manually, or use an article
submitter software such as Article Marketer, which allows you to
distribute articles to a smaller audience for free, or a wider
audience for $39.95/quarter. The cost is higher the wider the
distribution and the longer the service. Still, it is a very
cheap and highly effective way of advertising these days, and
only takes about 30 minutes or so to write an article and submit
them.
Finally, you want to start a linking campaign, which means you
put your links on other people's websites and they possibly put
theirs on your site. This is called a reciprocal link exchange,
which can increase your page rank if you have links on the net
pointing back to your site, or have links on your site from
sites that have a higher page rank. It is best to have one-way
links that point back to your site and make sure that the links
on your site relate to your site's content. It can be free to
submit your URL to millions of link directories, or you can pay
for software, such as Link Directory Submitter ($90), which will
automate the process and save you time, whilst providing you
with quality one-way and reciprocal links to boost your page
rank!
You can overcome the advertising challenge by using the
techniques outlined in Part I and Part II of what it takes to
advertise your internet business. Tell your friends and family,
advertise offline, use ezine solo ads and Google Adwords, write
blogs and articles, and submit links. Remember that consistency
is key. Take massive action to achieve the results you are
striving for and never give up!
About the author:
Liane Bate owns a Plugin Profit Site web business, is a member
of Success University, and the IAHBE.
Visit:http://www.HonestMoneyMaking.com www.HonestMoneyMaking.com and
http://www.HonestMoneyMaking.com/pips.html
Tips on Increasing Your Link Popularity
Author: Timothy James
Search engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are the
first tool that potential customers use to find the products and
services they need. This is why link popularity is so
imperative. If the customers do not find your website, you have
no possibilities of making any sales.
You're probably wondering what the blazes is popular about a
link! Well, in a word - plenty! Link popularity refers to the
ranking assigned to your website by the search engines, and it
determines the ranking your page gets when keywords are entered
into a search engine. So, you're probably wondering, how do I
make my link popular?
Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking to
sites that have links to their pages from related, quality
sites. It's a simple formula, but a very important one. Google
created the system, and now virtually all the most popular
search engines employ it to rank your web pages in their indexes.
The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will be to
achieve link popularity, but without achieving this step, it is
almost certain your site will never rank highly on any search
engine. But don't be discouraged; there are tried and true ways
of achieving link popularity using the most competitive keywords.
There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is that
just linking up with a large number of other websites will not
achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have quite the opposite
effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to websites
that are nothing more than "link farms" - pages containing line
after line of indiscriminate links. Search engines may
aggressively discriminate against your website if you are
associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them!
The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site you
are linking to. Never link to a page you have reservations about
your visitors seeing. The last thing you want your website to
appear as is indiscriminate and cheap. Linking to sites of poor
quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely
destroy it.
So let's get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link
popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on all
the popular search engines.
The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the
door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as Open
Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is business-related,
you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and despite the fact that
it will cost you around $300 a year, it will be money well
spent. If your site is non-commercial, the listing will be free,
but it will take time and follow-up to actually get it listed.
Open Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are
business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make a
lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site listed.
You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of appropriate
category, and this just takes some common sense. For example, if
your company ships Alpaca wool from an Alpaca farm located in
the middle of Nowhere, Tiny State, do NOT submit your listing to
"Retailers from Nowhere, Tiny State." BIG MISTAKE! All you have
to do is look a little deeper - and submit your listing to the
"Fine Alpaca Wool" category. You will not only associate
yourself with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a
national category.
The next step after you have attained directory listings is to
locate other quality sites that will increase your link
popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related to
yours, so not only will your link popularity increase, but your
customer base may also be expanded. You want to avoid your
competitors and look for sites that are useful to your site's
visitors. Let's look at the Alpaca Wool site example. Linking up
to a site that sells knitting supplies would be helpful to your
visitors, and the chances of the knitting supply site wanting to
link up to your site are also greater. By linking to a related
site that will be relevant to your website's traffic, you are
increasing both of your site's business prospects - and both of
your sites' link popularity.
Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have to
do some research when you are looking for possible linking
partners. Google is an excellent starting place for your search.
Make sure you enter keywords that you think quality customers
will also enter to find your own site. Remember, your criteria
are quality, highly ranked, non-competing websites that have a
links or resources page Go to these sites and objectively assess
them. Look at the quality of the product, the graphics, and the
ease of use. Then check out the other sites they are linked to,
and determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.
When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must set out
to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link on your own
links page to their site. This is an essential first step; it
shows good faith, and ups your chances significantly of their
reciprocity. After you have added their link, you must contact
the webmaster of their site. Since this is almost always done by
email, you want to make sure it is immediately clear that your
message is not junk mail. This requires that you tell them right
off the bat that you have added a link to their page on your
site. A hook like this almost always insures the reader will
read on.
Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much you
appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that you have
actually visited their site, and that their site is not just a
random pick. Give them the address of your links page, and ask
them to check out the link for themselves. It's a good idea to
mention that they will not only benefit from the increased
traffic your website will direct their way, but you will also
increase their link popularity. Briefly, explain why link
popularity is so essential, but do this in a sentence or two so
you don't sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would
greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on
their own links page to your website.
Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as you
can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and
non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant sites,
be sure to check these website frequently to see if they have
added a link to your page. Give it about a month, and if no link
appears, try another charming email. Then give it another month,
and if your site is still absent from their links page, it's
time to remove their link from your own links page. The only
time you want to pursue a link further than this is if you
believe a site is crucial to your link popularity and your
business needs. Just remember to keep all your communications
complimentary and cordial.
Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search engines
frequently to see if your link popularity has improved. This is
not achievable in the blink of an eye. It will take some time
and a good deal of work. There is no way around the
labor-intensive quality of improving your link popularity, which
is why search engines regard it with such importance.
By the way - make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined site or
you will never persuade anyone to link up to you. Be prepared to
keep plugging away at this process, as long as it takes, until
you achieve link popularity stardom!
About the author:
Timothy James is the sole owner of http://www.timzbiz.com which
is an information portal containing numerous articles for
webmasters. He is also the owner of http://www.timbozone.com
which is a sales outlet for games and software
Increasing Your Search Engine RankingAuthor: Timothy James
The methods employed to increase your search engine rankings may
seem like rocket science to you, so you have probably avoided
dealing with this issue. I am here to tell you - the time has
come to face your website! A high search engine ranking for your
website is so essential that if you have the slightest desire to
actually succeed in your business, there is no way you can
continue to avoid this issue.
At least 85% of people looking for goods and services on the
Internet find websites through search engines such as Google,
Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pages for high
search engine rankings is to attract targeted customers to your
site who will be more than likely to make a purchase. The higher
your page comes up in search engine results, the greater the
traffic that is directed to your website. That's what search
engine optimization is about.
You can immerse yourself in all the technical information
available online to figure out how to optimize your web pages to
achieve higher rankings. Or you can look at a few simple items
on your pages, make some small adjustments, and most likely see
improved rankings quite rapidly. The first item you should
examine is the title bar on your homepage.
The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page. Look at
the words that appear there when you access your home page. To
increase search engine rankings, the words on your homepage's
title bar should include the most important keywords or phrases,
one of which would include your company name.
Then click on all your links and examine the title bars on the
pages you access. Each title bar on every single page of your
site should contain the most important keywords and phrases
taken from the page itself. However, avoid very long strings of
keywords, keeping them to six words or less. Avoid repeating
keywords more than once in the title bars, and make sure that
identical words are not next to each other.
The next item to put under your microscope is your website
content. Search engines generally list sites that contain
quality content rather than scintillating graphics. The text on
your site must contain the most important keywords - the words
that potential customers will be typing into search engines to
find your site.
Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is not
desirable due to your design, aim for at least 100 carefully
chosen words. If you want to achieve a high ranking on search
engines, this text is essential. However, the search engines
must be able to read the text, meaning that the text must be in
HTML and not graphic format.
To find out if your text is in HTML format, take your cursor and
try to highlight a word or two. If you are able to do this, the
text is HTML. If the text will not highlight, it is probably in
graphic form. In this case, ask your webmaster to change the
text into HTML format inorder to increase your search engine
rankings.
Next we come to what is called meta tags. I know this sounds
like something out of science fiction, but it is really just
simple code. Many people believe that meta tags are the key to
high search engine rankings, but in reality, they only have a
limited effect. Still, it's worth adding them in the event that
a search engine will use meta tags in their ranking formula.
To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you must
access the code. To do this, click the "view" button on the
browser menu bar, and select "source." This will pull up a
window revealing the underlying code that created the page. If
there are meta tags, they usually appear near the top of the
window. For example, a meta tag would read: meta name="keywords"
content=. If you do not find code that reads like this, ask your
webmaster to put them in. This may not do much for your search
engine rankings, but any little boost helps.
Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is a
factor that is extremely important in terms of search engine
rankings. Almost all search engines use link popularity to rank
your website. Link popularity is based on the quality of the
sites you have linked to from your links page.
If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popular search
engine, the search engine will then show you what sites are
linked to your site. In the case that there aren't many sites
linked up to yours, or that the sites that are linked up have
low search engine rankings, consider launching a link popularity
campaign. Essentially, this entails contacting quality sites and
requesting that they exchange links with your site. Of course,
this requires checking out the rankings of the websites you want
to link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not only
boosts your search engine ranking, but it also directs more
quality traffic to your website.
Search engine rankings are extremely important for a successful
Internet marketing campaign. Before you go out and hire a search
engine optimization company, try taking some of the simple steps
listed above, and see if you can't boost your rankings yourself.
Don't ever ignore this all-important factor in Internet
marketing. Remember, the higher your search engine ranking, the
more quality customers will be directed your way.
About the author:
Timothy James is the sole owner of http://www.timzbiz.com which
is an information portal containing numerous articles for
webmasters. He is also the owner of http://www.timbozone.com
which is a sales outlet for games and software
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