Workathome

Thursday, September 4, 2008

3 Facts About Google - And Why You Don't Need it to Succeed Online (Part 1)

There Is A Myth Going Around About Google!

While it's true that Google is indeed a giant in the marketplace in the search engine traffic volume, you can't always depend on this giant forever. The world is evolving and people are turning into more social beings in the need to join as a community.

This brings me to discuss more about your first step in affiliate marketing or running an online business. You may get drenched with some hot advice about getting into the top ranking position in Google be it SEO, SEM or even PPC. Organic or inorganic rankings they are all the same. You don't have to bother much about this, why?

Facts 1: Google Controls A Huge Bulk Of Traffic Online

Just go ahead and type out the term 'affiliate marketing' and you will be presented with just about 15 million search results. That's like 15 million different webpages and webmasters all competing with each other the the top spot in the 1st page of Google.

As a matter of fact, The Times Newspaper in the United Kingdom actually ran a review about Google. Comparatively, every single day, Google gets close to 70% of the total search engine traffic online.

Fact 2: It's Big But Your Competition Is Big Too

Yes, while Yahoo gets second place and this means Google is first for dominating the palace in terms of search engine traffic, you would have to say that it is a huge marketplace.

This literally means that if you were to get to page 2 in Google, you would have to put in a considerably large amount of effort. Come on, seriously even if you have 300,000 real competitors who are SEO masters you would already be sweating on your brow.

Sadly, getting 2nd page will only nab you less than 1% of all the traffic for that particular keyword.

Fact 3: Staying On Top Is A Tough Job

So, let's say you work your butt off trying to get on the top 1st page of Google. It's freaking cool, right? Truthfully, you will need even more work and effort to stay there because your competitors are top guys and they know what to do to beat you.

Daily monitoring, link building, competition research, all for one single keyword but here is the good news that I can deliver to you today. You don't need to rely on search engine traffic alone. At least not directly by ranking high in the search engines.

Why? Simply because there are other easier ways to do so and it's what I call smart alternative traffic sources. Hey, it is the 20th century right? A lot has changed since the dot com bust anyway. Time for a change.

Do you want to learn more about getting traffic? Download your free blueprint here: Secrets Of Traffic Generation

Vern How is a webmaster, author and a traffic generation expert. His website currently serves over of 4,500 unique visitors per month.

The Link Paradox - The Problem With Natural Link Building

When it comes to getting your site to rank better in the search engines, the most important thing you can do is get more quality links to your site. The major search engines like Google will tell you to do this by providing quality content on your pages and people will naturally link to you over time.

The only problem with this is that if your site is new and you have no links, it doesnt matter how much great content you have if you dont have any links nobodys going to see it.

Which brings me to the paradox. If you have a site that ranks well in the search engines, other people are naturally going to link to you if your site has good content to offer. By having a high ranking website, its easy to get more links to your website. Conversely, if you have a site that doesnt have any links, your ranking in the search engines is going to be quite low, if not non existent. Nobody is going to link to your site naturally over time if they dont even know it exists, hence the link building paradox.

This is why I dont like such conservative views on how to build links to a website. This view simply makes things easier for the search engines. However, this view is definitely not in your best interest. After all, if you have a new website you need ways to get people to notice your site in the first place to get those high search engines rankings.

This is where hiring a link building company or doing the link building yourself comes in. Think of it just as you would any other promotion for your website. You dont usually expect a TV reporter to just randomly call you up and ask if they can promote your business. You also dont expect to see anybody writing about your business in the newspaper if you havent done any type of promotion.

The same goes for link building, if youre not willing to promote your website then why should anyone else care and link to you?

For the do it yourselfers, heres a couple strategies you dont want to be without when promoting your website.

The first is the press release. If you have a brand new site, then be sure to write one and let the whole world know that your website is open for business. Even if you think you have a boring and normal website, an experienced press release writer will be able to come up with a press release that will get you more links, traffic, and sales.

The second is to be sure to write articles. You can use articles to get the word out about your website and post them on hundreds of sites that will give you a link back to your website just for allowing them to use the article.

There are many more strategies to get your website noticed, but just starting with these two can make a big difference to your bottom line.

Gary Ruplinger is a search engine optimzation and the author of UltimateTrafficBlueprint.com.

To get professional link building services and free SEO lessons, visit his site.

Traffic Building - How to Build Responsive Email Lists to Create Profits On-Line

Why would you devote your time, money and energy to attracting prospective customers from your target market niche without first finding out who they are before you decide to make your offer to them?

Would you have a real estate open house, or technical training seminar off line without asking attendees to register ? So why would you even be considering it online then?

Since over 95% of first time website visitors do not purchase, it is mandatory that you stay in constant contact over time through your email lists.

Opt in Email Lists are the core asset of any make money website, therefore the most critical key to your capacity to create profits online.

Target your marketing - Direct your campaign only to people that you can provide a solution for their problem, or that you can teach how to reach their goals

Direct response - Simply ask them to fill out the form on your website to register.

Email address and name - Collect a minimum of this before giving them access to your core information

Obtain their permission - You must do this before you continue to contact them to avoid spam complaints

Send confirmation - Automatically send them an email so they can respond confirming their permission

Thank and welcome - Automatically send them a message when they confirm - Deliver what you promised plus more.

Follow Up - Create a series of follow up emails (Auto Responder Campaign), to continue to offer valuable content, and begin to position yourself as a trusted resource to them. You will pre-sell by educating them about your product or service niche, and begin to offer lower priced quality items.

Over deliver - Continue to deliver what you promised plus more

To increase their sign up rate you may entice them with a free report, gift, or sample product that is directly related to solving their problem or reaching their goal.

I just completed my brand new guide "Learn How to Breath Life into Your On-Line Business Fast".

Download Your Copy Free Now: The Art of Creating Profits On-Line

Leo Hanes is an experienced full time internet marketer, who has written a number of articles on the core profit principles of internet marketing.

Viral Explosion of Your Mailing List

The money is in the list is something we hear a lot of time, but the problem for many people is that they have no list. They struggle to get people to sign up for their list, even though they think they are giving them something of real value, but they have no idea about how to be list building.

To build a list takes a lot of time and patience, you have to have a great hook to get them to opt in to your list, but then you have to ensure they confirm as you have a double opt in list. This is the list builder most online business owners are told to use, and they then build their business around this idea. Find a product, offer a hook, get a person's email address and then sell them. So many marketers are content to see that opt in list added to one person a day, but is this really the best way to build a list?

Imagine if the situation was different; imagine if you could build your list faster by using a double opt in list builder. You could use your downline builder, and find that you not only have a double opt in list but you have a double-opt-in viral list. Imagine if that list didn't grow by a single person a day but hundreds upon hundreds of people. Imagine if suddenly you have a list that is growing so fast you don't know when it will end. You suddenly realize you have a viral explosion and you can now turn that list into a goldmine as you build a good, deep relationship with them.

As you use your downline builder, you are able to encourage other people to sign up for your list. This means you won't have to wait years or even months to have that list that you have been dreaming about. As people see the benefits, they will be encouraging others to opt in to your list, and this way your list will grow exponentially.

Just think what you could do as you send out your emails to them, you give them good content, and then your sales is pitched exactly where it is needed, to find them buying the products you know they need. Using the email marketing that many marketers use, you might expect to make a couple of hundred dollars per sales pitch, but if you have a list that is eager to buy then you will be making thousands of dollars per sales pitch.

This really is the reason you should ensure you have a viral network for your mailing list. You need to see other people recommending you to their friend, to their customers, to their prospective customers. Word of mouth does far more to get people to opt in than trying to convince them the traditional way. Your list will keep growing and growing as you use your downline builder. You will be amazed at the difference this way of building your list works in practice. You will be amazed as you see the number of people being added to your list on a daily basis. You will be using viral marketing techniques which will not only increase your list, but also increase your income.

This article with useful information about the importance of list building to increase your bottom line and ultimately your profits was brought to you by Michael Murphy. Try visiting also his list building site at http://www.downlinebuilderdirect.com

Link Building And Article Marketing - Fuel To Feed The SEO Fire

With search engine optimization, there is only so much you can do to a website to make it search engine friendly. Most of the time, unless your website is in a specific niche and I mean very specific, you will need a large amount of back links pointing to your website to help it climb the ranks of Google for your target keywords. This is where link building becomes a necessity; it's not a luxury any more to have a few back links and be ok. Unfortunately, it will never be that way ever again.

For those of you new to the SEO game, you are probably wondering, what is a back link? A back link is a link that is "followed" by the search engines and pointing to your website from another website. The more back links you have, the faster you will move up in the Google rankings. Simple as that!

I am sure you are wondering how to go about getting back links to your website. There is the obvious way of contacting webmasters and asking them to link to your site. This is not a recommended practice because it is too time consuming and not effective in the least. I would recommend that you try article marketing to get a huge distribution of links in a very short amount of time.

Article marketing is something that is becoming more popular every day. Webmasters all over the world are realizing and understanding the power that is in it and are getting results very quickly. You first must begin by writing an article. You must be careful that your article is not a sales promotion, if it looks to salesy, your article will not be accepted by any website who publishes articles. You should pick a topic related to your website and write about it. This is your time to show the world who you are and why you are an expert in that particular field. The about author box is your time to shine when it comes to selling people on your product, service, or website. Make it good since you only have one shot to impress your target audience.

I'm sure you are now wondering how to get these articles distributed once you have written one. You can do this in two ways. First, you can do it manually by searching for ezines or article publishers on Google. Once you find a dozen or so, you can start submitting articles to them as frequently as you would like. There is an easier way and it is called article distribution services. These services take your article and submit it to hundreds, sometimes thousands of sites willing and ready to put your article online.

Either way you choose to go, you will begin building valuable back links to your website and begin setting yourself apart from your competition. Light the fire early and watch it grow into something that you would have never imagined. Work hard and you will see lasting results for years to come!

Greg Shuey is an avid Article Marketer. Through article marketing and Link Building, he has been able to build a massive amount of back links to his and his clients websites helping them improve their search engine rankings. Visit Web Vizion to learn about link building and other Small Business Solutions.

The Pace Of Adding New Links To Websites

Links as you know are essential when it comes to have some good rankings in the search engines on the web and they are actually some votes that websites give to each other and this way, the search engines can realize how important a certain website is. The links are in fact regarded as the main elements playing important roles in making many websites successful on the web because only through having proper and powerful links, a website can be found in the online world.

But is the matter just this simple about the links on the web? In other words, if links are so powerful for websites rankings online, should we spend some hours everyday, adding as many links to our websites, hoping to have excellent rankings in the major search engines? As a matter of fact, although links are very important in adding to the values of websites rankings, but there are certain steps and complex systems when it comes to counting and evaluating them in order to give bonuses to the websites the links point at.

You know, if the story was just about the number of the links, you could find websites adding thousands of links to their homepages overnight wishing to stand at the top search engines placements forever but as mentioned earlier, the story is not that simple to figure out. Links are very important for ensuring your websites are to be found among the other competitors in the search engines but have you ever thought of the pace of adding new links to your websites?

If you talk to the web professionals, the ones who have been working on optimizing websites either for themselves or their clients for several years, you can see that in nearly all the cases, they recommend not adding just too many new links to a website in a short period of time. Now, you might wonder how there would be the possibility of problems should you add many links too quickly, right? Please note that although links are good, but having them in an artificial manner, will prove to be having the opposite effect.

This is especially true if you are going to make a newly built website popular by establishing so many one way links to that very quickly. The search engines are now very smart in calculating whether some links have been added naturally or not and therefore, paying attention to the pace and the speed of creating and pointing new inbound links to your web resources is very important.

Please note that we are not talking about the number of links to be added to a website but of the pace in the way they are being established. For instance, while for one of your online projects, even 5 good links might be enough to pushing your sites rankings to the top of the search engines listings, in another online project, you might be needing hundreds of new links in order to be found, but in both cases, it is important that the links be added gradually and not hurriedly.

You can continue building links for your websites in order to establish their current good rankings in the major search engines and in fact, the majority of the successful web companies and firms too are practicing this practice of adding to the pack of their websites links but it is highly recommended, following a secured method of establishing new links in a steady course of time and one thing to always remember is that no site can be built and promoted on the web overnight.

Search engines like to see new links being added to the websites indexed in their listings in a gradual and steady pace and not instantly, as some link packages might promise on some websites. Such link building programs are not helpful and in many cases, as the experience has shown, they can even be bad to the rankings of the websites in the main search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN as the three of the engines have more or less similar algorithms.

Web Development Tasks

How to Make Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Work for You

Website is the beginning: It is a foregone conclusion that every business needs an 'internet presence' - a website to survive in this competitive world. Assume that your website is ready after much toil and effort. You sit back and wait for enquiry forms to be filled and business to flow in. If even after weeks of waiting, your website does not elicit any queries, it is time to rethink your strategies.

Leveraging the Website - The New-age Mantra: You try to figure out why your website has not attained high rankings despite the colourful designs and placement of pages. The answer lies in Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short. SEO is the buzz word as far as registering a strong online presence is concerned. Today it is vital for every business to set aside a special budget for optimizing their website with the necessary SEO tools.

What are the tools under SEO that can be applied to your website to pitchfork it towards that all important high ranking on Google, MSN, Yahoo and other search engines? Foremost on the list are Keyword Analysis. It is essential that certain keywords and phrases that best describe your product or service and that are most likely to be used in search engines need to be part of your website content. These words have to be inserted in the title tags, headings and navigational links within your site.

Secondly, benefits of SEO can be optimized by an ongoing development of high-quality website content to retain visitor interest. Content should be written in a reader-friendly manner and in the proper context of the products and services on offer. Another important tool is Pay Per Click, under which search engine listings are displayed on typing keywords. In other words, Pay Per Click allows you to buy your way to the top slots of search result pages by bidding for certain keyword phrases - the higher you bid, the higher your advertisement is displayed.

Other important considerations for SEO are

Conducting periodic web analysis and evaluation to figure out improvements in website content, design and keyword placements

Submitting articles about your products and services to blogs and article directories to indirectly direct traffic to your website

Creating attractive landing pages that showcase your company's products from where a potential customer can easily fill in the contact form.

While searching for a SEO partner, look out for the following deliverables

Follows ethical 'White Hat' SEO practices along with a professional approach towards the client site

Ability to provide appealing, persuasive content on an on-going basis, crucial for long-term success in search engine optimization

Populating the website with the correct keywords and phrases

Capability to build successful link-building strategies and clear navigation schemes

Familiarity with advanced SEO techniques, such as META descriptions, META keyword sets, page titles, search engine submissions, robots.txt files and HTML validation

Quickly adjusts to the ever-changing needs of search engines

Vital Post-Lead Actionables: Look for a company that offers not just SEO services but also web designing, digital marketing and assists in that all important task of lead management. Choose a long-term e-business partner who provides lead management as a logical complement to SEO services with the flexibility to adopt program features configurable to suit your company's specific lead management needs.

As a natural corollary to SEO practices, good Lead generation programs push vital information about your company to the World Wide Web through automated email, product content as well as information and survey request forms and so on, all guaranteed to raise curiosity and generate a user response. On receipt of response, the lead suite should provide additional options for response, further building and developing the profile of the user, ultimately resulting in that much needed sales transaction.

Think Long Term: If you are seeking improvements in search engine rankings, tie up with a company that offers all three services - SEO, web designing and marketing and a robust lead management program for long term benefits. As your company grows, think of the difficulty in managing the vast amounts of vital demographic data on each lead. Investing in a feature-rich lead management program will help you sort out and track all leads right from the first point of contact to after-sales service, eventually speeding up the ROI of your marketing efforts. Signing in to a good lead generation program is the key to a successful online business with its inbuilt ability to handle traffic towards your site.

Ashley Jacob is a Content Writer and part of the team at Leo Digital a company specializing in SEO, web designing, marketing and lead management. For more information log on to http://www.leodigital.com

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