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28 September 2009

Internet Marketing Resources

Blogging Resources

Movable Type: This is a popular blog software engaged to build a community of readers and customers. In other words, if your business model is really built around your blog, you might consider this one - it is very extendable. But don't forget to read the installation guide.

SquareSpace: It allows you to use their software free for 14 days. You can import and export your files to many popular systems. There overview will give you a better scope on how squarespace software works.

WordPress: WordPress is a very popular blogging software. It is a self hosted blog program and it delivers some good features when compared to blogger.


Nucleus CMS: is an open source content management blogging platform with many features and plug-ins available to grow your online business.


TypePad: You will generate revenue by using their affiliate program including raising money for a cause you care about with widgets like DonorsChoose. Similarly to WordPress, they will host your blog at a price.


Drupal: According to drupal, they have an open source content management platform. Equipped with a powerful blend of features, Drupal supports a variety of websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven websites.


Market Research Resources


The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) - is the trade association for online advertising. With over 480 million members, it's run by the leading media owners and agencies in the UK Internet industry.


The aim of The Direct Marketing Association - is to maximise value for members whilst maintaining and enhancing consumers' trust and confidence in direct marketing.


The Institute of Direct Marketing - is Europe's leading body for the professional development of direct, data and digital marketing. Founded in 1987, the IDM is an educational trust and registered charity.


Vox Pops International was established in 1988. They where the first company to use video to conduct and communicate market research. You will get opinions from research videos and consumers that will help improve your online business.


Thanks for visiting. I apologise the list is incomplete at the moment. However Learning and Tool resources are still left out. I promise to update this in my next blog.

25 September 2009

Have You Lost Your Online Bussiness?

Have a look at this question I just received from my facebook page:

If you had to do it all over again, starting today, with your current knowledge, but with no established website and not even one name collected, what would you do?

The person who sent that question also shared with me that he had spent thousands on Internet marketing material, from SEO stuff to list building material.

Well, that is a GREAT question, so I decided to answer it for everyone...

I am going to tell you about a business plan that is almost a "can't miss". It won't buy you a Ferrari overnight, but if you follow it you will end up with a very solid business. And you might get that Ferrari... eventually.

And this isn't theory - this is a business model that every successful internet marketer have used (and I have friends who have used it) in all kinds of different markets. Everything from hobbies, to humor, to "how to", to "make money online", to professional services... on and on.

Let me call this business a "content site"... but I really need to come up with a more clever name. In any case, let's walk through the basic steps.


1. Pick a niche or topic. Hopefully you have one. If you don't, I can't tell you how to pick one right now... but maybe in a future newsletter.

2. Pick a domain name and put up a website. This doesn't have to be complex. In my next blog i will point out some site that will give you some help if you are a newbie.

3. Start publishing good, solid content about that niche on the website. Why? Because content brings search engine traffic, links from other sites, and word of mouth traffic. These days, the quickest and easiest way to do put up content on your site is with a blog. Blogging software can be very cheap (ie, free) and easy to set up.

4. Continue to add additional content to your site - at least on a weekly basis. Write additional articles on the niche and submit them to article directories. This will keep the search engine spiders coming back, and will get you more traffic and links.


5. Start building an opt-in list from day one. Do this by encouraging visitors to your site to join your opt-in list... in other words, "sell the opt-in". Publish to that list on a regular basis. Send them good content without a bunch of ads. Encourage feedback, try to create a dialog with your readers.

6. Send a survey to your email list asking them what they want to know. Use their answers to come up with a list of potential products to sell them. You can even run a second survey, giving them a short list of the potential products and asking for their favorite.

7. Create a product based on the feedback from your readers... and then sell it to them.

8. Keep your empire growing - continue to add content, continue to publish to your email list, continue to solicit feedback and comments from your readers. Continue to sell them the products that they tell you they want.

9. Sit back and enjoy your business and the rewards it brings you. :-)

Now obviously, that is an extremely condensed version. There is simply no way to lay out every detail in this blog. But don't be fooled into thinking that this plan is too simple to work.

It has been working for years, and it will continue to work. And it will build a real asset... a web business that will continue to throw off cash for years to come.

This isn't a plan for a one-hit-wonder, or a flash-in-the-pan that will be gone from the search engines in a couple of months.

The only real problem is that it does require work. This isn't the type of thing where you can take a $97.00 piece of software and have it build your business for you.

But if you want a real, sustainable business... well, take a close look at that plan.

19 September 2009

How To Identify Your Niche - Part 2


Listening.

Listening provides the foundation on which your activities must be based, if they're to be as successful as you'd like them to be. And there's a lot more to it than you might consider at first.

For example, split-testing are forms of listening. You're listening to preferences - one expressed through multiple options and the other through a binary choice of accept/refuse an offer.

You need to listen to both individuals and markets. While you do, remember: Individuals sometimes lie. Markets never do. Also keep in mind that you can tell a lie, but you can't DO a lie. Actions are always true. On the flip side, your interpretations of those actions could be completely wrong.

You'll often see threads on discussion forums about various marketing strategies. For example: People complain about pop-ups, screaming to everyone who'll listen that they'll kill your business, because "everyone hates them."

Big clue: People who dislike a thing are far more likely to complain about it than people who like it or who don't care either way. And a lot of the people who say they hate them will respond to them if they're presented in the right way.

The same thing is true with many sales techniques. One time offers, continuity programs, big red headlines, quantity limits, bonus packages, and just about everything else that someone could gripe about.

The only thing you should rule out completely is the unethical. While ethics, as they relate to business, are primarily about truth and choice. If it's clear, true and doesn't literally force people to do what you ask, it's very likely just fine ethically.

Yes, there are exceptions. Hiding unexpected terms in unlikely places can be fraud, even if they're clear. Claiming that people should read every word on every linked page isn't going to fly with government regulators. Be up front about your terms and your product. If you feel like you're being sneaky, you probably are. And that's not a sign of being on clear ethical ground.

Always Test:

Spend the time to learn how to do split-testing. It's a pretty simple process, that amounts to showing differently presented versions of your offer, and counting to see which version they respond to most strongly.

There are a lot of commercial programs you can get that will make this an easy process. They range from £8 to over £500, and cover a vast expanse of capabilities. Start with something simple.

The main things to test are your headline, your offer (what they actually get), your guarantee, and your price. Never assume you know what the results will be.

I've watched two of the smartest marketers in the world guess a headline so wrong that they were stunned when the final answer came in. (Out of 8 tested headlines, it pulled 2/3 of the total "votes." Neither of them had picked it as being a contender.)

The great thing about this process? The world's dumbest marketer could have done the same thing and ended up with the same result. Testing eliminates a big chunk of the need for experience.

I have actually done surveys to see which of 8 product ideas would be the most "in demand," and had the one I thought would be first come in dead last, while one I thought would be ignored finish in the top two - and way ahead of third place, at that.

One of the most expensive mistakes you can make is to fail to test a broad range of prices. It's very common for people to assume that a lower price will sell more copies of a product. That isn't always (or even most often) the case. Sometimes a product will sell better at a much higher price than you might have even considered for it.

Don't sell yourself short. When in doubt: Test. When you're certain: Test anyway.

Treat every opinion as a piece of data to be figured into your decisions. No single opinion, no matter how well-informed the presenter, should be allowed to make a decision for you.



And to repeat a very important point: People who dislike a thing are many times more likely to say something about it than people who like it, or who really don't care either way.

The last thing to mention is that the right answer isn't always contained in any one thing you learn. If there's a conflict between what someone says and what they do, believe what they do. Then consider why they said otherwise. That might give you clues to something more effective.

If you hear a lot of conflicting opinions or data, look for options that fit them all. You may not find them but, if you do, they'll be worth the effort to test. And always consider that sometimes the important things are hidden in what people don't say.

17 September 2009

How To Identify Your Niche - Part 1


My blog on how to build a profitable niche market, I mention offering product to people who already want them. But I did not specify how to create the product you are offering them. Surveys are one way of knowing that.

Very little can give you as big a head start on success as knowing what people really want.

So..

Learn To Do Surveys - Properly.

Doing a proper survey right is beyond the scope of this blog. Just understand that you can bias your results if you aren't careful. Do some reading. It's not hard to get the knack for this.

Learn to do online research. Dig into keywords. Study your competitors. Dissect businesses, and learn what works for them and what doesn't. Sign up for the lists of other marketers in your field. Read the influential blogs and other publications.

Look for trends. Not in opinion, but in actions.

Constantly open doors for feedback. Ask questions in forums, or just read what people have to say in response to the questions of others.

Create systems for your subscribers, prospects and customers to tell you what they like, what they dislike, and what they want.

Here's a key point to making the most of your feedback, however you get it... Don't just listen for the most common responses. Listen for the responses that sound the most desperate!

The most desperate ones, the ones that talk about real pain, are the ones that will turn a profitable promotion into a monster. Those are the ones that can kick your conversion rates up by multiples instead of fractions.

Those are your relevant points for building a profitable niche.

They're also the things you should focus on for your higher-priced back-end products and services.

15 September 2009

35 Important Directory List

This list contain some important directory. These are website, SEO, article, forum, and blog directories. Depending on the directory you choose to submit your content, there are free directory list, paid directory list, reciprocal directory list, and article list. Some of this directory list contains directories that accept deep links. Deep links are inner pages of your site, for example: site.com/inner/page.html. This can be handy if you want extra links to a particular page or want to promote individual products.

Tehnorati is the only blog directory that has a page rank of 9.


PageRankDirectory Url

5
3
4
5
5
5
4
2
2
2
3
3
2
5
1
1
5
6
6
4
4
6
5
1
6
5
6
6
6
9
1
4
5
3
2

http://www.skoobe.biz/
http://www.bloggeries.com/
http://www.ebusiness-directory.com/
http://www.bloglisting.net/
http://www.svguia.com/
http://www.investhz.com/
http://www.blogadr.com/
http://www.seofriendlinks.com/
http://www.getinsearchengines.com/
http://www.web-link-directory.com/
http://www.forumshowcase.com/
http://www.theforumfinder.org/
http://directory.whichforum.com/
http://www.articledashboard.com/
http://www.archiveofarticles.com/
http://www.articlesezineplace.com/
http://www.buzzle.com/
http://www.ezinearticles.com/
http://www.webarticles.com/
http://www.articlesfactory.com/
http://www.content-articles.com/
http://www.goarticles.com/
http://www.articlealley.com/
http://directory.seoexecutive.com/
http://www.ezilon.com/
http://www.freelinksdirectory.net/
http://www.greenstalk.com/
http://www.incrawler.com/
http://www.dirsense.com/
http://www.technorati.com/
http://www.affiliatecashdirectory.com/
http://www.affiliatemarketinglinx.com/
http://www.affiliateseeking.com/
http://www.2searchblogs.com/
http://www.blogzoop.com/


14 September 2009

The 7 Things You Must Include in Everything You do Online

To create leverage, there are 7 things you can include in your actions. You want to incorporate at least two in everything you do, and more if possible.


Those things are:


1. Sell product
2. Generate subscribers
3. Recruit active affiliates
4. Generate targeted traffic
5. Generate links
6. Create product
7. Build your network


As an example, suppose you are arranging an affiliate-based approved mailing by a website owner or newsletter publisher. Rather than just giving them copy to mail (or letting them create their own), you might offer to do an interview with them that relates to the topic of your product.


They could offer the audio recording of that interview to their subscribers as a bonus for ordering your product, increasing profits for both of you. You each get to use the interview for other purposes, with the agreement that neither of you will give it away free.


If you plan this right, you can arrange a number of these interviews that cover all the major aspects of your topic using interviews with experts. This is a much easier deal to arrange than just asking someone to do an interview and spill their guts for nothing.


This shows real respect for their knowledge in addition to making them money, so it helps build the relationship with these individuals. That means a lot more in the long run than just saying, "Hey. I'll give you 50% to promote my stuff." And, since the deal promotes them as much as you, it's much easier to get them to continue the offer indefinitely instead of stopping with a single commission-based promotion.


So, with a process like this, you're looking to: drive targeted traffic, sell product, create product, build your personal network, recruit active affiliates and generate links. Plug a few places into the process where people who don't buy can sign up for your list, say through an affiliate-branded mini-course that promotes your product, and you've got the Grand Slam.


This is really just an example of building a better offer.
Promoting your site with articles? Do a very in-depth version that will serve as a lead generating report or a chapter of a book. Then use a shorter version that still offers useful information as the submitted piece.


Want to get to know some of the players in a specific niche market? Create a product that includes them or points to their sites. Introduce yourself, give them a review copy to let them know what's being said, and take it from there.


Look at everything you do and see how you can connect at least two or more of the goals listed above into the process. Spend a half hour on that right now, and I'm sure you'll find lots of ways you can put this idea to work to increase your immediate profits and long-term growth. If you're not sure where to start, start anywhere. Got a product? Pick one of the 7 things and ask yourself, "How can I do more with this process?"


Repeat it for each thing on the list. Then go do it. When you're done, pick another part of your business and do it again.

13 September 2009

The 5 Things it Takes to Succeed Online

Before I get started, I should point out that parts of this may seem basic to some people. The key to getting the most from this manual is to remember that none of these things exist independently of the others.

Without putting at least most of them together, you won't have a business at all. And that brings us to an important distinction. That's the difference between a business and a succession of money-making projects.

If you're doing projects and you stop, the money stops. Immediately. If you stop because you're sick or you have a family emergency, stopping the money can be very inconvenient indeed.

A business, on the other hand, can keep going with someone else at the helm, and the money can keep coming in. It's entirely possible, with some models, for the business to keep generating cash automatically for months or even years, without any need for regular oversight.

Which do you want? A succession of projects, or a business?

That's a question you need to answer for yourself. Either way is fine, but you need to
understand that there is a difference, and it's important.

'Nuff said on that.

Please also keep in mind that this blog is intended to show you what you need to do and to learn. It's waaaay past the scope of the thing to teach you how to do every part of what's covered. That's for later.

As you probably guessed from the title of this blog, there are five things you must have for a truly successful online business. They are:


1. A product that delivers value
2. A site that communicates that value effectively
3. Visitors that already want what you're selling
4. Leverage
5. Focus

The last two I listed are usually not found on internet marketing. They're ignored by
the majority of people who try to start a business online. They're also what makes for real success.

Let me explain each of them, in order.

A Product That Delivers Value

This one is easy, as long as you remember that value is defined by your prospective customers. Not you.

I don't care how "cool" you think widget-whackers are. It makes no sense to try and sell widget-whackers to people who have no idea what a widget is, or why it should be whacked.

If your product solves a problem that 100% of the people in the world have, and 0% of the people in the world care about, it's not providing value. And if it doesn't provide obvious value, it won't sell.

Value is defined as "what they want."
  • Not what they need.
  • Not what you think they need.
  • Not what you think they should want.
  • Not what you're sure will make them happy.

What they want.


The more powerful the want, the more you can charge for fulfilling it. And the happier they'll be to pay you for it.


Whether you create the product yourself, or have it done to your specifications, you must make sure it provides value your market wants.


Find out what they want, and give it to them.
It's that simple.


A Site That Communicates That Value Effectively


Communicate benefits. For those of you who are new to the whole thing, you may be confused about the difference between a benefit and a feature. That's likely true even for most people who don't know they're confused.


Don't worry, it's a lot simpler than most people make it sound. In fact, it was the content of the shortest issue of this blog.


Benefits exist in the head and the heart. Everything else is a feature.


Yeah. I thought it was an important enough point to make that the whole issue.


Keeping that definition in mind, remember: People buy for benefits. They rationalize the decision with features.


You may think that doesn't apply to you, or your market. If you think that, you'd be wrong. Like most things that have to do with human nature, this hasn't changed in a Very Long Time.


When you create a product or write a sales letter, you should do so with one thing in mind: Giving people things they perceive as benefits. Things that make them feel better or that make them feel better about themselves.


Everything else is fluff and mummery.


Your site must be built and written around the goal of communicating to your visitors that you have the answer to a question they're already asking.


"How do I get this condition or this state that I want?"

A Side Note, on Roses and Aspirin


There are two kinds of sales: Roses and aspirin.


A "rose" sale is something that appeals to their opinion of themselves, or that promises to make them feel good by making someone else feel good about them.


An "aspirin" sale promises to solve a problem that causes them pain. It's a "feel better" thing.


A "rose sale" is fun, but it's too easy. There are tons of people who can make you feel good about yourself, who can appeal to your ego. The money in a "rose sale" is sometimes as good, but it's up against more competition, and it doesn't inspire loyalty.


On the other hand, an "aspirin sale" means you've fixed a problem. You've removed pain. That creates a much more loyal customer. Someone who trusts you implicitly and wants to deal with you again in the future.


It's also a bigger ticket sale, most of the time.


If you can communicate both - appeal to their ego AND eliminate pain - you're golden. Try to do that in every sales letter you write, or have written for you.


I strongly recommend that you learn the basics of writing effective sales copy, even if you intend to have someone else write your letters and ads for you. That way, you'll have an idea of what's needed before the writing starts, and how to tell if it's good when it's done.


If you understand how to communicate benefits, you'll be able to explain them to your copywriter, and to "see" them in the finished copy.


Some experienced salespeople often confuse benefits with features. To make it easier:

If you can touch it, it's a feature. If you feel it, it's a benefit.


Benefits are all about feelings. Removing bad ones or adding good ones.


Features are the things that make benefits happen. People only care about the features if they don't already know the product will work.


People don't need to be told how aspirin works, because they know it does. Conversely, they do need logical reasons to justify spending thousands of dollars for the feeling they'll get from owning that new 60" high definition TV.


Which brings up another point: Features don't always even have to relate to the benefits the prospect is looking for. As an example, how about that new 60" high-def system?


I've never seen an ad that talked about any of the logical features that lead to actual benefits. They talk about the "big, bright, crystal-clear picture."


That is not a benefit!


It's barely a feature, unless you have vision problems. You just don't need a 60" TV.
A big-screen TV is a toy. A large, expensive, very cool toy.


There's nothing wrong with toys. You just need to realize, if that's what you're selling, that the appeal to logic doesn't have to be real strong. People can justify their toys just fine without it.


It's all about benefits. All the time. That's what you're promoting. That's what they're buying. That is a critical thing to understand, and it's a lot easier than most sales trainers and copywriting courses make it seem.


Visitors That Already Want What You're Selling


Here's a little secret about people involved in the "Internet marketing" field: One out of four would eat their own young for an extra 15 visitors a day.


Fortunately, the rest are really cool, so you've got decent odds of getting out of it alive. If you think I'm kidding, watch the things some people will do to get you to visit their site, or sign up for their list.


Some are deceptive. Some give away the farm to get a glass of milk. Some beg, some borrow and some steal.


Some make a planned effort to only talk to the people who already want what they're offering. Who do you think is going to make more money and have more fun?

Some people will tell you that any traffic is good traffic. That is not true. I've seen businesses fail because they had too much of the wrong kind of traffic. More common are the businesses that fail because they didn't have enough of the right kind. I have never seen a business fail because they had too much qualified traffic.


No matter what you're offering, you need to have a plan to attract the people who already want it, and to get them to your site at a price that creates a profit.


That's much easier if you create the product in response to an existing demand for which you've already identified traffic sources.


Traffic is the place where your math skills will be most important. You need to watch your "visitor value." That's the amount of income generated, on average, for every person who lands on your site. You need to know what it is for every traffic source you pay for, so you can judge the best places to put your money. You need to know what it is for free traffic, so you can gauge where your time is best spent. And you need to track it over time, to make sure it's staying in the profitable range.


If you're planning on working on only "free" traffic generation, make sure you remember that your time has value. Decide what value is acceptable as a return for that time.


If you're concentrating on promoting affiliate products, you need to consider "earnings per click"(EPC). How much money do you make, on the average, every time someone clicks on your affiliate link? Basically, that's your "visitor value" for a visitor you send to someone else. The math is simple, but you have to do it.


This is why you'll hear so much about testing and tracking. You need to know how you're doing now so you can compare it to how you do in the future.


How else can you expect to improve?


When you consider the value of traffic generation, you need to keep in mind that some traffic generation techniques pay over a longer time than others.


The worst kind of traffic technique is one that happens only once, and can't be duplicated. This can be profitable, even very profitable. This is stuff like press releases, articles that get printed in newsletters but not on websites. If you do that sort of traffic generation, make sure you have a way to get at least some of those people into your affiliate program or on your customer or subscriber list.


This is not to say you should avoid this kind of traffic. Not at all. It can help provide the boost you need to make some money and get the staying power to work on other methods, generate other products, or pay for more consistent traffic.


If it's effective at generating subscribers or affiliates, it's worth making time to keep doing it. But it should not be your main focus.

There are ways of generating traffic that keep working, long after you've stopped working at them yourself. Free (or paid) ebooks or reports that contain links to your site. Articles posted on other sites that contain links to your own. Viral systems that get people to spread the word about your site on their own.


Or an affiliate program. You pay people for every visitor to your site that does something specific and measurable. Signs up for your list, buys your product, or asks for information on your services.


The more attractive you make it for other people to send you traffic, the more traffic they'll send you. And they'll keep doing it as long as it's profitable for them to do so.


Paid traffic is another option. This includes various systems like pay-per-click, banner ads, CPA networks, and even more odd sounding items. The benefit of paid traffic is that most of it can be expanded. If it's profitable, you can buy more of it.


That can be a very fast way to build a business, if you know how to properly measure and track changes in the value of that traffic. But this not for those with small budgets.


The best traffic is that generated by your own subscribers and customers. They know you, trust you (if you've treated them right), and have a demonstrated interest in your subject.


The best way to build a solid base is to build a list of people who're interested in your offers, and treat those people well.


If there's one thing you get from this lesson, it should be this: Know who your perfect prospect is, know where to find them, and know what they want to get before they'll give you what you want in return. After that, it's all about creating systems to repeat the process.


Leverage


Leverage is a simple concept. You arrange your strategy to get more results from a given effort than would normally be expected.


Leverage is one of the most talked about things in business, and pretty much everyone gets it wrong online. Well, it might be more accurate to say that almost everyone gets less of it right than they could.


Let's take a simple example: You write an article and submit it to various newsletters for publication. If it gets picked up, you could get a decent amount of traffic from it.


  • Write it as a 5-10 page report, and offer a condensation of the report as an article. Then suggest that readers go to your website for a report giving more details on how to do what you've just told them they need to do. Give it as a bonus for subscribing to your list.

  • Include a link to your product, and give the article to your affiliates to use on their sites or in their own mailings. Let them put their affiliate links in where yours is in the original.

  • Same as above, but get people to subscribe, and track the affiliate who sent them. Give that affiliate credit for ALL sales of your products made to the folks they sent your way.

  • Have a plan that allows you to use the same report as a chapter in a product.

  • Sell reprint rights to a branded version of the report, with a link to your site or
    product. Also, include a link (not too obvious or disruptive) that tells the readers they can also distribute the report. This makes the report an even better tool for your affiliates to use to generate sales, since their version will be distributed by the folks they give/sell it to.

  • Make sure there's something in every version that points people to your list, and gives them a reason to subscribe.

There are other techniques. Lots of them. This is just to give you the basic idea. For a list of the most important areas where you should look to apply leverage, keep an eye out for the next blog: Visit the The 7 things you must include in everything you do online.


Leverage isn't only a matter of which techniques you use. It also means making the most of how you use them. You want to work at improving every step of the process.


Let's say you have an article that you've promoted to 100 publishers, and 10% of them use it. Each of them has 3000 subscribers, and 10% of those click through to your site. Of those, 3% end up buying. That would be 90 sales.


If you can improve each of those things by 10%, you end up with 110 publishers, same 3000 subscribers each (you can't control that), with 11% clicking through and 3.3% ordering. That's 119 sales. A 32% increase.


Not bad. That sort of incremental improvement can make a big difference in your income. But it's not leverage.


Think about how this can build on itself if you make those improvements part of a multichannel process that re-purposes that same content over and over again in different ways.


Before you create any content or promotional piece, whether a simple banner or classified ad, an article, viral report or free online service, think about how you can use it in different ways to get more from your effort. Then think about how you can make each of those ways more effective.


I promise you, you will be surprised at what you come up with. Both in terms of ideas and increased results.


Focus


You know what this is. You've been there. But you may not have the words you need to repeat the process on demand.
Hopefully, this will provide you those words:
Focus is wanting something so bad that you measure every action against the answer to one question:


"Does this move me closer to what I want, faster than whatever else I could be doing?"


Focus is the thing that separates the successes from the almosts. It's sometimes the hardest thing to get and keep. And it's as easy as knowing what you really want and gauging your actions based on the answers to that one simple question.

12 September 2009

Directory Submission For Search Engine Visibilty

If a website has both optimized web page content and good inbound links we know that high rankings on Google and other search engines can be achieved.

Optimizing the content of your website is not that difficult, it is more difficult to get good inbound links. A relatively easy way to get inbound links is to submit websites to Internet directories. But do these Internet directory submission optimize your search engine visibility and improve your ranking on search engines?

I made a list on 35 important directories to submit your website and blog. These are free directory list, paid directory list, recip directory list, deep links directory list and article list. Paid directory will help to get your site listed quickly and will start getting targeted website traffic. Visits and conversions will increased and the traffic source will indicate that at least 50 percent of the results could be attributed to the directory links.

Getting links from Internet directories should be a fundamental part of any search engine optimization strategy. You should submit your website to all big Internet directories and to Internet directories that cover your niche.

Links from Internet directories are only one way to get links from other sites. If you want to outperform your competitors, you also need links from websites that are related to yours. Links from blogs will also help.

Don’t forget to optimize your website content before building links. The better your website content has been prepared for search engines, the better the links to your website will work.

Update On Google's PageRank Sculpting

Google's Matt Cutts recently made a statement about the way Google now treats nofollow links. He said, they have made a change on how you can use the nofollow attribute which instruct some search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target's ranking in the search engine's index. So, does this mean PageRank sculpting on your website will still help to get a higher ranking on Google?

What is PageRank sculpting?

PageRank sculpting is the attempt to control the link power of one web page to another page of the same website. For instance, when Google finds a website with three links then the link power is evenly passed to all three links




Some webmasters thought that if a web page has a high PageRank of 8 then it shouldn't pass that PageRank power to reduce the effectiveness of certain types of search engine spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results and preventing spamdexing from occurring.


For that reason, some webmasters started to use the rel=nofollow attribute for these links:

Links that are marked with the nofollow attribute shouldn't be followed by Google. That meant that the other links on the web page benefited more from the high PageRank of the page. As soon below:



In this example, link 1 passes no link power while link 2 and 3 each pass half of the available link power to the target page. The result is that the linked pages have a higher chance of getting listed in the search results.

Google disclosed that they had taken measures to mitigate the effects of PageRank sculpting by use of the nofollow attribute on links.


Link 1 still doesn't pass any link power but the link power of that link is simply discarded.

What does this mean for your website?

The change means that PageRank sculpting with the nofollow attribute does not work anymore and that it now makes sense to remove any nofollow links that go to your own website. You're just wasting link power by using the attribute for links to your own pages.

Do not waste your time by trying to manipulate the links on your web pages. Better concentrate on a good user experience with good web page content and an easy to understand website navigation. Websites with a good user experience usually get more links from other websites.

6 September 2009

Sites To Make Money While Creating Your Own Product

I just remembered one of my friends (Stanley) who made some cool cash while writing a comic books about his super heroes and decided to write this blog. He use to tell us about two brothers who are detectives (Dredo and Jackson) which was one of my favourites. One thing i like about Stanley is that, he is very good at drawing and telling his comic stories at the same time. Although you might not be interested in reading comic books, he will definitely make you read his story - that is how good he is. Everyone loved him because he is very charismatic in telling his comic stories. Now, you might want to hear more about Stanley and his comic books but he told us to keep it a top secret.

Stanley used his impressive drawings and stories to entertain us and realised he could take his talent to the next level. Some of us who are passionate about creating art works, writing books or maybe love to design just for fun. This is your chance to make money creating your own product. Thankfully, for many types of products, print-on-demand technologies have made it possible for anyone to create and sell goods over the Internet with little or no up-front costs.


Imagekind

If you want to sell your artwork, Imagekind is the perfect place for any artist. You can easily sign-up and start uploading your digital image. They have different selection of high quality frames and visual interface for choosing the perfect combination. Imagekind handles all the transactions and payments once your product is bought. The amount you earn simply depends your price tag. It is free to become a member, and it only costs money if you want more online storage space for your digital image. You can buy, sell and create high end framed art at Imagekind.


CafePress
CafePress have about 6.5 million members, where individuals from all walks of life gather online to create, sell, and buy T-Shirts and other "print-on-demand" products. They offer large catalogs of products on which you can print any design. When you join cafepress group, they offer bulk ordering with discounts, free shopping, easy to use design, no minimum quantity and shirts as low as $5.99.

Zazzle

Zazzle was launched in 2005 and it is very similar to cafepress. They also offer customizable products including bags, mugs, skateboards, sweatshirts, ties, t-shirts, aprons, jackets, postage stamps, and shoes. Zazzle users has created at least 19 billion products over the past few years.


Lulu

Lulu offers an amazing service for any author who wants to publish a printed book including eBooks, calenders, photo books, poetry books, cook books, CD's and DVD's. They will help get your products listed for sale on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Brick and mortar book-stores will also be able to order your book if requested by a customer. They also provide you with tools to help you sell and promote your work through social networks like facebook.

Spreadshirt
Spreadshirt has made their online product designer very easy to use. They specialize on t-shirts as well as bags, aprons, hats and neckties. You can open your free shop on
Spreadshirt! Design your own shirts and sell them online. You will earn commission based on the price tag for every purchased product.

5 September 2009

Guideline For Adding Credibility To Your Website


Matt McGee SEO Success Pyramid shows how to build an effective long term customers trust. Rankings without trust have little value and SEO is pointless if your website does not convert. By adding credibility to your website will help stabilize your ranking and increases your visitor value which is an important aspect of making money online. The whole issue is just to gain visitors trust. There's no how you can gain visitors trust by having a shady website. You should have a strong unique website design, a reliable host, and most of all helping visitors to build mental association between your products and the problems you solve(your brand). It's likely to become more successful if you consider these necessary points.

Stanford University has compiled 10 guidelines for website credibility based on three years research.

The Stanford Guidelines For Website Credibility:

  • Show that there's a real organization behind your site.
  • Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.
  • Show that honest and trustworthy people stands behind your site.
  • Make it easy to contact you.
  • Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).
  • Make your site easy to use - and useful.
  • Update your site's content often (at least show it's been reviewed recently).
  • Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g ads, offers).
  • Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.

How To Build A Profitable Niche Market

Let me spell it out. I am going to take a chance here and short circuit the whole learning process on building a profitable niche market. This is the "secret" to building an incredibly profitable internet business:

"If you build up a list of people that have a strong connection with you, and that eagerly look forward to your mailings, then you have a license to print money. You simply ask them what they would buy from you, then you create it or find it, and then you sell it to them."


That's it. It really is that simple. It might not be easy, but it is really, really simple. This isn't the fastest way to get rich. It requires some patience. And you actually have to do some work. But it as close to a sure thing as I know.

Don't leave yet. I'm just getting started on how to build a profitable niche market.

Once you have the big plan, then you have a focus. And focus is the thing that will take you further than you can dare dream right now. Without further ado, here are the five steps that will give you an internet business that you will turn into a cashcow:

1. Find Your Niche
2. Build A List of Prospects
3. Ask Them What They Want
4. Sell Them What They Want
5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4

It might a too simlpe but it's not. There are loads of stuff to discuss.

Now let's take a closer look at each of them.
  1. Find Your Niche: You need a niche. Some people think that the whole world is their market. That is a warning sign. It is very expensive and time consuming to reach the entire world. The more you can focus down onto a market, the easier it is to build a profitable list of prospects or clients. And usually, the tighter the niche, the more valuable it is. Suppose you are a roofer... which do you think would be more valuable, a list of people with houses, or a list of people with 30 year old houses with roofs that needed to bere placed? If you are a realtor in the 80226 zip code, which is more valuable, a list of everyone thinking about buying a house,or a list of everyone currently looking for a house in the particular zip code? Do you know YOUR niche? In my experience this is the one thing that stops people in their tracks more than anything else. But figuring it out isn't that hard - and I will show you how to do it.

  2. Build A List Of Prospects: This has become standard advice from almost everyone - you need to build a list. But this leads to so many questions. How do I build a list? What do I send to the list? How often do I send to the list? How do I actually send to a list? Should I use an autoresponder? Well, I have a few very unique ideas on lists. For example, I will advise you to start building the list immediately. Even before you have a product. You can publish newsletters and build relationship with your list. Avoid promoting products with this particular list. Learn more on how to build your subcribers list.

  3. Ask Them What the Want: Once you have a list, and after you have built a relationship with them. Then you simply ask them what they want from you. And the amazing thing is... they will tell you. And then they will even tell you how much you should charge for it. You just have to know how to ask so that you get accurate answers. Be careful with that. If you ask the wrong way, people will lie. They won't do it to deceive you. They'll do it because they think that what they're saying is “the expected thing,” or that it's “what you want to hear.”

  4. Sell Them What They Want: This is the easiest part because you already know what they want. When you launch your product, just watch and see how your conversion rate will increase every day. That is the power of selling a product that your list really wants. It makes life a lot easier.

  5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4: Once you have your list and you have nurtured your relationship with that list, then you just keep on repeating steps 3 and 4. You continually seek input from your list on what type of products they want. Then you offer those products to them.
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