No doubt you've heard the phrase "pay per click" before. This refers to any type of advertising where you only pay per click-through.
Traditional Web advertising, such as banner ads, charged advertisers based how many people SAW your ad. But with pay-per-click deals, you only pay for how many people actually CLICK on your ad (to get to your offer page or Web site).
This is great because essentially you only pay for RESULTS.
THE PAY-PER-CLICK SEARCH PHENOMENON
One of the most popular places pay-per-click has become a phenomenon is within search engines and Web directories. For example, let's use one of my own listings.
Go to http://www.yahoo.com/ right now and search for "ezine publishing." On the search results page, you'll see at the VERY top a section called "Sponsor Listings."
Guess who is listed up here? Yours truly! In fact, at the time I wrote this article, my book site — http://www.ezinequeen.com/tutorial/index.htm — is listed at number one.
Underneath the sponsor listings is the section called "Web Matches," which shows the regular search engine listings that are submitted and indexed the traditional way.
If you do searches for "ezine publishing" on Lycos, AltaVista, and CNET, you'll also see me in the top "Sponsor Listings."
How did I achieve this? Did I pay some search-engine-optimization guru thousands of dollars to tweak my Web site in the favor of all these search engines' algorithms?
No way! I'm on a small business budget, just like you. I achieved these listings myself, and you can too. In fact, it's ridiculously easy.
I simply opened an account with Overture and bid on the phrase "ezine publishing." Overture (http://www.overture.com) provides the "sponsor" listings at all of these sites.
Now, don't let the word "bid" scare you — it's actually a simple process. Once you have an Overture account, you can go in and see exactly who is bidding on the keywords you want, how much they are bidding, and how many clicks these keywords get each week. Then you can choose an appropriate amount to bid and estimate your budget. Some popular keywords go for several dollars, while others go for as little as 5 cents.
AIM TO LAND ONE OF THE TOP THREE SPOTS
Your goal should be to land one of the *top three* spots for your keywords at Overture, because most of the affiliate sites (such as Yahoo) ONLY show Overture's top three listings at the top of the page in that "sponsor" section, which people see FIRST. If you're number four or five in Overture, you may show up at the bottom of the search page, if at all.
Right now Overture has contracts with Yahoo, MSN, Netscape, Lycos, AltaVista, CNET, and more search sites, and they claim their listings reach more than *80 percent* of all U.S. Internet users!
EASY TO SET UP, QUICK RESULTS
I'm the first to admit that while I'm "The E-zine Queen," I'm NOT a technical person. I do none of my own Web design, programming, or computer maintenance, and I'm apt to throw money at anyone who can help me avoid technical tasks! But I found Overture easy to figure out.
It only takes them a few days to approve and post your listings. This means if you sign up today, your site can be listed for the keywords you choose by next week. And that means more TARGETED TRAFFIC to your site by next week!
THERE ARE OTHERS TOO
There are a few other popular pay-per-click services out there. Google AdWords Select (https://adwords.google.com/select) is one of them. Their service works very similarly to Overture, although your listings appear a bit differently — in little boxes alongside of the regular search listings. And your position is determined not only by your bid, but by your ad's popularity (number of clicks).
The only drawback I found with Google's service is that they absolutely will not accept any listing for a site that features a pop-up window. Even if the pop-up features content that is completely related to the site, such as for a newsletter. I hemmed and hawed to their editorial staff ... and got nowhere.
GIVE THEM A TRY!
So be sure to give pay-per-clicks a try. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad, so why not see what type of results you get?
It's important to remember that pay-per-clicks are just one tactic in your bag of online marketing tricks. Don't rely on them for all of your Web site traffic. You should still put effort into achieving regular search engine listings and gaining online exposure in other ways.
As your mother likely told you, don't put all your eggs in one basket! ; )
(c) 2000-2003 Alexandria K. Brown.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," is author of the award-winning manual, "Boost Business With Your Own E-zine." To learn more about her book and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://EzineQueenTutorial.com/'; return true;" onMouseout="window.status=''; return true;">http://EzineQueenTutorial.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alexandria_K._Brown
5
Showing posts with label Internet Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet Marketing. Show all posts
Monday, July 9, 2007
Surefire Google Adwords Formula
Success with Google Adwords isn't quite as easy as some would have you believe.
Still just about anyone who is persistent can succeed if they'll but implement a consistent testing program. Since testing can produce a nearly constant improvement in your click through rate (CTR).
Here’s the surefire three-step formula that’s as easy as one...two...three.
Surefire Step #1: Develop Your Initial Test Ads
Notice I said ads not ad.
You want to present two competing ideas to your market right away. Letting your prospects tell you which they prefer.
Tip: Test headlines first while keeping the body copy the same. Headlines can have a huge impact.
Tip: Set it up so Google serves up both ads equally. Otherwise Google will present the ad that's producing the most click throughs more often which will skew your test.
Surefire Step #2: Monitor Results
After 40 clicks review your results. Google displays the ads under your listings. Showing the number of clicks each ad got.
Here’s early results from a campaign I tested:
High PR Reciprocal Links
Easily Get More Traffic Fast!
Access Directory of High PR Sites.
HighPRLinkClub.com
39 Clicks | 1.4% CTR |
Served - 49.5%
High PR Reciprocal Links
Boost Search Engine Ranking Fast.
High PR Links Equals More Traffic.
HighPRLinkClub.com
26 Clicks | 0.9% CTR |
Served - 50.5%
Each ad was served up half the time. Yet one outperformed the other by more than 50%. As one had a 1.4% CTR. While the other only .9% CTR. So by doing nothing more than setting up two ads I found one was clearly a winner.
In case you're wondering I have no idea why one ad worked better. And really don't care. Marketing is about "what works" not so much "why it works".
CRITICAL STEP: You've got an ad that produces clicks. Now you want to improve on that without wasting half your impressions on an idea that may or may not work. So here's the trick.
Surefire Step #3: Duplicate the winner. Add another contender.
With three ads being served up equally the winner will be presented two-thirds of the time. While the test ad will only be shown one third of the time.
From here on wait until the challenger accumulates 40 clicks before deciding if it's better or not. (Unless it’s dramatically out performing the reigning winner.) If so it's the new champ. If it is, or isn't, repeat Step 3 trying another idea.
CTR Boosting Ideas to Test
Here are five known CTR boosting tactics you can test:
• Put the target keyword in the headline. Google will bold it to draw attention to your ad.
• List the big benefit on the first line of text followed by the features. Does this generate more response than an ad that simply lists various features?
• Capitalize the first letter of each word verses using all lowercase.
• Do action inducing words like...sign up, new, right now, today, buy now, save now, apply here ...impact response?
• Qualify by including the price.
Result? Over time you'll improve your CTR driving more traffic to your site. Making you a winner in the Adwords game.
This is why I say you don't have to be a marketing Einstein to develop Adwords ads that work. Just know a little bit about your market’s hot buttons and the market will tell you the rest.
See? a surefire formula that's as easy as one...two...three.
So what you waiting for? Start testing today for more traffic tomorrow.
John Gergye shares more ideas like this in his just updated eBook "Traffic From Google in 35 Days". Find out more here: http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/j/tfg35cl.shtml Or test your search engine IQ by taking his seo quiz http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/search-engine-quiz.shtml and get the free special report "Coming Out On Top".
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Gergye
Still just about anyone who is persistent can succeed if they'll but implement a consistent testing program. Since testing can produce a nearly constant improvement in your click through rate (CTR).
Here’s the surefire three-step formula that’s as easy as one...two...three.
Surefire Step #1: Develop Your Initial Test Ads
Notice I said ads not ad.
You want to present two competing ideas to your market right away. Letting your prospects tell you which they prefer.
Tip: Test headlines first while keeping the body copy the same. Headlines can have a huge impact.
Tip: Set it up so Google serves up both ads equally. Otherwise Google will present the ad that's producing the most click throughs more often which will skew your test.
Surefire Step #2: Monitor Results
After 40 clicks review your results. Google displays the ads under your listings. Showing the number of clicks each ad got.
Here’s early results from a campaign I tested:
High PR Reciprocal Links
Easily Get More Traffic Fast!
Access Directory of High PR Sites.
HighPRLinkClub.com
39 Clicks | 1.4% CTR |
Served - 49.5%
High PR Reciprocal Links
Boost Search Engine Ranking Fast.
High PR Links Equals More Traffic.
HighPRLinkClub.com
26 Clicks | 0.9% CTR |
Served - 50.5%
Each ad was served up half the time. Yet one outperformed the other by more than 50%. As one had a 1.4% CTR. While the other only .9% CTR. So by doing nothing more than setting up two ads I found one was clearly a winner.
In case you're wondering I have no idea why one ad worked better. And really don't care. Marketing is about "what works" not so much "why it works".
CRITICAL STEP: You've got an ad that produces clicks. Now you want to improve on that without wasting half your impressions on an idea that may or may not work. So here's the trick.
Surefire Step #3: Duplicate the winner. Add another contender.
With three ads being served up equally the winner will be presented two-thirds of the time. While the test ad will only be shown one third of the time.
From here on wait until the challenger accumulates 40 clicks before deciding if it's better or not. (Unless it’s dramatically out performing the reigning winner.) If so it's the new champ. If it is, or isn't, repeat Step 3 trying another idea.
CTR Boosting Ideas to Test
Here are five known CTR boosting tactics you can test:
• Put the target keyword in the headline. Google will bold it to draw attention to your ad.
• List the big benefit on the first line of text followed by the features. Does this generate more response than an ad that simply lists various features?
• Capitalize the first letter of each word verses using all lowercase.
• Do action inducing words like...sign up, new, right now, today, buy now, save now, apply here ...impact response?
• Qualify by including the price.
Result? Over time you'll improve your CTR driving more traffic to your site. Making you a winner in the Adwords game.
This is why I say you don't have to be a marketing Einstein to develop Adwords ads that work. Just know a little bit about your market’s hot buttons and the market will tell you the rest.
See? a surefire formula that's as easy as one...two...three.
So what you waiting for? Start testing today for more traffic tomorrow.
John Gergye shares more ideas like this in his just updated eBook "Traffic From Google in 35 Days". Find out more here: http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/j/tfg35cl.shtml Or test your search engine IQ by taking his seo quiz http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/search-engine-quiz.shtml and get the free special report "Coming Out On Top".
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Gergye
Are Small PPC Search Engines Really Worth The Effort?
Are Small PPC Search Engines Really Worth The Effort?
The final answer is "Maybe."
Hey...Whadya expect? I'm an attorney!
But let me explain further. The correct answer to almost any marketing question is "to test." That's the only way you really know the true answer. But we can learn from the results that others have and adapt them to our marketing.
When it comes to PPC (pay-per-click) search engines, you know they are not all created equal. Google and Overture dominate the market. The total traffic you get from them will dwarf the total from all other PPC search engines combined.
But does that mean that there's no money in the little guys? Au Contraire. (That's the fancy French way of saying, "No." -- and I probably missspelllled it. It's been long time since my high school French class.)
Before I give you some suggestions, please realize that your results are going to vary - always.
Here's the most important point of this entire article:
Your conversion rate will vary from search engine to search engine. A lot. By as much as 300%.
You can run an advertisement on Google and get a 2% conversion ratio of visitors turning into buyers. Then, run the same advertisement on Overture and only see a 1% conversion ratio. Always...always track your promotions and results. They'll be all over the place in terms of conversion.
Does that mean you should stop the ads with the lower conversion ratio?
Absolutely not...unless you're not showing a profit. Aha. Remember, it doesn't matter that the conversion ratio varies as long as you make a profit!
Let's assume you foolishly have no backend marketing in place so the only money you ever see from a customer is on the one- time sale that has a profit of $30 per sale. And you require at least a $15 profit to you after costs. with a 1% conversion ratio, you can pay 15 cents per click and still make your numbers work. You'll get less clicks than if you bid higher, but you can still make the numbers work for you.
Of course, every PPC campaign you get set up and running profitably can be basically put on autopilot. You don't have to micro-manage the campaigns. Just let them keep on bringing in buyers.
You will generally find that the smaller PPC search engines have lower conversion rates than the big two. But they will also usually have a lower average bid.
Just track your clicks and sales so you can adjust your bids to make your numbers work. Even if a specific campaign only results in 1 more profitable sale per month - that's a sale that can keep coming in month after month after month. Do that for just 50 or 100 keyword and search engine combos... and you've got some nice extra moolah rolling in.
If you go to http://www.ShawnsNews.net/ListPPC_SE.html you can get an enormous listing of over 600 PPC search engines and read reviews of the top 30 - more or less. You also find that these listings are often somewhat out of date, but it's a still a good resource.
Yours in success,
Shawn Casey
Internet Millionaire Shawn Casey's "Mining Gold On the Internet" is one of the best selling Internet books with over 85,000 copies sold. In "Mining Gold", Shawn reveals the same step-by-step strategies he uses to create millions in Internet sales => http://www.ipcgold.com/ad/100/CD3839 Benefit from Shawn's 7 years of Internet experience and learn from someone who has actually made millions online.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shawn_Casey
The final answer is "Maybe."
Hey...Whadya expect? I'm an attorney!
But let me explain further. The correct answer to almost any marketing question is "to test." That's the only way you really know the true answer. But we can learn from the results that others have and adapt them to our marketing.
When it comes to PPC (pay-per-click) search engines, you know they are not all created equal. Google and Overture dominate the market. The total traffic you get from them will dwarf the total from all other PPC search engines combined.
But does that mean that there's no money in the little guys? Au Contraire. (That's the fancy French way of saying, "No." -- and I probably missspelllled it. It's been long time since my high school French class.)
Before I give you some suggestions, please realize that your results are going to vary - always.
Here's the most important point of this entire article:
Your conversion rate will vary from search engine to search engine. A lot. By as much as 300%.
You can run an advertisement on Google and get a 2% conversion ratio of visitors turning into buyers. Then, run the same advertisement on Overture and only see a 1% conversion ratio. Always...always track your promotions and results. They'll be all over the place in terms of conversion.
Does that mean you should stop the ads with the lower conversion ratio?
Absolutely not...unless you're not showing a profit. Aha. Remember, it doesn't matter that the conversion ratio varies as long as you make a profit!
Let's assume you foolishly have no backend marketing in place so the only money you ever see from a customer is on the one- time sale that has a profit of $30 per sale. And you require at least a $15 profit to you after costs. with a 1% conversion ratio, you can pay 15 cents per click and still make your numbers work. You'll get less clicks than if you bid higher, but you can still make the numbers work for you.
Of course, every PPC campaign you get set up and running profitably can be basically put on autopilot. You don't have to micro-manage the campaigns. Just let them keep on bringing in buyers.
You will generally find that the smaller PPC search engines have lower conversion rates than the big two. But they will also usually have a lower average bid.
Just track your clicks and sales so you can adjust your bids to make your numbers work. Even if a specific campaign only results in 1 more profitable sale per month - that's a sale that can keep coming in month after month after month. Do that for just 50 or 100 keyword and search engine combos... and you've got some nice extra moolah rolling in.
If you go to http://www.ShawnsNews.net/ListPPC_SE.html you can get an enormous listing of over 600 PPC search engines and read reviews of the top 30 - more or less. You also find that these listings are often somewhat out of date, but it's a still a good resource.
Yours in success,
Shawn Casey
Internet Millionaire Shawn Casey's "Mining Gold On the Internet" is one of the best selling Internet books with over 85,000 copies sold. In "Mining Gold", Shawn reveals the same step-by-step strategies he uses to create millions in Internet sales => http://www.ipcgold.com/ad/100/CD3839 Benefit from Shawn's 7 years of Internet experience and learn from someone who has actually made millions online.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shawn_Casey
Who Else Wants To Maximize Their Google Adwords Success?
Who Else Wants To Maximize Their Google Adwords Success?
Discover Three Simple But Incredibly Powerful Strategies That You Can Implement Right Now About The One Thing You Must Do To Ensure An Awesome Adwords ROI!
By Mark Meyers
If you are not familiar with Using Google Adwords, please check out my getting started article here:
http://www.Internet-Income-Advisor.com/Google-Adwords.html
Basically, with Google Adwords you can put your ad in front of people as they are searching for information and solutions online.
Many people will tell you that you need to find hundreds and hundreds of targeted key-words for your product or service.
This is true because the more keywords you find, the more visitors you could attract.
However, there is a bit of a learning curve to get a good steady campaign and Return On Investment (ROI) with Google Adwords.
The one thing you really have to remember and focus on with Google Adwords is to...
TARGET YOUR AD!
Always use your keywords as often as you can in your Ad: in the Title, in the body and even in your domain name.
These words will be highlighted for the web surfer that is viewing their search results, so why not make it easy for them to choose your ad?
TARGET YOUR AD!
Don't create an Ad Group and throw all your hundreds of keywords in, unless they all show up within your ad text.
Instead take a little more time and create one Ad Group for each keyword or phrase.
This will allow you to maximize the use of your specific keywords.
TARGET YOUR AD!
Searches done in July 2004: "work from home"
310780 work from home
12538 work from home job
9384 home work
3399 data entry work from home
Even though there are thousands of people looking to "work from home" your business or opportunity may not include "data entry" positions right? And those "home work" searchers may not be business opportunity seekers at all.
So, use the negative keywords de-selection religiously.
If you don't exclude these searchers from your ad impressions your click-through rate (CTR) will suffer, which will affect your ad's placement and costs.
Also, a very low CTR will slow down the number of times your ad is displayed, until eventually it is disabled completely.
Well there you have it: three simple strategies to target your ad's and maximize your Google Adwords ROI!
Want more Adwords Tips? Pop me an email:
Mark @ Internet-Income-Advisor dot com
Have a great day!
Mark Meyers
http://www.Internet-Income-Advisor.com
May the poorest day of your future be no poorer that the richest day of your past!
Copyright 2004 - Mark Meyers
In my newsletter "The Internet Income Advisor" I cut-to-the-chase and give you ideas and opportunities for earning a nice income online. Why not grab a free copy of my new book: Reliable Monthy Income http://www.Internet-Income-Advisor.com/Reliable-Monthly-Income.html
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Meyers
Discover Three Simple But Incredibly Powerful Strategies That You Can Implement Right Now About The One Thing You Must Do To Ensure An Awesome Adwords ROI!
By Mark Meyers
If you are not familiar with Using Google Adwords, please check out my getting started article here:
http://www.Internet-Income-Advisor.com/Google-Adwords.html
Basically, with Google Adwords you can put your ad in front of people as they are searching for information and solutions online.
Many people will tell you that you need to find hundreds and hundreds of targeted key-words for your product or service.
This is true because the more keywords you find, the more visitors you could attract.
However, there is a bit of a learning curve to get a good steady campaign and Return On Investment (ROI) with Google Adwords.
The one thing you really have to remember and focus on with Google Adwords is to...
TARGET YOUR AD!
Always use your keywords as often as you can in your Ad: in the Title, in the body and even in your domain name.
These words will be highlighted for the web surfer that is viewing their search results, so why not make it easy for them to choose your ad?
TARGET YOUR AD!
Don't create an Ad Group and throw all your hundreds of keywords in, unless they all show up within your ad text.
Instead take a little more time and create one Ad Group for each keyword or phrase.
This will allow you to maximize the use of your specific keywords.
TARGET YOUR AD!
Searches done in July 2004: "work from home"
310780 work from home
12538 work from home job
9384 home work
3399 data entry work from home
Even though there are thousands of people looking to "work from home" your business or opportunity may not include "data entry" positions right? And those "home work" searchers may not be business opportunity seekers at all.
So, use the negative keywords de-selection religiously.
If you don't exclude these searchers from your ad impressions your click-through rate (CTR) will suffer, which will affect your ad's placement and costs.
Also, a very low CTR will slow down the number of times your ad is displayed, until eventually it is disabled completely.
Well there you have it: three simple strategies to target your ad's and maximize your Google Adwords ROI!
Want more Adwords Tips? Pop me an email:
Mark @ Internet-Income-Advisor dot com
Have a great day!
Mark Meyers
http://www.Internet-Income-Advisor.com
May the poorest day of your future be no poorer that the richest day of your past!
Copyright 2004 - Mark Meyers
In my newsletter "The Internet Income Advisor" I cut-to-the-chase and give you ideas and opportunities for earning a nice income online. Why not grab a free copy of my new book: Reliable Monthy Income http://www.Internet-Income-Advisor.com/Reliable-Monthly-Income.html
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Meyers
Paying for Website Visitors: The Allure of PPC for Small Biz Owners
There are good reasons why many webmasters and website owners choose to pay for visitors to their website as opposed to the involved and often grueling method of search engine optimization. Improper SEO may not only waste time and resources, there is never a guarantee that what your site is optimized for will result in actual sales or conversions. Choosing Bid for Placement advertising can help ensure that you get what you pay for and pay as little as possible to do it.
How You Know if Pay Per Click is Right for You The single biggest mistake most PPC advertisers make is paying a higher amount for visitors than they can afford. Pay per click search engines are ideal to generate traffic if you already know what it costs to generate one sale or conversion. By not going over their predetermined amount, advertisers can dramatically increase the likelihood of their websites' success.
High-End Pay Per Click is Not Right For You if… There are millions of websites online but only a small percentage of these sites can benefit from the traffic that high-end PPC resources such as Google Adwords or Overture provide. When it comes to generating conversions from the top-tier of PPC's, low profit margin categories of business (members of affiliate programs for example) would do well to avoid higher priced bid for placement search engines (as bid prices are often too high) and focus on 2nd tier pay per click services or vertical portals working on a bid for placement model.
How to Choose A PPC That is Right For Your Campaign When choosing a PPC campaign for your website, take into account not only bid prices, but traffic volume, customer service and account management tools.
Check Bid Prices A significant mistake that novice PPC advertisers make is to jump immediately into the largest advertising networks, namely Google Adwords and Overture. While these PPC's certainly have the most extensive reach, bid prices per visitor are higher than any other network and can easily drain your account before even one visitor converts. Check bid prices before signing on anywhere and match as closely as possible to what you have determined you can pay for each website visitor.
Inquire about Customer Service No thanks to their size, larger PPC's usually have much less attentive customer service (unless you are one of the larger advertisers - this means spending $10,000 a month or more). Many second tier PPC's pride themselves on their attentive customer service. Always ask your PPC company if they can help advise you before and during your campaign to ensure the highest ROI.
Investigate the "Reach" Bid for placement search engines (PPC) are simply advertising networks that help you spread your message to their users. As some PPC networks have greater access to more users, it is important to investigate the reach not only of their own network but the network size of their partners. When speaking with sales or customer representatives ask for a list of their partners.
Top Tips for Success with PPC
There have been many small business website owners who have lost their proverbial shirts with bid for placement advertising. Case study after case study has shown that the reason that most fail with PPC is a lack of understanding on how to maximize the bid for placement model to their advantage across various networks simultaneously. Here are a few tips to make the most of an online advertising campaign using a PPC methodology:
1) PPC success resides in your titles and descriptions:
Well-written titles and descriptions can make or break a PPC advertising campaign the same way they affect traditional search return listings. The most important thing to keep in mind when writing titles and descriptions is that you are not only speaking directly to the searcher, you have an obligation to explain your product or service so that it either elicits a positive response sufficient enough to motivate them to click or discourage them from clicking altogether if what you are offering is not what they are actually looking for. When writing titles and descriptions, focus on the specifics of what that user will find at your site, i.e. special deals or discounts, signup information for a newsletter, registration for an e-book, etc.
2) Use Specific Terms for Specific Pages
By bidding on specific terms related to your business and directing visitors to specific pages which represent those terms, conversion rates on this practice increase dramatically. Imagine conducting a search and finding a great title and description but then having to go through hundreds of page to locate the information. When “landing pages” are created which offer information on what the surfer originally searched for, chances are that they will take the action you want them to, whether it be signing up for a newsletter or purchasing a product. A common rule of thumb is to have no more than fifty terms per page that you are promoting on a PPC.
3) Be Passive or Aggressive, but be something.
Most PPC advertisers are either passive PPC players or aggressive marketers. The secret behind PPC marketing is that these networks’ partner with other networks to display advertisers’ advertisements. So the higher you bid on a PPC, the better placement you will receive on network/partner sites. Bidding in this manner makes you an aggressive PPC marketer and the advantages are many and include – more traffic and more exposure to target markets.
If a small website (or one of a low profit-margin category of business) decides that the traffic that each PPC network alone provides is sufficient, managers of the campaign must be aware of their bid amounts (overbidding or underbidding) as well as what can afford to pay for each visitor. Usually the top four positions are where most of the traffic is received from - the highest percentage of total clicks (thanks to partner networks). The number of clicks in your account will usually decrease incrementally based on your bid.
CONCLUSION: PPC advertising has proven to be a productive method of generating traffic (and more importantly) sales or conversions for many webmasters and web site owners. If you are thinking about trying your hand at pay per click, make sure to use the tips outlined in this article and ask others PPC advertisers if they have any advice!
Thank you for reading this article! If you would like more advice about PPC advertising, become an advertiser of 7Search.com – where you have access to 500 million searches per month, low bid prices and free campaign assistance. Visit 7Search.com today.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Prestipino
How You Know if Pay Per Click is Right for You The single biggest mistake most PPC advertisers make is paying a higher amount for visitors than they can afford. Pay per click search engines are ideal to generate traffic if you already know what it costs to generate one sale or conversion. By not going over their predetermined amount, advertisers can dramatically increase the likelihood of their websites' success.
High-End Pay Per Click is Not Right For You if… There are millions of websites online but only a small percentage of these sites can benefit from the traffic that high-end PPC resources such as Google Adwords or Overture provide. When it comes to generating conversions from the top-tier of PPC's, low profit margin categories of business (members of affiliate programs for example) would do well to avoid higher priced bid for placement search engines (as bid prices are often too high) and focus on 2nd tier pay per click services or vertical portals working on a bid for placement model.
How to Choose A PPC That is Right For Your Campaign When choosing a PPC campaign for your website, take into account not only bid prices, but traffic volume, customer service and account management tools.
Check Bid Prices A significant mistake that novice PPC advertisers make is to jump immediately into the largest advertising networks, namely Google Adwords and Overture. While these PPC's certainly have the most extensive reach, bid prices per visitor are higher than any other network and can easily drain your account before even one visitor converts. Check bid prices before signing on anywhere and match as closely as possible to what you have determined you can pay for each website visitor.
Inquire about Customer Service No thanks to their size, larger PPC's usually have much less attentive customer service (unless you are one of the larger advertisers - this means spending $10,000 a month or more). Many second tier PPC's pride themselves on their attentive customer service. Always ask your PPC company if they can help advise you before and during your campaign to ensure the highest ROI.
Investigate the "Reach" Bid for placement search engines (PPC) are simply advertising networks that help you spread your message to their users. As some PPC networks have greater access to more users, it is important to investigate the reach not only of their own network but the network size of their partners. When speaking with sales or customer representatives ask for a list of their partners.
Top Tips for Success with PPC
There have been many small business website owners who have lost their proverbial shirts with bid for placement advertising. Case study after case study has shown that the reason that most fail with PPC is a lack of understanding on how to maximize the bid for placement model to their advantage across various networks simultaneously. Here are a few tips to make the most of an online advertising campaign using a PPC methodology:
1) PPC success resides in your titles and descriptions:
Well-written titles and descriptions can make or break a PPC advertising campaign the same way they affect traditional search return listings. The most important thing to keep in mind when writing titles and descriptions is that you are not only speaking directly to the searcher, you have an obligation to explain your product or service so that it either elicits a positive response sufficient enough to motivate them to click or discourage them from clicking altogether if what you are offering is not what they are actually looking for. When writing titles and descriptions, focus on the specifics of what that user will find at your site, i.e. special deals or discounts, signup information for a newsletter, registration for an e-book, etc.
2) Use Specific Terms for Specific Pages
By bidding on specific terms related to your business and directing visitors to specific pages which represent those terms, conversion rates on this practice increase dramatically. Imagine conducting a search and finding a great title and description but then having to go through hundreds of page to locate the information. When “landing pages” are created which offer information on what the surfer originally searched for, chances are that they will take the action you want them to, whether it be signing up for a newsletter or purchasing a product. A common rule of thumb is to have no more than fifty terms per page that you are promoting on a PPC.
3) Be Passive or Aggressive, but be something.
Most PPC advertisers are either passive PPC players or aggressive marketers. The secret behind PPC marketing is that these networks’ partner with other networks to display advertisers’ advertisements. So the higher you bid on a PPC, the better placement you will receive on network/partner sites. Bidding in this manner makes you an aggressive PPC marketer and the advantages are many and include – more traffic and more exposure to target markets.
If a small website (or one of a low profit-margin category of business) decides that the traffic that each PPC network alone provides is sufficient, managers of the campaign must be aware of their bid amounts (overbidding or underbidding) as well as what can afford to pay for each visitor. Usually the top four positions are where most of the traffic is received from - the highest percentage of total clicks (thanks to partner networks). The number of clicks in your account will usually decrease incrementally based on your bid.
CONCLUSION: PPC advertising has proven to be a productive method of generating traffic (and more importantly) sales or conversions for many webmasters and web site owners. If you are thinking about trying your hand at pay per click, make sure to use the tips outlined in this article and ask others PPC advertisers if they have any advice!
Thank you for reading this article! If you would like more advice about PPC advertising, become an advertiser of 7Search.com – where you have access to 500 million searches per month, low bid prices and free campaign assistance. Visit 7Search.com today.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Prestipino
Friday, July 6, 2007
3 Overlooked Ways to Get Hundreds of Links and Prospects to Your Blog
Did you know that there are free ways that you can get links back to your blog overnight? That after a few days they can number in the hundreds?
No matter what you market on the internet at some point you'll face the issue of increasing the number of visitors to your site. What most people don't know is that there are literally hundreds of ways to get free traffic. Here we'll focus on three overlooked ways to get additional traffic to your site using a blog.
The third most overlooked way to bring traffic to your site with a blog is to read and comment on other blogs.
Now, maybe you've done this before but stopped, because you're
becoming concerned about being considered a link-spammer. In
that case, leave a link to your site after your comments, instead of in the comment form that hot links it.
In the near future, blogmasters will be able to use special code to prevent spam in their comments section, so this will become less of a concern.
Besides, getting clicks from people who read comments, or visits from search engine spiders through your comments, isn't necessarily your direct objective, though it’s definitely a plus.
What you want to do via commenting is to enter the blog community that corresponds to your target market. Get to know who the players are and make agreements with them to cycle traffic between you.
Or lurk to find out where your target market typically hangs out when they're online – you’d be surprised at how many inexpensive and targeted advertising sources you can find through this method.
(If you're looking to get linked, there's another way that we'll go over next.)
This tip alone has earned me a few dozen links from prominent blogs in the past four days alone.
These links are worth ten times a reciprocal link because they send targeted traffic from established sources, and come from experts with records of proven results.
You can be sure these kinds of people will check you out before they linked to you, since they may be judged by the quality of the information they share.
The second method to more blog traffic is the most confusing for newer people, and this is probably the reason its benefits remain overlooked.
In the simplest of terms, Trackback is kind of a remote commenting system that incorporates linking. It allows the reader to follow a topic around the web to see other bloggers remark on the same subject. It enables the publisher to remotely cite references to the issue on which they've written.
Once you've made yourself familiar with the blogging community you have entered, you can often pick up the pulse of conversations within your site's theme. Then, when you see issues that you want to expound on, you can send the other site a notification to let them know you cited them on your blog. That link will appear on their site, and often draws visitors to you.
Bloggers who use Trackback often enjoy greater control over
this function in their blogs than they do over linking, as they have the option to reject your reference - so there is a lesser incidence of fraudulent linking. That also gives your link a greater chance of being displayed.
So why don't more people use Trackback?
One reason is that what is arguably the most popular free blog system, Blogger, doesn’t have Trackback. However, Haloscan.com can remedy this with their free service – it’s a cut and paste away.
Many new bloggers don't get what it is and how it differs from commenting. And of course, the dynamics of it are a little more complex than I've stated. But learn to use Trackback properly, and you won't need to beg for links to your site ever again.
It's harder to estimate an exact number of visitors that come as a result of trackback links. But if you posted five days out of seven, and was able to get a trackback link to your site three times a week, by the end of the year you'd have almost 150 topical links back to your site, which are more valued by search engines than a typical link trade with an unrelated site.
The most overlooked source of traffic for a blog is through article submission. To start with, turn your longer posts into articles and submitting them to ezines or directories. Look especially for directories that ask for the direct link to the article on your own site, and input the permanent link to the post on your blog.
Make sure that your Auto-Discovery tag is in place and it can mean hundreds more prospects, links and subscribers.
It's a shame this is the one of the least used traffic methods for most sites, let alone for blogs. In four days, this method generated just over 1000 visitors. 157 newsletter leads, 98 new feed subscribers, and 206 links to my site. You may not get these same results right away, but using these simple strategies can still get you more exposure than you have now.
These aren't normally the highest quality links, as they rarely make sure of anchor text. However, bloggers are citing me using Trackback, sometimes in lieu of linking to the site where they originally found the article.
To see this in action, do a search on "Can A Ping Really Help Your Blog Get Top Search Engine Rankings", the title of an article I submitted earlier this week.
That article was published within a week of this one- the results speak for themselves. Many of these sites aren't the ones where my articles are normally published.
There are, of course, plenty of other ways you can leverage the content in your blog or RSS feed to increase the traffic to your site. The methods outlined here may be a bit outside the norm, but, as you’ll soon find, that’s part of the reason they are so effective.
Copyright © 2005 Tinu AbayomiPaul
Still not blogging yet? Don't quite get RSS? Take the free
course on RSS and blogging at http://www.freetraffictip.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tinu_Abayomi-Paul
No matter what you market on the internet at some point you'll face the issue of increasing the number of visitors to your site. What most people don't know is that there are literally hundreds of ways to get free traffic. Here we'll focus on three overlooked ways to get additional traffic to your site using a blog.
The third most overlooked way to bring traffic to your site with a blog is to read and comment on other blogs.
Now, maybe you've done this before but stopped, because you're
becoming concerned about being considered a link-spammer. In
that case, leave a link to your site after your comments, instead of in the comment form that hot links it.
In the near future, blogmasters will be able to use special code to prevent spam in their comments section, so this will become less of a concern.
Besides, getting clicks from people who read comments, or visits from search engine spiders through your comments, isn't necessarily your direct objective, though it’s definitely a plus.
What you want to do via commenting is to enter the blog community that corresponds to your target market. Get to know who the players are and make agreements with them to cycle traffic between you.
Or lurk to find out where your target market typically hangs out when they're online – you’d be surprised at how many inexpensive and targeted advertising sources you can find through this method.
(If you're looking to get linked, there's another way that we'll go over next.)
This tip alone has earned me a few dozen links from prominent blogs in the past four days alone.
These links are worth ten times a reciprocal link because they send targeted traffic from established sources, and come from experts with records of proven results.
You can be sure these kinds of people will check you out before they linked to you, since they may be judged by the quality of the information they share.
The second method to more blog traffic is the most confusing for newer people, and this is probably the reason its benefits remain overlooked.
In the simplest of terms, Trackback is kind of a remote commenting system that incorporates linking. It allows the reader to follow a topic around the web to see other bloggers remark on the same subject. It enables the publisher to remotely cite references to the issue on which they've written.
Once you've made yourself familiar with the blogging community you have entered, you can often pick up the pulse of conversations within your site's theme. Then, when you see issues that you want to expound on, you can send the other site a notification to let them know you cited them on your blog. That link will appear on their site, and often draws visitors to you.
Bloggers who use Trackback often enjoy greater control over
this function in their blogs than they do over linking, as they have the option to reject your reference - so there is a lesser incidence of fraudulent linking. That also gives your link a greater chance of being displayed.
So why don't more people use Trackback?
One reason is that what is arguably the most popular free blog system, Blogger, doesn’t have Trackback. However, Haloscan.com can remedy this with their free service – it’s a cut and paste away.
Many new bloggers don't get what it is and how it differs from commenting. And of course, the dynamics of it are a little more complex than I've stated. But learn to use Trackback properly, and you won't need to beg for links to your site ever again.
It's harder to estimate an exact number of visitors that come as a result of trackback links. But if you posted five days out of seven, and was able to get a trackback link to your site three times a week, by the end of the year you'd have almost 150 topical links back to your site, which are more valued by search engines than a typical link trade with an unrelated site.
The most overlooked source of traffic for a blog is through article submission. To start with, turn your longer posts into articles and submitting them to ezines or directories. Look especially for directories that ask for the direct link to the article on your own site, and input the permanent link to the post on your blog.
Make sure that your Auto-Discovery tag is in place and it can mean hundreds more prospects, links and subscribers.
It's a shame this is the one of the least used traffic methods for most sites, let alone for blogs. In four days, this method generated just over 1000 visitors. 157 newsletter leads, 98 new feed subscribers, and 206 links to my site. You may not get these same results right away, but using these simple strategies can still get you more exposure than you have now.
These aren't normally the highest quality links, as they rarely make sure of anchor text. However, bloggers are citing me using Trackback, sometimes in lieu of linking to the site where they originally found the article.
To see this in action, do a search on "Can A Ping Really Help Your Blog Get Top Search Engine Rankings", the title of an article I submitted earlier this week.
That article was published within a week of this one- the results speak for themselves. Many of these sites aren't the ones where my articles are normally published.
There are, of course, plenty of other ways you can leverage the content in your blog or RSS feed to increase the traffic to your site. The methods outlined here may be a bit outside the norm, but, as you’ll soon find, that’s part of the reason they are so effective.
Copyright © 2005 Tinu AbayomiPaul
Still not blogging yet? Don't quite get RSS? Take the free
course on RSS and blogging at http://www.freetraffictip.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tinu_Abayomi-Paul
How to Build a Niche Site With a Blog
Building niche sites is all the rage these days.
The basic strategy is very simple. Find a niche market that isn't oversaturated. Develop a list of related keywords people are searching on. Then write an article optimized for each one of your keywords. Once you have your articles, upload them to your site. Monitize your site with affiliate links and Adsense.
For this kind of niche site to be effective and make money, it is imperative that you get free traffic, and a lot of it. And that's exactly where a blog can be your best friend.
At its very simplest, a blog is just a structure. It's the bones of a web site. A blog is a simple way to publish and display your content online. Most of us think of blogs as a chronicle of news events, or commentary on news and items of interest. Or personal diaries.
Few people stop to think that you can build any kind of website with a blog. In reality, a blog can be used very effectively to build a niche site. The fact of the matter is, a blog is the easiest way to publish your niche site content. But the biggest reason to use a blog is that it can drive traffic to your site a lot faster than a statically-built site. A niche site built with a blog is a very powerful strategy.
First, choose your niche and research your keywords. Write your first article based on one of those keywords, just as you would when building a regular site. Then set up your blog and publish that article. Your niche site is now live.
To make your site structure the most effective, be sure to choose a blog that allows the use of Categories, such as Word Press or Moveable Type. Use your 10 most important keywords as the name of your Categories. Then file all your secondary keyword articles under those Categories.
Why is this so important? If you keep building your site with keyword-rich articles, eventually you could have hundreds of pages. Each of those pages will have a link to your 10 Categories. And each of those links will use the anchor text of your most important keywords. As a result of all those internal keyword-rich links, your site will end up ranking very well in the search engines for your Category names.
Now it's time to set up your traffic strategy. This is where a blog can really shine. There are many special RSS/blog directories that are hungry for feeds. By submitting your new blog to these directories, you can start getting traffic almost immediately. Quite often these feeds will result in a lot more traffic than all the major search engines combined. This is why it makes so much sense to build your niche site as a blog. You can have twice the traffic, and get it much faster than with a static site.
Here is a list of some of the top RSS/blog directories you should submit your site to: http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Once you've submitted your site to the directories, you can get it indexed by Yahoo almost immediately by adding your RSS feed to your MyYahoo page. If you don't have a MyYahoo page, just go to http://www.yahoo.com. Now click on the MyYahoo link at the top and set up your free account. Once you have your account set up, click on Add Content, then add the URL of your blog RSS feed into the Find Content box.
When you go back to your MyYahoo page, your blog plus your first post should be shown. If you go look at your web stats for your site, you'll find that the Yahoo spider has already made a visit! Your new site should be indexed in Yahoo in just a couple of days. This is a strategy that some marketers were selling for $50 just a few months ago. And it works like a charm.
Every time you add a post, you can alert the RSS/blog directories by "pinging" them. There is a wonderful site at http://www.pingomatic.com that makes this very easy. You just have to type in your blog URL and Pingomatic will send your ping to Yahoo and about 15 other large directories. That will bring the spiders back to your site almost immediately!
During the first month, I would suggest that you write and add a new article every day. Blogs that are frequently updated get the most traffic. And you'll find that the major search engines will spider your site every day. At the end of a month, you'll have a 30-article niche site that is already getting a lot of traffic. If you've monetized your site with Adsense and related affiliate programs, you should also be making money already.
Once you've started building your niche sites with a blog, you'll never go back to doing it the old way again!
For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my "Why Marketers Should Blog" weblog at (what else) http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_J_Bruton
The basic strategy is very simple. Find a niche market that isn't oversaturated. Develop a list of related keywords people are searching on. Then write an article optimized for each one of your keywords. Once you have your articles, upload them to your site. Monitize your site with affiliate links and Adsense.
For this kind of niche site to be effective and make money, it is imperative that you get free traffic, and a lot of it. And that's exactly where a blog can be your best friend.
At its very simplest, a blog is just a structure. It's the bones of a web site. A blog is a simple way to publish and display your content online. Most of us think of blogs as a chronicle of news events, or commentary on news and items of interest. Or personal diaries.
Few people stop to think that you can build any kind of website with a blog. In reality, a blog can be used very effectively to build a niche site. The fact of the matter is, a blog is the easiest way to publish your niche site content. But the biggest reason to use a blog is that it can drive traffic to your site a lot faster than a statically-built site. A niche site built with a blog is a very powerful strategy.
First, choose your niche and research your keywords. Write your first article based on one of those keywords, just as you would when building a regular site. Then set up your blog and publish that article. Your niche site is now live.
To make your site structure the most effective, be sure to choose a blog that allows the use of Categories, such as Word Press or Moveable Type. Use your 10 most important keywords as the name of your Categories. Then file all your secondary keyword articles under those Categories.
Why is this so important? If you keep building your site with keyword-rich articles, eventually you could have hundreds of pages. Each of those pages will have a link to your 10 Categories. And each of those links will use the anchor text of your most important keywords. As a result of all those internal keyword-rich links, your site will end up ranking very well in the search engines for your Category names.
Now it's time to set up your traffic strategy. This is where a blog can really shine. There are many special RSS/blog directories that are hungry for feeds. By submitting your new blog to these directories, you can start getting traffic almost immediately. Quite often these feeds will result in a lot more traffic than all the major search engines combined. This is why it makes so much sense to build your niche site as a blog. You can have twice the traffic, and get it much faster than with a static site.
Here is a list of some of the top RSS/blog directories you should submit your site to: http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Once you've submitted your site to the directories, you can get it indexed by Yahoo almost immediately by adding your RSS feed to your MyYahoo page. If you don't have a MyYahoo page, just go to http://www.yahoo.com. Now click on the MyYahoo link at the top and set up your free account. Once you have your account set up, click on Add Content, then add the URL of your blog RSS feed into the Find Content box.
When you go back to your MyYahoo page, your blog plus your first post should be shown. If you go look at your web stats for your site, you'll find that the Yahoo spider has already made a visit! Your new site should be indexed in Yahoo in just a couple of days. This is a strategy that some marketers were selling for $50 just a few months ago. And it works like a charm.
Every time you add a post, you can alert the RSS/blog directories by "pinging" them. There is a wonderful site at http://www.pingomatic.com that makes this very easy. You just have to type in your blog URL and Pingomatic will send your ping to Yahoo and about 15 other large directories. That will bring the spiders back to your site almost immediately!
During the first month, I would suggest that you write and add a new article every day. Blogs that are frequently updated get the most traffic. And you'll find that the major search engines will spider your site every day. At the end of a month, you'll have a 30-article niche site that is already getting a lot of traffic. If you've monetized your site with Adsense and related affiliate programs, you should also be making money already.
Once you've started building your niche sites with a blog, you'll never go back to doing it the old way again!
For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my "Why Marketers Should Blog" weblog at (what else) http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_J_Bruton
Dear Web Diary!
Blogging is hot and getting hotter, with more and more web logs (blogs) cropping up online by the day!
Since being documented nearly a full decade ago, blogs and associated software have emerged, giving rise to this lucrative and dynamic market.
Blogs are highly interactive. Publishers get to review results almost as soon as the post is made and do not have the usual moderation that appears in forums, ezines nor newsletters where they can be terminated without warning. In addition, there is usually more editorial freedom associated with blogs and the topic or content often overlooked.
They are easy to start and maintain, so even the novice will find blogging quick and easy to do. Blogs are extremely search engine friendly since content is constantly being updated.
And, blogs are fun! The entertainment (self or site visitor) cannot be dismissed and with discussions so often heating up, visitors tend to return time and time again to the same site to view the newer posts on any given topic.
Blogs also are capable of syndication: a great means of ensuring that your writing and opinions are exposed to as much of the general public as possible.
With blogging, there are NO lists to keep nor spam filters to stress over, which is a paramount reason many writers and publishers have turned to this fascinating form of promotion. As such, they are economical with no list server costs.
To be successful, however, treat "your" blog as an ezine, forum or newsletter. Your content must be informative and compelling and updated constantly. The site should be visually appealing and user friendly.
Some blogging services charge others to read or to write, so there is definitely some income potential associated with this proven communication method.
Walt Pfarr possesses over 30 years of media experience, including general news reporting, column writing; grant writing and administration; special events coordination and facilitation; development, fundraising, and is now penning his own ecourse, ebook and soon will publish PfarrOut ezine (or blog). He may be reached at walterpfarr@lycos.com Pfarr and his wife, Jo, live in Oklahoma.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Walter_Pfarr
Since being documented nearly a full decade ago, blogs and associated software have emerged, giving rise to this lucrative and dynamic market.
Blogs are highly interactive. Publishers get to review results almost as soon as the post is made and do not have the usual moderation that appears in forums, ezines nor newsletters where they can be terminated without warning. In addition, there is usually more editorial freedom associated with blogs and the topic or content often overlooked.
They are easy to start and maintain, so even the novice will find blogging quick and easy to do. Blogs are extremely search engine friendly since content is constantly being updated.
And, blogs are fun! The entertainment (self or site visitor) cannot be dismissed and with discussions so often heating up, visitors tend to return time and time again to the same site to view the newer posts on any given topic.
Blogs also are capable of syndication: a great means of ensuring that your writing and opinions are exposed to as much of the general public as possible.
With blogging, there are NO lists to keep nor spam filters to stress over, which is a paramount reason many writers and publishers have turned to this fascinating form of promotion. As such, they are economical with no list server costs.
To be successful, however, treat "your" blog as an ezine, forum or newsletter. Your content must be informative and compelling and updated constantly. The site should be visually appealing and user friendly.
Some blogging services charge others to read or to write, so there is definitely some income potential associated with this proven communication method.
Walt Pfarr possesses over 30 years of media experience, including general news reporting, column writing; grant writing and administration; special events coordination and facilitation; development, fundraising, and is now penning his own ecourse, ebook and soon will publish PfarrOut ezine (or blog). He may be reached at walterpfarr@lycos.com Pfarr and his wife, Jo, live in Oklahoma.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Walter_Pfarr
How Yahoo's Recent Facelift Can Mean More Traffic To Your Site
It even surprised me.
Yes, even though I have been pointing out the possibility since July, and was forced by demand to release my study findings before my book was even half finished, I was shocked when I heard the news as well.
You see, I was sure we were at least a year off from this glorious day.
The News
Yahoo has had a little facelift, which you've probably read about by now. The real news is more important for your site - the “My Yahoo!” page looks different too.
On September 28, 2004, surfers who logged in to their personalized Yahoo area saw an announcement explaining the RSS and Atom files that show updated information to a website as content feeds, effectively pushing news feeds into the mainstream.
The new look to this section of Yahoo was presented as a full page ad to every single account holder upon first log in that day, and even now, there remains a notice posted.
When I logged into my page in the "My Yahoo!" section, I saw a big difference in the number of feeds left to choose from, as well as in the way they were presented.
Currently, the RSS module boasts "150,000 sources". If your site isn't one of them, its crucial that you act now. If you have one and you’re not getting the results you’d like from your set-up, there are small changes you can implement that will make a huge difference in your listing.
Best results aren’t as easy as submitting your feed now, but you’re still within the window of opportunity - if you do it properly.
What the News Could Mean For Your Site If You Act Now
One of my clients recently called this "the back door into Yahoo". Whether that statement is accurate as far as getting included, or receiving an increase in rankings within Yahoo's search engine via your feed, depends on your site, and whether you create your feed correctly.
If you could use a daily stream of traffic from even a small portion of Yahoo's estimated 20 million users, this could be your final wake-up call. You’ll want to learn how to create a feed that gets well listed immediately.
Currently, the RSS module boasts "150,000 sources". Yahoo will still need hundreds, perhaps thousands more, even if it only intends to list the “creme de la creme” of the submissions it gets. Being in that group is as easy as submitting your feed.
Being at the top of the list isn’t. However, you’re still within the window of opportunity if you take the time to learn how to do this properly. You can get free details on how to do that at helpmerss.com .
“My Yahoo!” RSS Headline module Coming Out of Beta?
If I had to guess, I'd say all signs point to yes. When that happens, Yahoo's RSS/Atom directory will likely contain only those who added their feeds early. New feeds seeking to be included will probably face stricter standards.
If you don't have one yet don’t worry, because it’s never been easier to make one. If you can cut and paste, there are tools all over the Net that will show you how- some will even generate the file for you.
However, there are still certain guidelines you need to follow with your feed to get a good result out of Yahoo - it's not as simple as adding your feed now that there are more competing listings.
Yahoo is still accepting new sources for RSS feeds. Readers of my last book state that they are getting excellent results following my instructions, though initial inclusion no longer occurs at the same rate. Plenty of markets have few feeds available, or none at all. Your site could fill that void.
That means you still have a chance at a first page ranking. The traffic I get on a daily basis from My Yahoo readers alone sounds like I just like to brag.
And I do, but that's hardly the point.
The point is, there's no place you can even go to buy the caliber of exposure to the quality of audience that reads feeds. The typical audience that accesses information by feed are also blog readers. A study this summer estimated that the 69.3% of blog readers are aged 29-50, and that 40% of this audience are people who have household incomes greater than $90,000.
The type of surfer that would subscribe to your feed has pre-qualified themselves as a lead, with a certain level of understanding and interest in your topic, often on a professional level. And if you don't spend every post hitting them over the head with your sales pitch, they can be both loyal and interactive.
(If you do, they'll unsubscribe from your feed faster than you can spell s-p-a-m.)
And if you're in the business of providing information you can use, in a way that shows how you can solve their problem, it's like preaching to the converted. If your product solves their problem, and you show that you deserve the trust of this subscriber, you’ll also find the route to a sale an increasingly downward slope.
The bottom line - this is the power surfer's favorite toy. And if your content appeals to them, you need to learn how to play.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Learn how Tinu saw a 75% increase in both traffic and sales from feeds at http://freetraffictip.com/rssbook . For free reprint rights to her articles (and a potential $500 bribe) send a blank email to moneyarticles@freetraffictip.com .
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tinu_Abayomi-Paul
Yes, even though I have been pointing out the possibility since July, and was forced by demand to release my study findings before my book was even half finished, I was shocked when I heard the news as well.
You see, I was sure we were at least a year off from this glorious day.
The News
Yahoo has had a little facelift, which you've probably read about by now. The real news is more important for your site - the “My Yahoo!” page looks different too.
On September 28, 2004, surfers who logged in to their personalized Yahoo area saw an announcement explaining the RSS and Atom files that show updated information to a website as content feeds, effectively pushing news feeds into the mainstream.
The new look to this section of Yahoo was presented as a full page ad to every single account holder upon first log in that day, and even now, there remains a notice posted.
When I logged into my page in the "My Yahoo!" section, I saw a big difference in the number of feeds left to choose from, as well as in the way they were presented.
Currently, the RSS module boasts "150,000 sources". If your site isn't one of them, its crucial that you act now. If you have one and you’re not getting the results you’d like from your set-up, there are small changes you can implement that will make a huge difference in your listing.
Best results aren’t as easy as submitting your feed now, but you’re still within the window of opportunity - if you do it properly.
What the News Could Mean For Your Site If You Act Now
One of my clients recently called this "the back door into Yahoo". Whether that statement is accurate as far as getting included, or receiving an increase in rankings within Yahoo's search engine via your feed, depends on your site, and whether you create your feed correctly.
If you could use a daily stream of traffic from even a small portion of Yahoo's estimated 20 million users, this could be your final wake-up call. You’ll want to learn how to create a feed that gets well listed immediately.
Currently, the RSS module boasts "150,000 sources". Yahoo will still need hundreds, perhaps thousands more, even if it only intends to list the “creme de la creme” of the submissions it gets. Being in that group is as easy as submitting your feed.
Being at the top of the list isn’t. However, you’re still within the window of opportunity if you take the time to learn how to do this properly. You can get free details on how to do that at helpmerss.com .
“My Yahoo!” RSS Headline module Coming Out of Beta?
If I had to guess, I'd say all signs point to yes. When that happens, Yahoo's RSS/Atom directory will likely contain only those who added their feeds early. New feeds seeking to be included will probably face stricter standards.
If you don't have one yet don’t worry, because it’s never been easier to make one. If you can cut and paste, there are tools all over the Net that will show you how- some will even generate the file for you.
However, there are still certain guidelines you need to follow with your feed to get a good result out of Yahoo - it's not as simple as adding your feed now that there are more competing listings.
Yahoo is still accepting new sources for RSS feeds. Readers of my last book state that they are getting excellent results following my instructions, though initial inclusion no longer occurs at the same rate. Plenty of markets have few feeds available, or none at all. Your site could fill that void.
That means you still have a chance at a first page ranking. The traffic I get on a daily basis from My Yahoo readers alone sounds like I just like to brag.
And I do, but that's hardly the point.
The point is, there's no place you can even go to buy the caliber of exposure to the quality of audience that reads feeds. The typical audience that accesses information by feed are also blog readers. A study this summer estimated that the 69.3% of blog readers are aged 29-50, and that 40% of this audience are people who have household incomes greater than $90,000.
The type of surfer that would subscribe to your feed has pre-qualified themselves as a lead, with a certain level of understanding and interest in your topic, often on a professional level. And if you don't spend every post hitting them over the head with your sales pitch, they can be both loyal and interactive.
(If you do, they'll unsubscribe from your feed faster than you can spell s-p-a-m.)
And if you're in the business of providing information you can use, in a way that shows how you can solve their problem, it's like preaching to the converted. If your product solves their problem, and you show that you deserve the trust of this subscriber, you’ll also find the route to a sale an increasingly downward slope.
The bottom line - this is the power surfer's favorite toy. And if your content appeals to them, you need to learn how to play.
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Learn how Tinu saw a 75% increase in both traffic and sales from feeds at http://freetraffictip.com/rssbook . For free reprint rights to her articles (and a potential $500 bribe) send a blank email to moneyarticles@freetraffictip.com .
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tinu_Abayomi-Paul
6 Ways That Blogging Can Save You Money
Even though I’ve had several personal blogs for years, I’ve only been officially business blogging since 2003. So in going back over expenses for the last quarter, you can imagine my shock when I realized that my overall business costs were down about 19%. What saved me so much money? Surprisingly, blogging.
How can you save money with your blog? It's pretty simple, so I'll be brief.
Attract search engine traffic without paying the big bucks
If you want Google, Yahoo and MSN to pay attention to you, blog.
It doesn't have to be a whole new site, just add a directory to your existing site and start blogging. Most blog software solutions are either cheap or free.
And you can find out most basic blog information online for free (really, sometimes just typing your question into Google will do it.) by people who've actually done it. For less than $100, you can build a small library of blog tips and secrets, written by successful business bloggers.
Instead of buying links, get one-way links from blog search engines and directories, as well as getting your RSS feed content displayed at other sites.
Linking is a great way to get search engine attention and click traffic. Some people get links by trading; others by including their links at the end of freely distributed articles. Others pay to be listed, or to get linked.
In each of these scenarios, some type of trade takes place, money, free content, or a link back.
When you blog, you'll find plenty of search engines and directories that are willing to list you free of charge. For the most part you won't need to link back - you'll get a one-way link from site favored by search engines, often using text that you select yourself.
If 90 or more of these free, legitimate links back to your site is worth your time, then get you blog in motion.
Not only that, if you update frequently, other sites may want to display your RSS feed content on their sites. To encourage them to do so, put a link on your page with instructions on how to do so. Ever since I put one on the front of my site, various feeds from my main site have turned up in the most unexpected places.
Cheaper way to study your audience.
As your blog gets more popular, you may start to find that on any given day, you have a representative cross-section of prospects and clients at your site. If you have a question for them, you can just... ask.
True, you can post a link to a survey in your newsletter or on your site, but these are not as interactive as the ability for your audience to comment. They will comment, and you can reply to ask them to expand, or clarify. Conversation gets going and before you know it, a bond is formed, a much stronger bond than occurs in a one-way conversation.
Cheaper (and faster) way to start a resource or authority site.
Five years ago, if you wanted to start an authority site, your best bet was to build a portal with a specialized directory at its core. Three years ago, you were better off starting a forum with a resource section attached to it. Last year, your top bet was a feed-enabled content management system, especially as more parts of content management systems began to have content feeds related to them. (I have 12 feeds for each of my PHP-Nuke based sites, though they don't work as well with Google Tap.)
Now, if you want to be the expert, you want to start a blog.
If you're blogging consistently, you have a hub of information collected that will inspire return traffic. You have a collection of links to articles, sites, and tools. You can constantly write up your own opinion editorials on each of these items, as well as fact-based analysis of news and events that can help your audience make better choices.
As blog software matures you can now categorize, and alphabetize your links, and with the ability to ping multiple sources as well as leave trackback links to other sites, you can send your readers through a ring of related, freshly updated information that ultimately leads back to you.
Spend less money on advertising as your blog becomes more popular
I can’t promise you that you’ll never spend another red cent on advertising costs. However, the amount of free advertising you get from having your blog link or RSS feed listed in dozens of search engines and directories, and popping up in feed readers is not to be underestimated.
You’ll probably still want to do some ezine advertising when your new ebook or software release is debuted. But you may not need to buy as much advertising or purchase as often.
Then there is the fact that many newsletters that are also published to RSS feeds have wider reach. I’ve found that it’s worth the extra money to appear in both versions – ask your favorite publisher for details. For publications that allow this, it’s normally only 20% extra
Save money by retaining visitors
You’ve probably heard a thousand times that it is easier to sell repeatedly to an existing client than it is to find a new one. So how do you get that visitor to come back, and possibly buy again?
A constant stream of new information on a particular topic work is enough to keep people buying a daily newspaper, subscribing to a magazine or viewing a television series.
Frequent updates can work the same way for your site.
With bloggers being named People of the Year by Time magazine last year, if you’re not blogging in 2005, you’re going to be left in the dust by other sites in your industry that do. It doesn’t have to take up a lot of extra time, and the time it does takes is made up for in the money you can save.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read more about how a blog can help you get spidered by search engines within 24 hours at http://www.freetraffictip.com/gbc .
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tinu_Abayomi-Paul
How can you save money with your blog? It's pretty simple, so I'll be brief.
Attract search engine traffic without paying the big bucks
If you want Google, Yahoo and MSN to pay attention to you, blog.
It doesn't have to be a whole new site, just add a directory to your existing site and start blogging. Most blog software solutions are either cheap or free.
And you can find out most basic blog information online for free (really, sometimes just typing your question into Google will do it.) by people who've actually done it. For less than $100, you can build a small library of blog tips and secrets, written by successful business bloggers.
Instead of buying links, get one-way links from blog search engines and directories, as well as getting your RSS feed content displayed at other sites.
Linking is a great way to get search engine attention and click traffic. Some people get links by trading; others by including their links at the end of freely distributed articles. Others pay to be listed, or to get linked.
In each of these scenarios, some type of trade takes place, money, free content, or a link back.
When you blog, you'll find plenty of search engines and directories that are willing to list you free of charge. For the most part you won't need to link back - you'll get a one-way link from site favored by search engines, often using text that you select yourself.
If 90 or more of these free, legitimate links back to your site is worth your time, then get you blog in motion.
Not only that, if you update frequently, other sites may want to display your RSS feed content on their sites. To encourage them to do so, put a link on your page with instructions on how to do so. Ever since I put one on the front of my site, various feeds from my main site have turned up in the most unexpected places.
Cheaper way to study your audience.
As your blog gets more popular, you may start to find that on any given day, you have a representative cross-section of prospects and clients at your site. If you have a question for them, you can just... ask.
True, you can post a link to a survey in your newsletter or on your site, but these are not as interactive as the ability for your audience to comment. They will comment, and you can reply to ask them to expand, or clarify. Conversation gets going and before you know it, a bond is formed, a much stronger bond than occurs in a one-way conversation.
Cheaper (and faster) way to start a resource or authority site.
Five years ago, if you wanted to start an authority site, your best bet was to build a portal with a specialized directory at its core. Three years ago, you were better off starting a forum with a resource section attached to it. Last year, your top bet was a feed-enabled content management system, especially as more parts of content management systems began to have content feeds related to them. (I have 12 feeds for each of my PHP-Nuke based sites, though they don't work as well with Google Tap.)
Now, if you want to be the expert, you want to start a blog.
If you're blogging consistently, you have a hub of information collected that will inspire return traffic. You have a collection of links to articles, sites, and tools. You can constantly write up your own opinion editorials on each of these items, as well as fact-based analysis of news and events that can help your audience make better choices.
As blog software matures you can now categorize, and alphabetize your links, and with the ability to ping multiple sources as well as leave trackback links to other sites, you can send your readers through a ring of related, freshly updated information that ultimately leads back to you.
Spend less money on advertising as your blog becomes more popular
I can’t promise you that you’ll never spend another red cent on advertising costs. However, the amount of free advertising you get from having your blog link or RSS feed listed in dozens of search engines and directories, and popping up in feed readers is not to be underestimated.
You’ll probably still want to do some ezine advertising when your new ebook or software release is debuted. But you may not need to buy as much advertising or purchase as often.
Then there is the fact that many newsletters that are also published to RSS feeds have wider reach. I’ve found that it’s worth the extra money to appear in both versions – ask your favorite publisher for details. For publications that allow this, it’s normally only 20% extra
Save money by retaining visitors
You’ve probably heard a thousand times that it is easier to sell repeatedly to an existing client than it is to find a new one. So how do you get that visitor to come back, and possibly buy again?
A constant stream of new information on a particular topic work is enough to keep people buying a daily newspaper, subscribing to a magazine or viewing a television series.
Frequent updates can work the same way for your site.
With bloggers being named People of the Year by Time magazine last year, if you’re not blogging in 2005, you’re going to be left in the dust by other sites in your industry that do. It doesn’t have to take up a lot of extra time, and the time it does takes is made up for in the money you can save.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read more about how a blog can help you get spidered by search engines within 24 hours at http://www.freetraffictip.com/gbc .
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tinu_Abayomi-Paul
Why Wordpress is now my Blog of Choice
The more I use Wordpress, the more I love it. It has 2 very important features that Blogger doesn't yet support.
Number 1, you can set up Wordpress to automatically ping all the RSS and blog feed directories every time you make a post. This is a very powerful feature if you want your blog to get a lot of traffic right away. On top of that, you'll be quickly developing backlinks to your blog almost automatically.
Think about how long it can take you to build a regular site, get the search engines to index it, get backlinks to improve your listings, and then start getting traffic. A blog like Wordpress can do all that "grunge" work for you automatically.
Number 2, Wordpress allows the use of Categories. Categories are a very powerful way to improve the structure of your site both for human visitors and for the search engines.
Let's say the topic of your site is Widgets. You could create a Category for black widgets, one for orange widgets, and one for green widgets.
Now when you add posts to your blog, you can choose which of your categories your post belongs to. Now your blog will archive your past posts not only by their month and date, as Blogger does. But also by Category.
So if you have a visitor who is especially interested in green widgets, they can easily find all your posts on green widgets. They don't have to go through your entire archives to find them. With a blog that has been around for awhile and has hundreds of posts, that would be pretty discouraging. Using Categories makes it very easy.
Categories are also very search engine friendly. When you use Categories in your blog, there is a link on every one of your pages to your categories. Think about this: would you rather be #1 in the search engines for March 2003, or for green widgets, one of the main keywords of your site?
By using the Category feature, you will eventually have hundreds of pages on your site with links to green widgets, black widgets, and orange widgets. All those backlinks to those keywords can result in much higher search engine rankings.
Another neat feature is that you can easily create an RSS feed for each of your categories. Then every time you post to your blog, it could be pinging the Blog/RSS directories for each feed!
Compare that to putting up a new page on a traditional website. Even if the search engines find your new page right away, it might be a month or two before it actually gets indexed and starts drawing traffic. It might be a long time before it enjoys a first page position for its keywords.
It's almost amazing how easy all this is with a well-structured blog like Wordpress with Categories enabled!
For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my "Why Marketers Should Blog" weblog at (what else) http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_J_Bruton
Number 1, you can set up Wordpress to automatically ping all the RSS and blog feed directories every time you make a post. This is a very powerful feature if you want your blog to get a lot of traffic right away. On top of that, you'll be quickly developing backlinks to your blog almost automatically.
Think about how long it can take you to build a regular site, get the search engines to index it, get backlinks to improve your listings, and then start getting traffic. A blog like Wordpress can do all that "grunge" work for you automatically.
Number 2, Wordpress allows the use of Categories. Categories are a very powerful way to improve the structure of your site both for human visitors and for the search engines.
Let's say the topic of your site is Widgets. You could create a Category for black widgets, one for orange widgets, and one for green widgets.
Now when you add posts to your blog, you can choose which of your categories your post belongs to. Now your blog will archive your past posts not only by their month and date, as Blogger does. But also by Category.
So if you have a visitor who is especially interested in green widgets, they can easily find all your posts on green widgets. They don't have to go through your entire archives to find them. With a blog that has been around for awhile and has hundreds of posts, that would be pretty discouraging. Using Categories makes it very easy.
Categories are also very search engine friendly. When you use Categories in your blog, there is a link on every one of your pages to your categories. Think about this: would you rather be #1 in the search engines for March 2003, or for green widgets, one of the main keywords of your site?
By using the Category feature, you will eventually have hundreds of pages on your site with links to green widgets, black widgets, and orange widgets. All those backlinks to those keywords can result in much higher search engine rankings.
Another neat feature is that you can easily create an RSS feed for each of your categories. Then every time you post to your blog, it could be pinging the Blog/RSS directories for each feed!
Compare that to putting up a new page on a traditional website. Even if the search engines find your new page right away, it might be a month or two before it actually gets indexed and starts drawing traffic. It might be a long time before it enjoys a first page position for its keywords.
It's almost amazing how easy all this is with a well-structured blog like Wordpress with Categories enabled!
For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my "Why Marketers Should Blog" weblog at (what else) http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_J_Bruton
Blogs and RSS - Why Do I Need This Stuff?
If you've been under a rock for the last year or so it's possible you might not have heard about blogs and RSS feeds. If you're like most of us, you've heard the buzz but might not've known what to make of it or what to do with it. Here's some answers.
First RSS feeds. RSS, depending on who you ask, stands for Really Simple Syndication. This is a technology that enables you to bring fresh, constantly updated material (feeds) into your site. The attraction of this is obvious. Sites need content, the fresher the better. Search engines love new content, hence the excitement about being able to pipe in extremely targeted feeds directly into your site. The implementation of this is not as difficult as one might imagine, and the choices for content are ever-burgeoning. You can find a feed for almost anything, and if you can't, you can create your own and syndicate it all over the web. The possibilities are mind-boggling. End-users must have the capability to read these feeds, but there are free feed readers all over the place and the new generation of browsers will have this built in.
Blogs. Nominated as one of the top words of 2004, they were prominent in the election (can you say, or want to, Howard Dean?) and they have become more a of web-household item. Blog software is ridiculously easy to use, and free. But why do I need one, you ask. Well, for me, it boils down to one thing and one thing only: search engines love blogs!! I have blogs that have higher (and much more quickly acquired) PageRank than sites that have several hundred pages of content! Why is this? Think about it: the very thing search engines love most, fresh content, is the very nature of blogging. Most blogs, at least commercial ones, are very on topic, keyword oriented, and frequently updated. The marketing piece concerning blogs is still in it's infancy but growing fast. There is little more powerful these days than a content blog hosted on your own site that is updated daily. I have blogs that get more traffic than the site they are sitting on! Think about this. It'll be worth it!
Blogs and RSS feeds are the next big thing that's already here! Don't miss out on the possibilities they offer!
Keith Thompson is the webmaster at Internet Marketing Here & Now, where you can find all sorts of information regarding RSS feeds!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Keith_Thompson
First RSS feeds. RSS, depending on who you ask, stands for Really Simple Syndication. This is a technology that enables you to bring fresh, constantly updated material (feeds) into your site. The attraction of this is obvious. Sites need content, the fresher the better. Search engines love new content, hence the excitement about being able to pipe in extremely targeted feeds directly into your site. The implementation of this is not as difficult as one might imagine, and the choices for content are ever-burgeoning. You can find a feed for almost anything, and if you can't, you can create your own and syndicate it all over the web. The possibilities are mind-boggling. End-users must have the capability to read these feeds, but there are free feed readers all over the place and the new generation of browsers will have this built in.
Blogs. Nominated as one of the top words of 2004, they were prominent in the election (can you say, or want to, Howard Dean?) and they have become more a of web-household item. Blog software is ridiculously easy to use, and free. But why do I need one, you ask. Well, for me, it boils down to one thing and one thing only: search engines love blogs!! I have blogs that have higher (and much more quickly acquired) PageRank than sites that have several hundred pages of content! Why is this? Think about it: the very thing search engines love most, fresh content, is the very nature of blogging. Most blogs, at least commercial ones, are very on topic, keyword oriented, and frequently updated. The marketing piece concerning blogs is still in it's infancy but growing fast. There is little more powerful these days than a content blog hosted on your own site that is updated daily. I have blogs that get more traffic than the site they are sitting on! Think about this. It'll be worth it!
Blogs and RSS feeds are the next big thing that's already here! Don't miss out on the possibilities they offer!
Keith Thompson is the webmaster at Internet Marketing Here & Now, where you can find all sorts of information regarding RSS feeds!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Keith_Thompson
Business Blogging: Where Do I Start?
The new hot commodity is a blog for your small business so you've decided you must have one.
Before you begin think about it long term. Where do you think the blog is headed? What is the objective? Do you want it to be found by the search engines for specific terms? How often will you post? Who will the audience be? What will it look like a year from now? Five years from now?
If you think you may have this blog for a long time, consider hosting it with your own domain name. Blogger provides you with a free domain name (name.blogspot.com), or the option of ftp to your own domain. If, at some point in time in the future you want to move the blog and you've been using the blogspot name, you won't be able to take it with you. This means that all of the people who have your blog in their reader will "lose" you. It also means that you'll have to start from ground zero with the search engines.
Do some digging before you jump. A couple of good networks where you can get some education are:
- Blogging for Business at http://blogbrandz-network.ryze.com/ Make sure you sign up for the "Blogging for Marketers" email course. Priya has loaded the course with good blog information (and it costs you nothing).
- Blogger Forum at http://www.bloggerforum.com/modules/newbb/ The Blogger Forum is very welcoming to newbies. Browse around and just by looking at previous posts, you can learn a ton. they also have a section on blog platforms which talks about the different options available.
Once you're ready to go, what are you going to write about? Make sure you've brainstormed ideas so you don't run into the inevitable writer's block. You can always start with what you've written before. Do you have a newsletter? Look through your archive and "refresh" some of those old topics as a blog posting. How about your website? Do you have content you can turn into a blog topic? Do you participate in online forums or discussion lists? Find some advice you gave to someone there and turn it into a blog post.
This should get you started. Remember that small business blogging is a long term activity. Be ready.
Denise O'Berry is a small business expert who helps small business owners take action to grow their business. Don't know what to write about? Get the cure for blog writer's block at http://www.whatspossible.com/blogidea/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Denise_O'Berry
Before you begin think about it long term. Where do you think the blog is headed? What is the objective? Do you want it to be found by the search engines for specific terms? How often will you post? Who will the audience be? What will it look like a year from now? Five years from now?
If you think you may have this blog for a long time, consider hosting it with your own domain name. Blogger provides you with a free domain name (name.blogspot.com), or the option of ftp to your own domain. If, at some point in time in the future you want to move the blog and you've been using the blogspot name, you won't be able to take it with you. This means that all of the people who have your blog in their reader will "lose" you. It also means that you'll have to start from ground zero with the search engines.
Do some digging before you jump. A couple of good networks where you can get some education are:
- Blogging for Business at http://blogbrandz-network.ryze.com/ Make sure you sign up for the "Blogging for Marketers" email course. Priya has loaded the course with good blog information (and it costs you nothing).
- Blogger Forum at http://www.bloggerforum.com/modules/newbb/ The Blogger Forum is very welcoming to newbies. Browse around and just by looking at previous posts, you can learn a ton. they also have a section on blog platforms which talks about the different options available.
Once you're ready to go, what are you going to write about? Make sure you've brainstormed ideas so you don't run into the inevitable writer's block. You can always start with what you've written before. Do you have a newsletter? Look through your archive and "refresh" some of those old topics as a blog posting. How about your website? Do you have content you can turn into a blog topic? Do you participate in online forums or discussion lists? Find some advice you gave to someone there and turn it into a blog post.
This should get you started. Remember that small business blogging is a long term activity. Be ready.
Denise O'Berry is a small business expert who helps small business owners take action to grow their business. Don't know what to write about? Get the cure for blog writer's block at http://www.whatspossible.com/blogidea/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Denise_O'Berry
How To Profit From Your Home Business Blog
A blog is a simple tool which all affiliate marketers should be utilising to explode their affiliate sales.
I set up my blog in about 15 minutes at http://www.blogger.com it’s a completely free service, and it’s really easy to set-up. I followed directions on an excellent article on getting a new website listed in Google in 48hrs check it out here, http://www.scamfreezone.com/gg/. I just followed the advice in the article and got started with no problems in no time.
I've been doing a lot of research with regards to blogging and came across a case of a 19 year old kid who was making something ridiculous like $50,000 a year with a blog on mobile phones, from his bedroom! So clearly there is a good earning potential through blogs, but they do take time to grow and build up a readership. Treat your blog as a marathon not a sprint, because it will take time.
Blogs provide a very simple, quick and easy means to add fresh content to your website. As I’m sure you’ve heard many times over ‘content is king’ in the search engines eyes and if you can provide high quality, regularly updated content your website should benefit with regards to your search engine ranking.
By providing fresh, high quality relevant content you will gain an increase of both first time visitors and repeat visitors, they will come back to check out your new content. Providing it’s interesting, relevant and useful to them. You will begin to build relationships with your readers, increasing your credibility and building their trust in you.
These repeat visitors will be exposed to your messages more and begin to trust you and your recommendations. This in turn will fuel sales and referrals. Just make sure you don’t recommend a product you haven’t tried because if it is bad you will lose all credibility!
Never recommend something you haven’t tried and tested your self.
You want to send traffic directly to your blog, do it through multi-dimensional strategies. Have a subscriber box for your newsletter to build your list from your blog. Use it as an exit pop-up from your main site or thank you page for new subscribers, directing them to relevant content immediately. As once your prospects have got to know you through the blog they are much more likely to explore your website and check out whatever you are offering.
Whenever you sign-up for an affiliate program or buy a product, review it in your blog and be brutally honest, your readers will love you for it. Take a completely unbiased view point and talk about both the positives and negatives of each product. In essence you are providing more of an insight into the product than the sales page itself, almost a sample, this will help convert those prospects that are ‘sitting on the fence’ so to speak. Obviously when you review your affiliate products, make sure that you use your affiliate links.
It has been shown that prospects are 7-10 times more likely to buy from a blog recommendation than from other sources!
Other ways that you can generate extra income through your blog are through the Google ad sense program, selling banner/link space as your traffic increases or as I mentioned earlier by adding you own opt-in sign up form to which you send your newsletter or other targeted offers.
Your blog can be syndicated using RSS, which I won’t go into here, that’s another article. But savvy webmasters can use your blog content on their web pages. This benefits them as they have regularly updated fresh content for their website and benefits you through increased exposure and free targeted traffic.
Be passionate about your blog, love your blog. If you do not then it will become obvious through your posts and you are unlikely to be anywhere near as successful as you could be.
Add to your blog regularly provide good quality content and reviews and you will be on your way to blogging success.
“A man would do nothing, if he waited until he could do it so well that no one at all would find fault with what he has done”. -- Cardinal Newman
Get that blog started today!
(Feel free to use this article online and in your email newsletters as long as you leave it intact and do not alter it in anyway. The byline and biography must remain in the article.)
Copyright © Ian Canaway
Ian Canaway is a home business entrepreneur and the owner of http://www.asuccesfullhomebusiness4u.com and also a home business based blog at http://www.ahomebusinessblog4u.blogspot.com; providing high quality information and resources. Check us out Now!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Canaway
I set up my blog in about 15 minutes at http://www.blogger.com it’s a completely free service, and it’s really easy to set-up. I followed directions on an excellent article on getting a new website listed in Google in 48hrs check it out here, http://www.scamfreezone.com/gg/. I just followed the advice in the article and got started with no problems in no time.
I've been doing a lot of research with regards to blogging and came across a case of a 19 year old kid who was making something ridiculous like $50,000 a year with a blog on mobile phones, from his bedroom! So clearly there is a good earning potential through blogs, but they do take time to grow and build up a readership. Treat your blog as a marathon not a sprint, because it will take time.
Blogs provide a very simple, quick and easy means to add fresh content to your website. As I’m sure you’ve heard many times over ‘content is king’ in the search engines eyes and if you can provide high quality, regularly updated content your website should benefit with regards to your search engine ranking.
By providing fresh, high quality relevant content you will gain an increase of both first time visitors and repeat visitors, they will come back to check out your new content. Providing it’s interesting, relevant and useful to them. You will begin to build relationships with your readers, increasing your credibility and building their trust in you.
These repeat visitors will be exposed to your messages more and begin to trust you and your recommendations. This in turn will fuel sales and referrals. Just make sure you don’t recommend a product you haven’t tried because if it is bad you will lose all credibility!
Never recommend something you haven’t tried and tested your self.
You want to send traffic directly to your blog, do it through multi-dimensional strategies. Have a subscriber box for your newsletter to build your list from your blog. Use it as an exit pop-up from your main site or thank you page for new subscribers, directing them to relevant content immediately. As once your prospects have got to know you through the blog they are much more likely to explore your website and check out whatever you are offering.
Whenever you sign-up for an affiliate program or buy a product, review it in your blog and be brutally honest, your readers will love you for it. Take a completely unbiased view point and talk about both the positives and negatives of each product. In essence you are providing more of an insight into the product than the sales page itself, almost a sample, this will help convert those prospects that are ‘sitting on the fence’ so to speak. Obviously when you review your affiliate products, make sure that you use your affiliate links.
It has been shown that prospects are 7-10 times more likely to buy from a blog recommendation than from other sources!
Other ways that you can generate extra income through your blog are through the Google ad sense program, selling banner/link space as your traffic increases or as I mentioned earlier by adding you own opt-in sign up form to which you send your newsletter or other targeted offers.
Your blog can be syndicated using RSS, which I won’t go into here, that’s another article. But savvy webmasters can use your blog content on their web pages. This benefits them as they have regularly updated fresh content for their website and benefits you through increased exposure and free targeted traffic.
Be passionate about your blog, love your blog. If you do not then it will become obvious through your posts and you are unlikely to be anywhere near as successful as you could be.
Add to your blog regularly provide good quality content and reviews and you will be on your way to blogging success.
“A man would do nothing, if he waited until he could do it so well that no one at all would find fault with what he has done”. -- Cardinal Newman
Get that blog started today!
(Feel free to use this article online and in your email newsletters as long as you leave it intact and do not alter it in anyway. The byline and biography must remain in the article.)
Copyright © Ian Canaway
Ian Canaway is a home business entrepreneur and the owner of http://www.asuccesfullhomebusiness4u.com and also a home business based blog at http://www.ahomebusinessblog4u.blogspot.com; providing high quality information and resources. Check us out Now!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Canaway
How to Get Started Blogging in 5 Minutes or Less
I put off starting a blog for a long time because I thought it would be hard. I thought it would be technical. I thought I'd have to install scripts and tear my hair out getting them to work. At that point, most of what I'd read about blogs and RSS was just so much geek-speak.
Was I ever wrong!
When I finally got the courage to give it a go, I went to blogger.com and signed up for an account. To my amazement, I had a blog set up in about 5 minutes. My first post was uploaded to my site about 10 minutes later.
The only thing even remotely technical I was required to do was enter the FTP settings for the website my blog would be published on. But even that wasn't a requirement. With Blogger, you can set up a blog on their site, Blogspot, and not even worry about FTP settings.
Since then, I've started 3 Blogger blogs on different sites. Blogger remains one of the most popular blog applications in the world simply because it is so simple to use and set up. If you're a technophobe or don't have the time to learn something completely new, I would urge you to drop by Blogger.com and take a look. You could be blogging - and enjoying the benefits - almost immediately.
Another very simple blogging tool is Wordpress. This blog is my first Wordpress blog, and I'm very impressed with how powerful it is - as well as simple.
Wordpress is installed on your own website, but don't let that stop you. Most hosts that have Cpanel already have Wordpress ready for you to install. Look in your Cpanel for the Fantastico application, click it open, and then choose Wordpress to install. It will automatically install it on your site for you, and you can start blogging right away.
If your host doesn't already include Wordpress in the scripts on your server, you can still pick it up at:
http://wordpress.org/
Then go to the Wordpress Wiki for instructions on how to install it in 5 minutes:
http://wiki.wordpress.org/?pagename=5MinuteInstallation
Wordpress is free, open-source software. It is very simple to install, even for technophobes, and has a lot of online documentation. There are also many sites with free Wordpress add-ons and templates. I'm using a template for this blog that I picked up at Alex King's site:
http://www.alexking.org/index.php?content=software/wordpress/styles.php
The Wordpress Wiki is a wealth of information on all things Wordpress, including installation instructions, help files, a long list of template sites, and all kinds of hacks and extras you can use to modify your blog and make it original.
If you're a Wordpress user, another place to visit is the Wordpress discussion forum:
http://wordpress.org/support/
If you're a new blogger, both Wordpress and Blogger are very user friendly. There isn't a long learning curve. And you won't have to learn any new technical tricks. Why not give one of them a try?
For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my "Why Marketers Should Blog" weblog at (what else) http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_J_Bruton
Was I ever wrong!
When I finally got the courage to give it a go, I went to blogger.com and signed up for an account. To my amazement, I had a blog set up in about 5 minutes. My first post was uploaded to my site about 10 minutes later.
The only thing even remotely technical I was required to do was enter the FTP settings for the website my blog would be published on. But even that wasn't a requirement. With Blogger, you can set up a blog on their site, Blogspot, and not even worry about FTP settings.
Since then, I've started 3 Blogger blogs on different sites. Blogger remains one of the most popular blog applications in the world simply because it is so simple to use and set up. If you're a technophobe or don't have the time to learn something completely new, I would urge you to drop by Blogger.com and take a look. You could be blogging - and enjoying the benefits - almost immediately.
Another very simple blogging tool is Wordpress. This blog is my first Wordpress blog, and I'm very impressed with how powerful it is - as well as simple.
Wordpress is installed on your own website, but don't let that stop you. Most hosts that have Cpanel already have Wordpress ready for you to install. Look in your Cpanel for the Fantastico application, click it open, and then choose Wordpress to install. It will automatically install it on your site for you, and you can start blogging right away.
If your host doesn't already include Wordpress in the scripts on your server, you can still pick it up at:
http://wordpress.org/
Then go to the Wordpress Wiki for instructions on how to install it in 5 minutes:
http://wiki.wordpress.org/?pagename=5MinuteInstallation
Wordpress is free, open-source software. It is very simple to install, even for technophobes, and has a lot of online documentation. There are also many sites with free Wordpress add-ons and templates. I'm using a template for this blog that I picked up at Alex King's site:
http://www.alexking.org/index.php?content=software/wordpress/styles.php
The Wordpress Wiki is a wealth of information on all things Wordpress, including installation instructions, help files, a long list of template sites, and all kinds of hacks and extras you can use to modify your blog and make it original.
If you're a Wordpress user, another place to visit is the Wordpress discussion forum:
http://wordpress.org/support/
If you're a new blogger, both Wordpress and Blogger are very user friendly. There isn't a long learning curve. And you won't have to learn any new technical tricks. Why not give one of them a try?
For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my "Why Marketers Should Blog" weblog at (what else) http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_J_Bruton
To Blog or Not to Blog: Are Blogs Becoming More Popular than Forums, Newsletters and E-zines?
Blogging is hot, and seems to be becoming hotter each month. Although blogging originally was dismissed, by many successful publishers and other online "gurus", the truth is that now, a few years after the "blogging trend" began, there are actually more blogs and more bloggers online than ever before. Blogging, obviously, is "here to stay"!
Actually first documented in 1997, Web logs initially used the abbreviated version: wee-blog, with a Web log editor referred to as a blogger. Since then, all types of Web logs (blogs) and blogging software have emerged, giving rise to this lucrative and dynamic market.
Now, everything from advertising blogs to zoology blogs exist, with every topic in between apparent online. Political blogs are rampant, and groups of bloggers across the globe post regularly on every topic imaginable.
What does a blog supply that an e-zine, newsletter, or forum might not? What has skyrocketed the popularity of the blog over the past several years?
The answers are really quite simple:
1. Blogs are more highly interactive. Posters get to see the results of a post immediately, as the post appears simultaneously after posting. Posters also don't have the usual moderation that appears in forums, where posts may be deleted without warning. Usually, in blogs, more freedom is given, and posts are usually accepted no matter what the content, or the topic.
E-zines and newsletters, with their one sided presentation of views, have decreased in popularity with the increase of the popularity of blogs.
2. Blogs are easy to maintain and easy to start. The sheer volume of choices is staggering! Everything from "blogging software" to "blogging services" are available, and even a novice blogger will find blogging quick and easy to do.
3. Blogs are "Search Engine Friendly Food". Search Engines love blogs, because of the constantly changing content that appears daily. Search Engines are constantly "searching" for new content, and blogs meet this requirement splendidly!
4. Blogs are actually a lot of fun! The entertainment aspects of a blog cannot be dismissed. A great deal of "voyeurism" exists on blogs, where other bloggers continually monitor discussions, both pro and con concerning an issue. Discussions on blogs can be "heated" and interesting, with much repartee occurring daily! Blogs are a rousing form of media, indeed, with many bloggers returning repeatedly throughout a day to view new posts.
For a view into popular blogs of many categories, just visit: http://www.blogit.com
5. Many blogs are capable of syndication. Syndication is a great way to ensure that your writing and your views are exposed to as much of the general public as possible. Syndication is many times included in blogging services now, and this has drawn individuals to the art of blogging continuously.
For an example of a blog service that features syndication, please visit: http://www.typepad.com
6. There are no lists to maintain, or spam filters to worry about with blogs. This is one reason why so many writers and publishers have turned to blogs. E-mail delivery of newsletters and e-zines has become difficult over the past few years, with the advent of spam filters. Blogs are not delivered, and therefore, no methods of defeating filters are needed, and no "non-deliverables" occur, which has been the bane of writers and publishers prior to this.
A good blogging software exists at: http://www.silkblogs.com
7. Blogs are economical. Since no lists are maintained, there are no list server costs. Blogging software and blogging services are also very reasonably priced, giving good value for the money spent monthly consistently. Some blogging services charge others to "read", while others charge writers to "write", but overall the monthly charges are rather minimal either way.
8. Blogs are educational. There are such a variety of informative and educational blogs available now, that a search for any subject usually turns up hundreds of offerings. Differing points of view on all subjects are offered routinely, giving a reader or poster an "insight" into the hearts and minds of other bloggers.
Blogs also, to be successful, however, need to contain the same elements of a popular newsletter or e-zine:
A. Compelling, well-written content. No one, either online or offline wants to read materials that are poorly written or difficult or boring to read.
B. Updated material. Just as in newsletters or e-zines, if material is not updated continually, then the audience eventually dies.
C. Rousing topics. Topics of interest to a wide range of readers succeed more than topics that appeal to very few, or are rather dull topics.
D. A nice layout and visual appeal. A blog is akin to a Web site for written materials, and just like in the design of a Web site, every care should be made to have the blog be visually appealing and friendly to visitors.
Newsletters, e-zines and forums, of course, will remain. But as you can clearly see, blogging, bloggers, and blogs themselves, have definitely added to the "online experience" and will possibly (and hopefully) be around for decades more!
-----------
Vishal P. Rao is the owner of Work at Home Forum, an online community of people who work from home.
-----------
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Vishal_P._Rao
Actually first documented in 1997, Web logs initially used the abbreviated version: wee-blog, with a Web log editor referred to as a blogger. Since then, all types of Web logs (blogs) and blogging software have emerged, giving rise to this lucrative and dynamic market.
Now, everything from advertising blogs to zoology blogs exist, with every topic in between apparent online. Political blogs are rampant, and groups of bloggers across the globe post regularly on every topic imaginable.
What does a blog supply that an e-zine, newsletter, or forum might not? What has skyrocketed the popularity of the blog over the past several years?
The answers are really quite simple:
1. Blogs are more highly interactive. Posters get to see the results of a post immediately, as the post appears simultaneously after posting. Posters also don't have the usual moderation that appears in forums, where posts may be deleted without warning. Usually, in blogs, more freedom is given, and posts are usually accepted no matter what the content, or the topic.
E-zines and newsletters, with their one sided presentation of views, have decreased in popularity with the increase of the popularity of blogs.
2. Blogs are easy to maintain and easy to start. The sheer volume of choices is staggering! Everything from "blogging software" to "blogging services" are available, and even a novice blogger will find blogging quick and easy to do.
3. Blogs are "Search Engine Friendly Food". Search Engines love blogs, because of the constantly changing content that appears daily. Search Engines are constantly "searching" for new content, and blogs meet this requirement splendidly!
4. Blogs are actually a lot of fun! The entertainment aspects of a blog cannot be dismissed. A great deal of "voyeurism" exists on blogs, where other bloggers continually monitor discussions, both pro and con concerning an issue. Discussions on blogs can be "heated" and interesting, with much repartee occurring daily! Blogs are a rousing form of media, indeed, with many bloggers returning repeatedly throughout a day to view new posts.
For a view into popular blogs of many categories, just visit: http://www.blogit.com
5. Many blogs are capable of syndication. Syndication is a great way to ensure that your writing and your views are exposed to as much of the general public as possible. Syndication is many times included in blogging services now, and this has drawn individuals to the art of blogging continuously.
For an example of a blog service that features syndication, please visit: http://www.typepad.com
6. There are no lists to maintain, or spam filters to worry about with blogs. This is one reason why so many writers and publishers have turned to blogs. E-mail delivery of newsletters and e-zines has become difficult over the past few years, with the advent of spam filters. Blogs are not delivered, and therefore, no methods of defeating filters are needed, and no "non-deliverables" occur, which has been the bane of writers and publishers prior to this.
A good blogging software exists at: http://www.silkblogs.com
7. Blogs are economical. Since no lists are maintained, there are no list server costs. Blogging software and blogging services are also very reasonably priced, giving good value for the money spent monthly consistently. Some blogging services charge others to "read", while others charge writers to "write", but overall the monthly charges are rather minimal either way.
8. Blogs are educational. There are such a variety of informative and educational blogs available now, that a search for any subject usually turns up hundreds of offerings. Differing points of view on all subjects are offered routinely, giving a reader or poster an "insight" into the hearts and minds of other bloggers.
Blogs also, to be successful, however, need to contain the same elements of a popular newsletter or e-zine:
A. Compelling, well-written content. No one, either online or offline wants to read materials that are poorly written or difficult or boring to read.
B. Updated material. Just as in newsletters or e-zines, if material is not updated continually, then the audience eventually dies.
C. Rousing topics. Topics of interest to a wide range of readers succeed more than topics that appeal to very few, or are rather dull topics.
D. A nice layout and visual appeal. A blog is akin to a Web site for written materials, and just like in the design of a Web site, every care should be made to have the blog be visually appealing and friendly to visitors.
Newsletters, e-zines and forums, of course, will remain. But as you can clearly see, blogging, bloggers, and blogs themselves, have definitely added to the "online experience" and will possibly (and hopefully) be around for decades more!
-----------
Vishal P. Rao is the owner of Work at Home Forum, an online community of people who work from home.
-----------
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Vishal_P._Rao
How To Build Traffic To Your Blog
With the growing interest in blogging as a means of online promotion and branding, a lot of marketers are starting blogs to promote their opinions, products, books and services. But a blog is like a website. "Write and they will come" isn't exactly a magic formula to bring in traffic by the boatload.
If you need to promote your website in order to build traffic to it, you need to promote your blog as well.
Here are some ways you can become a well-read and influential blogger.
1. Write Posts That People Will Want To Read
This should be common sense, but many marketers tend to forget that their readers are real people and that you need to use the principles of online copywriting to make your headlines and copy interesting to your readers.
If you write posts that people enjoy reading, they will reward you by returning to your blog regularly.
Make your posts conversational, pithy and topical. Keep them short and stick to one topic per post.
Write often and regularly so that both readers and search engines visit your blog more often.
2. Optimize Your Posts for Search Engines
I cover this topic in detail in my article on "Search Engine Optimization For Blogs" http://www.blog-maniac.com/blog-seo.htm
But here are the most important rules to follow to get your posts listed for keywords of your choice.
* Make sure your blog URL contains the primary keyword you want to optimize for
* Use your primary keywords in the title of your post
* Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post
* Use your keywords in the anchor text of links in the body of your posts
3. Submit Your Blog and RSS Feed To Directories
If you publish a blog you should submit your blog and RSS feed to big directories like Yahoo and Dmoz, as well as the numerous blog directories and search engines.
Here is the best list I've found of places to submit your feed or blog, compiled by Luigi Canali De Rossi, who writes under the pseudonym Robin Good.
Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Another list of sites to submit your Blog. http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm
4. Ping The Blog Services
There are a number of services designed specifically for tracking and connecting blogs. By sending a small ping to each service you let them know you've updated your blog so they can come check you out.
Bookmark the Ping-O-Matic ping results page so you can visit it and quickly ping a number of services with a single click. http://pingomatic.com
5. Build Links To Your Blog
I recommend the methods here as the best ways to get links pointing to your blog
* Link to your blog from each page on your main website
* Trackback to other blogs in your posts
* Post legitimate comments on other blogs with related topics
* Offer to exchange links with other similarly themed blogs and websites
6. Edit Your Blog Posts Into Articles
One of the best methods for promoting your website is to write articles and submit them to article directories.
The suggestion for extending this to edit your blog posts into articles and submit them to directories came from the coach at "Explode Blog Traffic" who also has other noteworthy suggestions at his blog here. http://bloghit.blogspot.com/2004/11/how-to-explode-blog-traffic.html
You'll find an extensive list of article directories here http://www.articlewritingtips.com/submit-articles.htm
7. Create Buzz About Your Blog
Creating a buzz about your blog posts and topic in the local and online media will give your marketing a viral component.
* Create a controversy around your blog or it's topic.
* Distribute bumper stickers or other merchandise with your blog's URL and tagline.
* Write a press release about something newsworthy and tie it in with your blog topic.
8. Capture Subscribers By Email
It may seem strange for a blogger to send out updates by email, but email is still the #1 choice of most people who want to receive news and information.
Using a free service like Bloglet to manage your subscriptions is easy and it allows your subscribers to manage all their subscriptions from one interface. http://www.bloglet.com
However, if you want more control over your list and don't mind mailing out the updates yourself, you can use an autoresponder system to capture and follow-up with subscribers.
RSS responder is a new script that allows you to keep in touch and follow-up with your subscribers without the hassle of email. Find it and more RSS tools here http://www.rssnewssite.com
These tips should give you a good start to building your blog traffic.
_______________________________________________
Copyright © Priya Shah
Priya Shah is a partner in the online publishing firm, Connect10 and writes an internet marketing blog. Click here for free business blogging tips.
This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.
_______________________________________________
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Priya_Shah
If you need to promote your website in order to build traffic to it, you need to promote your blog as well.
Here are some ways you can become a well-read and influential blogger.
1. Write Posts That People Will Want To Read
This should be common sense, but many marketers tend to forget that their readers are real people and that you need to use the principles of online copywriting to make your headlines and copy interesting to your readers.
If you write posts that people enjoy reading, they will reward you by returning to your blog regularly.
Make your posts conversational, pithy and topical. Keep them short and stick to one topic per post.
Write often and regularly so that both readers and search engines visit your blog more often.
2. Optimize Your Posts for Search Engines
I cover this topic in detail in my article on "Search Engine Optimization For Blogs" http://www.blog-maniac.com/blog-seo.htm
But here are the most important rules to follow to get your posts listed for keywords of your choice.
* Make sure your blog URL contains the primary keyword you want to optimize for
* Use your primary keywords in the title of your post
* Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post
* Use your keywords in the anchor text of links in the body of your posts
3. Submit Your Blog and RSS Feed To Directories
If you publish a blog you should submit your blog and RSS feed to big directories like Yahoo and Dmoz, as well as the numerous blog directories and search engines.
Here is the best list I've found of places to submit your feed or blog, compiled by Luigi Canali De Rossi, who writes under the pseudonym Robin Good.
Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Another list of sites to submit your Blog. http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm
4. Ping The Blog Services
There are a number of services designed specifically for tracking and connecting blogs. By sending a small ping to each service you let them know you've updated your blog so they can come check you out.
Bookmark the Ping-O-Matic ping results page so you can visit it and quickly ping a number of services with a single click. http://pingomatic.com
5. Build Links To Your Blog
I recommend the methods here as the best ways to get links pointing to your blog
* Link to your blog from each page on your main website
* Trackback to other blogs in your posts
* Post legitimate comments on other blogs with related topics
* Offer to exchange links with other similarly themed blogs and websites
6. Edit Your Blog Posts Into Articles
One of the best methods for promoting your website is to write articles and submit them to article directories.
The suggestion for extending this to edit your blog posts into articles and submit them to directories came from the coach at "Explode Blog Traffic" who also has other noteworthy suggestions at his blog here. http://bloghit.blogspot.com/2004/11/how-to-explode-blog-traffic.html
You'll find an extensive list of article directories here http://www.articlewritingtips.com/submit-articles.htm
7. Create Buzz About Your Blog
Creating a buzz about your blog posts and topic in the local and online media will give your marketing a viral component.
* Create a controversy around your blog or it's topic.
* Distribute bumper stickers or other merchandise with your blog's URL and tagline.
* Write a press release about something newsworthy and tie it in with your blog topic.
8. Capture Subscribers By Email
It may seem strange for a blogger to send out updates by email, but email is still the #1 choice of most people who want to receive news and information.
Using a free service like Bloglet to manage your subscriptions is easy and it allows your subscribers to manage all their subscriptions from one interface. http://www.bloglet.com
However, if you want more control over your list and don't mind mailing out the updates yourself, you can use an autoresponder system to capture and follow-up with subscribers.
RSS responder is a new script that allows you to keep in touch and follow-up with your subscribers without the hassle of email. Find it and more RSS tools here http://www.rssnewssite.com
These tips should give you a good start to building your blog traffic.
_______________________________________________
Copyright © Priya Shah
Priya Shah is a partner in the online publishing firm, Connect10 and writes an internet marketing blog. Click here for free business blogging tips.
This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.
_______________________________________________
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Priya_Shah
Building Backlinks With Blogs
The most boring part of getting traffic to a website is getting backlinks. This is hard, boring, time consuming work. You spend hours finding relevant websites to link to, then spend hours more sending emails requesting backlinks, or submitting your sites to there links pages. And at the end of the day (actually in a few weeks), you have ½ a dozen new reciprocal link partners. that's good and all, but it bores the living hell out of me, and I don't have time for it. And they are only reciprocal links.
One-way links
Far better are one way links back to your pages. These are from websites that link to your site without you having to reciprocate. They are the best links to have, and the best way to get them in the past has been by submitting articles to places like directories, ezines and forums where other people read them, and hopefully give you a link back on there website somewhere.
Using a blog you can build one-way links to your site very fast. If you write articles of interest to others, they will link back to you in articles they write on their own blogs, and bloggers link to other bloggers without even thinking.
Getting your blog seen
"OK, so how do I get my blog in front of other people?" you ask... you automatically submit your blog posts to the large blog and feed directories as soon as you publish them, that's how! Included in your blog software is the ability to ping other feed sites. At SEO-easy.com you can find a free list of 45 directories to add to your Blog, so you can ping them automatically every time you update your blog.
If your blogging software doesn't have the ability to automatically ping, go to Pingomatic.com and submit your blog manually.
Where to put your blog
On your website, that's where. If your blog is hosted outside your website... on blogger.com for instance, move it! You can't get backlinks with your blog if unless it's on a page of your website. The other option is using WordPress or a similar blog package.
WordPress is fast becoming the most popular blogging software in use today. It is included as a free download in with many hosting accounts. Go into your servers admin and look for Fantastico Scripts and it should be there. If your hosting includes cPanel, you will find it is included, all you need to do is install it, and that takes only a minute. If your hosting does not include it, you can download and install it from WordPress.org yourself.
You can place your blog on your homepage - yoursite.com - on another page of your site - yoursite.com/blog - on a subdomain - blog.yoursite.com - but in my opinion, by far the best is yoursite.com
*********************************************************
Russell Savige is the owner of SEO-easy.com which publishes helpful up-to-date tips, techniques and ideas on SEO as soon as they become available.
*********************************************************
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Russell_Savige
One-way links
Far better are one way links back to your pages. These are from websites that link to your site without you having to reciprocate. They are the best links to have, and the best way to get them in the past has been by submitting articles to places like directories, ezines and forums where other people read them, and hopefully give you a link back on there website somewhere.
Using a blog you can build one-way links to your site very fast. If you write articles of interest to others, they will link back to you in articles they write on their own blogs, and bloggers link to other bloggers without even thinking.
Getting your blog seen
"OK, so how do I get my blog in front of other people?" you ask... you automatically submit your blog posts to the large blog and feed directories as soon as you publish them, that's how! Included in your blog software is the ability to ping other feed sites. At SEO-easy.com you can find a free list of 45 directories to add to your Blog, so you can ping them automatically every time you update your blog.
If your blogging software doesn't have the ability to automatically ping, go to Pingomatic.com and submit your blog manually.
Where to put your blog
On your website, that's where. If your blog is hosted outside your website... on blogger.com for instance, move it! You can't get backlinks with your blog if unless it's on a page of your website. The other option is using WordPress or a similar blog package.
WordPress is fast becoming the most popular blogging software in use today. It is included as a free download in with many hosting accounts. Go into your servers admin and look for Fantastico Scripts and it should be there. If your hosting includes cPanel, you will find it is included, all you need to do is install it, and that takes only a minute. If your hosting does not include it, you can download and install it from WordPress.org yourself.
You can place your blog on your homepage - yoursite.com - on another page of your site - yoursite.com/blog - on a subdomain - blog.yoursite.com - but in my opinion, by far the best is yoursite.com
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Russell Savige is the owner of SEO-easy.com which publishes helpful up-to-date tips, techniques and ideas on SEO as soon as they become available.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Russell_Savige
The 6 Top Reasons Marketers Should Blog
If there is a downside to blogging, I have yet to find it. The more you learn about blogging, the more there is to like.
In fact, here are 6 mouth-watering reasons why every marketer should be blogging:
1- Fast Search Engine Spidering and Indexing of Your Site:
Did you know that Google owns the most popular blogging platform on the planet? Blogger at http://www.blogger.com is used to produce thousands of blogs. Even a complete internet newbie can set up a blog in about 5 minutes at Blogger. And guess who can be counted on to come by and quickly spider all those new blog posts as they are written?
Yahoo is also embracing blogs and feeds in a big way. Savvy marketers know that adding their blogs and feeds to their MyYahoo page can bring the Yahoo spider to their site almost immediately.
One of the reasons that blogs get spidered so quickly is that most of them produce a feed. Many blogs automatically "ping" (or notify) some of the large sites that carry these feeds and make them available for syndication. Search engines spider these sites many times a day. Blogger, for instance, pings Weblogs every time you make a post. You can also "ping" a free site called Pingomatic (http://www.pingomatic.com) every time you add a new blog post. Your ping will notify Yahoo and 11 other large feed sites that you've added a post. If it only were so easy to get Google to notice new pages on regular sites!
If you have a new site that you are having trouble getting indexed, adding a blog or RSS feed is one of the quickest ways to get the spiders to come calling.
2-Blogs can Build Your Backlinks Quickly:
If you've spent time trying to get reciprocal links to your site, you know how frustrating, boring, and time-consuming it can be. I've long considered reciprocal link building to be one of the worst ways to develop link popularity. Many SEO experts consider one-way links to be far more effective.
A blog can build one-way links to your site fast. If you've just started a blog, you should submit it to the large blog and feed directories. Here is a list of the Top 55:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Once you've submitted your blog to these directories, you'll find your backlinks growing quickly. This past year, more webmasters are using RSS feeds on their sites to keep their sites fresh and spidered frequently. Software applications such as RSS Equalizer, Express RSS, and CARP make this easy.
After starting my first blog, I was amazed at how many different sites carried my feed with a link back to my site! These links can multiply exponentially over time.
Now tell me something. Wouldn't you rather be spending your time adding content to your site than trying to get questionable reciprocal links? Especially when it doesn't take any extra time?
3-A Frequently Updated Blog will Keep the Spiders Visiting Your Site Often:
Most of us are aware that the search engines like sites that are updated frequently. If you have your blog set up correctly, every post will update several pages of your site. Then pinging Yahoo and the blog and feed directories at Pingomatic can bring out the spiders in just a few hours. This is a great way to get new pages of your site indexed quickly and frequently.
4-Your Site is Stickier and More Appealing to Visitors:
A blog on your site is an easy way to keep your site updated on a regular basis. The upside is that visitors will come by more often. If they find your blog interesting and informative, they may bookmark your site. That means you have a much greater chance of making sales. And you have a ready-made audience for any new products you launch.
A blog can also add a human face to your website that potential customers will trust and respond to. Most marketers know that people buy from people they like and respect. A well-written blog is a great way to build a relationship with your visitors.
5-A Blog Is The Fastest And Easiest Way To Build A Brand-New Website Without Training:
Even a 10 year old could set up a blog at Blogger.com and be blogging almost immediately. No HTML knowledge is necessary. You don't need to know how to FTP. You don't need to know how to link the pages in your site together. All you have to do is type in your post and click on the "publish" button. And yet you can still set up an attractive, spiderable site in record time.
Blogs can be used for any type of site, not just for online ezine delivery or a place to announce new products. Using a blog you could quickly build a niche site. Just research the best keywords for your niche. Then write articles around those keywords and post them to your blog. Include your keywords in your title. You now have an instant niche site that will be spidered quickly and be easy to maintain.
6-Keyword competition in RSS feed sites is much less than in the SE's:
Google, Yahoo, and MSN each have many millions of webpages in their indexes. It can be almost impossible to get top rankings for competitive keywords if you don't have a high PR site with lots of backlinks.
It's a completely different story at the RSS feed sites. The competition for many high-competition keywords is almost nonexistent. Setting up a blog in some of these high-competition niches is a good way to successfully compete.
Marketers spend a lot of time and money getting traffic to their sites, creating backlinks, getting good SE rankings, and building relationships with their customers. A blog can improve your results in all those areas. There aren't very many free marketing techniques that can make that claim!
For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my "Why Marketers Should Blog" weblog at (what else) http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_J_Bruton
In fact, here are 6 mouth-watering reasons why every marketer should be blogging:
1- Fast Search Engine Spidering and Indexing of Your Site:
Did you know that Google owns the most popular blogging platform on the planet? Blogger at http://www.blogger.com is used to produce thousands of blogs. Even a complete internet newbie can set up a blog in about 5 minutes at Blogger. And guess who can be counted on to come by and quickly spider all those new blog posts as they are written?
Yahoo is also embracing blogs and feeds in a big way. Savvy marketers know that adding their blogs and feeds to their MyYahoo page can bring the Yahoo spider to their site almost immediately.
One of the reasons that blogs get spidered so quickly is that most of them produce a feed. Many blogs automatically "ping" (or notify) some of the large sites that carry these feeds and make them available for syndication. Search engines spider these sites many times a day. Blogger, for instance, pings Weblogs every time you make a post. You can also "ping" a free site called Pingomatic (http://www.pingomatic.com) every time you add a new blog post. Your ping will notify Yahoo and 11 other large feed sites that you've added a post. If it only were so easy to get Google to notice new pages on regular sites!
If you have a new site that you are having trouble getting indexed, adding a blog or RSS feed is one of the quickest ways to get the spiders to come calling.
2-Blogs can Build Your Backlinks Quickly:
If you've spent time trying to get reciprocal links to your site, you know how frustrating, boring, and time-consuming it can be. I've long considered reciprocal link building to be one of the worst ways to develop link popularity. Many SEO experts consider one-way links to be far more effective.
A blog can build one-way links to your site fast. If you've just started a blog, you should submit it to the large blog and feed directories. Here is a list of the Top 55:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Once you've submitted your blog to these directories, you'll find your backlinks growing quickly. This past year, more webmasters are using RSS feeds on their sites to keep their sites fresh and spidered frequently. Software applications such as RSS Equalizer, Express RSS, and CARP make this easy.
After starting my first blog, I was amazed at how many different sites carried my feed with a link back to my site! These links can multiply exponentially over time.
Now tell me something. Wouldn't you rather be spending your time adding content to your site than trying to get questionable reciprocal links? Especially when it doesn't take any extra time?
3-A Frequently Updated Blog will Keep the Spiders Visiting Your Site Often:
Most of us are aware that the search engines like sites that are updated frequently. If you have your blog set up correctly, every post will update several pages of your site. Then pinging Yahoo and the blog and feed directories at Pingomatic can bring out the spiders in just a few hours. This is a great way to get new pages of your site indexed quickly and frequently.
4-Your Site is Stickier and More Appealing to Visitors:
A blog on your site is an easy way to keep your site updated on a regular basis. The upside is that visitors will come by more often. If they find your blog interesting and informative, they may bookmark your site. That means you have a much greater chance of making sales. And you have a ready-made audience for any new products you launch.
A blog can also add a human face to your website that potential customers will trust and respond to. Most marketers know that people buy from people they like and respect. A well-written blog is a great way to build a relationship with your visitors.
5-A Blog Is The Fastest And Easiest Way To Build A Brand-New Website Without Training:
Even a 10 year old could set up a blog at Blogger.com and be blogging almost immediately. No HTML knowledge is necessary. You don't need to know how to FTP. You don't need to know how to link the pages in your site together. All you have to do is type in your post and click on the "publish" button. And yet you can still set up an attractive, spiderable site in record time.
Blogs can be used for any type of site, not just for online ezine delivery or a place to announce new products. Using a blog you could quickly build a niche site. Just research the best keywords for your niche. Then write articles around those keywords and post them to your blog. Include your keywords in your title. You now have an instant niche site that will be spidered quickly and be easy to maintain.
6-Keyword competition in RSS feed sites is much less than in the SE's:
Google, Yahoo, and MSN each have many millions of webpages in their indexes. It can be almost impossible to get top rankings for competitive keywords if you don't have a high PR site with lots of backlinks.
It's a completely different story at the RSS feed sites. The competition for many high-competition keywords is almost nonexistent. Setting up a blog in some of these high-competition niches is a good way to successfully compete.
Marketers spend a lot of time and money getting traffic to their sites, creating backlinks, getting good SE rankings, and building relationships with their customers. A blog can improve your results in all those areas. There aren't very many free marketing techniques that can make that claim!
For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my "Why Marketers Should Blog" weblog at (what else) http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_J_Bruton
Why It Took Me So Long To Blog
When I saw my first blog, I wasn't impressed.
The first blogs I ever read were embarrassing tales of teenage angst better left private, political diatribes from both the rabid right and the rabid left, and jargon-filled tech rags that made my eyes glaze over
And yet everyone was talking about blogs and that I would soon be left behind if I didn't have one. But they never gave me a simple explanation of how it would benefit me. They talked about RSS - you know, the obligatory "real simple syndication" - followed by a long, boring, techie article filled with jargon that wasn't simple at all. They talked about syndicating my site, but not how that would benefit my business.
No one ever told me, "Hey, fool, listen up! How would you like a 3 or 4 line text link to your site on thousands of other sites getting you tons of traffic and backlinks up the ying-yang on all the SE's?"
If they had, trust me. I'd have been blogging my heart out!
Eventually I did start a blog simply because it was getting harder and harder to get my ezine delivered. This particular ezine delivers tips to network marketers. Now if you've had any experience with spam filters, you know that any email with the "M" word (MLM) or the "N" word (network marketing) practically lights up the scoreboard! I even tried using "M*L*M" or "net*work mark@eting." But that got old real fast. Trying to sound like a halfway intelligent professional while writing like a first grader on their first day of school just didn't cut it. I was starting to confuse even myself!
So I decided to start a blog, and then just email my list with the link to the article every week. Not only has that greatly increased the day to day traffic to my site, but I discovered a couple of interesting benefits along the way.
One big bonus was how easy it was to publish to my site. Doing things the old way, I wrote and delivered my ezine. Then I converted the article to html and FTP'd it up to my site. Then I had to download and update my article archive page. Then I had to download and update my sitemap. Then I would download my index page and add a little blurb about the new article to get it indexed faster. All told, several hours of mind-numbingly boring work.
Not so with a blog. I just write my articles in NoteTab, then copy and paste them into my Blogger control panel. It adds all the HTML and places it into my chosen template, FTP's it to my site, and updates my archives - all in the blink of an eye! Talk about an easy-to-use content management system. Even a 10-year-old could have done it.
After I posted my first article on my new blog, I realized I could get some new backlinks to my site by submitting the blog to some of the many blog directories. So I spent a few hours sumbitting my blog.
But my eyes didn't really open until a couple of weeks later. I started realizing I was making more sales than usual and popped in to check my web stats. To my astonishment, I realized I was getting 50-100 more visitors per day. I checked my referrer logs and then my backlinks on Yahoo and found over 100 new traffic sources and links!
I clicked through on some of those links and then a big lightbulb lit up in my head. Those new referrers were from the many people using RSS feeds on their sites. And their site visitors were actually clicking on those links and finding my site.
Now I was hooked!
Think about that - 50-100 more visitors per day, and 100 new backlinks. All from one article that I posted to a brand new blog that took 5 minutes to set up on Blogger.com for free! How many free marketing techniques get those kind of results right out the door? And how much better would my results be from regular posts to my blog and submitting it to even more blog directories? Or from simultaneously posting those blog posts to article directories?
That was 2 months ago, and I'm discovering that the answer is every bit as exciting as I had hoped! Not only that, but I'm discovering more and more ways to improve my results. And ways to use blogs in new and exciting ways that I don't hear other people talking about.
I know that many marketers are under the impression that blogs are just for geeks, or that blogs are just some new toy everyone is getting but no one knows what to do with. If that has been your belief, I hope you'll take a second look!
For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my "Why Marketers Should Blog" weblog at (what else) http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_J_Bruton
The first blogs I ever read were embarrassing tales of teenage angst better left private, political diatribes from both the rabid right and the rabid left, and jargon-filled tech rags that made my eyes glaze over
And yet everyone was talking about blogs and that I would soon be left behind if I didn't have one. But they never gave me a simple explanation of how it would benefit me. They talked about RSS - you know, the obligatory "real simple syndication" - followed by a long, boring, techie article filled with jargon that wasn't simple at all. They talked about syndicating my site, but not how that would benefit my business.
No one ever told me, "Hey, fool, listen up! How would you like a 3 or 4 line text link to your site on thousands of other sites getting you tons of traffic and backlinks up the ying-yang on all the SE's?"
If they had, trust me. I'd have been blogging my heart out!
Eventually I did start a blog simply because it was getting harder and harder to get my ezine delivered. This particular ezine delivers tips to network marketers. Now if you've had any experience with spam filters, you know that any email with the "M" word (MLM) or the "N" word (network marketing) practically lights up the scoreboard! I even tried using "M*L*M" or "net*work mark@eting." But that got old real fast. Trying to sound like a halfway intelligent professional while writing like a first grader on their first day of school just didn't cut it. I was starting to confuse even myself!
So I decided to start a blog, and then just email my list with the link to the article every week. Not only has that greatly increased the day to day traffic to my site, but I discovered a couple of interesting benefits along the way.
One big bonus was how easy it was to publish to my site. Doing things the old way, I wrote and delivered my ezine. Then I converted the article to html and FTP'd it up to my site. Then I had to download and update my article archive page. Then I had to download and update my sitemap. Then I would download my index page and add a little blurb about the new article to get it indexed faster. All told, several hours of mind-numbingly boring work.
Not so with a blog. I just write my articles in NoteTab, then copy and paste them into my Blogger control panel. It adds all the HTML and places it into my chosen template, FTP's it to my site, and updates my archives - all in the blink of an eye! Talk about an easy-to-use content management system. Even a 10-year-old could have done it.
After I posted my first article on my new blog, I realized I could get some new backlinks to my site by submitting the blog to some of the many blog directories. So I spent a few hours sumbitting my blog.
But my eyes didn't really open until a couple of weeks later. I started realizing I was making more sales than usual and popped in to check my web stats. To my astonishment, I realized I was getting 50-100 more visitors per day. I checked my referrer logs and then my backlinks on Yahoo and found over 100 new traffic sources and links!
I clicked through on some of those links and then a big lightbulb lit up in my head. Those new referrers were from the many people using RSS feeds on their sites. And their site visitors were actually clicking on those links and finding my site.
Now I was hooked!
Think about that - 50-100 more visitors per day, and 100 new backlinks. All from one article that I posted to a brand new blog that took 5 minutes to set up on Blogger.com for free! How many free marketing techniques get those kind of results right out the door? And how much better would my results be from regular posts to my blog and submitting it to even more blog directories? Or from simultaneously posting those blog posts to article directories?
That was 2 months ago, and I'm discovering that the answer is every bit as exciting as I had hoped! Not only that, but I'm discovering more and more ways to improve my results. And ways to use blogs in new and exciting ways that I don't hear other people talking about.
I know that many marketers are under the impression that blogs are just for geeks, or that blogs are just some new toy everyone is getting but no one knows what to do with. If that has been your belief, I hope you'll take a second look!
For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my "Why Marketers Should Blog" weblog at (what else) http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_J_Bruton
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