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Online Copywriting – When Humor Can Hurt!

November 22, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

Avoid the temptation to be clever or funny at all costs if you are providing your own online copywriting. The temptation is a huge one sometimes, but you will be better off if you fight it.

Why? No one wants to do business with a jokester.

It is more important to be honest and earnest with your potential customers and clients. They want to know what’s in it for them – not how well you can rhyme words for a clever headline or that you have a witty style of writing. No one cares. They want to know they are doing business with an honest professional who will deliver the product or services he or she sells. That’s it. Period. The end.

But can’t these readers overlook an occasional attempt at a clever headline or witty lead in online copywriting?

Why should they?

Their time is valuable. If they feel like you are wasting their valuable time, they will move on and not ever look back. Remember, your potential online customer is always only one click away from leaving your site, never to return. So, keep your online copywriting focused on the business at hand.

Leaving humor out shows your reader you are willing to give them the respect they deserve as discerning shoppers. It also shows you can be serious about the nature of your product or service. And if you cannot be serious about it, who can be?

Remember that there’s a big difference between humor and catchy, powerful copywriting.

If you insist on using humor in your online copywriting, carefully restrict it. Perhaps you are planning to present subscribers or customers with a monthly newsletter. If your wit is just bursting to get out, reserve yourself a column each week or month just for that purpose. Make sure it’s marked as a column by giving it a header like, “On the Editor’s Mind” or “A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to the Web Site….” Make it light hearted so your readers will know to expect to read article content that is also light hearted. But when you are writing for an area dealing with business, keep the tone very business like. By doing this, you will earn and keep the respect of your clients and customers.

This doesn’t mean that your online copywriting should be in stilted “corporate speak” or in the third person. No, online copywriting should be casual, informal, aimed directly at the reader, but still business like in nature.

Of course, there may be exceptions. If you’re marketing a clown’s costume designer, a clown joke may be in order. But the majority of shoppers are not looking for a joke to use in their next stand-up comedy routine – they’re looking for a quality product. Even clowns are serious when they’re searching for the next great costume.

In some types of management, humor is a tool recommended to help bond teams. However, when dealing with online copywriting for Internet marketing, you really can’t know much about the other participants. What might be funny to one person could well be offensive to a dozen others. It’s just too iffy to pull humor into your online copywriting both safely and effectively.

Thus, with online copywriting, don’t try to be too clever, or you may find that you are too clever for your own good.

George Dodge is owner of http://www.CompellingWebCopy.com where you will discover 757 explosive online copywriting techniques guaranteed to skyrocket your sales and stuff more cash in your pocket – even if you haven’t written a thing since high school!

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Website Advertising

November 20, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

Based on statistics who claim that over eighty per cent of all website advertising budgets are practically lost, some online entrepreneurs doubt about the success of an online advertising campaign for their small internet business and consider it a waste of money.

Reality is that marketing a website business is a need ever present to its owners. To promote the business has to be attended to with the firmest of the dedications.

Website advertising can’t be considered an exact science but is definitely a very effective engine accomplishing the growth and expansion of any home based internet business.

Even so online entrepreneurs still and categorically declare that advertising a website is still a dangerous venture and at its best a speculation, even under the most favorable of conditions. Millions of dollars are spent yearly in website advertising budgets with no more realistic return on investment than would outcome from throwing away these advertising dollars into the vast ocean. They of course, are not suggesting that it is uncertain as to real efficiency of the right type of advertising, but that just about every online advertiser relates to the fact that sooner or later, sometimes constantly, costly mistakes are going to be committed.

There has been for many years a rank skepticism as to the best methods of promoting, sustaining and building up a small internet business.

 In this day of sensation and accomplishment this skepticism is being overthrown and well established, demonstrable facts are taking its place. Previously most business entrepreneurs thought that advertising was of little value in the development of doing business. Perhaps the kind of advertising our fathers did was of little value but there is a vast difference between the advertising of twenty five years ago and that of today. Online business advertising has changed and advanced so quickly through its various modifications that even modern vocabulary has problems keeping up and terminology is almost out of date in its attempts to describe it. In no field of endeavor has there been such development as in the online advertising campaign field.

Website advertising is, perhaps, the most valuable factor in establishing, maintaining and building up a home based internet business.

Internet advertising is today the ideal of modern publicity. It has the endorsement of the leading merchants, manufacturers and internet entrepreneurs who are acquainted with its merits.They are fast realizing from experience, that advertising their website online gives them the safest, least expensive and most productive of results. They have found that there is little of the speculative in online advertising campaigns when it’s well done. Within a short time it is alleged that internet advertising will even overtake TV advertising, and it will be regarded as indispensable for success of any small business enterprise as the invested capital itself.  

This conclusion has been arrived at after most critical tests. It is based on facts as they exist today. It follows, then:  

That website advertising makes you well and favorably known.That it gives you a better and wider publicity in the area in which you are seeking to do business with superior return on investment than all other combined.That it gives to the advertiser the confidence it has won from the people through long years of service.That it affords the best and least expensive way of putting your advertisements into millions of monitors and screens worldwide.This being true, it seems there is no logical reason why every home based internet business entrepreneur should not use an online advertising campaign for obtaining the results he desires. The time has come when the old and ineffective custom of doing business must be discarded.

There is no time today to wait for the “ducks to swim to the shore”. You must wade in or sail out and get them. Website advertising is the one effective, unerring gun with which you can bag your game. Undoubtedly an online advertising campaign can be successfully accomplished.

Copyright © F. Prida. All Rights Reserved.

Home based Internet Business Entrepreneur that earns income from Home Sweet Home.

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Do You Have A Google Habit?

November 17, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

I visit a lot of webmaster forums and visit blogs about SEO as well as write some blogs of my own about SEO, Article Marketing, and Blogging. I learn a lot by visiting other people’s blogs and forums and learn a lot by sharing that information with others.
But one thing bothers me about what I read on most forums and blogs. People are obsessed with Google. There are forums where they refer to Google as just “g” because they seem to be afraid someone at Google might read their post and not like it.
This Google obsession borders on lunacy. Webmasters seem to be convinced that without a good ranking in Google and without Google’s seal of approval, page rank, they cannot be successful on the web.
Let’s think about that for a moment. If Google folded tomorrow, not likely, but if they did, suddenly they just weren’t there. http://Google.com did not resolve, page cannot be displayed, what would you do?
Would it be like the stock market crash of the 30’s? Would webmasters be jumping off buildings? Would everyone just stop doing business on the web because Google was gone? Would the forums be full of grieving webmasters with nowhere to turn? Would they erect a statue of Matt Cutts and hold memorial services for the CEOs of Google? Would you light a candle for Google?
The point I’m trying to make is that business was being done on the web before Google became a search portal, before adwords and adnonsense, before Matt Cutts had a blog, and before Google hired an artist full-time to keep making cute little Google logos. Before there was a Google toolbar, page rank, Google images, Google stores, and Google pay, we made money on the Internet.
Yet, people write articles, blogs, and forums posts that start with things like, “If you do business on the web, you have to pay attention to Google”, like that was a fact etched in stone.
If you are someone who builds a lot of websites, try an experiment. Ignore Google for just that one website. Focus on other search traffic and other ways to get business done. All without using anything Google. Just try it once. I’ll bet if you really try, you will still have success with your website, without visiting Matt Cutts’ blog even once. Just make it a game, see if you can make money on the web without Google.
Or do you have the Google habit so bad that you actually believe the web could not actually function without Google? It’s like Al Gore saying he invented the Internet. We know he didn’t. Neither did Google.

Chris McElroy aka NameCritic has been doing business on the web since 1995. Visit ACP, BCP, or SSP for more articles.

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Increase Web Traffic With SEO

November 13, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

In the last several years Google has become a widely-recognized brand, even recently ranked as the top-known brand name in the world. Anyone who is hosting a website, advertising online, or doing business should understand how to utilize Google services well. In short, over half of all Internet searches use Google.
Google’s services can help searchers find your business in several different ways. Your site, like all the other public sites on the Web, is scanned often by automatic ’spider’ applications which make an examination for the links and content of each web page. Google’s index contains over ten billion pages; the company updates its indexes on a regular basis, a task that requires the use of almost half a million servers.
When users submit search terms at the site, Google will present a list of selected and ordered matches. The order in which they are presented is determined by several different factors. The factors of this search include the relevancy of the content on the page to the search terms, along with what Google calls the ‘PageRank’ of that particular page. Other factors probably play in as well, but these algorithms are secret.
PageRank is expressed as a number which is calculated during the process of indexing (0-10). Each web page that the spider examines will be assigned a PageRank number. Starting at zero, the number grows as the page receives links from other sites, either from the same host for from other externally-based sites. The Google policy here is that pages receive rank not from the amount of accesses they serve, but by the correlated relevancy of content and the amount of links that refer them. Google’s description: “Google interprets a link from page A to B as a vote, by page A, for page B. Votes cast by pages that are themselves important weigh more heavily and help to make other pages important.” So, increased site traffic won’t improve your PageRank, but a better PageRank will probably result in increased traffic to your site.
Where Does Your Site Sit in Google’s World?
To find out your site’s PageRank, use Google’s Toolbar in your Web browser. If you don’t have it pre-installed, just search for it.
How Does a Site Increase Visitor Traffic?
There’s an entire new field to address this question: search engine optimizers. These SEO companies are great for expert advice. There are also some things you can do to increase the amount of unpaid traffic at your web site.
1) Website Redesign – Make your site focus more on the issues that people search on more frequently.
2) Place Articles – These articles can feature incoming links to your web site.
3) Localize – By adding sections by geographic location, your content can feature info related to a particular place, including community events. Google gives favor to a search that includes a city name in it.
By implementing these simple suggestions, you could see your unpaid web traffic triple in short time.

Nick Pegley is VP of Marketing at All Covered Inc, the only nationwide information technology (IT) services company focused solely on enabling the success of small businesses. Serving thousands of organizations across every major industry, the company helps clients achieve their business objectives by lowering the cost and maximizing the performance of their IT systems.

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Avoiding Disaster – How to Choose an SEO Firm

October 28, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

There has been a flurry of entrants into the Search Engine Optimisation market in the past year or so. Judging by the horrendous rates some are charging, money rather than service seems to be the main motivation. Judging by the horror stories from clients who have arrived on my doorstep after being ripped off by sharp operators, in some instances there is evidence of a serious deficiency in both ethics and skills in some cases.

I have a new client who spent almost $30,000 last year, with no work having been done on the actual site, no evidence of link increases, and according to traffic statistics, site visitors have gone DOWN by 60% – so read the following sections carefully.

So, how do you choose an SEO firm to entrust your business to? I believe that there are some simple checks to put in place before committing yourself to any SEO proposal, no matter how attractive it might seem.

How To Shorten Your SEO Short List
The following sections list a few ways you can find some potentially good SEO firms, and also eliminate some dodgy ones and thus reduce your chances of being disappointed.

How Well Does Their Own Site Rank?
Do a search for search engine optimisation, seo rates and/or seo firm on the country-specific version of each of the big 3 major search engines – e.g. Google.co.nz, Yahoo.co.nz or XtraMSN.co.nz. Alternatively, go to the main Google.com etc site, and search for nz seo, seo rates, or new zealand search engine optimisation (or your own country-specific version of those). The market SEO has become very competitive out there, but you should expect the SEO business you are contemplating doing business with to be on Page One on each search engine! If not, drop them from the list of possibles, because how much help could they possibly be to you? A list of 3-5 potential firms should quickly emerge from this process.

Request For Proposal
From your initial research, you should have a list of contenders you are considering entrusting your business to. Contact each, and request a site review. This will invariably result in a detailed analysis of your site, and a proposal which sets out what remedial action is required and an indicative costing to achieve this. Having now received a series of these, apply the following criteria against each one.

Guaranteed Inclusion in Google/Yahoo/MSN
If an SEO firm offers a guarantee of inclusion into any major search engine, or assures you that they have a special relationship with a search engine, immediately drop them from the list of possibles. Frankly, search engines simply do not enter into such relationships. That would be as likely as a close friendship between a poacher and a gamekeeper!

What Are They Proposing?
There are two key ingredients to web site optimisation, and if both are not assessed and addressed, drop the SEO firm’s proposal from the list of possibilities!

The first is on-site optimisation of individual pages to improve organic or natural search engine rankings. This involves keyword research with associated analysis of the business products and services. This is the most important aspect because it delivers ongoing traffic which is essentially free after the initial work is carried out.

The second key element is link analysis and recommended remedial action. Basically, the more links to your site from trusted sites carrying high page rank, the better. Insufficient links means your site is not worth indexing. Proposals to increase your 1-way back-links from web directories and other trusted sites are good. However, should there be any suggestions for participation in link propagation schemes, or place main emphasis on reciprocal link strategies etc, drop the SEO firm from your list because they are not up to date with current best practice.

Google Adwords & Yahoo Search Marketing
Some SEO firms boast that they are certified Adwords practitioners etc. That’s all well and good, but what they mean is that with YOUR money, they are real confident of getting you top placing in the keyword bidding warfare! There can be some short term benefits in that, but guarantees along those lines are not overly helpful to your business. If a proposal places primary emphasis on Pay-Per-Click, slip it down to the bottom of the pile!

References
Can your SEO firm provide you with some reference sites they’ve worked on successfully, case studies, and/or some clients you can contact for comment? Bear in mind that there are likely to be some commercial sensitivities that apply constraints.

Is There Value in 1 Year Contracts?
Frankly, no! The hallmark of a professional, ethical operator will be a fixed price contract to carry out the initial remedial action on the site. As a reassurance, they will usually let you know that ongoing support is available if required, because the rules of the SEO game do keep changing. The best SEO practitioners do not attempt to lock you into 1 year contract because they know the initial work will often take 8-12 weeks to deliver full benefits, and the project cost will usually include a built-in monitoring component over that initial period. It is, in my view, a little unethical to double-dip on the project costs!

Not only that, but what if you are not happy with the results of the SEO firm or their level of service? A 1 year contract might just guarantee you receive a full 12 months of unsatisfactory services! My advice – do not lock yourself into a long-term contract until you have grown comfortable with the SEO team you are dealing with

Fixed Price Contracts
Insist on one! A professional SEO firm will set out exactly what is wrong with your site, and explain the precise remedial action in a coherent and logical fashion. The actual work will be specified and a total cost provided. It is customary to require payment in advance. This is usually 100% for smaller jobs, which I would define as less than $1500. For larger projects, expect to pay a 50% deposit with balance on completion and/or when Top 30 rankings on agreed keyword terms show a demonstrable improvement.

How Much Should It Cost?
Well, each proposal should come down to a judgement by each SEO firm on how many hours of work are going to be involved in the project. However, some seem more inclined to make an assessment of your ability to pay in big chunks! There can be obvious, huge discrepancies – its common to see variations of 1000% e.g. you will see that some firms initial cost proposal can be 10 times that of competing operator! From your point of view, you want to know how many pages are gong to be amended, what will be done by way of increasing incoming links, are articles being published, and if so, how many? Reduce it to a known quantity, compare apples with apples! When you are systematic about it, the choices become more obvious, and a decision becomes easier!

You Need to Know What Will Be Done
An SEO professional will involve you at each step of the process, providing you with a preview of all site changes before implementation. You will be able to measure progress of the work on a page by page basis, and see the results in your site traffic statistics as well as SE ranking reports. As in all aspects of life, failing to plan is planning to fail! If there is no plan, no road map, don’t expect a happy ending or any rights of redress.

Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO
There are other danger signs to be aware of. If your SEO proposal suggests cloaking, redirections, doorway pages, hallway pages, invisible text, multiple domain names for duplicated content etc, immediately drop the company from the list of possibles!

There are many Black Hat SEO operators who prefer to attempt to subvert the Search Engine guidelines, essentially looking for rapid, short-term ranking gains by ANY means, instead of taking a responsible, professional approach. If your site is caught up in any scheme like this, banishment from search engine indexes is assured! Essentially, good White Hat SEO involves thoughtful restructuring of site content, within the SE guidelines and parameters, and taking no risks of any kind.

Who Are You Dealing With?
Does their site have some personal profile information? Are you dealing with a seasoned IT industry professional, a kid fresh out of high school, someone moonlighting from their primary job, or maybe somebody who has English as a second (or third) language? SEO is very much about words, semantics, languages skills and this, plus broad SEO project experience over several years, should be a key indicator to consider!

Partnerships
Your web site is an integral part of your business. The people you work with should have an intuitive understanding of your business, products and services, and should by now have demonstrated that they have given your particular circumstances some personal attention. Some, on the other hand, may have merely used automated site assessment tools. From the initial proposal, and exchange of emails with questions and answers to clarify any issues that have arisen, do you feel a sense of rapport with anyone? The best people to work with are those you are comfortable with.

I hope that this has proven a useful and thought-provoking summary of how to weed out the space cadets, cowboys and make-a-quick-buck operators. I really hope you do find yourself a competent, professional SEO practitioner, because they are out there toiling away, doing a great job for great people like you!

Good luck!

Ben Kemp is a free-lance
search
engine optimisation consultant and offers free SEO articles & web design tips, see The SEO Guys Blog

Web: http://www.comauth.co.nz

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The Do’s That You Should Do in Starting an SEO Campaign

October 27, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

 

In internet marketing, Search Engine Optimization or commonly known as SEO is among of the rising trends in internet marketing. SEO makes use of search engine algorithms for targeted keywords to raise the rank of a web site. This in turn, generates higher volume and quality of traffic in a web site. But because of SEO’s popularity in internet marketing, many have decided to employ its advantages in marketing, which in turn makes SEO efforts a lot more complicated.

More and more, big and small businesses are starting to use SEO strategies and techniques to improve their marketing efforts on the internet. And some are searching for a proper way to use SEO in their campaign. Here is a short list of Do’s that one should do in an SEO campaign.

The First DO: Do a Commitment and Patience Check

SEO is like getting married, you must be fully committed before starting an SEO campaign. One of the main reasons is that search engine algorithms constantly changes, which means tactics or techniques used in last month’s SEO campaign may not be enough to make the cut for the top 10 SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) this month. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.

A patience check is also important before starting an SEO campaign. Patience is important in this type internet marketing campaign because of the long wait that you have experience before actually getting results. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.

The Second DO: Do Your Study on an SEO Company

Now before you hire yourself an SEO Philippines, you should first check on the tactics and techniques that the SEO Company uses in their SEO efforts. You should ask for the specifics and risks involved in an SEO campaign. It’s also necessary that you should do your own research about the company (has it been in operation for more than a year now or has a good record in providing SEO services on their previous clients) and learn about their SEO processes.

It is also important that you should do your own research about SEO efforts. You’ll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can about SEO processes and campaigns. Luckily, there are several sites such as Optimind Technology Solutions, which provides some information about SEO campaigns.

The Third DO: Do Your Website

Now if your site did show up ranking number one in any search engines, but your website looks as if it needs to be analyzed by those guys on extreme makeover, then your SEO efforts will be for nothing. Just think, is this site really appropriate to belong to the world’s Top 10 in this topic?

If ever you’re targeting the highest of all ranks on a specific topic, you should be able to provide the users with an appropriate design of a website that really reflects the information the user wants.

Site maps are also important in an SEO campaign. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links.

It is also important that your URL is SEO friendly. This is done by using your selected keywords in your URLs and some images and files. But don’t overdo it, though. A file may be “very” SEO-friendly, but a file that has 3 or more hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it.

Another thing about your website is the title of the page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. The meta description tag in your page title won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so you should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing.

Check out what the SEO Philippinesof Optimind Technology Solutions has to offer about your website being an SEO-friendly website.

The Fourth DO: Do a Copy That Sells

Now before you make a web copy, you should first do a keyword research on what keywords you would like to include in your copy. There is a lot of paid internet software that can make it easier for you to choose your keywords. But if you’re on a tight budget, there are also some free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker that you can use. Both of which also have more powerful paid versions.

Now that you have your keywords, you or your hired SEO Company should get started in making a great and unique content different from your rivals. You should first make an observation about your competitors. If you’re selling the same widget that 100 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using same the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, then this is a great opportunity for you to make your own unique copy of that same widget. Using the keyword research I talked to you about to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.

But before you start your web copy, you should always remember that humans are the one that will read your copy, not the search engine robots. It may be very helpful if you stuff a lot of keywords in a single web copy, but this could make it less readable for humans, which will then loose their interest in reading more about the article.

Check out what the SEO Philippines of Optimind Technology Solutions has to offer about creating SEO-friendly web copies.

The Fifth DO: Optional: Do a PPC Campaign

Doing a PPC or a Pay Per Click campaign in an SEO campaign is an optional choice. But if you have the budget for it, then this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. It’s also the solution if you didn’t like to wait for too long.

The Sixth DO: Do Your Link Building Wisely

In building your link partners, it’s important that you choose where you want to put your link. Trusted directories such as Yahoo, DMOZ, Business.com, Aviva, and Best of the web are among of the most popular link partners that any websites would have. Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you, seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area, such as the Chamber of Commerce, etc. You should also analyze the inbound links to your competitors that you can also use to be your link partner.

Check out what the SEO Philippines of Optimind Technology Solutions has to offer about link building.

The Seventh DO: Do Press Releases and Blog Participation

One of the most important parts of an SEO campaign is through building a relationship with a media that covers most of your industry. Setting up some Press Releases on this media can be a great source for your exposure, including getting links from trusted media web sites. Distributing releases online can also be an effective link building tactic, and opens the door for exposure in news search sites.

Starting up blogs is also an important part in an SEO campaign. Search engines such as Google love to crawl on blogs for its fresh content and highly-structured data. And beyond that, joining discussions on a blog can really provide the exposure that you really want, and the opportunity to build a community about your industry. Reading and commenting on other blogs can increase your exposure and help you acquire new links.

Check out what the SEO Philippines of Optimind Technology Solutions has to offer about press releases and blog marketing.

The Eighth DO: Do a Social Media Campaign

If you have some photos on your business, you should join communities such as Flickr to talk about things about your industry. If you’re a service-oriented business, use Yahoo Answers to position yourself as an expert in your industry. But whatever you do, don’t “SPAM” on them. Be an active, contributing member of the site. The idea is to interact with potential customers, not annoy them.

The Ninth DO: Do Take advantage on Opportunities

People researching for offline buying is a growing trend nowadays. This is a perfect opportunity to make your “physical” business known. Optimize your site to catch local traffic by showing your address and local phone number prominently. It’s highly preferred if you write a detailed Directions/Location page using neighborhoods and landmarks in the page text. Write a detailed Directions/Location page using neighborhoods and landmarks in the page text. You should also encourage those that visited your site to leave reviews of your business on these sites.

There are also some tools that search engines give you to learn how search engines work on finding your site. Tools such as Google’s webmaster Central and Yahoo’s Site Explorer are a good example. This is to learn more about how the search engines see your site, including how many inbound links they’re aware of.

The Tenth DO: Do a Flexibility Check

As I said before, search engine algorithms constantly changes, which means tactics or techniques used yesterday may not work today. You must be flexible enough to get things around and stay at the top. Other strategies such as Newsletters and other subscriber-based content can help you hold on to traffic/customers no matter what the search engines do.

In fact, some of the things I said to you (creating great content, starting a blog, using social media and local search) are ways not only to improve the traffic of users to your site, but also a way for your rank to stay always on the top ranks. This will also help you grow an audience of loyal prospects and customers that may help you survive the whims of search engines.

If you want to get on an SEO campaign, then visit SEO Philippines of Optimind Technology Solutions at www.myoptimind.com for more details.

www.myoptimind.com

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Getting Your Website Traffic

October 26, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

Doing business successfully online is all about one thing. It’s not about how good your website looks; there are over a billion web pages today who will find yours. Gone are the days when if you built it they would come. It’s not about how profitable your product is, or how useful that item you are selling is. Successful online businesses have one thing in

common, large amounts of targeted traffic. Even the ugliest website with targeted traffic I guarantee you is making sales. The big problem facing the small net entrepreneur is costs and using the wrong website traffic tactics.


Consider hiring someone to find some quality reciprocal linking partners for your business. You can use one of the popular freelancing sites, such as Guru, Elance, or Rentacoder. Make sure the person you select finds sites and secure deals without spam and also make sure that the person knows that you want to exchange non-directory links.


Avoid guaranteed traffic scams. In virtually all cases, these 100,000 hits for $25 deals usually entails sending untargeted visitors to your site who can’t even read the language in which it is written. Rather than betting on one of these scams, it is a good idea to stick with established providers, who have a proven history of results.


Find someone with a legitimate interest in your niche that already browses and posts on related forums regularly. Ask that person if he is willing to add an endorsement in his signature to your business. In exchange, you could give him weekly compensation or give him free access to your site or some resource you have.


Use some type of tracking system for your website promotional activities. Preferably, you will want to find one that allows you to track visitors on multiple levels not just on one. For instance, you will want to know who is coming to your site to begin with (and where they came from); and from there, you will want to know how long they stayed on the page, and if they made the purchase.


Consult with a internet marketing expert to determine how you can best use your time when promoting your business. While these sessions can be quite costly as much as several hundred dollars an hour they can radically change how you go about your daily business. Additionally, they will give you the confidence to market more effectively.


Consider purchasing the software needed to create a social network similar to Myspace, but for your specific niche. Creating and maintaining such a site will help you get your current clientele to participate in the growth of your business. More friends joining the network are always a bonus for them, so they will promote it without your even asking.


Consider taking a marketing by design approach. This entails creating a site that markets itself simply through its own design. For instance, one type of marketing by design mechanism you can use is search engine optimization. Another form of marketing by design mechanism you can use is a forum or a social network.


Learning the right technique of bringing more website traffic to your business can go a long ways. Just make sure you avoid those quick and easy short cuts that will cost you money in the long run. Make sure find you a mentor that really know what he or she is doing with bringing traffic to your website

To learn how you implement these techniques and to learn more about Willie DeJarnette and internet marketing strategies, you will want to visit his website at the following http://www.success2thetop.com

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How Much to Pay for SEO Services?

October 26, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

The question comes up often. Many people have been burned by SEO Services, but many have also been rewarded by SEO Services. Like any business transaction or purchase you should only spend your money when you feel comfortable. Your comfort zone should pull from various dependencies, such as how well do you know this business, how long have you been doing business with this person or entity, what is your first impression, how do you personally feel about this person or entity ability to provide this service, and how well have you done your homework. The truth about SEO services is that it is normally not hard work, but that doesn’t mean its easy. It still takes time, dedication, effort, strategy, technique, method, skill, and experience to perform quality SEO services. Anyone can use SEO services because it is within your reach to learn, but not everyone can apply sensible strategy to make SEO work. That is why SEO engineers are needed to accomplish the almost impossible, but the question is how do you know you are making the right choice and not overpaying for SEO services?

I can honestly say for the most part SEO service providers are on the up and up who want nothing more than to do professional business and provide quality SEO services. Identifying every shady SEO service may not be possible, but I have some recommended advice which should help anyone get a fair and quality rate for SEO services.

- Set yourself a “realistic” marketing budget and goal

- Shop around

- Don’t buy until you feel comfortable

- Remember “cheap does not always mean better”

- Ask for references / referrals / portfolio

- Verify references / referrals / portfolio

- Ask for statistical growth and progress reports

Set Yourself a Realistic Marketing Budget and Goal

This simply mean do not kid yourself and think you can pay $200 and overnight you will make thousands. Instead, create a budget depending on your marketing needs, competitive industry, projected outcome, and length of time. If you are looking for your website to rank in the Top 10 search engine result page for a particular keyword or keywords then expect to pay in the thousands, often times tens of thousands, for quality, professional, and reliable SEO services, almost always depending on the competitiveness of the keyword. If you want to rank in the top 10 for the keyword “google”, this in most cases impossible, but I am sure there are some SEO companies who will accept the challenge, but will charge in the thousands if not millions to attempt this insane marketing goal.

Shop Around

Find the most appealing SEO services and compare those to other competitive SEO services. Don’t settle for “cheap” or “inexpensive”, but settle for “effective” and “strategy”. Anyone can do SEO work, but not everyone can improve results using SEO services. This is because, SEO is about technique and strategy. It’s not about just throwing thousands a links around the web and sitting back waiting for the explosion. Its actually a lot more complicated than that, as it is about having strategy, technique, and competitive edge. You must find SEO services which live by this principle and can offer you the strategic roadmap you need for success.

Don’t Buy Until You Feel Comfortable

You should always feel comfortable with entrusting your money into an SEO service provider paws. If you have special needs such as you want to sign a contract, you want a specific pay schedule, or you have any questions, make sure you get answers and are comfortable with the projected outcome then move forward. I personally suggest getting a contract which outlines the projected outcome and any other bullet points, then also exploring the consequences or possibilities if the projected outcome is not met.

Remember “Cheap Does Not Always Mean Better”

This is a buyer beware notice. When someone offers $20 SEO services or even $200 SEO services, I would say “buyer beware”. There may be a handful of highly skilled SEO providers who can offer you SEO services at a discount or for extremely low rates, but most of the time these providers either do not know their service worth or know exactly what they are doing, but may have had a lucky streak. You will have to pay top dollar or aggressively, yet still affordable for quality, strategic, and experienced SEO services. SEO engineers is what I like to call them. These are SEO’s who understand the SEO concept, who pioneer SEO methods, and who don’t always follow the trend, but know the trends. Most of the SEO engineers are not going to be cheap, but well worth every dollar spent. If you take into consideration other marketing and advertising platforms, such as television broadcast advertising, print advertising, large tradeshow/fair booth advertising, etc. internet marketing and search engine optimization cost peanuts compared to these other advertising methods and have a farther audience reach. SEO services can easily cost between $5,000-$25,000, it can even be much more than this, depending on your needs, but this is far more inexpensive and cheaper than other advertising platforms. So, next time you think that SEO service cost too much, think about the other methods of advertising and their rates, along with return on investment (ROI). SEO services come out on top every time when compared against these other advertising platforms.

Ask for References / Referrals / Portfolio

Any SEO service provider should be able to point you to their qualifying work. SEO service providers should be able to present you with affectionate websites which they have performed SEO work on. This can even be the SEO service provider personal website, they should be able to point you to their rankings in the search engine as well as some result driven SEO work within the site or across the web.

Verify References / Referrals / Portfolio

Verifying information is not always easy or accomplishable. You should attempt to reach out and verify what you can. If a shady SEO business was going to scam, then I am sure this is where they would start, with testimonials. I suggest verifying what you can, but don’t get overwhelmed with referrals because it may be the shady SEO business giving self praise. I actually have some good verification tips, but that’s another article all within itself.

Ask for Statistical Growth & Progress Reports

The SEO service campaign should include periodic progress/performance reports so you can track your website progress. Tracking your website progress is important in many ways. First, it tells if the SEO engineer is doing their job. Second, it tells you if the SEO methods, strategy, and technique is working or not. Third, it tells you how well the search engines are reciprocating your SEO efforts. And lastly, it tells you how much progress is being made and at what rate. All of this advanced reporting information and trend tracking can give you an overview of your website potential while giving you the opportunity to design or redesign your landing pages to increase your return on investment (ROI).

Okay, to wrap it up, just be sure you stay out of shabby internet neighborhoods and when making any online transaction, do your homework first. Also, remember “cheap does not equal better”. Think about it, would you rather pay in the thousands to one SEO company for quality SEO work, which will produce results and increase your website overall performance or would you rather pay cheap $200 to many different SEO’s who don’t ever really give you the results you deserve. If an SEO engineer can increase your website sales and exposure by 80% without your site ever reaching the top 10 search results then you still got a good deal. This is the effect of skilled and experienced SEO services. The only difference between your website and the websites in the top 10, is those websites have SEO engineers working for them who understand SEO.

Ant Onaf is the owner & founder of AntOnaf.com (http://www.antonaf.com), a provider of professional and quality SEO services. AntOnaf.com offers affordable SEO services as well as custom SEO packages to fit your marketing needs. Ant Onaf ingenuity, dedication, and passion for internet marketing & technology has made him an monumental icon across the World Wide Web.

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Use the Twitter Social Networking Site to Increase Your Internet Marketing Campaign

October 25, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

I read recently that Twitter now has 10 million people using it worldwide. It is one of the fastest growing social networks today and is starting to have an enormous impact on how internet marketers are networking and doing business online. There are many celebrities also using Twitter and they have a huge following amongst their fans.

So what exactly is Twitter?

Twitter is a social media service that describes itself as “a way for people to connect through a quick exchange of ideas”. The messages are referred to as tweets and they cannot be longer than 140 characters maximum and you can basically discuss anything that enters your mind. All the conversations start with the phrase “what are you doing”? But your messages don’t need to be only about what you are doing.

The messages that appear on Twitter can be seen by anyone who visits your page. Anybody who follows you will be able to read the messages you post. When they log into their own page, anything that you might have to say will show up there as a tweet.

You can also send private messages to people on Twitter who have chosen to follow you, and this is quite a useful tool for anyone involved in an internet based business.

The big advantage with a social network service like Twitter is that you can very quickly build up a network of contacts, and you can keep them up to date on all your business activities. You can post information that can be helpful to others and keep people entertained with any insights or tips you may have. If you want to get more visitors to your blog, you can post the links to your articles on Twitter. In fact whenever you update your blog you can automatically send a message to your Twitter followers that there is a new blog post for them to read.

An important point to remember though is that Twitter is actually a social media site, so don’t go overboard with self promotion. Just keep in mind that people apart from promoting their internet businesses are there to make friends and chat to others within the Twitter community.

If you spend too much time on self promotion you will very quickly lose whatever following you have built up.

It is very quick and easy to sign up for a Twitter account, all you need to do is log in to twitter.com, click on the Get Started – All you are required to do is complete the form online. Then just click on create my account and you are ready to begin tweeting.

Initially I would suggest that you begin building your network by finding Twitter users that you can follow. There is a “find people” button, click on that and you will be able to run a search for anyone that you know or may want to follow.

When you find someone you would like to follow, simply click on their name or avatar and click the “follow” button that will appear on the next page.

Many of the people who you choose to follow, will return the compliment and follow you back and before you know it you will have built up a list of followers. So the more people you follow the bigger and faster your network will grow. One point to remember is that you cannot add more than 200 new followers to your network in a day. If you want to have more than 2000 people following you, you will need to follow at least 2000 as well.

It is important to observe the rules listed above and as long as you do, you can build a large network of followers. But break the rules and you will be banned by Twitter. Twitter is a social networking site, but it is a great way to build your business as well.

Michelle Jayes writes articles aimed at helping people to build a successful online income business. Click here to follow her on Twitter or visit her website www.online-income-business.com

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