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Archive for December 11th, 2007

Four easy ways to boost your search engine ranking

by Roger Gordon

Preparing your website for search engine submission is a vital process for achieving high search engine rankings. Having said that the steps to follow are not difficult to master if you follow the following four simple guide lines

Tip #1 Choosing a search engine friendly headline

Most WebPages will contain more than a single heading. The headline situated at the top of the webpage is the main heading. In the html language this is referred to as the H1 tag. It is very important to insert your main keyword here. This simple and quick piece of coding can have a very positive impact on how the search engines rank your site

A second or third headline, H2 and H3, may also be included. Just make sure to have the right keyword phrase included in each of these, as well.

Tip #2 Including Keywords In the main body of Text

The actual impact of this technique is in my view not as important as it used to be and I would not spend too much time worrying about this. Indeed if you try to stuff your text with keywords this may be perceived as spamming, and is to be avoided. I would suggest a good rule of thumb is to include the keyword at the start, right near the end and once in the middle if it is a large passage

The search engines do not recognise JavaScript, graphics, and many types of graphics, so avoid the temptation to cram your sites full of flashy effects. It might look great but is not much good if you are not getting the visitors to see it. Pages need an element of text to do well with the search engines. You should aim for something between 100 and 400 total words.

Tip #3 Placing Your Keywords in the page title

You should always include your main Keywords in the title of the page. This is the information that appears at the top of your browser window.

It is often the case that this description will appear in the search listing for the highest ranked sites for any given keyword search. This shows the importance attached to this by the search engines.

Tip #4 Using Alt tags for your images.

Alt tags need to be included in image descriptions. This results in more attention for your keyword and helps the surfer to understand what the image is about should it fail to load.

Once again we need to avoid the danger of spamming here, so cramming a load of keywords into your alt tags is not a good idea

This entire process should not take you too long and is well worth the effort to help improve your search engine rankings.

About the Author:

Wise Marketing, Learning the Hard Way

by Stephen Meyer

Not long ago I joined a new Affiliate Marketing program. I wanted to add a little to my bottom line and found a program I knew would do it for me. While I’m not new to marketing I am new to this kind of program. Thinking I knew it all I didn’t pay attention to the program details.

In the home based business field there are literally hundreds of internet companies that promise to make the newbie Entrepreneur wealthy by drawing in targeted traffic through their advertising programs. Having bought into a few of them I can say for a fact they are junk and are simply sucking money out of the new wannabe marketer. Better said, they don’t work. But of course I learned this the hard way having bought into several blast your ad to 10 million web site advertisers and others. of course they do blast your ad to 10 million sites and of course you get 0 results.

My second move was to join clubs that promise to mentor me to riches. I joined two of them to be exact and they will do what they promised at a cost of $97.00 per month each. Like most it will take forever for them to mentor you to a point where you can quit your job. The question is, are they worth it? Yes they can be, especially if you have a niche that is super tight or you want to start a tight niche web site even though you may not be interested in it.

Although I looked into mentoring programs for my new Affiliate adventure and spent some money on a couple of them they proved to be pointless. Affiliate Marketing is not a Niche market and can not be worked as one.

Having to learn most things the hard way I’ve been religiously sorting through hundreds of emails and clicking the delete button like it was a religion. Because I’ve searched out so many new marketing companies and spent a few dollars with some they all send a relentless amount of emails.

Not that I am a slow learner or hard to teach new tricks to although I believe that I am, I was swamped by emails that I had created myself. I was the one who asked for information and I know what that means. Marketing companies will send information until you are blue in the face or tell them to stop. In my rush to create a new marketing plan and to delete the emails from companies I wasn’t interested I completely overlooked the fact that not only did my new company have a terrific product with a money making business plan they also had a terrific marketing plan. The solution to my problem was right in front of my face although I couldn’t see it.

Most companies who market on the internet through either Affiliate marketing or Network marketing have both a product of value and a marketing plan to help the new person grow their business. Some are of high value and offer a solid marketing plan while others offer plans that are nearly useless.

I’ve know this for a long time but foolishly looked for a better way, my own way, to market the program. Unfortunately to many new Affiliates do the same thing and often times waste more time and money than I did. Online advertising and marketing holds many traps that new people can easily fall into if they are not taught correctly from the start. It’s simply too easy to spend large amounts of cash thinking a fortune will be made.

Many online companies have been around for many years and are experienced in promoting their business. Many of the newer companies have been started by people who have been in the online business for years and have a lot of experience to offer. They all want their company to succeed and they know their success depends on the success of their representatives. Most offer top notch marketing strategies and products that will not only build their company but they will also build yours. Your company needs to be the first place you look for successful marketing ideas.

About the Author:

Why Is It So Important To Brand Yourself

by Clarence Bong

To make it simple, branding yourself is about letting everyone know who you are and what are you specialized in. Branding yourself is part of the many things that will help you create success, because it will help you to attract people from all walks of life to be your friend, your network contact, a new client for your business, or maybe someone who wants to introduce you to other of the same type of interest. Branding yourself is a major part in internet marketing or the network marketing industry. Branding your name, along with the online business is very important. Branding yourself is the Key!

How should I brand myself?

You can brand yourself, your business or your product in several different ways. Brand yourself as a subject matter expert by developing a website, speaking to groups, writing articles, or creating a newsletter. Brand yourself by writing lots of articles, and submitting them to e-zine or other website directories for republishing. Also, create a dynamic web site that illustrates with pictures, music, and words who you are and what you do.

Having your business cards, letterhead, brochures, fliers, cards and labels in a distinctive and consistent style as your Website are also ways of branding yourself. Brand yourself by your interests, whatever you have a good amount of knowledge in. Brand yourself by lending a helping hand and you’ll be in a prime position when the people you’ve helped decide that you’ve got what it takes to coach them. Yes, you have to coach them and not just train them. You have to see them through it.

Branding yourself by your Domain Name: If you have already chosen your niche, you have perhaps also thought about how to market in it. Brand yourself by adding pictures, audios, and videos to your website. Brand yourself by putting your name and website on e-books. Traffic Exchanges are also a good method to increase your subscribers and ultimately customers by using the soft-sell approach. Creativity is what adds spice to your branding so get your creative juices flowing. Blogs are something we all read on a regular basis, but how many of you actually use them to brand yourselves. Start to personally name brand yourself NOW because it will pay off later.

Branding yourself is one of the most important marketing tricks on the books; it is about being an expert or learning how to be an expert and then telling everyone about your knowledge. It is one of the most important tasks you have as a small business marketer. Remember that, the more value you give to others, the more credibility you’ll get. So in whichever ways you choose of branding yourself, always ask yourself “Is there value in this information I’m giving away?”

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How to Use a Shoutbox to Get Repeat Traffic to Your Website

by Christopher Swyer

In this new internet era the world of website marketing and management has created a lot of new ideas that can help to make a visit to a website a lot more interesting and enjoyable, and ultimately more lucrative for the website owner.

It is essential to identify that folks are looking for a certain type of experience when they are online, and any programs or software that make things slow down or bog down their PC could definitely be the type of thing that causes the visitor to run as far away as they can.

So what’s a Shoutbox? Shoutboxes are a fairly new idea when it comes to websites. They are a way of allowing different messages or information to be left on the website for everybody to see, and they are continuously updated to allow visitors to be able to see the messages update as each moment passes.

In many cases, the shoutbox deletes older messages to allow the newer ones to be visible and to keep things running as smoothly as possible, so not to bog down the server and possibly irritate the user.

How is a Shoutbox Used? There are many different uses for a shoutbox on your website, and depending on the type of site you have you could put your shoutbox to use in any of a variety of ways. Providing information about the author of certain articles, updates to message boards or postings and other things. Some websites have an inherent need for tag boards; many administrators like to use them because they make the website seem more efficient and user-friendly, and shoutboxes are a version of tag boards that update periodically.

Why should you have a shoutbox on your website? There is a mixture of advantages to putting a shoutbox on your site. First, users find it useful because they can leave messages on the site for the administrator, in a way comparable to a chat room, but they don’t have to register with the website to use it. This is useful because registering takes time and not every person is willing to give up personal information just to be able to leave a simple message.

Where can you find a shoutbox? Finding a shoutbox is the simple part! Once you have decided that having a shoutbox is the best thing for your site, finding a shoutbox provider is the easy part. There are a good many websites out there offering a free shoutbox for your website; some of them are easier to use than others and depending on your use for them there are similar features that you can pick.

Having a shoutbox is a great way to bring new ideas into your site and an even better way to involve the users. Put a shoutbox on your site today, and see the difference!

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3 Fast Methods to Start a Targeted Email Marketing List

by Catherine Willis

Targeted Email Marketing, better known as niche marketing, is one of the easiest ways to get an automated stream of income online. To be successful in targeted email marketing you need to make sure to give your list information specifically on the subject they requested. Try to sell them some unrelated product and they will most likely be gone forever.

Did you create an ebook or software, or are you maybe promoting other people’s products? Great! There is money to be made there if you are not too broad on your market. With a very targeted email list you can work as little as a couple hours each week and have a steady income coming directly to your bank account.

* Purchase a list: If you want to get a targeted email marketing list in the blink of an eye, then this is the way to go. Some companies will sell the list to import directly to your autoresponder system, and some will sell you leads that will visit your website and possibly opt in to your newsletter.

- Get someone else’s list: Ask another marketer in a related field to market your product/service/newsletter to their big list. If you are not competing with them directly they won’t mind promoting you as long as the list could benefit from your product/service/newsletter.

- Opt-ins directly from your site: To me this is the method that is going to get you the highest quality subscribers for you email list. Because they requested information on the subject directly from your site, they will be most likely to buy from you in the future.

And those are the three easiest methods to get a targeted email marketing list in the shortest amount of time. For a FREE 5-Day Mini-Course on “Targeted Email Marketing: Step by Step Guide”, Click HERE

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