Starting the Right Way in Internet Marketing (pt 6)
As WordPress Bloggers we probably want to generate traffic. In this article from infogoround we will pass on some of those ways. If you recall, part 2 of this series was about finding long tail keywords keywords related to your niche. Using the methods outlined there, you would have a list of such keywords. Now is the time to use them. Also, if you had done paid traffic generation methods in the last part (part 5) of this series, you would also know which keywords made you money. These are also the keywords to use in today’s traffic generation methods.
This article will focus on the free traffic generation methods. Everyone likes free stuff but as mentioned in the last article, there are pros and cons to free traffic generation methods. The most important and crucial part about using free traffic generation methods is getting the right keywords. If you target wrong keywords, you are dead in the water even before starting. It’s that important.
So please review part 2 of this series to make sure you get your keywords right. In essence, right (or good) keywords are those which fulfill these criteria:
1. They are used by people (searchers in search engines) who want to buy something in your niche. Obviously, a keyword phrase with the word ‘free’ in it is not what you want to target.
2. They are precise in meaning. That’s why Internet Marketers go for long tail keywords (those that have at least three words in the phrase). Long tail keywords are very precise. You know exactly what the searcher is looking for and therefore can provide it to him.
3. They must be words that are connected to a compelling need. Everyone has needs but not every need is compelling. Compelling needs are those which have to do with relieving pain or enhancing pleasure. For example, ‘get rid of head lice’ is a good keyword phrase that is about a compelling need.
4. They must have a high search count and low SERP count (defined in part 2). How high and how low is a matter of choice. Obviously, the higher the search count and the lower the SERP count, the better the keyword.
5. Page 1 of Google for the keyword phrase must not have too many exact matches or be full of websites with a high page rank (PR). There are 10 results on page 1. If a majority of these are websites with exact matches in their descriptions or titles, that is a bad sign. Likewise, if a majority of the page 1 websites have a PR of 4 or higher, that’s a bad sign, too.
You can find out the page rank of any webpage by using Firefox’s page rank plugin.
Once you have a list of keywords that fulfill these 5 criteria, then it is possible to generate some massive traffic (depending on the niche). And the good thing is that all the traffic is free.
The next article will focus on the actual free traffic generation methods to use.
Internet Marketing – Getting Started the Right Way pt 5
Now that you have your product ready and your website set up, it gets more exciting because it is time to promote your website. In other words, it is time for traffic generation. There are literally tons of ways to drive traffic to your website. But broadly, they can be divided into two main kinds of traffic generation. You can either pay for it or get it free.
There are pros and cons to both ways. Obviously, the paid traffic generation methods cost money but on the positive side, they get you fast and often targeted results. On the other hand, the free traffic generation methods do not cost money but on the negative side, they are generally slower and may not produce much targeted traffic.
There is no silver bullet when it comes to traffic generation. Every method works to some extent, so you need to choose which ones suit you the best. But generally, traffic generation is a numbers game. This means the more you do it, the better results you get in the long run.
If you can afford it, it’s better to start promoting your website with paid traffic methods. This includes Google Adwords, Yahoo Search and MSN Adcenter. These three major search engines work roughly the same way. You design your advertisement according to the search engine’s specifications and specify certain parameters like the countries you want to advertise in and the dollar limit on advertising you want to spend in one day. Generally, you are billed for the number of clicks on your advertisement. Each click brings the searcher to your website where they are presented with your product. Some will buy and then you profit.
As you can tell, there is a danger of losing a lot of money in these paid advertising methods when lots of people click but no one buys. To reduce the possibility of this happening, there are two things to do. Firstly, put your long tail keywords into your advertisement. This ensures targeted visitors going to your website. A targeted visitor is one who has been looking for a solution to his problem that your product gives. Such a visitor to your website is much more likely to buy your product than a less targeted visitor.
Secondly, avoid advertising in certain countries known to have lots of browsers but not many buyers. Two of such countries are India and the Philippines. Chances are, you will get lots of clicks from these countries but few sales.
Besides text ads, you can also make image ads on the paid advertising networks of the search engines. Image advertisements consist of banners of certain sizes specified by the search engines. Image ads are not as popular as text ads so that makes it generally cheaper. But they work fine and are certainly worth a try.
The reason it is better to go for paid traffic generation methods first is because with paid advertising, you can get quick results. You also can determine which keywords produce good ROI. Once you have carried out paid advertising for a few weeks, you can switch to free advertising using the same keywords that have produced good results for you.
Free traffic generation methods will be the topic for the next article.
Legitimate Ways to Make Money from Home
The Internet has developed into an extension of our everyday lives, legitimate work from home jobs have flourished; and each of them can serve as a fantastic income stream of its own.
If you enjoy using the Internet socially there is certainly nothing stopping you from also starting a blog and using it to produce income. The great thing is that there are several legitimate work from home jobs that are worth considering and it cost little to nothing to put them to use.
Best of all, you can use WordPress along with free or some great low cost premium themes such as some of my favored themes offered by StudioPress, ShopperPress and DirectoryPress, all quality themes that can be used to help you develop a stream of income.
Let’s take a look at a few of these legitimate work from home job opportunities:
1. Auctioning products. You can earn some profit as early as tonight with highly popular auction sites like eBay and Yahoo! Auctions. Just look for an item you can sell, prepare a sales page, and wait for any of the 12 million people who visit auction sites on a daily basis to view and purchase what you have to offer. Do this on a grander scale and you will be able to discover the full earning potential of auction sites.
2. Become an affiliate. As an affiliate, you will be tasked to sell a merchant’s products. There are no membership fees or upfront costs required. Online affiliate programs will allow you to sell – and earn – based on your own ability to market products and services. You then earn a commission based on the sale of the product that was sold through your referral link. There are many companies offering affiliate programs. Just do an Internet search to find out your options.
3. Freelancing. Got a special skill you can extend to other people through the Internet? For example, can you ghostwrite for another person? Can you create software programs in accordance with their specifications? Can you prepare web graphics that they are sure to love? Render your service for a fee. You can try out Website like Rentacoder.com, Elance.com and Scriptlance.com to find an abundance of potential clients ready to pay you for assisting them with their projects.
4. Create Website and monetize them. You can develop niche-focused Website and enroll them under pay per click (PPC) programs like Google AdSense. PPC programs will send contextually-relevant ads to your web pages and you will get paid every time a visitor clicks on the link. If your Website becomes popular, you can sell advertising space as well.
These are just a fraction of the many Internet earning opportunities you can pursue. There are definitely more, and such is testament to how viable the web has become in being an earning avenue for people who wish to find legitimate work from home jobs.
You Can Have an Internet Based Business
People make money on the Internet by selling their own products and services, or by selling other peoples through affiliate marketing programs or via drop-shippers.
Despite the attractions of affiliate marketing, selling physical goods on the Internet is actually one of the easiest ways to actually turn a profit if you have the right kind of product.
Some people will make and sell their own products thru on online auctions – products such as clothes, fashion goods, jewelry and accessories, hand crafted cards, woodcraft items, toys, games, handy inventions and so on. If you are already making a product and looking for a source for marketing it an Internet business will be one of the quickest and easiest ways for you to find an outlet for your products.
If you want to escape from your day job or simply want to earn some extra cash without having to leave the comfort of your home then setting up a home based business on the Internet might be the answer for you.
There are several options for setting up a home based Internet business. When you are just getting started it is probably wisest to choose just one option and work on it until you are making money from it. Once you are in profit, expand your field of activities by adding more products or by finding a different way to promote your business that will complement what you are already doing.
If you do not have a product of your own to sell, don’t despair. If you live in a place that has special or regional products unavailable elsewhere then you could offer those on the Internet. In this case, you would buy either from local shops or from the manufacturers and resell the goods online.
When you have something to sell, the quickest way to get it online is to offer it on an auction site such as EBay. This is also a useful way to test the market. If the item sells quickly and if you can make a good profit then you will want to repeat the process and also set up a website of your own to sell from.
Setting up a WordPress blog or website is not expensive nowadays. Web hosting costs less than $10 a month, and a domain name costs around $10 a year. With WordPress and the many free and premium themes such as ShoppersPress available that enable a techless person such as me to build a very professional site of their own.
Finally, set up an account with an online transaction service such as PayPal, AlertPay or MoneyBookers so that you will be able to add “Buy Now” buttons to your site.
The next step will be to start marketing your goods. The good news here is that on the Internet this can be done either free of charge or on a shoestring budget.
You can promote your website by setting up a blog and posting articles about your products and related topics on it. Write articles and post them to online article directories. A fast way to bring traffic to your website is to spend some money on Google’s Adwords program and set up some pay per click ads.
When orders start to come in you will of course have to fulfill them promptly. You may find yourself getting very busy as you will need to contact your customers to update them on their order status, pack and post the orders, and either make or purchase new stocks of items and packaging materials.
In short, you will have set up a successful home based business on the Internet. Good luck!
One Way Linking an Ultimate Goal
For those who are already familiar with linking and getting traffic to sites, you probably know that one way linking is the best type of linking to use in order to gain more viewers to your websites. However, when one way links are being talked about, there are several methods involved for you to choose from.
Some of the methods that website developers can use to acquire a one way link are the following: through social networking sites like MySpace & Facebook, by including the link in their own blog or the blogs of people that they personally know, by posting the link in various forums related to the service or product that is found in the website for advertisement, by submitting their link into the directories found online, and by writing articles for directories and certain websites.
It cannot be denied that all the methods mentioned above are effective methods to create one way backlinks. But among those, the most effective is the one that involves writing articles for other websites. The first reason for this is because the effect that it can bring to the traffic to your website, which can be seen almost immediately, compared to others that take longer. Among all the methods mentioned, this one is the most efficient because users will be able to directly click the link from the article that you made. In addition, you can introduce your website using the article that you are writing for another web page. Of course, this only applies when the website that you are writing for is in a similar category as your website.
Those who have submitted an article for a certain website and have managed to include their link in it saw that there were at least 30 more visitors viewing their site in the next two days. Even as the weeks progressed, they saw a significant increase in the number of visitors; what’s more great about the increase in visitors is that some were even converted into sales. Of course you must choose a site which is already getting a fair amount of visitors per day. If they are listed on the first page of a search engine will be all you need to determine this.
Another reason why article submissions tend to be more effective is because of the fact that these articles are more powerful when it comes to attracting the attention of the readers. When people read your articles, you can give them an idea of what they will be finding from your website. Because of this, it is now easier for them to see the benefits that your products or services can bring them. Thus, there will be a bigger chance for you to turn that visitor into your own customer.
You can also submit your article to article directories. However, keep in mind that if you promised the webmaster unique content, you must change the article now for directory submissions. If you place your article in just one directory, you will see some increase in the number of visitors. But if you really want a drastic increase in the traffic to your website, you can post your article with the link of your website in not just one or two article directories, but hundreds. You will be surprised by the outcome of this strategy. The increase in number of visitors will be surprising and the fact that it was that easy will also be great for you. The only thing you need to know when getting one way links for your website by submitting articles to massive article directories is that it can take a long time if done manually. You will need a system or software that will help you in submitting them to all the different directories found online.
If you are really serious about getting the traffic to your website to grow, you might want to try this method that includes submitting articles in directories and in other websites. After all, you have nothing to lose by doing this, except traffic, of course.
Getting Started in Internet Marketing (part 4)
Now that you have got a product, the next logical step would be to sell it. Here’s where many newbie Internet marketers get it wrong.
The biggest mistake you can make is to set up a website, write about your ebook on the website and expect people to visit your website in droves and buy your ebook. It does not work that way. In other words, if you think you can ‘create it and they will come’, you are mistaken. Even with targeted keywords, great website design and a killer product, hardly anyone will find your website if you do not promote it.
So there are a few more steps to take before you will see your first sale.
Firstly, you need to design your website. In the past, you could get by with a simple two page website – a sales letter and a thank you or download page. As recently as 4 years ago, such simple websites would still get ranked by Google. Actually 4 years is a long time in Internet marketing and a lot has happened since then. The most significant development was the Google Slap.
The Google Slap is the term used to mean that Google now wants your website to contain quality content and not just a sales pitch. These days, if you just put up a 2 page website without good content, Google will not rank it well. In other words, you will find your website in page 1,245 in Google’s search results or something like that.
So when you design your website, you have to make sure that it has more than just a sales page. There are many ways to design a website and each person has his or her own preference. A good practice would be to make your website have at least 8 pages – a home page, a sales page, a blog, a thank you or download page, a privacy policy, a disclaimer (especially if your product is connected with making money), a contact page and an about us page.
Briefly, a home page would contain a welcome message and an introduction to your website. It should also contain an opt-in box where you collect the names and emails of visitors so that you can build your list. To incentivize visitors to give you their names and emails, you need to provide a freebie like a short report, video, audio or a newsletter. Make your freebie connected to your niche topic.
A blog would contain the latest news in your niche, interesting articles or your personal teaching on your niche. Many Internet marketers and webmasters put their blog in a separate directory on their website. That means the blog URL would be http://www.mydomain.com/blog. Alternatively, you could purchase another domain with the same domain name but different extension as your blog. Then you could link your blog to your main website. This gives your main website added ‘link juice’ in Google’s eyes.
‘Link juice’ is the term referring to how many links are pointing to your website. The more links you have, the better it is for your website. You need both external and internal links for your website. External links are other websites linking to yours and internal links are internal pages of your website that link to each other.
All the other pages of your website are self-explanatory. Once you have your website up, the next thing you want to do is promote it. That will be covered in the next article.
Getting Started the Right Way in Internet Marketing (part 1)
SEO, PPC, PPA, CPA, SERP, LSI, Google slap, sandbox, the list goes on. Welcome to the world of Internet Marketing. It’s hardly a wonder that people suffer from information overload. If you find yourself drowning in this labyrinth of paths leading you in a thousand different directions, you need to realize that success in Internet Marketing depends not on doing a lot of things but only doing a few things right.
The first thing you have to settle within yourself is whether you are looking to build a business with Internet Marketing or merely engage in it as a hobby. A business means that you intend to make enough money through Internet Marketing to at least replace your day job income. If it is a hobby then you are looking to Internet Marketing as a part time activity to supply you with some extra pocket money. This decision is the basis of everything else you do because it determines the amount of time and effort you put into it and also the actual structure of your business or hobby.
If you intend to make Internet Marketing merely a hobby, then you do not need a website, a product, a list, any JV partners or affiliates. You can do basic affiliate marketing by selling other people’s products. You need to sign up with an open affiliate marketing website like Clickbank. An open affiliate marketing system practiced by Clickbank is where you do not need your own website and there is no application process to become an affiliate. Without your own website you would not be able to be an affiliate with closed affiliate systems like Commission Junction (they have an application process that requires a website).
In Clickbank, there are thousands of products you can sign up as an affiliate for. You will be given an affiliate link and all you do is to get people to click on your link. You can do that for free by setting up free websites on Web 2.0 platforms like Squidoo or Hubpages or Blogging platforms like WordPress or Blogger. You can do a search on these and you will get their websites where you can create your own website or blog. Yes, a website set up this way is your own but you are limited in some functionality because these are free websites hosted on the platform’s servers. Nevertheless, they are good enough to drive traffic to your affiliate link.
All you do is design your website or blog with some good content related to the affiliate offer you are marketing and insert your affiliate link into your content. Some web 2.0 platforms like Hubpages have strict rules about the number of affiliate links you can have in your content, so just make sure you abide by their rules.
Internet Marketing is a numbers game, so the more of such websites and blogs you create to drive traffic to your affiliate link, the better it is. Sooner or later, some people will click on your links and if they buy the product that you recommend, you get your commission from it. That’s all there is to making some spare cash through Internet Marketing.
You may want to start your Internet marketing journey this way. But after sometime, if you want to progress further and do Internet Marketing as a business, then it becomes another ball game altogether!
(Please see Part 2 in this series.)
Getting Started in Internet Marketing (part 2) – Market Research
There are many ways to make a living online. But no matter which route you choose, it all begins with market research. You have to find a group of buyers who have a common problem or need. Then all you need to do is sell them things that solve the problem or meet the need.
Market research can be divided into two parts – finding a profitable niche and finding long tail keywords within that niche. The good news is that there are many free tools available to do this. Some of the best tools are provided by Google itself. So the first thing to do is sign up for an account with Google. Once you have done that, go to Google’s search-based keyword tool at www.google.com/sktool. Type in the words ‘buy, purchase, order, get’ (without quotation marks) into the search field. The sktool will list out 800 words or terms that contain these buying keywords together with other useful data like level of competition, searches per month etc. All you have to do is choose the term that you feel is most suitable for yourself, preferably one that has at least 2,500 searches per month.
Next, click on the icon that looks like a magnifying glass next to the search term that you have chosen. This will take you to Google Insights for Search, another free tool from Google at www.google.com/insights. It will automatically search the term that you have chosen and produce the relevant data at Google insights. Scroll down to the bottom part of the page and you will see other related search terms. Take note of all the related search terms that you find.
Now you would have about 10 buying keyword terms in a particular niche. This basically indicates that there are people searching for information to solve a problem or meet a need in this niche. Next, you should investigate further into how big a market this niche is and get more keyword ideas.
Go to amazon.com, ebay.com, magazines.com and clickbank.com. Put the main keyword of the niche into the search field and see if there are products that are listed in these websites within this niche. Chances are you will find products in all these websites pertaining to your niche. Briefly review some of the products for ideas – both keyword ideas and product ideas. The next step is to find long tail keywords.
To do this, go to Google’s external keyword tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. Type in your 10 keywords and it will generate a list of related keywords. Take note of the keyword phrases with at least 3 words in them (long tail keywords) and that produce at least 2,500 searches per month.
Now go to the Google search engine at www.google.com and type in the main keyword in quotation marks. As you are typing, Google will give you related search terms. Take note of the long tail keywords. Once you hit the search button, Google will list out all the websites related to your keyword (this is called the SERP or Search Engine Results Page). Take note of the number of websites listed (it is listed at the top right hand corner of the page). You are aiming for keywords with a maximum of 1,000,000 websites. If it is significantly higher than 1 million, then the keyword is too competitive. Do the same thing with each of the keywords that you have and choose those which have less than 1 million competing websites.
For each of the keywords you type into Google, look at the bottom of the SERP and you will find more suggested related keywords. Click on them and you will find even more keywords. Drill down into the keywords as deeply as you can until you find long tail keywords with less than 1 million competing websites.
If you have done your market research well enough, you will now have identified a niche with ready buyers and the long tail keywords (about 10 will do) they use to search in the search engine for information on a product to buy. The next step would be Product Research and Creation which will be covered in the next article.
Getting Started the Right Way in Internet Marketing (part 3)
Now that you have identified your target market and gathered your 10 or so long tail keywords, it’s time to create your product. Product creation may take you anywhere from one day to two weeks so during this period, it is wise to put some other steps into action also. Here are 2 things you should do simultaneously with product creation.
First, you should register a domain name. Go to namecheap.com or godaddy.com. Choose one with your long tail keyword inside. If the exact long tail keyword has already been taken, try adding another word that makes it attractive, such as ‘best’, ‘tips’, ‘online’, ‘center’ etc. For example ‘organic farming’ can become ‘organicfarmingtips’.
As for the extension to choose, go for a .com if possible. If that has been taken for the domain name you want, take either a .net or .org. The next best option other than these three would be a .biz or .info. These are the common ones considered to be search engine friendly.
The reason why you should register a domain name now is that it takes 24-48 hours to propagate, and you will only be able to upload content into that domain after it has propagated. So by registering a domain name while you work on product creation, you save time.
The second thing you should do while creating your product is join relevant forums in your niche. Every niche has forums where people interested in their niche hang out. To find these forums, type the name of your niche followed by the word ‘forum’ (without quotes) at the end into Google’s search engine. So, for organic farming, it would be ‘organic farming forums’. Join at least 4 forums.
Joining a forum is easy. Just go to the sign up page and fill up the required fields. Every forum allows you to insert a signature. Here’s where you should put your website URL with some catchy statement. If your website has not been set up yet, you can add your signature later.
One feature to utilize in your signature is BB Codes. BB Codes is like html. For your signature you only need to know 2 BB Codes – the one for hyperlinking and the one for making your words bold. To hyperlink your words to your website URL, the opening BB Code is [url=http://www.yourdomain.com] and the closing BB Code is [/url]. For example, if you want to hyperlink the sentence, ‘Secret Tips to Organic Farming for Good Health’, type [url=http://www.yourdomain.com]Secret Tips to Organic Farming for Good Health[/url] in your signature column. Now anyone who clicks on that sentence will be directed to your website.
And if you want to bold your words, just add the bold BB Codes which are [b] and [/b] at the beginning and the end of the string of code above. So it would appear like this – [b][url=http://www.yourdomain.com]Secret Tips to Organic Farming for Good Health[/url][/b]. Most forums have BB Code on by default. But check just in case.
For more BB Codes, just Google it.
It’s important to join forums as soon as possible because it takes time to build relationships. So post anything you want into these forums everyday (take 30 minutes a day). If you aren’t very knowledgeable in that niche, just post intelligent questions. The more posts you make, the better your standing in the forum. The relationships you make in these forums will be very valuable to you when your product is ready.
Another important thing to do while at forums is to look for the most frequently asked questions and most common problems faced by the members in the forums. Take note of these because you want to include these into your product.
Now for product creation. The easiest way to create your product is to go to Amazon and type in the main keyword for your niche. Amazon will probably produce a list of books on that topic. Find one you like and look into the contents page. Copy the contents page and re-write the chapter titles the best you can. Also include the questions and problems that you found in the forums into the chapters.
The fastest way to produce your product is to outsource it. Go to elance.com or guru.com and post a job for a researcher to research the list of chapters you have compiled. This person only has to cut and paste information from various sources according to the chapters you give him. It should not take more than 2 or 3 days.
Once you get the research back, look for a writer to re-write the research materials into an ebook of 80 to 100 pages in length. This should take no longer than a week. You can find good writers from the Philippines who work at cheap rates. Be prepared to pay about $100 for the researcher and $200 for the writer.
So in about 10 days you should have your product ready. Now you need a designer to design your ebook cover and website. What to do from here onwards will be covered in the next article.
5 Popular Types of Post for Starting a WordPress Blog
Are you thinking of starting a WordPress Blog? Do you have a WordPress or other Blog that needs freshening up?
If you want to keep your Blog fresh and interesting, then you need to post often. You can create different types of posts to keep your readers interested. This will also keep you from getting bored with your own Blog. Whether blogging to make money directly from the Blog, or blogging to drive traffic to an Affiliate product, you should keep these five types of Blog posts in mind.
1. The Review Post
Review blog posts can help you to monetize your Blog. You will take a close look at a product and give a review of it. This can include an affiliate link to the product. When reviewing, be sure to mention BOTH positive and negative comments about the product. Even if you totally loved the product, keep your review balanced by mentioning a few things that could have been improved. Your readers will appreciate your honesty and be more likely to trust your recommendation.
2. The Quick Tip Post
In between your longer posts you can do a “quick tips” type of post. These are normally 150-250 words. Sometimes we have a lot of information about our niche that we want to share but it may not be worthy of a full length post. In that case, post a quick tip. This should be focused on ONE key area of the niche. For example, “How to Plant a Tulip Bulb” would be a quick tip article for a gardening Blog.
3. The List Post
Blog readers love lists! The most popular Blogs make good use of lists. You can create lists that fit with any topic imaginable. This is a great way to convey information online because it can be easily scanned by web readers who are “skimmers.” You can also create lists of different ways to accomplish a goal in your niche. “10 Ways To Prepare Your Soil For Planting” would be a great list for gardeners.
4. The Interview Post
Interviews will require some preparation, but they are very valuable to your Blog. Interview someone in your niche and then share the results of that interview with your readers. This will not only provide valuable content for your Blog, but will also bring more traffic. Most likely, the person you interview will also publicize the event on their Blog or Website, directing traffic to your Blog.
5. The Instruction Post
This is similar to Quick Tips as you are providing your readers with valuable information. However, these Instruction posts will go into much more detail on a certain topic. Sometimes your instructions can even be divided into two or three posts or courses. Look at comments and questions from your readers to find what topic would be most beneficial to your readers.
As you Blog, remember that your readers like variety. Do not always write the same type of post. Put a little variety in your Blog to keep it fresh.
