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.

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!

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.

How to Promote a Blog Raising Search Engine Ranking

Raising search engine ranking is a very import part of searc engine optimization (SEO. This is an area I continue to learn more about every day and while certainly not a great expert in it I am willing to listen to others that are. If you want to start a blog or promote your blog by raising search engine optimization here are a few methods that other are using successfully. Read more

Starting a Blog? Consider the Role of Personas in Your Blog Design

If you are preparing to start a new WordPress or other blog or website, personas can play a key role in the decision making.  I was reminded of this when reading articles at InfoGoRound an article sharing service that I am a member of.  For those wanting to know how to start a blog or improve their existing blog or website you should find this article on the importance of persona very helpful. Read more

10 Great Reasons to Start a Blog

As those of you that keep asking how do I start a blog? Or how do I promote a blog? Blogging is very popular and becoming more popular every day. This does not mean it is right for you but for me and many others we have found it an excellent way to promote our offline business and/or make money online.  If you are thinking about starting a WordPress or other blog or website here are 10 really good reasons to start a blog: Read more

Getting Screwed by WildBlue or is it WildScrew Fair Access Policy?

Paid Membership Site Benefits and Criteria

WordPress is a great for promoting your traditional business, internet marketing, setting up a personal blog or even setting up a website for an club or other organization. Another use that one might consider WordPress for is the development of a paid membership site.

What are the Benefits of a Paid Membership Site Anyway?
First of all a paid membership site provides recurring income. A small amount paid monthly by every member can quickly add up to either valuable extra income or even a full-time work from home income. If you were to have several membership sites and if you have a higher priced membership fee, you can quickly earn a very substantial annual income.

Why Would a Person Use a Paid Membership Site?
People will buy information that they could probably find on the Internet themselves if they had time and knew where to look, but often there is a higher perceived value when they have paid for it.

How Do You Attract Members to a Paid Membership Site?
The challenge then is to find customers and then provide them with such good value that they will retain their membership month after month and hopefully also recommend your site to others because you pay them a generous affiliate fee.

There are four main criteria you need to consider to achieve this and they are:

1. Your site must be in an established membership type market.

2. You must provide excellent value content or service

3. You need to use software that will password-protect your site so that non-paying members cannot get the content for free.

4. A marketing system to attract new subscribers and retain them once they sign up.

Criteria 1 – Your Membership-Site Market

In assessing your potential membership-site market, consider both online and off-line habits. Ask yourself whether people with an interest in this subject would buy monthly magazines, belong to a club or organization about it and perhaps whether there are books on the subject on Amazon’s best popular seller lists. Online, check if there are eBooks that sell well, blogs, forums or other on-line communities about this subject.

The topic must be popular enough to have many potential subscribers or you will be wasting your time. It is worth offering some free material, perhaps an ebook on your subject to see how many people have an interest it it. Another strategy to test your market is to set up a simple survey, asking what issues people have. You can offer free membership to your new site as an incentive for people to reply; the answers you receive will guide you as to what kind of concerns people have on this subject.

The information most in demand on-line is that which solves someone’s immediate problem, so it is worth considering whether your content or service solves just a one-time problem or whether there could be an ongoing or related issues that you can address.

An example of a one-off problem would perhaps be a remedy for snoring and for an ongoing problem, think of new parents, who have many worries and sleepless nights when their baby cries, perhaps in the middle of the night and there is no-one they can ask for advice. A membership site that contains suggested solutions for the numerous problems new parents face would be a valuable resource for them.

Criteria 2 – Quality Content

The four main types of content are: written, audio, video and web-based software solutions. Naturally, the media type you use will depend on your site topic as some will be more relevant that others. Most sites will include a significant percentage of written material as this is still the primary method of sharing information on the Internet, but audio recordings are increasing popular because people can download them and listen when they are walking, driving, exercising or away from their computer for any other reason.

Video content is preferred when the information you are providing is instructional; “how-to” in pictures or a video can make a process very easy to understand compared with following a written list of instructions.

Another situation where pictures are helpful is showing symptoms of something. For example, for the new parent site mentioned above, there could be photos of the types of spots or rashes a small child might have on their body if they have caught any of the various common childhood complaints such as measles, chickenpox or have been bitten by an insect.

There are many sources of good content apart from writing your own if you are qualified to do so. Your own material is obviously the cheapest, but will take the longest to prepare and you need to know enough about your topic to keep providing fresh material on a regular basis.

Use other people’s material by utilizing royalty free articles from article directories such as ezinearticles.com and free content sites, free to use videos from YouTube, metacafe.com or ehow.com or good quality PLR (private label rights).

Outsourcing is another option that will be less time-consuming although you will have costs for the ghost-writer or freelancer you contract to produce your work. Apart from the well-known elance.com & rentacoder.com, there are hundreds of other sources as a simple web search on “outsourcing” will reveal. If you plan to outsource on a regular basis, it is worth the time and effort to find a freelancer and develop a relationship with them, rather than going through a ghost-writing service provider.

Interviews with experts are something you can do yourself with basic equipment. Prepare a list of open-ended questions before the interview and send a copy to the person you will be interviewing two or three days beforehand. Any sooner and they might forget about it and any later doesn’t give them time to prepare.

The following are some suggestions for interview questions that will give an expert the opportunity to give you excellent material for your membership site:
1. What is so good about ………?
2. How did you get involved in ………?
3. What do you consider the top 3 things someone should know about ……?
4. What would you suggest would be the best way to get started?
5. How long would it take to be proficient at ……….?

An hour is a good length for a value interview but you may want to go longer and edit the script later. This is easily done even with a free audio editor such as audacity.

Criteria 3 – membership site software to protect your subscriber’s investment and save you time

If you can, invest in a specialized memberships-site software package or script. There are quite a number of good choices of varying prices, for example Membergate, Memberspeed, & WordPress plugins like WordPress Wishlist, Digital Access Pass (DAP), YourMember & aMember. The advantages of using one of these is that so many of the member functions are done automatically, for example:

1. Membership levels
2. Membership types
3. RSS Feed encryption so that non-paying members cannot access your content through the RSS feed
4. Sequential delivery so that someone cannot sign up and download all the material & then unsubscribe – the longer a person is a member, the more content they have access to
5. Payment gateways – preferably more than just Paypal
6. Training and Support
7. A good strong guarantee

Criteria 4 – Strategies for Recruiting & retaining members

1. Instead of focusing on trying to sell memberships, focus on how how one particular article of your content can solve a specific problem a person might have so that you are providing a solution to that problem and also giving one month’s membership to the site for free.

2. Use free advertising by writing & submitting articles & reports, posting on blogs & forums, make squidoo lenses, hubs & other web pages.

3. Buy Pay per Click advertising and banner ads etc

4. List your membership site on Clickbank, Paydotcom etc

5. Email your list & if you don’t have one, form a joint venture partnership with someone who does & pay them a generous affiliate commission.

There are many other marketing tactics that have been written about at great length and can be found in a web search.

In summary, if you can address the four main criteria of using an established membership type market, providing premium value content, using appropriate membership software and attracting subscribers, a paid membership site can become a very profitable business model.

Money Making Blog Ideas with PPC Kahuna

Perhaps you have now started to build one or more WordPress blogs and like me  you want to make money online.  You have heard that some people are getting rich on line but it just hasn’t happened to you yet and to be honest it has not happened to me yet either but I have really been learning a lot of new blog tips and tricks and money making ideas since becoming a member of PPCKahuna Elite.  Read more

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