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January 23, 2007
10 Ways to get Your Sites 'Slapped' by Search Engines
Of course your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts should be targeted towards high search engine ranking for your keywords, but you must beware of the over optimization penalty. This happens when the search engines consider your page has been designed for the unique purpose of ranking well.
Most SEO experts teach you how to optimize a web page for good search engine ranking, but very few tell you what you must NOT do if you want to avoid over optimization penalty and see your page rank drop or your site get de-indexed.
Here are 10 things you should consider if you are serious about SEO:
1 – Website Content Theft:
Never steal content from other websites. If you are reported you will immediately be banned. Not to mention other legal issues.
2 – Standard Language:
Do not use slang or rude words in your copy as it can get you de-indexed.
3 – Outgoing Links:
Do not exceed 100 outgoing links, always link to good quality sites and never link to farm links. Extra tip: you must check your outgoing links on a regular basis to make sure they are still working and the quality of the sites you are linking to is still good.
4 – URL Length:
Keep your URLs less than 100 characters long and avoid using more than 3 hyphens "-" in your URLs.
5 – Keyword Density:
Keep your keyword density under 5% or it could be considered keyword spamming.
6 – Title Tag:
Your title tag should contain less than 60 characters and should not contain any special characters.
7 – Description Tag.
Keep your description meta tag under 200 characters or your site ranking will drop.
8 – Keyword Tag.
Put less than 10 keywords in your keyword meta tag and make sure every keyword appears in your web page copy. Also, avoid putting the same keyword twice in your keyword meta tag. The fact is that nowadays search engines (mainly Google) do not really consider the Keyword meta tag for ranking, but if you do not follow these simple rules, you will get smacked in the face!
9 – Proper use of Alt Text.
If you use pictures and put your keyword in the alt text, your alt text must describe the picture. You could write something like: "keyword header", "keyword image" or "keyword logo" but never stuff lots of keywords in your alt texts. Again, this would be considered keyword spamming.
10 – Cloaking.
Never, ever, use cloaking. Cloaking consists in coding the page in such a way that parts of the content will be seen by search engines but will not be displayed to users. If you do that, you will get banned!
Finally, remember that search engine algorithms change frequently. So keep up to date by browsing the SEO sites and forums.
These 10 simple rules are no guarantee that you will rank well in the search engines, however one thing is sure, if you break these rules you will be penalized in the search results, lose page rank and maybe even get de-indexed altogether.
Posted by billenross at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2007
The Power of Sharing
It has been said that "If you give, you shall receive". This saying is often used to refer to giving of your time, your effort, your money or other material things before you can reasonably expect to receive any of these things from others. All of these things can be very valuable, but one of the most powerful things to share, and also one of the easiest, is thoughts and ideas.
When we consider sharing something, we often think of this as parting with something. Share some of your money and you will no longer be able to spend it yourself. Share some chocolate and whoever you share it with gets to taste this delicious substance, not you. At least you won't taste all of it. Sharing, in these cases, means parting with. It means you give something away that you will no longer benefit from directly. This is not the case with thoughts and ideas. When you share a thought or a good idea that doesn't mean you lose it. It doesn't even mean there is any less left for you. As a matter of fact, quite the opposite is true. You can truly be enriched by the thoughts and ideas you share with other people. Share some wisdom with someone else and now two can benefit from it. Even though there was no cost involved for you in sharing it, to the person on the receiving end it could represent a huge value.
Unfortunately we often try to keep things for ourselves in order to keep a competitive advantage. To 'keep the edge' so to speak. This is understandable and can sometimes be a good strategy. Certain information can be extremely valuable and if it really gives you this 'edge' then keeping it to yourself may be the smart thing to do. In reality however most of us don't possess any information that really offers sustainable advantage over others. The truth is that the real advantage in this day and age, with the Internet at everybody's fingertips, is no longer in any single piece of information. The people that have been most successful have done so by combining ideas and concepts into combinations that others haven't thought of. From this perspective not sharing your ideas may actually rob you of many opportunities and as such cost you a great deal.
In business, as well as in personal life, breakthroughs often come from a combination of ideas. Rarely is one man's creative idea completely fabricated by his own mind. The tossing back and forth of ideas and concepts usually plays a critical role in the development of new ideas. In discussing the potential application of a certain technology with a customer, this customer can come up with ideas that you would have never thought of. After all it's the customer's business and he probably knows more about it than you do. Especially when you're talking to an entrepreneurial type of individual. Most entrepreneurs are always looking for new opportunities to improve their bottom line and expand their business. Now why would he share his ideas with you if you haven't shared anything with him? Good question. You could of course turn the situation around; why share anything with him if he hasn't shared anything with you? Although this may be a fair question, it isn't really relevant. After all this is exactly the deadlock situation that hampers so much creativity. Of course there is always a risk of someone running off with one of your ideas. So it wouldn't be a bad idea to protect your idea or at least a part of it. You could for instance leave out some details that aren't necessary to paint the big picture but would surely be critical in bringing the idea to fruition.
The human brain makes connections based on our frame of reference. Since every persons frame of reference is unique it's possible for a group of 1000 individuals to listen to one and the same speech, talk or idea and yet, have all of them interpret it differently. As a matter of fact, this is not just possible, it will inevitably be the case. Since no two persons share the exact same background, body of knowledge and life experiences. These differences in interpretations could therefore lead to very different concepts and ideas a person could come up with. That is where one of the most powerful aspects of sharing comes into play. Your ideas may spark a new idea in someone else that you would never have thought of by yourself, which in turn sparks another idea in you that they would never have thought of by themselves. Of course this doesn't have to be a conscious sharing of ideas. Most of the time it will happen without you actually being aware of it. A thought will come up that you think is your own when in fact it was initially put their by someone else. In your quest for ideas your mind dug up this idea and perhaps linked it to some other fragments in your memory banks that, put together, formed a new breakthrough idea.
Even though this is mostly unconscious, it's still a good strategy to share more ideas on a consistent basis. Think of it like this; every time you share something a number of things happen. For starters, you deposit something into someone else's memory bank. You never know what this little piece of information, this concept will do for the person you share it with. Perhaps it does nothing for them but it eventually does for someone else they share it with. This person may or may not share something with you in return. But there is a universal law that states that: "If you give out, something is coming back". The law doesn't say that it's coming back on Thursday morning at 10.00, when you might need it the most. It just says "It's coming back". In many cases when you share something, that person will feel obligated to share something with you. Perhaps right away, perhaps a month from now. Not necessarily out of obligation, but out of human nature. This is the law of reciprocity at work. Whenever they share something with you, that concept will be stored inside your head. Perhaps you may not see an immediate use for it. In many cases you probably never will. However you never know when and in what situation their idea may turn out to be useful. Perhaps in combination with some other ideas that have yet to be shared with you by other people.
But guess what? If you don't share your thoughts with them, they may not share theirs with you. And because you didn't share you missed out on that one little idea that you needed to put everything in its place. Who knows how much you will miss out on because of that? It's safe to say that not sharing could cost you infinitely more than keeping it all to yourself would ever earn you. And that is just too much of a price to pay. So whenever you have the opportunity to share some worthwhile thoughts with another person, do so. It may work wonders, for you and them, and it won't cost a thing.
The best learning resource I've ever experienced about this topic was produced by Dr. Robert Anthony. My wife and I have listened to his audios dozens of times over the past two years, and every time we listen - we learn something new. His take on the Law Of Attraction is the only one that has ever made sense to either of us.
Posted by billenross at 09:00 PM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2007
The Effects Of Drugs On The Wood Spider
What in the world does this have to do with Internet marketing?
Well, nothing, and EVERYTHING!
See what you think...
Posted by billenross at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2007
5 Great Ways to Raise Funds On the Internet for Your Group
If you're a member of a non-profit group of any kind and are need to raise funds for your events or activities, here are 10 ways to do so online that you may not be aware of.
1) Run your own online auction.
Ever bought or sold anything on eBay? Most people don't realize that they allow you to sell items for your non-profit group too. Look for the link in the seller resources under 3rd party services. It's called eBay Giving Works - click there and read all about how it works.
2) You can run your own "A-Thon".
Does your group like to do "A-Thons", but you don't like all the work involved with running one? With www.choose-a-thon.com, you can select any of the following to do as a fundraising event: walk-a-thon, bike-a-thon, read-a-thon, bowl-a-thon, march-a-thon or life-a-thon. There are no up-front fees and they'll collect your donations for you too.
3) Use a Krymus website.
A website through www.krymus.com offers a cash-back reward for using the site to shop at over 300 national chain stores. There's a fundraising option where they'll build a free shopping mall website for you and you promote it to your supporters. For every sale made at this store, your group gets paid a commission. Some of the stores included in this are Wal-Mart, Sharper Image,Barnes & Noble, Target and Best Buy. Your group does no selling, collecting money or delivering products - just promote your website and cash the checks.
4) If you have an emergency need for your group, a pittance portal might be the way to go.
Pittance Portals (www.pittanceportal.com) are websites you can set up for free and send supporters to so they can make a donation via Paypal. You have control of the content and can update it as needed. They also offer additional marketing and search engine services for a fee.
5) You can sell internet service as a fundraiser.
That's right, www.cyberlynk.net will give you up to 50% of every sale for internet service you make for your group. The internet service is dial up (which might be a disadvantage) but the price is good - $12.99 a month. Your group doesn't have to do any sales, collection of money or distribution of the product....it's all handled online. Your group only has to promote it.
The best part of all of these fundraisers is that the selling, money collection and distribution of the products or services is mostly handled for your group by the online service. This will give your volunteers more time to concentrate on promoting the fundraiser and is certainly a lot less work and stress for those involved. All of these are extremely easy to run - so if you need more funds and don't have much time to do the legwork, let the internet help.
Posted by billenross at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2007
MySpace - A Social Networking Site
MySpace is a social networking website where people tell others about themselves and their interests, and interact with other members. This service has now become the most popular online community and the website is among the top ten most visited sites. The membership to this service is free and its 100 millionth account was created on August 9, 2006. Registration can be done from the home page:
www.myspace.com
There are reportedly 230,000 registrations every day. The present owner of the website Rupert Murdhoch's News Corporation created a stir in the corporate world by purchasing MySpace for US$580 million in July 2005.
People use MySpace for a variety of reasons - establishing identity, making friends, socializing, joining and creating interest groups, expressing their views, promoting themselves, promoting their business - to name just a few. Though MySpace is not a commercial organization people use it to expand their business. However, business promotion should not appear as spamming. Any objectionable behavior by a member can even result in cancellation of the membership.
Creating Your Profile
There are many features available to the members of MySpace for expressing themselves and for communicating with others. The member first creates his/her profile for which many different formats are available. There is lots of flexibility to what a member can add to his/her profile - personal details, text, links to other web pages, photographs, audio clips, videos, graphics and so on. The member can design his/her profile to make it attractive, reflect his/her personality and convey message to others. The profile can be modified periodically to maintain freshness and change the content.
Any business promotion should be done in a subtle way so that it doesn't appear as advertisement. For example, while explaining about his/her interests the member can make reference to the business. It will be helpful to add keywords in the profile in a natural way because MySpace has its own search engine and the member's profile can come up in the search when someone is looking for those keywords.
Making Friends
MySpace is "a place for friends". You can browse profiles of other members to select your friends. The search engine of MySpace can be used for locating other members by criteria such as age group, location, interests etc. Once you locate a person you would like as your friend, you open his/her profile and click on the link "Add to Friends". A message will go to him/her with your MySpace link. He/she can see your profile and accept or reject your request. If your request is accepted which is mostly the case, you become friends. Otherwise there is no need to feel bad; you simply look for other friends. You can also get requests for friendship from other members that you can approve or reject.
Making friends in this way is a slow process. To speed up the process software programs are available. Many members use software that can add hundreds of friends by click of a button. These members may be interested in promoting their business. Although MySpace doesn't approve of such software, it is possible to restrict the number of friends made every day to a low level and avoid getting into trouble. There are other programs for adding friends quickly that are generally accepted such as MySpace trains.
Communicating With Other Members
MySpace offers several ways by which members can interact with one another.
E-mails: Members can exchange personal messages with any of their friends from their member's area by email facility provided by the system.
Bulletin: Members can send one-way messages to all their friends by way of bulletins. When you are sending a message to all your friends it will be in your interest to make the message helpful and interesting to others. This is a great way of projecting and establishing yourself in the community.
Groups: There are hundreds of groups available in MySpace and each group consists of members interested in a particular area. The groups are segregated by categories that make it easy to locate groups active in your area of interest. You can send a request to join any groups of your choice. Let us say you are interested in joining groups dedicated to a particular niche. Chances are that you will find groups that are interested in your niche, or in a closely related niche. Once you join those groups you get a highly targeted audience. By your conduct within the group you can find customers, subscribers or other like-minded people. Each group will have its own set of rules and it is expected that you will follow them when you join the group. You can also start your own groups that will be under your control.
Forums: Click on the forum button on MySpace web pages and you will find forums arranged category-wise. Forums provide opportunities to learn from others and establish yourself as an expert in your field. Your forum post are linked to your profile page and you can attract visitors by posting in forums.
Blogs: You can set up your own blog and make your posts. This is a powerful medium for sharing information. By regular and relevant posts you can increase traffic to your blog and to your profile page. Also, more content on your blog will improve its searchability by MySpace and other search engines.
Classified: You can put your ads free of cost to MySpace classified. The ads in the classified section are arranged city-wise and category-wise. But you can post to classified only if you have an account for at least 7 days. This is a way of fighting spamming. The classified section has a user-driven flagging system and you should ensure that other members do not consider your ads as spam.
These are just some of the options available with MySpace. There is tremendous scope for members to use MySpace to their best advantage. It is a good idea to explore the site thoroughly and learn from profiles of other members to derive full benefits from this service.
The Internet is constantly evolving and a trend is clearly visible - interactive sites are gaining in popularity. And MySpace is as interactive as you can make it. In fact, MySpace is setting the trend for others.
Be sure to review these MySpace Techniques
Posted by billenross at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)
January 15, 2007
How to List Your Business in Google and Yahoo Local Search
Even if your business is done completely online, you may benefit from getting listed in Google Local or Yahoo's local listings. People often feel more comfortable doing business with someone who is local; and potential customers may stumble across your business while searching for other things. Submission to Local Search at both Google and Yahoo are free, and may bring you more business than you expect.
Here are the URLs for the signup forms below, but before you get started you should have the following information ready at hand:
1. The first thing they will ask for is the physical location of your business. If your business is in your home, that is no problem, just use your home address. You shouldn't, however, use a post office box, as Google doesn't accept them.
2. The telephone number(s) of your business - If you use your home phone number for your business, be sure you have an appropriate answering machine message, and that your phone is answered in a professional manner.
It is best to get a separate telephone number for your business, even if it and your budget are very small. Check with your phone company and the VOIP companies, you may be pleasantly surprised at how cheaply you can get a second number. Many people use VOIP for their business, and pay just $25 per month for unlimited local and long distance through their broadband internet connection. If you have a fax number, have that ready also.
3. A business email address - Use an email account at your business domain. If you don't have a website for your business, buy a domain for your site from a registrar such as registerfly.com who gives website space with a domain purchase, or at least put up a "one page business card" website on the free space Yahoo offers to local listers. In any event, don't use an America Online address or a "freebie" email service such as Hotmail or Yahoo for your business. This is considered very unprofessional.
4. Your business website address - Get a site if you honestly mean to have an internet business. Yes, a website is not strictly required in order to earn online, but to anyone with online business experience you will appear as a rank amateur without one.
5. A description of the services or products you sell. This should be a short 1 to 3 sentence summary such as:
"Your Business Name provides widgets to all widget users, with special emphasis on blue widgets for widgeteers. We also offer widget payment plans."
Don't make it a blatant advertisement, just an explanation of services.
6. Categories your business falls under - You'll be able to choose up to 5 categories for your listing.
7. What types of payment can you accept? (Cash, credit card types, etcetera)
8. Your business operating hours and days at your location.
9. Contact Name - likely yours.
Google users will need to setup an Account. Fear not...if you have Gmail, Google Sitemaps or any other Google service requiring an email address you are already registered.
When you have your information ready, go to http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter.
Sign into your Google account and follow the onscreen instructions. Once you have finished, Google will telephone or send you a postcard (your choice) with a confirmation number. When you receive the pin number in the mail or by phone, you will then need to go back to your account and enter that pin number before your entry can be activated.
After that, just wait for the phone calls from new customers.
For Yahoo, the information needed is nearly the same, and they will give you a free 5-page website for your business to boot!
Sign up at Yahoo here: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/
Get going and boost your business into areas you might not have thought of trying.
Posted by billenross at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)
January 14, 2007
5 Quick Newsletter Tips
You know you need to stay in touch with the people on your list, but you're in two minds about starting a newsletter. Will it take up too much of your time? What if you run out of things to say? Can you maintain quality over a period of time? How long should your newsletter be?
Your first aim should be to offer useful or interesting information. (If you don't do that, you won't have subscribers for long!) Your second aim should be to keep your newsletter short. Remember that people are inundated with email these days - they actually prefer something they can skim quickly and then put to use.
Spend some time thinking about the best format. You need a model that will be easy to reproduce week after week, month after month. Any one of the following five ideas will make your job easier. Choose one and keep it as a regular format, or combine several of them (for example, you could use the "Tip of the Week" format for weeks 1-3 each month, and offer a checklist every fourth newsletter).
1. Tip of the Week
This one speaks for itself. You can easily brainstorm enough content for six months of weekly newsletters (you need to come up with 24 tips, which you will present weekly). Anyone with a degree of expertise on a given topic should be able to do this without any trouble. A handy way to organize this is to (a) explain the problem then (b) offer the tip which will solve it. Length? Anything from 150 - 500 words.
2. Top Ten
This is a tried and true format, and easy to create. Example: if you are an expert on finance, you could offer advice on the Top Ten Ideas for Getting Out of Debt, or the Top Ten Ways to Save Money on Car Expenses, or the Top Ten Tips to Pay Off Your Mortgage in Ten Years. Make sure you keep a tight rein on word length - just offer a couple of sentences for each tip, not half a page.
3. Three Ways to...
Sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge to come up with ten ways to do things, whereas just three ideas is a cinch. You can also explore three ideas in more detail. Alternatively, you can alternate the "Top Ten" format with "Three Ways to...” the two of them will work together nicely.
4. Before and After
Who doesn't like makeovers? This works in a similar way to 'Tip of the Week' in that you show the problem and then provide a solution, but the 'before and after' approach lends itself better to case studies. This is a good way to interact with your clients - invite them to send in details of whatever needs a makeover: an article, a website page, their wardrobe etc, then present your solutions. Alternatively, you can ask for 'before and after' examples from readers who have managed to do this themselves, then showcase it for the rest of your customers. (If you don't use HTML for your newsletters, you can add a link to a website page for the accompanying photos.) This works particularly well if you have a health and fitness related newsletter - your readers will be motivated by seeing the changes others have made through diet, exercise and weight training.
5. Checklists
When you're learning to do something new, there's nothing like a checklist to make sure you don't leave out a crucial step. Checklists can save a lot of time, and your readers will be delighted to get one. Write a brief introductory paragraph, present the checklist, and then follow it with a few final tips. You can either base your entire newsletter on the checklist format, or present one at regular intervals as a change from the standard article format.
Final tip: set up an address at yahoo or gmail just for newsletters. Spend a few hours checking out sites related to your own interests, and sign up for any free newsletters. Every so often, check your new email account and browse, looking specifically to see what approach other editors use for layout and articles. When you see a format you like, print it out and put it in an 'ideas' folder. Unsubscribe from any that are constantly filled with junk or endless sales pitches.
Posted by billenross at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2007
Wear Sunscreen
What started out as an annoying blemish that would never seem to heal, and that eventually grew into the size of a pea, manifested itself as a life altering event the other day. The initial visit (and biopsy) with my dermatologist revealed that the spot was actually basil cell carcinoma, and Mohs surgery was scheduled.
After the first round of the Mohs proceedure it was discovered that in addition to needing to remove more tissue, there was also an area of squamous cell carcinoma as well.
Long story short; after the second layer removal in the Mohs proceedure, plastic surgery was required to cover the large area of skin that needed to be removed:
So... Wear Sunscreen!
Posted by billenross at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2007
How To Promote Your Business By Speaking in Public
As an entrepreneur, public speaking has to be one of the most effective ways of marketing yourself. There are countless opportunities out there for you to get yourself in front of your target market. There is no better way to have a captive audience full of prospects. It is the fastest way of establishing yourself as an expert.
You don’t have to be a professional speaker to speak in public. Just doing a reasonable job is better than not doing anything at all.
Prospects are much more likely to engage your services if they’ve seen you speak. Let’s look at the following example. Say you were looking for an accountant. Would you be more inclined to trust someone you had found in the Yellow Pages, or someone you had heard speak knowledgeably at the local Chamber of Commerce?
Look into opportunities in your local area where you can offer to speak for free. Professional associations, networking groups, Chambers of Commerce, educational bodies and Rotary Clubs are all potential public speaking venues. They often look out for speakers for their events, meetings and workshops.
Also research the audience that is going to be at your talk. For example, what industries are they likely to represent? Are they from large or small companies? What would interest them? What angle should your presentation take?
When it comes to finalizing your speech topic, be sure to make it sound enticing and interesting. People often decide whether to attend a talk based on just the title so put some serious thought into this.
Practice is key to coming across in a professional manner and reducing nerves. Write your speech out in full, but never read it verbatim. Have an outline prepared and available for you to refer to.
Check with the event organizer how long you have for your talk. Include timing in your practice runs. There is nothing worse than having a speaker run over time.
Get the most mileage out of your presentation by having some promotional material at the back of the room, for example some business cards, flyers or brochures that people can take with them if they wish.
You can be even more proactive and set up a newsletter before starting to give speeches. At the end of your presentation you can encourage your audience to sign up for your newsletter in exchange for a promotional gift or free e-book. That way you have also added valuable contacts to your database.
Many entrepreneurs swear by public speaking as a way of building and maintaining a steady stream of clients for their businesses.
Posted by billenross at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2007
New Strategy For Inbound Links
In this article I am coming back to the oldest Web marketing strategy - inbound links. The importance of inbound links to your Web site never diminishes. Search engines still value quality inbound links to a Web site for higher rankings. However, the emphasize is now on the quality, not the quantity of links. A dozen quality links to your site from useful sites are more valuable to a search engine than 700 links obtained through a link exchange program.
Before I discuss how to obtain quality inbound links to your site, I would like to mention some don'ts of inbound link strategy. Never participate in an automated or manual link exchange program. These programs are useless; they don't benefit you and sometimes the search engines may even penalize your site for such links. Also, stop soliciting link exchange from other sites where your links will be placed in a link farm on a page along with hundreds of other links. The two don'ts are - link exchange program and link farms.
Now I will talk about the new strategy. The number one strategy is to write articles with your resource box attached. Your resource box should mention your expertise in the subject and only one link to your site's home page. I know you have already started frowning on the idea of writing articles to promote your site. You are telling yourself that it is not a new strategy and it has been going for the past few years.
You know that thousands of articles are written everyday and distributed through article directories and submission services. You can still continue promoting your site using article directories and submission services. However, I will mention a few new twists to the old article publishing idea to distinguish you from the pack.
Write original articles. If you buy private level rights to an article, rewrite it to make it unique. You don't have to buy the rights to private level articles to create original article. Using the Internet, find good quality articles on the subject that interests you and read those articles. It requires a few hours of time commitment every week.
On the weekend, take an additional few hours and write in your own words what you have read in the preceding week. Voila, you have a good quality original article. Remember, you can always write in your own words the ideas that you have read in other articles. You cannot simply copy verbatim from other articles. That will be copyright violation.
If you are good at writing humorously, do exploit that skill while writing on any subject. Humor is very powerful and it attracts more readers. People love a bellyful of laughs. If possible, say something bold or controversial without being a hate monger. This will also attract others' attention.
Once you have your original article written, find a few quality content rich site (not article directories) and offer them your article for free with your resource box attached. You are not asking for any link exchange, you are just giving away your high quality articles for free to a few selected sites.
Once you have a few good articles on the same subject, compile them into an e-book. Write a short bio(less than 300 characters) with your Web site link and ask a few selected site owners to distribute your e-book for free to their visitors. You can also ask other site owners to include your e-book as a free bonus in some of their prime selling products. Ask the site owners to distribute the e-book from their sites with courtesy notes and links back to your site.
If your Web site has a forum, offer other sites to use it from their sites. Setup your forum so that it has almost seamless integration from other sites. Ask other sites to directly link to your forum from their main menu. In return, tell them that you will write nice reviews of their sites and their offerings and publish those reviews in your site.
Develop a tips and tricks section on the subject of your Web site and update it regularly. Allow other sites to publish your tips and tricks for free with courtesy links to your site. Make the process automated (using RSS other techniques) so that when you update your tips and tricks page, all sites publishing your tips and tricks are also updated.
Whenever you get an opportunity, use your cell phone to shoot short videos and take pictures. You need to get a good cell phone with a camera. Give your pictures and videos to other sites for free. Ask them to put links back to your site below every video and picture they publish in their sites.
Join a few social networking sites like MySapce, etc. Create your Web pages on those sites with videos and pictures. Provide links back to your site from those pages. Update your Web pages in social networking sites periodically with fresh videos and pictures.
Publish link to your articles in community based popularity sites like digg. A well "dugg" story can generate thousands of hits to your site. If you have a controversial or humorous story, the chances are even better for "digging" your articles from these type of sites.
Write reviews of products and services, related to your site's subject, that you have used and publish those reviews on different review sites with a clever way to put links back to your site. Some creativity is required to achieve this feat. You cannot simply spam these review sites. Be genuine and at the same time marketing savvy.
Network and build good rapport with a dozen or so good site owners. Help each other in site promotion, idea and content exchanges. For all content exchanges, don't forget to include resource boxes with links back to your site.
Posted by billenross at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)
January 10, 2007
Gratitude Check
Ever wake up in a miserable mood? I did today (second day in a row actually), and I really dislike the way it affects my ability to work. See, I really love my work. Actually, sometimes I'm having so much fun doing my stuff that I'm amazed I get paid so well.
Anyway, when I find myself in a lousy mood, I find the best way to snap out of it is to list all the stuff I''m grateful for.
So, here goes...
Today I'm grateful for (in order of appearance!):
1. Electricity
2. My alarm DID go off.
3. I DID wake up.
4. The heat came on when I turned the thermostat
5. Hot water for a shower
6. My wife (and best friend) woke up too.
7. Coffee
8. Our son Chris woke up too!
9. My computer works
10. My car started
11. My family
12. My health
13. My clients
14. More work than available time
While driving this morning I saw a young man standing on a street corner, he couldn't have been more than 15. He had very thick glasses and a white cane with a red tip.
I'm grateful for my eyesight.
While leaving Whole Foods (in a big hurry) I was behind a woman who was having a really hard time walking. It made me slow down and be grateful I CAN walk with ease.
While walking in the West Village I came to a street corner, a elderly man was in a wheel chair at the edge of the crosswalk. He looked at me, then looked across to the other corner. No words were needed, I pointed, he nodded, I pushed, he smiled.
One of the nicest experiences I've ever had.
I'm grateful for the insight from really smart people who help me remember what's really important in business AND life.
Bottom line, I'm a wicked lucky man, and I feel better already.
Thanks!
Posted by billenross at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)
January 09, 2007
Media Training 301
Become a Partner, Not a Player
Every business owner should include getting publicity as a part of his or her overall marketing strategy. However, there is a lot more to garnering free publicity for your business than just writing – and sending – press releases.
You want to build a long-term relationship with the media, and become known as a resource, an expert in your industry. That doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen by accident. It takes time, careful planning and a strategy. The good news is that you don't have to spend tens of thousands of dollars, or hire an outside agency to do it for you.
Before you can start creating a buzz and building a successful publicity campaign, you need to know three things:
1. Why do you want publicity in the first place? Are you trying to build credibility? Let people know about your product or services? Create or strengthen your business's brand?
2. What is your message? When putting together your publicity campaign, you need to know what you're going to say and how to say it so that you achieve your ultimate goals.
3. What type of coverage are you looking for? (There are three types: Newspaper/visual, radio/audio, and Television/visual/audio). Of these three types, which is going to be the best way to get your message out?
Once you know where you want to end up, the next step is to create a roadmap that will get you there.
There's a famous saying that illustrates perfectly what you ultimately want to achieve: "If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying 'Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday,' that's advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk him into town, that's promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor's flowerbed, that's publicity. If you can get the mayor to laugh about it, that's public relations. And if you planned the elephant's walk, that's marketing."
Here are the "insider secrets" that will help you to become a partner, and build a solid relationship with the media so that you can "plan the elephant's walk" for your business.
1. Do your research before writing your first press release. Think about your story. Who is it going to affect, interest or impact? Is it strictly of local interest, or can you “hook” it to a larger event or happening? Is it a one-time happening, such as your grand opening, or a special event, or milestone? Is it part of an ongoing effort?
2. Create your own "hot list." Now, figure out which media sources are going to be most interested in your story. Start locally. Think of your local newspapers, television and radio stations. Include your local public radio station, college stations and any others that provide news stories in your list. (Special Note: If your story isn’t one that is going to be over in fifteen minutes, don’t forget organizations that publish newsletters! Think about your local Chamber of Commerce or organizations whose members or clients could also become your customers!)
Then think even further outside your "circles of influence." If you live in an urban area, there may be national affiliates like APR, etc that have stringers or offices nearby. Include those in your list.
Now look at online sources. Be thoughtful here. Don’t just send a press release to everyone. Sure, it may get published online, but it may also get dumped into a “news bin” on a thread where it is never seen or read.
In addition to the hundreds of news sources, think about your affiliations. Are you a member of a national society, or organization? If it is relevant to your story, mention that you’re a member, and then send a copy of the press release to them as well!
3. Make it personal. Now that you know which media sources you’re going to send your press release to, get on the phone. Find out the name of the specific person you need to send the press release to. (These is a step a lot of people skip over, but take my advice and don’t, because it’s one of the most important!) Remember the word "relations" in "public relations." Building any worthwhile relationship takes time and effort. You have to give something to get something.
If possible, talk to the reporter or editor personally. Introduce yourself, and let her/him know that you’re going to be sending him/her a press release. (If you're inexperienced at this, you can actually use that as an introduction and let him know that you want to get started off on the right foot). You want to find out the following information:
- The correct spelling of her/his name.
- How they prefer to receive the press release -- faxed or in the mail.
- How far in advance do they prefer that you send the press release?
Always make sure to ask what their deadline is. If faxing your press release is okay, get the fax number, and find out if the cover sheet should be addressed to the reporter or someone else.
DO NOT CHAT. This is not a social call. You are calling to get information, not a date. (Tricks of the trade: Get your Rolodex or PDA out while your talking to the reporter. Note all of the pertinent information so that you’ve got it for the next time. On the back of the card, or in the memo section, write down the date you spoke with them, and the reason for the press release.)
4. Once you’ve found your contact person, stick to them! Unless otherwise instructed, never send the same press release to more than one person in any organization or publication. If there is any confusion or duplicate coverage, it will be blamed on you, and you will lose your credibility.
5. Follow-up. Within a day or two of sending your press release, call and make sure that they received it. If not, be calm, and pleasant, and just say that you’ll send another one. Re-check your contact information, and make sure you’ve got the right address, fax number, etc. And then send it right away.
6. Never just send a press release the day of your event. It makes you look unprofessional, and you probably won’t get covered. The only exception to this is if you’re holding a press conference to make a big announcement that will impact many people.
Always plan ahead and give the media as much time as possible to decide how they are going to cover it.
7. Know Their Deadlines. I can’t stress this often enough. EVERY TIME you talk to a reporter, ask what their deadline is.
When you’re submitting an article or a press release to a magazine, call first and ask about submission deadlines. And then make sure that you send it in with time to spare.
Mark the deadline on your media info sheet, or your Rolodex, but check back with them periodically, because changes do happen.
8. Keep your promises. If a reporter calls you, and you don't know the answer to a question, or he needs something you don't have but you promise to get it -- do it. Always follow through and do what you say you're going to by their deadline.
9. Be professional. Offer to act as a liaison if the reporter needs to speak to other people in your organization or industry, and volunteer to provide additional research or background information. Put together an online pressroom on your Website, as well as offline media kits that you can send along with your press releases, or when needed.
10. Remember what your mother taught you. Be polite. Say please and thank you. If you read an article that a reporter has written and you liked it, send a handwritten a note and let them know. Be willing to provide information, resources or background material even if it doesn't directly benefit you. Building a solid relationship is about more than selling more widgets, and will pay off in the long run.
Posted by billenross at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)
January 08, 2007
Simple Steps to Great Web Design
Many amateur web designers marvel at the skills of other designers without realizing that there are some simple tricks for creating great looking web sites.
HTML is not a friendly language for laying out text and graphics. The advent of Cascading Style Sheets improved this, but a simple solution to the problem of layout is to use tables without borders. Within HTML, this can be done by adding the attribute BORDER="0" to the TABLE tag. However, most HTML editors, such as Dreamweaver and FrontPage, allow you to set the border to 0 as one of the properties of the table.
Perhaps the biggest problem newcomers face is in finding appropriate images that look good. In many cases, images are found using a simple Google image search. More often that not, these images will be under copyright and using them risks potential legal action. One way around this is to purchase royalty-free images on CD / DVD or directly from the Web. Of course, you need to be careful to check the license agreement. For example, the images may only be royalty-free for non-commercial uses. Another solution is to take your own images using a digital camera (or scanning in your own photos). Again, to minimize the risk of legal action you should obtain permission from people shown in the photos before placing them on the web.
Even after locating or creating images, a good design may still be difficult given the 'blocky' nature of the photos that are typically in a rectangular shape. This leads to the major tip for improving your web site design. If using stock photos, look for 'photo-objects' rather than photos. These are photos which have had the background removed. Where the background should be is actually transparent, which means you can put the photo-objects on any background.
When using your own images, you can easily create photo-objects by using a 'green screen' behind the subject you are photographing. You can load the image into any piece of imaging software that has a magic wand tool. Then simply click on a section of the green screen and press delete to remove the background.
There is nothing 'magical' about a green screen. Any piece of material that has a consistent color and is fairly flat will do. Green or blue work best because these are very different from skin tones that won't disappear when you use the magic wand. (Of course, if they are wearing green clothes these may suddenly become transparent).
Backgrounds can be removed using a magic wand tool (and eraser for fine details) from photos with a normal background, but expect to take many steps and more time. Even if you can't remove the background you can add some spice to your images with simple steps such as adding a drop shadow or adding a frame like a photograph.
With these simple steps you should be able to develop web sites that look far more professional.
Also be sure to check out this new easy to use Website Builder
Posted by billenross at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)
January 07, 2007
How To Be Remarkable
Seth refers us to the Guardian for some tips on how to be remarkable.
Posted by billenross at 04:19 PM | Comments (0)
January 06, 2007
Why Start a Business using a Blog?
Almost everyone has heard of blogging these days. Simply put a blog is a web page that is made up of posts and is updated regularly. That is the simple definition however, a blog can be much more then that. If you are starting a business with a small budget then there are so many ways blogging can help.
First, with a click of your mouse you can put your thoughts, sale pitches, articles and various web page links out to the world by publishing it on your blog. This is especially great if you have started your business using any type of affiliate marketing. The blog owner registers with any affiliate program of choice and then puts various links, banners and products on the blog site. When visitors click on these links and purchase a product, the blog owner is paid a commission for generating the sale. How much easier can that be?
The second way a blog can help in starting your business is that it is a whole lot cheaper then getting a web site. You can usually set up a blog site for free. Compare that to buying a domain name and paying for the cost of designing a web site. Add to that the monthly cost of web site hosting and the cost starts adding up real quick. A blog is a great alternative until the money starts coming in from your business.
Third, less technical knowledge is needed so it is easier and faster for the beginner to start on the web. There is no need to learn html or programming because the software is already there for you to use. Also most successful marketers agree that to get traffic to your site you must update the content often and consistently. With a blog you can add or update the content whenever your want without hiring someone else to do it for you.
Also, blogging can give your business an edge over the competition because it is in real time and there is no waiting. Customers and visitors of your blog can easily join in and post their own comments and suggestions to your site and your products. It is a good tool to have testimonials about your product or service on your blog. Also be sure to post answers to any questions or problem in a quick and complete manner. It shows that you like to reach out to prospective customers and you will quickly gain repeat customers and acquire a following. Customers always prefer personalized attention.
In summary, blogging should not be overlooked as a great business tool. It is especially helpful to the beginner Internet marketer because it is cheap and it has no boundaries. Add to that your own creativity and you are well on your way to establishing a successful business.
How To Make Money With Your Blog
Posted by billenross at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)
January 05, 2007
Giving Your Online Business Powerful Domain Presence
What's the one make-it-or-break-it item that your online business needs to stand out from the crowd and become a huge success?
The right domain name!
The domain name is what people type in when they want to get to your site the part that comes after the http:// or the www. It's your virtual real estate address. Having something they can remember without looking it up each time or keeping it in their bookmarks to be lost among the others is the best thing you can do to get repeat visitors and word-of-mouth free traffic.
People say that all the good names are gone, but that's about as far from the truth as you can get. Here are some simple guidelines that will make your domain name -- and your business -- popular and memorable web destinations.
1. Choose a Dot-Com
The number one rule is, go for the dot-com ending, which is typed as .com. This is the Main St. of the virtual real estate world, and the one that most people will type in regardless of what your domain extension actually is. While .net and .org were popular for awhile, and then .us, .biz and .name took the stage, people always revert back to .com -- no matter how many fancy country code top level domains are launched into the mainstream, like .cc, .ws, .to, .cn and others.
2. Choose something memorable
You want your business name to be your domain name too, if possible. So if your flower shop is called Suzette's Flowers, you want to get suzettesflowers.com, assuming it's available. If not, try adding a dash, like suzettes-flowers.com or a secondary descriptive word like suzettesflowersonline.com or prettysuzettesflowers.com. If you're creative, you'll definitely be able to come up with something that works with your business name and is memorable for your customer.
Keep in mind that if you use a dash in your domain name, which some Search Engine Optimization experts say attracts more free traffic to your site, you have to say the dashes if you use your domain name in an audio product or commercial; so it would be "suzettes dash flowers dot com".
Most people typing in your domain name later will not type the dashes.
3. Get another variation
If you're lucky enough to grab a great domain name without the dashes, then you might want to get the same name with dashes between the words as well. You can put both of them up on your server as mirror sites to get the benefits of SEO as well as the ease of typing without the dashes.
You may also want to consider getting the .net or .org or even another extension to use as a sister site for your main dot com site... perhaps you put your forum on the .net, or use your .com for your main product and .net for your business background information site.
Even if you're looking for a domain name that you don't really think will be available, using your creativity and trying a variety of combinations should allow you to lock down a memorable domain name that will attract people to your website.
Posted by billenross at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)
January 04, 2007
Profitable Affiliate Sales
Many internet marketers are making a lot of money promoting affiliate products. You don't have to worry about developing your own products, setting up downloads if it's an infoproduct, or responding to other problems people may have. You don't deal with refunds.
You can spend your time marketing.
Not everyone, however, is successful in this arena. Just what little secrets are the big guys using?
They are not really secrets. If you implement some of these strategies, however, you just may find your affiliate sales increasing dramatically.
The first thing you want to do is make absolutely sure the product you promote is a good product and worth the money. Once you make that first sale to a customer and they like the product and respect your opinion, it will be much easier to make additional sales later. That's where the real profits are.
By the same token, if you recommend a product and the product has numerous bugs in it or is poorly written or is simply junk, not only will the refunds be high, that customer will never listen to anything you have to say in the future and just may let others know of their dissatisfaction. It is one of the quickest ways you can destroy your business.
A good rule of thumb is to always own an affiliate product you want to promote and be certain it offers great value to your customer. After all, if you don't own it, how can you convince them they should?
Many top affiliate marketers rewrite the sales page they receive from the products creator. While these ebook writers and product developers are great at what they do, they may know very little about copyrighting and actually selling the product.
If you own the product, you know some of the features that will grab your potential audience and make them want to own it. Your copy will be the copy that sells, putting you at a distinct advantage over other affiliate marketers promoting the same product.
Although there are many internet marketers saying you can make a lot of money as an affiliate without a website, not having your own website won't allow you the opportunity to put together your own copy and may not project the right image to your potential customer.
A huge step the top affiliate marketers take is to capture their potential customers email address. This might be one of the best tips you can follow. You now have their address and you know their interest. Follow up with newsletters or autoresponders and keep your name in front of them. If they did not make an immediate purchase, you have a much better chance of selling them something later.
You can recommend other affiliate products to them that are in line with the original product they were interested in. Your newsletter should contain good, solid information that will benefit your reader and not simply be a sales letter. This is how you gain their confidence. As mentioned earlier, you are now an expert in their view.
Affiliate marketing can be very lucrative but you need to be willing to put forth the effort to build your business.
For the best source of information, I highly recommend the Super Affiliate Handbook.
Posted by billenross at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)
January 03, 2007
Building A Website
Once upon a time, building a website was very expensive. Now, though, you can have a site up and running for the price of a used book, if you're frugal and careful. Getting the cheapest website you can is a great first step on the ladder, to get started on the web and see if it's for you.
Five-Dollar Domains.
If you're willing to take the less popular domains like .info, or some of the ones for specific countries, then you should easily be able to get your hands on a domain for less than $5. Some countries, such as .tk (the small island of Tokelau), even offer their domains for nothing!
Free Software.
Nowadays, it's easily possible to build a website using nothing but software you can get for free – most of the best scripting languages are free, and each one has had a lot of free software built for it by hobbyists. Check out sourceforge.net, which is a big repository of free software.
You might think that free software would be less functional than paid-for software, but you'd be wrong. Plenty of free software is simply implementations of standard software, and it works perfectly well – if you want a forum, for example, there's no clear advantage in paying massive license fees to vBulletin (the biggest seller of forum software) instead of just installing the free phpBB. The free software gives you more flexibility, and yet comes at no cost.
Free software has become an ideological movement, for people who want to be able to modify their own software, and much of the free software out there is quickly becoming widely-used and standard. Using free software doesn't make you look cheap, because users are used to seeing it everywhere – even better, the chances are that they already know how to use it.
Templates.
Depending on what kind of website you're running, you could use the design templates that come with your free software – they're usually perfectly adequate. If you don't want to do that, then a quick look around at a site like templatemonster.com is sure to turn up something suitable for your website that only costs a few dollars.
Pay as You Go Hosting.
Instead of asking you to pay monthly for hosting, more and more hosts are starting to offer 'pay as you go' hosting, which means that you only pay for what you use. This saves you a lot of money, because websites that are starting out rarely use all the features and bandwidth they're paying their host to provide.
At nearlyfreespeech.net, for example, you add money to an account and then pay one dollar for each gigabyte of bandwidth you use. Most of these hosts allow you to start an account with very little money – the minimum is usually $5. If you keep your site light on graphics, that first $5 can last you a very long time.
Guerrilla Marketing.
Finally, one of the biggest costs associated with any website is marketing it – whether you're planning to pay for banner ads or ads in search engines, marketing is a big cost. You can save money, though, by resorting to more 'guerrilla' techniques, such as becoming involved in online communities than you think might be interested in your website. The biggest free marketing technique out there is SEO (search engine optimisation), which is when you build your website in a way that makes it more attractive to search engines, getting you targeted visitors for free.
Taking it Further.
Once you've built your budget website, do you need to upgrade it later on when you start to get lots of visitors? Often, the answer is no. You might wish to buy a more prestigious .com domain name, and you might want to pay a professional designer to improve your design, but in most cases the path from a budget website to a big one isn't all that costly either. You might think you're building a website 'on the cheap' but, really, that's the most sensible way to do it now – while you can go and spend thousands of dollars on software and hosting, you're unlikely to see any real benefits at all.
Don't miss the new Website Builder!
Posted by billenross at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)
January 02, 2007
Bob Parsons' 16 Rules to Live By
Bob Parsons credits 16 rules for propelling him from humble youth to his role today as CEO and Founder of GoDaddy.com. Now he's making those same rules available to you for display in your home or office. Available in three sizes, Bob's "16 Rules" were the source for many of his successes and can provide inspiration for a variety of circumstances in your life - today, tomorrow and for years to come.
Good stuff, read on...
1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe that not much happens of any significance when we're in our comfort zone. I hear people say, "But I'm concerned about security." My response to that is simple: "Security is for cadavers."
2. Never give up. Almost nothing works the first time it's attempted. Just because what you're doing does not seem to be working doesn't mean it won't work. It just means that it might not work the way you're doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn't have an opportunity.
3. When you're ready to quit, you're closer than you think. There's an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: "The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed."
4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be. Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of "undefined consequences." My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, "Well, Robert, if it doesn't work, they can't eat you."
5. Focus on what you want to have happen. Remember that old saying, "As you think, so shall you be."
6. Take things a day at a time. No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don't look too far into the future and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.
7. Always be moving forward. Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.
8. Be quick to decide. Remember what General George S. Patton said: "A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow."
9. Measure everything of significance. I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched improves.
10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate. If you want to uncover problems you don't know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven't examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.
11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you're doing. When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.
12. Never let anybody push you around. In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you're doing as anyone else, provided that what you're doing is legal.
13. Never expect life to be fair. Life isn't fair. You make your own breaks. You'll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).
14. Solve your own problems. You'll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you'll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the cofounder of Sony, said it best: "You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others." There's also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: "A wise man keeps his own counsel."
15. Don't take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.
16. There's always a reason to smile. Find it. After all, you're really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: "We're not here for a long time; we're here for a good time."
The above rules are republished with the permission of Bob Parsons (www.BobParsons.com) and are copyright ? 2004-2007 by Bob Parsons. All rights reserved.
Posted by billenross at 07:42 PM | Comments (0)
