"The Art of Networking Online"

Yes, that's right I said "art." Learning to network online is an art form in itself. If you learn the ropes and do it correctly, you'll get the word out on your Net business and "win friends and influence people" all at the same time.   

Don't get me wrong -- it's not easy, and it will involve donating some of your time and energy to help others. You'll be contributing your knowledge and experience, which in the long run will make you "shine" and come out looking like an expert in your field.

There are three main tools you'll need to incorporate into your daily life in order to become an "online networking warrior." Here they are:

E-Mail: E-mail is an important part of your life as an online entrepreneur. You should be answering all of your email within 24 to 48 hours to show you're actually reading it and taking care of business. Nothing will turn people off faster then your not responding to their emails in a timely fashion. Stay on  top of it. No matter what the requests are take the time to answer each and everyone even if it's just to say "thank you."

Next, you should be subscribed to as many ezines/blogs as possible that
cater to your field of expertise. By doing so you'll be keeping "your ear to the ground," and will always be aware of any new trends or competitors in your field. I subscribe to hundreds. Do they take time to read? Yes. Is it time well spent? Absolutely. Many times I hear about new products/services before anyone else in my field, which gives me a competitive edge.

Another way of utilizing email is to reach out and touch someone. No, I'm not talking about sending Spam here. Maybe you've just read a great article online, why not drop the author a note telling him or her how much you enjoyed it. It's always nice to receive a friendly email with a sincere compliment. Who knows, that one email could turn that person into an alliance down the road who may be willing to do you a favor. He may even visit your website through your email signature and eventually become a client. Never miss an opportunity to "make friends" online and increase your networking circle.

Another tactic I often use comes into play when I see an article or a mention of a website where I know the site owner. I'll send him the link so he can take a look with a short note stating "Hey, did you know you're mentioned here?" You'd be surprised at the number of people who didn't know their article was being run or that their website was being discussed and they really will appreciate the "heads up" from you. Again, never miss an opportunity to do something nice and get your name out there.

Message Boards/ Blogs: If you've been working the Web for any length of time you know what a message board (aka forum) is, and where the best ones can be found. Commenting on blog posts is another great tactic you should be incorporting. Again, make it a habit to post to a few every day with a good sig line. You'd be amazed at the number of powerful people you can meet through a boards and blogs. Make sure you share information, resources, and answer others' questions when you can.

Before long you'll be known as a helpful reliable resource who knows what they're talking about. If you do a search you'll find thousands of boards on which to post.

You'll find a nice list here
http://www.entrepreneur-web.com/index_1.shtml

As you can see networking online means getting involved and getting your name out there every chance you get. Don't be afraid to participate. By utilizing these three networking tools it won't be long before others turn to you for advice and guidance, and who knows, you too may wind up becoming one of the "Internet Elite."

Related articles by Zemanta

• Getting to Know the Top Bloggers in Your Niche (best-tutorial.net)
• Using Articles To Boost Traffic To Your Website (ronmedlin.com)

"Is a Sales Page Duplicate Content?"

Matt Cutts answers the question "Is a Sales Page Duplicate Conent?" You may be surprised at what he says.

"Google's Local Business Center: A Major Update & A New Name - ‘Places’"

If you have a brick and mortar store, and rely on walk-in traffic for your survival, you may be wondering what the Internet can do for your business. Believe it or not, a lot - and you don't even need a website.

In the "old days", the bulk of businesses relied on the Yellow Pages to get the phone ringing. The majority of marketing dollars were spent getting listed in this ten pound paperweight. With the popularity of the Net, less people let "their fingers do the walking” when they need something, and more are letting their mouse do the talking.

Online search has gone mainstream when it comes to searching for local businesses. Google states that 73% of searches are done for local content. Another study by BIA/Kelsey and Constat report that 97% of consumers use online resources when doing research for products/services in their local area. See http://www.kelseygroup.com/press/pr100310.asp

Google has always understood the power of local search, and years ago launched its Local Business Center where any business can get a listing for free. Recently, they've done a major overhaul and have re-launched with a new name of "Google Places", showcasing a host of new features. http://google.com/places . The name change was done to tie in with Google's Place Pages which were launched over a year ago and include over 50 million places worldwide. http://tinyurl.com/yc56vx9

If you want customers to be able to find you, and haven't listed your offline store here yet, you need to get with the program. You are missing out on the opportunity to reach millions of Google users, including Google Map users, Google's 800 Voice Directory Search and even Google Earth. And all of this exposure won't cost you a dime. It's totally free.

Now that I have your attention, let's go over the steps for inclusion. As with all things Google, you'll need  to sign into Google Places with your Google Account.  Up to 100 single locations can be added but, if  you have more than ten to list you'll need to use their "Bulk Upload Tool".

There is a verification process that must be done to prove you're the owner of the business being listed. The choice is yours, it's by phone or mail. Once this is done, your listing goes live.

Now in case you're thinking all that's included in a listing is an address and phone number, hold onto your hat. Here are some of the listing options.

1) Show the geographic area you service.

2) Photos- Upload your own, up to ten images per listing, in JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP. A professional photo shoot can also be requested for your business.

3) Place Page Posts- You can post real time updates here, up to 160 characters, announcing special sales, events, and new products.  One post appears at a time.

4) Custom QR Codes: For use with smart phones to take users to your mobile website.

5) Advertise: They do have a "Tags Program" in select cities for $25.00 a month where your business will be highlighted on Google.com and Google Maps.

6) List your operating hours. Biz description and even reviews.

7) Post Videos: Up to five videos can be posted, but you'll need to publish them to YouTube first, then include the url's on your Place Page.

8) Payment Types Taken

9) Coupons: Create online coupons to give people incentive to visit your site. There's a separate "coupon tab" that appears on your listing page.

10) Privacy: If you work from home and have no storefront you can choose to make your address private in your listing.

At this point you should be realizing how important being listed in Google Places is to your business. If you'd like to see what your listing looks like to a searcher, log into Google Places and click on "see your listing on Google Maps".

Now remember ,search results are based on relevance and "geographic distance",  so you can't buy your way to the top of the list as with pay-per-click advertising. As previously mentioned, the "tags program", if available in your area, can be utilized for having your business how up highlighted for  $25.00 a month.

If you're interested in paying for your links to show up on the Google Maps search results page, if related to the search terms and location searched, that can be done using Google's Adwords program with what's called "Local Targeted Ads". http://google.com/adwords

By the way, Google also includes a "Reporting Dashboard" that will tell you how people find you, and what keywords they used to search. It's powerful stuff that can also be used in your local search engine optimization work.

Do yourself a favour - if you're not listed with “Google Places”, do it today. It's targeted, free traffic.  Now where else can you say that when it comes to marketing on the Internet.  People are looking for your business online and with Google Places you can make it easier for them to find you.  Website or not - it simply doesn't matter - but getting people in the door does, and Google is there to help.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How To Cultivate Local Traffic To Your Site (basekit.com)
• Google Places: Google's Local Business Center Gets an Upgrade (mashable.com)

"All You Need to Know About YouTube's Promoted Videos"

By Merle http://merlesworld.com/

Way back in 2006, Google purchased YouTube.com for an alleged reported figure of 1.65 billion dollars. And, like with everything Google does, they've added their own special "Google Touches" over the last several years, turning it into one of the most popular video destination websites online today.  
Need proof? According to Comscore.com's December 2009 "Videos Viewed Report", YouTube was ranked as the top U.S. video site serving up 13.2 billion of the total 33.2 billion videos that were viewed online in the U.S. for that month alone. That's a lot of people watching mega videos.  For more stats see http://tinyurl.com/y8jbnqh

Furthermore, according to Google, YouTube has twenty hours of new video uploaded every minute and 420 million unique visitors per month. Watching online videos and sharing them with others has become an Internet obsession. People really love watching videos. Remember the old song "Video Killed the Radio Star"? In today's marketplace, it should be called "Video Killed the Television Set".

What if I told you there's a way to harness that huge audience in your online marketing campaign? Now you can with YouTube's new advertising program called "Promoted Videos". YouTube and its other site, Google Adwords, have partnered together in this latest ad serving project. When promoting your videos on YouTube, they'll also be shown across Google's Content Network, aka sites running Google Adsense on them.
The purpose of "Promoted Videos" is to help your videos stand out from the millions of others on the site. At the time of this writing, they're available in the U.S., Australia ,Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.  

The first step is to sign up at http://ads.youtube.com/, or if you're already a user of Google Adwords you can access "Promoted Videos" from your control panel. 
http://www.google.com/ads/youtube/ .

You must have a YouTube and an Adwords account which will be linked together as the video ads are served up by Adwords. To find them in Adwords, log into your account, select the "Ads Tab", then the "Display Ad Builder" and finally select "Video" from the category menu and you'll see "promoted videos". Once your accounts are linked, you can manage your Promoted Videos campaign from the Adwords Console, or YouTube directly.

So where do Promoted Videos appear? By default, they run on YouTube's site and those sites that run Google Adsense ads. On YouTube, the video ads are shown below and to the right of search results pages and on some of YouTube's Watch pages in the "related video section", if related to the content of the page. Watch pages are like the home page of a video that displays all of its public information.

Advertisers can opt in or out of the "Content Network",which gives some control over where the video ads may be shown. The videos are clearly marked as "promoted videos", but it seems Youtube has moved back and forth between labeling them "promoted or sponsored videos".

Like other forms of pay-per-click advertising, it's an auction like setting where advertisers bid on selected keywords, set a maximum cost per click and a daily budget to spend. The Promoted Videos program uses the "Adwords Discounter" to help keep costs down. No matter your maximum cost per click, advertisers only pay one cent more than the other video ads shown on the same page. When selecting keywords make sure to choose the ones you would want to appear when a search is done on a particular subject. YouTube's Insight is helpful when choosing keywords. For more on this, see http://searchenginewatch.com/3640113

The videos created can include a clickable link to any site you choose. On sites running Adsense ads who haven't elected to block YouTube's Promoted Videos from within their competitive ad filter, the videos appear as a thumbnail with three lines of text. Adsense content partners must also be running ad formats in one of these sizes for video ads to appear. They are: 300X230, 336X280, 728X90, 250X250, 200X200. They must also be opted in to show text and image ads on their sites.

The Promoted Videos are different from Adsense video ads. Promoted Videos will always take the viewer to YouTube's  site to be played, where as Adsense video ads are played right on the website it's being viewed on.
When creating videos make sure they're fun and entertaining. Something people really enjoy to watch and will want to pass on to their friends and family. The sharing of popular videos on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, will help it to go viral. Generally speaking, funny always translates well.  The less it looks like a commercial, the better the odds of people liking and sharing it.

If you've been wanting to try your hand at video marketing and reach millions of potential customers, Google's Promoted Videos  may be for you. For further information see:

Promoted Videos Help Center
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/topic.py?topic=16019

Promoted Videos Optimization Guide
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=112946

YouTube Ad Keyword Tool
https://ads.youtube.com/keyword_tool

Show & Tell with YouTube-Showcases the best examples of
marketing on YouTube- http://www.youtube.com/user/YTShowandTell

“10 Easy Ways to Increase Sales”

©Terri Seymour of http://www.SeymourProducts.com

One of the most common questions asked by internet business owners is “How can I increase sales?”  Many articles, ebooks and reports have been written on this subject and trying to absorb that information just tends to make us more confused than ever!  Below are some easy, innovative ideas to increase sales that anybody can implement into their online marketing strategies.

 

1.     Offer “Freebies” on your site for your visitors.  Free reports, ebooks, services, support, ezine, etc. can be great ways to increase your customer’s trust in you, thus bringing you more sales.  Another way to offer something free it to offer a free bonus with every order. 

2.     Add a community message board to your website.  Encourage your visitors to be a part of this community.  This will also help increase trust and sales.  Offer help, advice, support etc. via your community.

3.     Use “bundling” to enable your customers to save money by ordering more!  This marketing tactic has done wonders for many businesses and it can for you as well.  I offer ebook bundles or kits and they have increased my sales immensely. For example:  I sell ebooks for one dollar each but by bundling 35 together for just $15.00, I not only help my customers, I help my business increase sales as well.  Make up a separate sales page for your “bundles” and offer a variety of bundle specials as well.  Remember, helping your customers, helps you as well.

4.     Participate in autoresponder ad swaps.  If you send out autoresponder messages fine other online businesses who do the same and contact them with an offer of an ad swap.  You will place their ad on your messages, if they do the same for you.  This can be a great way to get more exposure for your business.  Find businesses that complement yours. For example:  if you sell jewelry find business owners who sell clothing as this would help your business not compete with it.

5.     Post a tip board on your site.  Change the tips daily or weekly to keep people coming back for more.  Make sure the tips are helpful and contain useful information and/or resources. 

6.     Follow-up with customers and potential customers to make sure their experience was satisfying or to offer your help and assistance when needed.  When a person emails me with questions about selling ebooks, I answer promptly and then in a few days I send a follow-up.  I ask them if they have received my reply and if there is anything else I can do for them.  This simple task takes about two minutes, yet brings in a lot of sales.  It shows the customer you care about providing a good experience for them and are willing to help them if they need it.

7.      Create a survey for your site and encourage your visitors to participate.  Give them something in return such as a free gift or discount on their first order.  Surveys can help you determine if something needs to be changed on your site or in the way you conduct your marketing.  This information could be invaluable to your business!  Do a search for “create free survey forms” and you should find lots of services that will help you do this.

8.     Keep your website fresh and update it regularly.  If you never add anything new people will stop coming.  Add new articles, new sales, new contests, new freebies, new information, etc. 

9.     Always tell your customers thank you and let them know they are appreciated.  Never treat them as if they are a bother or a waste of time.  Even if a potential customer does not buy from you, they might tell someone about their experience and that person could come and order from you.  Unfortunately, these days, many businesses forget that it is the customers that keep them alive!

10.   Write a report or ebook and offer it to people and let them know they can give it to their visitors and subscribers.  Webmasters are always looking for good resources to offer their visitors, why not make it yours.  Think of the possibilities – you give it to 5 people, they each give it to 5 more people and so on and so on.  The free exposure you get is limitless!

There are limitless ways to build your business online and increase sales.  Many are free so don’t be afraid to try new things and contact other business owners for joint ventures, ad swaps, etc.  This article is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, so start today and get more sales for you and your business!

*************

Terri Seymour (also known as “The eBook Lady”) has over ten years online experience and has helped many people start their own business.  Visit her site at http://www.seymourproducts.com  for resources, $1 resell ebooks & software, free tutorials, affiliate programs, free ezine and free business ebook with Master Resell Rights. http://www.seymourproducts.com/free.shtml

Related articles by Zemanta

• Ways To Generate Web Traffic That Is Specific (ronmedlin.com)
• Earning With Affiliate Marketing (ronmedlin.com)
• Home Businesses Online - You Just Need To Find The Right One (marketersdaily.com)

“How to Make $1000 a Month from Scratch Online”

Jay Stockwell is no dummy. When it comes to making money online he walks the talk and isn’t some imposter who isn’t doing it himself. His latest creation is a free ebook “How to Make $1000 a Month from Scratch Online” was created after his friends kept asking him how they could earn some cash online. I guess he got tired of telling them and now just send them a link to his ebook.

It really is meaty and well written and even an old online veteran like me learned a thing a two. He stresses that with focus and 5 to 10 hours per week and the belief that you can do it, are all you need. He reveals a business model that’s simple to follow that takes into account a person’s lack of time, money and expertise. You want to focus on subjects that involve a financial transaction, not one that people just search for information on.  He also stresses the importance of quality content when building your website for search engine optimization and in creating trust.

It all boils down to three components: sell your own product, sell other people’s products (affiliate programs), and contextual advertising on your site. He leads you through a brainstorming process in order to come up with a niche you’ll do well with.

If you’ve been struggeling to earn an online income, do yourself a favor and download it today. It’s free to pass along to others too.

http://www.mcpromotions.com/ebooks/1000.pdf

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to Make Money Creating E-Books (johnchow.com)
• 3 Steps To Make Money Online With Ebooks (tlmarketing.net)

“Blogging Brings Fame and Income: Tips on How to Write Great Blogs”

Thanks to the internet, people from different parts of the world are now able to communicate and interact with each other for free. One way to reach out to people is through blogs. In fact, blogging can bring fame and even can let you earn extra cash if you're good enough.

Basically, blogging was originally created as an online journal or diary where people were able to express their feelings and let other people know about their daily activities.

Today, blogging is now considered to be one of the most popular ways for people to interact with each other and share their point of view about different kinds of things.

From life experiences, to trying a particular product, blogging can definitely make you famous if you know what you’re doing.

First of all, you have to remember that blogging is all about writing. It's like writing a novel where you need to get people hooked into reading it. The great thing about blogging is that once people like what they read, they will often recommend it to their friends and so on. Word of mouth is a powerful traffic generator. Viral marketing at its finest.

You can also try posting in forums and on article publishing websites where at the end of each post, you will put in a link to the website where your blogs can be accessed in what is called your signature line.

Once you get loyal readers, you can start earning some cash. Depending on the subject of your blogs, you can become an affiliate marketer where you will include links of affiliate companies in your blogs.  You do want to make sure you post a disclaimer on your site that clearly states that you may earn cash through some of the postings and links on your website. You can also make money by selling merchandises by linking to items you my be offering online.

In order to become famous, you need to write blogs that people will want to read. If you are going to talk about your life experiences, focus on one
subject. For example, if you love the outdoors, try writing your experiences about it and don’t be afraid to bend reality and fiction. You can always mix both. It is also a good idea to mix in some sarcastic humor that people will surely love reading even if they get a bit offended. If you stir a reaction in people you’re bound to get “hate mail” so if you’re easily wounded it can be tough to put up a hard exterior and move past it.

The key to writing good blogs is by getting people's attention on the first sentence. Once you get their attention, then the rest of the blog you write should be able to keep them reading. Never go from one subject to another. When writing blogs, you need to be consistent and everything you write should be relevant.

Once you get people to read your blogs and if they really like what they read, they will often recommend it to their friends. All you need to do is sit back and watch it spread like wild fire. However, you have to remember that once you get loyal readers, they will keep on demanding more from you. Try to update your blog site in order for you to keep your readers loyal
and excited. Update on a regular basis, two or three times a week is best.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to Kill Your Blog with Bad Marketing (johnchow.com)
• How To Handle Blog Trolls (bloggingot.com)

"There Really is Such a Thing as FREE PLR Content"

Well as you guys no doubt know, to really succeed with our internet marketing careers, we need to have great digital products that convert all of our qualified leads into real, cash-paying customers. For many people, coming up with products will involve them creating them on their own, or it may involve them commissioning other professionals to do the hard work for them.

Chances are though, like most smart internet marketers, you probably want to save a whole lot of time and money. After all, if you were to create your own e-book for instance, expect to spend tens of hours doing the research you need, and then writing the book itself – and that's if you're only semi-decent at writing. If you're a good writer, it will still take you hours and hours and if you're terrible, well, forget it, because your e-book won't sell!

Now, you certainly won't go wrong by hiring a good writer to create a really good e-book, but think about how much a good writer is going to cost you. Wouldn't you rather spend that money on getting visitors to your site so you can make more money?

I'm pretty sure, like me, you're always looking for ways to save time and money on your internet marketing business. I'll easily spend hours each week just reading up on the latest internet marketing happenings and news, in the endless search of improving the way I do business. In my latest search, I came across a really unique website, that's well worth you checking out if you are serious about time and money saving: Click Here.

Now the name is pretty self-explanatory. This site was created by an internet marketer for internet marketers, and it's a one-stop shop for PLR material. E-books, reports, training videos, e-courses – you name it!

The really wonderful thing about this site though is that membership is free. You can sign up as a VIP Member, which won't cost you a cent, and you can download a huge amount of PLR material for free!

You can sell that material yourself as part of your own internet marketing business, and of course, you can change any part of the product to suit your target audience. Don't be put off by the free part either, in terms of the quality of the material that's on offer, because I've downloaded the free PLR stuff myself and it's of a really high quality.
I've paid plenty of writers in my time to create digital products, and I can honestly say that the quality of this material is just as good, if not better – without me having to pay the money I would pay a writer. In addition to the free PLR material you can download as VIP Member, you can also access heaps of great information about how to improve your internet marketing business.

You also have the option of paying a small one-time fee to become a Full Member of the site, and that will entitle you to even more fantastic PLR products to download and sell, plus you can become an affiliate of the PLR Wholesaler website itself, and receive a great commission whenever somebody you refer signs up as a Full Member.

Regardless of whether you're a paying member or not, you will have access to a regular e-newsletter that gets sent out, and if the testimonials are anything to go by, it's definitely one e-newsletter that's worth your while. I can vouch for that too, and I am a real pro when it comes to deleting emails that bore me!

So, please do me a favor and join now now. This is a site that's definitely worth your time regardless of your level of experience in internet marketing, so visit it now at: Click Here  I promise you won't be disappointed. Until next time, may you keep on selling!

"New Affiliate Network, PaySpree Pays Instant Commissions"

If you sell digital products online you are no doubt aware of the two most popular affiliate networks, ClickBank and PayDotCom.

While both of these are great and I highly recommend each of them, today I came across a brand new service that really caught my attention. It's called PaySpree and the reason it caught my attention is that ALL its members get paid for their sales instantly by PayPal.

Even affiliates get paid for their referred sales instantly by PayPal. I expect it to become quite a hit as the lure of 'instant commissions' played a big part in the massive success of products such as 7DollarSecrets and the RapidActionProfits scripts.

I've actually come across products for sale that are just lists of affiliate programs that pay instant paypal commission. And I've seen many threads in the various internet marketing forums asking about where to find instant commission affiliate programs. Now there is an entire site and marketplace dedicated to them.

As soon as you become a member you can start promoting any product in the marketplace, and you can add your own products so affiliates can promote them for you. All commission payments are handled automatically by PaySpree, it sounds like a winner to me.

I've just signed up and had a look around the site and it seems pretty simple and non cluttered, check em out here and let me know what you think.

“Top 10 Traffic Ideas for your Blog”

Blogs are popular ways to create an online presence for personal and business reasons. You can build a blog for free and begin posting content right away. But, what good is that content if no one is reading it. Here are ten ideas to bring in the traffic your blog needs to survive. Remember, if  you build it they won’t come. You need to work daily at bringing in those visitors.

Of all the successful blogs on the Internet, hundreds more have failed. Running a blog is like running a business website. Unless you are willing to put the time in and treat it seriously, you won’t be blogging long. The majority of bog owners give up in the first few months. It’s a lot of work, but if you make the time investment in the beginning it can really pay off in the long run.

That is not to say that the failed bloggers weren’t serious about blogging. Mostly, new bloggers aren’t prepared for the work that goes into creating a successful blog. Just building the blog doesn’t mean that people will read it. You pursue the audience and give them a reason to see what you have to say. And remember throwing in your personality is always a plus, even if you’re a bit controversial. Love you or hate you, getting people to react to you is the first step in getting loyal readers. 

ShoeMoney offers an extensive course on getting traffic.

1.    Fresh Content – no one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same posts. Update your blog content at least twice a week, three times a week is even better. This will be easier if you write several posts ahead of time and upload them at the appropriate times. If you’re using Blogger you can save them as drafts and log in and publish them as needed.You should keep a notebook or folder handy where you put any new ideas you have for future posts.  For help see Bloggers PayCheck.

If you don’t have time to write your own content there’s plenty of PLR (private label rights) that you can purchase and edit at will to use on your blog. A few are:

100 PLR Articles Free
My Fav- Easy PLR
Rapid Product Formula

2.    Article Marketing – the niche you’ve chosen for your blog is one that interests you. If it is interesting you will spend more time doing it. Create content not only for your blog but also to be submitted to article directories. Use the resource box to advertise your blog so people can find you. Articles you’ve written make for great blog content and vice versa blog content can make for great articles. Make sure to get the most mileage out of your writings by using them for dual purposes.

Article Marketer can do the hard work for you.
AutoBlogger makes blogging automated.
This software will make article writing faster and easier.
Submit your articles to 1500 article directories with this software.

3.    Social Networking – these sites are everywhere. Join Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Twitter or a dozen others and make connections. You can join groups of likeminded people who are also bloggers or entrepreneurs. Make sure when you post an update on your blog that you send out the link to your Twitter followers and your friends on our other social networks. If you don’t want to do this one by one there are applications you can download that will update them all at once. One such service is http://ping.fm/

Easily manage your Twitter account and schedule Tweets with SocialOomph

4.    Viral Marketing – this is where you spread the word about your blog. Talk to friends, family and even strangers. Give out business cards that have your blog address on them. Social network marketing really is just viral marketing. You get people interested in your content in the hopes that they’ll pass it on to others. It’s the ultimate referral process.

5.    Use RSS Feeds – RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Readers can subscribe to your feed and get email updates when new content is posted. It is an easy way for them to keep up with your blog without spending all day online. Feedburner makes it easy for visitors to subscribe to your blog http://www.FeedBurner.com . Owned by Google you can access it with your Google user ID and password. The easier you make it for people to keep up with your content the better. Options are a good thing.  Also see RSSTweets.

6.    Submit Blog to Search Engines – doing this allows your blog to be ranked. Google and Yahoo! are two of the most popular search engines you want to crawl your blog pages. It doesn’t guarantee top ranking, though. You’ll have to do a little more work for that. Make sure you have some incoming links first. Google won’t index your site if there are no other websites linking to it first. There are also numerous blog directories you can submit your site to with a list at  http://www.searchenginejournal.com/20-essential-blog-directories-to-submit-your-blog-to/5998/

7.    Joining Forums – as a blogger you are a budding entrepreneur. Right now you are marketing yourself to find traffic and then profit. Become a member of business forums, work at home forums and others to meet new people and share ideas. You can add a link to your blog in the signature line so others can find you. Remember, be helpful, don’t spam people with your marketing message.

8.    Visit other blogs – show your appreciation to those who visit you by also posting comments on their blogs. It is a kindness that shows others you are not just out to advertise your blog alone. Add links to your blog in your comments. Just like re-tweeting with Twitter, the point is to help others with their blogs and they’ll be more inclined to help you. You scratch my back I’ll scratch yours.

9.    SEO Marketing – whatever you write, use relevant keywords. Keyword density between three and ten percent is good for getting higher page rankings in search engines. Base your keywords on a research you do to find the most popular words used in search engines for your niche. Keywords are really good for ranking when placed in the postings title.

10.    Social Bookmarking – submitting posts to social bookmarking sites allows others who are members of those sites to track you back to your blog.  Social Marker makes this easy and automated with http://www.socialmarker.com/  also see Google Social Search Secrets.

Learn more about Twitter with this FREE report.

Using any of these ideas will start the traffic moving in your direction. It takes time but you will build the readership you want. Like anything worth doing you won’t see traffic overnight. It takes a lot of time and good content, but eventually you’ll see the fruits of your labor. I promise.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Top 14 Golden Tips to Help Drive Traffic to your Blog (best-tutorial.net)
• Tips to Blast Your Blog (best-tutorial.net)
• How to Auto Tweet your blog Post using Google Feedburner (shoutmeloud.com)
• How to Start Blogging - Tips for New Bloggers (best-tutorial.net)
• Top 10 Tips For How To Make Money From Writing Your Bolgs (best-tutorial.net)

"What is Fair Use?"

WebProNews spoke with Pat Aufderheide, the Executive Director for the Center of Social Media at American University, and Attorney Michael Donaldson of Donaldson & Callif about fair use. An often misunderstood term by many, but something every online entrepreneur needs clarification on.

How much do you know? Listen in and learn. Leave your comments below.

More WebProNews Videos

Rapid Product Formula

Rapid Product Formula – a course that takes the overwhelming task of creating an info product and turns it into a “no-fail” formula for success. Listen in on the telesiminar with Nicole Dean and Ronnie Nijmeh two online entrepreneurs who know what their doing and whom you can learn a lot from.

Click here to listen

Twitter Launches "Promoted Tweets"

Twitter is an awesome micro-blogging tool that I personally love. Since their launch in 2007 they've been hard pressed to come up with ways to generate income. Let's face it, they're not in this because they want to give something away for free. Like the rest of us the goal is to make Twitter start paying off.

Enter "Promoted Tweets" - Similar to Google Adwords advertisers will bid on keywords and when someone conducts a search on Twitter for those keywords the Tweet (Ad) would be shown. This is the plan for the first stage of the roll out. In the second stage, ads will appear in the twitter "stream" itself. 

Don't worry, the ads will be clearly marked as such, and when hovered over turn a bright yellow color. That way they'll be easy to distinguish from regular Tweets. But that's power for the course as anyone who posts ads on Twitter need to mark them as advertising in order to be in compliance with the FTC.

Twitter's plan to measure how well the ads are performing is something they call "Resonance Score". It includes numerous factors a few of which are, how many clicks it receives, the number who viewed the ad, those who replied or forwarded it. If scores are too low, ads will stop running and advertisers will no longer pay for those ads.

Two initial customers of the service are Starbucks, and Bravo along with a few others. But I'm sure it won't take long for other big companies with deep pockets to jump on the Promoted Ad bandwagon.

No matter if you like it or not, ads are coming to Twitter. Myself, I don't mind. I use Twitter daily to post interesting links and keep up on current trends in the industry so a few ads won't bother me. What do you think?

Related Posts:

Twitter Reveals Ad Platform: Promoted Tweets

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362555,00.asp

Twitter Blog

http://blog.twitter.com/

Twitter Starts 'Promoted Tweets' Ad System

“The Art & Science of Obtaining Inbound Website Links”

Ever wonder how to build incoming links to your website? In the "old days" you would simply find a site related to yours and ask for a link. In today's "what's in it for me?" society, it's not that easy anymore.

Link popularity, as it's often referred to, is important to ranking well with the search engines. Most search engines use it as a factor when determining your page rank. Basically, it's an indicator of how many other sites are linking to yours. If you have a lot of incoming links, the search engines think to themselves that your site must be pretty good and will give you a boost. Here's a handy tool for checking on incoming links to your website...

http://www.helpfulinformation.org/seo-tools/anchortext.pl

So how does an honest website owner get those incoming links? I thought you'd never ask. If you look at it  with a creative mind, there are many ways to get those links without directly asking for them.

Here are a few of my favorites:

1) Articles: There's been a lot of talk about writing short articles and having others post them on their websites lately, and for very good reason. Since articles all contain a short signature line that leads back to your website, it's a great way to get incoming links.

The other sites get content and you get an incoming link. It's a win-win situation for everyone involved. You should also submit your writing to the various online article websites that exist for this purpose. This is where many people go when looking for an article to post on their sites or to run in their ezines.

Article Marketing Automation can help in this department.

Article Writing Assistant can help with creation.

2) Blogs: Blogs are big and everyone and their brother has one. Many blogs will allow you to post comments in response to the postings. Make sure to include your url with your name. Of course, you should never post to any blog or sp-am a blog in order to get an incoming link. This is wrong. Don't do it. If you have something to add, then and only then should you post.

Due to some people abusing blogs for the sole purpose of linking, many have instituted the use of the "no follow" tags. What this does is tell the search engines not to follow posted links. For more information see:

http://www.accordmarketing.com/tid/archive/nofollow.html

Update your blogs automatically.

Of course if you publish your own blog you can include all the links you like. If you have numerous websites that need incoming links, this is an easy way to get them. F-ree Blogger accounts can be set up at http://www.Blogger.com

3) Discussion Boards: Believe it or not, most posts to discussion boards do get indexed by the search engines. Again, use a good signature line in your postings. I'm still surprised to this day when I do a search at Google and find a comment I posted to a board months earlier.

4) Press Releases: Writing and submitting press releases
online is often overlooked when it comes to linking. If you submit your releases to places like http://PRWeb.com they'll be archived for the world to see for a very long time. If you do a search for "f-ree press releases" you'll find plenty of other similar sites that accept press release submissions. For more information on using press releases to help with your search engine optimization, see:

http://tinyurl.com/9umg4
http://www.pandia.com/features/pressrelease.html

5) Ezine Archives: If you publish an ezine, you should be posting your back issues online. Since your ezine should always contain links back to your website, this insures an additional stream of incoming links. You can even post back issues on your Blog.

If you buy ezine ads in newsletters, make sure they post their back issues online so you can benefit from an indefinite link.

6) Natural Linking: Let's face it, the goal of most websites is to provide quality content. Do that and you'll find other sites naturally linking to yours due to the good information that you provide. You won't have to ask for a link, they'll just do it on their own. Here's a great article on this:
http://tinyurl.com/88w2v

No man is an island, and on the Web you don't want to be. You want to be "popular" and by getting your link out there in Cyberland the search engines will look at your website in a more favorable light. And as Martha Stewart likes to say, "It's a Good Thing."

----------------------------
By Merle- Want to Know the SECRETS of Article Promotion? Discover everything you need to know in this brand New Ebook, "How to Use Articles to Drive Website Traffic". Get your F-r-e-e Copy now at http://articleannouncer.mcpromotions.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• How Should Be Link Building Done For New Websites? (ronmedlin.com)
• Vital elements for high rankings on Google (mt-soft.com.ar)
• SEO 101 - Part 16: Everything You Need to Know About Building Links (searchengineguide.com)
• 5 Working Link Building Tips For You (shoutmeloud.com)

“Download a Year’s Worth of Posts From this Blog”

OK gang, I’ve got a little belated Easter present for you today, just in case the Easter Bunny wasn’t all that good to you. <grin> I’ve taken a years worth of posts from my Blog “Blah..Blah..Blog..Rantings by Merle” and compiled them into a nice little PDF for you.

Please download it and if you like it, feel free to pass it along to others from your blog, website, or newsletter. Grab it here.

If you’d like to do something like this with your own Blog check out Blog to Book. Let me know if you’ve ever done something like this and what you think by leaving your comments.

" How to Make Money With Your Blog"

In this video WebProNews interviews "blogging legend" Darren Rowse of http://www.problogger.com/. Listen in as he shares some of his blogging secrets and how you too can make money with your blog.

More WebProNews Videos

“Getting Ready for a Joint Venture Giveaway”

There are many things you can do to get ready for a Joint Venture Giveaway even before receiving your first invitation.  As a contributor to a joint venture giveaway, you can expect to receive a significant increase in traffic to your website as well as general discussion about you and your product. Put your best foot forward!

Preparing your product and getting your website ready are two very important steps for preparing to participate in joint venture giveaways.

Your Website

The first impression a lead will get about you is from your website. You can take steps now to prepare your site so you "Wow" visitors from the start. An incomplete or poorly put together website will discourage people from signing up for your giveaway and you will have missed an opportunity.

The three elements you will want to have in place are:

1) Landing Page
2) Autoresponder/Email Marketing Program
3) Download Page

Landing Page. A landing page is the website page where JV giveaway participants will read about you and your product, then enter the information that you request. It's important to provide just enough information to hook the reader but not so much to overwhelm. Your ultimate goal is to get their name and email address so you can communicate with them in the future and hopefully turn them into a customer.

Autoresponder. An autoresponder is an email delivery service that can collect the name and email address of your visitor and automatically send them an email from you. You will use your autoresponder service to create your opt-in box as well as deliver email to your lead.  Good autoresponder services, such as Aweber, will take you through the process step-by-step. They can help you to set up your opt-in form and integrate it into your landing page. Autoresponders also make it easy to follow up with your list, after the event is over, through a series of informative emails.

Download Page. This is the page that participants will be directed to after they submit their information. This will also be the page where they download their free gift.  These are just like any other page on your website.

Some people offer one-time deals at this point. On this page, you may include another button to purchase the one-time offer or continue on to the download page. One-time offers are a way for contributors to earn money from the promotion.

With all of your basics and bells and whistles in place, you are ready for the JV giveaway event to start. There are software products out there to help you accomplish all of these things so you can be ready to shine at the giveaway event.

Your Product

What do you have to use as a giveaway? The time to prepare your giveaway is before you receive an invitation to contribute. If nothing comes to mind, search private label rights stores for ideas and products. You can use brandable products that you have purchased and employ resell rights. If you create the product yourself, it will be more reflective of your own business. For Internet businesses that manage membership sites, offering free memberships is a draw to get folks to fill out your opt-in page. Or ask someone to interview you and record it. Having a product ready will make the entire joint venture much easier and more enjoyable for you.

Think outside the box. Go for that unique product others will find hard to resist. What have you seen at other JV giveaway events? Is there an idea you think you can improve on and market as your own? Pull out all the stops for the event.

If you have a graphics program, put it to good use. You will need a picture of your product for the event. This way, others can see and read a description of what you are offering them if they sign up as members for the event.

Joint venture giveaways are one of the easiest and most affordable ways to build your list and grow your business.  Start preparing for success today!

“How to Find Joint Venture Giveaways”

You may have heard something about joint venture giveaways. Most people who have participated in one probably talk about the unbelievable benefits. That’s all well and good, but you have to know where you can find them before you can participate.

Joint venture giveaways are events promoted by lots of joint venture partners. The goal is to build their lists as they give away free products and services to members that sign up. These ventures can include big name Internet marketers as well as the novice marketer all in one place. It is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to grow their business.

Finding Joint Venture Partners

Many joint venture giveaways are invitation only events. One way to get invited is to find joint venture partners of your own. The more people you know within your niche, the better your chances are of catching the eye of the right person who can give you access and an invitation to these events.

One place you can find JV partners is on ClickBank. ClickBank is a marketplace where you can find many affiliate programs who are looking for affiliates and joint venture partners. For digital product business owners, you can list your products here. You can also see who else is selling within your niche but in a non-competitive way. You can build your list of potential joint venture partners here.

Networking your Way to a JV Giveaway

If you are interested in participating in a joint venture giveaway, and most of us are, start by networking! Get to know other people in your niche through networking, forums and participating in existing joint venture giveaways.  Make a note of the contributors and introduce yourself. While networking has a different platform for online businesses, it is still a highly effective way to get what you want!

You can also do a search using keywords such as “joint venture giveaways.” Scan the results to find JV partners who are offering open invitations to the event. Sign up and be sure to follow the giveaway rules.  Once your name starts to get out there, you'll find more invitations to contribute to joint venture giveaways in your mailbox!

If your business or industry has a special event, anniversary or other reason to celebrate, consider organizing your own joint venture giveaway. Through your business associations, you can find other partners willing to lend their name and offer a free product for members to download. As an added benefit, you increase your credibility among your joint venture partners.

One thing for certain, if you want to participate or contribute to a joint venture giveaway you have to be visible! Network, form alliances and associations and get to know other individuals and leaders in your niche or industry. The more often you or your business is seen, and considered an authority, the more likely you are to receive those coveted JV giveaway invitations. 

“What are Joint Venture Giveaways?”

Customers are the reason that you stay in business. Getting a lead on your target market is not always an easy process. Building a list takes time and effort. One highly effective way to build your list is to take part in joint venture giveaways.

Sounds Good But What Is It?

The name makes it sound great but what exactly does it mean? A joint venture giveaway is an event where business owners provide free products in order to draw in customers. By partnering with other business owners, you are able to connect with members of their community and share what you have to offer. In turn, your community learns about the other joint venture partners participating.

Everyone loves freebies, potential customers included.  Joint venture giveaways aren't just any freebie. Joint venture giveaways are an opportunity to showcase what you have to offer.  They are an opportunity to share your talents and skills with a whole new audience and therefore what you giveaway is important and should offer real value.

Joint venture giveaways are often created around an event such as a Telesummit or a particular holiday.  Since the events we are discussing are online events, the free giveaways are almost always digital in nature. This allows potential customers to instantly receive your free giveaway.

There are many products that you can give away. EBooks and article packs are very popular and, if you are not a writer, can easily be picked up from a PLR site. Have you made a video? Recorded an interviewed you did with someone? These are all very popular and easy to pull together giveaways.

How you can Participate

Joint ventures can be general or specific.  For instance, some joint ventures are created to inform people about creating traffic for their website or how to get free publicity. Others might be more general such as self improvement or health. Be on the lookout and keep your ears open and you'll hear about many joint venture giveaway opportunities.

There are two ways to be involved in a joint venture giveaway. First you can participate and get involved. Find out what is being offered, sign up and take advantage of the giveaways. You  may find that you will learn about new tools, memberships and products that can help you in your business.

Another way to participate in a joint venture giveaway is to be a contributor. As a contributor you would be one of the many business people offering a free giveaway.  In exchange for your giveaway, members are required to opt-in to your list. This is an excellent opportunity to grow your list and impress potential customers with your terrific giveaway.

From the highly recognized Internet marketer to a newbie, anyone can take part in joint venture giveaways if they are serious about building their list and growing their business.  When you hear about a joint venture giveaway, step forward and ask how you can participate. While some events are closed, many business owners will be honored that you wanted to participate and welcome you to join in, especially if you have good content to offer.  After all the more businesses who participate in the giveaway, the wider the audience that all participants can possibly reach.

"Contextual Ads & Your Website: Options Please"

When it comes to making money with a website, one of the most popular methods is running text and/or image ads on various pages. It's referred to as contextual advertising and “inline ads”. Text or image ads are shown which match the content of the pages. Inline ads appear as highlighted words on the page when the visitor hovers over highlighted text on the page. Ads appear in small boxes. Contextual ads are often displayed to the right or left of website copy, or as blocks within sections of the text. The ads shown are related to the content of each individual page. As visitors click on these links, you earn cash.

Probably the largest and most used of the contextual ad programs is Google's Adsense. Google really is a giant when it comes to the Internet, and their talents go far beyond just being a search engine. Adsense is used by many site owners to bring in a monthly income. If you're interested in running Adsense ads, first you'll need to apply and get approved. Once approved for one site, you can place Adsense on any other site that you own. You can decide to run only text ads or choose from image and text. Various sizes are offered, and you can custom select colors to match the look of your site.

Once the code is generated, you paste it on your HTML pages where you want the ads to appear. Simple & easy. But what happens if you're not approved by Google, or for some reason your Adsense account were to be terminated? What would you do then? There are other ad network options out there and I've gathered some of the best alternatives together here.

Before signing up for any ad program, make sure you read their terms of service and any requirements to make sure it's a good fit for your website. Also, review the payment options so you'll know how and when you can expect to be paid.

Let's review:

1) Text-Link-Ads.com: http://www.text-link-ads.com/

Once your site is approved, you insert the code on your
page and they sell simple text ads that appear on
your site. You have final say over any ads being
published. Payments are made via Paypal or Clickbank.
You receive 50% of the sale price for each link they
serve up. This ad network is acceptable to be run
on the same page as Google Adsense as this is not
considered contextual advertising.

2) Adbrite: http://www.adbrite.com/

A variety of ad formats to choose from. You can run
text ads, banners, inline ads or even full page ads.
You can choose to approve or reject ads before they
appear on your site. Pays monthly with the default
minimum check amount of $100.00. Once your site
is approved, ads will appear within 24 hours of your
pasting the code. Adbrite has no policy against using
other ad networks on your site at the same time.

3) Kontera: http://www.kontera.com/

Contextually relevant ads and ad units which are
linked to keywords on your web page. Ads displayed
will match the content of your site. For your website
to be approved it must be in English, be content rich
with more than 50 words per page. You can run text,
image, billboard, and video ads.

4) Quigo.com: http://www.quigo.com/publishers.html

Quigo offers content-targeted advertising to those with
strong traffic. Publishers with 500,000 or more monthly
page views are encouraged to apply. Once approved,
simply copy and paste the code.

5) Yahoo Publisher Network: http://publisher.yahoo.com/

Works very similar to Google's Adsense program. You design
your own ads, choosing colors and formats, then paste
some code on your page. You'll be paid per click. Advanced
ad targeting and display capabilities can sometimes improve
your results. You can choose to be paid via Paypal once
your earnings are $50.00, or a check when you hit $100.00.

6) Chitika.com: http://chitika.com/

A full service online ad network which serves over two
billion monthly impressions across more than 30,000
websites. Chitika ads are not contextual and can be
run on the same page as Adsense. Twenty-four different
ad sizes are available. Payment is via Paypal once your
account is at $10.00, or a check when you reach $50.00.

7) Miva: http://tinyurl.com/oha28n

Miva offers a wide variety of ad formats to choose from:
content ads, inline ads, search ads. You'll be paid on a
per click basis. Payments are made monthly by check
or Paypal once your balance reaches $25.00. You can
also block competitor ads from appearing on your site.

8) AffiliatesGarage.com: http://www.affiliatesgarage.com/

A different type of ad network which allows you to display
affiliate ads in an "Adsense Style". You can run Clickbank
and Paydotcom text ads on your site or blog and earn up
to 75% commission.

9) Bidvertiser.com: http://www.bidvertiser.com/

Display text ads on your website and let advertisers bid
against each other. Ad formats are skyscrapers, banners,
rectangles, buttons. They even have ads for your RSS
feeds. Payout is monthly via Paypal once your balance
is $10.00. This one pays on a cost per click basis.

10) AmaSense Ads: http://www.amasenseads.com/

This service allows you to create Google Adsense
styled ads for Amazon products. Different ad formats
are available which makes it easy to integrate into
your site. Amasense can also be used side by side
with Google Adsense without any problems.
As ads are clicked on, you earn a percentage
of the product which is paid by Amazon depending
on the type of product that is bought. You must have
an Amazon associate account first before signing up.
To get one go to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

As you can see Adsense is not the only game in town when it comes to running ads on your site. If you have multiple sites, you  may want to use one of the services mentioned above, then test, to see which one is a better earning opportunity. You might be surprised at what you learn.

It's against Google's terms of service to run another contextual ad service on the same page as Adsense, but there are exceptions to the rule. Most of the services above will tell you if you can run their ads alongside Adsense. If your websites are mainly information based, network advertising is an excellent way for you to earn an income with little effort on your part. No matter if you use Adsense or another service, it just makes for good dollars and cents.