Mobile Internet Is On The Rise: Is your business prepared to take advantage of it?

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Many people who own cell phones surf the Internet using them. Smartphones are no doubt the best arena to be surfing the web in, but the truth of the matter is that even the simplest cell phone these days likely has Internet capabilities. With this in mind, remember that more and more people are sitting around, stuck in traffic or waiting for their date to show up, tinkering with the Internet on their phone.

If you’re a business with a marketing mindset, then this information is doubtlessly making you wonder how you can best turn this to your advantage insofar as getting your message across to the consumer is concerned. Having a website in general is one of the best ways to get yourself out there to the masses, and business websites are all but considered necessary these days to any business who wishes to get off the ground and advertise to a wide range of potential clients. But what about clients who are surfing on their cell phones?

The truth of the matter is that no matter how good your site looks on the computer or how well organized it is, it’s likely a little awkward for those who are working with mobile browsers. Regular websites are simply not calibrated to handle mobile browsers, and the result is often squished graphics and confusing layouts.

What can assist in this matter is a website that is specifically calibrated for the use of Internet surfers using mobile phones. These specialty websites are often known as “WAP” websites, and generally project a truncated version of the company’s full website. WAP websites are a great way to get headlines and multimedia downloads to your consumers in a mobile format.

Spending the money to develop a website that is specifically calibrated for a mobile web browser is another great way for a startup to break into the mobile marketing craze. Lots of people surf the Internet on their phones, and being able to reach out to these surfers is a great way to make your mobile marketing dollar stretch farther than with other methods. Also, if you’re worried about certain kinds of mobile marketing being too “intrusive,” having a mobile website is a more latent way to take advantage of mobile marketing while still getting in on the trend.

In order to find people who can help you calibrate your business’ mobile website, you can search online for companies that specialize in “mobile web development.” Those who do work in this department are different than traditional web designers, so be sure that you know who you’re working with and what their capabilities are insofar as mobile web design is concerned before making a commitment.

Simple Steps for Getting Traffic

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Video: Brad discusses the best ways to get free and paid traffic to your website.

Choose Your Words Carefully When Marketing Your Business

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There are a lot of people making money online. There are also a lot of people who want to teach other people how to make money. That means a lot of money making products and lessons. These can definitely be valuable, but as someone who has been bombarded by offers I have come to hate a couple widely used terms.

These terms must work because the big names use them. Money is being made by people who use these terms so who am I to hate them? Well, I think there is room for more transparent and honest online marketing. The first step for me is to not use the following terms:

1. Guru - There is already a growing resentment to this word in the online marketing community. I think it comes down to over saturation. Everyone is now a "guru". Oh they may not have results, and they might be new to the field but hey, they are a Guru so they must be good!

I was contacted by a man who was new to online marketing. he wanted a WordPress website built. One of his specific requests was to have Guru in his header. I did it no problem, but I have to admit that I found it rather hilarious. This guy was new to online marketing, was into like seven MLMs and was making no money. What exactly is he going to teach anyone? Wait a second, who am I to question a Guru! It is in his header after all - must be true.

If someone is claiming to be a Guru do your research - and if you are going to buy something off a "Guru" ask them about their results. There are some truly knowledgeable "Gurus" out there - but be aware that anyone can call themselves a Guru and at the end of the day it means nothing.

2. No Brainer - I hate when someone tells me their service or product is a no brainer. Unless I am handing you $1000 and you instantly hand me back $1500 then I can't envision any deal being a "no brainer". It is almost offensive in a way too. Do I look like some rube who is buying snake oil off the back of a van? Do you really expect me to not think about my forthcoming purchase? Oh it is a no brainer? Give me seven!

I am not the type of person who tosses my money at a product without doing research. I would suggest anyone looking at online marketing programs do the same. I have seen a lot of product launches come and go over the years and I can say without a doubt there has never been a "no brainer" product.

3. Newbie - This word is a bit different than the others on the list. It is different because I know it works and is effective. New people love to see this word and it makes them feel like "Hey I'm new I can do this!". The reason it bothers me is purely saturation. Everyone has their newbie product. Overkill.

I will take it easy on this word because I understand it's power. But in general - UGH. To me it is a warning sign that someone might be trying to take advantage of people new to the industry.

These words are never going to disappear from internet marketing. They worked at one time and probably still do. Even if they aren't nearly as effective as they once were, people will still use them because people like to follow. That may seem harsh but anytime something has worked online it is almost always ran into the ground. If you are like me and can't stand these words you better learn to live with them.

If you are using these words and not making money then maybe you should change it up. Try transparent and honest..I heard that sometimes works.

Simple Steps for Engaging your Blog Audience

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Video: Brad discusses how to keep your audience engaged and commenting on your blog.

You Should Seriously Consider The Design Of Your Site

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Many online businesses, in their haste to get up a website as soon as possible in order to start raking in the customers and the revenue, completely forget about the importance of web design when it comes to selling online.

It helps to think of your website as a physical store. Before you invited the customers in, you’d take care to make sure that everything was organized, the place was easy to navigate for as many people as possible, and that the store was clean. If your store is cluttered, hard to navigate, and dirty, many customers will turn around and walk right out upon seeing the place, without giving a second thought to the products inside.

Web design is important in the same way. When you present your site it needs to be presented in a clean, clear-cut fashion that draws the customer in and invites them to explore the website more, rather than sending them running due to an onslaught of blinking graphics and clashing colors.

The best web designs, thankfully, tend to be the more simplistic ones. Make your links obvious and your text a reasonable size with appropriate colors. Note that “appropriate colors” doesn’t necessarily mean that the website has to be in shades of white â€" in fact, pops of color add interest and make your website memorable â€" but having a yellow background with pink text is going to shock your customers in a way that you’ll likely find less than desirable.

Also fortunately, while most of us might not be web design gurus, there are a number of people who have dedicated their lives to the art of website design and maintenance. If you are a person who struggles to put italics into your HTML documents, there’s no shame in admitting that you’re not the grandfather of code. This is one place where outsourcing can be a great idea. Yes, a look at many website design sites might make you reel with the prices they quote, but there are ways to keep the costs low when it comes to outsourcing web design.

Consider purchasing a ready-made site and then buying customized graphics on top of that as opposed to getting a site made from scratch. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Also consider talking with students from design schools â€" yes, you’ll have to pay them, but they often charge much lower rates, and many students will jump at a chance to build their portfolios.

Also remember that outsourcing your web design can be claimed on your taxes for an online business. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish â€" a good web design will serve you well and pay for itself in no time when it comes to the business of successful business.

Writing Copy For Massive Profits

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What’s just as important as the quality of your product and the organization of the site it’s located on? The copy that sells it, of course!

Consider your copy the same way you’d consider yourself before going on an interview for a job. You’d be clean, you’d look professional, and you might even rehearse a little bit about what you were going to say. Your copy should present itself like it’s going in for an interview as well â€" this is your business speaking for itself, after all!

What are the cornerstones of good copy? Well, let’s start off with the obvious â€" good copy is first and foremost well organized and free of grammatical errors. If your copy is hard to read and misspelled, it looks unprofessional which sets off red flags in the mind of your customers. Don’t let the incorrect usage of semicolons drive away potential revenue. Also, if nothing else, be sure to run everything through spellchecker before putting it up.

But if you want your copy to truly pop, you’ll need to do more than make sure that you cross your Ts and dot your Is. Good copy can accurately describe the product or services that you sell, as well as inform the customer why your product and services are better than what’s offered by the competition. It paints you, the seller, as credible and honest, and it adds a touch of urgency to the transaction, convincing the customer that it’s in his/her best interest to make a purchase as soon as possible. Good copy is convincing, but not overbearing.

There are two obvious ways to go about getting good copy for your online business. The first is writing it yourself. The second is outsourcing. The first is definitely the cheaper way to go, and even if you are utterly incapable of designing a website, it’s likely that you know how to work a word processor and use spellchecker. You could write your own copy very persuasively and well.

But this is another area in which potential online business owners should not scrimp. Be honest with yourself. Will you be able to represent your services and products to the extent they deserve - and need to be represented in order to be profitable â€" with your writing abilities?

Many people opt to outsource their copy just as they outsource their web design. Just as there are people who have dedicated themselves to the art of making web pages, there are those who make a living out of writing the copy that fills these pages. Many of these places are also versed in writing copy that will make your website appear higher in search engine rankings, which is a worthy consideration as well.

Either way, be sure not to forget about spellchecker.

Yes or No to My Own SEO

Let's Talk About Social Networking And What Can you Get From Them

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If you hear the term social networking you might immediately think of sites like Facebook and Twitter. These are some of the biggest social networking sites but there are actually hundreds of social networking, social media and social bookmarking sites on the internet. These big social sites dominate the industry and would have more members than all the other smaller social sites together. Let's take a quick look at some of the bigger players in the social networking game and how they can benefit you.

1. Facebook - Facebook is huge and is probably the biggest social networking website with millions of members worldwide. Facebook offers many different applications and games and many of the games themselves have become incredibly popular. Games like Farmville, Mafia Wars and Social City have people playing on Facebook for hours at a time.

Business people are now also using Facebook to network with potential customers and build a strong customer base. Facebook allows you to connect with customers on a personal level and build a strong and trusting relationship with them. You can also create fan pages and groups on Facebook that can be very useful for any business person marketing a website or business online.

2. Twitter - Twitter is also extremely popular and brings about a whole unique for of networking. With Twitter you micro-blog which is when you post short updates to your Twitter page. If you are using Twitter to promote your business you will want to seek out other Twitter members that are interested in your niche. When you find members that could be potential customers you then 'follow' them. When you begin to follow people many of them will follow you. Whenever you post an update to your Twitter page, your followers will see it.

The more members you have following you the more people you have to market to and you will find more and more people will begin to follow you. Keep on building up the number of people that you follow and your followers will also increase. When you have updated your own website or blog then you can put an update on Twitter with a link to your website or blog. Your followers can then see your website link and visit your website. You can even update your Twitter status via your mobile phone.

Twitter is an amazing tool for promoting an online business and there are thousands of Internet Marketers profiting from Twitter every day.

3. MySpace - Although MySpace isn't as popular as it once was, it is still quite popular and has thousands of members. MySpace has a number of niches within the community where you can meet people that share your interests or people you can market to if your business is in that niche. MySpace is one of the original social networking websites and connects users who share interests in books, TV shows, videos, music and much more. You can make new friends and you can share images and music with those friends.

4. LiveJournal - Livejournal is a social network blogging site where you can create your own blog within their community and other community members can read your blog posts. This is a great way to blog about your business and you will have a large community of members that you can market to. Every user at Livejournal has a blog account and you can leave comments on other member’s blogs. The more active you are in the community the more users will comment on your blog and follow your blog posts.

5. Flickr - Flickr is a little different than most social networking in that it is based around photo sharing. With Flickr you can create an account and upload your favorite photos. Photos can be tagged, shared, edited and commented on and you can connect with other members through your interest in photography.

6. Digg - Digg is another great social networking site that is based around sharing news and media with other members of the community. When a member shares a news story, other members can leave comments or rate the media by 'digging' it. The media with the highest number of diggs is the most popular and will have good exposure. This is a great way to promote your business if you can get a high number of diggs and get a lot of exposure to your article.

These are just some of the top social networking websites and there are many others. If you are looking for a method to market your business then why not try some social networking websites.

What Does a Good Headline Look Like?

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No matter how well crafted the body of your content, a headline that grabs attention will always make a difference. Of course, you want to grab the right kind of attention. That is, you want the reader to be attracted by the headline and thus want to read the body of the text.

You do not want the reader to read the text simply because he or she wants to find out what type maniac would come up with a title like that. Here are three simple tips to keep your headlines interesting, compelling, and attractive to your audience.

Tip # 1 â€" Keep it simple, stupid. Yes, the old KISS principle that Toastmasters have used in public speaking for decades also works with the printed word. When it comes to your headline, don’t get too prolific with the word count. Choose your words carefully and use no more than you need to grab attention. A headline is not meant to tell the whole story, but it should help your prospect know what is coming next. is to come.

Tip # 2 â€" Make it relevant. Headlines that are misleading may grab attention quickly, but you will lose the reader in just a few seconds if the content has nothing to do with the promises made in bold. It is okay to use double entrendes or other plays on words with your headline. Just make sure that by the time your readership has made it through the first paragraph, they get the relationship.

Tip # 3 â€" Make the headline memorable. You want people to recommend the content to other people. If the headline is so bland that it really doesn’t stick with the reader, then you will lose a lot of attention. While you want simplicity and relevance, you do not want boring. Make the headline zippy and something people will want to repeat.

Headlines are often overlooked as being unimportant or just a formulaic construct of writing copy. Neither concept is true. Headlines are essentials and can play a huge role in grabbing attention. When coupled with compelling copy, a great headline can make all the difference between success and failure.

Time Management For Internet Marketers

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If you are anything like me, you are always looking for better ways to manage your time. This year I have started many things in motion that have already improved my productivity immensely. I would like to share some of my tips with you.

Get Dictation Software

It might surprise you to know, that I didn't type a single word of this article. Dictation software also known as speech recognition software has been available for a long time but recently it has become extremely accurate.

I get more work done because I'm able to do everything from writing content to replying e-mails much faster than before. If you are using a PC I suggest using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, if you are on a Mac I suggest MacSpeech which is the application I use.

Set Up A Schedule

Using your favorite calendar software you should set up a weekly calendar that will help you structure your days. This was a new habit for me and it has made a huge difference in how much work I get done.

As a for instance, I have scheduled one hour every other day to reply to e-mail. The rest of the time I do not touch my e-mail. Many times entrepreneurs get stuck in a loop of doing nothing, this includes frantically checking e-mail, statistics, social media destinations etc. None of these activities are productive unless they are structured into your day.

I even scheduled time to be creative, meditate, exercise, eat and learn Spanish.

Make Lists Of Your Goals

I am not talking about simple goals here, I want to think about what you want to do, have, and become. As a for instance one of my goals is to become a published author. That won't do me much good unless I also write "write a book" on my list as well.

Many people tell you that goal lists don't work, those are the people who don't make lists. Having a list on your wall remind you every day to focus on your desired outcome. Without it we can lose direction and forget what we are working towards.

Always Be Mindful Of Your Unpaid Time

I have a friend who is a perfectionist, he is a professional whose time is very valuable. His clients are willing to pay a fortune because of his impeccable work. The problem is that my friend has to do everything himself.

Consider this example: if your time is worth $100 per hour and you can hire a contractor for $50 per hour to do work at your house, common sense dictates that you should pay someone to do that work because your time is more valuable. Many people miss the simple equation because they are too busy saving money. What they don't realize is that their bank account would be larger if they worked the same hour that their contractor did.

Great Advice For Would Be Offline Consultants

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If you’re working with clients in the offline world, you need to cultivate the same values you have while working online. If you’re looking to be a consultant of any kind, there are certain tenants you need to hold dear. We’ve compiled some of the most important for you to take a look at, internalize, and understand. Once you do, get out there and show everybody what you’re made of when it comes to consulting!

Listen to your clients. There is a fine balance between offering valid advice and being pushy. At the end of the day the client is paying you for the advice you can give â€" and also for getting the job done in a way that they deem satisfactory. It may be frustrating when you have a brilliant idea and yet the client seems stubborn, but you’ll have to give in to the one paying your bill at the end of the day. Remember, always offer advice, but understand that the last decision is up to the client. You don’t want to be in the position of going against the client’s preferences and then finding that your suggestion didn’t turn out as planned!

Quickly establish rapport. Out of all the businesses that you could be going into, consulting is very much based on the relationship that you have with the client. A great relationship with one client can lead to them coming back to you the next time that they need a job done, as well as possible job referrals. Make sure to treat each and every client as if they’re extremely important â€" because they are!

Honesty is the best policy. Cliché, yes. True? Very much so. You are a consultant in order to offer the clients the advice they need, when they need it. The desire to please the client may be strong â€" and is very important â€" but don’t sugar coat unpleasant truths. If something is going wrong, the client needs to know as soon as it is convenient. Don’t be afraid to let the client know when something may be a bad idea. Of course, if the client is very particular about having things done a certain way that’s a choice that’s entirely up to them, but never tell a client that everything will be fine if it won’t.

Flexibility is key. One of the reasons why people hire consultants in the first place is due to the degree of flexibility that they can offer. Be prompt with your response times to emails. Give your clients your personal number. Stay on alert for them, and if they have time to do business with you at nine in the evening, it’s probably best for you to take them up on it. This doesn’t mean that you need to let the client dominate your entire life, but being able to respond to queries and work requests within a short period of time is what makes good consultants great.

Don’t overprice your services. It can be very tempting to charge clients an arm and a leg for your help, particularly if you’re a consultant with years and years of experience in the industry. Successful consultants though, are just worth their weight in gold â€" they’re aware of how much they’re worth and charge the client accordingly. This is not to say that you shouldn’t charge what you’re worth, but if you’re charging a rate that’s significantly higher than that of your competition, you’d better have a convincing reason why this is so.

Don’t undercharge for your services. On the flip side of the charge equation, be sure not to undersell yourself, either. First of all, it can be difficult to make a living at consulting if you’re not charging the proper prices. Second, no client likes the prices to be raised in the future, and no client is ever going to tell you that you don’t charge enough!

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The true nature of consulting work is that it’s a little bit unsteady â€" some weeks it might seem like you’ve got clients falling out of your ears, while others nobody ever seems to be calling. To this end, it’s important to spread out your business among many clients, and not just to rely on the services of one major company. After all, as a consultant you’re not a permanent member of the company, and it’s entirely possible that one week they’ll find somebody that they think can do the job better or they decide that they just don’t need a consultant anymore. Spreading out your work options means that you’ve got backup incase somebody bails!

Take as much work as you can, but never compromise quality. If you’re really reelin’ ‘em in, that’s great news. However, even if you have a thousand people knocking at your door, you’ll need to have the discipline to tell some of them no. Never take on more work than you can handle. Being a consultant means that your reputation is extremely important â€" and anything that goes toward tarnishing that reputation is anathema. If you have a thousand potential clients but can only take on two, commit to your 2 clients and help the other prospects find a solution by recommending other consultants (great networking opportunity for you) or at least having a checklist that they can use to find a good consultant. This might bring you their business in the future.

Current clients are more important than gold. This is true for obvious reasons â€" namely, your current clients are the ones providing you with revenue. Whatever you need to do to keep these clients happy and on your side is priority number one. Most literature out on the Internet is dedicated toward helping consultants find new clients, but there’s very little stressing the importance of the clients that you may already have. Keep them coming back for more â€" and keep them wanting to advertise your services out to others, as well!

Never stop looking for new clients. It’s important to keep your current clients happy and pleased with your work, but you also need to constantly monitor the market for new leads. At least one third of the time you spend at work during the week should be dedicated toward canvassing the wires for potential new clients. Remember that most leads don’t pan out, so even if you’ve got a lot on your plate, you should still be looking for more work. Who knows, you might end up landing your next major project or an opportunity that will lead to your magnum opus project as a consultant tomorrow on CraigsList! Be sure to take the time to look.

Credibility is the most important thing. Clients will first contact you because of your skills that you bring to the table. If they need an consultant to help them with their online marketing, they may turn to you because you have a distinguished record of clients assisted, or maybe your own online business is extremely successful. Whatever the case, once they contact you due to your skills, they’ll stay around because of your credibility. Do you keep your promises? Do you get projects in on time? Are your opinions honest, even when they aren’t the ones that the client would like to hear? If you market goods and services to your clients, are they ones that the clients might honestly be interested in or is it shameless promotion? Building a reputation of credibility will take you far as a consultant â€" and if you end up with a record for poor credibility your business will go belly up faster than you can say, “you lied.” Keep your clients and your business â€" be honest.

The Real Deal On Social Media Exposure For Business Owners

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As the owner of an offline business, there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t be taking advantage of the incredible marketing power of social media outlets. It’s no secret that millions and millions of people are on social media sites daily â€" did you know that social media is the second most engaged-in activity on the Internet only behind email checking? And did you know that if Facebook were a country it would be the third most populous in the world?

What this means to any business â€" online or off â€" is that there’s a congregation of potential customers just browsing these sites in their idle hours when they might be bored and have nothing else to do. This is a perfect opportunity to drop a bee in their bonnet about you and your business. Thousands of companies have done this, and thousands have found success.

However, for an offline business attempting to tackle the social media market, you’ll have an easier time of it if you approach it with the proper attitude. While both online and offline businesses will use social media as a way to engage the customer, the online business deals with social media the way that an offline business would have television ads. It’s a straight way to the sale, since a customer visiting an online business’ site is doing the closest thing to physically visiting the business itself.

If you have an offline business, this is not the case, as the customer is ostensibly at a computer and not at your physical place of business while browsing social networking sites. It’s important to consider this difference and use it to take a different approach to advertising your offline business using social media. While an online business is bringing customers to the storefront, you should be looking to create an impression of your business and try to entice them to come to the physical store.

While it is definitely advantageous to consider making an online version of your site for ease of purchasing, you want to have the customer come to your physical store. This means creating awareness of your products, brand, content, and expertise â€" and creating that drive to experience the whole package by going to your store.

While it’s likely that the most profitable way for offline business to generate customers in terms of long-term revenue is still offline, the virtual market is taking off fast, and it’s likely that the current state of affairs will change over the next five years. Now is a good time to get involved with marketing through social media and figuring out how it can best serve your offline business before it takes off to a whole new level.

Blogging On Wordpress To Boost Your Chances Of Success

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I am sure by now the term blog is well known by most people, if you don't know it is essentially a style of website. It is a website platform that allows the quick and easy posting of content (blog posts) on a regular basis. They first gained popularity as a personal diary, but have since became one of the most popular platforms for a website period.

Even your older traditional websites have moved towards at the least adding a blogging aspect to their website.

This will be a controversial statement to some people but my favorite blogging platform is WordPress. I think that it is the most effective and user friendly blogging/website platform out there.

Don't take my word for it - try it out. Set up a free blog on Wordpress.com. A WordPress blog hosted here isn't as dynamic as hosting one yourself, but this is a great way to get used to the back end of WordPress and it is 100% free.

You might be asking yourself why WordPress anyways? Why do I care?

Well, when you are working online you will enjoy the power of WordPress.

You will be able to build professional looking websites on your own through the use of themes.

You will be able to easily add content from any computer that has internet access.

The WordPress editor is similar in style to many word processing programs. Adding content to your site doesn't require a web designer - it is so simple anyone can do it.

You want to add fresh content to your site constantly, so having a platform that makes that easy is super important.

Google loves WordPress and blogs in general. it also loves fresh content. If you want your website to show up higher in Google searches - then built it with something Google loves: WordPress.

If you don't have a website yet, consider building your first with WordPress. If you do have a website - consider adding a blogging aspect. It will make adding content easier on you, and the content will good for web traffic.

Video Marketing Costs - Surprisingly Low

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If you are already advertising on the internet, you know the costs of having banners or pop up ads. Video advertising is not much more money and is twice as effective. If you do not believe this, check it out. You can try this for a month and see if you get more stats on the video ads or the banner ads. Most advertising engines agree that their customers profit get many more views on their video advertising than plain text or even photo advertising.

Cost will depend on how you wish to use the video to market your business. If, for example, you simply want to use a video on your website, it will not cost anything. Just the uploading of the video into the website. If you want a more professional looking video for your website, there are plenty of companies out there that provide this service for much less than text advertising. You can have a slick ad or you can have one that is home made. Sometimes, the home made videos tend to stand out more.

It will cost you slightly more to have your videos featured on other websites where you advertise. More than a banner ad or a line ad. But again, how much is your business worth to you? If you want to see how effective this media is, test it out.

If you have a small business and want to advertise for free, there are plenty of places on the internet where you can post your videos. They will also give you stats on how many people have viewed your video. On some websites, the videos are rated.

There are many professional companies that can help you out with video advertising. They can offer everything from creating the video, uploading onto the proper websites to even using it in e-mails to your clients. Many businesses keep a data base of their clients. If they don’t, they should. From time to time, they have sales or promotions and wish to contact their clients by e-mail. E-mail is very inexpensive. Actually, it is free. You can either hire a professional to e-mail your clients your advertising video or do it yourself to save even more money.

Writers are gaining publicity for themselves by using videos on writing websites. They upload a video of themselves and talk about their work. This is an excellent way to get people to read your work, particularly if you are on a site that pays you for page views. You can do this in an interview format, or simply have someone film you talking about yourself. This is free.

You can also promote yourself or your business on YouTube for free. Or MySpace. Camcorders have come down significantly in price. Many are around $100 or even cheaper. Each year, the price goes down and the quality goes up. They are easy to use and the contents can be uploaded to your computer with ease. Then all you have to do is decide where you want to “advertise.” If you are advertising a small business, your art, or even a political cause, you can put it on a site that offers free video uploading. When you compare the cost of video advertising on the internet to an actual commercial on television, you are talking apples and oranges. Video advertising is much cheaper and even small businesses can afford a professional agency that can take care of this for them.

How many of you get e-mails from businesses that you have previously done business? Most of you do, I would suspect. Even if you clicked on their ad by some mistake, they will contact you via e-mail. As said previously in this chapter, e-mail is free.

Now, imagine that you get an advertisement from a business that has a very funny video attached to it? You will be entertained and not forget about that business. It may even prompt you to take a look at their sale or new promotion.

I saw one of the most effective and clever uses of advertising on the web recently. I was taking a look at shower filters. Instead of just a website, like most of them, that featured shower filters and explained the advantages of having one of these gadgets, this one had a scene from the movie “Psycho.” Yes, the shower scene. The caption was “Remember when the only thing you had to fear about the shower was….” and then it stopped. We saw the familiar scene of Janet Leigh in the shower and “Mother” coming through the door with the knife. It was clever, entertaining and certainly caught my attention. In fact, this was the company that I decided to purchase the shower filter from.

How much did this ad cost them? A little more than a regular video ad. The film “Psycho” is not in the public domain so they had to pay synchronization rights to the producer to use this on their website. But synchronization rights on film, even the internet, are based upon seconds. They did not have to pay for the rights for the entire film, just a brief portion of the shower scene.

If you have a clever imagination, you can film your own video that will attract attention to your project in the way that this shower filter company did. You can purchase synchronization rights from film producers if you want, or you can simply make up your own video. Also, be aware that many films made prior to 1962 lie within the public domain. This means that they are free to use. Clips can be obtained from all over the internet, or can be downloaded from your television or DVD player. You must make sure that the film is in the public domain, however. The way to do this is to check with the United States Copyright Office. There is also much information about which films lie within the public domain on the internet.

No, it is not expensive to advertise using video on the internet, particularly if you are advertising on your own website or e-mailing your customers video advertisements. Just make sure that the advertisements are not too long or it may bore the customer, no matter how entertaining it may be. You do not want to go more than 30 seconds.

If you decide to use an internet advertising agency, they can keep track of the amount of customers who view your video and make sure that they are placed in the proper venues.

The cost is not that much more than banner ads and may be well worth it. Banner ads are sometimes clicked on by accident, giving false stats. A video ad, however, can be managed where the person has to click on to the “play” button to view it. Once they begin viewing, chances are that they will continue to do so. Either way, at least you will have an honest count of viewers when it comes time to pay Google or whoever you are using for your internet advertising. In a way, the difference in the quality of the views more than makes up for the price difference in advertising.

How To Get Started With Keyword Research

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The first thing you need to do is preliminary keyword research. This involves using keyword tools to find a large number of keywords that you would potentially want to target for your niche.

By now, you should have already chosen a niche. Now, you just need to gather a list of keywords you can use to get traffic from various sources such as search engines, or with pay-per-click marketing.

Let’s say you have chosen the acne niche. You’re targeting individuals who have acne and are desperate to get rid of it. You would probably want to start with seed keyword phrases like “acne” and “pimples”.

This would return keywords such as:

Get rid of acne

How to clear up acne

Get rid of a pimple

I use the Google Keyword Tool for this:

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This tool is free, and it returns results directly from Google’s own internal database of searches people have performed. Although no keyword tool is 100% accurate, Google’s own data is likely to be the most accurate you will find.

Google will give you around 100 keywords. You can then dig deeper by taking some of the keywords it returns and using those as seed keywords to find more.

If you are creating a small niche site, you may want to focus on just a handful of keywords. In this case, the 100 keywords you originally find may be enough. If you want to create a large authority site, you will potentially want thousands of keywords. This will require you to continue digging, using some of the keywords you find as additional seeds.

Once you have a list of keywords, you need to analyze them. Not every keyword is going to be one you would want to focus on for SEO purposes. Some won’t have enough traffic to make them worth the time, and others will have too much competition to give you a reasonable chance to rank.

In the next section, you’re going to learn how to analyze your keywords to find out which ones you should concentrate on.

Promoting Offline Companies On The Internet

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One of the most basic decisions for any business to decide when they are getting out there in the world is how or what to specialize in. When you’re an online consultant working with offline clients, the situation is no different. The Internet is a big place, after all. What parts of it do you have personal expertise in, and which would you like to promote to your potential clients?

There are two major approaches to decide between to this end: working as a generalist or a specialist. There are pros and cons in deciding between the two, and both options need to be looked at seriously when you’re considering working with offline clients.

Approaching your clients as a generalist has several advantages. Namely, being able to talk about a wide variety of subjects when it comes to putting a business online is likely to pique the interest of potential customers more than just speaking on one subject. Also, offline customers may have very specific preferences when it comes to online marketing â€" they may be all about Facebook but have reservations concerning Twitter â€" and being able to address the concerns and wants of different clients can be a great boon in making you successful in this field. You may encounter problems if potential clients outright ask you for a specialty, though.

Insofar as specialists are concerned, the major advantage that they have is the appearance of expertise. If you can bring a portfolio of projects all specializing in the same area, it creates a sense of security in your clients â€" if you work with the same facet of online marketing all the time, you must really know what you’re talking about. Being able to speak in depth on certain topics can get your clients to open up to you more and your obvious well of knowledge certain subjects will encourage them to speak with you further. However, if you’re over specialized and can’t present a breadth of knowledge, certain clients might be turned off.

Many people find success in combining the two approaches â€" that is, a general knowledge of all subjects and then a specialty or two to try and reel clients in that way. Whatever makeup works well for you and your company, be sure that you understand if you’re a generalist or a specialist or some kind of combination before going in and speaking with clients. When you have mastery of what you are trying to be, your clients will pick up on your certitude. This will make getting business easier â€" and if you know what you’re able to offer, getting the deed done will be swifter than you ever thought possible!

Social Networking Blog Benefits

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There are many different social networking websites on the internet and each of them have different features that they offer. With these sites you can meet new people and make new friends as well connect with potential customers for your business. One very effective method of marketing your business with social networking is with a social networking blog.

There are two ways to market your business with social networking blogs.

1. Join a general social network site that allows you to have a blog as part of your personal profile.

2. Join an actual blogging based social networking site. These websites are created specifically for people to blog and meet other people through their writing.

When you write on a blog it can be very personal and also offer some great information so this is a very effective way to promote your business on a social networking site. With social network blogs you are allowing people to get to know you on a more personal level which builds a good relationship with your potential customers.

There are so many different social networking blogs around the internet and more are being created all the time. Some of the popular blogging sites are Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr, Weebly, LiveJournal and Soulcast. Even larger social networking sites like MySpace have the option of blogging within your account, which allows you to use their website a big part of a business marketing plan. With these social websites you can reach out to existing and new customers within the networking community.

With social networking blogs you can create personal blogs or business blogs or a mixture of both. If you are creating a blog for your business it is recommended to have a personal approach so you can develop a connection with other members. When you regularly write on your blog you will find that other members will view your blog and your profile and get a good idea about who you are and what you bring to the community. Members will know what you are about, what your business is about and what you are trying to achieve and they can respond accordingly.

Social networking blogs allow you to reach out to new friends, business partners, customers or even to build personal relationships. If you are honest with your blog and open about what you do and what you have to offer then you will attract people that are interested in your business and your niche.

When you create a social networking blog you should fill in your details in your profile so that if anyone wants to get a good idea of who you are and the interests you like, they can do so by viewing your profile. Your profile doesn't change at any time unless you update it so if you change any details be sure to update them in your profile.

To get the most out of social networking on the internet you really should have a social networking blog to promote your business.

Facebook Friends Essentials

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Video: Facebook Friends

Web Page Keywords: Your Site Deserve Transformation

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Finding the right web page keywords so your website will show up on the first page of Google, and other search engines, is the main goal for internet marketers. The good news is that it really is not that hard to do, with a little patience and a little practice you can optimize your web pages and benefit from free traffic too.

It is really quite simple, if you do it the right way and you get that coveted first page ranking for your website, you will get a lot of traffic, quality targeted traffic, for free.

These are called organic searches. Someone will go to their web browser and type in a search term. Let's say someone is looking for golf balls. If they search for that term and if you've optimized your web pages with those keywords your website can show up very high in the search results.

This is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and it is a great way to get a ton of very targeted traffic which is completely free.

By ranking so high it also gives your site a lot more credibility. The average internet web surfer does not really know that much about how it all works. For that reason, many people assume that the websites listed on the top of the results pages are the best.

And in a way they are, they are the best at optimizing their web pages so they can cash in on all that organic traffic.

So, how do you benefit from using these keywords to land on the first page of the search engines? Well, the first thing you have to do is compile a list of keywords. If you really want to benefit from a top ranking you need to target the keywords you use very carefully.

It's easy to think that you should grab all the most searched for keywords in your niche, but that very rarely works because those keywords are just too competitive.

A much better, and more efficient, strategy is to find keywords that are made up of 3 - 4 words. These long tailed keywords won't get the huge hundreds of thousands of searches, but they will get plenty of searches a month and they won't be so competitive that you can't rank for them anyway.

If you choose a dozen, or more, of these long tailed keywords and each one gets say around 1,500 searches a month, you stand a very good chance of ranking for several of them, not just one.

That will provide you with plenty of traffic and since the traffic you are getting is from people who are searching for the exact keyword (and item) that you have to sell, you will get a lot of sales.

It's just not that hard to optimize your web pages for search engines. The better you get at adding the best

web page keywords, the more organic search results you will get. That is free traffic and you will make more sales and have a much higher rate of return on your investment of time. Other than time, it's totally free.

Keywords And How They Matter To Off Page SEO

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Your keywords are also important with regards to off-page SEO. Many people think they can’t control factors that aren’t on their own websites, but this isn’t true.

There are two important things you can do to ensure your off-page SEO is as effective as possible:

Make sure to seek backlinks from relevant sites.

Make sure to control your anchor text.

Relevancy

A relevant backlink is one that comes from a page that discusses something that is on-topic for your niche. If you’re in the golf niche, you would want to seek backlinks from pages about golf. While almost any backlink is valuable, those that come from relevant pages are much more so.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the text that is used to link from one web page to another. If you were going to create a link to Google, your anchor text would probably be “Google”.

The code would look like this:

Google

If your page is targeting the keyword “buy golf clubs” that would probably be the keyword you would want to use for most of the anchor text linking to that page.

Notice I said “most” of the anchor text linking to that page. You definitely do not want to use the exact same text as your anchor text 100% of the time. This would look unnatural and potentially get your site penalized by Google. Instead, use your main keyword phrase about 50-75% of the time, and use another two similar phrases (such as “purchase golf clubs”) the rest of the time. This will look much more natural.

Creating Better Content Could Be All The Spark Your Blog Needs

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If you are an active blogger, you are probably doing everything you can to drive traffic. Those of you new to the game are probably building backlinks, blog commenting, on twitter, building facebook fan pages, social bookmarking etc.. This is all great and is something I take part in myself. Ever so often though I take a step back and look at what I am really accomplishing. All of these things take time, could your time be spent better elsewhere? I think so, I think it is time that people rededicate themselves to content creation.

It is easy to get caught up in something like Twitter. It is almost like a video game. Your quest is to engage people and get them to follow you. The only problem is I have seen people use it so voraciously that they forget they need content to direct their followers to. What good are five thousand followers if you have nothing to offer them? Next time you find yourself spending an hour on twitter, think about how much more effective a new blog post might be. You don't have to keep up with every tweet, just log in when you can and join the flow. Make a deal with yourself; don't log into Twitter until you have a new blog post up, then when you jump into the conversation you will have something to share.

Social Bookmarking is another potential time sink. I know people that will submit to every bookmarking service you can imagine. Digg, Stumbleupon and Reddit I totally understand. I even get why people use Mixx and other semi-popular services. It is when people start getting into sites like Nujij, BobrDobr, Mr. Wongs and etc... that I start to wonder when diminishing returns sets in. In the time it takes you to do all of that social bookmarking could you be creating more content? Instead of submitting to every single social bookmarking site, maybe it is more helpful to submit to just the big guys. Then you can spend the rest of your time creating content that you can once again submit to them.

I really think people sometimes lose site of the important things. Promoting your blog is without a doubt an integral part of being a blogger. Traffic rules, right? In my opinion, the quickest way to traffic is through more content. More content means promoting your site is easier because you simply have more to promote. Instead of five articles receiving Digg traffic, you can have 50. Every blog post you make has the chance to go viral or rank in the search engines as well.

Take the time to reevaluate the results you are getting with your promotion. If you have hit a plateau then it is time to up your content, not your promotion. Give it a try and see how effective rededicating yourself to content creation can be.

Thinking Ahead For Maximizing Blog Profits

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If you have a blog it is a good idea to strategize a game plan. You need to think ahead about what issues you might face. If you are able to create content instantly, update often and properly market you blog then you have the right blogging strategies in place. Doing this will mean your blog has a chance to stand out from the pack.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Use Ideas Instantly - Whenever you have an idea use it instantly. This doesn't seem like much of a strategy but it has helped me explode my blog traffic. There will be days when you can't think of what to post at all. If you jump when you have an idea then you won't have this worry. Be prepared to at least jot down any ideas that come to you. Carry a notepad, or an audio recorder to get your thoughts down as soon as you think of them. You don't want to make a mental note, because those aren't worth the paper they are printed on. You don't have to post your ideas instantly, but keeping running notes about all your ideas will make content creation a snap.

2. Update Often - Oh great strategy right? Well it is actually. This might not seem like it has to be said but if you are starting to blog make sure you are consistent. There is nothing worse than a blog that is never updated. Those blogs have no real chance of building a fan base. Besides your live visitors, Google likes to see updated content as well. Updating your content might seem obvious but if that is the case why do so many people ignore it? Once you decide on blogging, one of your first strategies better be how to update regularly.

3. Spread The Word - This is a really important strategy that all good bloggers know. You have to actively market your blog online and offline. A lot of people start a blog and then post like a mad person, only to wonder why no one comes to their site. People have to know it exists. You have to combine online and offline marketing. First off, make sure your blog can be found and is optimized for search engines. Then make sure you share it everywhere you can online. This means social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. It also means social bookmarking sites like Digg and Stumbleupon. As for offline, you can add your blog to any of your pre-existing marketing material, in fact I suggest you do. You can also create cheap offline marketing tools. I had business cards made up with only the url of my blog on it. I gave it to people I met when they asked how they could contact me. It cost me $25 bucks and I still get traffic from those cards circulating.

These above strategies have been used and proven to stimulate your blog traffic and overall exposure. If you act on your ideas right away, update often and market your blog offline AND online you will notice your traffic increase. You will also gain valuable backlinks and begin branding yourself as an expert. Who could ask for anything more?

Simple Steps for Customizing WordPress contact forms using Contact Form 7 Plugin

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Video: Customizing Wordpress contact forms using Contact Form 7 plugin.

Quick 11-Step Way To Creating Your First Wordpress Site

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This is a quick, 11-step WordPress set up guide. This article won't teach you how to completely create your site but it is a good reminder of the simple starting steps everyone should take when they begin their WordPress journey.

1. Install WordPress: This is pretty self explanatory. The first step should be to install WordPress on your host. WordPress has a great guide to follow so this shouldn't hold you up. Some webhosts even have something called Fantastico, if your hosts does you are in luck! Fantastico will install WordPress automatically for you.

2. Login to your new site: Again self explanatory. The way I usually access my WordPress site is by adding a /wp-admin after my domain name in my web browsers address bar.

3. Make sure your email addresses are set: This is important because this is where you will get your updates and password if you ever lose it. There are two places to make sure your password is set. The first spot is in Settings->General. The other spot is in your Users menu - you will want to ensure your Admin email is correct.

4. Change your permalinks: I suggest this to all clients. In your Settings menu there is a Permalinks section. Open that menu and then choose your new style of permalinks. For the ultimate in clean URLs I suggest choosing custom structure and inserting the following string: /%postname%/. This will make the title of your posts be the web address.

5. Add your title and tagline: In General Settings once again add the name and tag line of your blog. The name is anything you want - keyword rich is best. The tagline is your site's description.

6. Choose your theme: If you want to use a theme (you do) you can find a wide variety to choose by using your WordPress back office itself. Just navigate to Appearance->Themes and then use the tools they have to search for a theme. Once you find one to your liking download and activate it.

7. Install your plugins: Any plugins that you wish to add, do so now. Plugins are very flexible so you can add more later on if you discover one you need. Install whatever plugins you think you need. I would suggest that you definitely include All-in-One SEO and XML Google Sitemaps. They will both help with your SEO and each has fantastic support if you need to know more. I would also suggest Askimet but it comes installed already.

8. Activate Akismet: I think this should be done as soon as possible. Askimet is a great spam blocking plugin that ensures your site isn't full of spam comments. As soon as you start adding content you will notice the spam beginning. Askimet has a huge database of comment spam so it can usually pick up and block any on your site. If it does make a mistake then you can manually override it for a particular comment and it will actually learn from that. The one caveat to this is you have to get a WordPress API key. To get that API key you have to sign up for a free account on wordpress.com. Not a big deal, but an extra step you might not be aware of.

9. Check your privacy: In your Settings menu there is a Privacy heading. Click it and make sure your blog is visible to everyone. If it isn't, Google will not index any of your content!

10. Add your widgets: Under Appearance there will be a Widgets menu. You can use this to add functionality to your WordPress site using the sidebars. If you chose a widget ready theme (most are) you will have one or two sidebars (or more) on your site. In the widgets menu the sidebar will show up and you can drag and drop "widgets" into it. These widgets can be things like a search bar, an archive, a calendar, a recent posts list or a text/html box that you can put just about anything in. There are even more widgets than that available. There are even downloadable ones if the standard ones don't do everything you need.

11. Create content: Now you can create some content! You can add pictures, galleries of those pictures, an about page etc... You can also start making posts - remember to create categories to keep them organized. Take advantage of the tag feature as that will come in handy when you have hundereds of posts. It helps with searches on your site as well.

That is the bare minimum to get started with WordPress. You will have to learn a lot more but when you do, you will be happy you made the move to WordPress. Happy blogging!

How to Use Facebook for Business

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Video: Facebook for Business

Social Networking Topics Discussed

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Social networking is when people connect with other people on specific social websites. Social networking sites may be for specific interests like art, knitting or music, or they can be general social networking sites where anyone can join. With social networking websites you can connect with friends, family, business acquaintances and even with people you have never met before. You can actually connect with people from anywhere in the world and you can meet new people that share the same interest as you. There are millions of people on the internet that use social networking sites to connect with other people and develop relationships either as friendships or as business relationships.

There are quite a lot of different social networking sites that you can choose from to join and many of them are for specific niches or interests. There are niche specific sites like Library Think and Ravelry which are targeted to connect people that have the same interests. Then there are some small scale general social networking sites like Adult Friend Finder and Orkut and then there are the very large social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Social networking websites are like huge online communities where people from all over the world can connect and communicate with one another on the internet. Social networking is basically as the name states - networking socially with people that you have things in common with. When you join a social networking website you create a profile where you list your personal details including your interests. When other members view your profile they will see what you are interested in and if they share the same interest then they will contact you.

Making new friends and acquaintances is just one of the many benefits of social networking websites. When you can meet people that live on the other side of the world it is amazing to share stories and experiences with these people. You can live in Australia and can communicate with people in the United States or United Kingdom. You can develop friendships with people worldwide and you can also develop business relationships with people worldwide, including Japan, Spain, Italy, Germany and many more countries.

If you have a specific hobby, interest or religion it is easy to meet and communicate with people that share these interests or have similar characteristics as you. You can meet people that are in the same business as you or you can even meet potential customers and develop a large customer base of people that you can sell your products to. When you meet people from all over the world you can learn new languages, new cultures and even new hobbies. There is no limit to what you can do when you join a social networking community.

Whether you want to make new friends or learn about a certain culture or country you can do it with social networking. Whether you want to pursue a new hobby or build business relationships and find new customers you can do it with social networking. If you want to further your own knowledge or just have a bit of fun you can do it with social networking, so why not join a social networking website today and start taking advantage of the many benefits that they offer.

Why Google Loves Wordpress Sites

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I am very passionate about Wordpress. It is an open source web publishing tool that is completely free and flexible. Out of all WordPress' benefits, the fact that Google seems to love it so much might be my favorite.

What is up with Google's love affair with WordPress anyways? Why do WordPress sites seem easier to get to the top of Google with? From my experience I think it comes down to a couple of factors:

1. Power of Posts - Every time you create a post on WordPress you have the chance of getting another web page indexed in Google. The way WordPress works is that it creates a separate page with it's own link (permalink) when you make a post. If you are posting regularly that means you are getting more pages indexed in Google.

When people had old HTML sites they might have a handful of pages, with sub pages they might have a couple dozen. WordPress makes it easy to have hundreds and even thousands of pages indexed in Google. The more pages you have indexed in Google means more authority in Google's algorithm.

A real life example is a business directory my team and I created. At first when we added our businesses they weren't showing up at top of Google for very low competition local terms. We ended up buying a database of local businesses and adding them as posts. After we added the hundreds of posts we noticed that any new company we added would now be on first page of Google for the local search terms..and quite quickly.

2. Dynamic Content - WordPress makes it very simple to add content. This is another big factor for ranking well in Google. Google loves fresh content and WordPress makes that easier than any other web publishing platform. If you are constantly adding new contenet to your WordPress site - Google will notice this.

In Google's eyes fresh content is important for two reasons. First off it means a site isn't stale and possibly outdated. Secondly, fresh content seems more relevant in Google's eyes. This is especially true now that they update their index in almost real time. To Google a fresh new post will be weighted as more relevant because it is closer to what is happening right now.

3. Plugins - WordPress has so many handy plugins that are deisgned for search engine optimization. Plugins like All-In-One SEO will cover most of your on page optimization. This plugin will cover all your meta tags at the very least. There are also other plugins that will make sure your internal linking structure is favorable to google. Google XML Sitemaps is a plugin that will create a sitemap of your site and submit it to Google. If you use Google Webmaster Tools you know that this is important, because Google says so! It is especially important for dynamic sites like the ones that can be built on WordPress.

These three facts ensure that WordPress is and will probaly always be one of Googles favorite web publishing platforms. The google love is only one of the reasons why you should be using WordPRess but IMO there are few factors more important. The best traffic creation techniques you can do is to rank in Google for your keywords - and WordPress makes that task even easier. Why not give it a shot?

Simple Steps for Creating an RSS fee for your Word Press Blog

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Video: How to create an RSS feed on your Wordpress blog so visitors can subscribe.

Excellent Tool To To Create Your Keyword List

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Keywords are one of the most important aspects of your online business. Keywords will determine how many visitors you get, how much you will pay for those visitors (though in many cases it can be totally free) and how qualified those visitors are. To find the best keywords you need to use the best keyword search term suggestion tool.

There are many to choose from, but one of the best is completely free to use. Google has a keyword tool that provides you with several search parameters and it is free to use right online, you don't need to download anything.

Since Google is one of the big 3 search engines it's just common sense that they would know which search terms get searched for the most as well as other factors about how competitive they are.

Using their data and keyword tools can provide you with all the keyword information you need to make money online. There is a process to it though, learn the process first so you know the best way to do it.

When you start out online one very common (and very wrong) practice is to use the keywords that have a lot of monthly searches. By 'a lot' I mean search terms that are getting into the hundreds of thousands of searches a month.

At first glance that seems like a good idea, doesn't it? Surely with hundreds of thousands of visitors to your site, you will be rich and retiring from your day job in no time.

But, not so fast. With those highly searched for keywords you will have so much competition that it's very unlikely that you will be able to compete at all. That means you probably won't get any traffic from those keywords.

A much better strategy is to find keywords that have fewer searches per month so you can rank well for them. Even if you have a list of a dozen or so keywords and each of them averages a few thousand searches a month. You can rank well for many of those terms, not just one.

Think of the traffic you would get if you had say 10 keywords that each got 1,500 searches a month and you were on page one, in the first or second spot for all ten of those keywords. That's a lot of visitors to your website.

If you add some of these keywords to your web pages you can rank high with the search engines. It's called search engine optimization and it is a much better investment than paying for traffic and always having to worry about what your bid prices will be.

There are many excellent tools you can use to pick out your keyword list. This process can get a little boring sometimes but it is crucial to your online success.

With so many search term suggestion tools available and many of them free, you can take some of the time and tedium out of the equation.

What is Niche Market Exactly?

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You are interested in starting a home-based business. You also want to use the Internet for your work-at-home idea. However, you are not sure if you can make money online. To make matters worse, you are confused about what home-based business opportunity to pursue.

If this sounds like you, rest assured that money can be made online with a home-based business. You don’t need to study for years until you can reap rewards. There are sound business concepts that have been taught and proven to be true by some of the most highly successful marketers in the world. What is the top sound principle that will ensure your success? It is choosing the right niche market.

You might be wondering what is a niche.

A niche is simply a group of people with similar interests and needs. They are very passionate about their topic of interest. Think of a small pond packed with starving fish and you have the bait specific to their needs; they will like what you have to offer the best. This, in essence, is a niche.

Why a niche market? Well, unless you are a huge corporation with bottomless pockets, niche marketing is the way to go. You see most of the large corporations blow off niche markets because they are not trying to make an additional $1000 to $15000 per month like many home-based business entrepreneurs and other small business owners. They are seeking to make millions per month, which is good for you because you don’t have to compete with those companies that have massive marketing budgets.

It really is easy to find potential customers in niche markets. Here are some examples:

Motor Home Owners

Carpet Cleaner Business Owners

Restaurant Owners

Winter Camping Enthusiasts

Siamese Cat Owners

Dentists

Landscape Company Owners

You get the picture.

Before you decide which niche market to target for your home- based business, here are four important points to consider:

1. Is the market easily defined and reachable? Do you know where they hangout? What kind of trade journals or publications do they read? Do they have clubs or are members of particular organizations?

2. Is the market small enough that you will not have tons of competitors, but still large enough for you to make a good profit?

3. Does the market have the money to spend?

4. Does the group have an insane passion for their hobby or topic of interest? Do they eat, sleep, and breathe their hobby? Are they constantly seeking more information related to their subject?

A great example of this would be golfers and NASCAR enthusiasts!

Doing research related to these questions will help you pick the perfect niche market for your home-based business.

As you think about starting a home-based business and what market to target, follow the above suggestions and you will be way ahead of many other home-based business opportunity seekers who want to start a work-at-home business.