What are you missing?
Would you believe there is a very simple way to get you ranking higher in search engines such as Google, so long as you're not already following these guidelines. Simply include your keywords or keyword phrases in your title, meta information and, of course, in your content.
Title
There are so many people out there who don't realize that simply including your target keywords in your title can actually make you rank much higher in search engines such as Google. It's been proven that those who have the specific keywords searched for, in their title, will actually come up much higher in the search engine rankings.
You can also include one keyword or more in the domain name; that should help immensely in bringing up your site in search engines. For example, if you search for “dropship directory” in Google, dropshipdirectory.org is the first result to pop up. It also has the title “Dropship Directory”. This goes to show that it really pays off to have your keywords you're trying to rank for in both your title and your domain.
To solidify the point I'm trying to make, check out the page rank of the two sites below dropshipdirectory.org. Some would suspect that these two sites would have a lower page rank since they're ranked lower but you will find that these two sites actually have a higher page rank than dropshipdirectory.org. Yet, do to the proper use of keywords, dropshipdirectory.org still ranks higher in Google.
Meta Information
There is also a lot to be said about meta information and increasing your rankings with Google. Optimize your meta tags, titles, and descriptions, being sure to use your keywords in all three. This should help boost your rankings in Google and other search engines.
Content
As always, please be sure that your content is well optimized. This means that you should be writing about your keywords and including your keywords every one in twenty-five words or so. Doing this will help search engines pick out those particular words or phrases and will help rank your site even higher.
All in all, if you're not following these simple guidelines, you're giving up a lot of potential for ranking higher. I would suggest walking through these three things to get started, then you can read up on more ways to increase your chances of ranking on Google and other search engines. If you would like to know more about Internet marketing, you may read more on the Thrive Learning Institute Blog.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thrive Learning Institute, Making an Impact
Thrive Learning Institute is giving back, in a big way by supporting their local chapter of Golden K Kiwanis, an organization which serves the children of the world.
Employees of Thrive Learning Institute are proud to work for a company that cares so much about serving the community. In an effort to help fund local children's programs, Thrive Learning Institute teamed up with the Orem Owlz, their local team, and Kiwanis Club of Orem.
Thrive Learning Institute donated over $6,000 to benefit local children's programs. To learn more about how Thrive Learning Institute, Kiwanis, and the Orem Owlz work together to bring light into the eyes of local children please visit the Orem Owlz.
Employees of Thrive Learning Institute are proud to work for a company that cares so much about serving the community. In an effort to help fund local children's programs, Thrive Learning Institute teamed up with the Orem Owlz, their local team, and Kiwanis Club of Orem.
Thrive Learning Institute donated over $6,000 to benefit local children's programs. To learn more about how Thrive Learning Institute, Kiwanis, and the Orem Owlz work together to bring light into the eyes of local children please visit the Orem Owlz.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Building Public Relations Through Social Media
There are hundreds of places on the Internet that a company may submit their press releases or other public relations material. These sites have varying structures that they want you to follow; I would suggest going into the site, reading up on the way they would like the content to be submitted and then submitting the content accordingly.
Building a Social Media Image
There are several social media sites where a companies branding and reputation may be formed and solidified. Use these social media sites to your advantage, however, be aware that they can also be to your disadvantage. We will discuss some of the negative implications of web public relations later.
Facebook is a highly used social media site where millions of people go to share information about themselves and reconnect with friends, family, and old associates. Many businesses have now found their way to Facebook and are using it to share the word about their companies and products. I would suggest setting up a Facebook account and setting up a company profile, if you have not done so yet.
Blogger is a great site to set up a blog on. I fell in love with Blogger when I first entered the Internet marketing industry. Humanizing your company is almost always a great public relations move; you want your customers to realize that they are working with real people with real personality, just like them. It's okay to allow your companies “personality” to come out in your blog posts. Write according to the needs of your customers, answer their questions, relate to them on a personal level, and give them content that will help them learn and grow in their areas of interest.
WordPress is another great blog site. In fact, if you go to wordpress.org, you may set up a customized blog and feed it through your own website. I would suggest, for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, having a Blogger Blog and a WordPress Blog. This will enable you to have a blog on your companies web site. It will also provide a way to get some extra links and content on your Blogger Blog. Since the WordPress Blog is directly connected to your company site; I would suggest being strict about using only company-related content. By company related content I mean anything related to the company, what the company sells, and what the company is about.
Twitter is another social media site which has exploded in the past year or two. It is also a site to share information with friends, family and associates and also provides a place for a profile. I would suggest setting up a Twitter account, filling out a profile for your company, and then start Tweeting like crazy. You can tweet about your blogs, your Facebook account, new articles, new improvements in the company, etc.
Marketing Implications
Be aware that, as with everything in business, there are negative implications to these practices along with the positive. The biggest one is that social media is viral. Being viral means that it spreads quickly and, once something is posted online, it's very hard to stop the inevitable process of viral marketing. While that is a positive thing if your content is good and reflects your company in a positive way, it can also be a very negative thing if your company is reflected in a negative way. Be very careful what you post on the Internet about your company and make certain to monitor what your competition or your opposition is saying about your company; the things they say are viral too.
Building a Social Media Image
There are several social media sites where a companies branding and reputation may be formed and solidified. Use these social media sites to your advantage, however, be aware that they can also be to your disadvantage. We will discuss some of the negative implications of web public relations later.
Facebook is a highly used social media site where millions of people go to share information about themselves and reconnect with friends, family, and old associates. Many businesses have now found their way to Facebook and are using it to share the word about their companies and products. I would suggest setting up a Facebook account and setting up a company profile, if you have not done so yet.
Blogger is a great site to set up a blog on. I fell in love with Blogger when I first entered the Internet marketing industry. Humanizing your company is almost always a great public relations move; you want your customers to realize that they are working with real people with real personality, just like them. It's okay to allow your companies “personality” to come out in your blog posts. Write according to the needs of your customers, answer their questions, relate to them on a personal level, and give them content that will help them learn and grow in their areas of interest.
WordPress is another great blog site. In fact, if you go to wordpress.org, you may set up a customized blog and feed it through your own website. I would suggest, for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, having a Blogger Blog and a WordPress Blog. This will enable you to have a blog on your companies web site. It will also provide a way to get some extra links and content on your Blogger Blog. Since the WordPress Blog is directly connected to your company site; I would suggest being strict about using only company-related content. By company related content I mean anything related to the company, what the company sells, and what the company is about.
Twitter is another social media site which has exploded in the past year or two. It is also a site to share information with friends, family and associates and also provides a place for a profile. I would suggest setting up a Twitter account, filling out a profile for your company, and then start Tweeting like crazy. You can tweet about your blogs, your Facebook account, new articles, new improvements in the company, etc.
Marketing Implications
Be aware that, as with everything in business, there are negative implications to these practices along with the positive. The biggest one is that social media is viral. Being viral means that it spreads quickly and, once something is posted online, it's very hard to stop the inevitable process of viral marketing. While that is a positive thing if your content is good and reflects your company in a positive way, it can also be a very negative thing if your company is reflected in a negative way. Be very careful what you post on the Internet about your company and make certain to monitor what your competition or your opposition is saying about your company; the things they say are viral too.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Save Your Reputation, Reputation Management
There are some pretty funny elements of reputation management. Reputation management is much like customer service; you could use some of the same tactics used in good customer relations. You need a good reputation so you deliver good service, right? Well, everyone else wants their customers to be happy too, right? Take some advice, if you find an article effecting the “reputation” of your company and the content is not true, simply ask the site which is hosting the article to take that information off. Hosting sites don't want a bunch of libel lies spun all over the place any more than you do; it's a liability. Some sites will actually take off the post in its entirety.
I would go about it by reading up on the terms of service of the hosting site; find out if they have an anti-defamatory clause in the terms of service. If they do, all you really need to do is send them the post with all the untruths highlighted and ask that those sections be removed on the grounds that they are libel and defamatory to your company or to yourself. So you know, libel is simply the written form of defamation, slander is the spoken form. Under that scenario, assuming the content is truly an untruth, the hosting company should remove it immediately.
Now, this idea won't work for everyone or for every site but it really is worth a try. You may be surprised at how willing social media sites are to take down any content which goes against their terms of service. However, be aware that some hosting sites will post your email on their site, for all to see. Knowing this, please write respectfully and only the facts; doing this will help save the reputation of your company.
Another thing you can do to counteract getting a negative reputation is to follow through with your promises. If the statements that are against your company are true, perhaps it's time to re-think your customer service strategy or even your marketing strategy. Do you have a customer service department? Are your customers' voices being heard? Put yourself in the shoes of your customer; would you be happy, would you be content, or would you be irate with your company too? If even you would be unhappy, perhaps it truly is time to rethink the way you run things.
Also, watch out for those kamikaze customers who are out to get you simply because they have some sort of personal vendetta against you, as a company or as a person. They're so into ruining your reputation that some of them don't even care about their own reputation. These are the irate customers who don't even want to be heard by you, they want to make a name for themselves and, therefore, do not wish to discuss anything in a calm and rational manor.
If you're the customer, call the company you have a problem with and ask to speak to a customer service representative. Simply explain, in a calm and rational manner, what's going on. If you truly are in the right, most companies will hear you and then either make amends for the wrong or come to a compromise with you.
You see, companies and customers need to realize that there is a happy medium between “the customer is always right” and “the company is always right”. Sometimes it's okay to come to a compromise; neither side has to surrender everything, roll over and say uncle. Believe me, there are easier ways of doing things. Please realize that business matters are delicate and that being calm and rational will substantially increases your chance of solving the problem.
I would go about it by reading up on the terms of service of the hosting site; find out if they have an anti-defamatory clause in the terms of service. If they do, all you really need to do is send them the post with all the untruths highlighted and ask that those sections be removed on the grounds that they are libel and defamatory to your company or to yourself. So you know, libel is simply the written form of defamation, slander is the spoken form. Under that scenario, assuming the content is truly an untruth, the hosting company should remove it immediately.
Now, this idea won't work for everyone or for every site but it really is worth a try. You may be surprised at how willing social media sites are to take down any content which goes against their terms of service. However, be aware that some hosting sites will post your email on their site, for all to see. Knowing this, please write respectfully and only the facts; doing this will help save the reputation of your company.
Another thing you can do to counteract getting a negative reputation is to follow through with your promises. If the statements that are against your company are true, perhaps it's time to re-think your customer service strategy or even your marketing strategy. Do you have a customer service department? Are your customers' voices being heard? Put yourself in the shoes of your customer; would you be happy, would you be content, or would you be irate with your company too? If even you would be unhappy, perhaps it truly is time to rethink the way you run things.
Also, watch out for those kamikaze customers who are out to get you simply because they have some sort of personal vendetta against you, as a company or as a person. They're so into ruining your reputation that some of them don't even care about their own reputation. These are the irate customers who don't even want to be heard by you, they want to make a name for themselves and, therefore, do not wish to discuss anything in a calm and rational manor.
If you're the customer, call the company you have a problem with and ask to speak to a customer service representative. Simply explain, in a calm and rational manner, what's going on. If you truly are in the right, most companies will hear you and then either make amends for the wrong or come to a compromise with you.
You see, companies and customers need to realize that there is a happy medium between “the customer is always right” and “the company is always right”. Sometimes it's okay to come to a compromise; neither side has to surrender everything, roll over and say uncle. Believe me, there are easier ways of doing things. Please realize that business matters are delicate and that being calm and rational will substantially increases your chance of solving the problem.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Amazon Affiliate - Domain Name Research
When you're planning on creating a niche website to make money from one of the biggest factors in how quickly you rank well for your chosen keyword is the domain name you choose. Its extremely important that you get your keyword in the domain name and that the domain name be a.com,.org or.net.
There are a lot of questions and arguments out there about what is actually needed in a domain name and from my personal experience I'll just say that the best format for a domain name is "http://www.keyword.com" instead of "http://www.keywordstore.com" or "http://www.mykeyword.com". It ALWAYS best to have your exact keyword as the domain, nothing more and nothing less. I've had great success by sticking to this practice.
There's also a lot of talk about the.info domain names. Well to be honest you could get and you could rank with it however in my experience.info's aren't give as much authority as the other three (.com.org and.net). Also when you get ready to sell your sites for a nice chunk of change having one of the other three will always help your sale.
My favorite way to quickly research my keywords for domain name availability is to use the free software, "Domain Name Analyzer. Please follow the link and check it out. It allows you to put in an unlimited number domain name possibilities and then choose which extensions to search for (an extension is the.com or.org). The software makes this process go much faster and is much much easier than pounding everything out in GoDaddy.
Amazon Affiliates - Competition Research
Competition research is an essential part of doing thorough market research. When it comes to doing competition research for an amazon affiliate site you need to several things. First of all head over to Google and type in your keyword. Just below the search input field you'll see a number of competing pages often times in the millions.What you need to do is put your keyword in quotes so that you only search web pages that are optimizing for that keyword on their site. This will make the number of competing pages drop dramatically. I usually shoot for keywords with less than 100,000 competing pages when I search for my keyword with quotes around it.
Next you want to do a search for how many pages are optimizing for your keyword in the title of their page as well. To do that type this into Google's search field. "allintitle:your keyword". By doing that you'll get a reading of how many web pages have your keyword in their title. I usually try to get keywords that have less than 20,000 competing pages with their keyword in the title.
After you've gotten past those two requirements for your keywords its time to check the top results for your keyword. If they're strong websites you'll want to avoid them and if they're weak you'll know you can rank well for that keyword. I recommend using the SEO for Firefox plugin by SEO Book to do my analysis of competing websites. This will allow you to see how many backlinks these sites have, what their PR is, how old they are and how many different sites are linking to them.
Mainly you want to look at how many backlinks there are to the page thats ranking. If its over 500 then you now have a target for how many backlinks you need to get. 500 can take a little while but its very doable. For me if find that my competing sites have 500 backlinks or less I get very excited and you should too. Thats a keyword you should be able to rank well for in 2-3 months.
Amazon Associates - Product Research
Product research is an incredibly important part of market research. In the context of building a successful Amazon affiliate website there are several things to watch out for when choosing a product to promote.
First of all the product should be expensive enough for you to make a decent commission on. The Amazon affiliate program offers an average of about 6% on sales so I would go for a price range of $100 or more so that you can make at least $6 per sale. However if you feel you can get a ton of sales for lower-priced products then by all means go for it.
Another factor you should take into account is the selection of products for your chosen keyword. For example I recently researched a keyword about hard drives that had a HUGE selection. However other keywords will have much lower selection like DJ Speakers (another niche I recently researched). So make sure you have a wide selection of relevant products you can promote in your niche.
You should also look at the product reviews of the products you'll be promoting. I wouldn't worry too much about the ratings of the products but more about whether or not they have ratings. They can be a great source of content for your site and can help drive sales if used properly. Also when your customers see those reviews they will more warmed up to buy instead of just going into the purchase with no input from other users.
The last thing you should check on for product research is if the products you're going to promote actually sell well online or not. The best place I've found to check that is eBay. All you have to do is login and check the completed listings for your niche. If there are a lot of sales within a small time frame (a day or two) then you know that a lot of people are willing to buy your niches products online. However if you find that those products only sell occasionally or there are a lot of listings that close without selling it may not be the best niche to build a website around.
In my experience as I've followed these basic guidelines Iv found numerous profitable products to promote with the Amazon Affiliate program.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Adwords for Beginners
To be honest, when I started out with Pay-per-click, I had no idea in the world what I was doing. I had a friend who did a lot with pay-per-click but it seems like every time I asked him about it, he simply told me that it's not that difficult. He would start jabbering on about this, that, and the other. At times, I wasn't even sure we were speaking the same language. I think he was getting frustrated trying to explain it to me and I was getting frustrated trying to understand him. Thank goodness for Google or I may never have figured it out. Turns out, Google has a whole bunch of videos to help you and actually walk you through Adwords.
I'll put it into three easy steps for you. People gave me these same three steps when I first started out, and I really wish I would have listened to them a little more.
Step one: Visit the Google Adwords Learning Center
Some people will tell you that it's pointless to go to this site and check out what Adwords has to say about their program, but I say, who better to teach you how to use Adwords than those who actually created it? Seriously, watching these videos could be a miracle for the Adwords beginner. In fact, even if you know nothing about it at all, they start out at the very beginning, you're covered.
Step two: Remember to do Your Research
Okay, so you've watched the videos and you feel pretty good about things. If you don't feel good about things after watching those videos, I would suggest that you do your research on any area that you're still confused about.
I did extra research anyway. I realized that I did all my research on the physiology of Adwords but I hadn't done much research on the psychology of Adwords. I started reading up on blogs and forums; any information I could get my hands on. I even had an eBook that a friend sent me to help me out in the process. I would pick at my friends knowledge now and then and eventually, I started to feel like I knew what was going on.
I guess I should also say that I really didn't know a lot until I actually started using Adwords
Step three: Actually Start Using Adwords
Yep, that's right, it's time to actually start using Adwords. Give it a try, just don't get too excited to start off with. I'll be honest, you're going to fail. Yeah, I got pretty discouraged when my friend said that to me, but it is pretty much inevitable that you will fail miserably on your first campaign in Adwords. Even professionals, who use Adwords a lot, struggle when they first start a new campaign. There's a lot of tweaking that must be done before your campaigns will start to be effective. The tweaking process is when the knowledge you have gained from your research of various sites will really become useful to you.
Good luck to you. If you need any additional help with online business techniques, please read other posts from our blog.
I'll put it into three easy steps for you. People gave me these same three steps when I first started out, and I really wish I would have listened to them a little more.
Step one: Visit the Google Adwords Learning Center
Some people will tell you that it's pointless to go to this site and check out what Adwords has to say about their program, but I say, who better to teach you how to use Adwords than those who actually created it? Seriously, watching these videos could be a miracle for the Adwords beginner. In fact, even if you know nothing about it at all, they start out at the very beginning, you're covered.
Step two: Remember to do Your Research
Okay, so you've watched the videos and you feel pretty good about things. If you don't feel good about things after watching those videos, I would suggest that you do your research on any area that you're still confused about.
I did extra research anyway. I realized that I did all my research on the physiology of Adwords but I hadn't done much research on the psychology of Adwords. I started reading up on blogs and forums; any information I could get my hands on. I even had an eBook that a friend sent me to help me out in the process. I would pick at my friends knowledge now and then and eventually, I started to feel like I knew what was going on.
I guess I should also say that I really didn't know a lot until I actually started using Adwords
Step three: Actually Start Using Adwords
Yep, that's right, it's time to actually start using Adwords. Give it a try, just don't get too excited to start off with. I'll be honest, you're going to fail. Yeah, I got pretty discouraged when my friend said that to me, but it is pretty much inevitable that you will fail miserably on your first campaign in Adwords. Even professionals, who use Adwords a lot, struggle when they first start a new campaign. There's a lot of tweaking that must be done before your campaigns will start to be effective. The tweaking process is when the knowledge you have gained from your research of various sites will really become useful to you.
Good luck to you. If you need any additional help with online business techniques, please read other posts from our blog.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Keyword Research - Amazon Affiliate
The first step in this whole process is the keyword research phase. Without properly researched keywords you're entire venture will fall flat on its face, you'll get frustrated and give up calling the whole 'make money online' thing a scam. So. Lets get this right eh :)
For our keyword research were going to use a tool that Google makes available for free called, interestingly enough, the Keyword Tool. Our goal using this tool is to come up with a nice list of keywords that we can potentially build profitable websites around. In this phase we're not going for the one golden keyword, we're just compiling a big list of keywords that we'll qualify in the next few lessons.
Ok so we need to start brainstorming ideas to plug into the keyword tool. I like to go to eBay's categories to get ideas of niches that I can research because they cover just about every tangible product. So head over to eBay and plug in one of the categories.
I decided to go with "water sports" so I pasted that into the search field, entered the captcha and clicked on "get keyword ideas". Then it brings up a big table of data. I wont go into everything about the tool here, we just need to focus on a few things. Set your match type to "exact" and in the "choose columns to display" drop down menu make sure you're showing local searches and trends. Now sort the table by local searches from most to least.
Before we dig into these numbers we need to set some parameters to look for so were not completely lost and we can start building list of keywords that have an adequate amount of searches and hopefully an upward trend. I make sure the keywords I choose have at least 1000 searches (per month) and there are at least 3 words in the phrase.
We go with at least 1000 searches per month because any less than that simply wouldn't be worth it. You need enough people coming to your site so that you can make regular sales. We want to go with at least 3 words in the phrase because the longer key phrases will have less competition than one or two word keywords.
After doing a search for "water sports" and sorting by local, exact searches I only have 2 keywords over 1000 searches per month. "water sports" gets 27,100 searches which is a ton. I'm going to just pass on that because I know the competition will be very tough for that phrase because of the search count and the fact that's its only 2 words. However the second phrase "water sports equipment" has a lot more potential. with 1600 searches and 3 words it fits our parameters perfectly.
One more thing to look at is the trend. It looks like this keyword hits its peak in the summer which makes sense:) If you were looking to make quick sales this might not be the keyword for you but I'm going to keep it because it would be a good keyword to develop a site around in preparation for next summer. It will give me time to get it built up. I'm going to copy that and paste it into a spreadsheet for future research.
Now its just rinse and repeat. After you've compiled at least 20 keywords that fit those parameters go ahead and move on to the next lesson.
For our keyword research were going to use a tool that Google makes available for free called, interestingly enough, the Keyword Tool. Our goal using this tool is to come up with a nice list of keywords that we can potentially build profitable websites around. In this phase we're not going for the one golden keyword, we're just compiling a big list of keywords that we'll qualify in the next few lessons.
Ok so we need to start brainstorming ideas to plug into the keyword tool. I like to go to eBay's categories to get ideas of niches that I can research because they cover just about every tangible product. So head over to eBay and plug in one of the categories.
I decided to go with "water sports" so I pasted that into the search field, entered the captcha and clicked on "get keyword ideas". Then it brings up a big table of data. I wont go into everything about the tool here, we just need to focus on a few things. Set your match type to "exact" and in the "choose columns to display" drop down menu make sure you're showing local searches and trends. Now sort the table by local searches from most to least.
Before we dig into these numbers we need to set some parameters to look for so were not completely lost and we can start building list of keywords that have an adequate amount of searches and hopefully an upward trend. I make sure the keywords I choose have at least 1000 searches (per month) and there are at least 3 words in the phrase.
We go with at least 1000 searches per month because any less than that simply wouldn't be worth it. You need enough people coming to your site so that you can make regular sales. We want to go with at least 3 words in the phrase because the longer key phrases will have less competition than one or two word keywords.
After doing a search for "water sports" and sorting by local, exact searches I only have 2 keywords over 1000 searches per month. "water sports" gets 27,100 searches which is a ton. I'm going to just pass on that because I know the competition will be very tough for that phrase because of the search count and the fact that's its only 2 words. However the second phrase "water sports equipment" has a lot more potential. with 1600 searches and 3 words it fits our parameters perfectly.
One more thing to look at is the trend. It looks like this keyword hits its peak in the summer which makes sense:) If you were looking to make quick sales this might not be the keyword for you but I'm going to keep it because it would be a good keyword to develop a site around in preparation for next summer. It will give me time to get it built up. I'm going to copy that and paste it into a spreadsheet for future research.
Now its just rinse and repeat. After you've compiled at least 20 keywords that fit those parameters go ahead and move on to the next lesson.
Amazon Affiliate Program - Market Reseach
Doing market research before starting a business is like having an accurate flight plan before you go on a trip. If you don't have anything planned out there are a whole slew of hazards that can endanger your flight, make it failure and take you somewhere you don't want to go. Imagine an eager young pilot who wants to get out and be free like the birds but who has no plan. He gets up in the air and immediately has a rush of adrenaline. He's away from civilization doing his own thing.
However that rush soon fades and He finds himself a little lost. He frantically searches for landmarks or cues that will show him where he is. Instead He decides to just keep going in the same direction because he figures he find some city or airport. Unfortunately His freedom is taken right back and he is a slave to his aircraft. He soon begins to run out of fuel and has to make a crash landing. If only he had made a flight plan he could have traveled somewhere exciting. Instead he was just thrilled to be up in the air.
So it is with business. Eager young entrepreneurs romanticize about owning their own business so they rush in and find out quickly enough that they're lost and too far invested to just stop. With a business if you're just winging it even if by some slim chance you turn a profit you will most certainly end up in a place you dont want to be. You may even need to make a crash landing by filing bankruptcy. If only you had made a flight plan. If only you had done thorough market research.
In this Course we're going to review the elements of market research as it pertains to creating and profiting from websites based on Amazons Associate program. With proper, in depth research you'll discover niches that will make you consistent money by selling Amazons products.
1. Keyword research
2. Product research
3. Competition research
4. Domain name research
Before we go in depth into the "how" and "what" of each element we will discuss the "WHY". Understanding why will give you the motivation and big picture perspective necessary to really make this course successful for you and will help you realize your personal financial goals. This is going to be specific stuff that will really help you in the long run and many of this can be applied to a lot of different business models as well.
1. Why Keyword Research?
Simple. People use search engines to find what they're looking for on the internet. Search engines use keywords to organize the results they deliver to their user. Some keywords are used more than others and therefore it would be very profitable to convince the search engine that you're worthy to be served up as a website for the higher volume keywords. Why keyword research? If you choose the wrong keywords you wont get any traffic to your website. And in this game traffic=money.
2. Why Product Research?
After some keyword research lets say you come across the keyword "chocolate candy bar". The next step would be to check out what products would be relevant. Obviously chocolate candy bars would be a good thing to sell if that was your chosen keyword, however people don't buy candy bars on the internet. Not only that but candy bars are very inexpensive so even if you were able to sell any each sale would amount to pennies. This is why you do product research. You need to find products that will pay well and that people will buy online.
3. Why Competition Research?
If you were to pit a mouse and a rottweiler against each other who would you bet on? The obvious choice is the dog. He far out matches the mouse. In one swing the dog could break the mouses neck. When you're just starting out you want to choose small niches where you'll be able to reasonably compete. Don't go after the electronics industry. You'll go up against behemoths like best buy, circuit city and Walmart. The more narrow your niche market the less competition there will be and because you're just starting out you'll want to go small.
4. Why Domain Name Research?
This is what your website will be known by. You want to make sure you can get a reputable domain extension and a reasonable keyword rich name. Doing proper research on potential domain names can dramatically effect how soon you start to see sales.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Top 5 Ways to Bring Disaster to Your Website
There are several mistakes made by Internet marketers all over the world. Some may see these mistakes as trivial but add up all the small mistakes and you have big problems.
Disastrous Design
One of my biggest pet peeves, when it comes to the Internet revolves around poorly designed websites. Have you ever gone to a site that looks like a rainbow it has so many colors or that looks like it's a newspaper because it has so much copy all over it? I look at sites like these and wonder how on Earth the owners are making any money off of them.
To avoid this mistake, if you know nothing about design, higher a web designer to build your website for you. I think you'll be very happy with the result, more sales. Do your research first, however, in order to make sure you're getting a website that will work well for your business needs.
Poor Product Presentation
Here's a kicker, product presentation, that will either make your site or break it. Here's a tip, when you're presenting a product to the public, you want it to be the best you have and you want to take pictures of it for your website that will show off all the wonderful amenities of the product in question.
I'll give you a poor example from my past experiences. When I was in college I was looking for an apartment for my friend and I to live in. I walked into one apartment that I will never ever forget. We walked in and low and behold right there on the floor, just inside the door, there was an ant hill. Now, you may imagine this as a small group of ants, no, it was seriously a pretty good sized pile of dirt, an actual ant hill inside the living room, right next to the kitchen. I remember thinking to myself, “if this is their model apartment and supposedly the best they have, I don't ever want to live here. So it is with your website and the way it looks. If you don't present your product in the best way you can, people are less likely to want to purchase it. In fact, they may tell their friends all about it and then they won't want to go to your site either.
Catastrophic Content
Your content says a lot about your company, your product, and your ability to run a business. Your content can have a very negative impact on the way your viewers see your site and what it stands for. Reversely, Some content can actually boomerang your site into more sales and better leads.
For example, do not fail to place some kind of privacy and security policy on your site for easy access to your customers. Having this will help give your potential customers confidence in your ability to keep their private information secure.
There are also things you can put on your site that will make your potential customers confidence diminish. This includes any content which is crude, inaccurate, and unorganized. These examples are only some of many factors.
Snail Speed
Loading speed is a huge factor in people buying your products or not. If a potential customer has to sit there and wait for your page to load, chances are they'll click away from it and go to one of your competitors. If your site isn't up and running effectively, do not pay to send extra traffic to it; if you do, you're pretty much throwing your money away at no benefit to you.
Reduced Recognition
It's very important to have good branding on your web page. Look at your own page, will potential customers know who you are and what your selling, above the fold? The part of the page above the fold is what a person sees when the page first loads before they scroll. In essence, it's the first real perception your potential customers will have on your company and your product.
Unless you're trying to have the worst web page ever, for your own sake, change your website if you need to in order to make it pleasing to the eye.
Disastrous Design
One of my biggest pet peeves, when it comes to the Internet revolves around poorly designed websites. Have you ever gone to a site that looks like a rainbow it has so many colors or that looks like it's a newspaper because it has so much copy all over it? I look at sites like these and wonder how on Earth the owners are making any money off of them.
To avoid this mistake, if you know nothing about design, higher a web designer to build your website for you. I think you'll be very happy with the result, more sales. Do your research first, however, in order to make sure you're getting a website that will work well for your business needs.
Poor Product Presentation
Here's a kicker, product presentation, that will either make your site or break it. Here's a tip, when you're presenting a product to the public, you want it to be the best you have and you want to take pictures of it for your website that will show off all the wonderful amenities of the product in question.
I'll give you a poor example from my past experiences. When I was in college I was looking for an apartment for my friend and I to live in. I walked into one apartment that I will never ever forget. We walked in and low and behold right there on the floor, just inside the door, there was an ant hill. Now, you may imagine this as a small group of ants, no, it was seriously a pretty good sized pile of dirt, an actual ant hill inside the living room, right next to the kitchen. I remember thinking to myself, “if this is their model apartment and supposedly the best they have, I don't ever want to live here. So it is with your website and the way it looks. If you don't present your product in the best way you can, people are less likely to want to purchase it. In fact, they may tell their friends all about it and then they won't want to go to your site either.
Catastrophic Content
Your content says a lot about your company, your product, and your ability to run a business. Your content can have a very negative impact on the way your viewers see your site and what it stands for. Reversely, Some content can actually boomerang your site into more sales and better leads.
For example, do not fail to place some kind of privacy and security policy on your site for easy access to your customers. Having this will help give your potential customers confidence in your ability to keep their private information secure.
There are also things you can put on your site that will make your potential customers confidence diminish. This includes any content which is crude, inaccurate, and unorganized. These examples are only some of many factors.
Snail Speed
Loading speed is a huge factor in people buying your products or not. If a potential customer has to sit there and wait for your page to load, chances are they'll click away from it and go to one of your competitors. If your site isn't up and running effectively, do not pay to send extra traffic to it; if you do, you're pretty much throwing your money away at no benefit to you.
Reduced Recognition
It's very important to have good branding on your web page. Look at your own page, will potential customers know who you are and what your selling, above the fold? The part of the page above the fold is what a person sees when the page first loads before they scroll. In essence, it's the first real perception your potential customers will have on your company and your product.
Unless you're trying to have the worst web page ever, for your own sake, change your website if you need to in order to make it pleasing to the eye.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Not all Links are Created Equal
Okay, first off you need to realize that not all links are created equal. This means that even if you have multiple links on forums, social media and article directories, someone else could get a more relevant link with a higher page rank that could be stronger than all your less authoritative links.
Forums
Let's be honest, you're not going to get a lot of link juice out of links from forum comments or posts. However, the time it takes and the difficulty of creating a link on a forum page is not very high. This means that you could do several forum links in the time it takes to create one more authoritative link. How does this all fit in together, well, it's anybody's guess how many non-authoritative links a person needs before they're at the same level as one link on an authoritative site with relevant data and a high page rank.
Guest Posts
Guest posts, you're getting warmer with these, a lot warmer. In fact, if you can get a site that Google terms a high authority site to allow you to write a guest post with a link in the content, you're doing pretty great. If this site is a PR 4 or 5 you should be excited, if it's a 6 or higher and it has relevant content to what you're posting about, you've pretty much hit the jackpot.
Are you wondering how hard it is to get a guest post? Well, let me paraphrase some advice given to me by a friend, “your chances go up significantly when you ask”. Meaning, I can't tell you what your chances are or exactly how to ask a person for a guest post, but I can tell you that if you don't try, your chances are pretty much zero.
Social Media
Social Media was my first love when it comes to link building. I got on this band wagon when it came through and thought it was the best thing in the world. Now-a-days, most social media site links aren't going to bring you a lot of link juice. To increase the worth of your links you should write optimized, authoritative content. Make sure that it's meaningful and lengthy enough to be deemed worth indexing.
Buy Links
The easy way out. If you have the money to do this and the sites are authoritative, have a high page rank, and are relevant to your content, do it! Don't be ashamed to do it; lots of people buy links, and there's nothing to be ashamed about. In fact, buying links can actually get you ranked in the top positions on Google a lot faster. A word to the wise, however, be very careful that you buy from credible sites.
These four examples are just four of hundreds of ways to build links to your site. Some are more simple than others and require very little maintenance, others require quite a bit of time and maintenance. You should also want to give, directory listings, social bookmarking, and other link building ideas a chance.
The moral of this post is...go for links on sites with high page ranks and use the other links to give you a little extra power.
Forums
Let's be honest, you're not going to get a lot of link juice out of links from forum comments or posts. However, the time it takes and the difficulty of creating a link on a forum page is not very high. This means that you could do several forum links in the time it takes to create one more authoritative link. How does this all fit in together, well, it's anybody's guess how many non-authoritative links a person needs before they're at the same level as one link on an authoritative site with relevant data and a high page rank.
Guest Posts
Guest posts, you're getting warmer with these, a lot warmer. In fact, if you can get a site that Google terms a high authority site to allow you to write a guest post with a link in the content, you're doing pretty great. If this site is a PR 4 or 5 you should be excited, if it's a 6 or higher and it has relevant content to what you're posting about, you've pretty much hit the jackpot.
Are you wondering how hard it is to get a guest post? Well, let me paraphrase some advice given to me by a friend, “your chances go up significantly when you ask”. Meaning, I can't tell you what your chances are or exactly how to ask a person for a guest post, but I can tell you that if you don't try, your chances are pretty much zero.
Social Media
Social Media was my first love when it comes to link building. I got on this band wagon when it came through and thought it was the best thing in the world. Now-a-days, most social media site links aren't going to bring you a lot of link juice. To increase the worth of your links you should write optimized, authoritative content. Make sure that it's meaningful and lengthy enough to be deemed worth indexing.
Buy Links
The easy way out. If you have the money to do this and the sites are authoritative, have a high page rank, and are relevant to your content, do it! Don't be ashamed to do it; lots of people buy links, and there's nothing to be ashamed about. In fact, buying links can actually get you ranked in the top positions on Google a lot faster. A word to the wise, however, be very careful that you buy from credible sites.
These four examples are just four of hundreds of ways to build links to your site. Some are more simple than others and require very little maintenance, others require quite a bit of time and maintenance. You should also want to give, directory listings, social bookmarking, and other link building ideas a chance.
The moral of this post is...go for links on sites with high page ranks and use the other links to give you a little extra power.
Monday, November 2, 2009
5 Ways to Make Money Online, Your Gateway to Success
Small Niche Website
One of the best ways to make a little extra money online is to start up a small niche website. Doing this is pretty simple, all you really need to do is find a niche, build a website, find a supplier and go for it.
Finding a niche can be very time consuming and, depending on your skill level, could be a difficult task. I would suggest coming up with three ideas and then see if there are some keywords you can rank for under those ideas. I can almost guarantee that your first few keywords or ideas will not be very fruitful so you may need to repeat the keyword finding process multiple times.
Affiliates
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make a little extra money online. In fact, it's relatively easy to make a little extra cash. The amount you make from affiliate marketing probably depends on how much expertise you have in that area.
If you would like to sell products as an affiliate marketer, I would suggest visiting sites like Amazon and checking out their affiliate programs. It's a great way to be an affiliate for a certain product.
Selling on Auction Sites
Selling on auction sites like eBay and Amazon has got to be a classic way of making money online. There are many ways to make money on eBay and Amazon. For example, you could sell things that you find around the house that you don't need anymore or you could even drop ship on eBay or Amazon. However, it is sometimes difficult to find good drop ship companies that will allow you to sell their products on auction sites. Be careful and only sign contracts with those companies who will allow auction site sales.
Flipping Websites and Domain Names
Flipping websites and domain names can be very profitable if done correctly. Depending on the domain names in question and the amount of profit earned each year by the site; you could sell your flipped site for thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Be aware, however, that not every site is going to bring this much money. In fact, there are websites for sale on Flippa.com right now for bids as low as twenty-five dollars.
Write an E-book
You could even write your own e-book about anything you're interested in and sell it through e-book directories. If you write about something you are really passionate about, perhaps it won't seem like work at all.
Please be aware that none of these five ways are guaranteed to make you a lot of money, business is all one big gamble.
One of the best ways to make a little extra money online is to start up a small niche website. Doing this is pretty simple, all you really need to do is find a niche, build a website, find a supplier and go for it.
Finding a niche can be very time consuming and, depending on your skill level, could be a difficult task. I would suggest coming up with three ideas and then see if there are some keywords you can rank for under those ideas. I can almost guarantee that your first few keywords or ideas will not be very fruitful so you may need to repeat the keyword finding process multiple times.
Affiliates
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make a little extra money online. In fact, it's relatively easy to make a little extra cash. The amount you make from affiliate marketing probably depends on how much expertise you have in that area.
If you would like to sell products as an affiliate marketer, I would suggest visiting sites like Amazon and checking out their affiliate programs. It's a great way to be an affiliate for a certain product.
Selling on Auction Sites
Selling on auction sites like eBay and Amazon has got to be a classic way of making money online. There are many ways to make money on eBay and Amazon. For example, you could sell things that you find around the house that you don't need anymore or you could even drop ship on eBay or Amazon. However, it is sometimes difficult to find good drop ship companies that will allow you to sell their products on auction sites. Be careful and only sign contracts with those companies who will allow auction site sales.
Flipping Websites and Domain Names
Flipping websites and domain names can be very profitable if done correctly. Depending on the domain names in question and the amount of profit earned each year by the site; you could sell your flipped site for thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Be aware, however, that not every site is going to bring this much money. In fact, there are websites for sale on Flippa.com right now for bids as low as twenty-five dollars.
Write an E-book
You could even write your own e-book about anything you're interested in and sell it through e-book directories. If you write about something you are really passionate about, perhaps it won't seem like work at all.
Please be aware that none of these five ways are guaranteed to make you a lot of money, business is all one big gamble.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
