First, you have to learn how to target keywords that are actually within your reach. If you are an accountant, it would be almost impossible to rank in Google for “accounting”. But, on the other hand, you may be able to rank for “Atlanta accountant” with the right SEO tricks up your sleeve. Ranking for lots of “little” keywords may be a lot better in the long run than obsessing over a huge one.

You have to focus on your onpage SEO efforts. What does this mean? Basically, you need to have the right keywords in the right places on your website. You need to use tags, a certain keyword density, captions, meta descriptions and other things to get your site to rank and keep it there.

Another point to remember is that you must be consistent with your social media efforts. Spend some time each day interacting with your followers and fans. Build rapport and relationships as they will serve you well for years to come.

You have to start focusing on mobile marketing as well. More people are using mobile text messaging as a marketing medium. Done correctly, mobile text messaging can far outshine email marketing.

Start using videos on a regular basis too. Take advantage of this video revolution. People are watching videos all day long, so put some of yours in front of them too!

There are technical things you can do to decrease your page load times on your website. Make sure those things are in place because people simply won’t sit there and wait for your site to load. It makes you look “behind the times”.

Finally, it is critical that you are posting content on a regular basis. Make it good content! Find the questions your prospects and clients have, and answer them. Be their problem solver.

SEO does not need to be an arduous or expensive task for your business. You need to know some simple tips that you should do on a consistent basis. Keep plugging away and you will start to see a snowball effect.

The first thing you have to do is set up accounts on several social media networks. For instance, you may want a Facebook page, Twitter profile, LinkedIn profile and YouTube channel. Of course, there are other networks coming on board all the time, so join as many as needed.

The most important part of using social media is updating your status and information on a regular basis. Don’t just update once a week because “you have to”. Instead, make it a part of your daily routine. You don’t need to spend hours doing it (because you won’t get your other work done)! Instead, allot a certain amount of time everyday and get it done.

Make sure to share your blog posts, articles and other content that you produce through social media sites. This brings even more traffic to your website or blog so that you continue to build your credibility and email list. If you make a new video or write a new report, share that with your followers. They will appreciate the efforts you make to keep them informed and provide them with quality information.

It always makes sense to check out your competition when you are on social media sites. See what they are doing and take some cues from them. No need to copy, but keeping up with the latest trends is important. You will be able to see what your competition is doing right and wrong.

Don’t spend your time on social media advertising things. People get tired of being sold to in their regular lives. They come to social media to hang out and chat with others. You must be stealth in your marketing methods on social media. Focus on relationship building and not sales.

With a little effort and consistency, you can watch social media transform your business for the better. A snowball effect will start to happen as you get more fans and followers who want to hear what you have to say.

There are more than a few blogs online that consistently attract thousands of visitors each day. Yes, most are celebrity blogs in which the writer really has no interest in gaining any monetary compensation. Most are just looking for more fans. But there are some, such as Grammar Girl, that manage to convey very relevant information and make money at the same time. Perhaps it is something that you should consider as well. Making money while blogging is possible, if you know how to set your blog up and what to do to start attracting revenue.

So how exactly does Grammar Girl make money on her blogs? Well first she advertises her books but it goes back even farther than that. She provides insightful blogs about grammar tips and rules that everyone should follow. Many of the topics she blogs about you already learned in school but there are many people who refer to her expertise in the matter to gain knowledge about the proper usages of their, they’re and there. It is actually quite surprising when you see how many fans she has on Facebook and how many followers read her blogs.

Besides selling her books, Grammar Girl also utilizes ads and back links. She posts other places, gains a high search engine rating and is able to turn up higher in search engine rankings. There is nothing to say that you cannot do the same. You just need to follow her model of business because what she is doing is the same thing that the most successful bloggers are doing. There really is no great secret to it. You write a terrific blog, get some fans and then sign up with a company that can get you placed higher on search engine pages and get your blog posted on the most frequently visited blogging sites. That is the real secret to becoming #1 and beginning to see a profit.

Just remember a tip or two if you do want to be #1. Keep your blogs on topic and keep them relevant to what you are portraying. If you want to sell vacuums then you need to be the best vacuum salesperson on the planet according to your blogs. You need to know your material inside and out. Researching different types of vacuums is a great way to do this. It actually does not matter where your specialty lies. It could be in anything as long as you know what you are writing about.

Grammar Girl is only one of many successful blogs that get read every day. There is nothing stopping your blog from becoming the #1 ranked blog on any search engine. It just takes a bit of time, patience and knowledge. Once you have those down pat then you are ready to move on and get that revenue moving in.

Taking it Step by Step

The first step you have to take when blogging for money is to find the right affiliate programs that work for your blog. You may be unfamiliar with affiliate programs and that is okay. Affiliate programs are links on your page that promote other people’s products. Yes, it sounds like you are making other people money but for each time a product is sold or the ad is clicked, you get money for nothing more than having the ad on your page. The same goes for you putting ads on other people’s webpages. It really does work out quite well for all parties involved provided you have chosen an affiliate program that works well for your needs. Clickbank, Amazon.com and Commission Junction are but three really good affiliate programs to join.

The next step to begin that cash flow is writing blog posts and getting followers. You need to write content that is engaging, interesting and relevant. You can make it a bit informal and personal. It will give it a touch that says you are more than just an anonymous face typing away boring blog posts each day. People will be able to relate to you and what you have to say. They will begin subscribing to your blogs and even signing up for your email lists. That means more potential visitors through word of mouth advertising on their part which is free for you.

The next step is back links. These are where you go to other blogs and in the comment section you post an information answer or related comment (there is also a place to leave your name and a link back to your blog). Avoid blogs that do not let you put in your own URL. They are nothing more than a waste of time. You want to get on blogs that are relevant to your own topics and products and allow you to create back links.

If posting to blogs, maintaining blogs and building back links are just too much for you there is another alternative. You can cut down on your work load significantly by using something like Blog Blueprint.

Blogging Plus Writing for the Search Engines

There is an unspoken power in the written word. It can convey so much and yet can also convey very little. It is a bit of an oxymoron in that sense. You have to be careful how you write your blogs because words written do not often convey the emotion or the sentiment that you may or may not intend. That is why choosing the correct wording is so important to making your blog a smashing success. It does not necessarily mean having a degree in Writing but it never hurts to know how to put your blog into the limelight through your words.

One of the key ways that many professional bloggers take advantage of search engine rankings is to use SEO writing. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is a way of writing where you use keywords throughout the blog that highlights the main focus (or theme) of the blog post. Keywords are important because it keeps the readers focused on the whole point of the blog. But SEO blogging is not enough because there are some common mistakes made when using keywords.

One of the biggest mistakes is overusing your keywords. You do not have to put in a keyword every single sentence. The biggest tip is to use your primary keyword no more than four or five times. You can use supporting keywords three or four times to reinforce your blog. The next step can be quite easy for you though. That involves getting links to your blog so readers across the Internet are directed through back links from various other blogging websites. Those back links generate money for you. You have taken the time to use SEO blogging and you have set up your links and you have set up your products or services, so this is the time to start making money.

Understanding Back Links

The real secret to making money by blogging is all in traffic and back links. Back links are something most people starting out are not familiar with. Have you ever visited a website and in the comment section you noticed someone posted their name and a hyperlink to another webpage? That link in the comment section is called a back link. The reason is pretty obvious once you think about it. It is a link that takes you back to their homepage or blog. They get money from their blog through advertising, affiliate programs or by selling a service or product. Simply put, more traffic = more money.

So let’s go through how to set up proper back links that are going to start making you money and driving your ranking up in the search engines. The first thing you need is a blog. On that blog you are going to be blogging about products or services that you offer. If you do not have a particular product or service that you offer, then you probably need to join some affiliate programs. Those affiliate programs will let you place ads on your webpage so that people can click the ones that interest them. Once they click on an ad and purchase the recommended product, you will earn a commission on the sale.

After you have your blog set up it is time to put some blog posts on there. Find topics that are fresh and new. You can still write about things that have been done before but do it in a new way that will attract attention. And you definitely want to attract attention so make sure your spelling and grammar is spot on. No one likes a poorly written blog filled with misspelled words and poor grammar. You can keep your website to one general subject or you can write diverse blog posts with different ads generated for each post.

Now you need to visit other blogs and websites that are similar to yours. The key to this is doing a Google search. Type in the subject and then scroll through the website to see if you can leave comments that contain a URL because some will not allow you to do so. There are formulas for finding the right website on the Internet if you do a search. They will tell you exactly what string of characters to put in to find websites that allow comments. Blogging websites, of course, are your primary target. Make sure your comment is relevant to the topic being discussed and that it is respectful. You do not want to get banned from the website.

There are easier ways of building back links and even maintaining your own blogging website.

You can check out the services and tools at Blog Blueprint. Right now the doors are closed but should be opening very soon. You can take advantage of their services to build you the clientele that you need to increase revenue, gain readers and backlinks and grow in popularity with the search engines – whatever your market might be!

I recently made a business contact whom I have a lot of respect for. She’s a marketing maverick who has been in the business 30 years or more. In fact at times our lives have run parallel – right down to the city of Toronto, promotions on Nathan Phillips Square and a bout in teaching.

Although I’m certain she’s brilliant in the local, face to face networking world, online she has no experience. She asked for my assistance with some personal branding and marketing online. Now she didn’t ‘call’ it that – in fact what she did call it was “I need 1,000 Facebook friends to win a challenge with my teenage son.”

“What’s Your Social Capital,” I politely asked.

Not a lot of business people have considered this when it comes to Web 2.0 so I’ll try to provide examples as an explanation.

If you are a celebrity, have written a book, have a secret to share, are selling something uniquely yours, offer a limited service or have any other value to the masses – you have automatic clout. Social Capital.

Without social capital – and the need to get 1,000 Facebook friends in a matter of days – you’ll have to sit at your keyboard, requesting friends from all of your existing friend’s list and hoping that they accept.

Don’t have that kind of time? You’ll have to fake the social capital then. By faking it I don’t mean lying or making yourself out to be something better than you are. But you will need to give people a reason to want to be your friend. This is very hard to pull off when you’re new to Facebook or new to marketing online unless you can find your tribe quickly and easily.

“Find Your Tribe?”

If you can find your tribe, or like minds, on any social networking website, you will quickly make friends and grow a list of contacts. As an example I have a fan page (but it also could have been a group) for a topic that I love and thousands of other North Americans enjoy. Currently just under 1,000 people are fans of that page even though I only wrote about 5 posts and added about 10 personal photos to. These people are my tribe and I didn’t have to hunt for them, they found me. Furthermore, as I am considered an expert on the topic in this tribe I have social capital. Social capital that, if I asked for it, would result in over 70% of that tribe become my personal friends.

Is all of this Social Networking starting to make sense yet?

If not, don’t sweat it. You’ll understand social capital and finding your tribe once you have taken your offline marketing skills into the online world. In the meantime, if you need to make a lot of friends fast, fake that social capital! This is newbie online marketing that anyone can do. All the techniques that apply to building an email list can grow that friend’s list exponentially, daily. How’s it done? A bribery of sorts. Create a free report or ebook of proprietary information to give away for the honor of being your friend (or signing up for your list). Hold a contest. Give, to get.

Let me know how it goes,

Laura Childs

Essentially this is a lot like creating Squidoo or HubPages without all the revenue sharing and links distracting your potential prospects.

Within your documents you would place links to your own website (internal and home pages) where the content is related. Yes these are for your potential customers to follow but they are also for the search engine spiders to follow. (If you don’t know the value of one-way backlinks, do a quick search on google to understand this vital part of search engine optimization (SEO).

The news has been out for quite a while about a few of these document sharing sites and the power they possess in the search engines, but with all the new research I’ve been doing lately I thought it would be wise to (a) share these with you, and (b) keep the list on my own site so I can locate it easily later when I roll out this part of my next Web 2.0 marketing strategy.

1. scribd.com
2. 4shared.com
3. docstoc.com
4. wepapers.com

What you should be doing…

1. Using decent private label rights or your own articles or ebooks, upload your documents for document sharing to each site. Link to your home page or internal pages within the document.

2. If the potential exists to create a profile page or socialize on the site, do so, adding your url, bio or link where ever appropriate.
3. Promote your new promoters! Promote these document pages using whichever tools you have. In some cases you’ll see an autotweet, in others an RSS Feed, and so on. Tweet your pages, submit your feed, ping the top services – whichever promotion methods you are comfortable with or know how to do.

Above all have fun and try something new every day to get your business to the top!

“What is social networking and why is it important, then?”

Actually, the question I really want to answer is: “Why Is Social Networking – Across Multiple Platforms – Important to Internet Marketers or Online Business Owners?”

And this is the answer…

For any online business or affiliate marketer the biggest component to your marketing plan since 2006 should be (have been and continue to be) social networking. If you aren’t doing it, and doing it well, you’ve got a tough row to hoe to make it as an online entrepreneur. However, if you have ‘made it’ and survived this far without social marketing, I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts (honestly, I don’t know what’s up with me and the idiotic idioms today), you’ve been missing out on some huge profits.

Let’s fix that. Your marketing, that is.

Smart social networking involves using the Web 2.0 tools that are available to you, to your best advantage. You can’t use only one type of social media or one social networking site and expect to get stellar results.

You don’t have to use each and every one – in fact you can’t anyway – but you do need to choose those that will help you promote your brand and your business to your target market.

That’s the first question – Who Is Your Target Market? (You have to answer that one yourself, after all, it is your business!)

The next variable is who you are, as a marketer or business owner. Each and every successful online entrepreneur has similar, but different approaches to social networking, but each smart one will create a multi-pronged approach that builds their brand and creates a web presence that thrives and grows.

Now if you’re already well engaged in social marketing, at this point you’re likely going crazy. Just like me.

That ‘craziness’ is how the initial conversation started. First problem is that I’ve got my fingers in too many markets and I’ve got to keep my personality focused on every sector I market to. For every target market I’ve got multiple social bookmarking campaigns, video site profiles, network comments, blogs I visit, tweets I make. Even if you’re in just one market this could drive you to distraction and make you consider the classified want ads – when days were simpler and we all came home with a fat paycheck every week.

Last year I found my answer and, believe it or not, it lay nestled in another Web 2.0 property.

FriendFeed.

If you need to pull your marketing together under one roof (instead of 30+ profiles and sites to visit every few days) I suggest taking a good long look at FriendFeed. You still keep all your accounts at bookmarking sites, networking sites, twitter and so on, but you can manage and watch it all so much easier from one starting point per day.

And with all your extra time, you can get back to ‘growing’ your business, not just marketing it.

To read more about my troubles with too many personas and markets and accounts – and discover why I wrote a 30+ page ebook on FriendFeed – click here: “Master Your Social Marketing Campaigns with FriendFeed”

The world of Web 2.0 is ever expanding, just like the universe, and one of the rising stars in Web 2.0 is a site called Seesmic.

Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe not…yet. In a very short time, this new social media site has added a new kind of video element to the world of social networking.

Seesmic, which was founded in September 2007 by French entrepreneur Loic Le Meur, provides people like you and I with an innovative way to connect with others online via video.

People can see and hear each other and share experiences, ideas, information, even a friendly joke through their webcams or mobile phones. This is a way to join in to a communication community that is alive, moving and growing – the perfect atmosphere for motivated marketers.

You might wonder what the big deal is. After all, webcams have been around for years, and if you want to keep up with your friends in cyberspace, you can do that through any number of other social networking and media sites. That’s correct on both counts. But Seesmic is different.

The Seesmic platform allows video conversations on a huge list of sites and blogs – over one thousand! These conversations are broadcast to social sites including FriendFeed and Twitter.

Seesmic and Twhirl have joined forces, too. Twhirl is a social desktop client, and is also responsible for about 12% of messages sent from Twitter. Seesmic is incredibly easy to use: you simply record a video onto Seesmic’s website or cell phone, or upload a video from your computer – this is a very easy process.

You can also link to videos posted on any social networking site. This enables you to create conversations by video, or to share video information that’s useful to your prospects and customers. Seesmic is a growing community of people in all niches all sharing their thoughts and ideas in video form.

As a sort of an austere version of YouTube, Seesmic streamlines things and keeps everything fast. And when you post a video to Seesmic, it can automatically message Twitter and FriendFeed, and upload the video to YouTube for you.

So, what is Seesmic all about? It’s another way to connect, and connections are important today – especially when you’re trying to convert a conversation into a sale.

With the far reach of the World Wide Web, the written and spoken word is a wonderful thing, but when you add images to the words, the message becomes even more powerful.

Why does this matter? It matters because as an Internet Marketer, you have a lot riding on your ability to connect with and communicate effectively with people. The world is full of potential customers, prospects and partners. Seesmic will bring yet another layer to your marketing campaign.

Video media brings another aspect to social networking that is hugely valuable to the Internet marketer. People want to know who you are. They want to put a face with a name.

Yes, you can do this with photos on your blog and your Facebook account and your gravatar for when you leave comments on other people’s blogs. This is great.

But when you can use a video that shows you speaking, smiling, moving, telling a humorous story and sharing information, you become that much more human and that much more likeable.

Seesmic offers you a quick and easy way to do short product demonstrations and quick talks about things that are important to your customers and prospects.

Your video is almost instantly available online once you’ve recorded it or uploaded it to Seesmic. And the quality of your videos will be top-notch. Quicker than a Twitter tweet!

Seesmic is a perfect addition to your branding efforts. By using your own creativity and intelligence, you will find that you can come up with a number of ways to use Seesmic for branding.

Internet marketing is about sharing information. And it is not only about you sharing information with others, but also about you learning from others – people who are your peers and colleagues.

Think of all the ways you can learn from others who use Seesmic, and how you can share your knowledge and expertise with them. As you continue to build your presence on the Internet, you will want to incorporate Seesmic into your marketing plan.

This doesn’t mean you have to leave your other forms of social networking behind. But you have to add to and adapt to the new technologies that become available.

Video lends itself wonderfully to Internet marketing. It’s perfect for branding, perfect for demonstrations, perfect for pep talks and perfect for developing business relationships of a higher level.

Stuff to Know About Seesmic

There are some Seesmic plugins that will allow you to add video comments to your blog. This can add an interesting facet to your blog when your readers use Seesmic to post video comments and enter into a threaded video conversation.

With this type of plugin you or a reader can:

Record a Seesmic video to a post.

Create threaded discussions with replies.

Moderate your video comments just like you would moderate a text comment.

Both WordPress and Movable Type offer this type of plug in. If you have readers who follow your blog, you might want to give them the option of posting their comments video-style through Seesmic. It’s a nice feature to offer.

This also illustrates another reason that you should have your own Seesmic account. If you come across a great blog that you would like to comment on and they offer the Seesmic video option, you will be giving yourself a leg up on everyone else who simply posts by text, with maybe an avatar or gravatar.

Because Seesmic is still relatively young, even by Web 2.0 standards, the site is still growing and will, over a period of time, probably add more features, or maybe change some.

The fact that Seesmic is doing something new is a big deal among Internet marketers, where it’s a good thing to be the first one “on the block” to do something different.

It’s another way to grab some attention and make the best of being in the spotlight. In the world of Web 2.0, the spotlight is exactly where you as an Internet marketer want to be.

One of the best things about Seesmic is that you can hook up to Friendfeed and Twitter with it. These are two very important social media sites that are being used by what seems like everyone.

Twitter for communicating quickly and FriendFeed for aggregating all of a marketer’s forms of networking in one spot. Because Seesmic is friendly to both of these sites, you will instantly see results from using Seesmic.

How you ultimately decide to use Seesmic is going to be up to you. Demo videos, sales pitches (as long as you don’t spam everyone with them), “getting to know you” chats – whatever – can all contribute to a healthy Internet marketing campaign.

This is a long post, but worth the read so if you’re rushed or just want to get to the goods, skip down to #3 because that could make a huge difference to your bottom line…

1. Rebuilding Lives (After the Fire)
2. Amen to A Thriving Internet Economy!
3. Automation and Web 2.0 (The Good, Bad, and the Ugly)

1. Rebuilding Our Lives After The Fire
———————————-

As you may remember, our family home burnt to the ground in February – in the middle of the night and we had 6 minutes before the flames were licking through the floorboards.

Six minutes and we could no longer get in to rescue our pets, keepsakes, or belongings.

The last time I wrote here was in April – but I have been busy building a new home, side by side with my teenage daughter and husband, and we’re nearing completion.

Which means I have time to focus on my sites, my subscribers and my online business again!

Make no mistake here – we do not have a construction crew or even a contractor – this is seriously a home built by family hands that will inhabit it – a 3,000 square foot log home carved
into the hillside of our 20 acre hobby farm.

To say the build has exhausted me would be an understatement (at 45 years of age it was either going to kill me, or get me into shape very quickly).

If you’re interested, I’ve documented most of the decisions, process, and progress along the way with videos, photos, and commentary at Building Our Own Log Home. (click on Eric and Laura’s build or the sidebar posts to see what’s
new).

2. Amen to A Thriving Internet Business!
—————————————

Through the summer months I barely saw my laptop, but my income stayed steady nonetheless. Amen for a thriving internet economy!

Are we in the best business ever during these tough economic times or what?

This was a serious second lesson after our month in Europe when I barely cracked my laptop.

The lesson? Once you have your systems in place and a footing in your marketplace, your business will look after itself for the most part.

Be sure to read that in context – “…with systems in place…” and “…for the most part.”

I’m not proposing a ‘set it and forget it’ for most online enterprises. I am talking about systems, some automation (perhaps even outsourcing if that’s required) and a mandate revisited and revised as required.

3. Automation and Web 2.0 (The Good, Bad, and the Ugly)
——————————————-

Having worked online since 1998, thrived through the transitions, studied more concepts and theories, used more tools and processes than I could ever write about — and then, re-mixing my website marketing all over again as the average internet user shifted the way they use the web — I’m still no guru, nor would I want to be. (Apart from what you may think, those guys have it hard.)

However, I am obligated to tell you the truth (which has netted me some serious backlash at times) about:

a) What works, what doesn’t, and why.

b) Who is feeding you a load of bull (at their benefit) and who is the real deal.

c) Which systems will harm your business more than help it.

IN 2007 I told you that there was no ‘good’ way to automate Web 2.0 marketing (at the time, there just wasn’t – sure some marketers sold systems and software but the investment just wasn’t worth the return).

IN 2008 (right before the house fire) I released a report that explained how to easily infiltrate various interactive Web 2.0 sites using your blog’s RSS feed.

Automation – that won’t get you blacklisted on the off-sites, that will increase your search engine position, and that helps build a loyal list of followers.

Due to the house fire, I didn’t market hard. I didn’t have time to support my readers with appropriate dedication. The report was called “Why Your Web 2.0 Marketing Sucks and How to Fix It, Fast.”

As it turned out, the people that purchased it, didn’t need help with further explanation but wrote in with thanks of helping Web 2.0 finally make sense (and touching my heart, so thank you!)

Honestly, Web 2.0 stuff can be confusing…

1) It has geek-driven tendencies.
2) It is multi-faceted (content, search engines, voting, videos, blogs, RSS)
3) It is time consuming (or at least it WAS time consuming)

But what if, all those issues were removed?

What if someone finally came along that had a system of automation that actually worked and wasn’t just in the guru game to steal your money?

What if a service was launched with tools and an easy to follow action plan that is not time consuming (10 minutes – 1/2 hour).

What if you could follow the system for 7 days, absolutely for free, and in those seven days you would see results – results of traffic, subscribers, sales.

And if you didn’t like it, if you didn’t see results, you could just cancel a renewal. No strings attached, no hoops to jump through, nothing lost (in fact you’d gain all the same even if you cancel because you would have learned about systems of automation and some tricks to Web 2.0 marketing in the process).

Does it sound too good to be true to you?

You bet it does.

I know, you’re wondering what the catch is…

A hefty renewal fee? A higher monthly payment than the average business owner can manage? That’s usually the case with other trial offers, but not in this situation. I can’t disclose the subscription rate because it is ‘scaled’ – you choose the power you want and sign up for the service that interests you most, but honestly if you can’t make at least the $47 in the first trial week, you might want to give up marketing online!

After 7 days you’ll know that this works – that your extra sales, search engine placement, traffic rank, and commissions will more than cover that greasy spoon dinner…

To be clear — there are two caveats…

1) The offer is limited to a group of 1,000. (And he’s dead serious about that number because the tools, team and success can’t support more and be effective – right now.) The news has gone out to over 8,000 of my own subscribers and I’m not alone in sharing this…if you don’t get in right away, check the page every so often to see when space opens up.

Check for the trial download, free, here: Try Web 2.0 Automation with Action Plan for $1

I’ll write again soon but now I have to get back to the building site. Be sure to stop by soon…

Cheers, Laura

You can download the pdf at the end of this post, but allow me to save you some reading time and give you the highlights. (Training and techniques that I agree and am alignment with).

Part 2: Web 2.0 Arrives, the Market Changes

(highlights of page 5)

Then one day a few years ago, some really smart people figured out how to make the web more interactive. Users could go to a web page and talk to other users, but more importantly, CREATE CONTENT for the owner of the website.

This is called Web 2.0.

MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, all those sites that let visitors write, upload, create, or otherwise share their own ‘stuff’ online started producing copious amounts of new content that the search engines could easily index…

This was especially great for the owners of these web 2.0 sites, because the cost of acquiring content is otherwise the most expensive part of owning any website…

…more importantly all this new content…disturbed the old business model (article marketing, seo, etc.).

…basically, everything that the SEO firms used to tell you was necessary has changed. All except one: It’s more important than ever to get incoming links to your website.

The question arises: If Article Marketing has lost so much of its importance with the search engines, how do we create these incoming links?

Part 3: Ride that Web 2.0 Wave!

(highlights of page 6)

…thinking that Web 2.0 is just a bunch of MySpaces, YouTubes, and Facebooks – where the main purpose is to talk and share with online buddies?

…you have been wasting your own time making content for the owners of those websites.

…since content is the basic currency of the information age, you have just made them rich at your own expense.

…all you have to do to turn the tables and make them YOUR slave is to place your articles, tips, recipes, jokes, home movies, podcasts, whatever content you can create out there on Web 2.0…with links back to your own website.

Example: If you write something about dog training on MySpace, and it doesn’t link to your main website, then you gain nothing. You have just wasted all that time for no good reason, other than to make the owners of MySpace even richer. However, add a link to the bottom of that same bit of writing that takes the user back to your Dog Training website, and you have just marketed your own website…

The best part is that web 2.0 writing is fast and choppy…no 350-1500 word articles….

According to recent research, over 2,000 Web 2.0 sites exist.

…Google and Yahoo love them and index them quickly

The only question left is: Which ones will allow you to link back to your own website?

Part 5: The Gold Rush is On!

(pages 8-9, discusses Revenue Share which I think everyone has heard of so I snipped it out of these notes)

Make money while building your business, (to make even more money.)

Part 6: Where to find them

…you’re probably already asking how many of the 2,000 plus sites allow backlinks.

Inside the member’s forum I’ve got a library stocked full of them…and members are always adding new ones as discovered.

…here are a few you already know about…

www.Cagora.com, www.Helium.com, www.Hubpages.com, www.Revver.com, www.Squidoo.com, www.ThisIsBy.Us, www.Vume.com, www.Weebly.com, www.Wikidot.com, www.Yuwie.com

…some take video, some text, some articles, some audio, and most will take a mixture.

However, these all pay you money for your time, and meanwhile you’ll really be spending that time building your own website up in the search engines.

Part 7: “More powerful than you can possibly imagine…”
(re: keyword research and search engine positioning and traffic from Web 2.0 sites)

Being #1 on google does NOT mean you get all the traffic. At best, it just means getting the MOST traffic.

#1 only equates to about 40% of all traffic for a keyword…

HOWEVER – you could own ALL of the links listed on the results page…

CONSIDER – Make easy pages on Web 2.0 sites, get those pages ranking highly in the search engine results pages, (much faster than ever before) and control the traffic flow for your keywords.

REMEMBER – Search engines love Web 2.0 sites, so ranking is easy.

You’ll be in full control, get 100% of the traffic for your keyword, all linking back to your site, and even be paid to create it all.

Laura, wrapping up…

I’ve been a member of this forum for almost a year now. Inside you’ll find keyword research tools, members helping members, experts helping newbies, a backlink script (to discover how many backlinks are required to beat out your top 5 competitors), 30+ training films, dozens of software downloads, and more.

While you’re there, learn about the opportunities that exist to supply content to Web 2.0 sites and be paid directly to your Paypal or bank account within days – just like a freelancing assignment.

Money up front plus money in residuals, all while you’re dominating the search engines for the benefit of your own business…

Download the PDF
Learn More About the Member’s Forum

Below is a quick table I’ve drafted up (in no particular order) of types of sites or applications (types/apps), brief descriptions of each (what), benefits (why), as well as measurements of success to consider after integration (measurement). Consider the measurement challenges before you integrate however as all Web 2.0 applications are not created equal.

Types/Apps	What?/Why?	Measurement
Blog	Websites where content is presented in journal style, displayed in reverse chronological order, and often includes a comment feature for visitor interaction. Create or develop relationships with target audience, and potential/existing customers.	Where does the traffic come from? Where does the traffic go? Does the traffic convert? Which reader segment is commenting? Does the traffic return?
Wiki	A web site that allows the visitors to easily add, remove, edit and change the website content, sometimes without the need for registration. Allows a specialized target audience to contribute to, or create, content.	Is the topic (and therefore the content) popular? Does it affect sales and conversions? Who visits the wiki? Who contributes to it?
Social Network	A social network website allows interaction between users – publicly or privately. Identify and advertise to finely targeted groups of existing or potential customers.	Are the users discussing products and/or services? How much traffic does this create to the product/service pages? Is the content indexed in the search engines?
User Review	Website that allows visitors to write reviews of products, content and/or services. Provides peer product reviews to new or existing customer base. Establishes the website as the resource for researching related products and services.	How many reviews per visitor are read/written? Do the reviews increase new traffic to the site or keep the traffic on the site longer? Does this content increase sales/conversion?
Forum	An online discussion site. Create or develop relationships with potential/existing customers.	Is the topic/content popular? Does it affect sales and conversions? Who uses the forum? Who contributes to it? Does it bring more traffic? Is the content indexed in the search engines?
RSS	RSS delivers information as an XML file (aka RSS feed). Small software programs (feed readers or aggregators) check subscribed feeds for a user and displays updated content. Publish time sensitive information, news, sales, or incentives to potential/existing customers.	How frequently is RSS accessed? By how many subscribers? Are links within RSS clicked through?  Does RSS increase website traffic? Increase visitor stay? Does RSS increase sales/conversions? Which content is most popular?
Podcast	A podcast is a multimedia file distributed over the Internet for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. Provide value added, topical content in an easy to digest form. Reach new audiences via podcast aggregators such as iTunes.	How many times was the podcast downloaded? How much website traffic did the Podcast generate? Did the podcast increase sales/conversions?
Comparison Shopping	A price comparison website that allows individuals to see lists of prices for a pre-defined or search generated product. Reach a wider audience.	How much traffic does this send to your product website? Does it affect sales and conversions?
Video / Multimedia	Multimedia rich sites use a variety of information sharing via text, audio, graphics, animation, and video, to inform internet surfers. Share content with potential/existing customers in video format.	How often was content accessed? How long was it viewed? Until the end? Is the content indexed in the search engines? Does it affect sales and conversions?
Ajax / Flash	Ajax enables small amounts of user generated information to interact with a website server ‘behind’ the page – the web page does not refresh based on a change via interaction. Flash was once most commonly used to create animation, animated advertisements, and to assist in the integration of video onto a web page. More recently however, Flash is being used to create an interactive web. Serve user friendly applications to potential/existing customers in a high-touch (not high tech) manner.	How has Ajax/Flash improved the process? Does it affect sales and conversions? Does it affect corporate brand?
Mobile	Online content accessed via mobile phones, PDAs, and other handheld devices. Enables users to access your content or interact with your site, from anywhere at any time.	Does it affect sales and conversions? Does it affect corporate brand?
Portal	A site that provides personalized responses, content, or other capabilities to visitors based on input. Provide a personal (yet overseen), one stop shop, for potential/existing customers to enjoy, aggregate, or create content.	What content or applications are being used? Does it affect sales and conversions? Does it affect corporate brand? Is the content indexed in the search engines?