Unfortunately, hiring an SEO expert can be quite expensive. For those who want to do it themselves, here are the steps.

Bookmark these tools! you WILL need them!

The first step in website optimization is to make sure you have well-formatted HTML. I would encourage you to use the following tool to check this: http://validator.w3.org/ Do your best to get your website as close to conformance as possible.

If you use CSS, then use a CSS validator at http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator-uri.html There is rarely an excuse for not having it validate here.

If you follow most of the suggestions for having valid HTML code your web pages will be more digestible for the search engines, as well as being much more cross-browser compliant. You should also do this after any significant edit of the web page – to ensure that it is still compliant.

The second step in website optimization is to work on the Meta tags and the title tag for each page in your site. These are in the header of your web page document and need to be tailored to attract users who type in one of a select group of keywords. If you need a tool to help generate these, use this meta tag generator tool here (http://www.spiderweblogic.com/HTML-Meta-Tag-Generator.aspx) that I built.

The title tag:

The title tag is, of the three, the most important for the major search engines. Don’t make this too long – normally no more than 6 words. But have your most important keywords here. Some SEO specialists advise that even the order of the text here is significant. They suggest that if you place your company name in the title, that it should be placed last so the other keywords are being considered with greater weight.

The meta-keywords tag:

This is now of lesser importance than before, due to abuse by webmasters to achieve high rankings. However, it is still important and is required by many of the smaller search engines. Make sure that you don’t repeat any keyword or keyword phrase more than three times. That would be considered Spam (bad SEO tactics) by the search engines. Remember, your visitors will see the title of the web page. Make it useful to them as well.

The meta-description tag:

This is of higher importance than the keywords tag. Several search engines use it when they show your listing. It needs to encourage your potential visitors to visit your website. Of course, having keywords in here is important. But keep the primary purpose in mind as you write it. Here too, you should make sure that you don’t repeat any keyword or keyword phrase more than three times.

Each page in your website needs its own tailored title, meta-description, and meta-keywords tag. These need to be focused on the keywords you are trying for. (These are the words or phrases you want to be found at when people are doing searches.) These shouldn’t normally be the same on every page. They should be customized to the content that is on that page. You should also keep your visitors in mind as you write them.

The third step is to work on your content – especially on your home page. Ideally you would have between 800 – 1200 words of text. It should have your most important keywords at the top, middle and the bottom of the text. If possible, use an “h1″ tag at the top for your title – and have your most important keyword imbedded in it. Also, have some of your keywords in a sentence or phrase that is bolded. Keep it natural for your visitors to read. If it doesn’t look natural, you will loose any visitors you have attracted.

The fourth step in website optimization is to edit your links and your images to make full use of the “title” and “alt” attributes.

Text links can have a “title” attribute. The content is to more fully describe your link. When you put your mouse over the link, the content of the “title” attribute is displayed. I would encourage you to tailor the description so that it contains at least one of your keywords – but keep it accurate – that it really does describe the link. It must make sense to the common user.

Images HTML tags can have an “alt” attribute. It is used to describe an image when you put a mouse over it. It is also used for different devices for seeing impaired. Also, it is used when the user decides not to show images with the web site. They will see this text instead. (It is the “Alternate Text” for the image.) Try to incorporate some keywords here too – but keep with the spirit of being the “alternate text” for the image.

If you are using tables, you may even include a table “summary” attribute. The purpose of this attribute is to assist for those with disabilities to understand the contents and structure of a table. Keep all summary comments within that purpose – and add keywords only where appropriate. Note that these summary attributes may cause your web page validator to spit up an error – but this is newer item that is encouraged.

The fifth step is to have a good menu system or a site map. Search engines follow links to find the different pages in your site. If your navigation is one of those JavaScript drop-down menus or Flash menus, the search engines may not find all of your pages unless you have an alternative non-JavaScript link path that they can follow. If you use the fancy JavaScript links, you should have a hard link to a site map on every page. The site map should have a real non-JavaScript list of links that the search engines can follow to map out your whole site. As a standard policy I tend to avoid the JavaScript links in the menus.

Optional:
If you haven’t chosen a domain name yet, you may strongly consider having your top keyword phrase in the domain name, with the words separated by dashes. This is an excellent idea, but not always feasible. Many companies already have a domain name selected, or prefer to use their company name as the domain name. This is a business decision left up to the customer.

Things not to do:
Don’t create and market mirror sites though to accomplish this trick either. Sites that are identical in content, but have a different domain name are considered SPAM (bad/taboo) by the search engines. They don’t appreciate such tricks, and the ranking of both websites will suffer for it.

Also, don’t get too crazy with stuffing keywords where they don’t belong or by repeating keywords or by having keywords in hidden layers. Search engines don’t like that and will ban your site.

SEO Software to buy:
I have used SEO Studio to do website analysis during my optimization. This has been an invaluable tool for analyzing how saturated my keywords are in a particular web page. It is reasonably priced and I have been very satisfied with the performance. It is easy to see such things as keyword density relevance for the whole web page. It also is helpful in showing where the keywords are not (and can be). Y ou will learn a lot about website optimization just by using this tool!

NOW WHAT?
After all this “Search Engine Optimization” you need to do a human review your website – is it natural/useful/helpful for the human visitor? Remember, getting website traffic is only half the game. This site needs to quickly convert them into paying customers.

Once it is “Optimized”, then you need to let the search engines know that you exist. Only after it is ready should you tell them about it. But this is a subject for another article. Do a search of different article warehouse or SEO news sources. You will find a lot of information on this.

Website optimization news sources:
Since there are new quirks in the website optimization and website promotion that come out all the time – some that apply to all search engines, and some that apply to a particular one, it is wise to keep up to date. I strongly encourage you to join a couple of relevant mailing lists!

I really like the news sources from Entireweb.com. If you submit a site through them, I would encourage you to accept their free newsletters. They have great content. http://www.entireweb.com/submit_site/

Another place to get really great articles on website optimization or promotion is http://www.SiteProNews.com They also allow you to subscribe to their articles. Do this!

If you are serious about keeping up with your website positioning, keep up with the news. You will find these resources invaluable!

Robert Fuess is a veteran website designer who specializes in making dynamic search engine optimized websites.
http://www.SpiderwebLogic.com | http://www.SchoolAndTeacher.com

However, many websites are facing this problem: No visitors = No sales. And it can be a daunting task for newbie webmasters new to online marketing. In this article, I provide some internet marketing tips and solutions for webmasters new to website promotion.

There are many ways you can market your website indeed:

a) Search Engine Positioning
Some may call this search engine optimization, or “SEO” for short. It is the most effective way to market your website online. To illustrate what I mean, you may type the keywords “Singapore web design and hosting” into MSN search box, and see if you can find Singaporewebdesigner.com. [We are currently ranked top 10 for the keywords you just typed].

In fact, statistics have also shown that more than 80% of online traffic is driven by search engines. However, to squeeze your way into Google top 10 can requires a lot of time and effort. If your site is newly built and has not been indexed by Google, there is no way you can rank top 10 for popular key phrases within 1 month. You can take my word for that.

Benefits:
1. Highly targeted visitors searching for your products and services.
2. Very cost effective in the long run compared to advertising.
3. Increase your website’s online reputation.

b) Pay per click advertising
This effectively means that you advertise your site on other websites by pay per click. You will pay for every click when visitors click on your ads on other sites.

Currently, the 2 most popular pay per click advertising campaigns will be Google Adwords and Yahoo! Overture This is another very popular way to market your website online. It is not easy for new websites to climb their ways to the top of search engines ranking. Hence, this is a very popular marketing solution for new websites.

c) Article Writing
If you can write articles in good English, article writing can be one of the most economic ways to market your site. You need not write like an English professor. In fact, many internet marketing experts suggest that you write in a personalized style. Your articles need not be too long. Online visitors do not spend the whole evening trying to figure out what you want to say. Also, writing in proper paragraphs and point forms help to convey messages fast and effective.

After writing an article, remember to include a resource box.

See example below:

“Article by Byon Ong, Singapore web design, hosting and website promotion”.

You may also suggest your article to Articles Factory as a writer. If your article is interesting with useful content, many sites would want to publish your articles in their sites. By contributing useful contents for their readers, they provide valuable backlinks to your site in exchange.

Here are only basic ways to promote your websites. For more promotion tips and techniques, you may want to read Internet promotion and marketing Part 2.

The first part of gaining profits through website promotion is to have an excellent website design. You cannot expect to gain any profits through a website that is designed poorly or that is difficult to navigate. Make it easy for visitors to your website to find what they need and make a purchase. This will gain you fast profits.

The second thing you should do to gain profits is to use search engine optimization, or SEO. SEO has been widely used to put people’s websites at the top of a search engine’s list. It is found that most people that use a search engine only visit the website that is listed at the top of the list. This is why you need to use SEO to help with your website promotion. With the proper SEO, you can attract more visitors to your website. More visitors means more profits for you.

Next, to gain more profits you can use email marketing. Be sure that when you use email marketing to gain profits that you are not using spam. Use an opt in list instead. Have an opt in list posted on your website. An opt in list is when people request to receive email material from your website. It has been shown that opt in lists give a 40% increase in response. This means that you will again have more profits.

In order to gain profits through website promotion, you must be sure that you go after your target audience. Be sure that your website’s design attracts the type of people that would be interested in your product or service. Also, be sure that your email marketing sends out emails and ezines to people that will actually read it and have an interest in it. If you don’t, you cannot expect to gain profits.

Lastly, you can incorporate the use of affiliate programs to help with your website promotion. Have links to your affiliates on your website. Your affiliates will also do the same. With you and your affiliates working together to promote your website, you will start to see more website traffic and more profits.

Website promotion is the only sure way to gain profits for your business. Without it, you can easily find yourself in a hole that is hard to dig your way out of. Be sure to utilize all of these methods so that you can attain more profits.

Obviously, online sources for web hosting are one of the most convenient ways to search for the service you want. Any search engine will offer plenty of results on how to find a good web host package. If you don’t consider yourself to be computer savvy, you might also want to talk to friends and colleagues who have experience with web hosting and web hosting packages.

For a good list of reviews of web hosting service providers, you might start with a site such as the Web Hosting Inspector site (www.webhostinginspector.com). By following the links to their reviews, you’ll find a list of web host service providers. The reviews on this website are broken into sections with ratings given for each. Even if this site doesn’t include a review of the company you are considering as a web host, you might try using their categories to create a rating system of your own. Comparing bandwidth, web page space, reliability, customer service and speed, along with any factors you personally consider to be important, will help you find a good web host package.

Remember that you are a potential client and any web hosting company should view your questions as important. Whether you know a lot about web hosting or you’re a novice with little idea of how the process works, a company should be able and willing to answer your questions promptly. If the company isn’t able to quickly communicate answers to questions, you should question their ability and willingness to provide reliable customer support once the company has your business. As you consider how to find a good web host package, remember your first impressions.

As you work through the process of finding a good web host package, you should also keep a log of your search. While it will probably be easy at first to remember that you’ve already looked at Company A and discarded them because their customer service seemed weak, or that Company B didn’t offer free set up as part of their web hosting package, it probably won’t take long for the names and your impressions to begin to run together. Keeping track of which company you were and were not excited about following up on should be an exercise requiring paper and pencil (at the very least). Tangible numbers are a good indication of which companies will and will not likely be good web host providers, but remember to include your first impressions of the company as well. Was their website easy to navigate? Did they answer questions? Do they provide other services that you might need in the future? All are good questions to ask as you consider how to find a good web host package.

Brian Thorn is a professional writer for Webhostpacks. For more information and tips about hosting visit: web package hosting and cheap package hosting in the web.

Source: http://www.365articles.com

edit: seems somewhat of a sales type article, but the bulletpoints on what you need to learn is good advice – SEO advice

You will miss out on a goldmine of potential buyers if you do not!

You need an all-in-one kit that:

1. Allows you to be in total control of operations
2. Countermands the ever-changing search engine vagaries
3. Outstrips all other forms of web promotion
4. Constitutes the ultimate weapon in viral marketing
5. Exerts infinite influence on article exposure
6. Produces an ever-increasing stream of links
7. Builds lists of pre-qualified prospects
8. Works for any niche opportunity
9. Taps into a goldmine of browsing buyers
10. Attracts incremental sales
11. Grows your business at zero cost
12. Has the power to make you famous online

But you need more than points 1-12…

You need to learn…

• How to research the topic before you write your article
• How to use keywords and phrases to stimulate interest
• How to use magnetic verbs to trigger impulse buying
• How to command the reader’s subconscious
• How to use subheads to catch quick readers
• How to create mental movies in the prospect’s mind
• How to educate, inform, and motivate the reader
• How to address the WIIFM questions on everyone’s lips
• How to think like the people you want to influence
• Why simple words and short sentences work best
• How to develop the power of speaking with authority
• How to avoid over-egging the clichés
• How to paint word pictures that drive visitors in hoards to your website
• How to craft articles that zing like bullets shot from a bell

But even all that isn’t enough…

You also need to learn…

• How to write editorials; not ad copy
• Why you must be totally truthful in your claims
• How to start with an eye-grabbing headline
• How to fire your biggest gun in the first sentence
• Why you must fire the next biggest in the next 2 sentences
• How to roll out the remaining text on in crisp chunky paragraphs
• How to break it up with occasional subheads
• How to keep your dialogue conversational
• Why you must restrict the word count to acceptable limits
• Why your resource box is the catalyst to successful article distribution
• How to choose your core keywords
• How to prepare the ‘description’ copy
• How to become accepted as an expert article author

And when you’ve learned all this you will discover that…

1. Articles do outstrip all other forms of web promotion
2. Articles do constitute the ultimate weapon in viral marketing
3. Articles do exercise an infinite influence in product exposure
4. Articles do create an ever-growing stream of links back to your website
5. Articles do continue to work irrespective of the search engines
6. Articles do build lists of pre-qualified prospects
7. Articles work for any niche opportunity
8. Articles do tap into a goldmine of browsing buyers
9. Articles do attract incremental sales
10. Articles do grow business at zero-cost
11. Articles do have the power to make you famous online

If you would like to learn even more about the amazing power of articles, click on the link in the resource box below.

What do we want linking to do for us and what can linking actually do for us? Well we want it to get us traffic. Most of us think it can get us traffic two ways. One way we hope to get traffic is by making the search engines think we are good because of all the links to us. We are hoping that will rank us higher in those search engines.

All the SEO companies want to help us be on the FIRST PAGE of Google. Well with the billions of websites now and all the keywords maxed out – can we all be on the first or second page? Of course not! So, how much does it really matter where you rank in Google?

Let me give you an example provided by David Notestine from Zeus link management programming. He will provide server logs to back up stats that show:

• they get 6000000 hits per month for Zeus
• about 20 of those hits are from search engines
• about 3 percent result from paid adwords (not profitable he says)
• the remainder are from hits from links on other websites

What should we really expect from our linking strategy. Let’s get hits from links on other sites. Forget that other stuff about pleasing the Google Gods!

So why don’t we all help each other with good linking practices? If you are going to link to me so that others can find my site, why in the hell don’t you make it easy for those visitors to go from your home page to your link index? WHERE IS THE DAMN text to click on for links? If I can’t find it to verify my link, then I know damn well that your site visitors won’t find it or even look for it if it’s that hard to find. As you can see, this really irks me.

Secondly, for your link site to be useful to me, visitors need to find me or my product in that huge directory that we all are trying to develop. The best way to make it easy for searchers to find a link to a website or product is with a “search utility” installed and kept current on the page of that big link directory. Visitors can then search for a product, name or contact and get easy and immediate results.

Oh yes- one late addition here and get one more pet peeve off my chest. Don’t email me requesting a reciprocal link and then tell me to do the work at both sites by adding your link to my directory and add my link to your directory. This really gets my goat!

I hope you can see that a few little things like this will make linking work the way it should for ALL of us and not for just ten or twenty websites! It really can be a simple thing to make linking work for you!

Tom Henricks
Amateur webmaster for my little shopping website

http://www.tomsvirtualmall.com

Source: http://www.365articles.com

Relevance to a search:

• The frequency of the search word on a web page is an indicator of its relevance. If a web page contains the word ten times on the page, it is ten times more relevant than a page which contains the word only once.
• The position of the search word:
  • In the title tag.
    In the HTML coding, the title tag is <title>(Your title words…) </title> This appears in your browser at the very top of the screen, above File, Edit, View… This tag is important to search engines as it is visible to the visitor, and ostensibly sums up the purpose for the page. Other meta tags are largely ignored by search engines.
  • In a heading.
    In the HTML coding, the heading tag is <h1> (Your heading…) </h1> This tag is very important to search engines as it is visible to the visitor, and ostensibly sums up the purpose for the page. The size of the heading does not matter. Take care not to have more that one such heading on the home page. (Don’t confuse the search engine).
  • In a link to another page.
    In the HTML coding, such a link could be <a xhref=”whodickies.htm” mce_href=”whodickies.htm”>Whodickies</a>. If “Whodickies” are important enough to have a link to them, they are very relevant to a visitor’s search for whodickies.
  • In the body text.
    Key words near the top and the bottom of the text are important. Certainly many search results show the beginning and end of pages.
• Proportion of the search words on the page.
  The intensity of key words in relation to the total words in a page tells a search engine if there is spamming. Experience has shown that if the key words in a search make up more than 10% of the total web page the page is marked down. Some experts say 5%.
• Number of inside pages linking back to that web page.
  The more inside pages linking back to the home page the more relevant the home page appears to the search engine. A website with 30 pages must seem to have more information than one with 3 pages.
• Number of other websites linking to that web page.
  A website with links from 20 other websites seems more popular than one with links from only 2 other websites. The quality of such links has a bearing. e.g. Links from other websites which display your key words are better that links from websites without those words.
• Number of articles published linking to that web page.
  Many websites publish articles on many subjects. Check the formats acceptable. Compose your article, then submit it.

Why do different search engines give different rankings to the same website? Each search engine may give a different weight to each of the factors above. Why would a website lose or gain ranking position, without any change? Search engines change their secret algorithms (formula of factor weighting) from time to time. Other websites may enter the lists, change, or leave the lists. Remember that the main reason for putting up a website it to be found by search engines, so do all you can to be friendly to them. More information on search engine optimization of websites can be found at platypus websites – www.platywebs.com.au

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

It’s all to do with supply and demand only around 135 people typed these key words in and the demand is around 620000 websites doing the same thing. When you pick your key words there needs to be a good demand for those key words. You can get lots of software that will look this up for you.

Spend time looking up key words that work else like me you can have a very good website all keyed for these words and get 0 hits. I started to think it was the design of the site, words like “FREE page ranking” would seem to be a good key phrase but the demand is 0 for this, humm this sounds a good phrase and so did 1650000 other website designers, so because I have looked up the phrase I now know not to spend hours designing a web page for this phrase.

Your website needs to be relevant to the phrase your using, If I type into Google ““Website promotion”” I expect to get sites for website Promotion, not a cook book!

This is why Google does what they do, they spider your web pages and the key words are taken. These keywords are from bits like the page title tags links hyper links, even the text that comes up when you hover over a picture.

Google also look to see the number of good links that point to your website, think about putting your url in your signature in any forum you have joined.

Key words need to be common and there needs to be a demand get Nichefinder or some other software to look up this information, it will save you months of time and work.

Lazerbri

http://www.gettothetop.info

Source: http://www.365articles.com

Keyword Optimization – How To Achieve It

The most important thing you can do for your business and your website is develop relevant keywords that are not too competitive yet generate targeted traffic to your website.

It’s called keyword optimization. Why is it important?

Because Keywords and keyword phrases do a coupleof things for you:

- With the right keywords, you will attract the viewers most interested in the items or services on your site.

- You will rank higher in the search engines for your chosen keywords, saving you thousands of dollars in advertising. It all starts, however, with the best keywords that pertain to your product or services.

When selecting keywords you should select 1 perhaps 2 of the most relevant keywords for each page of yoursite. I suggest using no more than two keywords per page, preferably one.

Why?

Because search engines strive to deliver the most relevant pages for the search term entered. The more focused your page is for the search term, the more relevant the search engines will find your page. The more keywords you use, the less focused your page becomes.

How do you find keywords that your target audience will use?

- Think like your readers. Take yourself outside your site for a minute and think about how you would find the products or services you are selling.

- Use Overture’s Keyword Selector Tool http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/Type in your most basic keyword and it will show you the variations of the search term and also the count of how many times that term was entered in the search engine.

- Think of phrases as opposed to one single word. If you sell clay pots, think of keywords such as painted clay pots, or clay flower pots, large clay pots, buy clay pots. Use descriptive words when brainstorming phrases.

- Ask your relatives, kids and friends what they would type in to find your products. You would be amazed at the great ideas that can be generated. For example, I asked a teenager once what he would type in to find shoes online and he said ‘nice kicks’. As of this writing, Overture’s keyword selector tool showed a count of 12130. Hmmm, never would have thought of it on my own.

- Use a thesaurus or Webster’s dictionary to find similar words to your chosen keywords. Consider allforms of the word. For example, for the term supply there is supply, supplies, supplier, supplying. Thinking of allforms of the word help a great deal in brainstorming keyword ideas.

- If you have a website already, place a search engine on your site. This would be a search engine that you put on your site that searches only your site such as http://www.freefind.com/ . This will help you collect data on what keywords users are using. Once you’ve collected a good list of search terms you can use this to help you determine the best keywords.

Along this same line, you can also use your website server logs to gather information on the keywords used to find yoursite. Once you’ve made a list of the best keywords and keywordphrases, you will need to determine which ones are the best.

Your challenge is to find keywords that have a high usage count but appear on the least amount of competing web pages. Wordtracker.com is an excellent tool for helping you achieve this. Wordtracker’s ‘Keyword Effectiveness Index’ (KEI) will provide you with the number of times a keyword is used along with the number of competing web pages. The higher the KEI, the more popular your keywords are, and the less competition. This means a better chance for you in getting to the top of the search engines.

Finding the best keywords and keyword phrases is an important part of your marketing mix. Find the correct keywords and build your content around them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

When designing a website you needs to consider where to host the website, whether it will be with a hosting company or doing it yourself and then does the site need to be dynamic, written in asp or php or will static html suffice etc, etc..
These are a few of the questions that need to be asked in a web site design process and they can all be answered if one factor is considered at all times, always remember your audience. If you keep this in mind, your website will have the highest relevancy possible to your audience, this way your will acheive more repeat visits as well as building upon unique visits.
This factor is important for any website, whether its primary focus is as an ecommerce enterprise, or as a reference for a specific subject. If your website is relevant to a targetted audience they will return, increasing either your revenue or returning for more information on a subject to which you have become a leading source for.
These two examples are actually at two ends of the spectrum, one requires specific features that can only be sensibly achieved by a dynamic site, utilising a database driven website in either php or asp, and other is traditionally a static site, quick to load and favouring information over interactivity…….but it doesn’t have to be.
Once the structure of the website has been considered and the decision to be dynamic or static has been taken, then a host needs to be found that meets the demands that are expected today and hoped for in the future. Moving web hosts is possible but if it can be avoided by selecting the right hosting providor in the first place this is always preferrable.

The next step is designing the website, keeping the audience in mind. A website that sells products online needs to be able to highlight several offers at the same time, allow easy and quick navigation to product types by a variety of methods, either brand name or product type and instill confidence for being professional so the visitor will use their credit card without fear of being a victim of online fraud.
Many will be surprised to know the name of the website is not always the first and most important factor today in website design. With the volume of websites, it is content, relevancy and link partnership which are first in search engine optimising. The domain name is for branding, chosen to be easily recognised, and if possible one that contains your keywords for promotion. Websites that are being redesigned do not have this luxury so they do not have the distraction of considering the domain name as the most important factor.
Once the web site design is complete, the site is online and ready for business the art of search engine optimising and search engine marketing becomes the priority. Build it and they will come does not apply to websites, constant promotion is required, and if time permits, constant tweaking to make sure the website is reindexed on a regular basis.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

It’s commonly understood that “people buy emotionally, not intellectually.” Even when people think they’re making a rational decision, powerful subconscious factors come into play. To sell effectively, we’re told to anticipate our customers’ needs, to demonstrate that we “feel their pain”, and to respond to clues in their body language and tone of voice.

In the “real world” we do this very well. And we know that if we can have a direct, in-person conversation, there’s a pretty good chance that we’ll close the sale or keep a happy customer.

For the online visitor, your Website is the next best thing to that in-person conversation with you, your colleagues or employees. And since so many people are researching products and services on the Web, it’s critical that your site has maximum impact in persuading them to take the next step with you.

So how does your Website connect emotionally with your visitors? Do they feel listened to, understood and appreciated by your Internet presence? Are you instinctively meeting their real needs? Do your existing customers feel supported and valued when interacting with you online?

Or are you failing to evoke the crucial emotional responses which can significantly enhance your response rates, sales and ongoing return on your Web investment?

The Critical Emotions for Website Success

I’ve been working with client Web strategies in a wide range of industries since 1995. Based on this experience, I’ve identified some key emotions that you need to evoke in your online visitors to create and sustain a profitable relationship.

How well your Website does this can have a major effect on the visceral, instinctive reactions of your visitors, and their propensity to buy from or connect with you.

In total, I have twenty criteria for emotional connectedness that I suggest for any Website. That’s too many to discuss in this article, but let’s look at a few highlights:

Do I Feel Recognized?

When we first meet in a business setting, we’re introduced, or we introduce ourselves with some statement about what we do, and why we should connect with each other.

When we talk with customers or prospects, it’s important to show very quickly that we understand their issues and needs, and that we have ideas and solutions to address these.

The most important task for your home page is to accomplish this initial introduction. You’ve heard the “ten-second” rule about how long a visitor will stay on a site that doesn’t engage them.

So, does your home page really tell me what you do? Does it speak to me in specific terms that make very clear what services you provide, and what type of customers or clients you work with? Does it use language that I’ll understand even if I don’t know the jargon of your industry or specialization?

Sounds simple?

There are astounding numbers of Websites that fail to provide basic information on the home page. If your goal is to get the customer to visit your store, does your home page clearly show your location, and how to get there? Every time you force the visitor to make a decision, such as “Do I click on the Contact Us page to find their address?”, you open up the possibility that they’ll make the wrong choice (from your viewpoint), or worse still, they’ll just leave.

And is it clear to me whether you can – or would want to – help me? Are you geared towards corporate bulk buyers, or small businesses, or both? Do you operate nationally or only in your immediate location? Will your visitors know what you mean by generic terms such as “business systems” or “total business solutions” or should you be more specific as to what you offer?

Do I Feel Engaged?

As we continue our “real-world” conversation, we start to find common points of interest, whether personal or professional. We begin to feel that we can relate with each other, and this helps to build our business relationship.

So your Website has to make the visitor feel drawn in – that they want to know more about your business, your products and your services – but again, from the viewpoint of their needs and interests. And you have to give the visitor a clear sense that you want to find those points of connection, and to learn more about them.

If the visitor doesn’t feel invited in, if they feel left to themselves to find their way around – if they’re overwhelmed, confused, or simply not interested in your site, they’ll leave.

Does your site present a bewildering array of manufacturers, products, or options without any guidance as to selecting from these? Think about the conversation that you’d have with a customer in your store. You’d find out what they were looking for, and then you’d ask a number of questions to help them find the right solution for their needs.

So how can you mirror this process online? You could offer a “Help Me” page that guides visitors through some Frequently Asked Questions or other choices and provides links to recommended products based on their answers. You could incorporate an interactive chat facility with a customer service agent during office hours, or access to a searchable knowledge base.

Do I Feel Convinced?

If the visitor is seeing your business for the first time, they need to be comfortable that you are who you say you are, and that you can deliver what you promise.

One of the most important elements in establishing this part of the connection is to show the “faces” of your business. Have you noticed how many Websites don’t name any of their owners, or the people that customers will interact with? It’s much easier to have a conversation when I know who I’m talking to!

Customer testimonials and other third-party endorsements are critical elements in establishing trust – they say far more about you than your own marketing statements. How many sites have we all seen that trumpet “nationally recognized” or “premier provider . . .”? Prove it!

Include client quotes and success stories right across your site where they’re front and center as visitors are engaged in your content. If you win an award, tell the visitor what that means for them in terms of how you were evaluated.

Do I Feel Motivated?

Towards the end of our “real-world” conversation, we’ll hopefully close a sale, or we’ll talk about some next steps, or we might say “Let’s stay in touch”. To do that with our online visitor, we need to persuade them to buy something, or to tell us who they are, and give us permission to reconnect with them.

Too many Web pages tail off with no call to action or directions about where to go next. If you don’t issue a clear invitation, you again leave it to the visitor to work out what to do – and you run a big risk of losing them.

So at every point on every page where the visitor might be thinking “Tell me more”, or “How do I get this?”, provide a clickable link to the next step, to your shopping cart, to your newsletter subscription page, or to whatever you want them to do. Don’t wait until the end of the page – they may never get there! Look for the emotional “tipping points” on every page where they’re ready to talk more with you and grab them in the moment!

Diluting the Connection

Of course, it’s all too easy to undo all the good feeling that we create by frustrating or annoying the visitor, or simply by giving them a dead end.

One of my favorite bugbears is the site search engine that allows me to enter my query, and then tells me “No results found. Please try again with different search terms”.

How is that supposed to make me feel? What was wrong with my keywords or my parameters if the search page allowed me to select them? Am I being stupid? Or do you really not want to help me?

Your visitor is clearly looking for something, and has taken a step towards connecting with you. So how about a results page that lets them know that you can’t immediately answer their question, but offers a link to your contact form so that they can send a question, or some tips or suggestions on how to find more information.

The ultimate customer service feature is an opportunity to interact with a live assistant – if your site offers this utility, the search results page is a perfect place to maximize its visibility.

So how “Emotionally Connected” is your Website?

I hope that I’ve sparked your curiosity enough to take a fresh look at your Website. Think about specifically why visitors are coming to your site, what might be on their minds, and review your copy and navigation accordingly. Think about new customers and existing ones, employees, media – everyone who might have a reason to visit. Are you doing everything that you can to create an “emotionally connected” experience for everyone?

The right mix will gain you significantly higher time spent on your site, more calls from pre-qualified leads, more signed contracts, happier repeat customers, attention from new markets, offers of strategic alliances and collaborations, and insights into creating successful new products and services.

(c) Philippa Gamse, 2005. All rights reserved.

Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is a Web strategy consultant and professional speaker. How does your site rate against Philippa’s twenty “emotionally connected” criteria? Visit http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/ to find out. Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317 or mailto:pgamse@CyberSpeaker.com

Source: http://www.365articles.com

The reason why a websites speed of download is important is actually very simple and we have broken it down into two parts:

-The first part is that people want to get to where they are going quickly. This is pretty straight forward and now a days no one seems to have the time to wait for a site to download(no matter how important it is).

-The second part is to deliver the content to the user as quick as possible so that we can keep them interested and entertained. The quicker they can get to the information the more they will click around your site and the more they will interact with your website. This is extremely important if your website has it’s own estore, as the more products your visitors are able to view then the more time they spend in your store and the better the chance you have of them purchasing something off of you.

Pretty simple and straight forward.

Now you may be wondering how you can take your current design or your re-design and improve the performance of your website so it doesn’t take forever for it to download. The truth is that it isn’t too complex and actually anyone can follow these steps. Here are some tips on how to get your website to load faster and why these factors may cause long load times:

1. Tip one is to use regular html text instead of graphic text(such as exporting text from a program like fireworks or photoshop). The reason for this is that html text carries alot smaller kbs size when added to website design. So anywhere that you use regular text instead of “graphical text” will really help decrease your page size making the download time quicker for each user.

2. Tip two is to limit other graphics uses on your website where you can. Some things such as using a graphic for your logo can not be avoided but try to make an effort to limit the amount of graphics on each page. The more graphics you use the higher your page size will be and the more time it takes to download it. Really graphic intensive websites can have users waiting a while for everything to download. Some occasions where it might be ok to use graphics is if they will also be used on subpages. These graphics will already be cached on your visitors computers and will not have to be downloaded again when a person visits your subpages.

3. Tip three is to limit the use of flash. It can make your page take even longer to load as the kbs size of each file are usually quite larger then any graphics on your website. This can really increase download times and in alot of cases is not necessary.

4. The final tip is to try not to nest tables inside of each other. Try to break down your design and use multiple tables. This way each table will load separately giving your visitors something to view while the rest of your site loads. If you load everything into one table then they will have to wait for the whole main table to load.

Remember the key is to get your users to the information as fast as possible. If you follow this advice and apply these rules to your site, then there is nothing saying you can’t have a quick loading and great looking website as well.

Anthony Jewell has over 6 Years experience in the Web & Graphics World. You can visit my business and join in conversation at Logo2D.com – Logo2D.com Forum

©Copyright 2005 Logo2D.com : Feel free to use this article freely but please keep in the copyright

Source: http://www.365articles.com

“Permission Email Marketing”, the only way to market your business via Email without getting yourself into trouble and giving you the ability to stay in touch and build a ongoing relationship with your customers and/or subscribers. The only question is… is email still a reliable vehicle to deliver your marketing messages to your potential customers and/or subscribers?

With the rising concerns of SPAM, Blacklisting, Email Filters, and CAN-SPAM laws, it’s getting Harder and Harder for legitimate “Permission Email Marketers” to reach there Target audiences with there Product or Service offers. The end result is… “Time Wasted” and “Loss of Profits”. Is your online business suffering from this? Only you can answer that.

Email used to be the MOST effective form of direct marketing online at one time before everybody started abusing it and there guidelines. Don’t get me wrong, email still is effective, the question is… how effective? The benefit to marketing with email was that you were able to get your marketing message infront of your Target audiences within a matter of minutes with a single click of your mouse, which at one time made MANY marketers “Buckets-Of-Money” literally over night.

Email WAS the answer at that time, but, what’s the solution for the future of “Permission Email Marketing”? Is there an answer to this rising problem with Email? I’ll give you three letters… RSS! Yes, there is a solution for “Permission Email Marketers” and/or for any online business owner who uses email to stay in touch with there customers and/or subscribers and that is RSS(Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication).

RSS is the NEW technology on the block(though its been around for quite some time) and is transforming the Internet and how businesses communicate with there customers and/or subscribers as we speak. The biggest benefit you’ll receive by incorporating RSS into your online business is… your customers and/or subscribers will receive 100% of your Product and/or Service offers. I’m going to say that again, “your customers and/or subscribers will receive 100% of your Product and/or Service offers”. No other online technology offers this benefit. Just imagine the increased response to your offers, which in turn will convert into more Sales and Profits for you and your online business. Rest assured, you could sleep at night knowing that your messages are reaching 100% of your Target audience without the worry of SPAM filters mistakenly marking your email as “SPAM” and that all that time you spent putting your offer together didn’t go to waste. Would you then consider RSS? I think you would. But, that is just my opinion.

There are many others benefits to using RSS which you can read about in a earlier article I wrote by clicking on this link — http://www.internetwondersezine.com/article_15.html — since there are to many to list within this article. Things are changing online, so we must change with it and adapt any new technologies we can in order to get the most out of our time and online businesses. So, with that said, if your a “Permission Email Marketer” and you’re not happy with the results your currently getting from using “Email”, then you might want to consider switching to “RSS”. 100% delivery rate is unheard of with Email, but, is GUARANTEED with RSS(Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

• Get ranked well on the most important search engines (Google, Yahoo, Msn, Ask.com, etc.)
• Pay Per Click (PPC) programs
• Per Click (CPC) programs
• Link Exchanges
• Directory Submissions
• And more…

All of these methods are valuable for getting traffic to your website. If you are not competent enough to rank well your keywords, you can obviously hire a SEO (Search Engine Optimizer) for this work. From search engines you can get a very large portion of traffic to your website.

Today, everyone wants to know the big secret to driving traffic to their website. Every day I see an article or an ad talking about driving people to your website; driving traffic to a website has become the “holy grail” on the Internet. People are realizing that if you build it, they won’t come… unless you give them a reason. Website traffic just doesn’t happen by itself. Your website is just one of many millions on the web and people rarely just stumble upon your site by accident.

There are many ways to drive traffic to your website. You can buy traffic from vendors that will pummel your website with hits from automated programs. This will increase your hits but will it increase your bottom line? Probably not. You can set up blogs that spider (connect to) your website increasing your traffic count. Does this drive users to your website? Only if your blog is so interesting that people are reading it. There are thousands of blogs posted on the internet and your blog is just a needle in the internet haystack.

Another trick is to create RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds for your website and subscribe to other RSS feeds. This again will increase your hit count but will do very little to drive potential customers to your website unless you’re providing valuable information. Tricks will increase your hit count but do very little todrive potential customers to your website.

People often turn to traffic exchanges. Quite simply, a traffic exchange is a program where you sign up and agree to surf sites in exchange for some credits. These credits are then used when other members of the exchange surf to your site. This traffic is not highly targeted traffic. In fact, if this were your only method of advertising your website, you’d probably fail. BUT it is a great method of getting traffic to your site in addition to the other methods listed above.

So, why do people use traffic exchanges? Here are a few of the benefits:

• Increase your Alexa rating! Did you know that some search engines factor your Alexa rating into their algorithms? More traffic means higher search engine placement!
• Increase your branding awareness. Any marketing expert worth his salt will tell you that branding is extremely important to stand out amongst the billions of websites out there. More traffic equals more sales. A percentage of people surfing will be enticed by your ads and click on them to find out more information. Another source of revenue. Many traffic exchanges will actually pay you money to surf. More importantly, as you refer other people to the network, you’ll earn a percentage of the money that they earn! It may be small amounts but if you work the system it could amount to a lot of money.

Now, before you head over to Google and search for Traffic Exchange, I’d recommend knowing a few facts:

• traffic exchanges are simply out to get money from you and will refer very little traffic to you.
• traffic exchanges have poor systems in place to stop cheaters from running programs to increase their credits faster.

Finally, some traffic exchanges will allow popup, active x controls, site rotators, etc. in their network. Any of these can stop your auto surfing from working, or even worse, allow your computer to be infected with a virus.

The best part about Traffic Exchanges is that you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The worst thing that could happen to you is you get a little bit of traffic which increases your Alexa rankings and you don’t get any money.

Of course, for the system to work, you’ve got to make sure that you do some surfing yourself. The makers of the exchange programs realize this and some of them even have an auto surf feature where you get a reduced number of credits while your browser happily loads page after page every 10 seconds or so.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The idea here isn’t about getting as many business directory listings as possible. The idea we need to create is about more community within your directory.

I always like using a “saying” I learned from network marketing: “I would rather utilize 1% of a hundred people’s effort, then utilize 100% of my own to market my business.” If you keep this in mind, there is nothing you can’t be successful at.

With that in mind let me be quick to point out that, I am not talking about creating an affiliate program. Those come a dime a dozen and can be bought. What we need to do is create something larger than ourselves. I am talking about taking our directory and improving everything involving people.

GENERAL DIRECTORIES ONLINE:

For these types of directories, it gets a little harder to create a community people can relate to. This is only true simply because the more broad your audience/visitors are, the harder it is to target your resources.

Here are some ideas you can use for a general directory:

- Create a blog and use it to feature some new listings within your directory. Maybe even offer a review of some kind.

- Offer the ability to add a logo or image attached with the listing in order to personalize it more.

- Give people the ability to submit more information than most of your competing directories out there.

- Make sure to include a detailed search function.

- Create an online questionnaire on tips to improve the directory. Use these tips right away.

- Email everyone within your directory maybe once a month outlining all of the new listings posted online for that month.

- Make sure to have a “news” page so that visitors can see what’s new.

I think you get the idea now. The whole point is, there is no limit as to how you can expand “around” your directory listings in order to increase the value of your directory online. The more you give back to people, the more they might tell their friends about your directory.

TARGETED TOPIC RELATED DIRECTORIES:

Whether your directory is targeting the local business community or you are targeting the international health community, having a directory that is more content specific will make it a lot easier to create a community based website.

Here are some ways to better your targeted directory:

- Create a forum detailing all of the topics within your directory so that people can discuss issues or tips within those categories. For ex. If you own a local business directory, create a forum to allow local business owners to discuss business related issues, hot commercial real estate properties, special deals on office equipment, etc.

- Create a news section that outlines some local news & events within your community. This will especially help to bring more local visitors to your directory and expose your listings further.

- Offer weather & traffic reports within local community directories.

- Add a feature page where you actually interview one directory member (maybe once a month). This will help people to get more familiar with the members of your directory and it will also help promote your directory. People who are submitting to your directory may only submit just for the chance to get interviewed about their service/product/expertise.

- Add a blog with your experiences related to the topics of your directory. This will help in two ways:

1) People will be able to relate to you and feel more connected with you.
2) People will begin to respect what you are doing and may tell more people about your directory since they are starting to feel that your directory is more people oriented instead of just simply getting the most listings in the world.

- Add related tips to the industry. The internet is full of reprint articles for your website. I am 99.9% sure you can find articles related to your industry. Maybe start a newsletter for members of your directory and send them tips on their industry. Who doesn’t want to learn more about their industry!?

In Conclusion:

As you can see from above, by simply taking some ideas here, and implementing them within your directory, you will be well on your way towards creating a more community-based directory. This is very important these days as more and more directories like yours are popping up everywhere.

Let’s not forget about search engines. They too are increasingly rewarding communities more than they are rewarding simple directories online. The more resources and content you add around your directory listings, the more valuable they become in the end and the more traffic you will get.

The more valuable your listings are, the more visitors will be willing to come back from time to time and possibly tell their friends about it. You never know what will make it or break it but, all we can do is try our best to increase the value of our increasingly popular online community.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

How do you think the Internet received the reputation as the “Information Super-Highway”? Because thats what its primary purpose was before they decided to commercialize it to what it is today. And… what do ‘Articles’ contain?

The answer is quite simple… “Information”. So, what does this have to do with you? Be the one who supplies it. It’s that simple. Now, for the rest of this article I’m going to give you 10 POWERFUL reasons why you should and/or need to get started using ‘Articles’ as one of your online marketing strategies so you too can reap the benefits. With that said, lets move on to reason #1.

Reason #1. Search Engines LOVE them. It’s no secret that Search Engines LOVE content, so if you supply it on a regular basis your giving them a great reason to stop on by to take a look around. Once there they’ll spider and index your website which is just what you want.

Reason #2. Website and Newsletter owners always need them. I touched base on this earlier about why web surfers come online. Website owners need fresh content to keep there visitors and/or subscribers coming back, where as newsletter publishers also need fresh content for there “email” newsletters that they publish and send to there subscriber base. Remember the two reasons I discussed earlier about WHY web surfers come online. BINGO!

Reason #3. They generate Life Long residual Traffic. Articles produce Life Long residual traffic because website owners, newsletter publishers and article directories archive them for there visitors to read and search through. And since you have a ‘Resource Box’ located at the end of every article you produce with your website info and URL you’ll receive traffic.

Reason #4. Great way to get One-Way HIGH PR links. This is probably one of the best reasons because when you offer your free information with ‘Reprint Rights’ and the website owner decides to archive your article within there article directory and their website happens to have a High PR(popularity ranking) ranking, guess what? You’ll be able to ‘Piggy Back’ off there PR giving your website a PR boost because at the end of every article you produce your able to leave your ‘Resource Box’ with all your websites info and most important of all, your URL.

Reason #5. They’re VIRAL. This is yet another great reason to start using articles as one of your online marketing strategies simple because your going to offer ‘Reprint Rights’ with all the articles you produce giving Website and Newsletter owners permission to publish them causing a VIRAL explosion and Traffic surge to your website.

Reason #6. You can syndicate them via RSS. If your up to speed on the latest marketing technology called RSS(Real Simple Syndication) and you write ‘Articles’ on a regular basis you can set-up an RSS feed that web surfers and/or website owners can ‘Opt-In’ to and syndicate your ‘Articles’ via RSS to them, plus, you can also submit your RSS feed(s) to RSS search engines and directories. Depending on how many ‘Opt-In’ this is yet another great reason to get started with ‘Articles’ and another way to generate LOTS of Free targeted traffic.

Reason #7. Bloggers with BLOGS need “Information” too. If you provide quality information related to a specific Blog that blog owner just might post your article on his/her blog for their audiences/readership to read giving you again more free exposure for your business. It gets better. Blogs also use RSS(Real Simple Syndication) to syndicate there content to various search engines, RSS search engines and directories giving you again more free exposure through their feed.

Reason #8. Info-Product developers need it too. Ever receive a free ebook of some sort in your Inbox with related articles inside it from other authors? When you offer your articles with ‘Reprint Rights’ and someone decides to include your article in there ebook for a Viral marketing campaign they’re working on, guess what? More free targeted traffic for you as that particular ebook circulates across the Internet.

Reason #9. Post them to related Forums and Newsgroups. Remember, the Internet is all about numbers and Forums and Newsgroups contain numbers to and are yet another avenue for you to gain some extra exposure for free for your online business through your articles. Just make sure you read there ‘Terms’ before you start posting because you don’t want to receive any ‘Flames’ in your Inbox.(They can be Nasty.)

Reason #10. You gain INSTANT credibility as an Expert. The best way to gain the trust of your potential customers online is to supply them with quality “Information”. By doing this your stepping up and telling them that you know what your talking about within the industry your in giving them a reason to look into what you have to offer further by following the link you provided within your ‘Resource Box’ at the end of your article.

WoW! Are those 10 POWERFUL reasons to get started with ‘Articles’ or what? You get all those benefits by just producing ONE article. The more you produce the more you’ll benefit. Do you see how powerful ‘Articles’ are now and how they can take your online business to the next level? I certainly hope so. In conclusion: “Content IS King” online and will remain King for as long as the Internet exists. It’s now up to you to step up to the plate and decide whether or not You want to tap into this ‘Proven Internet Marketing Strategy’ yourself and reap all the benefits I just finished explaining above.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Currently, MSN still displays search ads from Yahoo! Search Marketing, through a contract that runs until July 2006, but the new technology from Microsoft is just a few steps away from being fully implemented. In the first phase, MSN AdCenter was put to the test in France and Singapore and it was launched to public access in Singapore on August 31 and in France on September 26. The results from the two pilot countries were very promising so, apparently, the paid search program will go into beta testing in the United States in October 2005.

Advertisers love the PPC system rather than others because it’s cheaper and more targeted; they only pay when their ads get clicks. Until now the two major choices for PPC were Google Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing. However, when a third major competitor turns up, one can only hope that cost per click (CPC) gets cheaper, thus lowering the advertising costs.

As to what the new service features, the competition promises to be tough, especially in the research and targeting tools area. The advertisers are able to specify what kind of audience they wish to target by demographics – geographic location, gender, age group, lifestyle segment and time of day – and the system can provide keywords to be used in search campaigns. All these data can be accessed before the advertisers place their ads. Even more, it seems that the Adcenter program will provide feedback related to keywords performance and advertisers will be able to switch to more effective ones during the ad campaigns. Eric Hadley, senior director of advertising and marketing for MSN, says the new platform is meant to help users drive ROI from a search campaign beyond just knowing if somebody clicked on it, but also knowing if someone is likely to click on it. As for Google Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing, they both provide geographical targeting but they don’t have demographics features. Meanwhile, the new AdCenter platform goes more towards customer profiling and behavior.

Search engine advertisers can’t wait to see their keyword based campaigns become even more targeted. However, they’ll have to wait a little bit longer, because there’s no serious encouragement that the full-scale deployment of AdCenter will be possible before the end of this year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

If you are new to website promotion, you may need to know how this works. First, you need to read, and then you write about what you have learned. I have found that there is definitely no shortage of information on the web.

Take the information and put into your own words, your thoughts and feelings regarding what you have learned through your reading, and experiences and knowledge of your own. Sit down and write from 350 to 700 words about what you think or have learned in this process. When submitting them to article publishing sites for approval, make sure to add your website links in the author’s note, to link your website to other websites. Then when other website owners need valuable content to post on their website, you have gained the opportunity to put your link on someone else’s website. They go to the article publishing sites to find good content, and if they like yours, you get a free link. Easy, and free.

You can join a power linking forum and get a complete list of article syndication sites to submit your articles to, or do a search of your own. You then can either submit your articles manually, or pay an article submission site to submit them for you for approval. Since I want mine free, and have the time, I do my own submissions manually. Please take the time to correct grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure before submitting your articles, and be sure to read each sites rules for submission to insure your articles are considered for publishing. Some of them have some strict rules and guidelines, especially regarding where your links can be placed in the article. Most will only allow links in the author’s note box.

The next thing you need to do is set up a blog. This, too, is free and lots of fun! There, you can even post your very own personal journal. I have chosen to make mine about online business promotion, and post only articles about online businesses. Do a search for free blogs to find the one that is right for you. Post your articles on your blog. It’s easy and fun to do, with copying and pasting from a word document. You can also post your photos on your blog. To build your traffic, make sure you include a link to your main website near the top of your blog.

The more content your blog has, the better the search engines love you. If you need more content than you can possibly write in the beginning, you can use articles others have written on the subject you are creating for your blog. Article publishing sites are full of good quality articles on just about any subject you may want to choose. But you must always include the author’s note at the bottom, to give the author credit and the opportunity to have his or her link displayed on your site. After you have given your blog valuable content, you need to “ping” your blogsite, so search engine spiders will find you. This helps to build your traffic to your blog. Then due to your link on your blog to your main webpage site, you increase your main website traffic. I use “Ping-O-Matic” for mine. It gets submitted to many different sites at once, and very simple to do.

Next, you can link your blog to other blogs by joining a bloglinking site. You get lots of free traffic, and other bloggers leave comments on your blogspot, leaving a link, and you can link on their blogs the same way. Free, Free, Free, Traffic!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ollie Rains owns the work at home directory website located at: http://www.OMRains.net Come by and visit us today! Also, be sure to check out our “top pick” work at home opportunity at: http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-9523 For articles on promoting your online business, visit: http://www.omrains.blogspot.com
NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the “About The Author” resource box. Thanks!

Dreaming of getting tons of targeted traffic to your site without spending a red cent? Fantasizing of effective free advertising? Then you should definitely start writing articles for promotion! The things youve gotta love about articles are:

A. They’re free to submit, allowing thousands of people to read them (and see your web link) without costing you a dime.

B. They prepare a visitor for purchasing your product or service much more effectively than a three line Pay Per Click ad possibly could.

C. They create a ton of inbound links to your website, which in turn boosts your Search Engine ranking (making it easier for people to find your site).

So, whether you have a product to sell, an affiliate product to promote, a newsletter, or just want more truly targeted traffic to your website, writing articles is THE way to go.

Here are the 4 steps to getting NON-STOP traffic using articles:

1. Write an informative, interesting article that your target audience would enjoy reading. Make sure that the subject covered in your article relates to the content on your site or you wont convert very many sales or opt-ins.

For instance if your website caters to dog owners: DO write an article on the different breeds of dogs or anything else to do with dogs, but DONT write an article about cats.

2. If you don’t believe you can write a very good article then pay someone else to write it for you. Elance.com is an excellent place to find potential article writers. Someone on Elance will write you a quality article for a low one time fee, and then you just slap your name on it and promote it as your own (this is perfectly legal).

3. The next step is writing the ad that is inserted at the end of your article in the byline, authors bio, about the author, resource box or whatever else it may be called. This little 3 to 5 line ad will entice your readers to visit your site.

EXAMPLE:Jane Doe is the author of Hot Copywriting Tips, a must have online newsletter for all website owners. Go to http://www.JanesSite.com to grab your FREE copy now.

4. Submit your article to every article site that has a category relevant to your article, and you’re ready to roll.

Now get started promoting your articles. Get them out there fast if you want to set your traffic counter spinning.

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IS there a solution to this never ending concern for Permission Email Marketers? You bet there is. There called… “RSS Autoresponders”. You read right, RSS autoresponders. They’ve now taken the newest technology (RSS – Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication) that hit the net and turned it into a permission email marketers dream come true. And… the cool thing about RSS autoresponders is they work much like a traditional email autoresponders, just with a few different features and benefits.

Time is something I value dearly, as I’m sure you do as well, especially when you work so hard on a email to your subscribers, I would think you would want to make sure it reaches them. So… for the rest of this article I’m going to give you the… Top 10 Reasons WHY “RSS Autoresponders” Are Becoming A Permission Email Marketers BEST Friend … and WHY you should Seriously consider the switch if your a Permission Email Marketer. The Internet is changing, so we must change with it. So, with that said, lets get down to business by going to the first and my MOST favorite reason.

Reason #1. 100% delivery rate of your messages. This is probably the single most BIGGEST benefit you’ll receive by using an RSS autoresponder is getting 100% of your marketing messages infront of your prospects and/or existing customers.

Reason #2. Blacklisting is the thing of the past. Never worry about being Blacklisted again because of someone else using your shared server and sending SPAM emails through it and getting you Blacklisted as the end result.

Reason #3. Forget CAN-SPAM and Email Laws. You can now forget about all the email laws and CAN-SPAM because now they no longer apply to you because you are no longer an email publisher, your a RSS publisher. There’s a BIG difference.

Reason #4. Subscribers can Opt-In via web forms or links. This is a critical feature to have with RSS autoresponders because it will allow an easy switch by simply replacing your email web forms with RSS web forms on your website(s). Plus, this will make sure there won’t be any confusion for your potential subscribers with some new Opt-In method.

Reason #5. Personalize your out-going messages. That’s right, you can personalize your out-going messages with custom data fields of your choice, just like a traditional email, giving your marketing message a professional look and giving you more credibility as a professional marketer.

Reason #6. Write freely with all the forbidden email words. Now you have the freedom to write using any Word or Phrase you wish without the worry of SPAM filters/blockers intercepting your messages and labelling it as “SPAM”, and still have your message achieve 100% delivery rate to your subscribers. Isn’t that great or what?

Reason #7. Unlimited message delivery. Like I said earlier in the article, RSS autoresponders work just like traditional email autoresponders with the same functions. What I’m saying is, you are able to set-up Unlimited timed sequential autoresponder messages that will automatically follow-up your leads for you at your desired time or dates. And, the real cool thing here is, you’ll be able to sleep knowing 100% of your messages are reaching your potential customers.

Reason #8. Broadcast as often as you like. With RSS autoresponders, your also able to broadcast to your subscribers as often as you like with your marketing messages and/or special offers just like traditional email autoresponders.The only difference is, 100% of your marketing messages are reaching your subscribers, meaning, more profits in your pocket.

Reason #9. Many options for managing your subscribers. Just like traditional email autoresponders, RSS autoresponders also give you many different options for managing and editing your subscriber lists. I won’t go into alot of detail on this simply because it basically works the same as an email autoresponder list manager.

Reason #10. Ad tracking and report generation. You can even track who, where, when, what week or month your subscriber subscribed and much more using RSS autoresponders, giving you valuable statistics and information about your subscribers and much more.

I think these 10 reasons I just outlined above are in my mind pretty beneficial to a Permission Email Marketer wouldn’t you think? In conclusion, I would have to say that the BIGGEST benefit to RSS autoresponders is that they GUARANTEE 100% delivery on your marketing message to your subscribers, saving You valuable time and frustration, and giving you the edge you need in order for you to make the most Profit from your broadcast. The technology is here, so we must adapt.

This concludes the “Top 10 Reasons WHY “RSS Autoresponders” Are Becoming A Permission Email Marketers BEST Friend”.

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