Internet Marketing Solution

Let’s suppose for a minute that you’re hungry (maybe you are now that I’ve mentioned it?). You want something new and different to eat. So you connect to the internet and type in the word “recipes” at Google. Your search result will include millions of websites all related to recipes.

But let’s say you had a specific type of recipe in mind; maybe a dessert dish or a Mexican recipe. So you don’t want to search through all the random recipes you found using a vague search term like “recipes”. You want to narrow the playing field. So let’s get more specific. You now type in “Mexican dessert recipe” and the search engine finds far fewer possibilities. Now the results are geared more toward what you really wanted.

I’m sure you already realize all this, but let’s think about it for a minute from the stand point of your business. We already know that most people only look through the first few pages of any search result.

Realistically, that’s only about the first 30 listings per search. Therefore, you need to get listed on the first few pages of the results for keywords related to your site. How much harder do you think it would be to get listed in the top 10 for a search result of 10,000,000 (like recipes) than one with only 50,000 results (like Mexican dessert recipes)? You do the math! Based on that, which goal do you think is the most realistic to set?

One common misunderstanding with search engines and web site optimization is to try to be something for everyone. Many people think this will be the key to more sales. So they optimize their website for keywords that are most frequently searched. These are usually really general keywords that may be difficult to get a higher ranking for.

Alas, as you can see, this just doesn’t pan out on the internet. Broad sites tend to get lost in the shuffle.

If your site revolves around a general topic, it will be buried within the 10,000,000 other related sites.

No one will ever find it.

And no one will ever buy your product no matter how wonderful it is if they can’t find it.

Worse yet, the people searching using these really broad terms usually aren’t out to buy anything. Now this is just a generalization, but it tends to hold true. The more specific searchers tend to be the people looking for something specific to buy and the general searchers tend to be looking for info and nothing else. Remember, this isn’t always the case, but it seems to be a trend.

So rather than building a site revolving around general topics like “recipes”, “cooking” and “food”, you should build one around a tightly focused niche. The less competition, the easier it will be to find your site.

Would you like a tool to help you with your site’s search engine optimization? Look no further. Click here to learn more.

Technorati Tags: keywords, search engines, web site optimization

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If you’re going to start podcasting, then you need to know what Podcatcher software (also called a podcasting client) is so you can tell your visitors about it (and you may find it a handy tool).

Basically, podcatcher software is an application that downloads and organizes podcasts.

This tool gets the audio file from the feed to your MP3 player virtually automatically. There is generally a url that corresponds to the RSS feed you’re interested in. You copy and paste this url in your podcatcher. From there, the podcatcher updates the feed file every time a new podcast file is available for download.

A podcatcher is a media aggregator. It allows you to select and download audio (and video) files anywhere on the internet to your desktop. Once you select a feed (like yoursite.com….) it will download new files automatically at the times you specify. The files will be waiting for you on your computer. They will be added to your library.

The podcatcher software only downloads new files added to the feeds. When it gets a new podcast file, it puts it in a directory on your computer. You then copy these over to your MP3 player (you can even have it set up to do this completely automatically while your recharging it). No waiting for downloads. No manually selecting the feeds. The podcasts will all be ready for you to play when you want to hear them. You use a player (like iTunes or Quicktime) or load them to your iPod to play whenever you want.

I’m sure you’re starting to see how convenient this is for clients (and for you). That’s why the podcast phenomenon is only just beginning.

Are you ready to take your blog to the next level by adding a podcast? Deliver a quality podcast and get your message out to thousands of targeted buyers. Learn more with Podcast Secrets Revealed.

Technorati Tags: podcasting, RSS, audio, aggregator, feed, feeds, podcatcher

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RSS stands for really simple syndication. It’s a format for syndicating your web content.

You probably already know this, but let me explain it as precisely as possible. Syndication is when a section of a website is made available for other sites to use. If you choose to syndicate your content, you make part of your website content available. Other sites can display updating lists of content from them.

This is all accomplished by subscribing to a feed.

Once the content is in an RSS format, a special RSS updater program can check for changes. These RSS updater programs are commonly called news aggregators.

RSS is used for syndicating news and even personal weblogs.

Let’s say you like to read CNN news, some industry specific news and a couple of your favorite blogs every morning. Instead of visiting each site separately, you just add the feed from the site to your aggregator and you get all the information in one convenient package delivered right to you.

Usually the headline and a brief description are syndicated. For the full story, you normally click on the headline in your feed.

The news aggregator usually presents the articles in a list format. One line or two (or whatever the author has agreed to be syndicated) is shown from each article with a link back to the full story.

The aggregator tracks updates for you.

So by allowing other sites on the internet access to your headlines and a brief description of your posts (or articles - whichever you prefer to call them), your RSS feed can be distributed on 1,000’s or more sites. This is possible just by having your RSS feed available. Keep in mind, all the sites displaying your RSS feed will have a link back to your site. This way, you can get tons of traffic to you by just making some of your content available.

Talk about exposure!

Are you ready to get in on the action and start making money online with a blog? Then check out these blog and rss videos. Just click here to learn more.

Technorati Tags: weblog, articles, RSS, aggregator, feed, syndication

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A blog, or weblog is a frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links.

But more than that, it can provide you with maximum exposure for your creativity. All it takes is to hit the ‘post’ or ‘publish’ button and your writing is now out there for the world to see!

Blogs are everywhere on the internet today. Their ease of use and global reach have been a big reason for their popularity.

Blogger.com and WordPress are free as are many other blog tools.

There is no delay for the printing presses to roll it out, it’s published. And there’s another reason for their popularity with internet marketers as well…

Social Proof The fact that people post comments on your blog is social proof at work. This is very important for the marketer. It only helps your business when others know that your product or service is popular.

Here’s an example. If you go to a restaurant on a Friday night and no one is there, are you going to wonder about the food or the service? I’m betting that you will. But if you go to a busy restaurant, where you have to wait, you will think to yourself “it must be good if everyone is willing to wait”.

This is social proof at work.

When you visit a regular site, you have no real way of knowing if anyone else visits it. Techniques like putting up testimonials, showing a hit counter, etc… will help put your mind at ease that you’re not the only one considering what the site has to say. Having links on other sites also helps because people start feeling confident that your site is popular.

Blogs have a social proof feature built right into them….

The comments.

If others are interested in what you post and even comment on it then that shows that you have a sort of community. You want this. Never disable the comments on your blog. You can of course read them first and delete those that are spam, but the comments are crucial.

It shows that someone read actually reads your blog and feels strongly enough about it that they wanted to make a comment.

If you’d like to learn more about Blogs, I recommend Marketing Rampage with Blogs and RSS. Click here to learn more about this step-by-step video package that will help you get your blog up and running in 48 hours.

Technorati Tags: Wordpress, weblog, RSS, social proof

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First of all let’s get at the heart of what multimedia really is. Here’s a standard definition:

Multimedia is the art of combining text, graphics, audio and/or video to create a vivid presentation and compelling experience.

If may sound a bit complicated, but all you need is your imagination, a little know how, a few tools, and you can be on your way to creating multimedia presentations. You can do this without high-end equipment, models and voice professionals.

Why use it?

Multimedia can be used effectively as a creative marketing strategy. People are sensory creatures. A simple yet effective audio or visual message will help you create a better connection with your prospects.

You see, you’re not hiding behind the printed word. You’re exposed and out in the open. This connection can lead to an increase in your sales conversion rate. That means more money for you.

It’s a proven fact that people are more likely to remember what they both read and hear. Therefore, an audio or video clip promoted along with your copy will really help deliver a powerful message.

You can also use a multimedia marketing campaign to help increase your conversion rate for any affiliate products you offer (or should be offering) as a back-end to your clients. Virtually no one records a multimedia message for affiliate products. No one wants to work that hard!

Imagine what could happen if you give it a try?

Learn more about adding streaming audio and video to your websites and blog with Webmaster Media Maker.

Technorati Tags: Multimedia, audio, video

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Have you heard a few of these terms?

Podcasting, audioblogging, videopodcast, vidblogs, vogs, vlogging, videoblogging, screencasting, webcasting, vodcasting?

Whatever you want to call it makes no difference. What we are talking about here is adding multimedia (not just audio) to your blog and allowing the user to access it via an RSS feed.

While everyone else ponders the exact meaning of these strange words, it’s time to take action and start profiting from keeping it simple and putting multimedia on your blog. Now!

Let’s think about it for a minute. Blogs are notoriously popular in the business world for building a relationship with consumers. So what happens if you take a normal blog, one just with text, and add in pictures, audio or even video? The relationship skyrockets!

Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words.

You’ve just multiplied and leveraged your time tremendously.

People are more likely to comment because you have built up a more solid relationship with them.

Can you imagine how many more sites will have your feed incorporated in it when you start using audio and video? They won’t know how to do it so will jump at the chance to put your stuff on their site. Remember, it will all have a link back to your site. This is free advertising!

If you’re ready to learn more about adding a podcast to your blog, then I recommend Podcast Secrets Revealed. Learn how to create your podcast and a live audience within hours!

Technorati Tags: podcasting, vlogging, vodcasting, RSS, Multimedia, videoblogging, videoblog, vlog

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Did you know that one of the best ways to get free traffic to your wordpress blog is through Technorati?

You don’t even need to do any search engine optimization to get your blog posts to rank high in this popular blog search engine.

You can start getting traffic through Technorati quite easily by simply tagging your posts.

What is tagging?

Tags are basically keywords. A tag can be a category or a subject. When we talk about tagging, all we are basically referring to is how you summarize what your webpage or site is about.

Is it about dogs?

If so, then you might want to use the tag, “dogs”.

What else is your site (or blog) about?

Perhaps German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, dog training, and puppy toys.

Well, then all these would make great tags as well.

So the concept of tagging is not really that much different from your standard keywords.

If you’re interested in learning more about flooding your blogs with free traffic from Technorati, you may want to check out my Tagging Secrets ebook. There is also a free blog (with content) at the site, just visit http://www.taggingsecrets.com/blog/.

Technorati Tags: Wordpress, tagging, Technorati, tags

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Should you go with Mambo or Joomla? Well at this point I’m not sure it really matters. They are both very similar content management systems. I’m sure someone with more technical skills than I have will disagree with me, but for now, I just don’t see much difference.

Both have the same admin, use the same templates, and many of the same components, modules, and mambots (these are really just plugins). I’m sure as time progresses, mambo and joomla will become less like each other, but it just hasn’t seemed to happen yet.

I did notice that joomla had a couple of bugs that were a little surprising. By that I mean the system works great as is, but when you start adding plugins, a couple of the most popular ones did not seem to “play nice” together. The Joomla community already had an update to fix it though by the time I came across the problem.

There is an enormous amount of support for both of these CMS’s. I just don’t think you’d go wrong choosing one over the other — so just pick one and get started building your community sites!

Technorati Tags: content management systems, Mambo, Joomla

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Find hot new trends to create products or services in. That’s the latest from Google with their launch of Google Trends, a unique, new trend searching tool. Here’s a little about how it works…

When you type in a word (or words) Google Trends reports back with a chart that shows how often the keywords or keyphrases are searched for over time. You may see some sharp spikes or a flat plateau depending on the “trend factor” of your search.

Obviously, a keyword that is searched for steadily over time will show a plateau, whereas a keyword related to a passing topic (like tax extensions) will show a sharp spike about the time of its peak (probably right after the tax deadline in April here in the U.S.).

One interesting point to make is that under the graph, Google Trends will show the top 10 cities that searched for the term. Very useful if you’re going to pursue offline marketing techniques.

It will also display the top few regions (i.e., U.S., India, Canada, United Kingdom) and the top languages.

Off to the right of the screen, you will see a few links to news articles pertaining to your topic. They have letters by them that correspond to the peaks on the graph. So you can see how the news relates to the searches.

So how can you use this information?

Well for starters, if you have a news site (or one in a niche market where you like to think you’re an authority), you can quickly find out whether or not people are searching on a particular keyword. You can also find some relevant news articles to write about on the topic. Just quickly summarize the news and supply your readers with a link to the full article.

One nice feature about Google Trends is that you can compare keywords and phrases. Just type in a few related words (separated by comma) and you will see a graph that shows both terms pitted against each other. That way you can see relationships. This feature is unique (that I know of) to Google Trends.

To show you the power of this new tool, you can type in “blogging, podcasting”. The graph supplied shows how people are searching for both terms almost equally.

Since podcasting and blogger are intertwined, you would think one would follow the other in popularity, and it seems that they have. When one peaks, so does the other.

This is excellent market research for you if you are in the blogging market. You know without a doubt that your bloggers will be interested in the latest news in podcasting. You can even see the major news stories that correspond with the peaks and provide your bloggers with similar information.

You may try Google Trends out for yourself here…

http://www.google.com/trends

I don’t believe this free tool will replace the popular keyword research tools (like Wordtracker), nor is it meant to. For one, Google Trends does not list how many searches there are for any given keyword … all you see are the peaks, plateaus, and valleys. For another, it doesn’t return any related results. All this is fine, Google Trends is a great resource in its own right.

But if you want to research keywords and phrases for building a website around (and SEO), you will still want to use a tool like Wordtracker.

Technorati Tags: Wordtracker, Google Trends

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I’ve had a few people come to me with a mini-site asking for advice on how to optimize it for the search engines. As you probably already know, most mini-sites are just one page sales letters. They’re great for getting a sale, but they don’t work so well for ranking high in the search engines.

So how should you optimize your sales letter or mini-site for the search engines?

My reply is simple…

DON’T!!!!

Now, I’m sure you’re probably wondering why I’ve even brought this up if that’s all I have to say. But, like I said it’s simple. Absolutely, never optimize your sales letter for anyone or anything other than prospective customers.

Now, I can hear what you’re saying, “How will I get anyone to look at my sales letter if I don’t rank well in the search engines?” … “I can’t afford to pay $4.67 for every stink’in click.”

No worries, you won’t have to. Here’s what you do instead.

Build a second site that is optimized for the search engines and then put ads for your mini-site product (or service) on it. Before you fly off the handle with all the extra time and money this will cost you, hang on a second…

If you want to be an internet marketer, you’re going to have to be comfortable using the internet. This also includes putting up sites. You can definitely outsource this, but it’s really not that hard to buy a domain name (BTW these are about $8.95/year so this isn’t much of a cost) and then just put up a wordpress blog. You don’t need to know HTML, PHP, or any other coding language if you don’t want (honestly though, using Dreamweaver is about as easy as Microsoft Word once you give it a try - but I understand if you don’t want to).

You can even use a reseller hosting account if you want to keep things simple. Put both the mini-site and the SEO site on the same account and pay less than $25 a month. Reseller accounts usually come with CPanel which allows you to install wordpress or a few other content management systems with a couple of mouse clicks. All of these free CMS’s have free templates that you can change with just a few clicks of your mouse. There are so many free templates with wordpress that I don’t think anyone knows what or where they all are.

So if nothing else, set up your SEO site with a wordpress blog. Wordpress works great for SEO anyway. Then use Wordtracker to get some low competition/high key phrases and optimize the site for them. Write several posts using these key phrases and start a link building campaign. If you do this right, you’ll get free search engine traffic to your new site within a few weeks. This trickle can grow to a flood of traffic — funnel all of it over to your sales letter.

If you have an opt-in list (which you should) then send people over to a page set-up just to get people to opt-in (a namesqueeze page). Give them a teaser on your SEO site (or even let them sign up right there). Test different advertisements for your product and get people over to your sales letter.

With a little work, you’ll have a highly optimized site for the search engines that serves to send potential customers over to your highly converting sales letter. Now you have the best of both worlds!

An added benefit to this way of doing things is that this particular income stream is not dependent on just one site. If something happens to one of them, you still have the other. You can easily sell your product from the SEO site if you have to. And you can still send traffic to your sales letter site from paid advertising if the other one gets bumped from the search engines.

Anytime you can add in a “safety feature” like that to your business, it’s worth a little extra work!

Technorati Tags: link building, SEO, blog, advertising, content management systems, Wordpress, Wordtracker, namesqueeze

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