Website Traffic Generation Planning and Methodologies

By Duncan Wierman (c) 2009
Real Estate internet marketing is like any other kind of marketing, you're trying to reach a niche market and must plan accordingly. You have to start by identifying your target market in order to develop your message conveying exactly the kind of high value business proposition which your niche will respond to.


The first steps are to:

1) Identify your target market; start with geo targeting and work with the demographics from there.

2) Decide how you want to be perceived by this target market and decide how you'll foster this
perception.

3) Identify and refine your value proposition.

Does Your Site Stand Out or Stand Still!

Once you've done this, the next step is to develop and distribute your value proposition, making sure that your value proposition is perceived by your target market exactly as intended. In marketing, shaping consumer perception isn't just the most important thing: it's everything.

You have to start by positioning yourself to be perceived in a specific way; from here, you'll need to maintain, develop, grow or alter this market position as you deem necessary.

The real challenge is putting these principles into action:

Driving Traffic

There are some important principles of traffic generation you need to understand in order to be successful at bringing visitors into your website.

There are both principles and rules of traffic generation; principles have to do with your approach to the task and the rules are the practical nuts and bolts of driving traffic. You need to have an understanding of the larger picture before you can successfully put the practical techniques into action.

What you'll usually see a lot of is the techniques alone. While this is still valuable information, you probably won't get far with these techniques if you aren't versed in the underlying principles of traffic generation.

These are the most important principles of traffic generation:

• Traffic generation isn't a black art - it's something which largely relies on common sense and methods which can be replicated with consistent results.

• The reason people usually fail in their traffic generation efforts is that they don't truly commit to making traffic generation techniques a fully integrated part of their business strategy.

• You need to create a plan for driving traffic. Think of it as a road map; follow it, but remember that it's not carved in stone. Your plan can and should evolve to reflect your real life experience and results.

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• Continually test and track the results of your traffic generation efforts - and adjust your plan accordingly.

• Set goals for yourself and as you meet them, raise the bar; traffic generation is a process, not a single objective.

• Don't be discouraged if you don't see results immediately.

• Remember that driving traffic begins with building your site - Why is this? Because your site should be built from the ground up with visitors in mind. Look at other sites in your industry to gain an understanding of patterns of visitor behavior.

See what these other sites are doing; don't hesitate to take a page from your competition's playbook if you see something which is working for them.

This is where things can become challenging; it's something like standing in Grand Central Station at rush hour with a megaphone, trying to be heard above the noise of the crowd. The goal here is to get the attention of your target market and get them to come to your site.

All business is arbitrage. You're taking something which is cheap (to you, at least) and exchanging it for something of higher value - buy low, sell high.

[Video: Your Website on Google's First Result Page!]

For example, SEO and other free traffic generation strategies essentially trade your time for traffic which is of higher value to you; this value may be measured directly in monetary terms or in other means (for instance, as signups to a list). The same is true of paid methods of driving traffic like PPC advertising; you're paying what you deem to be a small amount for something else which you see as more valuable.

If you've been reading carefully so far, you may have noticed that I haven't said a word about being indexed by the search engines; that's because this falls under the heading of techniques, not the principles of traffic generation. While you do of course want to be indexed, this isn't your primary objective - and it's something which will happen naturally as you work to drive traffic using other strategies.

Don't lose sleep over the search engine crawlers; they will come sooner or later. Remember that even once your site is indexed, there's no assurance that visitors will follow. Focusing on being indexed is losing sight of the forest for the trees. This will happen anyway as a side effect of using other traffic generation methods. What you should be focused on is getting targeted traffíc to your site. For instance, if you exchange links with another site (or even a directory) relevant to your industry, the search engine crawlers will follow these links when indexing this other site and voila! Your site will be indexed.

What you need to do is to let the web know that your site is there while simultaneously driving targeted traffíc. The best way to do so is to create links to your site from other sites; not only do these result in your site being indexed, but back links are great SEO and of course, they can generate traffic directly through visitor clicks.

Read the rest of Duncan's article at SiteProNews.com
"Website Traffic Generation Planning and Methodologies"


About The Author
Duncan Wierman is an Ex Software company CEO turned Real Estate Investor and Marketer. Discover how to outsmart your competitor, ethically dominate the search engines, and legally siphon off tons of cash in hand buyers from your website! Get a customized Free report on what is wrong with your website! InternetMarketingConsultingGroup.com

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Increase Search Traffic with Horizontal Content

Making Money with Content By Covering More Ground
Those new to blogging or article writing have often been told to focus on one very niche topic. One narrow vertical. That has commonly been considered the way to gain credibility, readers, links, and ultimately traffic, which assuming the blog/site itself isn't your primary source of income, could lead to sales of your products/services. But is keeping it narrow really the best way to go?



For some, it is. Another way to go would be to cover as much ground as you possibly can. Throw a wide net out there and see what you catch. Once you see what you've caught, maybe you can catch more in the same area. The thinking is that the more ground you cover, the more people you are potentially exposing your work to. It's going horizontal, rather than vertical.

Mike McDonald of WebProNews had an interesting discussion about horizontal content sites with Lawrence Coburn, president of RateItAll. As its name suggests, RateItAll covers a variety of topics by offering reviews (along with some social elements) for each vertical. They cover a lot of ground: pets, movies, music, television, beauty, travel, gadgets, video games, sports, Internet, auto, politics, celebrities, books, companies, camera/video, fashion, food, drink, health, and baby.

The Rise of Horizontal Content Sites

Demand Media, as Coburn says, is kind of the poster-boy site for horizontal content. They have an algorithm that helps them determine the content to produce. It has now been revealed that AOL is going down a very similar path.

The more resources you have, the better off you will be, of course. That is why big companies with deep pockets find the horizontal content angle so attractive. They can afford to pay to have a lot of people create content. In paid search, they can afford to bid on keywords across the board.

But just because it's easier for a big company to go horizontal, that doesn't mean a small business or a blogger/writer can't keep the same principle in mind. Small businesses can find success in e-commerce, despite the fact that Amazon and Walmart are only a click away. The same goes for horizontal content sites.

If you're going to go the route of trying to cover as much ground a possible, it doesn't mean that quality should be sacrificed. It's not about quantity over quality. Search engines like quality, and more importantly, so do users (who also like to share quality content via social networks). Search engines like Google want to deliver the highest quality results possible to the user, and they're getting better and better at doing this as time progresses.

You may not be an expert in everything. Who is? There are different ways to construct quality content in areas you are less familiar with. For one, obviously, you can get experts to write content for you in any given niche. You can also perform thorough research before tackling a specific topic. The more you learn along the way, the more knowledgeable you will be anyway, and what is an expert if not someone that has a thorough understanding of a subject?

If you can cover more ground, you can attract a wider audience, which means more traffic, which means more eyeballs, which means more advertising dollars. AOL knows this, and is planning on making it a very significant part of its business. But even if you don't have the resources of a company like AOL, it is still a model that can potentially earn you a living.

About the Author:

Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Twitter: @CCrum237

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Google Caffeine And The New Ranking Factors

Google Caffeine is the name given to Google's "Next Generation" search engine, which it will use to rank and index all the pages on the wonderful world wide web. According to all indications, this is not just another one of Google's infamous Updates, but a major "Overhaul" of its index and algorithm, the complex formula and calculations Google uses to rank all web pages, including yours.
If that doesn't sound ominous enough, according to Matt Cutts (Google Spokesperson) one database is already showing Google Caffeine, and the full blown version will be released after the holidays. The reasoning behind this, Google doesn't want to upset webmasters and site owners during the lucrative holiday buying season. In the past, other major Google Updates have come around this time of the year, most notably the "Florida Update" which severely affected many web sites and webmasters.

Recently, Google has been more aware and much more generous to webmasters by being more open and forthcoming in regards to how it indexes its pages. This time around, webmasters were even given access to a beta version of Caffeine which Google released last summer ('09) where webmasters could check to see how well their keywords and site would fare in this new search index. This beta site (www2.sandbox.google.com) has now been taken down by Google.



Like any professional search engine marketer who works online, I was constantly checking my sites and keywords in Google's new search engine. I have drawn some conclusions from what I have observed, but please be aware it is often very foolish to draw conclusions and make predictions from your own small sampling of results. You can end up with egg on your face very quickly, especially when you consider Google is probably still making adjustments and refinements on Caffeine as it analyzes the results.

However, there are certain ranking factors that even Google is telling us about, mainly "Site Speed" or how fast your site loads will play a part in how it's ranked. We have also heard a lot about "Broken Links" and if your page or site has them, then it will probably be ranked lower. Of course, linking out to "Bad Neighborhoods" will probably still not be a good practice if you want higher rankings within Google.

It should not come as a shock or a surprise, that "Over-All Page Quality" will play a greater role in how well your page ranks. Keep in mind, Google is like any other company putting out a product, if that product doesn't have a high standard of quality, it reflects badly back on everyone concerned. Google's SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) is the key to all their online revenue, they must do everything in their power to keep that product fast, relevant, current and above all, something of high quality.


Therefore, expect "OnPage Factors" to play a much greater role in Google Caffeine. Quality unique content, page design, good navigation, title, meta tags, description, keyword density, alt tags, page views, bounce rate, traffic numbers, time spent on page, and the number of social bookmarks may play an increased role in achieving high rankings. A perfectly optimized keyworded page, with the keyword in the title, description, meta tags, alt tags, on the page... will probably get you ranked higher in Caffeine, as well as most search engines on the web.


Recently, Google has been more aware and much more generous to webmasters by being more open and forthcoming in regards to how it indexes its pages. This time around, webmasters were even given access to a beta version of Caffeine which Google released last summer ('09) where webmasters could check to see how well their keywords and site would fare in this new search index. This beta site (www2.sandbox.google.com) has now been taken down by Google.

Like any professional search engine marketer who works online, I was constantly checking my sites and keywords in Google's new search engine. I have drawn some conclusions from what I have observed, but please be aware it is often very foolish to draw conclusions and make predictions from your own small sampling of results. You can end up with egg on your face very quickly, especially when you consider Google is probably still making adjustments and refinements on Caffeine as it analyzes the results.

However, there are certain ranking factors that even Google is telling us about, mainly "Site Speed" or how fast your site loads will play a part in how it's ranked. We have also heard a lot about "Broken Links" and if your page or site has them, then it will probably be ranked lower. Of course, linking out to "Bad Neighborhoods" will probably still not be a good practice if you want higher rankings within Google.

It should not come as a shock or a surprise, that "Over-All Page Quality" will play a greater role in how well your page ranks. Keep in mind, Google is like any other company putting out a product, if that product doesn't have a high standard of quality, it reflects badly back on everyone concerned. Google's SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) is the key to all their online revenue, they must do everything in their power to keep that product fast, relevant, current and above all, something of high quality.

Therefore, expect "OnPage Factors" to play a much greater role in Google Caffeine. Quality unique content, page design, good navigation, title, meta tags, description, keyword density, alt tags, page views, bounce rate, traffic numbers, time spent on page, and the number of social bookmarks may play an increased role in achieving high rankings. A perfectly optimized keyworded page, with the keyword in the title, description, meta tags, alt tags, on the page... will probably get you ranked higher in Caffeine, as well as most search engines on the web.

This may be pure speculation on my part, but one of the areas Caffeine will be addressing or incorporating is "Social BookMarking", that is the number of social bookmarks a page receives will determine how high it is ranked. I also believe one of the major reasons these bookmarks will become much more important has to do with the whole nasty issue of link buying.

Now, the integrity of Google's index is not in question, but any savvy marketer or webmaster knows any individual or company with deep pockets and huge resources can buy their way into the top spot. Despite Google's attempt to stop it, link buying and keyword positioning is a thriving industry on the web. Rightly or wrongly, money and unlimited resources will get you or your company to the top in organic search, regardless of which search engine you're targeting.

All moral and ethnical issues aside, the small webmaster and/or online marketer is stuck right in the middle, with Google on one side and these major multinational competitors on the other. Looming on the horizon is Google Caffeine, a new sheriff in town!

What new rules will this sheriff bring?

The major question here is this: has the importance of backlinking been downplayed in this new index in favor of the keyworded domain and onsite content and optimization? Has there been a major shift to listing more quality content rather than relying on the number of backlinks a site is receiving, even from important related themed sites? The major problem and question to Google is this: if links can be bought, how do you keep your organic results democratic and fair, which was the original intention of Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they started Google in 1998.

One possible solution is social bookmarking.

Will we see an ever growing importance of social bookmarks and links in this new index. It is quite easy to buy 1000 links, but getting 1000 or 10,000 "re-tweets" is a little more difficult, similarly getting two or three thousand "diggs" may be a little harder to pull off. Same goes for Del.icio.us bookmarks, Facebook fans... well you get the picture. Will Google's use of these new social sites make Caffeine faster, more relevant, more current and most importantly of all, can it bring some democracy back into their index?

Of course, nothing in Google's new index will be that cut and dry, that black and white. Other ranking factors such as age of site, past history and reputation, traffic numbers, authority branding... will all play a role in whether your site gets listed on that all important first page. However, on page factors may play a greater role - title, meta tags, description, keyword density, alt tags, page views, bounce rate, time spent on page, and the number of social bookmarks may play an increased role in achieving high rankings. Website speed or how fast your site loads may also be a new ranking factor.

Underlying this whole issue is the fact which many experienced webmasters/marketers already know, Google's SERPs is not a one-trick pony anymore. For very lucrative (monetized) keyword phrases, Google's results are broken up into Five categories... Info listings, Video listings, News Listings, Shopping Listings and Corporate Listings. Forget Caffeine, this is probably the fairest move Google has made in the last few years to make its SERPs more democratic.

Another even more puzzling issue for me concerning Google Caffeine is how much emphasis or ranking power will it place on "Keyworded Domains", domain names which have your keyword or keyword phrase in them. Will these domains be ranked higher? Webmasters and marketers for years have been telling us we should always pick domain names which have our major keywords in them. Just common sense really, someone searching for "brown widgets" will more likely than not find that item at a domain called brownwidgets(dot)com or brownwidget(dot)com. The major SEO reasoning, all your backlinks will inherently have your searched keyword in the URL, thus bringing it up in the rankings.

Against this whole backdrop, everyone has to realize the web itself is evolving, new sites like Twitter, FaceBook... have changed the whole cyber landscape. Likewise, the web user is also changing and becoming more web savvy in how they use the web. Will search engines, not only Google, take a back-seat role in how we find stuff on the web? As major sites are branded into the web user's psyche, will these users go directly to these sites, by-passing the search engines altogether?

As the web evolves, keyworded domains will become more valuable and this value will be reflected in the quality of the site. If you're making thousands or even millions from your keyworded domain, you can afford to invest in quality content and design. Cream rises to the top. Gradually, as these domains become more valuable, they will probably be snapped up by marketers and companies who know just how to exploit them. Thousands upon thousands of keyworded domains will probably be bought up by multi-billion dollar corporations who finally realize what the web has to offer. This new evolved web will probably be much more narrower in scope and very topic specific.

In the "next generation" web the re-direct shall be king!

Will the role of the search engines, whether it be Google or Bing/Yahoo, become less and less important, as savvy web searchers go directly to a site by typing in the keyworded domain to find what they're looking for on the web? Cutting out the middleman may just become a world wide passion as big multinational and fully funded corporations snap up all these valuable and lucrative keyworded domains, will we see these domains grow in importance and the search engines take more of a back-up role? Human nature dictates we always take the fastest route to our destination, and the web will be no exception to this rule.

Have all the smart people at Google figured this out already, and designed the new Google Caffeine to reflect the growing importance of the keyworded domain? Of course, we can only speculate when it comes to just what Google is planning and doing with its next generation search engine, but will onsite factors and your domain name play a greater role in their organic SERPs?

Regardless of what the new sheriff actually does, when the dust finally settles on all these latest developments, the keyworded domain will probably be standing tall, watching the sun rise on a brand new day.

About the Author: Titus Hoskins is a full time online affiliate marketer. His livelihood is derived from & depended upon search engine marketing & daily monitoring of targeted keywords, mainly within Google. He runs numerous sites, including: Free Marketing Tools & Internet Marketing Tools.

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How to Control Your Listing Text in Google's Search Results

By John Metzler (c) 2009
A Google Webmaster Help video from Matt Cutts released on Nov. 10, 2009 got me thinking how the listing text in Google's search results can easily be overlooked by some webmasters in their SEO efforts.

SEO is all about extending the reach of your web site content to your target market using online search platforms. You can tell when this has been achieved, and to what degree, by using web analytics software to monitor referral and visitor data. But what that data won't tell you is how your site appears to users in a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Sure, you're getting traffic but perhaps you're missing out on a lot more because your listing text is weak. You wouldn't take out a newspaper advertisement without looking at the final proof first. So don't be in the dark over how your site appears to people who use Google.
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Poor page titles, visible copy, and description meta data can result in a weak listing. Webmasters have a lot of control over what text is displayed in a SERP, but in the end, Google reserves the right to modify result snippets if it feels the original isn't up to par.

It's important to remember that this decision by Google is based on a highly refined algorithm and is ultimately for the benefit of people searching for your content. That said, I'm willing to bet most webmasters still prefer to retain control over how their web site is shown in Google.

By ensuring your on-page content is the best it can be, you're greatly increasing the chances Google doesn't step in and tweak your listing.

Let's look at the different elements of an organic Google search result and how we can control what is shown.

Page Title

The large blue link at the top of the snippet. As Matt points out in his video, most people know Google can modify the description snippet in the listings but not everybody is aware that Google may also change the title. In this case, it is usually due to a shortcoming with your web page's title attribute. If the title is missing, too long or irrelevant, Google may show something more on-topic to the search query made.

Here are some tips to ensure Google displays the best possible title text to a user:

• Always ensure that page titles are unique and not just copied page to page across the site.

• The page title isn't something you stuff with keywords. Yes, always include your most important key phrases but don't provide a long list of everything your web site is about. It should be a concise headline that describes the content on the specific page - personally, I try to use no more than three different keywords or phrases.

• Page titles over 60 characters in length are likely to get cut down and manipulated by Google. If the search term(s) appears in a lengthy title tag, it's likely that a snippet of it will be used where the term appears.

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Listing Description

Using the same logic as for the title, the description displayed in a SERP comes from the most relevant area of your web page. IE. - The area of your text containing the word(s) used in the Google search query.

The listing snippet is typically generated from your visible copy on the page or the description meta tag. This is a good reason to optimize the description meta tag as part of your SEO campaign. While Google's algorithm ignores it for purposes of determining rankings, it can still pull the tag's content and display it to its users. A good description meta tag uses proper grammar and explains the page content in under two or three sentences. Remember, don't stuff the description tag with a list of keywords. That isn't helpful for users or the search engines.

If you write focused, quality on-page content for your target audience and create a helpful description tag, you should have your Google listing snippet covered.
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Cache Version of the Page

Next to the green URL in your Google listing is usually a "Cached" link. Clicking this will display the version of your web page that was indexed by the Googlebot when it last crawled your site. Also included is the crawl date.

Why is this important? Well, if you've recently updated your page title or visible copy and the changes are not reflected in Google results, it probably means Google hasn't returned to check your site's content for updates.

Common reasons for this include few inbound links or existing inbound links of poor quality. If Google doesn't crawl the pages that link to your site, it stands to reason they won't visit your site frequently.

If you find your site isn't getting crawled enough by Googlebot or other search engine robots, consider submittíng your site to local business directories or swapping links with other good quality, relevant web sites. The benefits of inbound links also go much farther than just increasing crawl frequency - they will also play a significant part in how well your site ranks.

Now that we know the elements of a typical Google listing and the factors that determine what is shown, all that's left is for you to monitor your site listing for various keyword searches and make changes when necessary.

Remember: a top Google ranking doesn't mean anything unless people actually click on it. Have a look at your competitors' listings in Google and see how yours compares - which one would you click on if you did a search for that topic? In my experience, there is often room for improvement when it comes to copy writing and content relevancy. In the end, your users and the search engines will like you more for it.

About The Author
With eight years in the search engine marketing industry, John Metzler of FreshPromo knows what works and what doesn't regarding website success. His strong grasp on visitor usability and analysis, along with a highly-skilled SEO perspective, can be seen through his professional SEO services. Read the FreshPromo blog for more free tips and commentary.

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How to Make a Website Successful

SPN Featured Video: The Google Chrome Operating System

When doing business on the Internet, there are many ways in which you can make a website successful. Although the look of your website is important, fancy websites don't make sales. There is much more to creating a quality website. To make a website successful, you must create a website that will be of interest to your target market and make them want to visit your website over and over again. In addition, your website should lead your visitors to take the action you desire, such as joining your mailing list, or making a purchase.

Selecting a Website's Niche

The first step toward how to make a website successful, will be to target your website for one specific niche. For example, if you are designing a website about wine, everything within your website should relate to wine.

Selecting a Website's Keyword Phrase

You must also select the most relevant keyword phrase for each webpage. A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your webpage. For example, if your webpage is about 'making wine,' your best keyword phrase would be 'wine making.' You should use your keyword phrase a few times within your webpage, as this will enable the search engines to determine what the website is about. This is a very important step to make a website successful.

Using HTML Heading Tags

When you begin writing your content, it is very important that you use the HTML H1 heading tag with your main title at the top of your webpage. In addition, use the HTML H2 tags for your sub-titles. This is very important, as some search engines place relevance on the text displayed with heading tags.

As the default text for the H1 heading tag is very large, you may want to use CSS style sheets to display the heading tags in the font style and size you prefer.

Using META Tags Within a Webpage

Another step to help make a website successful is to include META tags between the HEAD tags of your webpage. META tags help the search engines to know what keywords are relevant to the webpage. They are also used to tell the search engines what the webpage is about. Many search engines will display this description within the search results.

Backgrounds and Text

It is always best to display a webpage with a white background and black text, as this will make the text easy to read. Distracting backgrounds will make the text hard to read. A good rule of thumb is to just use common sense and keep your website simple. This alone is a great way to help make a website successful.

Animated Graphics

If you're using animated graphics, it is important that you use them sparingly. Graphics that continually flash are VERY annoying and may prevent your visitors from returning to your website in the future.

Navigational Links

It is very important to include good navigational links on every page. They should be displayed at the top, bottom, left or right side of your webpage. In addition, your visitors should be able to get to any webpage within your website within four clicks.

Webpage Layout

Always be consistent with your webpage design. This is a very important step to help make a website successful. The layout for your website should be the same on each page. If you make it different, your visitors will become confused. In addition, it will make your website appear to be unprofessional. Your website design should include the same layout, logo, and navigation setup on each page.

Spelling and Grammar

Always make sure you proof read and spell check your webpages for errors. It is also very important that your webpage doesn't have any broken images or links.

Important Webpages

When you launch your website, it is very important that you include the following webpages:

About - The 'About' page is used to tell your visitors about you and/or your company.

Privacy - The 'Privacy' page is used to let your visitors know what you do with their personal information, such as their email address.

Terms and Conditions - The 'Terms and Conditions' page should be displayed on your website for your protection.

Site Map - A 'Site Map' is used to help the search engines index your website more easily.

You can learn more about all of these pages by doing a search through your favorite search engine. They are very important and will help make a website successful.

Website Interactivity

Another way to make a website successful is to make the website interactive. This can be done by including a targeted forum that complements your website, a form in which they can subscribe to an ezine, a feedback form to enable them to give their opinion, or an informative blog in which visitors can comment.

Web Browsers and Screen Resolutions

When you begin designing your webpage, it is HIGHLY recommended that you install the most popular web browsers on your computer. This will enable you to see how your website will display in different browsers. You will find that your website may look great in one browser and terrible in another. It would be wise to design your website to display properly in Firefox and then it should display properly in Internet Explorer, Opera, etc.

It is also important that you view your website through different screen resolutions. You can either open your webpage in your browser and then change your computer's screen resolution, or there are website's online that you can visit, such as Any Browser, to test your website.

If you follow these simple guidelines, you can begin to make a website successful in no time.

About The Author
If you want to learn how to make a website successful, visit Web-Source.net for a wealth of website design tutorials, video tutorials, HTML codes, CSS codes, tips, tools and resources.

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Seven Words That Will Make Your Website Worth Viewing

By Jerry Bader (c) 2009

Seven. It's just a number like any other, but it does seem to come up on a fairly regular basis. There's the Seven Wonders of the World, The Seven Deadly Sins, and the Seven Dwarfs: Happy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Bashful, Doc, Dopey, and my personal favorite, Grumpy.



Phone numbers are seven digits, and they say the optimum brand name should be no more than seven letters long. Seven it seems is a magical number, as the average human brain can only grasp seven things at a time. Interesting, my wife says I've got trouble with two, never mind seven, but that's another story.



So I've been thinking, what are the seven most important words associated with Web-marketing. I'll give you a hint: Search, Engine, and Optimization don't make the cut.

So what words do make the líst? What are the seven words that will make your website worth viewing?



Words Can Move You



By someone's count there are 171,476 entries in the Oxford English Dictionary, plus another 47,156 words that have fallen out of favor. This of course doesn't count the 9,500 additional permutations, that don't deserve their own special attention.



Fifty percent of these words are nouns, twenty-five percent are adjectives, and 14.285% are verbs, with the rest made up of all those other things, the purpose of which most of us have long since forgotten.



Others may find fault with these numbers, but no matter what the total, it's a lot of words. Of the several hundred thousand words to choose from, the average person recognizes less than ten percent, while the average teenager seems to only be able to handle about half that amount; of course that doesn't count slang, instant messaging jargon, or the ever-popular four-letter variety.



Why the heck are there so many words if we all refuse to use them. I mean why waste all those perfectly good words on English teachers and college professors. By the way, they say swearing is the refuge of the feeble-minded, people who can't express themselves in a more articulate manner, but to be honest, I really don't give a damn.



Here's the thing, words have meaning and impact, and they provide the emotional context of our communications, to which we can add subtlety and nuance through their delivery by means of tone, cadence, and gesture.



So as important as words are, the way they are delivered is even more important.



What Website Design Is Really About



The other day I was listening to a local all-news radio station. It is mostly rip-and-read wire service stuff that they repeat over-and-over like some kind of psychological torture, but they do provide traffic reports on a nauseatingly regular basis. You only have to wait ten minutes until they repeat everything, so if you want to hear what traffic snafus to avoid just wait a few minutes; but here's the problem: the announcers talk so fast that no matter how hard you concentrate, you can't quite get the particular information you need; and if you're driving, you have other things to consider, like the idiot in the Hummer who just cut you off.

None of these guys ever uses a period, let alone a semicolon or comma. Either they have very small bladders and are under pressure to finish quickly, or they're late for their afternoon pilates class. They seem so intent on rushing to the commercials that they don't ever deliver the content in an appropriate manner. And your website just might have the same problem.



Too much information is as bad as not enough. Information overkill leads to information anxiety, buyer's remorse, reduced satisfaction, unattainable expectations, and purchase-decision paralysis.



Website owners have been told that visitors won't wait for anything, that they are impatient, and you've got to get to the point fast, make the pitch and close the deal; well that just isn't going to work with any sophisticated product or service.



Your website presentation needs to slow people down so they hear what you have to say, and you have to say something worth hearing.



Website design is about more than layout, markup language, and technical wizardry. Website design is about communication, it's about turning advertising into content, and content into an experience that viewers will remember.



Seven Words To Remember



1. Communication

People are always asking us what's wrong with their websites, and the answer in the vast majority of cases can be summed-up in a quote from the movie, "Cool Hand Luke" (1967): "what we have here is a failure to communicate." Communication is the key to success, and that doesn't just apply to your website, it applies to almost everything you do both inside and outside your business-life.



If your website isn't communicating on both a rational and emotional level, if it doesn't provide the psychological and emotional context of your marketing message, then exactly what is it doing?



2. Audience

I can't think of too many people who actually like being sold. In fact, sometimes customers get so irritated by sales tactics that they end up not buying the thing they came specifically to your website to purchase.



Solving the problem is merely a question of altering your perspective; the average buyer is predisposed to dismiss and ignore high-pressure tactics, and meaningless sales pitches. So instead of treating customers like customers, try treating them like an audience. Audiences want to be engaged, enlightened, and entertained. And that is the most effective way to make a sales impact.



3. Focus

All too often websites inundate their Web audiences with facts, figures, statistics, and an endless líst of features, benefits, options, and whatever else the sales department can think of throwing in. All that stuff just confuses people.



Focus your message on the most important elements of what you have to say. If your website can embed that singular idea in an audience's mind, then it has done its job.



4. Language

The words used, and how they are put together provides meaning; they inform personality; they provide mental sound bites; and they make whatever you are saying, worth remembering.



Language is one of the critical elements of 'voice', the ability to convey personality; and writing without a 'voice' is instantly forgettable.



5. Performance

Even the most articulate prose can be lost in a befuddled delivery. Communication is more than words; it's a combination of language, style, personality, and performance.



Things are rarely what they seem. Even our memories are a stylized version of what we've actually experienced. Creating a memorable impression is about managing the viewer experience, and providing the right verbal and non-verbal cues that make what is being said memorable.



6. Personality

Every business has a personality. The first problem is, few medium-sized companies ever attempt to manage that persona, and as a consequence, the buying public forms its own opinion. And that opinion is often not the way you want to be regarded.



The second problem is companies either don't have a firm grasp of who they really are, or they know, and they are afraid to promote it. If your company's identity isn't worth promoting, it is time to think why that is, and change it. The bottom line is, a company without a personality is a company without an image, and that makes you instantly forgettable.



7. Psychology

The most important feature you can provide your audience is psychological fulfillment, not deep discounts, fast service, or more bells and whistles.



The real reason people buy stuff is that it makes them feel something. Cosmetics make women feel attractive or sexy, while cars make men feel they've achieved some level of status. Even services make people feel important, as in "I've got a guy, who does that for me." Finding the psychological hot spot in your marketing, and promoting the hell out of it consistently and continually should be your primary marketing goal. All those features and benefits are merely the excuse for a purchase, not the reason.



The Web Is Fast Becoming A Video Environment



Websites are not just marketing collateral; they are not just digital brochures. They are a new presentation medium that requires specialized communication skills, and knowledge of how best to use the medium.



You may be a great salesperson, and nobody knows your business like you do. You may even be skilled at delivering speeches at conventions and seminars, but performing effectively in front of a camera is a whole different ball game, and for most people, it's way out of their comfort zone, let alone their skill level.



The same old methods that used to work won't work any more. You're no longer competing with just the company down the street; you're competing with the entire world.



Web-businesses may not ever actually meet their customers face-to-face, or even talk to them on the phone, so it is imperative that they use marketing presentation methods that deliver an experience worth remembering.

About The Author

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit MRPwebmedia.com, 136Words.com and SonicPersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

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Identifying Target Markets For Your Brand

Identifying target markets for your brand is critical because your customers are the future success and growth of your business. But who are your customers and how can you find more like them?

In their book on leveraging creativity, Juicing the Orange, Pat Fallon and Fred Senn discuss the strategy of one of their clients, United Airlines, as it struggled to find a way to differentiate itself among the other legacy air carriers and the start-up, no-frills airlines that were chipping away at its market share. They decided to focus on the core market of frequent business travelers. These folks made up only 9 percent of United's travelers, but they represented 46 percent of United's revenue.

Their thought was that if they could appeal to the frequent business travelers, leisure travelers would follow. ("If these seasoned road warriors know which airline to fly, surely I can do no worse than flying with the same carrier.") This philosophy is similar to the secret of finding the best roadside diner: go where the truckers eat.

So focusing on your target audience may not be about finding the biggest group of people who can and will patronize your business, rather, it's about finding the best group of people. For United, focusing on the core market of frequent business travelers was their chosen strategy.

Finding Your Core Market

Your target audience is made up of the people who love of your business and what it offers. They are not everyone who will come in contact with your business.

In order to find your target market, start by refining your target audiences.

Just take a look at the customers you have now.

- Who are your best customers?

- Which target segment makes up the bulk of your customers, supporters, or members?

- What do all these segments or individuals have in common?

- Can you find others like them?

Recognizing what your customers have in common can help you craft a marketing strategy to draw in more of the same people, thus building your target audience into a successful business.

How much do you know about your best customers or supporters?

- What is their typical age?

- Are they primarily male or female?

- What level of education have they received?

- Do they have any special interests or hobbies?

- How much is their household income?

By combining demographic and psychographic information (see exercise, below), you can begin building a mental profile of your core market. One business may find that men over 55 living in the Pacific Northwest and are interested in pro sports are their best prospects. Another business might discover that highly educated, empty nester women with lots of disposable income are their most valuable targets.

The only way to develop marketing communications that resonate with your target audience is to become knowledgeable about their wants, needs, and motivations. So ask them. Set up a continuous feedback and communication loops between your customers and the company. Make two-way communications a part of your corporate culture. You might also consider designing a short survey and sending it to your current and prospective customers and see what kinds of offerings, messages, and services your business should be providing.

While most businesses have multiple target audiences, they should only have one core market in order to provide as much focus as possible.

Sometimes, discovering your core market is about deciding whom it is that you're NOT going to serve. Take Voce, for example, a premium wireless provider that isn't looking to sell mobile phones to the whole world (like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and the rest). Voce targets only upscale users with the finest-quality handsets, a simple, albeit pricy, flat-rate plan, and an exclusive concierge service--24 /7 live customer support. Every call to Voce is answered by a real, live human being--with no annoying phone trees.

Because of their conscious decision of who not to target, Voce is able to align its offerings (high-end handsets), its service (Voce Personal Assistance) and its retail locations (boutiques in Beverly Hills, California, and at Neiman Marcus) with its preferred audience. You will not find Voce phones or plans at WalMart or even Target.

This targeting is what keeps Voce from simply becoming another wireless face in the crowd and from wasting marketing dollars on reaching people who can't and won't become customers.

About the Author:

Mike DiFrisco is the "affordable branding guy." That's because I believe that no one knows your brand better than you. So don't waste your time or money hiring an overpriced ad agency or consultant to develop the brand strategy for your business; you can do it yourself.

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2009 Resolution -- Give Your Site a 10-Point Legal Check-Up

By Chip Cooper (c) 2009

It's early in the year, and it's time to fulfill your resolution to give your site a quick legal check-up.



Online businesses are now highly regulated, and there's substantial liability if your site's not legally compliant. In addition, your customers are becoming more Internet savvy, and a site that's not legally compliant is not going to be trusted.



So, let's get started.

Use This Checklist If You Already Have The Basic Site Documents In Place



1. Copyright Notice. Check Your Copyright Notice. Your copyright notice consists of the following elements: the word "copyright" or copyright symbol (c in a circle) followed by the year of first publication followed by the name of the copyright owner. It's also a good idea to add "All rights reserved worldwide". Example: Copyright 1996-09 Digital Contracts, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Note that if you update your site from time to time, you should add a date range reflecting the fact that the site has been updated each year within the date range. If you haven't updated yet for 2009, do it now.



2. Blogs, etc. Have you recently added a blog or any other functionality that permits visitors to post text or digital files to your site? Or, do you plan to do so as part of your marketing plans for 2009? If so, you need to have a DMCA notice in your Terms of Use and you also need to file a DMCA Registration form with the U.S. Copyright Office. These steps will create a "safe harbor" from strict liability for copyright infringement if a site visitor posts infringing material to your site.



3. Personal Information. Do you collect personal information from site visitors? If so, review your Privacy Policy to make sure that you identify all of the categories of personal information you collect and the way in which you share this personal information. If you've changed these policies since you posted your Privacy Policy, amend it now... without delay.



4. Data Security. Check your data security measures. If you collect personal information, you are required to implement "reasonable and appropriate" data security measures. These measures are essentially moving targets since data security technology evolves at a relatively rapid pace. What may have been "reasonable and appropriate" a couple of years ago may not pass muster today. Update your security procedures, if necessary.



5. Future Sale of Your Business? If your online business is starting to be successful and generate positive revenue, have you ever considered that you might want to sell it for a profit in the future? If so, be sure that your Privacy Policy specifies that personal information collected may be transferred and shared in the event of a sale. If you don't do this prior to collecting personal information, you won't be able to pass it on to your purchaser. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stipulated in recent settlements that personal information collected prior to posting this notice in your Privacy Policy will not be transferable in the event of a sale. And this personal information (your opt-in lists and customer lists) are the real value of your online business.

6. Service Providers. Do you use service providers to provide hosting, site maintenance, SEO services, or other site functions where they have access to your server? If you don't collect personal information, your answer to this question is immaterial, but if you do (and only an email address will suffice), you need to enter into privacy and security agreements with your service providers. The FTC stipulated in a couple of recent settlements that you would be liable if you don't.



7. Registration Agreement. Does your site require site visitors to register for certain benefits such as a membership or subscription rights? If so, you need an electronic agreement (a so-called "click-wrapped" agreement where the user clicks on "I ACCEPT"). Your agreement should be presented conspicuously in the registration process and it should require an affirmative act (clicking on "I ACCEPT") to complete the registration. You also need to be sure that all of your warranty disclaimers and limitations of liability pass muster.



8. Collect Birth Dates? Do you collect the date of birth as part of your registration process? If so, and if this date indicates that children under 13 are registering, you will be liable for substantial damages under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) if you do not comply with COPPA's stringent requirements. You should either modify your information collection practices or comply with COPPA, or both.



9. Creditor Under FACTA? Do your registered users make periodic payments payable as monthly or quarterly installments, or do you extend credít so that payment is made after receipt of the product or service? If so, you fall within the statutory requirements of the Fair and Accurate Credít Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA). FACTA requires that you adopt a "Red Flag" Identity Theft Policy before May 1, 2009, or face substantial liability.



10. Sales Intermediaries? Do you use affiliates or resellers? If so, a recent New York case illustrates that you may be liable for their actions if they violate certain laws acting on your behalf. For example, are your affiliates engaged in illegal spamming activities? If they are offering their own end user license agreements, do they properly disclose certain activities such as the use of pop up ads? You should check your affiliate and reseller agreements and modify them, if required.

Use This Checklist If You Don't Have Your Site Documents In Place



You may be just starting your online business, or you may have procrastinated a little with your website legal compliance. If you fall into this group, you should get started without delay.



I've developed a procedure that will help you determine the correct mix of legal compliance documents for your site. Part of it is set out below.



First, if your site does not collect personal information, you should consider these documents:

• a Legal page for your intellectual property notices; and
  
• Terms of Use.
  
• And if you allow site visitors to post text or digital files to your site (for example via a blog, forum, or chat room), you'll need a DMCA Registration Form (see No. 2 above).

Second, if your site collects personal information, but does not require registration to open an account or to use or purchase a product or service, you should consider these additional documents:

• Privacy Policy.
  
• And if you have service providers that have possession of your server or have access rights to it, you'll need a privacy-security agreement for these service providers (see No. 6 above).

Third, if your site requires registration to open an account or to use or purchase a product or service, you should consider in addition to the foregoing documents, a customer agreement such as:

• a software as a service (SaaS) agreement; and/or
  
• a Software License Agreement (for software downloads).
  
• And if you are regulated by FACTA (see No. 9 above), you'll need a Red Flag Identity Theft Policy -- before the May 1, 2009 deadline.

Conclusion



The checklists provided above are not exhaustive. However, they should point you in the right direction as you give your site a new year's legal compliance check-up.



A simple check-up -- and remedial action if necessary -- is one of the best investments you can make in your online business.

About The Author

Chip Cooper is a leading intellectual property, software, and Internet attorney who's advised software and online businesses nationwide for 25+ years. Visit Chip's DigiContracts.com site and download his FREE newsletter and Special Reports: "Determine Which Legal Documents Your Website Really Needs", "Draft Your Own Privacy Policy", and "Write Your Own Website Marketing Copy -- Legally".

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The Benefits Of Good Website Content

The content of a website includes everything from the graphical elements of design and the pictures used to the textual website content. All must play its part and converge to create the greatest possible user experience that converts visitors into buyers and profit. However, the most effective website content can also be used to help drive a mass of search engine traffic to any site.

Taking the time to carefully plan and write, or investing the resources to have your web page content professionally written can pay dividends.

SEO

Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is the act of optimising a website so that it ranks well in the search engine results. The outcome of good optimisation is a steady stream of targeted and active website visitors.

Good SEO content not only needs to appeal to human visitors but to search engines as well, through the inclusion of keywords and semantically or topically related keywords. Happily, the crafting of great quality content can also help to organically build links – another major facet of an SEO campaign.

Conversions

Regardless of whether a visitor arrives on your site from the search results, having clicked on a sponsored ad listing, or has typed in your URL from your business card that you diligently hand out when attending business events, it's your content that needs to convert them into customers.

Good content can entice people beyond the home page and continue to guide them step by step through the various stages of making a purchase.

Improved Visitor Experience

The more beneficial a visitor finds their time on your site, the more likely they will be to convert to a customer. They will also be more inclined to pass on the details of your business or service and they will be more likely to bookmark or even link to your site. All of these make for effective methods of networking or marketing your online business on the Internet and continuing to add high quality content will not only see your search engine rankings improve but it is likely to improve branding, generate greater sales, and improve customer loyalty.

Greater Chance Of Organic Links

An organic link is one that has been given to you freely by another page or another website based on the quality of the content or the value of the service. In terms of SEO, links are highly valued and the more natural they appear to the search engines and to your human visitors, the more likely that your online business will continue to flourish.

High quality pages that have been written especially for this purpose are referred to as linkbait because they are posted to bait links from other website owners and bloggers.

Improved Website ROI

Your website should be considered an online business rather than simply a site consisting of a few brochure pages. Many websites stand alone with no bricks and mortar businesses to back them up and are hugely successful, although they can also be combined very effectively with high street organisations and enterprises. Every penny you spend on your site, therefore, should be geared towards generating a good return on investment.

If you don't feel that you're able to do your website justice or you don't have the time to write good content regularly then employ the services of professional website content writers. Use a professional service and it will generate a good website ROI.

Convey YOUR Message In YOUR Tone

One aspect of good branding is the use of a uniform tone throughout your communications; especially with potential clients. This continued care can help to win over those that are wavering and will ensure that your business is always well thought of. Business to business and business to consumer narratives may have a different feel to them, but the important thing is that you get the right message across and you do so on a continued basis.

Fewer Bounces

Visitors read website content from the very first word of your page. Even if they skim read, which most readers do when reading from a monitor, care must be taken to ensure that the beginning of the page is as effective at converting as the end of the page is. Hard hitting headlines, informative and entertaining content, and a well written summary should all be crafted with the goal of persuading your visitors to take the next step in your desired chain.

Great Website Content Truly Counts

Powerful website content is sometimes overlooked in favour of web design and online application development. While these are obviously very important factors to the success of your online business, so too is the value and the effectiveness of every inch of your website content.

Combining all of the elements of design, development, and content, along with a powerful marketing mix you can create a profitable website that draws in visitors and then converts them to profitable and loyal customers as well as your greatest marketers.

About the Author:

Matt Jackson - WebWiseWords is a professional website content writing that generates positive results for your business. From SEO copywriting to full article marketing packages, WebWiseWords can deliver all of your website content needs and more.

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7 Simple Ways To Build Traffic To A New Website

By Mike Tekula (c) 2008

Got a brand new website? That's great, but nobody cares.



OK, maybe that's a little harsh. The truth, however, is that just having a website doesn't get you much.



Editor's Note: Publication of the SiteProNews newsletter will be intermittent during the next 2 weeks. Visit SiteProNews.com for the latest articles, webmaster news and blog posts. We wish all of our loyal readers a happy holiday season.



Many business owners I meet are surprised to find, once we look at the numbers, that the shiny new site they had built not too long ago gets little to no traffic on a daily basis.

Many newcomers to the web make the mistake of thinking that just by buying a domain name and putting up your site, visitors are going to happen by - something like when you buy property and build a storefront in a busy part of town.



It just doesn't work that way. The web is harsh. You can have the best looking site in the world with great resources and content and go entirely ignored or unnoticed. It happens. It's happening right now. Somewhere out there in the ether is a brand new gorgeous website loaded with great content, and nobody cares. Poor little lonely site.



But there is hope. Every website had its early days. Even sites that get hundreds of thousands of visitors a day started out with none.



Here are 7 simple things you can start doing right now to help drive traffic to your site.

1. Get Some Quick Links From Trusted Directories

Link building is a long-term process with long-term goals, but for brand new sites with no history you've got to start somewhere. There are a number of directories out there that provide free and paid listings (subject to editorial review, of course). Here are the ones I recommend:

• Yahoo!
  
• Business.com
  
• JoeAnt.com
  
• DMOZ.org
  
• BOTW.org
  
• Ah, what the heck - here's a great list of directories sorted by SEOmoz's Trifecta score - bookmark it and get started

2. Start Blogging

OK, blogging isn't for everybody (especially you boring people), but it's a great way to build relevant content at your site on a consistent basis. It also gives your visitors/ customers a way to engage with you. But please don't make the mistake of being too "corporate" on your blog - do yourself a favor and check your Public Relations cap at the door. Don't be afraid to discuss your mistakes, missteps you've made, and what you've learned from them as well as your triumphs. In short, be a human, not a brand.

3. Consider Paid Search

For new websites, the day when you receive all the traffic you need for free from search engines and other referrals is a long way off - if not just a pipe dream altogether. Often times paid search campaigns are a great way to get your site in front of your target market today. Be sure to keep your budget modest, though, until you're confident in your ROI. Be sure to do your keyword research to find lower-cost "long tail" keywords - going after the big traffic keywords might be tempting, but it gets expensive and the ROI is often not the best.

4. Use Article Marketing To Build Links

As with any tactic, I'd recommend using this one in moderation. Article marketing is, essentially, trading words for links. It can help with link building, but the quality of the links it garners is usually less than stellar.

Here's how it works:

• Write an informative article on your site topic (or something related)
  
• Include an "about the author" section as well as links in the article that point to your pages using relevant anchor text
  
• Submit the article through one of the many article syndication services (such as EZineArticles.com or GoArticles.com )
  
• The deal is, anybody can come along and publish your article on their website - provided they use the article in its original format including the "about the author" section. So when the article is published, any links you include back to your site are published as well.

5. Guest Post At Relevant Blogs

This certainly requires some up-front investment, mainly in terms of building relationships with bloggers in your topic (a little brown-nosing never hurt), but it can help get the flywheel turning for your site like nothing else can. Take the time to make your guest post remarkable and smart - your host blogger will appreciate it, and it'll improve the likelihood of attention coming back to your site (which you'll link to in your guest post, of course). Links from blogs are some of the most powerful editorial links you can get - don't underestimate them for a second.

6. Submit Your Site to Design Galleries

Is your website breathtaking to behold, beautiful enough to make angels weep? Yeah, sure it is. But seriously, if it looks pretty sharp there are plenty of web design galleries that accept submissions for new sites and link to the sites they feature. Particularly for CSS-driven design there are a number of galleries that will consider your site for listing (provided your site uses CSS for layout/styling - and God help you if it doesn't) - including CSSElite.com, CSSHeaven.com, CSSBeauty.com and many others. Just search in Google for "CSS design gallery." Unless your site is ugly - in that case, I can't help you, and stop asking me to look at it.

7. Sponsor a Local Event or Charity

OK, I admit this is kind of a tired tip - but it works! Especially for local small businesses. Is there a local event coming up in your community? A local charity that has a website? Not only will sponsoring such an event give you all of the normal PR benefits (and self-righteous bragging rights) that are the byproducts of charity, but any web announcement for the event will potentially include a mention of your website as well as a link to it. And you can feel good about yourself for a change.

Bonus Tip: Be Patient

Alright, this one is cheap, I admit it. Not much of a tip. But it's important to remember that you're not going to see your unique visitors count skyrocket immediately for your new website. Most "overnight successes" actually take a few years to get going.



And if you find yourself checking your traffic numbers on a daily basis, please do us all a favor - step away from the computer, go toss the ball around with your kid, maybe take your niece out for ice cream. Contrary to popular belief, staring at your site traffic data has no positive effect on it.

About The Author

Mike Tekula is the president of Unstuck Digital, a Long Island Web Design and Search Marketing agency based in Ronkonkoma, NY.

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5 Ways to Entice Visitors to Keep Coming Back

What does a website need? The simple answer is repeat visitors, this is what successful websites share in common, and this accounts for a major part of their traffic.

Why is this?

Well, experience shows that returning visitors are much easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The whole issue of credibility disappears.

So what do you need to do to keep your visitors coming back and visiting your site?

How about checking out some of the solutions below:

1) You could consider starting a forum, chat room or shout box.

Providing a forum, chat room or shout box, allows your visitors to have a voice where they can share their opinions and interact with their peers -- all of them visitors of your site.

Over time this develops into a sense of community and conversions will follow and your visitors will look forward to coming back to your site each and every day.

2) This probably goes without saying, but starting a blog can be a fantastic source for both new and recurring traffic.

Having your own blog is like keeping an online journal, and human beings are curious and thirsty for information. You need to keep your blog frequently updated with your latest news, both business and personal.

You will find that over time more and more people will come back to read your posts and with it you will develop credibility as an authority figure in your niche.

3) How about carrying out polls or surveys?

You will note that so far all the suggestions made have had some form of visitor interaction and conducting polls and surveys is no different. This is one that you should definitely consider adding to your site.

They are a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. It is important that you publish the results of any polls or surveys so that you keep the interest of your visitors to come back and see the results.

4) This is a little bit more innovative, but have you considered the use of puzzles, games and quizzes.

This will provide a yardstick as to how many people are willing to return to your site if you are maintaining their interest through entertainment.

You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.

5) This may appear just plain common sense, but you need to update your site frequently with fresh content if you wish to attract multiple visits.

Although this may appear to be the most likely of strategies it is also the most overlooked with some sites seemingly looking the same for years.

If you want returning visitors to the same message over time that message needs a refresh, a different approach or angle!

Maintaining the same approach continually will have the effect of changing nothing, so don't be lazy and add new fresh bites of information from time to time to increase your visitor's interest.

About the Author:

Christopher Raine - Are you ready to maximize your sales potential? If you answered "Yes", find out how you can increase your sales by 40%, even when your visitors are leaving your site! "Yes" you heard me right! Find out how this is possible with your own Virtual Sales Employee.

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The Cunning Brilliance of PageRank

A few weeks ago I found myself in the subway of New York City. Posters and billboards from a prominent bank promoted credit card decaled the underground landscape.

These well-crafted advertisements promised ten dollars back for every $100 spent on subway fares. It gave the current economic crisis and recession as the explanation for their incredible generosity and compassion.

Everybody around me seemed thoroughly impressed by this overwhelming gesture of selfless charity; many discussed in earnest how they were planning to sign up for this card to enjoy these charitable savings. It seemed I was the only one, the Christmas Grinch of the crowd, who perceived this advertisement strategy as more cunning and brilliant than selfless and generous. What an ideal time to hook people on yet another credit card, especially with the holiday season already upon us. Obviously the long-term interest this credit card company was anticipating far overshadowed their likely short-term promotional costs.

Indeed it was a cunning and brilliant strategy, much the same, I thought to myself, as Google's page rank system.

At first glance it seems a very wise, fair and indeed brilliant system for determining positioning within the search ranks. On closer inspection, however, it is even more brilliant and cunning than most are giving it credit.

In the past, creating good, unique and newsworthy content, coupled with intelligent onsite optimization strategies, was at least enough to get your website found. These days are now gone, regardless of what some naïve or misleading SEO experts might still tell you.

Page Rank has now become the single most important factor in having your site found in the organic search results of the leading search engines. Page Rank is determined by the quantity and quality of websites that are linking to yours. Each website link acts as a kind of vote for the site it links to, and passes some of its own page rank to this site. The higher the page rank, and the more relevant the content of the site, the more significant the affect will be.

Since search engine bots cannot view your site in the same way a human views it, this strategy allows user popularity to have a significant affect on the algorithm these search engines are using. The belief is, of course, that the more quality and relevant sites that are voting for yours, the higher the probability that your site is a good one, and therefore deserving of a higher position.

Of course, this system is not perfect, and for obvious reasons, but it is certainly superior to deciding the importance of a site purely on onsite content. The reality is, there are thousands if not million of webmasters who can write unique, quality content. There are even more who know how to optimize this content for the search engines. However, millions of sites cannot be number one for a single keyword or phrase. Page rank must decide the difference.

The problem, however, is that the top search engines have now leaned so far away from onsite optimization, in preference of offsite optimization (i.e. page rank), that you are likely to find all kinds of lousy content and add riddled sites at the top of your searches. Putting a greater importance on links, however, plays significantly in Google's favour. This is especially true today, as reciprocal and 3-way link exchanges have now been significantly devalued, along with paid links and link directories.

Google's intent is that links should be entirely organic, occurring naturally when other webmasters like your site enough to add a link to it. This way of achieving links however, can take a very, very long time, as most Internet users do not know that they are supposed to do this. Most Internet users add the sites they like to their favourites, they don't create a keyword rich link to it from their own highly relevant site. Nevertheless, this is just one of the many ways Google favours older more time-proven sites over newer, get rich quick sites. The fact is, unless the content of your website has just revealed something of tremendous news importance, it could take years before your quality site acquires enough natural, keyword rich links from relevant sites to significantly boost you to the top of the search engines.

The conundrum, however, is that nobody will find your great content, and thereby link to it, unless you are on page one or two for at least one keyword or phrase (one that gets searched for that is). So if you do want to acquire natural one-way links, you pretty much have only one choice. You will have to advertise.

Google now provides the best online advertising available. Not only is it inexpensive, it is targeted towards your keywords.

This means a much higher conversion rate. People will find your product or service when they are looking for it, not when they are looking for something else. And with around 80% of North American searches done on Google, it just wouldn't make sense to concentrate your efforts anywhere else (unless your loyalty lies elsewhere).

Knowing this, guess who will reap the largest rewards of this new lean towards offsite optimization? The reality is, if you want your internet site to one day make it to the top of Google (and Yahoo and MSN) for an important keyword or phrase, you will have to acquire a substantial number of natural links. Since this could take years, as most webmasters are selfish and don't link for nothing, and most Internet users don't know to do this, you are bound to spend a small fortune with Google before your site is able to stand on its own. Of course Google won't make as much of a profit from you once your site is on the top, but there will be millions of others who will still be vying for this position.

The bottom line is, you will need to spend money if you one day want to make money.

The only question is how much money can you afford to invest? Or should I say gamble, because no matter how much money you spend, there are no guarantees.

The results, of course, are purely organic, and Google's algorithm can change at any time. Besides, by the time you're actually on the top, your content and unique features will likely be outdated and not that impressive anymore.

Google insists that you cannot purchase or pay for the organic results located on the left side of the screen. If you are caught purchasing links that are intended to indirectly improve your search engine ranking position, you will either be significantly penalized, or removed from Google entirely. However, the only significant way to increase naturally is to pay for advertising on the right side, so people can actually find your great content and unique features, and provide you with these natural links.

Of course, there are some other ways to promote your site, such as blogging, posting on forums, and creating videos on Youtube, etc. The catch is, however, that if you're not careful, you will be penalized for spamming (excessively promoting your site where you are not supposed to). This is why most forums these days have the no follow meta tags added to their code. Otherwise, you will just have to get creative in achieving and maintaining high PR links that are relevant and keyword rich.

Unfortunately, if you do find a way to attain these links in any way that Google considers unnatural, it will eventually update its algorithm and ensure you are penalized for your imaginative endeavours.

Personally, I've never seen so many people work so hard at what is considered cheating. Couldn't we at least give them part marks for creativity? After all, you won't even let them see the marking rubric.

About the Author:

Jack Strawman is the cofounder of Late Night Chat and HookUp and Canada Chat and Dating, both sites intended for late night encounters.

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Properly Submitting Your Website To Search Engines

If you have a web-based business or if a significant portion of your business is performed on the internet through your website, then the best advertising and marketing is completed by submitting your website to a search engine.

No amount of press releases, newspaper or radio ads, banner ads, spam emails or newsletters will achieve the same results, although it may be effective in a small proportion.

Beware of companies that promise an automatic submission of your website to hundreds of search engines which are most times nothing more than false promises. The best way to submit your website for search engine ranking and inclusion is to do it yourself or to hire an expert to do it manually, by contacting the search engine companies and directories.

As with many things, researching or getting referrals from other companies that have had great success with an SEO company is always the safest way to ensure that your website is going to be in genuinely caring hands. There are so many websites on the internet trying to make a quick buck by any means necessary.

Business dealings with the wrong types of people can be very cut-throat if you're not careful in considering and researching where you decide to go in finding your marketing partners for life.

Before you begin to submit your website to search engines, it is best to ensure that your websites are thoroughly designed to a professional quality using the right key words, good graphics and pictures and appropriate, relevant content. Don't submit websites that are incomplete.

While submitting to a search engine, make sure to provide information about your website, keywords and any other information that may be pertinent, including the name and contact information of your business.

The creation and growing life of your website in the infancy stages are always going to come with many great challenges. But once you have overcome those challenges and beaten the odds, you will most likely be able to repeat this pattern over and over if you wanted to do so.

You could also decide to become a consultant and help others to become better with their dealings online. They could learn from your mistakes and discoveries just as you had with your wonderful mentors.

Mere submissions alone to search engine companies will not guarantee that your site would be immediately listed and the ranking will be at the very top. Because there are thousands of new websites coming up every day and it may take quite some time before they take up your site for review by human editors.

One important factor to remember while submitting your website is to include a site map of your website which makes the crawling easy for the web robots. Search engines like Google hardly consider submissions without sitemaps.

It just makes sense to do everything that you can think of to make the robot's job in crawling your website as easy as it can possibly be from your end. It can also be referred to as optimizing your website to just flow very smoothly without hardly any interruption at all from the search engine programs that hit all kinds of dead ends and errors as people place businesses online.

There are many online companies that accept search engine submission services. You can choose to do it yourself with software packages available all over on the internet.

The best way, as with anything, is to get to know your prospective source of help and information as much as you can. Over some time this will develop in your mind as a trustworthy source that you can always depend on for a very long time, you hope.

You will hear from many users online that you should stay as far away as you can get from these automatic submission companies. This is very much the case in most of what you may stumble onto online.

I repeat that there are a few good, solid and dependable companies that you can find by knowing the right people and being associated with a good network of business minded people.

About the Author:

Terry Detty values his Internet Advertising Services and Web Traffic Builder for Increased SEO Rankings. Greater Results can be seen with this high quality Web Promotion.

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10 Secrets to Using Twitter to Attract More Followers and Get More Clients

By Donna Gunter (c) 2008

I do wonder at times if some Twitter users have any time to get any work done. Several of the more prolific ones that I follow swear they spend no more than 30 minutes a day on Twitter, but I really find that hard to believe. Many times it seems they are twittering just to say something, like "Good morning Twitterverse" when they begin their day, give more details than I want to know about what they had for lunch, what their children said to them, or when they take a nap.

I realize that this is part of the "like, know, and trust" process that enables people to get to know each other, but sometimes it's simply too much information..LOL. I'm Twittering primarily to market my business. Consequently, I try and limit my personal twitters to no more than 2 per day. My clients, who create Twitter accounts for marketing, as well, tell me, "I'm signed up. Now what in the world do I Twitter about? How do I market my business with this tool?"



Here are 10 strategies that I use regularly to market my business and my expertise via Twitter. Remember, you have only 140 characters for your tweet (Twitter post).



1. How you're helping clients. Talk about specific ways that your business helps clients and use their Twitter ID if you have their permission, i.e. "Just finished @clientname brainstorm great Internet marketing plan for 2009" or "Finally finished setting up Quickbooks for local hardware store -- now they can invoice their clients"



2. What you're doing in your business. This is a perfect time to tell others when you're blogging, writing an article, creating your weekly ezine, recording your podcast, i.e. "Had great interview with Jane Smith today on speaking to grow your biz. Great ideas! Subscribe to podcast & listen here (URL here)"



3. Useful tool or resource you've found. I run across these all the time in my daily activities, and Twitter is a perfect place to share,. i.e. "Found great new Firefox plug-in to monitor & check multiple Gmail accounts at same time at (URL here)" or "Read great blog post on workíng at home with kids under 5 at (URL here)"



4. Ask a question. Need some ideas or some quick brainstorming? Twitter is an ideal place to gather opinions, i.e. "Help! Desperately seeking new laser prínter. Recommendations?" or "How do I find training organizations online?"

5. Conduct a survey. What do your Tweeps think about a particular issue? Ask them via Twitter, i.e. "Quick poll: Do you get more clients from Facebook or Twitter? Respond at (URL here)"



6. Report on live events. The latest Twitter trend seems to be tweeting what's happening at conferences or workshops. In order for Twitter users to follow a particular event, it's usually referred to by a name preceded by a # sign, as in #JVAlert, for example, to make it simpler for people who want to follow those posts. So, if you were at an event, you might tweet "#JVAlert John Smith speaking on affiliate programs. Just got great idea on training affiliate managers!" Just don't get so wrapped up in tweeting that you ignore the content delivered in the conference!



7. Product or service launch. If you're about to launch a new product or introduce a new product, let your Twitter followers know, i.e. "Pre-launch pricing for new DVD set about how baby boomers can start an online biz. Get $100 early bird discount at (URL here)"



8. Responding to others with advice or answers. The way to build professional relationships on Twitter is to help your tweeps. So, if someone asks a question, comments about something to which you have a response or an idea, or you want to ask a followup question, this is the perfect place to do so.

9. Acknowledging new followers. I've noticed a recent trend of acknowledging people who've decided to follow a Twitter user in the past day or so. I initially thought that others were doing this as a measure of popularity, but what I've come to realize is that it's actually helping out the new followers because it exposes their Twitter profiles to others who may have never heard of them and who might like to follow them. So, to thank your followers, you'd tweet, "Welcome new followers @twittername, @twittername, etc."



10. Automate your tweets. Many of my tweets have been automated and connected to other things I do. TwitterFeed turns all of my blog posts into tweets. aWeber turns each ezine issue into a tweet. EzineArticles.com tweets my followers every time I publish an article through their service. Typically all that's involved here is connecting the particular service to my Twitter account. Once all the services are connected, I get free and automated Twitter posts with no additional effort on my part.



Twitter can be a great time-waster or a wonderful way to market your business and leverage your expertise online. Follow these 10 strategies and you'll begin to attract more followers and get more clients through social networking.

About The Author

Online Business Manager and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketíng Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com . Follow Donna on Twitter: http://twitter.com/donnagunter

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