3 Strategies To Maximize Visibility Of Your Small Business Website

If you're trying to get a small business off the ground, the internet is a great place to really get your name out there. Unfortunately, many start-up sites don't get the exposure necessary to turn a profit from their endeavor. Part of their problem is not knowing simple strategies that will make people able to actually see and access your website.

This article will offer three specific strategies to help you get the most traffic, and therefore visibility, to your small business website.


Prepare To Change

Recent studies have suggested that small businesses who change up their website and update it with new information regularly have a lot more traffic (and repeat user traffic) than sites that don't. While this might seem trivial, think of it as though you have a subscription to a magazine. Each week, you get the same exact magazine filled with the same articles and the same photographs. You would stop reading this magazine after a week or so, because it ceased to offer you any new reason to read it. That is how you should approach your website, offering something new for people who are willing to return regularly.


Upgrade Your Site

There's nothing wrong with starting out your venture onto the Web with a free service that helps you design a site easily. However, once you've gotten your feet wet, it's time to get out there and pay for a serious site that you are going to have more freedom and versatility with. Furthermore, many of these free creation sites offer you snazzy looking interfaces, but riddle them with ads for users that don't want to see (and if they do, they probably won't see what you can offer!). Pop ups and excessive ads are an eyesore and a nuisance to the average internet user, and so you should take serious steps to avoid these potential deterrents. You don't want to miss out on traffic or potential profit because people were simply too frustrated with the plethora of ads to see your entire site.


Promote, Promote, Promote

This simply can't be stressed enough. Most people would never go to see a movie that they know absolutely nothing about, so why would they just happen across your website when they weren't necessarily looking for it? This can be easily remedied by working harder to get your name out there. In terms of small business sites, it's probable that a good half of user traffic on popular sites could be attributed to promotion on social media outlets. Take advantage of Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr to get your name out there and get people knowing what you're providing for them. These sites are free to sign up for, and you can create them simply to promote the primary website. These media outlets can serve to detail promotions you're offering, sales, give away sweepstakes, and much more. The possibilities of how to get people herded towards your actual site are virtually endless.

These strategies are bound to generate more traffic on your small business website. While these are not the only strategies, using them is a great way to get the ball rolling - once you've got these building blocks under your belt, you can then begin to tailor your approach to match your individual needs.


About The Author: Vanessa Milios writes about lessons she's learned throughout her career in business and online marketing. Her recent work is on the Top Online Business Management Degree Programs.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments in the comments section below.

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Have You Tried These Proven Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Blog?

Bloggers often complain that their traffic isn't growing as quickly as they'd like it to. But have you really been doing everything you can to improve your clicks? It's not as simple as reading up on search engine optimization and waiting for the techniques you try to work. If you really want to grow traffic, you have to commit time and effort to the cause.

That means trying some techniques that are a little outside the box. Just as you make a commitment when you join a church, you have to commit to growing your traffic. Here's how.


Interact with Other Bloggers

Bloggers can help grow each other's traffic by posting on each other's sites, sharing links and swapping guest posts. The goal is to expose your blog to people who might not have otherwise found it. Make a commitment to commenting on at least five other sites per day, and make sure to include your blog's URL in your comment.

Don't be pushy or annoying in your comments. Don't demand that people come visit your blog. Contribute a thoughtful and intelligent argument if you have good insight on the topic at hand. This will encourage people to check out what you write on a daily basis.


Gamble a Little

Try experimenting with sites like StumbleUpon, which can bring in a flood of traffic if used correctly. This site invites people to "stumble" upon interesting content that they think others would enjoy. But you have to be careful with the way you use it. If the site thinks you're trying to flag your own content for stumbling, they might ban you from posting.

Depending on what kind of content you publish, consider creating a Pinterest for your blog. Create pictures that capture the essence of your posts or even take a quote from your post and lay it out visually.


Write About Blogging

Want to know a topic that bloggers find irresistible? Themselves. And considering how many bloggers there are, that can add up to a lot of traffic. Write a post about something relevant to blogging, such as where to find topic ideas, how to grow traffic or even something more technical, like which blogging software to use. It's guaranteed that traffic on that post will take off. People love to read something relevant to themselves, and bloggers tend to be the biggest blog readers.

Don't forget to blog in your own niche and family of bloggers. Guest posts are a great way to target the right traffic to your own blog. Offer other bloggers in your vertical a post swap.


Pick an Obscure Topic

Sometimes it doesn't pay to be the 4,567th blogger to write about Kim and Kanye's new baby. Sometimes to stand out you have to try something really different. If you write about an obscure topic that doesn't get a lot of coverage on the internet, you'll draw in people looking for information on said topic. They won't have a lot of resources to choose from, so they may pick yours.


Blogrolls

After you become buddy buddy with some of the other bloggers in your niche, ask them to include your blog in their blogroll. This will become a great way for readers interested in what your write about to find you.

Just like a post swap, offer to put their blog in your blogroll as well. Many times, you'll find a community of bloggers in your niche that interlink to everyone else.

Test out these five ways to increase traffic to your site. Be sure to track your progress in Google Analytics or some other form of analytics for your blog. You'll be amazed at how much traffic you can get with just a little effort.


About The Author: Carl Glasmyre is a freelance writer who writes on a wide selection of topics.

Did you find this article helpful? Do you have any tips to share for increasing blog traffic? Please let Carl and myself know by leaving us your valued comments in the comments section below.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Related articles:
Blog Marketing Overview
3 Tips For Increasing Blog Traffic
Top 3 Blogging Tips For Increasing Internet Presence
What's In Store For Bloggers This 2012


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Until my next post on Wednesday on why online marketing is just as important as traditional marketing, have a great week ahead!

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Using A Blog To Promote Your eBay Store

If you have an eBay store, a blog is a fantastic way to generate more traffic and more interest in your products and auctions, which could potentially lead to more sales. So how can you best use a blog to promote your eBay store?


Focus on a Niche

The best way to utilise a blog for promoting your eBay store is to focus on a particular niche. For example, if you sell fishing equipment through your store then focus your bog exclusively on this topic. This will give your blog more focus, and you will be able to better target the types of customers that you are looking for by writing interesting posts about your product and the niche in general.

If you sell a variety of products that are not related, consider creating a blog for each niche rather than using one blog to promote all of your products. This will keep your blogs far more focused and appealing to your target customers.


Optimise Your Posts

One of the main aims of your blog is to attract potential customers who you can then direct to your eBay store. One of the best ways to attract visitors is through the search engines, so you should optimise your posts using suitable keywords.

Rather than just optimising your posts for product names, carry out keyword research for long-tail keywords and use these in your posts. In this way you can attract people to your blog who are looking for information in the search engines. Once they start reading your blog, you can direct them to your eBay store.


End Your Posts in a Call to Action

Don't forget the main purpose of your blog: to send visitors to your eBay store. With this in mind, it is a good idea to include a "call to action" at the end of each blog post and throughout your website directing people to your store.

For example, if you write a blog post about a specific product, you can end the post by linking to your auction or that product category in your eBay store so that it is easy for your readers to buy it.


Make Use of Social Media

Starting a blog and finding readers is hard work, and you may get more success by linking your blog up with your social media accounts. A lot of eBay auctions are quite immediate, and people are looking for a particular product at a particular moment. When you write a blog post about a product, tweet about it as well because this may attract attention from people who are looking for that particular product at that moment.

Once you have built up followers on Twitter and Facebook, you may find that they start to share your posts, which can send more traffic to your blog and generate more interest in your auctions.


Stay in Touch

Getting traffic to your blog is the hard part, so don't waste that traffic by failing to capture the email addresses of your visitors. If your visitors are interested enough to sign up to your email list, they are high-value targets and you can target them with special offers and time-sensitive information such as the imminent launch of a new auction for an interesting product.


Launch a Blog Today

Launching your own blog is an excellent way to market your eBay store, and the best thing of all is that it is very easy to get started. Check out WordPress.org if you are unsure where to start. Once you have bought some hosting you can get your own blog up and running in hours. You could even launch a blog on Blogger or WordPress.com for free, so this is also worth considering. Then just work hard and publish regularly, and you could start to generate more interest in your eBay auctions.


About The Author: Amy Sawyer is a freelance writer from
MyParcelDelivery.com - a UK based parcel delivery service specialising in affordable courier services for eBay sellers.

Did you find this article helpful? What other methods do you use to promote your eBay store? Please let Amy and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

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Until my next post, have a wonderful and relaxing weekend!

© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

How Comment Marketing Will Benefit Your Rating In The Web World

Who knew that dropping a comment under a post would actually give you recognition? Well this can only happen when you comment on what is within your niche and have a well written statement. Stop writing some things like "good one" or "I totally agree" from now on make sure you write something of greater value and this way your comment will be categorized under comment marketing. This is all very beneficial.

You may be wondering what marketing with comments is. This article will fill you in on some insight. This is a technique which is used to drive traffic and ensure that there is constant building up of your online presence. Having loads of traffic streaming into your website is very important for you. When you actually leave beneficial remarks on other blogs you make this possible. This is what comment marketing is basically about in brief.


Benefits

When you actually get to seriously understand the benefits you can get from simply leaving comments on other blogs, then you will learn how to go by it sufficiently. Here are the benefits you will attain from commenting on blogs:

• Be an authority: What does it mean to be an authority in anything? This means you become a professional or a don of whatever you are doing. This means that you know what you are talking about whenever you place a comment and by doing so; others will recognize that you have a niche and know it well. How then will you make this happen? You will have to drop fine, well thought-out comments that will add value to the discussion. Make sure that every comment counts if you want to put your name out there. You will certainly get the attention of those who are keen and interested in whatever goes into your niche. You will hold amazing discussions with those people and this will certainly put you up there on the ranks.
  
  
• Attention: When you are aiming for comment marketing, what you really want is to catch the eye of the blogger right? You only leave comments on blogs when the content is very important to you otherwise you wouldn't do it all together. When you leave a comment that actually adds worth to the rest of the conversation you will be doing it the right way. There are two ways you can do this, you can both agree with what the blog is addressing and add your own similar view on the subject or you could take up another angle which is highly recommended because creating controversy really builds up a good debate. When you build up a heated debate you will certainly get the attention of many.
  
  
• Network: With the above points, it is clear that you will certainly be connected with the blogger and other influential people commenting as well.

How great it would be if you got recognized by someone famous whose blog appeals to you.


About The Author: Jems Holden is a blogger/writer by profession! Currently he is associated with a Manchester web design agency, Sizzle Media as Web Content Writer.

Did you find this article helpful? Do you use comment marketing to drive traffic to your site/increase your online presence? Please let Jems and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
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Until my next post on Friday on keyword research, enjoy the rest of the week!

© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

3 Tips For Increasing Blog Traffic

Part of being a blogger is getting relevant traffic to your blog. This is probably your biggest task and your biggest wish. This is also where most bloggers have trouble. Here are a few ways you can get traffic to your blog.


Social Media

I am sure that I do not need to tell you that you can get a lot of traffic from social media. Most bloggers dream of the day when something they write goes viral. But most people also have no idea that they can do something to increase the amount of traffic they can receive from these social media sites. The best way to increase your social media presence is with the use of SMM tools. Some of the best social media monitoring tools are capable of growing your audience by quite a bit by making you a lot more efficient. You will not only have a lot more data to work with but will also be able to save time so that you can work on other blog related things.


Blog Comments

I am sure that you know that you can get traffic via blog comments but most bloggers do not know how to do this right. If you are trying to get people to click through from your blog comment and find out more about you, you should generally follow a few rules of thumb.

• Sooner the better: Comment as soon as the post has been published, if possible be the first one to comment. The father down your comment is, the fewer clicks you will get. Most people tend to not read after the first few comments.
  
  
• Be of appropriate length: It is generally a good idea to make the comment more than the length of a tweet, but be sure not to make to longer than 300 words, because by then you go from leaving a comment to leaving an essay. Besides, no one is even going to read it if it is an essay so don't put that much effort into it.
  
  
• Contribute to the conversation: Pretty much what it says. Contribute something. Even if you write a paragraph, if it is just rewording what someone else has already said, people can tell. So say something original that is of some value.

Forums and communities

This works a lot like blog comments. The only difference is that you have to be consistent. If you are just answering once in a while, you will not be able to send any traffic to your site. Most forums and communities generally have some sort of ranking system that shows everyone else how much you participate. Generally speaking, the higher this is, the more reliable you come off as to most people. By participating often, you can increase this number and when you do answer someone's question people tend to think of you as an authority in that niche and will be tempted to check out your website.


Did you find this article helpful? Please let me know by leaving your valued comments below.

Related articles:
What's In Store For Bloggers This 2012
12 Ways To Generate More Blog Traffic
Top Blog and RSS Directories


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

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Use SEO Copywriting Services To Drive Traffic Your Way

If there is one thing that businesses must get right if they are to drive traffic to their website, it is their content. In the world of online trading the old cliché that content is king really is true. If you consistency produce good content, which offers value to the reader and which uses the right keywords and phrases, you will undoubtedly see the number of visitors to your website grow.

Of course, good SEO copywriting is not easy to produce and it requires expert knowledge and skills which you may not possess. It also requires a great deal of time to make your copy word perfect and this is often not possible when you have a company to run. Luckily, there are many great companies who offer high quality SEO copywriting services and they can take care of your content for you.


SEO copywriting services

SEO copywriting is one of the most effective techniques which can be used to increase traffic to a website. Text, blogs and articles are written and placed on the page in order to draw the attention of the reader and search engines.

The most successful SEO content is that which offers value to the reader, as well as, lots of keywords for the search engine. If you simply place badly written, keyword laden text on your website, it will almost certainly get a lower ranking than a similar website which offers quality content and, readers will be less likely to stick around and make use of your services.

By making use of professional SEO copywriting services, you can ensure that every piece of text on your website is optimised for search engines and people alike. A professional SEO expert will have the knowledge and skills required to create effective copy which delivers real results and that is why they are worth their weight in gold.


Successful SEO copywriting

There are many aspects to creating successful SEO copy. One must first analysed keywords, to determine which targeted keywords will get the best results. Then, the subject which is being written about must be researched before writing can start. This information must then be organised into a logical order before writing can commence.

When writing, it is important that grammar and punctuation are correct, as this will reflect on the company and could result in a poor search engine ranking if not done well. As well as ensuring that grammar is correct and that the copy is compelling, SEO copywriters must also think about layout.

Working out how often a keyword should appear, how many sub-headings to use and how to format content is just as important as the writing itself and can make a real difference to the amount of traffic a website receives.

Finally, SEO copywriters must keep up to date with all of the latest algorithms used by search engines if they are really to see results.

So, as you can see, it really does take a lot of hard work and skill to increase traffic through SEO copywriting and that is why it pays to use professional SEO copywriting services to get the job done right.


About The Author: Mark works for Integrity SEO Experts; we help many businesses across many industry sectors to understand what they need to do to achieve results online. Providing all services from link building to SEO copywriting services.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let me know by leaving your valued comments below.


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
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Until my next post, have a fabulous week!

12 Clever Ways To Boost Your Traffic

To all my valued followers, visitors, advertisers and my friends at Bloggers Network, Happy New Year to you all. I hope 2012 brings you happiness and prosperity and be the year that makes your dreams come true. Happy New Year everyone..!!

If you're looking to increase traffic to your site, the first featured article of the year is by Terri Seymour of SeymourProducts.com showing twelve clever ways on how to boost the traffic to your blog and/or website...


12 Clever Ways To Boost Your Traffic

Traffic is essential to anyone who owns a website and/or blog. Without traffic we have no customers or sales. Unfortunately traffic does not just come to us, we have to work at it and we have to be consistent and persistent.

Sales conversion rates normally average less than 5%. What this means is that only 5% of the people who visit your site will become a paid customer. So, to grow your sales, you need to boost your traffic and/or your conversion rates. Below are twelve things you can do right now to start increasing your traffic to get those sales.


1. Launch an Article Marketing Campaign - Writing articles is not as hard as you might think and it can do wonders for your traffic! Write about something you know and just pretend you are telling a friend all about it. There is no need to use big, fancy words because people just want basic, straightforward information. Submit your articles to some of the more prominent article directories such as Ezine Articles.

2. Guest Posting and/or Commenting on Blogs - Do a search to find quality blogs in your niche and ask if they accept guest posts. Write helpful comments on existing posts and leave your link. Get involved and start building your reputation! A good place to find blogs that need guest posts is BloggerLinkUp.

3. Write Website Reviews - Review websites on Alexa and get more traffic and improve your Alexa rating. Go to Alexa, register an account and start reviewing and getting that traffic.

4. Relevant Keywords - There are a lot of free keyword suggestion tools you can use to find the top keyword searches for your niche. For example: if you own a pet care site, you would enter the words pet care and the tool would find the most relevant keywords for you to use on your site.

5. Yahoo Answers - Visit Yahoo Answers regularly and post as many answers as you can but be sure to follow their policies. You cannot try to directly lead people to your purchasing pages or leave low quality answers with your website link.

6. Interactive Site - Make your site interactive with forums, polls, surveys, etc. If your visitors feel more involved with your site, you will get repeat visits and longer stays. Add a little fun as well with contests, games, etc. Have a weekly or monthly scavenger hunt, trivia game, etc. Running a contest for a month can boost your traffic by thousands.

7. Business Cards - Produce an effective business card and hand them out wherever you go. Be sure to make it unique. Offer a discount on a first order. Add a personal message. Offer a freebie. Make your business card more than just your name and address.

8. Podcasting - A podcast is an audio or video broadcast which people can listen to and/or watch on many devices. Make your podcast informative but interesting. Talk about how your site can help the people listening and let them know about any contests or other interactive activities you offer. All you need to make a podcast is a working microphone and a voice editor such as Audacity. Once you have made your podcast, promote it in podcast forums and podcast directories such as PodcastBlaster.

9. Moving Billboard - Turn your vehicle into a moving billboard to advertise your website wherever you go. Use affordable vinyl coverings such as Car Wraps or magnetic signs from Esigns. A day of fun can bring you a lot of traffic from your mobile billboard!

10. Social Media - These days social media is a must for more traffic. Join Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more. Visit message boards and forums and really get involved. Answer people's questions, offer helpful advice and information. Becoming an active participant in social media can do wonders for your traffic.

11. Offer a Freebie - Write an informative report or ebook and offer it for free. Put in your website link and other business info. Let people know they can give it away on their sites as well. Add it to your email signature. Post it on your social media pages. Before you know it, your report could be all over the web bringing you new traffic every day.

12. Sitemap - Create an XML sitemap for your site and submit it to Google. A sitemap will allow more accessibility to your pages by the search engines, thus making your pages easier to find by people doing searches. You can easily create up to a 500 page sitemap with XML-Sitemaps. There are other options as well such as XSitemap. Do a search and find alternative options to choose from.

There are numerous ways to get more traffic to your site. Some will work for you and some will not. Try the ideas in this article and add to them, or mould them to work even better for you. Traffic does not come easily but by working hard, trying new ideas and finding out what works best for you will be very effective in boosting your traffic.


About The Author: Terri Seymour has over twelve years of online experience and has helped many people start their own business. Visit her site for free articles, resources, information, resell ebooks and more. Sign up for the RSS Feed for a free business ebook with MRR. http://www.SeymourProducts.com

Do you like this featured article? Please let me know by using the comments section below.

Would you like your article to be featured on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DereksHomeAndBusinessBlog

You can also follow me on Twitter @djones1509, Google+ and on Facebook at:
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Until my next post, have a wonderful week!

5 Useless Website Promotion Techniques

Every owner of a website on planet Earth knows that getting a constant flow of traffic is the key to making money online. The world wide web attracts such a massive number of buyers that regardless of what you sell, you will make some really good money when you have lots of traffic.

Internet marketers are constantly coming up with newer ways to expand their reach across the Internet because no website can survive without enough specific traffic. In their quest to obtain more of the elusive traffic, the website marketers have come up with some rather creative ways to bring in greater amounts of traffic in a short period of time and with little effort.

My email inbox has been flooded with sales letters promoting some automated software or seldom used secret that promises an explosion of website visitors within 30 days. The disturbing part of all this is that it goes against the teaching of our early years; that nothing good comes easy and there is no quick path to building a successful business. As a result of these promises of abundant website traffic and exploding sales figures, many have abandoned those time tested methods of attracting real targeted website visitors that are prepared to take some kind of action. Keep in mind that website traffic isn't something that you can just get, but visitors will come to your website when you have something to provide, enticing them to click on your link.

Too many people are cashing in on a person's desire to get to the top without much effort by offering some really useless website marketing techniques that could actually kill their search engine rankings. The fact is that these are nothing more than 'Marketing Fads', that may produce some huge results in the beginning, but when the newness wears off their effectiveness will fade away forever just like the telephone booth.

Remember when pop-ups and pop-under advertising came out years ago? This was the hottest marketing tool since the time of placing fliers on cars in parking lots. However, when people around the world started using pop-ups to promote their websites there were windows popping up every time you visited and exited a website. Internet users worldwide got so sick of all those pop-up windows that someone invented pop-up killer software. The search engines even started penalizing websites that were using pop-up scripts and soon after that method of website promotion faded away.

I will attempt to identify and explain some of these useless website promotion techniques that should be avoided at all cost. Using some of these bad website marketing techniques could certainly kill your search engine rankings.


Automatic Search Engine Submission Services

These free search engine submission websites allow you to put in your URL, keywords and a description of your website. You then click Submit believing that your website is on its way to being indexed on thousands of search engines. Not so! First of all, the major search engines require manual submission by hand and even implement coding script to prevent auto submission. Secondly, when you click on that Submit button you have no idea where your website link will end up going. Your website link could be automatically posted to illegal or international directory websites that are nothing but a colony of spam links. If Google crawls your website and finds out that you have links to your website coming from other websites with rotten content, then your website will pay the price in low rankings.

There is absolutely no substitute for manually forwarding your websites to the search engines. You will have complete control over where your link is going, and the search engines will automatically crawl your website to get your title and description.


Auto Submission to Directories and FFA sites

You may have seen those places that claim you can blast your website to over 2 million websites and directories. As a general rule, please stay away from anyone that uses the word 'Blast' because this is just another way of saying Spam. It sounds like you are literally placing your link on millions of other websites and getting tons of instant backlinks to your website. Those FFA or Free For All websites are nothing but a link farm containing links from sites with bad or irrelevant content. The search engines won't ever see your website as being respectable enough to rank high in the search results if it is affiliated with that type of environment.


Lead Generation Software

I once got an email that said, "Hello Webmaster, My name is John. I have been searching the Internet for some business opportunities and came across your website. I just wanted to know if you are still in business today. Please email me at this_email@emailaddress.com and let me know. Thank you."

I replied to the person giving them more information about one of our websites. That particular email was forgotten until I got a few other emails with the same content from different names and email addresses. This matter sparked my curiosity and prompted me to do some further investigation to find out why these emails turned up so frequently.

I discovered that this was the work of lead generation software that extracts website links and email addresses from the Internet for any category. You just type the keyword in the search box and the software literally pulls in millions of email addresses. The software even allows you to email all those addresses. On the surface it appears to be the perfect way to put your website link in front of millions of people in the same industry as you.

This has the look and smell of spam, but because the one sending the email does not attempt to sell you anything, it's not quite spam. This marketing technique is not very effective because the email is generic, impersonal and did not give the reader a reason to respond. Your emails should speak to a person's needs and not just at them. Readers respond to emails if you find a way to reach their interests, giving them a reason to take action.


Backlink Generating Software

Google loves websites that have lots of quality backlinks, considering such links votes on the importance of those sites. Somebody got this crazy idea to automate the link building that Google loves, hoping to get huge numbers of valuable links and move to the top of the search engine results. Google has now gotten smart and has found to way to detect how you are getting your backlinks and even the speed at which you are getting them. So, if you are still buying links or using software to get instant backlinks, then chances are Google will find out and penalize your website. Nothing can substitute for writing valuable content that will automatically attract quality backlinks.


Automated Article Submission and Article Spinning

Writing high quality articles is a great way to attract targeted visitors to your website. Again, someone invented a way to automate this process as well. They came out with article submission software that they claim will automatically send your written articles to hundreds or even thousands of directories. There is even software that will take one written article, spin the title and words around, and send them to more directories. This software sells like hotcakes because people don't want to do the labor intensive work of writing their own articles and sending them manually to article directories.

The real, authentic article directories that can syndicate your articles are getting smart and have installed a special code that disallows auto submission of articles. They have also installed a special script that can detect articles that have been spun off from the original. Most of them manually approve articles before they are published in their directory and can easily detect duplicate and spinned content.


Conclusion

Widespread use of these automated website marketing techniques has taken away the need to apply really genuine website promotion that gets real results and replaced it with push-button marketing. You may see some quick and positive results, but only for a short period of time. Treat your website like an infant; give it lots of attention, feed it some healthy content, protect it from dangerous spam activity and let it grow naturally over time.



About The Author Deek Ennis is the Founder and CEO of Buildstar Wholesale Resources. Since 2003 they have helped over 100,000 businesses fulfill their wholesale and drop ship product sourcing needs with free worldwide shipping on over 5 million wholesale products.

Deek is the author of numerous published articles on internet marketing and business such as, "7 Do It Yourself Techniques to higher Search Engine Rankings" and "How to Avoid Getting Scammed While Buying Wholesale". Learn how Deek and Buildstar can help fulfill your wholesale product sourcing needs at www.buildstarwholesale.com

12 Ways To Generate More Blog Traffic

Here's a great article by Jessica Swanson of ShoestringMarketingKit.com showing 12 simple strategies that can help you generate more traffic to your blog...


Twelve Simple Ways to Generate More Blog Traffic

Imagine that you've taken the giant leap to start a blog to bring more brand awareness and exposure to your small business.

You've taken all the necessary steps to build your blog platform and now comes the day when you make your very first blog post. You spend hours crafting a post that is educational, inspirational and positions you as an expert in your field. You are as proud of this post as if it truly were your flesh and blood. And, most of all you can't wait to share it with the world.

So, you hit "publish" and wait for your readers to react to your nuggets of wisdom. However, the waiting is an endless ordeal.

Why aren't you generating any comments? Why aren't people emailing you thrilled that you have shared your expertise with them?

It's called "lack of traffic" and if there's no traffic to your blog, no one will ever see it.

So, how can you begin enticing readers to visit your blog? Here are twelve quick ways to generate a flow of non-stop blog traffic:


1. Create Great Content

Obviously, this goes without saying. But, your content needs to educate, entertain, inspire or provide a solution to your readers' problems. You want to try to accomplish at least one of these tasks with every blog post.


2. Keep Your Posts Short

We are living in an age where short attention spans are the norm. Keep your posts under 500 words so that you don't lose your ADD readers.


3. Get Your Blog Indexed in Technorati

This is the big daddy of all blog catalogs. Make sure that you go through the very simple process of submitting your blog RSS feed to Technorati.


4. Submit Your Blog Feed to Other Top Blog Catalogs

Blog catalogs and RSS feed catalogs are where readers go to find blogs to read. You want to make sure that your blog is there. To make the process even easier, you can use a service such as SubmitINMe to manually post to the catalogs for you.


5. Entice Your Readers to Subscribe to Your Blog

Give your readers a free goodie (such as a downloadable ebook, whitepaper, audio class, etc.) if they subscribe to your blog.


6. Let Your Social Networks Know About New Posts

Whenever you post to your blog, Tweet it out to your followers, update your LinkedIn status and let your Facebook friends and fans know about it. If it's a good post, they will pass it on to their community as well.


7. Get Involved in the Blog Community

Blogging is a social activity. Read other blogs, comment on other blogs and refer to other blogs within your blog posts.


8. Comment Back

When your readers make comments on your blog, make sure that you comment back to them. You want to encourage a natural back and forth dialogue between you and your readers.


9. Participate in a Blog Carnival

A blog carnival is a blog event that it is dedicated to a particular topic and is published either weekly or monthly. Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of an article that contains links to other blog posts on that particular topic. Blog carnivals can be a wonderful way to produce awareness around your blog. Read the rules and regulations of the blog carnival and get involved.


10. Offer to Write a Blog Post for a High-Traffic Blog

Research various blogs within your particular industry. Read the blogs, comment on the blogs and interact with the blogger. Once you've established a relationship, send them an email politely letting them know that you would be willing to be a guest blogger for them at any time in the future. Include a link to your blog so that they can check out the quality of your work.


11. Use Your Blog Posts in Your Ezine

Instead of writing a brand new article for your weekly ezine, send out the first few paragraphs of one of your past blog posts. Then include a link for the reader to continue reading the post on your blog.


12. Include Your Blog URL in Your Email Signature

Develop an email signature that you use whenever you send an email. Of course, your email signature should include a link to your blog.

Once you implement these twelve strategies, you'll certainly notice a spike in traffic and begin generating comments and interaction from hundreds (even thousands) of readers in your particular industry.


If you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar) or subscribe to our feed at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DereksHomeAndBusinessBlog

You can also follow me on Twitter @djones1509 and on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/djones1509

Have a great week!

5 Ways To Use Facebook To Promote Your Site

Facebook has taken social networking by storm over the past three years, growing to become one of the most used sites on the Internet, both from a new user point of view and a returning visitor rate as well.

Facebook brings together many millions of people who all connect, share information, photos, events and pretty much everything about their lives, whether they mean to or not.

In the same way you can connect to friends, you can also use Facebook as a great way to promote your business or website because the power that Facebook can offer you in terms of exposure is almost second to none when it comes to the potential that this site can offer to you.

Below, we look at our top five ways of utilising Facebook to really promote your business or website.


Set Up A Facebook Page

Facebook pages can be an amazing tool if you utilise them correctly. You can start to build up a "fan" base of people who are interested in your product who will like your page and therefore get information instantly when you add any new posts, photos, discussions or events to your page.

This means that not only does your post go onto the people who like your page walls, but then any of their friends could also see this, allowing you to spread the word to thousands more people just by growing your like list.


Tell Your Friends, Colleagues, Loved Ones And Anyone Who Will Listen

As mentioned above, its time to tell all of your trusted and not so trusted friends and contacts on Facebook about your page.

The more people you tell, the more people will start seeing your posts every time you add them, meaning that you can really get some excellent exposure from just a small pool of friends, as long as they have many more friends on their lists.


Build Up Your Likes

The more likes you have, the more your business page or general page will get exposure, as the things that you post and promote will start to get spread across many peoples Facebook walls and profiles.

This means its important to really only add good content to your Facebook page, things like adding your blog RSS feed and adding solid articles and noteworthy information.


Join Related Groups

On the same line as pages, groups are a great way to find other people who are interested in the same things that you are.

For example, if you enjoy playing Fifa 11, you simply type into your search box "Fifa 11" and then take a look at all the groups and pages. You can then join these groups and join in the discussions which can then lead to you promoting your related product.

Don't just go storming in and start making loads of posts about what you are offering, as this will simply lead to either being blocked or becoming known as a spammer!


Use Facebook Advertising

Although we find the Facebook Advertising slightly more expensive than other cost per click models, the demographics you can place on your advertising is second to none.

For example, if you wanted to appeal to 30 - 50 year olds who live within 20 miles of your postcode and were interested in dancing, Facebook allows you to do this. Because of the data they collect about you as you are using Facebook, they can then really make sure that you can target any advertising very close to your perfect audience, which is not really rivaled elsewhere as of yet.

It is true to say that using Facebook to promote anything is hard work. You have to really work at your page, improve it on a daily basis and keep adding good content to keep not only the people who like your page happy but to also attract new ones.

If you are prepared to do the leg work, there is no doubt that this social networking site can drive extra traffic and sales to any business or website.



About The Author: Ian Spencer works for Clear Web Services, a SEO Web Optimisation and Web Design company serving the Forest Of Dean, Gloucestershire and South Wales. He has worked in the SEO and Internet Marketing world for many years, and working in partnership with another company has launched the new SEO business http://clearwebservices.com. For more information, please call 01594 835 857 or email info@clearwebservices.com.

Website Traffic Generation & The Traffic Fairy

If you have an online business, generating traffic to your website is crucial to business success. Here's a great article by Bill Platt of the Phantom Writers explaining what you should be doing to generate traffic to your website...


Website Traffic Generation and the Love of the Traffic Fairy

For a number of years, many online marketers honestly thought that the only thing they needed to do to be successful online was to build a website, and the buyers would come to them.

They heard all of the success stories from people who claimed that they had simply built a website, and people just started to arrive in huge numbers.

The story, as it is told, is:

These folks built a website, then the search engines found their websites and started showing people the link to their website. And the people using the search engines saw the link to their websites and saw that it was good. Search engine users saw the link and, as if it were the only link in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), they clicked the link by the thousands. And hoards of people came to the website with fists full of money, ready to purchase what the website was selling.

Some people still believe this is how the search engines work. They have built their websites, and they are waiting anxiously for the "Traffic Fairy" to sprinkle his magic dust on their websites too, so that they can also make lots of money.


Are YOU Still Waiting For The Traffic Fairy?

I hope not.

Those who are "waiting" for anything may wait until they realize they are flushing good money down the proverbial toilet, month after month. When they realize that they still have more money going out than they have coming in, they usually get irritated that the "Traffic Fairy" did not look favorably on them, so they stop paying their hosting bill and quit this scam called, "online marketing."

The lifespan of most new websites can generally be measured in the amount of time most people will remain members of a subscription website. In case you did not know, this number is 3-4 months. Along about the 4th or 5th month, most people will stop paying their web hosting bill and let their websites die.

Those people who prepay 1-2 years on their web hosting bill will typically allow their sites to remain online, but they will quit the site long before their website runs out of life. Most will stick it out 3-4 months, and if they are not yet making money, they will just walk away from their new "online business."

This is why you will find so many article directories where you submit your finest work, and no one will ever "approve" your article for publication. There may be nothing wrong with your article. The fact is no one is home to approve it.


The Traffic Fairy Smiles on Those Who Take Action

If you can believe it, in the fall of 1998, Google was a startup website.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin -- the founders of Google -- were just like you and I. They had a startup website, and they needed people to discover their new website.

In those days, Page and Brin could not simply build their website and "wait" for the Traffic Fairy or Google to find them.

They were Google, and no one was using their website.

What did they do to get Google off the ground?

While building Google in their garage, Page and Brin were doing what you should be doing now. They were getting links wherever they could get links. They were adding their site to directories. They were issuing press releases about their new company. They were trying to get interviews with the press and ordinary webmasters. They were trying to get interviews with newsletter publishers. They were participating in forums and news groups to share their story.

They started their website in September of 1998 and they got their first major press in December of 1998, when they made the top 100 websites of 1998.

It took them three months to get their first major press, and they had been actively promoting their website with the gusto of a 10,000-person marching band.

Yet the average new webmaster barely promotes his or her website and expects to attract thousands of visitors in the same time frame as it took Google to get noticed by the public-at-large.

Are you starting to get the picture?


To Be Successful, Do What the Successful Websites Have Done

Before Google was the powerhouse it is today, its founders had to work their asses off to build their business.

They had to promote, promote, and promote some more. They had to build links, build links, and build some more links. They needed to entice people to visit and use their website, and they needed to provide a method for people to find them.

My point is that the founders of Google wanted to be acknowledged and linked from every corner of the Internet. They chased links for their website because they knew that people used links to get to a website.

Twelve years later, Yahoo credits them with 223,383,603 links to www.google.com and another 6,752,847 links to google.com. siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com

You and I are not going to get 231 million links to our websites, but getting links from a variety of resources is the secret to getting traffic to ones' website. The Traffic Fairy blesses those websites that have a multitude of links to them.

Page and Brin tapped into the basics of building traffic to their website. They made a great website, and they did everything they could do to get traffic to that website.

You should try to emulate them as you build your website and start to promote it. It was the secret to their success, and likewise, it could be the secret to your success.


Traffic Generation 101

The easiest and cheapest ways to get links and generate traffic for ones' website is going to be: article marketing, press releases, forum marketing, social media marketing, etc.

But, there are at least three-dozen methods to generate traffic to ones' website, and these are just four of them.

The more successful websites always strive to get traffic through a wide variety of traffic generation strategies and methods.

In my case, I have used 31 of the 35 methods I describe in the 80-page traffic guide, "Multiple Traffic Streams: The Magic of Attracting Buyers."

This has resulted in my top three websites being on track to serving 400,000 unique visitors and 5 million page views in 2010.

Don't wait for the Traffic Fairy to bless your website. Take massive action to make sure that the Traffic Fairy would be a fool to ignore you.

And if you do, you might just realize that the Traffic Fairy is real, and he would love to sprinkle his magic traffic dust on your website too.



About The Author: The first step to learning how to boost your traffic is learning about the diversity of traffic sources available to you. Reviewers are widely praising Bill Platt's "Multiple Traffic Streams: The Magic of Attracting Buyers" for its quality and attention to detail. One reviewer called it, "Comprehensive!!" Another said, "You could always spend $1500 or more for one of the 'guru' courses and still get less info." Get your copy here: thephantomwriters.com/multiple-traffic-streams/