How to get permanent free advertising for your website using online forums
August 20, 2006 on 6:09 am | In Uncategorized | No Comments
By: Matthew Meyer
Edited By: Bob Carper
Have you ever done a search on Google and found your answer in forum threads? Try typing in almost any question into Google and you will find many of the answers in online forum threads. The search engines index forums like crazy! Also, most forum posts are permanent. They do not usually get deleted.
As a marketer, how do you use the power of online forums to promote your business? First, you must realize that each forum has strict rules. On most forums you cannot just register, then start posting ads. You will be banned from most forums for doing this.
As a beginning step, find forums which relate to the topic of your website. Then, join these forums and start to become a regular contributor. Answer questions, ask questions, contribute valuable information without promoting your website.
Most forums will allow you to have a signature file. This is a short tagline which will be added to the end of your posts with your name and the URL of your website. Use the signature function to promote yourself on forums, not the body of the post.
If you start making regular, appropriate posts in top forums in your industry, your signature file will get indexed in the search engines with the keywords that are used in the posts. Also you will start to be known as an expert in your industry.
However, there are forums that will allow blatant advertising. These are usually called free advertising forums. These forums actually encourage you to post blatant ads for your website. The advantage of free advertising forums is that you can post your ads every day without being accused of spamming the forums. The disadvantage is that most people just go on these forums to post ads and they do not enter into a dialogue with other members. Therefore, your ad is not seen as many times as on real forums. However, if you get creative with your titles, you can still get real visitors to your posts on free advertising forums.
Here is a list of three top free advertising forums:
http://www.freeadvertisingforum.com
http://postfreeads.free-forums.org
So basically, you have two strategies when using forums to promote your business online. The first is to become a regular contributor on quality forums in your industry. This is more of a long-term strategy. The second is to use free advertising forums that allow ads. Both strategies work. Give them a try!
Keywords:
Technorati Tags: free-leads, leads, advertising, internet-advertising, opt-in-leads, business-leads, multi-level-marketing-leads, mlm-leads, networking-marketing-leads, free-ads, bulk- email, email-leads, forums, free-advertising-forums, internet-marketing-forums
About The Author
Matthew Meyer is the webmaster for The Free Ad Forum. This is a forum where marketers can post free permanent ads and articles daily. You can access it at:
http://www.thefreeadforum.com
About the Editor
Bob Carper is a veteran information systems consultant that has over 30 years experience in information systems design and development. He was one of the earliest implementers of the Prestel and Antiope videotext systems that were the forerunners to the internet. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, and has a MBA degree from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Business Administration. He is an ardent railfan and belongs to the New York Central Historical Society.
Click HERE for further information on website systems and design,
Click HERE for additional information on secure webconferencing systems
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How Not to Get Hooked by a ‘ Phishing’ Scam
August 19, 2006 on 3:29 pm | In Uncategorized | No CommentsBy: Bob Carper
This scenario happens more times than you want to count.
You are pulling down your daily quotient of e-mails, 90% of which are SPAM. They represent ads trying to sell you on pet food, mortgages, get rich quick schemes, and so forth. You see an ominous e-mail from the security department of your bank or PayPal.
It reads like this:
“We suspect an unauthorized transaction on your account.
To ensure that your account is not compromised,
please click the link below and confirm your identity.”
Or this
“During our regular verification of accounts, we couldn’t verify your information.
Please click here to update and verify your information.”
It is a scam. It is designed. to panic you into thinking something is wrong with your account.
It’s called “phishing.” (It is pronounced “fishing”}. Internet fraudsters are at work, trying to send spam or pop-up messages. They are trying to extract personal information from you, such as credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security number, passwords, or other sensitive information. If you fall for it, you could be separated from your money very quickly.
A dead giveaway to such a message is that they have not done their homework very well. Such messages may come from the “security department” of a bank that is not yours. Another dead giveaway is the way your bank or PayPal addresses you. Spammers do not know your name as well as your bank knows it. Seeing a message such as this should arouse your suspicions.
Another variant of phishing involves sending you an e-mail containing a fraudulent transaction that you did not authorize. This frequently happens with PayPal or StormPay customers. You are asked to verify the transaction via the scam merchants URL. Naturally, to “protect you from identity theft” you are asked to provide SSNO or password or other critical information.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, phishers send an email or pop-up message that claims to be from a business or organization that you may deal with — for example, an Internet service provider (ISP), bank, online payment service, or even a government agency. The message may ask you to “update,” “validate,” or “confirm” your account information. Some phishing emails threaten a dire consequence if you don’t respond. The messages direct you to a website that looks just like a legitimate organization’s site. But it isn’t. It’s a bogus site whose sole purpose is to trick you into divulging your personal information so the operators can steal your identity and run up bills or commit crimes in your name.
The FTC suggests these tips to help you avoid getting hooked by a phishing scam:
· If you get an email or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply. And don’t click on the link in the message, either. Legitimate companies don’t ask for this information via email. If you are concerned about your account, contact your bank or PayPal immediately. For PayPal, forward the fraudulent message to
If the bank mentioned in the e-mail is not your bank, just delete the message. If it is your bank, contact your bank’s customer support department using a telephone number you know to be genuine. In any case, DO NOT cut and paste the link from the fraudulent message into your Internet browser — phishers can make links look like they go to one place, but that actually send you to a different site.
· Use anti-virus software and a firewall, and keep them up to date. Some phishing emails contain software that can harm your computer or through the insertion of spyware, track your activities on the Internet without your knowledge.
Anti-virus software and a firewall can protect you from inadvertently accepting such unwanted files. Anti-virus software scans incoming communications for troublesome files. Look for anti-virus software that recognizes current viruses as well as older ones; that can effectively reverse the damage; and that updates automatically.
A firewall helps make you invisible on the Internet and blocks all communications from unauthorized sources. It’s especially important to run a firewall if you have a broadband connection. Operating systems (like Windows or Linux) or browsers (like Internet Explorer or Netscape) also may offer free software “patches” to close holes in the system that hackers or phishers could exploit.
· Don’t email personal or financial information. Email is not a secure method of transmitting personal information. If you initiate a transaction and want to provide your personal or financial information through an organization’s website, look for indicators that the site is secure, like a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a URL for a website that begins “https:” (the “s” stands for “secure”). Unfortunately, no indicator is foolproof and some phishers have forged security icons.
· Review your PayPal account, credit card, and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to check for unauthorized charges. If your statement is late by more than a couple of days, call your credit card company or bank to confirm your billing address and account balances.
· Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive, regardless of who sent them. These files can contain viruses or other software that can weaken your computer’s security. Know the person who is sending you the e-mail that contains attachments, and verify with them that they are sending you an attachment.
· Forward spam that is phishing for information to spam@uce.gov and to the company, bank, or organization impersonated in the phishing email. Most organizations have information on their websites about where to report problems. We have already mentioned the e-mail address for PayPal.
If you believe you’ve been scammed, file your complaint at ftc.gov, and then visit the FTC’s Identity Theft website at www.consumer.gov/idtheft. Victims of phishing can become victims of identity theft. While you can’t entirely control whether you will become a victim of identity theft, you can take some steps to minimize your risk. If an identity thief is opening credit accounts in your name, these new accounts are likely to show up on your credit report. You may catch an incident early if you order a free copy of your credit report periodically from any of the three major credit bureaus. See www.annualcreditreport.com for details on ordering a free annual credit report.
You can learn other ways to avoid email scams and deal with deceptive spam at ftc.gov/spam
Keywords:
Technorati Tags: scam, scams, internet-scams, pfishing, frauds, bank-account-frauds, bank-account-scams, avoiding-scams, ftc, federal-trade-commission, paypal, spam, spamming, fraudulent-e-mails, credit-card-information, passwords, spoofs, viruses, viruses, anti-virus-software, spyware, malware,
About the Author
Bob Carper is a veteran information systems consultant that has over 30 years experience in information systems design and development. He was one of the earliest implementers of the Prestel and Antiope videotext systems that were the forerunners to the internet. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, and has a MBA degree from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Business Administration. He is an ardent railfan and belongs to the New York Central Historical Society. For further information on website systems and design, go to
For additional information on secure webconferencing systems, go to
http://www.secure-webconferencing.com
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How You Can Avoid Airport Hassles Through Secure Webconferencing
August 12, 2006 on 1:20 am | In Website Design, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Home based business, Distance Learning, Web Conferencing | No Comments
By: Bob Carper
This is the last straw. The most recent terrorist scare emanating from the UK has really done it. We can no longer fly anywhere in the world without the threat of terror in our faces. In addition to the normal airport screening for metallic objects in our luggage, we now have to worry about the threat imposed by liquids. Any liquid substance in our carry-on luggage – shampoos, shaving cream, toothpaste, and body lotions – must be left behind or else it will be trashed at the security checkpoint.
Security is a necessity these days. There is no question about that. These latest developments have proven that no matter what we take for granted, it isn’t enough. We are dealing with terrorist forces that have deployed themselves around the world, with their sole objective of killing us all or else terrorizing ourselves into paralysis.
So what do we do? Do we surrender to the terrorist groups? Have the courageous people of Israel surrendered? They haven’t, and neither should we. Here’s what we can do.
Alternative One: Go by train, boat, or bus to wherever we have to go. Travel will take days longer to accomplish, but at least the terrorist threat will be minimized, but not eliminated.
Alternative Two: Allow at least three – maybe four hours – to go through airport security, and go with DRY LUGGAGE, both carry-on and checked. We can expect that this heightened level of airport security will be around for some time, and will be increased to where checked baggage may also be screened for liquid – based explosives.
Alternative Three: Use secure on-line web conferencing services as an alternative to holding meetings involving persons that must travel, including yourself. All of the functionality of holding a meeting in a classroom or a conference room is maintained.
Let’s take a look at the highlights of this innovative method of holding a conference where the attendees are at remote locations without involving travel.
Most if not all webconferencing systems use Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology in transmitting voice communication among the attendees in the conference room. The heart of these systems is the VOIP “engines” that they use. The most secure of these VOIP systems utilize a data compression methodology that enables such systems to utilize a dial-up telephone interface. Added to this is a encryption – decryption methodology based on data encryption standards (DES) at both the client side and the server side. This makes the VOIP connection virtually impossible to invade. So far as we know, there has not been any occasion where this type of VOIP connection has ever been hacked.
Beyond this, there are the safeguards as to who can enter the conference room and most of all, who can serve as moderator. Certain rooms are restricted to a “members only” safeguard, where entry to such rooms is by password only. The conference “members” may be persons holding a security clearance, persons enrolled in a classroom for which tuition has been charged, or persons having proprietary knowledge of a product or service.
If this were not enough, the conference moderator will also have a separate and unique password. This enables the moderator to lead the conference. The moderator may function as the presenter, with only one-way dialog permitted in the room. The moderator has the power to eject any conference member whose dialog may be offensive or counter-productive. In effect, the moderator has the power over the entire conference proceeding, and can limit the duration of the conference. He or she functions much in the same way as a classroom instructor, a meeting coordinator, a corporate department head.
If you are contemplating utilizing a web conferencing system in lieu of going on exasperating travel missions, you cannot afford to wait. Airport security and the continued threat of terrorist activity certainly will not wait. If your own business security is an important consideration, you should carefully investigate all such webconferencing systems. You must convince yourself that any such internet system will meet the needs of a secure web conferencing system. Hot Conference http://www.hotconference.com/members/rsc22) is one such system that is both secure and as an added bonus, is very inexpensive to implement. There may be a few other web conferencing systems on the market, but these may be quite expensive. A good shopping trip over the web will disclose the system that is best for your needs.
About the Author
Bob Carper is a veteran information systems consultant that has over 30 years experience in information systems design and development. He was one of the earliest implementers of the Prestel and Antiope videotext systems that were the forerunners to the internet. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, and has a MBA degree from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Business Administration. He is an ardent railfan and belongs to the New York Central Historical Society. For further information on website systems and design, go to
For additional information on secure webconferencing systems, go to
http://www.secure-webconferencing.com
Keywords
Technorati Tags: VoIP-conferencing, live-conference, online-conference, web-conference, live-conferencing, online-conferencing, web-conferencing, live-training, live-demonstrations, live-online -demonstrations, live-online-demo, live-online-training, airport-security, terrorism, counter-terrorism, security, threats, interactive-training, interactive-conferencing, live-consulting, web-support, tech-support, support, conference-chat, conference-chat- programs, live-help, live-help programs, live-help-software, web-consulting, fix-web-problems, shared-browsing, follow-me-browsing, co-browsing, internet-voice-communications, global-communications, global-chat, global-voice-chat, web-conferencing-suppliers, free-web-conference, web-conferencing-vendor, web-conference-vendor, web-conference-providers, web-conferencing-providers, web-conference-services, conference-services, webconferencing, webconferencing-supplier, e-learning, webcast, virtual-classroom, distance-learning, online-meeting, internet-conferencing, web-meeting, net-meeting, business-seminar, webinars, web-collaboration, internet-meeting, virtual-meetings, web-meetings, internet-meetings, video-email, streaming-video-email, net-meetings, secure-meetings, secure-web-conferencing, VoIP-services, VoIP-conferences, VoIP-meetings, live-desktop, desktop-sharing, document-sharing, video-conference, video-conferencing,
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What’s A Blog And Why Should I Have One? - Using Blogs To Generate Business
July 30, 2006 on 11:51 pm | In Website Design, Internet Marketing, Free Blog Traffic, Free Website Traffic, Blog, Marketing, Home based business, Work from Home, Search Engines | No Comments
By Chris Malta & Robin Cowie
Edited By: Bob Carper
At some point, most everyone on the internet has run across
blogs. The term “blog ” is a contraction from the general term “web log.” Blogs are simply internet journals recording whatever
happens to be on a writer’s mind at a given moment. Typically
written in an informal tone, blogs are read as though the writer is
having a friendly conversation with their readers. Though blogs
have exploded in popularity, few online retailers understand
that having a blog can be a very effective way to drive sales
for their e-businesses.
Getting Started
The easiest way to start a blog is with a free commercial
service, like http://Blogger.com or http://BlogSpot.com. All
you have to do is just set up an account and start blogging. To
create a blog that sits on your website, you can go to
http://SixApart.com and choose from several software options.
It takes time to build a loyal base of readers, but you can
start guiding traffic to your site by linking with relevant
blogs. Go to http://Technorati.com and find blogs whose content
ties in with yours. You should link only to blogs that have content that is
useful and entertaining to your customers. You should also request they look at your blog and consider linking back to you.
For your product sales site, you don’t have to blog about your
product itself. Instead, blog about things related to your product. If
you sell camping gear, you might blog about the country’s top campsites,
your hiking trip in the Appalachians, or the best time of year
to visit Yellowstone. According to Anthony Perry of
http://BlogAds.com, "You can make your customers feel empowered
if you inform them to make their own decisions, as opposed to
just beating them over the head, saying, ‘This is a great
product! You should buy it!’"
Three Benefits of Blogging
In addition to educating your viewers, your blog provides you
with several advantages:
1. The familiar tone of blogging creates a window for buyers to
see there is a real person behind your site. The internet is an
impersonal selling medium, but the personal nature of blogs
tend to create an element of customer trust and loyalty to your brand.
2. By sharing your valuable knowledge, you are giving your
customers a reason both to stay and to return. It is a proven
fact that the more time a user spends on a site, the more
likely they are to purchase something. The more your readers
return for your expertise, the greater is the probability that you will increase your sales.
3. Get feedback on your products, your site, and your customer
service. Let your users leave comments, and find out what
changes they’d like to see or what products they’d like you to
carry. Says Perry, "Blogging’s a tool that lets you communicate
with your customer base in a way that’s far more intimate than a
monthly e-newsletter."
Keywords
Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, blogs, weblog, marketing, web-marketing, sales, getting-customers, e-businesses, links, linking, getting-traffic,
For Additional Information
If you would like a tutorial on how to best utilize blogs, please go to this website:
If you are interesting in hosting conferences on this subject, or if you would like to attend seminars, please go to this website
http://www.secure-webconferencing.com
About The Authors
Chris Malta and Robin Cowie of
WorldwideBrands.com are the Writers and Hosts of The
Entrepreneur Magazine EBiz and Product Sourcing Radio Shows.
http://www.worldwidebrands.com/EMRinfo for more FREE eBiz info
from Entrepreneur Magazine Radio!
Author’s Email Address: mhedges@worldwidebrands.com
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Five Benefits Of Using Feeds - How Feeds Can Help Your E-Business
July 30, 2006 on 11:37 pm | In Website Design, Internet Marketing, Free Blog Traffic, Blog, Marketing, Home based business, Work from Home, Search Engines | No Comments
By Chris Malta & Robin Cowie
Edited By: Bob Carper
What’s a Feed?
Feeds are a way of sharing content. When you make material from
your website available for publishing on other sites, you
provide them with a feed. Basically, it’s a code that lets them
post your articles and blogs. There are different kinds of
codes, such as XML, RSS, or Atom. Essentially they’re all just
different ways of accessing a feed.
According to internet expert Sydney Johnston, "The great thing
about a feed is everybody wins." The article writer gains
exposure, the reader learns about something of interest to
him or her, and the online seller gets an endless source of pertinent
content.
What Can a Feed Do for My Online Business?
Feeds are useful in a number of different ways:
They eliminate spam filters. Feeds are delivered
directly to your subscribers, so you don’t contend with spam filters
knocking you out of their inboxes. Feeds are also100% opt-in, so readers
can subscribe and unsubscribe at will.
They provide free content. One of the best ways to
differentiate your site is to supply readers with interesting
material. You should educate them on topics relating to the product you’re
selling. If you sell preschool toys, the chances are good that you don’t want
to study child development and write numerous articles on the
subject. Find someone else who has already done that and make
their feed available to your customers. The constantly
updating, applicable subject matter gives your visitors a
reason to keep coming back.
They can improve your search engine rankings. In the past,
search engines were unable to read feeds, but software is now
available to translate them into live links the search engines can see
(check out http://CyberWS.com). Search engines love fresh,
dynamic content, so feeds are ideal. They provide relevant
information that updates automatically. Not only do your
customers get the facts they’re looking for, but also the search
engines like your site and give it better position.
For affiliate marketers, feeds are an alternative to banners.
You not only give your customer valuable knowledge, but if he or she
clicks through and purchases something, you get credit. And unlike
banners, you don’t look like you’re putting up junk ads or
spam.
Feeds can increase your traffic. Anything you write, you
should make available as a feed. When other sites pick it up,
it’s free advertising for you. All their traffic is able to
click through the feed to your site. So you gain new potential
customers you wouldn’t have otherwise.
Feeds on any subject are easy to find. There’s a whole
collection of search engines just for feeds, like
http://Plazoo.com and http://Feedster.com. Says Johnston, "The
future of the internet for entrepreneurs is feeds. If people
don’t master them, they’re going to get left behind, period."
Keywords:
Technorati Tags: feeds, RSS-feeds, RSS, blog, blogs, banners, websites, web-traffic, XML, Atom, spam-filters, search-engines, search-engine-rankings,
For Additional Information
If you would like a tutorial on how to best utilize feeds, please go to this website:
If you are interesting in hosting conferences on this subject, or if you would like to attend seminars, please go to this website
http://www.secure-webconferencing.com
About The Authors:
Chris Malta and Robin Cowie of
WorldwideBrands.com are the writers and hosts of The
Entrepreneur Magazine EBiz and product sourcing radio shows.
Go to http://www.worldwidebrands.com/EMRinfo for more FREE eBiz info
from Entrepreneur Magazine Radio!
Author’s Email Address:
mhedges@worldwidebrands.com
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Three Things Search Engines Want To See - Using Links The Engines Will Like
July 30, 2006 on 8:16 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments
By Chris Malta & Robin Cowie
Edited By: Bob Carper
Search engine companies are constantly changing their
algorithms to keep their results up-to-date. Optimization was at one time
the primary factor search engines used to determine a
website’s ranking. However, optimization currently makes up only about
10% of the search engines’ total algorithms. Linking is what now carries the most weight with search engines.
Linking is the process of connecting to other sites that are
relevant to your target market and that are highly ranked, and
of getting them to connect to you. Google has by far the
largest percentage of the search engine market, and they’re
link-driven. The other search engines tend to follow Google’s
lead, so the market is moving faster in that direction.
Three Tips for Building Smart Links
When choosing which sites you want to link to, keep in mind
what the search engines want to see:
Search engines are looking for organic results. According to
Bruce Chapman of http://Linkateer.com, the number one search
engine positioning firm on the web, "One of the things we try
to do is make sure every single one of our links is pertinent
to that particular type of business." If your website sells
makeup, a natural link would be to a site that gives makeup
application techniques. An unnatural link would be to an
actor’s fan club site. Says Chapman, "If it’s not natural, it’s
going to be a problem."
Search engines are looking for consistent results. More links
aren’t necessarily better. In fact, getting too many links at
once, such as by joining a link farm, can actually hurt your
rankings. Gaining 20,000 links this month and 13 links next
month is going to trip the search engines’ filters. For all your work,
you’re going to find yourself dropping in the rankings. With
links, the search engines are more concerned with quality than
quantity.
Search engines are looking for one-way links. Reciprocal
links are often just people exchanging links to mutually
increase their link counts. The search engines have grown wise
to this practice and adapted their algorithms. Says Chapman,
"When one website wants to link to another website, that’s
showing that the second website has got something of value. The
one-way link is probably worth 20 times as much as a reciprocal
link."
Achieving Natural Results
It takes time to achieve good positioning in the search
engines, especially with the more competitive keywords. Any
attempts to trick the search engines may work for a while; but they’re
getting more and more sophisticated, and they’ll eventually
catch up with you. Not only will your trick no longer work, but also
you may get blackballed or be penalized in your rankings. The
best way to achieve high rankings is to give the search engines
what they’re looking for. This is good fresh content and relevant links.
For Additional Information
If you would like a tutorial on what search engines would like to see, please go to this website:
If you are interesting in hosting conferences on this subject, or if you would like to attend seminars, please go to this website
http://www.secure-webconferencing.com
Keywords
Technorati Tags: search-engines, positioning, search-engine-ranking, links, reciprocal-links, reciprocal-linking, linking, one-way-links, one-way-linking, optimization, search-engine-optimization, SEO, smart-links, Google, natural-links,
About The Authors:
Chris Malta and Robin Cowie of
WorldwideBrands.com are the writers and hosts of The
Entrepreneur Magazine EBiz and product sourcing radio shows.
Please go to http://www.worldwidebrands.com/EMRinfo for more FREE eBiz info from Entrepreneur Magazine Radio!
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Achieving Critical Mass - The Ultimate Thrill Of Internet Marketing
July 27, 2006 on 7:47 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments
By: Bob Carper
Here is the story of a guy named Arthur. Upon returning from a recent seminar, Arthur saw that he had two messages from newspaper reporters on his answering machine. Both of them sought interviews. Arthur also saw emails in his inbox. Each of them said “YOU HAVE MONEY !! Arthur had managed to earn several thousand dollars while he was at the seminar. The orders had all been processed automatically, and the emails were just for his information. It was at that point that Arthur realized his Internet business had truly reached critical mass.
“Critical mass” is a term that was first used in the nuclear power industry. It pertained to nuclear reactors, where the withdrawal of control rods in a reactor vessel resulted in nuclear activity producing heat. When the control rods reached a given level, the nuclear reaction became self-sustaining. This allowed a nuclear power plant to generate steam sufficient to drive the power turbines without any other heat source This term has been extended with reference to generating website traffic and growing a self-sustaining business. Like the nuclear power plant analogy, an internet marketer could stop actively promoting his or her online business (for a while) and it would continue to grow and prosper.
This does not happen instantaneously. It is not a ticket to any “get rich quick” scheme. Achieving critical mass requires dedication, patience, a certain level of skill, persistence, and many hours of hard work without ever seeing a dime come into the fare box. This article will show you to see why those tools are so powerful.
Search Engine Marketing
At one time, one of the most expedient methods of achieving critical mass was to market directly to the search engines. There are numerous programs and systems still out there on the marketplace that will guarantee search engine recognition. The importance of this is great. If the search engines recognize your website, they will give it a high ranking, and as a result, you can expect many hits from web browsers.
At one time manual submission of websites to the search engines was the rule of the road. Recently, we have learned that search engines do not favor this type of recognition because they have been overloaded with software “hits” of this type. There is always the possibility the search engines could blacklist your site. While many of these search engine optimization programs are being actively promoted, their use is not recommended. The most effective methodologies of search engine marketing are through article marketing and the creation of blogs.
Article Marketing
The authorship of articles establishes you as an expert in the marketplace. They build inbound links to your sites, pre-sell your products, and help you rank higher in the search engines for your targeted keywords. Once the articles are in circulation, and on hundreds… or even thousands of websites, they can work for you forever. Some entrepreneurs still get traffic to some of their websites from articles written in 1998! Talk about persistence!!!!!
Many online marketers now use articles to market their websites, but they don’t do it very effectively. Articles have to be written and deployed in a way that they both achieve advantages in the search engines. They must convert readers into customers, subscribers, clients, and fans. That means your articles need SOLID content.
In writing articles (or having them ghost written) you must always remember that people surf the Internet looking for information and solutions to their problems. Your articles must actually provide this information or help them to actually solve their problems. You should distribute articles that accomplish this. You will find that you will develop an endless stream of enthusiastic fans, all storming your website for more of YOU.
Writing articles is relatively easy. However, you must master the basic writing techniques to be effective. Any good textbook on effective writing will help you, but here are a few of the basics:
You must master the arts of effective spelling and effective grammar. People trying to read an article that contains gross misspellings or poorly constructed grammar will think you are nothing better than a third grader trying to play in the big leagues. As the late comedian Rodney Daingerfield once said. “No respect ! “
However, if you don’t know how to write articles, you should attend a course in effective writing that is taught at the adult extension centers of the local public school system or else attend a course given at the local community college. The self-improvement benefit to you will be well worth the small amount of money you will spend for tuition and books. You might also investigate the training available at a site called Content Propulsion Lab (http://www.cashthroughcontent.com). They will teach you not only how to use articles to grow your business, but also how to use multi-media content such as MP3s and online video. You are shown how to utilize multi-media content in a way that causes the search engines to gobble it up.
While articles work beautifully, website audio and video is growing at an amazing pace. You need to offer your audience information in formats that they readily understand. We make total use of audio and video formats in http:www.html-secrets.net. If you follow the instruction path, you will find a link that will place you in an setting that will enable you to master the art of using audio and video to your complete benefit. This will allow your audience to connect with you on a much deeper level since they see or hear a live person. Connecting with your audience on a deeper level means MORE sales.
Viral tools
The name “viral tool” is derived from the root word “virus” . We all know how viruses work. They spread with uncontrollable speed and cause great harm. The term “viral” is much more benign. Once set in motion, a viral tool is something that continues to grow and spread. It will benefit you, without any additional input being required from you.
Two noteworthy viral tools are online discussion forums and blogs. Online discussion forums allow people interested in a given topic to congregate and discuss that topic. Over time, your discussion forum will develop a core following who will help to spread the word, and help to maintain the community. You should seek volunteer moderators to help police the forum and maintain standards. Many people will volunteer for a link back to their site, or just for the exposure.
The number of blogs is growing exponentially. Blogs are proven traffic magnets. A blog allows you to share information, opinions, etc. with your audience. If your blog engages your audience, the audience members will help to spread the word. At the same time, the search engines visit blogs frequently. Search engines notice which ones are updated often and become "trained" to spider those blogs very regularly.
Because blogs are spidered so often, it’s one of the quickest ways around to get a new site noticed by the search engines. Just post a link to one of your new sites on a blog that’s frequently crawled, and the search engine spiders will follow that link and index your new site. This is VERY powerful to be such a simple technique.
As you may have noticed, this article is posted to the “Easy Website Traffic” blog. Some of the articles contained in this blog have already produced amazing results in the search engine rankings, and more are expected to continue. We welcome authors and webmasters wishing to promote their websites to submit articles to this blog. To do so, please contact the blogmaster at bob@html-secrets.net and we will get your article posted without delay. We reserve the right to edit your article, but you will receive full author credit and we will include an “About the Author” section in your post.
Blogging is very simple, but there are lots of tricks and techniques that offer you an amazingly competitive advantage. There are a number of blogging platforms available. A precautionary note is that all of the blogging platforms we have seen so far have had bugs or shortcomings. This has forced us to develop work-arounds to ensure we cover all of the bases, such as proper deployment of categories.
Other viral tools include e-books, PDF special reports, MP3 audio files, and Camtasia videos. We can’t cover all of these here, but any of them could be created, and then offered to the marketplace. If they deliver tremendous value, or even entertainment, they will be passed along. If you create these viral tools properly, they will lead highly qualified traffic right back to your site.
Link Building
People find and then visit your sites by following trails. Such trails can be mentions of your URL in online or offline media, articles, press releases, and links on other sites pointing to you. The more links you have pointing to you, the greater the chance of someone finding one of those links and visiting your site. So, you should set out on an aggressive effort to build quality links pointing to your site.
The quality of links should be valued over sheer quantity. One approach is to simply e-mail webmasters of potential sites with whom you want to exchange links and suggest the exchange. There are also services that do this fairly inexpensively. To locate one of these services, simply type in an appropriate term at the search engines.
The most important part of building your websites’ traffic up to critical mass is just getting started. Pick ONE of the methods outlined above and get started. As you verify that a particular method works great for you, and your marketplace, keep using that one and then add others. If a particular method doesn’t produce for you, stop wasting your time with it! One final thought… even when you build your website traffic to critical mass, you still should continue to promote.
Yes, you’ll continue making sales, but if you completely stop promoting, your sales will eventually begin to decline. Major international corporations have proven this over and over again. That’s why you see these major corporations with MAJOR market domination continue to promote their products and services.
Additional Information
As mentioned earlier, the most definitive set of guidelines for effective building of a web business is contained in this website:
Following along with this website and clicking on the link at the bottom will put you definitely on the path toward an effective web business which will definitely achieve critical mass and which will have a high probability of becoming a self-sustaining operation.
Another very valuable website is the capability to run and operate a secure webconferencing business. There is a separate article on secure webconferencing elsewhere in this blog. The website is as follows:
http://www.secure-webconferencing.com
Keywords
Technorati Tags: self-sustaining-business, critical-mass, links, linking, link-partners, getting-link-partners, reciprocal-links, reciprocal-linking, link-building, article-submission, blog, blogs, link-quality, link-exchange, links-exchange, spiders, web-crawlers, ranking, search-engines, search-engine-ranking, viral-tools, forums, discussion-forums, articles, article-marketing, getting-recognition, html-secrets,
About the Author
Bob Carper is a veteran information systems consultant that has over 30 years experience in information systems design and development. He was one of the earliest implementers of the Prestel and Antiope videotext systems that were the forerunners to the internet. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, and has a MBA degree from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Business Administration. He is an ardent railfan and belongs to the New York Central Historical Society. For further information on website systems and design, go to
For additional information on secure webconferencing systems, go to
http://www.secure-webconferencing.com
Powered by Qumana
Achieving Critical Mass - The Ultimate Thrill Of Internet Marketing
July 27, 2006 on 7:47 pm | In Website Design, Internet Marketing, Free Blog Traffic, Free Website Traffic, Blog, Marketing, Home based business, Work from Home | No Comments
By: Bob Carper
Here is the story of a guy named Arthur. Upon returning from a recent seminar, Arthur saw that he had two messages from newspaper reporters on his answering machine. Both of them sought interviews. Arthur also saw emails in his inbox. Each of them said “YOU HAVE MONEY !! Arthur had managed to earn several thousand dollars while he was at the seminar. The orders had all been processed automatically, and the emails were just for his information. It was at that point that Arthur realized his Internet business had truly reached critical mass.
“Critical mass” is a term that was first used in the nuclear power industry. It pertained to nuclear reactors, where the withdrawal of control rods in a reactor vessel resulted in nuclear activity producing heat. When the control rods reached a given level, the nuclear reaction became self-sustaining. This allowed a nuclear power plant to generate steam sufficient to drive the power turbines without any other heat source This term has been extended with reference to generating website traffic and growing a self-sustaining business. Like the nuclear power plant analogy, an internet marketer could stop actively promoting his or her online business (for a while) and it would continue to grow and prosper.
This does not happen instantaneously. It is not a ticket to any “get rich quick” scheme. Achieving critical mass requires dedication, patience, a certain level of skill, persistence, and many hours of hard work without ever seeing a dime come into the fare box. This article will show you to see why those tools are so powerful.
Search Engine Marketing
At one time, one of the most expedient methods of achieving critical mass was to market directly to the search engines. There are numerous programs and systems still out there on the marketplace that will guarantee search engine recognition. The importance of this is great. If the search engines recognize your website, they will give it a high ranking, and as a result, you can expect many hits from web browsers.
At one time manual submission of websites to the search engines was the rule of the road. Recently, we have learned that search engines do not favor this type of recognition because they have been overloaded with software “hits” of this type. There is always the possibility the search engines could blacklist your site. While many of these search engine optimization programs are being actively promoted, their use is not recommended. The most effective methodologies of search engine marketing are through article marketing and the creation of blogs.
Article Marketing
The authorship of articles establishes you as an expert in the marketplace. They build inbound links to your sites, pre-sell your products, and help you rank higher in the search engines for your targeted keywords. Once the articles are in circulation, and on hundreds… or even thousands of websites, they can work for you forever. Some entrepreneurs still get traffic to some of their websites from articles written in 1998! Talk about persistence!!!!!
Many online marketers now use articles to market their websites, but they don’t do it very effectively. Articles have to be written and deployed in a way that they both achieve advantages in the search engines. They must convert readers into customers, subscribers, clients, and fans. That means your articles need SOLID content.
In writing articles (or having them ghost written) you must always remember that people surf the Internet looking for information and solutions to their problems. Your articles must actually provide this information or help them to actually solve their problems. You should distribute articles that accomplish this. You will find that you will develop an endless stream of enthusiastic fans, all storming your website for more of YOU.
Writing articles is relatively easy. However, you must master the basic writing techniques to be effective. Any good textbook on effective writing will help you, but here are a few of the basics:
You must master the arts of effective spelling and effective grammar. People trying to read an article that contains gross misspellings or poorly constructed grammar will think you are nothing better than a third grader trying to play in the big leagues. As the late comedian Rodney Daingerfield once said. “No respect ! “
However, if you don’t know how to write articles, you should attend a course in effective writing that is taught at the adult extension centers of the local public school system or else attend a course given at the local community college. The self-improvement benefit to you will be well worth the small amount of money you will spend for tuition and books. You might also investigate the training available at a site called Content Propulsion Lab (http://www.cashthroughcontent.com). They will teach you not only how to use articles to grow your business, but also how to use multi-media content such as MP3s and online video. You are shown how to utilize multi-media content in a way that causes the search engines to gobble it up.
While articles work beautifully, website audio and video is growing at an amazing pace. You need to offer your audience information in formats that they readily understand. We make total use of audio and video formats in http:www.html-secrets.net. If you follow the instruction path, you will find a link that will place you in an setting that will enable you to master the art of using audio and video to your complete benefit. This will allow your audience to connect with you on a much deeper level since they see or hear a live person. Connecting with your audience on a deeper level means MORE sales.
Viral tools
The name “viral tool” is derived from the root word “virus” . We all know how viruses work. They spread with uncontrollable speed and cause great harm. The term “viral” is much more benign. Once set in motion, a viral tool is something that continues to grow and spread. It will benefit you, without any additional input being required from you.
Two noteworthy viral tools are online discussion forums and blogs. Online discussion forums allow people interested in a given topic to congregate and discuss that topic. Over time, your discussion forum will develop a core following who will help to spread the word, and help to maintain the community. You should seek volunteer moderators to help police the forum and maintain standards. Many people will volunteer for a link back to their site, or just for the exposure.
The number of blogs is growing exponentially. Blogs are proven traffic magnets. A blog allows you to share information, opinions, etc. with your audience. If your blog engages your audience, the audience members will help to spread the word. At the same time, the search engines visit blogs frequently. Search engines notice which ones are updated often and become "trained" to spider those blogs very regularly.
Because blogs are spidered so often, it’s one of the quickest ways around to get a new site noticed by the search engines. Just post a link to one of your new sites on a blog that’s frequently crawled, and the search engine spiders will follow that link and index your new site. This is VERY powerful to be such a simple technique.
As you may have noticed, this article is posted to the “Easy Website Traffic” blog. Some of the articles contained in this blog have already produced amazing results in the search engine rankings, and more are expected to continue. We welcome authors and webmasters wishing to promote their websites to submit articles to this blog. To do so, please contact the blogmaster at bob@html-secrets.net and we will get your article posted without delay. We reserve the right to edit your article, but you will receive full author credit and we will include an “About the Author” section in your post.
Blogging is very simple, but there are lots of tricks and techniques that offer you an amazingly competitive advantage. There are a number of blogging platforms available. A precautionary note is that all of the blogging platforms we have seen so far have had bugs or shortcomings. This has forced us to develop work-arounds to ensure we cover all of the bases, such as proper deployment of categories.
Other viral tools include e-books, PDF special reports, MP3 audio files, and Camtasia videos. We can’t cover all of these here, but any of them could be created, and then offered to the marketplace. If they deliver tremendous value, or even entertainment, they will be passed along. If you create these viral tools properly, they will lead highly qualified traffic right back to your site.
Link Building
People find and then visit your sites by following trails. Such trails can be mentions of your URL in online or offline media, articles, press releases, and links on other sites pointing to you. The more links you have pointing to you, the greater the chance of someone finding one of those links and visiting your site. So, you should set out on an aggressive effort to build quality links pointing to your site.
The quality of links should be valued over sheer quantity. One approach is to simply e-mail webmasters of potential sites with whom you want to exchange links and suggest the exchange. There are also services that do this fairly inexpensively. To locate one of these services, simply type in an appropriate term at the search engines.
The most important part of building your websites’ traffic up to critical mass is just getting started. Pick ONE of the methods outlined above and get started. As you verify that a particular method works great for you, and your marketplace, keep using that one and then add others. If a particular method doesn’t produce for you, stop wasting your time with it! One final thought… even when you build your website traffic to critical mass, you still should continue to promote.
Yes, you’ll continue making sales, but if you completely stop promoting, your sales will eventually begin to decline. Major international corporations have proven this over and over again. That’s why you see these major corporations with MAJOR market domination continue to promote their products and services.
Additional Information
As mentioned earlier, the most definitive set of guidelines for effective building of a web business is contained in this website:
Following along with this website and clicking on the link at the bottom will put you definitely on the path toward an effective web business which will definitely achieve critical mass and which will have a high probability of becoming a self-sustaining operation.
Another very valuable website is the capability to run and operate a secure webconferencing business. There is a separate article on secure webconferencing elsewhere in this blog. The website is as follows:
http://www.secure-webconferencing.com
Keywords
Technorati Tags: self-sustaining-business, critical-mass, links, linking, link-partners, getting-link-partners, reciprocal-links, reciprocal-linking, link-building, article-submission, blog, blogs, link-quality, link-exchange, links-exchange, spiders, web-crawlers, ranking, search-engines, search-engine-ranking, viral-tools, forums, discussion-forums, articles, article-marketing, getting-recognition, html-secrets,
About the Author
Bob Carper is a veteran information systems consultant that has over 30 years experience in information systems design and development. He was one of the earliest implementers of the Prestel and Antiope videotext systems that were the forerunners to the internet. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, and has a MBA degree from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Business Administration. He is an ardent railfan and belongs to the New York Central Historical Society. For further information on website systems and design, go to
For additional information on secure webconferencing systems, go to
http://www.secure-webconferencing.com
Powered by Qumana
Reciprocal Linking vs. Mutual Linking
July 25, 2006 on 12:30 am | In Website Design, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Home based business | No Comments
By Scottie Claiborne
Edited by: Bob Carper
Some of the advice floating around regarding linking for your site can be pretty confusing, especially when it comes to reciprocal linking. Is it something you have to do? Can your site succeed without reciprocal links? Will you be penalized for reciprocal linking? There are so many conflicting theories. Let’s try to clear the subject up a little.
Link Popularity
The founders of Google believed in a term called “citation authority”. They found that the more that academic papers cited another’s work; the more likely that the cited work was to be an authority on the subject. Similarly, when a lot of websites link to a given site, it is very likely that the given site is an authority for the topic. The "topic" is whatever those links say it is. If 25 sites link to another site with the term "railroading" it’s likely that page is an important page for train information.
Consequently, many schemes were born, such as mini-sites, site networks, link farms, and reciprocal linking. It didn’t take long for webmasters who wanted to rank well for certain terms to learn that they needed a lot of links with their chosen keyword phrases to improve their rankings in the search engines.
Reciprocal Linking
Reciprocal links are links you trade with other sites (you add their link, they add yours) in order to build link popularity. There are online services, group exchanges, and software available to help you link up with more like-minded webmasters, fast. As a result, many sites have grown sizeable directories on topics that have nothing to do with their area of expertise, simply because those other sites were willing to trade links with them.
There is a penalty for this type of reciprocal linking, however. Many webmasters will use this to link their sites containing nothing but garbage with your website, which you may want oriented to a given class of users. As an example, suppose your website deals with web conferencing. You may receive reciprocal link requests from websites containing pornography, sex enhancement devices, travel bargains, pets, or mortgages. You must constantly monitor your reciprocal link requests and reject any or all of them which are not related to the categories of your website. Accepting any or all link exchange requests could penalize you for the goal of obtaining good search engine ranking.
Does reciprocal linking work? The answer is doubtful. In the past, search engines have tended to count a link as a link, regardless of the subject matter of the originating site. As mentioned, search engines are now tending to look for more ways to determine which sites are truly expert and which ones are simply manipulating their way to the top. Link relevance is sure to come into play. Some say it is already starting to affect rankings.
Mutual Linking
Mutual linking is a bit different from reciprocal linking. Mutual linking is where the content of each site actually benefits each other’s sites. If you sell automobiles, you may want to recommend other sites for tires, and still other sites for automobile financing. You may even maintain a directory of tire and battery service shops. This is useful information for your visitors, who are likely to need these services in the future. It makes sense for these sites to also recommend your automobile dealership and link to your site. While it’s technically still a reciprocal link, it has a mutual benefit for both sites.
To re-emphasize what we stated earlier, while you might make a case that visitors to your automobile dealership site might actually need weight loss formulas, like to gamble, or are concerned about the size of certain body parts, it is totally unlikely that links to these sites will be clicked and followed by your visitors. They only make your site look unprofessional. You should avoid links such as these at all costs.
if you link to a site that is considered a "bad neighborhood" by the search engines, it could seriously damage your website. That innocent-looking pet accessories site may be cloaking, hiding links or text, or participating in other linking schemes and it just hasn’t been caught yet. You should NEVER risk it for establishing a link that probably won’t even bring you traffic.
Should I Hide All My Outgoing Links?
Absolutely not. Many feel that Google’s Florida update (in Nov. 2003), adding relevant outgoing links seems to have a positive effect on rankings. Besides, if you hide or block their links, and they hide or block yours, what’s the point of participating in a reciprocal linking program at all?
So. What Will Happen if I Do Reciprocal Linking?
As soon as search engines can figure out how to handle links most effectively, off-topic links simply won’t count anymore. If you pin ALL your link popularity on trading links with whoever will trade with you, you could find yourself starting over from scratch at some point. If you are looking to build long-term rankings (and real business links that can attract customers), it takes more work and creativity than just sending out automated emails or joining a linking program.
Give your site an advantage by giving people a reason to link to it — a helpful tool, a guide, an industry-specific directory, or some other useful content that people will feel good about recommending on their site. If your site is worth linking to, you won’t have to rely as much on swapping links as a promotion strategy.
Additional Information
More information can be found about the importance of linking to other sites in the context of overall web development by going to this website:
Conferences over the web are held regularly and these may be accessed by going to:
http://secure-webconferencing.com
About The Author
Scottie Claiborne is the owner of Right Click Web Consulting and the facilitator of the Successful Sites Newsletter. Her web marketing specialties are usability and SEO copywriting, and achieving high rankings and industry dominance through creative marketing strategies.
Keywords:
Technorati Tags: SEO, search-engines, reciprocal-linking,