Making Money with Your Blog!

A place for finding the Nuts and Bolts for Making Money Online with Affiliate Marketing Business Opportunity!

You want to lead the reader into your resource box to be successful at article marketing. This can be done in two simple steps.

Step 1 - Give good information and do it in a way that's conversational and inspires people. Write like you talk and make sure you offer at least on good gold nugget of actionable information.

Step 2 - Then in the resource box you then invite them back to your website or blog and exchange their email address for more great quality information from you. You don't even have to be salesy in your resource box. You just follow what I call my FIB formula:

Flow: The resource box flows out of the article body, because the resource box is the next paragraph in the article. Don't do what most article writers do and start the resource box with your name and qualifications. That is like shouting at the reader "The article is now over and you can stop reading now!"

Invite: You invite them back to your website or blog for more information. In internet marketing this is called a CTA or Call To Action. I like to think of it as an invitation, and I even word it that way.

Brand: You brand yourself by mentioning your name and the name of your business. You do this at the end just to make sure that the reader associates the good stuff they are getting with you and your business.

And all you have to do is give them great content and invite them to get some more, from you.

And now I would like to offer you free access to 2 of my Instant Article Templates when you subscribe to my free Article Marketing Minute, a 52 week audio/video newsletter on Article Marketing. You can get your instant access at http://www.ArticleMarketingMinute.com

From Jeff Herring - The Internet Article Guy & the Great Article Marketing Network

Online marketing starts with your website

Internet marketing allows you to reach a global audience. Internet marketing is marketing your business online. Online marketing starts with your website; make sure its attractive and easy to use. When they need information, modern-day consumers turn first to the Internet. All of your online marketing will make sure they will find

Search engine optimization has long been the Holy Grail of Web marketing. Every website owner wants to see their sites rank well in the top engines, but exactly how to achieve this remains a mystery for most marketers.

The first thing I want to point out is this fact: The exact algorithms used by the major search engines are actually proprietary, so anyone who doesn't work for one of these companies who tells you they know exactly what it takes to put you at the top is probably lying to you.

The truth is the search engine companies don't want people like me understanding their systems and creating positive results for my clients. The people behind search engine technology believe their algorithms provide the perfect solution for a Web surfer's query.

But of course you and I know better. How many times have you tried to do a simple keyword search and ended up with page after page of irrelevant results?

Whether they like it or not, the search engines do need help from proficient designers and skilled marketers. It's up to us to add the human element that robots and software simply can't accomplish in an effort to bring searchers the best possible results.

SEO (search engine optimization) is a term with a very broad scope. There is a great deal of work and diligence involved in producing favorable search results for your website(s), but this article will take away much of the mystery that shrouds this subject and give you the basic fundamentals you'll need to create some real results.

First of all, you should know there are two aspects of search engine optimization; onsite and offsite. Onsite optimization refers to what you can do within your code to make your files more search engine friendly, and offsite refers to link building from other websites back to your web pages.

Solid onsite optimization involves the following steps:

Title and Meta Tags:

Your title tag should reflect your primary keyword phrase. This is HUGELY important.

Often when I visit a site I see the domain name in the title bar. The title tag is the first thing a search engine robot is going to take notice of, and if you blow this aspect of onsite optimization your remaining efforts will have considerably less impact.

For instance, on one of my sites I sell an e-book to online marketers about the pitfalls of business opportunity programs found on the web. The title of my e-book is Net Marketing Exposed, which is pretty cool, but do you think this would be an intelligent entry for the Title tag of my main page? Of course not. Who on earth is going to search for 'Net Marketing Exposed'?

So my title tag reads: Internet Marketing E-book | Internet Business Opportunity. My target market for the site I'm referencing consists of home-based opportunity seekers and Internet marketers so I have chosen keyword phrases that match these search terms for my Title tags.

And note you can use the pipe character ( | ) to separate multiple terms in your title tag. I recommend going with at least two phrases in your title tag, but do not use the exact same words more than three times in your title.

The debate as to whether or not search engines still reference your meta tags when spidering your site is a hot topic among SEO experts. I honestly don't know if the major engines still read the keyword tag or not, but I add this tag anyway because it only takes a couple of minutes and why not take this extra step just in case right?

Whether or not you utilize the Meta Keywords tag is up to you but I do urge you to use the Meta Description tag. We know for a fact the engines read this tag because if you have it entered in the head section of your html it is what displays under your site title in the search listings.

So the description tag serves not only to add keyword relevance for the search engine spiders, it also acts as your ad when a searcher views your listing in the search results. Adding a quality description in this field can improve the clickthrough rate your listing receives once it is found through a keyword search.

Search engine Friendly File Names:

I recommend naming your page files in a manner that reflects your relevant keyword phrases. If you have a page that lists your articles on your site name that file articles.html instead of something useless like page02.html

Of course the main page in every directory will have to be named index, but that's ok as the engines are hip to that; just be sure to put some thought into your other file names.

Header Tags and Page Content:

You should also use Header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to illustrate important keyword phrases within your site. For example, the page title your visitor sees at the top of your content should be enclosed in H1 tags and should contain your primary keywords.

And obviously your main keywords need to appear several times in the content of each page. Placing these phrases close to the top of your content is recommended, and you should use underline, bold, and italic tags to add emphasis to your keywords within your content.

I have found the 'strong' tag to be of particular effectiveness. While on a visual level it serves the same purpose as the 'b' tag (creates bold text) my research suggests that search engine spiders respond better to the 'strong' tag.

Be careful not to emphasize every keyword phrase with special tags, and avoid excessive and unnatural "stuffing" of keywords onto your pages as the engines may pick this up and flag your site as search engine spam.

Image Tags:

Many designers and marketers ignore the value of proper image tagging when optimizing their templates for the engines. I can tell you right now I have seen a huge jump in ranking as a direct result of changing the structure of a site's image tags.

First of all, remember that search engine robots read text, not images. So avoid giving your image files names like 'header.jpg' or 'photo014.gif' unless you are hoping to be ranked for search terms like header and photo.

You should also be sure to use an alt tag with every image, and enter a keyword relevant phrase as your alt tag.

Going back to my e-book site as an example, my header graphic is named http://internet-business-opportunity.jpg, and has an alt tag of "Internet marketing e-book reveals the truth about Internet business opportunities." And the cover graphic for my book is named http://internet-marketing-ebook.jpg with a matching alt tag.

Onsite Link and Navigation Structure:

Finally pay attention to the anchor tags and navigation structure of your site. It's better to use keyword terms for a hyperlink text than to simply use 'click here'. I also suggest applying the Title attribute to add keyword phrases to your link tags.

Of course if you use image links refer back to the image name and alt tag rules.

And your menu should also be built around search engine friendly tags. For instance never use a 'Home Page' tag on your navigation; instead apply a relevant keyword.

If your website is about swimming lessons, the menu button for your home page should say 'Swimming Lessons' or something similar and not simply 'Home'.

This may seem like a lot to take in, but it's really a very simple formula for building search engine ready templates. Review this info until it is second nature and apply it to every site you build and you'll be on your way to stronger placement in the major engines.

The last, and the most important element of basic SEO is offsite optimization. This is a fancy term for link building.

To get the most out of your onsite optimization, you need plenty of good links pointing back to your website. And you should always strive for keyword anchored backlinks over straight URLs.

Again using my example site that retails an e-book to folks with an interest in work from home opportunities, I want hyperlink text that reads "Internet marketing e-book" or "Internet business opportunity".

A correctly built link back allows you to control what search engine spiders look for once they follow a link to your site. Once they arrive through an anchor tag that reflects your primary keywords, the spiders will proceed to look for these terms in your file tags and page content, which will of course improve your potential rankings.

This article has covered everything you need to get started with successful SEO. Master these concepts and you are certain to see a big jump in your search engine rankings!

Tim Whiston is a professional entrepreneur who enjoys helping other entrepreneurs achieve success. He has created hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit for his clients and owns many of his own Websites and products. Check out his Web Design Course for more great content.

Just what are the Benefits of Submitting Articles to E-Zines

E-zine advertising is perhaps one of the most underused forms of promotion. It is a good idea to do your homework, before launching your viral marketing campaign. Article writing and publishing has become the latest buzz in the internet website marketing world. The name of the game as far as Internet marketing

I get asked this question a lot, and it's really very simple. But first before we dive into that I want to share some of my experiences and tricks that are going to help you understand the opt-in process in finer detail.

Do you think it's better to have 1000 opt-ins, or 100,000 opt-ins? What if I told you the numbers don't matter here. What if I told you that, if done correctly, you could make more sales off a list 1/10th the size of a major internet marketers list? Well let me tell you that it's incredibly easy. The bottom line is, you're looking for quality over quantity.

So how can I get more QUALITY opt-ins?

There are a few techniques that you can implement almost immediately to boost the quality of your list. First off, you want to filter out what I like to call "Freebies". These are the people who will enter in their email and name, just to get your free offer (if you're offering a free product to your prospects when they opt-in to your list) and you will never hear from them again. In fact, they may enter in a fake name and email, which really kills the quality of your list.

Tip #1 - Make sure you're list is DOUBLE opt-in!

I can't stress this enough. Most "freebies" won't take the time to confirm their subscription through an email link, so having your list double opt-in you're retaining more quality prospects that are actually interested in what you have to offer. A trick I learned from a marketing friend of mine, Brian Edmonson gave an example where he offered a free download, but you didn't have to opt-in to get it. By having the opt-in AFTER the free download, he retained more quality prospects because the only people signing up after the download we're either really interested in his product or service, or enjoyed the fact that they weren't forced into signing up and liked his genuine offer. Brian is famous for earning 15k in 7 days by promoting a new product launch to his list of only 1200 subscribers!

Tip #2 - Create curiosity through a landing page.

Your landing page is the portal to you're website. There is only 1 way though, by opting in! A landing page is key for getting lots of opt-ins. Yours should be short and mysterious in a sense by not giving the prospect too much information. You need to create a sense of urgency, a sense of 'I need to know what's on the other side of this site or my life is over!' type of urgency. I love to use video on my landing page, sometimes if the video is powerful enough, all I'll have on my landing page is a video and an opt in form! (check out my website for an example of a video landing page) The trick is to limit the number of things a user can do on a landing page. They're either going to watch the video and leave, or they're going to watch the video and opt in. There are no other choices for them to make. You can save all the information in the world for the next page, but your goal is to GET THOSE OPT-INS! THAT'S IT! Because once they're in your system, you and your autoresponder can take care of them. The more quality opt-ins you have, the more money you're going to make.

Tip #3 - Create a relationship between you and your list.

It may sound kind of cheesy, but don't ignore your list. This is your goldmine. Ignoring even a single opt-in could cost you thousands in the long run. If they don't hear from you for a month, and you all of a sudden send out an e-mail to your list promoting a product or service, first off they're going to be like 'who's this guy?' and then they'll most likely not take a look at your offer, and maybe even opt-out. Converse with them on a one-on-one basis, let them know how you're business is doing, ask them how their endeavors are going, let them know what you did on the weekend, anything to keep that bond alive. Because if they respect you, and you respect them, and treat them like people and not customers, then you're going to have a very active list. By active I mean they're going to listen to every word you say, and every offer you have to make.

Tip #4 - Promote relative products or services.

If your list consists of fellow internet marketers, don't send out an email offering them debt consolidation or Mary Kay products, you'll lose your entire audience. If you do find something that you find is useful and beneficial to the business you are in, then let your list know.

If you create a high quality, highly responsive double opt-in list, you're going to make more off each individual user than if you were to have a list 100x that of yours. Your going to have more repeat buyers if you don't try to SELL SELL SELL. Keep in touch with them, don't leave them hanging and always follow up. Everyone says the money is in the list...did you hear that? Let me repeat it. THE MONEY IS IN THE LIST!

Jay Milley

The 6 Figure Formula

Article Marketing on the Internet is a whole different story

Article Marketing on the Internet is a whole different story because of the way your articles reach humans who have an interest in them. Article Marketing will help you increase your link popularity, search engine positioning for your keywords and phrases, and it helps you reach more potential customers for your products or services.

That cant be right! Shouldnt ten links be better than one? It is usually the case where more is better. However, when it comes to gaining links, having more links isnt necessarily better than having a few good links. In fact, having too many irrelevant links could possibly harm your websites visibility within the search engines.

These days, search engines are placing more emphasis on incoming links to a website when evaluating rank. The reason being is because they are difficult to obtain from trusted sources (a "by the book" website such as the Dmoz directory) and it is a good way to partially eliminate the group of people who abuse the "on the page" factors of optimisation (page spamming). How is this so? Well, if you have someone who is abusing the "on the page" factors and they have no trusted links to their page (they will most likely not get any at all due to spam) then there is no chance of them getting a good listing. However, people have worked out ways in getting a large number of links, through link farms and other tactics, regardless of the quality of their website. As the search engines are aware of this, it brings us to the topic of how one link can be better than ten.

Obtaining one link from a trusted source can be very difficult in the sense that they do not issue links to just about anyone. If you have a good website with relevant information, then you will get them. It is for this reason one link from a trusted source can better a multiple of links from other websites. As a trusted source website is "trusted" by search engines, it will also trust the websites it links to. If you have ten links from your best friends, it will help you in some sense, but no where near as much as the one link from a source like Dmoz, unless one of your friends has a very reputable website amongst the search engines.

Having too many irrelevant links could harm your websites visibility in the search engines. What is meant by this is having links from websites that have no relation to yours. An example of this would be a site about cars linking to another site about medicine (unless the sites are reputable and have a good reason for the link i.e. there is a relationship made between cars and medicine). Search engines will pick up on this sort of link and will give it no weight in boosting your visibility. Obtain many of these irrelevant links, then it could be seen as spam (like a link farm tactic) and that will lower the popularity of your website within search engines.

The key here is to focus on quality and not quantity. Gaining a few good / relevant links will take you much further than a lot of irrelevant links. To get these quality links, start off by placing your website in directories, but be sure to avoid any "on the page" spamming as this will not get you accepted. Once search engines have acknowledged a presence of relevant links, follow up on it and research some ways to obtain more. As time passes, you will notice that your websites performance will increase, as the links age, provided you have carried out search engine optimisation. Avoid obtaining the irrelevant links even though it may be tempting to see fast results. It will only be a matter of time before a search engine realises the spam tactic, and as the saying goes "fast rise, fast fall".

About the author: David Touri works for SEO Sydney, who aims to improve search engine placement with search engine placement services for websites in Australia and overseas. He is currently working on the Loaded Technologies website, who specialise in ecommerce website development.

Making Money with Your Blog!

A place for finding the Nuts and Bolts for Making Money Online with Affiliate Marketing Business Opportunity!

Article marketing is a great way to build your information empire. Whether you want a small information empire or a large information empire.

Now if you are one of the folks that tend to think at this point

"What do you mean, an information empire? I haven't even created my first product yet!"

just hang in there a minute. Let's start with your first product and see where this goes. You may want to build a large information empire or a teeny tiny information empire.

That part is up to you. I just want you to get it that you can.

From article to information product

Here are three products you can quickly create out of just about any article -

An ebook - Expand each point in your article into a chapter. If you have written a 7 tips article then this is really simple - you just create a chapter for each tip.

An ecourse - Take each point or tip in your article and make it one episode in an ongoing ecourse or eprogram. Send out an episode once a day or once a week.

A teleseminar - Take your article and use it as the basis for creating a teleseminar. You will say much more on your teleseminar than you will in your article so then you are writing more articles, just with your mouth and not with your hands.

From information product to information empire

Repeat the process above over and over again. Add other products like audio CDs, mp3s and home study courses.

Bonus Tip - Ask your clients what they want to know and then deliver it to them. And now I would like to offer you free access to 2 of my Instant Article Templates when you subscribe to my free Article Marketing Minute, a 52 week audio/video newsletter on Article Marketing. You can get your instant access at http://www.ArticleMarketingMinute.com

From Jeff Herring - The Internet Article Guy & the Great Article Marketing Network