If you sell products or services over your web site, then traffic to your site is the name of the game. It’s simple: if you want more sales, you better get more traffic. To do that, make sure that you’ve covered all the bases of driving traffic to your site.

First, optimize. Make sure your search engine listings are all they can be. This means that you need to make sure that you’re on the key search engines and second that your site is associated with the best searching key words. Check to ensure you are included in Yahoo!, Google, MSN and the Open Directory Project. After that, look at some private or industry-specific directories. If you’re not listed, submit. But before you do make sure your keyword tags, description tags, and content have been optimized for being “find-able.”

Second, advertise. Tell people about your web site. You can do this by email, pay-per-click advertising, print advertising or almost any other means of advertising. Whatever it is, point it to your web site. Experiment with the linkage between your ads and your site – e.g. make different offers and see what the effect is on traffic.

Third, collateralize. Collateral is the paper materials you use to conduct business. Yes, include this in your traffic building efforts, too. Make sure your web address is on your signs, your stationery, business cards, brochures, invoices and any other material that goes to the public.

With every change or addition you make to your web site, just remember: Optimize, Advertise, Collateralize. Your web traffic is directly related to these three activities.

About the author: Mark Fortimer, Download the free ebook, Steps to Internet Marketing Success.

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Create interesting feed- Create some interesting feed, because people will like only the interesting feed. They will only subscribe to the feed that are of some use. Interesting feed will make fast RSS.

Constantly update- Update your feed constantly and make them available. Constant updating it will help you to keep the readers and get more subscribers. Updated RSS can help you to create fast RSS.

Promote your RSS feeds- Promote you RSS feed through different ways. Promoting your feed will make it known to the readers and they will like to try it.

Send RSS in your email- Send your RSS feed using emails. It is easier to send, easier to reach and easier to get through the barriers. You can reach intended customers without any problem.

RSS to your website- Place RSS feed to your website which will make it more interesting. Many people will not like to visit websites but they will like to get the RSS feed at their own place. Fast RSS is possible with more visitors.

Paid subscription- Paid subscribers will get you more profit from the RSS feed. You can always earn profit from your RSS feed if you have interesting and quality content.

RSS advertising- You can do advertising through RSS feed. It is possible to add your ads to the feed and send them to the subscribers. RSS advertising will help you to send your advertisements as well as advertisement of other companies in return of money.

PR- RSS can a great PR tool for you. You can create good PR campaign by using your RSS feed. Incorporate article, sales letters, press releases in to RSS and send them to the subscribers.

About the author: Mark Fortimer, Download the free ebook, Steps to Article Marketing Success.

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Jack had an amazing idea & started his online business with a vision of making it big someday. But few years down the line Jack is left wondering as to why his business isn’t turning up the way he expected it to!

Mark thinks that he has a better service than his competitors, but still fails to understand why their Balance Sheet figures are running into millions, while his are still in few thousands!

All these puzzling facts make one doubt himself. But my friend, the problem is not with the idea or the service! The problem lies in the promotion strategies. No matter how good an idea or a service is, it won’t be successful unless you put it to the right people in the right manner. Good Web Promotion can do wonders to an average idea; forget what it can do to a good one. Had Jack & Mark adopted the right kind of Internet Promotion strategy, they would have achieved what they wanted to.

Everyone will agree that today’s Web Promotion is dominated by Search Engines, or to be precise, Google. If your site is in the top thirty, for the right “Keyword”, you can be a winner. But how can one make it to the top & stay there for a long time? (Mind you, in this dynamic world called Internet, sticking to your position is as important as getting there!)

The best way to “optimize” your site is through a new “Organic Method of Search Engine Optimization” (SEO) that Google & other search engines just love, generating “Quality One Way Links”. One can generate quality back links by way of “Directory Submission” & “Article Submission”.

Online directories provide you with quality back links, which is precisely what you are looking for. Apart from this, you need to submit your site to the most appropriate category & with a brief description about your business. Thus, they also send targeted audience your way!

Another way of generating quality targeted audience & one way links is by writing quality articles & submitting them to Article Directories! By writing a quality article, you are not just informing your potential customers about your service, but are also sharing your knowledge with them. Again, Article Directories gives you an opportunity to inform people about yourself & also provide a link to your site. This way, people get to know about you & your site. And if your article provides a visitor what he came looking for, you have most definitely found yourself a new client!

Had Jack written an article about his idea & explained his service to his target audience and submitted his site to Hundreds of Search Engine Friendly Directories, he would have been on “Cloud 9” by now. Had Mark written an article informing his potential customers, how his service is better than his customers & also submitted his site to Online Directories, his Balance Sheet too might have run into Millions.

To summarize, when you submit your article or your site to various online directories, this is what you get -

1. You generate hundreds of quality back links to your site.

2. People who search these directories may find your article or your sites description interesting & visit your site. Thus you get large targeted audience.

The end result is that your site satisfies all the criterions set by various search engines to have a favorable Rank. You thus reach high positions in search engines & stay there for a long time!

About the Author: Rahul Rungta is a Professional Internet Marketer. Having done intensive research on Search Engine Optimization & Traffic Generation, he is now pioneering two new innovative tools in Internet Marketing - Article & Directory Submission. To know more about him, please visit http://www.submit2please.com

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Experienced webmasters know there are special sources or places on the web which will send massive amounts of traffíc to your site. They also know, if harnessed properly, these mega traffïc sites will supply any web site with a steady stream of visitors.

Perhaps the best source of web site traffíc is Google. That's not exactly a Newsflash, but the key to getting massive amounts of traffíc from Google is to go wide and long. With this strategy, instead of targeting highly popular keywords which may be too competitive for your site to win, you create a whole multitude of lesser known long tail keyword phrases to bring in the traffíc.

This traffíc takes longer to build but because very few webmasters bother with these longer phrases, your keywords will be more stable and secure. Develop a whole líst of these traffíc generating keyword phrases and Google will reward you with a whole flood of targeted visitors stemming from these thousands of small dribbles of long tail keyword traffíc.

Turning these dribbles of traffíc into massive amounts is not a difficult task. One very effective way to tap into the entire search engine source of traffíc is to tag everything. Tags are just another name for keywords. As Web 2.0 or Social Bookmarking sites become more and more popular, tagging will become extremely important.

You must be especially careful of how you tag the content on your site or sites. If you're using a blogging system like WordPress, all your categories will be considered tags automatically. If you're creating URLs, be careful to place your keyword phrase in your links.

Another effective way to tap into the whole keyword traffíc system is to include your keyword phrase or variations of it in your articles while promoting your site. Place your anchor text in your links in the resource box at the end of each article.

Over time, as these articles become distributed all over the web, they will create a steady stream of targeted visitors to your site. Simple, effective and very powerful.

You are probably tired of hearing about Web 2.0 and the new Social Bookmarking sites but they are some of the best places for massive traffíc on the web. Any webmaster who has been Slashdotted already knows this fact all too well; if you get a listing on the homepage of Slashdot.com you will immediately start receiving thousands of visitors to your site. It can be somewhat scary.

A similar experience is getting one of your articles published in ezines run by Addme.com, SiteProNews.com, WebProNews.com, as well as others. These ezines go out to hundreds of thousands of readers and can produce massive traffíc back to your site.

However, much of this sudden traffíc is only temporary and most savvy webmasters know it would be wise to try and capture the contact information of these temporary visitors for follow-up targeting. Turn that temporary visitor into a patron of your site by offering a free ecourse or an email newsletter.

The same marketing technique should be applied to traffíc coming from all these social media sites. Don't think of your traffíc as just numbers in your website's stats, but rather as potential customers who will return to your site again and again.

Keep this strategy in mind as you target some of these Top Sources of massive traffíc on the web:

1. Digg.com
2. Netscape.com
3. Ezinearticles.com
4. Del.icio.us
5. StumbleUpon.com
6. Reddit.com
7. Slashdot.org
8. BlinkList.com
9. Furl.net
10. Squidoo.com

You should be actively promoting these social bookmarking sites by allowing your visitors to easily bookmark your content. You should be creating your own content on sites like Squidoo and placing links back to your site.

Of course, there are countless other sources of massive traffíc on the web. Press releases is another effective way of quickly drawing in massive traffíc to your site. Sites like PRWeb can deliver targeted traffíc very quickly and efficiently.

Another very effective and high converting venue you should try is Yahoo! Answers, a simple process where users post a question and other members/experts offer answers. Used correctly this can be a good source of targeted traffíc.

Don't forget other important search engines such as MSN Live. Traffíc from MSN has earned a solid reputation for converting very well. So optimize your web pages for MSN Live Search and you will probably see an íncrease in your salës as well as your traffíc.

Always keep in mind, the underlying key factor running through all these sources of massive traffíc is unique quality content. You must create good original content on your sites as well as in your articles and posts. Your content must be informative, useful or entertaining. For in the end, it is this quality content that will create the interest, the links and the massive traffíc to your site.

Don't ignore this factor or your quest for massive web site traffíc will be extremely difficult, if not impossible to achieve.

About The Author:Titus Hoskins,The author is a full-time online marketer. For the most effective web marketing software try: http://www.bizwaremagic.com/bestsoft.htm . Want more traffíc? Why not try these excellent free training manuals and videos: http://www.marketingtoolguide.com/free_marketing_tools.htm . 2007 Titus Hoskins.

• 3 comments »

The tens of thousands of internet “forums” that attract users who have common interests have recently become of interest to marketers – particularly niche marketers. There are forums for every imaginable topic. To see an example of the specialized nature of forums, look at www.big-boards.com. To be sure they represent a potent marketing opportunity and medium. But they can also be a negative force in marketing if used incorrectly. So before you invest in forum marketing make sure you understand the milieu.

An internet forum is a discussion room that operates via the internet. In a sense, they are an evolution of the newsgroups and email bulletin boards that were so prevalent ten to fifteen years ago. Topics get put on the collective forum table and discussion ensues via “posts” to the forum – essential via messages that get posted for everyone to see. Today, you can also consider chat rooms and interactive blogs as a style of forum.

There are two general styles of forum: moderated and unmoderated. Most long-lasting forums are moderated. That is, that all posts are reviewed by a “moderator” before being made public. In this way, the forum protects itself from undesirable spam, crazy people, and profane, obscene, or off-topic material. Unmoderate forums are just that, unmoderated.

Most forums have rules that govern the content that is acceptable to the forum. Violating these rules will draw the contempt of the entire forum. There is no better way to shoot yourself in the foot than to have your forum marketing efforts earn the disdain of the entire forum membership! In newsgroup days, this was called “flaming” (as in ‘shot down in flames’).

On the other hand, if used carefully, forum marketing can be a great way to boost website traffic. Many forums while banning overt advertising or self-serving posts, do not mind a little appropriate discussion or referencing of products, services or features. Many forums also do allow the author to include a link to their own site.

To make sure you don’t run afoul of forum policy be sure to check out their rules, avoid overt selling (forum members are very sensitive to even subtle selling), and make sure that your posts offer good reasons to refer to off-forum content in your site.

About the author: Sean Ray, Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘
Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion
Do you want to learn how to build a massive list fast? Click here: Email List Building

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When the Internet was new to me, I was fascinated by following links and going to new sites. It was like an adventure. And when I had my own website the first thing that I wanted to do was to place my site's links on other sites. I began reciprocal linking (trading links with other sites) way back then, but 11 years later things have changed and now I dread getting a "reciprocal link request" in my email inbox. I have a few pet peeves with reciprocal linking, as it is practiced today, and here they are:

1. Most of the Requests are Automated

It used to be flattering to get a link request, knowing that someone had visited your site and wanted to exchange a link. These days most of the requests are done with software and it means that no one has really visited your site. Automation in itself is not bad, but it leads to all kinds of abuses, and it prevents you from picking out the good links from the bad. Even if you have an automated directory to handle link requests, which is what I installed, you will still be swamped with tons of link requests.

2. Most Link Requests are of Extremely Low Quality

The original idea of linking was to provide your own visitors with quality sites where they could visit next. The links were provided as a resource. Today, many sites have been set up only to make monëy from Adsense and other advertising programs. In addition, driven by the need to acquire PageRank many webmasters went into a link gathering frenzy and sent requests to any and all sites whether they were related to their site or not. If a link is to be a resource to visitors of both sites, then the two sites should somehow be related and the sites should be of comparable quality. Most reciprocal link requests fail this test.

3. Links are Buried on Pages Where Human Eyes Will Nevër See Them

In addition to being a resource to your own visitors, you want to exchange links in hopes of getting some targeted traffíc back to your site. It used to be easier; a webmaster would have a site with say ten different pages and one of his pages would be a "links" page. On that page he would display 30 or so links. The link to this page would be prominent in the site's navigation menu. You could be assured of getting some meaningful traffíc if your link was placed on this kind of page.

That has all changed. People now build huge directories of hundreds of categories, stuffed with pages and pages of links. It is extremely unlikely that many visitors will drill down through all the pages and find your site in such a directory.

4. Many of the Link Requests are for "Three Way Links"

I find three-way links "creepy." They work like this, if I link to site A, then they will give a link to my site originating from site B. This is done because Google is supposed to value one-way links more than reciprocal links. I can understand this. If someone links to you without asking you and doesn't request a reciprocal link it means that your site is really good and this is why Google values true one-way links. However, the three-way links proposed by many people are just an attempt to trick the search engines; they are not true one-way links. Sooner or later Google will get wise to such schemes and this kind of effort will yield little benefit to the linking websites.

In addition, I dislike this kind of linking arrangement because you first have to chëck out who you are linking to, and then you are faced with checking another site that is going to link to you. Usually the site where the link to you will be placed is some kind of strange directory, a link-farm.

This is the state of reciprocal linking today. I delete most requests coming into my inbox, and do mass deleting on my automated systems as well. Now I don't want to end on a negative note so here are a few suggestions on how to get quality incoming links without adding another reciprocal link request to the flood that is already out there:

1. Make Your Site so Cool that People Will Link to You Without Asking

People come to the Internet to solve a problem, find a solution and get information. If you can make your website a true resource and a great place where visitors can get the information that they need, then it will not go unnoticed. Even if you have a commercial e-commerce site, it is possible to add reviews, articles and information. This additional information will help your own customers and will be a resource for the entire web. Who knows? Maybe one day you will chëck your referrer logs and see that Wikipedia is linking to you. This is the goal, but it will take some work to achieve it.

2. Get Involved in Blogs and Forums that are Related to Your Field of Expertise

You can learn something from forums and blogs and you can contribute something as well. You can usually leave your url when you make a comment or a posting. If you offer solid advice, you will get a good online reputation and become known as an expert in your field. This newfound recognition as an expert, combined with links from these blogs and forums will be worth much more than low quality reciprocal links.

3. Get into Article Marketing

Article marketing means that you will write articles about your field of interest and distribute them for publication on other websites, blogs and ezines with a link back to your site. Each time your article is published on a website you get a one-way link to your site. As with most good things, this method has been pounced upon by Internet marketers and the net is flooded with a lot of low-quality articles. However, if you produce meaningful articles, you can still get a lot of benefit by distributing your articles.

4. Do Judicious Reciprocal Linking

There is nothing wrong with the idea of websites trading links. However, if you are going to do it, then only link to a site that you think is a good one or has some value for your web visitors. Make sure that your link will be placed on a page that has the potential of sending you some traffíc. Make your request with an email that clearly shows that you are a living and breathing human being and not a robot.

So, instead of adding to the spam-like flood of reciprocal link requests, go about building your own content and start using more reliable methods of increasing the number of incoming links to your site.

About The Author: Donald Nelson is a search engine optimization specialist. His SEO company A1-Optimization provides affordable search engine optimization, website copywriting, article marketing and other website promotion services.

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Traffic. It's the all-important piece of the marketing puzzle that faces all web owners. Your product may cure cancer but unless there are people reading your information it won't matter. And not just any traffic. You want laser targeted, highly motivated customers ready to whip out their wallets and input their credit cards. You are searching for El Dorado. You know it's there. You've read that others have found it. There is a path and it starts here.

SEO, JV's and PPC traffic will all deliver targeted customers. These techniques require specific knowledge too lengthy to discuss in one sitting. Below are five diverse methods that you start to use to drive targeted customers to your site with the knowledge you gain here.

1. Join the world and start blogging! Blogging is an online weblog or diary that can be easily updated. Your readers can even leave comments or answer polls. Blogger.com, a large server based blog, is owned by Google. Although there are great advantages to posting to a Blogger site you always want to have a blog hosted on your own site. Blogger will take down sites and sometimes for no apparent reason. You can lose all your data and traffic in seconds. Use Blogger to point to your primary site. This gives your site one more back link, another source for traffic and a reason for Google to spider and index your primary site following the links from Blogger. You can post the same content on both blogs and redirect people to pick up an RSS feed from your primary blog.

2. There are people talking about your niche on any number of forums and groups. Join several and provide accurate content rich answers to their questions. Be seen as a helper, someone who is truly interested in the topic and the people. Do not spam. Do not advertise but place your site in your signature line. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the number of good customers you'll receive. If people are motivated enough to join a forum or group to discuss their issue then they most likely are motivated to find good information.

3. Article marketing has been a topic of conversation for several years now. People seem to attempt this particular avenue and get discouraged easily. Although this type of marketing will economically generate targeted customers it is a time consuming job. The best technique to use is to post at least three to four articles per week to two or three of the top article directories. It's not necessary to post to 300 directories, just the ones with high page ranks like ezinearticles.com. These article postings do three things. You have back links from a site with a high page rank; you have access to publishers and your content will be found on organic searches based on the keywords and phrases you enter when you post to the directory.

4. Viral marketing has a mystique about it. The first site that accidentally took real advantage of this method was Interview With God. The owner of the site published a public domain poem on the net just a couple of months before 9/11. His site was ‘discovered' by many people who took solace from the poetry and began sending the site to all of their friends. The rest was history. The essence of viral marketing is sharing information with people you know. There are several avenues open to you and even more if you use your imagination. You can take advantage of social networking sites and social bookmarking sites where you can share your information with all of your new ‘friends'. Tell a friend scripts on your site can encourage your current visitors to tell their friends. You'll find that people will tell their friends if your site is funny, touching or if you offer incentive. Another technique is to offer free information through ebooks with links back to your site.

5. Do you have expert knowledge on a particular subject that relates to your website and business? You not only can share that knowledge in groups and forums but also by using answer sites through Yahoo Answers or eHow.com. In these arenas people post questions and others post answers. People who read the answers rate them. Your site gets traffic when people perceive that you are giving high quality answers.

You have the knowledge to drive traffic to your site. This may not be the flood of traffic that dreams are made of but they are targeted customers, the most important kind of traffic. As your skill using these techniques improves so will the number of buying customers visiting your site. And isn't that the point?

About the author: Rasheed Ali is CEO and founder of the Internet Coaching Academy http://www.InternetCoachingAcademy.com where he and his team of internet business experts are helping people from all over the world start, build and profit from their own internet business. He also offers a FREE newsletter and FREE video course on building a profitable home based business on the internet.

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In September of 1999, Brett Tabke wrote "26 Steps to 15k a Day" in the Webmaster World forum. A lot has changed since then, and now is the time to consider a new 26-step plan that meets the current needs of webmasters in 2006. Some of the old ones still apply (writing new content everyday, for example), and some don't (submitting to the search engines is no longer necessary), and we're here to tell you which is which! As you probably already know, bringing in traffic is not easy - it takes hard work, determination and lots of elbow grease. So if you're ready, roll up your sleeves and follow these 26 simple steps, and within just one year you will generate enough traffic to keep you busy for a long, long time!

A) Keyword Research
Before you do anything else, use a keyword research tool and do an extensive job researching the right keyphrases to use for your site. What keyphrases are your direct competitors using? Are there any keyphrases that create a potential for market entry? Are there any that you can put a spin on and create a whole new niche with?

B) Domain Name
If you want to brand your company name, then choose a domain name that reflects it. If your company is Kawunga, then get www.kawunga.com. If it's taken, then get www.kawungawidgets.com. No dashes, and no more than two words in the domain if appropriate.

C) Avoid the Sandbox
Buy your domain name early, as soon as you have chosen your keyphrases and your company name. Get it hosted right away and put up a quick one page site saying a little about who you are, what you sell, and that there will be more to come soon. Make sure it gets crawled by Google and Yahoo (either submit it or link to it from another site).

D) Create Content
Create over 30 pages of real, original content on your site. This will give the spiders something to chew on. It will also give you more opportunities to been seen in the search engine results for a wide variety of keyphrases.

E) Site Design
Use the "Keep It Simple" principle. Employ an external CSS file, clean up any Java Scripts by referring to them off the page in an external file, don't use frames, use flash the way you would an image, and no matter what, do not create a flash site. Do not offer a busy site with lots of bells and whistles to your visitors. Keep things nice and simple. Make it easy for them to find what they are looking for and they'll have no reason to look anywhere else.

F) Page Size
The less kilobytes your page uses, the better - especially for the home page. Optimize your images and make sure the page loads quickly. Most people and businesses in the Western world may have high speed, but cell phones and other countries might not. If your site loads slowly, you may have already lost your visitor before they've even had a chance to browse around.

G) Usability
Make sure that your site follows good usability rules. Remember that people spend more time on other sites, so don't violate design conventions. Don't use PDF files for online reading. Change the colours for visited links, and use good headers. Look up usability for more tips and tricks, it will be worth your while.

H) On Site Optimization
Use the keyphrase you have chosen in your title (most important), your headers (when appropriate), and within the text. Make sure that your page/content is ABOUT your keyphrase. If you are selling widgets, than write about widgets. Don't just stick the word widgets into the text.

I) Globals
Globals are the links that remain the same on every page. They are the reference for new visitors to keep them from getting lost. Sometimes they are on the left of the page, sometimes they consist of tabs at the top. Often they are in the footer of the page as well. Make sure that you have an old style text version of your globals on every page. I usually create tabs at the top, and put the text versions in the footer at the bottom of the page. Find out what works best for you.

J) Headers
Use bold headers. On the Internet, people scan they don't read. So initially, all they will see are the headers. If your headers don't address their concerns, they won't stick around long enough to read your content. Use appropriate keyphrases when you can.

K) Site Map
Build a site map with a link to each of your pages. Keep it up to date. This will allow the spiders to get to every page. Put a text link to the site map on the main pages.

L) Content
Add a page every 2-3 days: 200-500 words. Create original content, don't copy others. The more original and useful it is, the more people will read it, link to it, and most importantly of all - like it enough to keep coming back for more.

M) White Hat Only
Stay away from black hat optimizing techniques. Black hat optimization consists of using any method to get higher rankings that the search engines would disapprove of, such as keyword stuffing, doorway pages, invisible text, cloaking and more. Stick to white hat methods for long-term success. People who use black hat optimization are usually there for the short-term, such as in porn, gambling, and Viagra markets (just look at your email spam for more black hat markets). These black hat industry sites are usually around just long enough to make a quick buck.

N) Competition Analysis
Who is linking to your competition? Use Yahoo's "link:" service to see the back links of your competition. For example, type in "link:http://www.yourdomain.com" into Yahoo search without the quotes). Try to get links from the same sites as your direct competitors. Better yet, see if you can replace them!

O) Submit
Submit to five groups of directories:

1. Dmoz.org and Yahoo (local, such as Yahoo.co.uk, or Yahoo.ca, etc... if you can).
2. Find directories in your field and get into them. Pay if you must, but only if the price is reasonable.
3. Local directories that relate to your country or region.
4. Any other directories that would be appropriate.
5. If you are targeting the local market, make sure that you are in the Yellow Pages and Superpages (because search engines use these listings to power local searches)

P) Blog
Start a blog about your industry and write a new entry at least once a week. Allow your visitors to comment or, better yet, write their own entries. This will create even more content on your site and will keep people coming back regularly to see what is new.

Q) Links From Other Sites
Simply submit your website to appropriate sites, asking that they link to your site as a reference because it will benefit their visitors. Don't spend too much time on this, if your content is good and original, they will find you and link to you naturally. Remember that Linking is Queen (http://www.redcarpetweb.com/promotion/0409.html#feature).

Stay away from reciprocal linking, links farms, link scams, and any other unnatural links. They may not necessarily hurt you, but Google tracks when you get a link, how long you have had a link, who links to the site that links to you, where you live, what you had for breakfast, and more (not really... but kind of).

R) Statistics
Make sure your server has a good statistics program. Use it! If you don't have access to a good program, then pay for one. Without the knowledge of who is coming to your site, from where, and how often, you will be missing out on some essential tools to improve your site.

S) Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Sign up for Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing. Spend money getting people to your site. Use it for branding too. This will create a steady flow of visitors to your site, and will make your site more accessible to your potential clients. You don't have to be #1, you don't even have to be #5... just make sure you are on the first page of search results for most of your keyphrases, when the cost is right.

T) Look Ahead
Stay informed of what is coming up in your market. If a new product will be out next season, write about it now. Take advantage of being a first mover. The search engines, and linkers, will reward you.

U) Articles
Write an article once every week and get it published in as many online publications as you can (with a link back to your site). Include the article on your site. Not only will this create many links to your site, but it will also get people to click to your site, and most importantly you will become an expert in the eyes of your visitors. They may even begin looking for your site by querying your name!

V) Study Your Traffic
After 30 to 90 days you will have enough results to analyze in your statistics program. Go over them with a fine tooth comb. Get the answers to these questions:

• Where are your visitors coming from?
• Which search engines do they use?
• What queries do they type in?
• What pages on your site do they visit the most?
• What are the entry pages on your site?
• What are the exit pages?
• What path do they follow when they browse your site?

Use this information to tweak your site.

• Use the most popular page to encourage the visitors to make you money.
• Adjust the paths they use to send them where you want them.
• Figure out why they leave from the exit pages.

Also, see what search terms people use to find you, and fine tune your keyphrases. If you targeted "green widgets", but your visitors are finding you with the query "green leather widgets", then start creating content about "leather widgets"!

W) Verify Your Submissions
After 3-4 months, check that you got into Dmoz.org and all of the other directories that you submitted to. If you have not been included, then submit again, or better yet, write a polite email to the editor and ask why. Also, find any new directories that would be worthy of your submittal time and submit to them.

X) RSS Feeds
RSS (Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) is becoming a powerful tool for Internet marketers. You can quickly and easily add fresh content to your website. Article feeds are updated frequently, so you can give your visitors (and the search engines) what they want - fresh content! You can use RSS to promote any new content, such as new pages, articles, blogs, press releases, and more!

Y) Press Releases
A press release is a written communication that you submit to journalists in the media (newspapers, radio, television, magazines) which are used to make announcements that are newsworthy. Create press releases announcing publication of any new articles or new company information or products. If it is interesting/original enough, a journalist may pick it up and write an article about it. Before you know it, your website address may get published in the NY Times.

Z) Keep Your Content Fresh
Remember to write a new page every 2-3 days. I only mentioned it briefly, but it is probably the most important point in this article. Keep writing! Without fresh content, your site will gradually drop in the search engine results. To stay on top, your content has to be the most up-to-date, freshest, and most interesting and original content in your field.

Follow these 26 simple steps and I assure you that within one year you will call your site a success. You will bring in a massive amount of traffic from within your industry and watch as your business grows!

So start writing, and write yourself to the top!

About the author: Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce marketplace, and co-founded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc.. He has been researching and developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field.

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Many of you have heard of submitting your website, but what does this really mean? What places should you really submit your website? What about submitting to thousands of search engines and directories through some website promotion service?

What Pages To Submit:

At the minimum, you should submit your home page. Many search engines will promise to find and crawl the rest of your website automatically (in their own good time). But if they don't discourage you from doing so, I would submit several of the important pages in your site. For example, a site map is definitely something I would want to submit, since it should have direct links to the rest of your website.

Also, if I get another webmaster to link to my website, I like to submit that page as well. I want the search engines to recognize that this resource has changed - it has a link to my website and I want the credit for it.

What To Prepare:

For the search engines, I would make sure that the website is properly optimized. At a minimum, I would do double check the meta-tags to ensure that the title, meta-description and meta-keywords properly describe the web pages and have some of my desired keywords in it. I would also run a website validator on the pages I intend on submitting - to keep the search engine spiders from choking on my website. For more information on optimizing a website for the search engines, go to http://website-optimization-2.blogspot.com.

For the directories, I would normally prepare some commonly requested information. This really helps to speed up the process. I normally use a generic text editor like Microsoft Notepad and save the following data before I go and submit to the different search engines and directories. This enables me to use copy and paste.

This should have:

• Your email
  
• Your website url
  
• A good title for your website
  
• A description for the website

Since Yahoo will allow you to submit a list of URLS that are in a text document (or an RSS feed) I would encourage you to prepare one to help them out. These should be at the root directory of your website and be updated whenever there is a change to your pages. That way you can just submit the location of the RSS feed or the text file and let Yahoo use that to find the rest of your pages. It is a nice time saver. Personally, I like using an automated RSS feed since Yahoo can use it to determine when the last changes occurred and decide what pages to re-crawl first.

(If you don't know what RSS is, here is a great article on it: http://feedvalidator.org/docs/rss2.html.)

Google uses a similar technology to help it find all of your web pages. It is called a "Google Site Map". That is the subject of another article. I wrote one that has a lot more info on the Google Site Maps, for when you are ready to build one. Google also has a special way to submit these. Just follow their instructions. If this is too complicated, contact a webmaster or a SEO specialist who is familiar with this feature.

Where To Submit:

I would recommend submitting your home page to the major search engines individually, at least initially. However, there are several services that do groups of them for you - and is a big time saver for the rest of your site. The following is one of my favorites: FreeWebSubmission.com. I have always deselected Google, though, since I submit to them manually through the Google website. I submit my web pages to the following search engines manually (without a special tool) just to ensure that it is done.

You will need a Yahoo account to submit to the Yahoo search engine. And don't fret if you don't see immediate results. Your site should normally exist in MSN within about 6 weeks, in Yahoo in 8-12 weeks, and in Google within about 3 months. (You will not likely get much search results from Google for the first year though - but hold out and keep working on the other tricks. In the long run, Google will normally give you about 60 - 70% of the search engine traffic if you follow these methods.)

Also, if you have the Alexa toolbar installed, navigate to your website and click on the "info" button on the toolbar. Then you will have to fill in information about your website. Once this is registered, you will start seeing how your website's Alexa rating looks. There have been some rumors that Google considers the Alexa description in its searches - so make sure it is relevant to your website as a whole and has at least one of your keywords.

You should also submit your website to DMOZ. This is a massive directory that is republished in several other websites. It is managed by humans, and is therefore considered to be of special relevance by other search engines. I strongly recommend reading all their rules before submitting - and follow them closely. Make sure that you try to get listed in only one category - the most relevant one for your business. It can take a month or two to get listed, but it really helps with your backlinks and overall relevancy as a website.

After DMOZ, here are the most important list of directories to be listed in.

• Yahoo Directory website submission ($299 annual fee)

• Business.com website submission ($199 annual fee)

• Microsoft Bcentral Directory website submission ($49 annual fee)

• Best of Web website submission ($40 annual fee)

• GoGuides.org website submission ($40 lifetime fee)

• Gimpsy.com website submission ($40 lifetime fee)

• JoeAnt website submission ($40 lifetime fee)

• Tygo website submission ($40 lifetime fee)

• Skaffe.com website submission ($40 lifetime fee)

• WowDirectory.com website submission ($25 lifetime fee)

If you haven't used directories before - try browsing these before you fill out the form to submit your site. They are organized by category. You need to find the most relevant category to put your website before you start to fill out the form for each of these. Have a pen and paper as you browse - and write down directory paths of where you want to be.

Being in some directories just adds some good backlinks. (When another webmaster links to your website, this is considered a backlink.) Others, like Yahoo and DMOZ, tend to get some special relevance to certain search engines. After you get familiar with these well-known directories, look for niche directories that are specific to the type of business your website is about.

There are specialized directories that focus on a particular category of links. These can be valuable - you will just have to do a bit of searching to find them. These may be considered as part of your overall strategy.

Being listed in a search engine doesn't guarantee that you will have a good ranking - this is just the first step - letting them know that you exist.

If You See An Offer To Get Listed In Hundreds Of Directories And Websites Automatically - Beware! Many of these will list you in hundreds of FFA (free for all) sites. These sites are considered SPAM by search engines and I would strongly encourage you to avoid them. Did I mention to avoid these? Check out what Google has to say about these. They may get you quick backlinks, but they are from the "wrong" type of site. These are just a list of sites - and they stay there temporarily. Only the latest 100 submitted or so are displayed there and you need to be resubmitted regularly to stay there. Few humans use this - it is just a linking game to trick the search engines about your popularity (and search engines don't like it). Don't bother.

To Wrap It Up:

Get backlinks - but avoid FFA sites. There are some important directories, but being listed in "Thousands Of Websites And Directories" is likely a promotional trick to get you listed in FFA sites. The most important backlinks are from web pages with content related to your website and those that your customers visit. If it isn't likely to draw your customers, it may not be very important for your website traffic.

About the author: Robert Fuess is a veteran website designer who specializes in making dynamic search engine optimized websites. SpiderwebLogic.com | SchoolAndTeacher.com

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There is a tactic out there embraced by bloggers but rarely used by typical websites. It is called Link Baiting.

In this article I explain what link baiting is and how everyone, not just bloggers, can use it to build quality links.

This is a topic that's been around for a while but I don't think a lot of people know what it is, or how to use it to their advantage.

I think the name "Link Baiting" could be considered a black hat technique which is why most people wouldn't consider it as a legitimate organic tactic.

However link baiting is merely link building with a twist: Rather than hunting out links, you are bringing the links to you through unique and popular site content.

So how does Link Baiting work?

Link Baiting is just like fishing. You publish a new page on a topic (I'll cover those later) and set it free on the web. Hopefully others pick up on the content as fresh and interesting and link to it. The article is the bait, and the link is the catch.

A properly created page can capture huge links on its own with little to no effort from you.

For example, on another site, about a year ago, I wrote an article about the Florida Update. I spend the month or 2 after the initial update analyzing results and I then published my theory on what the update was.

That article has earned 88 links to date. And the best link, in my view, is a link from the ODP from the Google News category.

In fact my article appears in the top 10, and is linked to as a reference in many of the other top listings for a Google search for "Florida Update."

So what was so special about the article?

While I never intended for it to be link bait, it turns out it was a typical "hook" page. Performancing blog has a really good summary on link baiting which I will further explain here.

With link building there are essentially 5 types of "hooks" or pages built to encourage links. They are: News, Contrary, Attack, Resource and Humor.

A News hook is one where you report on industry news. But it's not just a rehashing of someone else's post. It should be unique – either a scoop that no one else has caught, or it could even be a summary of various viewpoints. A news hook could also be comprised of a story you have proved to be false.

Contrary hooks are when you contradict what someone else says. It should be someone prominent in the industry and it should be controversial.

For example, if I was to write an article that proclaimed that Danny Sullivan's latest theory was bunk, it would probably generate buzz. Especially if I could provide corroborating evidence backing up my assertion.

Recently Mike Grehan posted just such an article on Clickz in which he again pointed out that he doesn't believe in a Google Sandbox. He even refers to other posts in which the Sandbox has been beaten to death.

Soon after he posted this article (which, by the way was posted just one week ago) many other SEM's jumped on him purporting to have proof of the Sandbox.

And, if you use Yahoo's Site Explorer to look at who links to this article, you will see that Yahoo! Has already picked up on almost 80 links to this one article. I'd say that Mike has done a great job of link baiting!

Attack hooks take the contrary hooks a step further, by launching personal attacks on people taking the debunking of theories to the next level. The original post from SEOmoz was close to an attack hook, but after they edited it, it became less of an attack They reacted to the Mike Grehan article on the Sandbox with some haste and turned it personal. To their credit they did tone it down some, but it's pretty close to a flame. Who knows, maybe this article will be considered an attack on SEOmoz and will generate similar buzz.

A Resource hook is more of an informational page. It's one that aggregates a bunch of information and distills it for visitors.

In fact this site is much like that. We take a bunch of news, distill it to its most meaningful and then provide our interpretation of what it means. Then, others pick up on the article and either repost it, or at least link to it.

Finally is a Humour hook. With this link bait you post jokes, funny stories, weird or funny pictures that you've found or anything else that will warrant a review from others and hopefully a link.

There are tons of blogs devoted to this such as the Obscure Store & Reading Room and Small Town Misfit which scour the web for weird and funny stories and then display them, encouraging others to link to them.

And it must be working – Small Town Misfit has over 1,600 Yahoo! Links while Obscure Store has over 1,700.

So, if you were ever worried about the amount of link building you'd have to do to become an "authority", consider link baiting in your arsenal. It can be a very effective way of building links quickly and easily. Also, it's an effective way to build your reputation and brand online as more and more people learn about you through these links.

About the author: Rob Sullivan is a SEO Consultant and Writer for Textlinkbrokers.com.

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One of the best ways to generate free traffic is via the search engines. If you have some prior SEO knowledge, then you know that the best way to improve your rankings in the search engines is by establishing relevant links to your website. So building link popularity is indeed important.

But very few webmaster know how to build link popularity the way Google loves it.

So how do you generate a link building campaign that all the search engines will love?

Well, before I get into this, let me first explain what link popularity is.

Link popularity, in simple words, refers to the number of websites that post a link to your website. Some SEO experts believe that the more links that post a link to your website, the more your rankings improve in the search engines. But this is not always the case. Link popularity is a little more complicated than this.

When building link popularity you want to take into account a list of things. But for the sake of this report, I just reduced the list down to 2 important factors that will affect the way Google and the rest of the other search engines list your site.

1. Choosing the Right Websites

Selecting the right sites to request a link partnership from will be responsible for the great part of your success. Your main objective, when launching a linking campaign is to establish links on sites that are truly related, or in the same theme of your website. If you are trying to build links for a site that discusses potty training for dogs, then you do not want to request a link partnership from a site in the make money niche. These two topics are completely unrelated. The Google search engine has an algorithm that recognizes unrelated linking patterns and they will penalize your website if they find them. Therefore, study the websites of your potential link partners.

2. Grow Your Links Slowly

With the way the search engine algorithms are acting right now, it is much more safer to slowly grow your link popularity day by day. It will be a lot safer to gather about 4 or 5 link partners per day rather than 20 a day. You should never blast a link request to an email list with a bunch of people looking for link partners. Any type of irregular, or excessive link growth will trigger the search engines and cause them to penalize your site. Never grow your link popularity too fast. Just be patient and you’ll be much better off in the end.

That is it for my 2 important rules for developing link popularity. Just adhere to these link building rules on a daily basis and you’ll see great traffic improvements in 3 months time.

A key rule is to try and continually build your link popularity until Google lists at least 100 links pointing to your website. This is a small rule of thumb for us SEO marketers. Any website with 100 link partners listed in Google is known to pull some pretty decent traffic.

About the author: Melvin Perry is an internet entrepreneur that specializes in list building and SEO. He is offering over 200 minutes of SEO list building videos that you can download and view for FREE at SEO List Building Videos

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What is SEO anyway?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO for short) is a highly involved, somewhat lengthy, process designed to elevate an internet website’s major search engine ranking and/or positioning. The major search engines (Google, Microsoft Network (MSN), and Yahoo) make up greater than 70% of search traffic on the internet. This is a common way for people to find others, information, companies, potential business partners, etc. by entering a “keyword” or search term. Typically, the searcher will seek information on their keyword or search term and click on the top results. Thus the higher a site ranks for a given keyword or search term, the better its chances of attracting more visitors to its site.

Why Should I Care about SEO?

If you run a business and have a web presence, don’t you want the most people possible knowing about that business? Wouldn’t it benefit you if your website was able to bring you new leads or develop new customers every day, 24 hours per day? Research has shown that nearly 95% of all search engine users rarely read past the first page of search results. Because of that, it behooves you to have your website on the first page of search results for specific keywords and terms.

Can’t I just Pay for a High Ranking?

No! Organic (or “free”) search listing rankings cannot be purchased. These are “earned” over time via links, content, keyword relevance, page and site descriptions, titles of pages, etc. You can pay for clicks to your website based on specific terms or keywords however these are separate results from the free results people commonly click.

What is Pay-Per-Click?

Pay-per-click is a form of internet advertising where you pay a certain amount for each “click” or “hit” to your website as a result of a person searching for a certain keyword or phrase.

What is Click Fraud?

Click fraud occurs when a person or automated computer script imitates a legitimate search for a keyword or phrase yet clicks on the pay-per-click result for the sole purpose of generating revenue for the search engine or affiliate.

What is a Linking Partner?

A linking partner is a website which provides a link to your site. Some will require a link on your site to theirs in return (a reciprocal link) while others will want to have a link on a third party’s site in exchange for the link to yours. Reciprocal links aren’t as valuable as unique one way links but the more links you have pointing to your site (link popularity), the more “important” the search engines will consider your site.

What is Page Rank?

Page Rank is Google’s proprietary algorithm for determining a site’s importance. It’s expressed as a value from 1-10 with 10 being the most important and most desirable. The algorithm was designed by Larry Page, Google’s co-founder. Page Rank is affected by things such as the number of links pointing to your website, and the amount of unique and relevant content on your website.

What is a Keyword?

A keyword is a typical word or phrase you’d expect people to use when searching for your site. That’s about as simple as we can explain it.

What is Keyword Density?

The number of keywords you use on a particular page in relation to the number of total words on that page. The more keywords you have peppered throughout the page and site, the better your site may rank for that particular term. You must be careful not to load a page with too many keywords, however—that is considered keyword “stuffing” or spamming and is frowned upon by the search engines.

What is a Sitemap?

A sitemap is basically an inventory listing of all of the pages on your site. It tells the search engines how to get around your site and also how many pages there are on your site. It can be made visible to your visitors, but it doesn’t have to be. Uploading an XML file directly to the search engines is a generally accepted best practice for optimizing your search engine rankings.

What is a Spider?

Search engines utilize small programs to surf and inventory sites all over the internet. These are called spiders, and they follow links from site to site to gather their inventory to report back to the search engine. They are also referred to as crawlers or bots from time to time.

What is a Meta Tag?

A meta tag is an HTML piece of code which provides information about that particular page or document. These don’t provide formatting information or any actionable code—they are there for the search engines to catalog your site and the pages contained on your site.

What is a Blog?

A blog (short for weblog) is a news or journal type of site which is frequently used more for opinionated type of entries and is typically updated frequently. It is intended for general consumption but has become a valuable tool for all types of users to spread information and awareness of their websites.

Why Should I Write Articles for my Website?

Articles are a great way to increase the amount of unique content on your site as it pertains to the keywords you desire to rank well. There are numerous websites that publish articles, and it is common practice for the authors to include a link in their by-line back to their website. This creates an inbound link to the author’s website which in turn increases its popularity. It’s also a good way to increase awareness aside from the linking benefits.

What are Directories?

Directories are databases containing listings to websites based on categories and sub-categories. Many of the search engines access directories to crawl their links to learn of new sites. Directories are an invaluable resource for search engines and can often serve to improve a site’s ranking depending upon how important the search engine weighs the directory in question. Directories may provide a link to your site often without requiring a return or reciprocal link on your site.

There you have a faq based overview of search engine optimization, why you should care, and some of the key terms used. If you're considering implementing an optimization program for your website, please visit http://smbconsultinginc.com for more information on this topic.

About the author: Roger Bauer is Founder and CEO of SMB Consulting, Inc., a Louisville, Kentucky based small business consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, web presence, internet marketing, SEO, technology, and business analysis. To learn more, point your browser to http://smbconsultinginc.com

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This article is about a free website which has a great text analysis tool, that is very useful for anyone in the internet marketing game or who optimizes their website for search engine rankings. The sites address is www.textalyser.net this tool really does the job when it comes to analyzing either all the text on a website or just a certain portion of your choice. Giving you all sorts of great information about the keywords used in the site.

When you first enter the site you can either paste in a certain portion of text into the designated area, or you just type in the URL of the whole website you would like to have analyzed. Then you can choose as to what analysis options you would like to perform. Such as the minimum characters per word, whether you would like it to ignore numbers, and a few more. After you chose your options then you simply click analyze the text, thus returning you a complete very detailed analysis.

At the very top of your analysis it shows some basic text information like the total word count, number of different words used, sentence count, a readability index ranging from easy to hard. That little function comes in handy, because you definitely want the text of your page to be easy for the viewer to read.

The next and perhaps most important feature, shows you the occurrences and frequency at which the top keywords for your page show up. It ranks them from the number one word to whichever number you would like it to stop at. That is set at the options you chose before you analyzed the text. This particular feature is very nice to SEO’s, seeing as that it lists the top words on a site and the density/frequency of which they appear. So an example of how this might help would be if you were targeting to have a certain keyword density for a particular keyword on your site. Thus enabling you to figure out whether to add more or less of that word to meet the density at which is required for the search engines to list you for that keyword.

Not only does this tell you your top ranking keywords it tell you the top word phrases, ranging from 2 word to 5 word phrases. It gives the count of how many times that phrase was used and also shows the frequency compared to the rest of the text on the page.

Anyone who is in the internet marketing field especially marketers who optimize their websites for search engine traffic can make great use of this free tool. I personally find great use in this tool for the process of my keyword research, which is essential for any search engine optimization campaign.

About the author: Search engine specialist Steve Bis, is the author of the free search secrets newsletter and owns a unique web search tool that will help you find anything on the internet in 60 seconds, eliminating your search frustrations. http://www.ultimatesearchpro.com.

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When building websites there are two main options: large content site or small mini-sites. Large content sites normally focus more on providing "information". Mini-sites, however, normally have one purpose only, to sell. Given what search engines want, large content sites are much better for getting search engine traffic. Most of the time (unless you're excellent at optimizing) it's hard to get mini-sites to rank well for competitive keywords. This is why most do NOT rely on search engines for traffic to their mini-sites. In all honesty, the best strategy is to combine the two types of sites by having a large content site to rank well with search engines that feeds traffic to your mini-sites. However, not all of us have the time or know-how to easily build large sites that do well with search engines. Most of us just want to put up a small site and start making money. Here are the 3 traffic generating techniques I use everyday for traffic to mini-sites. #1: Forums/Discussion Boards I have made more than $6,000 from one mini-site just by targeting it to the right forum in my signature file. All I did was leave a nice statement in my signature file; in 1 month I attracted over 5,000 targeted visitors that converted to over $6,000 for me. The basic strategy here is that you need to find related forums and become active in them. Get yourself known, find out what those members talk about and find an affiliate product to fit their demand. Then, make a nice, simple, yet captive site with a great headline followed by a review of the product. Test it and if it pulls well, you have a winner. If not, choose another product. #2: E-zine Advertising I would rate e-zine advertising at the second best way to gather traffic to your mini-sites only because this technique can cost some money. Forum promotions have no cost (typically). However, e-zine advertising can provide much better results. Forum marketing requires you taking the time to make sensible responses or asking good questions. With e-zine advertising, however, you just write a good promotion and let the publisher send it out. An advantage of e-zine advertising is that you know before you promote that you have a targeted audience that has already expressed an interest in your topic. Also, the subscriber and the publisher most likely have a good relationship (considering the subscriber has not left) and so your promotion comes with credibility and may get more attention. One of the keys to doing well with e-zine advertising (for me) has been repeated ads in the same e-zine. I have found that my results are best in the second of third promotion. However, if I get no results on my first mailing, I do not repeat that e-zine again. Warning: Not all e-zines are the same. Some will be major winners and others will be major flops. #3: Directory Sites Alright, here is the controversial technique that I use very successfully. I know some of you will think that it is "wrong" - but in the end, my job is to teach you how I get my traffic; that is exactly what I am going to do. Directory sites are sites created by software that automatically build you a site which is 500 or more pages. These sites are just simply uploaded to a domain name. Most (if done right) tend to do well with search engines. That traffic is then forwarded to your mini-sites. As you can see, we're holding fast to our policy of building a funnel system where we use the large sites to bring in the "no cost" search engine traffic (which is also highly targeted). However, all the "selling" takes place on our mini-sites. Large sites = Traffic Gathering Mini sites = Conversion Into Sales Obviously there are many more techniques to use to attract traffic to your mini-sites such as banners, pay per click, link exchanging, etc... I just wanted to discuss the top 3 that are the easiest to implement and require the least learning curve (in my opinion) About the author:Anik Singal became a successful internet marketer at just 21 with a unique affiliate marketing system that helped him earn over $10,466 in just 60 days using mini-sites. Sign up for his free e-course at: http://www.amclassroom.com/cmd.php Copyright 2006 Anik Singal.

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what does SEO means? Translated, SEO means Search Engine Optimisation. Everybody who has a site want's a lot of traffic on it. And the best way to get good targeted traffic is from Search Engines like Google, yahoo or Msn. But For your site to get the great traffic that you've always dreamed it must rank well in search engines. And this is where SEO comes up. SEO means optimizing your site in any legitimate way to have high rankings in the most important search engines.

I will try to give you a top 10 list with the most important terms meet in the SEO business.

1. Anchor Text. The anchor text is very important in SEO. It means the specific text for a hyperlink. Try to use as anchor text your most targeted keywords.

2. Ethical SEO. You can think about Ethical SEO as the opposite to Unethical SEO. It is SEO made without using any illegal activities that might get your site banned in the most important search engines.

3. Inbound links are links that point to your site. This are some kind of votes in your sites favor, from the search engines point of view. The more of these the better, obviously for traffic reasons, but also because they help build link popularity.

4. Keyphrase is a group of keywords.

5. Keyword is a word that is very important for your site. You keywords and keyphrases are the search terms that you want to rank high for.

6. Keyword Analysis means to analyze all the keywords that are related to your site and see which of them have more searches on search engines. You should optimize your site for related keywords that have the highest search rates.

7. The Link popularity is one of the most important thighs when it comes to SEO. Link popularity means the amount of links that point to your site. The link popularity while raise your site in the eyes of the search engines depending on the quality and quantity of the links.

8. META tags are special tags included at the top of a HTML page. Their purpose is to provide extra information about the web page. The most influential tags for search engine ranking are the Keywords tag and the Description tag.

9. Natural Links. SEO can come from natural ways too. This means that a webmaster on the net finds your site likes it and decides that it's quite useful for his visitors and links to it. This kind of links are called natural links and this are one of the most powerful links.

10. PageRank. It's some kind of ranking system invented by Google. The only real problem with PageRank in SEO is that is given much more attention that it deserves. The PageRank can bee seen with the PageRank meter included in the Google toolbar. You can think of it as a tool that measures the popularity of a wesite but only in the eyes of Google. PageRank is important but there are many other factors that are more important in the SEO process for the ranking of a website.

About the Author: Ispas Marin, http://www.seotradesecrets.com Seo Trade Secrets The Definitive Guide To Total Search Engine Optimization

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As you know, submission to web directories is a fantastic promotion tool that can boost your website link popularity and search engines rankings because with each submission you get one-way link to your website. There are free and paid web directories, and if you pay for the listing you want be sure it will work for your website. However submission to web directories is a kind of art and science at the same time and of course it has its secrets.

Follow these 5 tips to make web directories work for your website:

1. Make sure that it is a SEO friendly web directory

Links must be direct, static, and SEO-friendly that allows search engine robots to easily find and index your link:

• View the web page source code by right clicking on the page and selecting “View Source” from the drop-down menu.
• Look at the page meta tags, namely ROBOTS and make sure it doesn’t contain NOFOLLOW or NOINDEX attributes.
• Look at the links codes – URL in HREF attribute must be pointed directly to a linked website, not redirect from the web directory domain link.
• Links must not contain NOFOLLOW attribute.

2. Find the best place for your web site link

The best place is page with good Page Rank, easily and shortly reached from index page of the web directory, that contain relevant text and links.

• Browse a web directory categories and/or subcategories to find the best placement for your link. It’s very important because link, placed on a page with text content relevant by theme to the website’s theme has more value in eyes of search engines.
• If your website fits more than one categories or subcategories, select the one which is reached by less clicks from the home page, and/or has less other websites links on the pages – this will give your link larger “piece” of Page Rank.

3. Follow the web directory submission guidelines

If the online web directory meets all these requirements you can start composing your link. Always before starting submission you should read the submission rules or guidelines, because if your submission is failed to meet them, your website will be denied.

• Usually typical submission guidelines are quite simple and within the common sense rules – your website must be legal, developed (no landing page or under construction), must not be related to racism, hate, illegal activities, etc. If you try to submit such website regardless of the guidelines, most likely your submission will be denied because most of web directories are human edited.
• Another reason for your website to be denied is that you selected wrong category for your listing – one web directory editor may fix it, but another one will just delete the listing.
• Let’s also talk about deep linking – this is when you submit internal page of your website like www.yoursitename.com/pagename.html instead of top level domain www.yoursitename.com Deep linking is a SEO tactics for getting links, which look more natural in eyes of search engines, and it helps promoting certain website pages or sections as well. Not all web directories accept deep links for regular listings – most of them offer this for premium paid submission only. If you want to submit internal page link to a web directory, read before starting what the directory submission guidelines tell about this to avoid deletion of your listing.

4. Write proper title and description for your link

Title of your link is very important because usually it will be linked to your website as anchor text that has great impact on your website search engine rankings, so do your best writing title for each link you submit, however:

• Do not stuff the title with keywords only because this may cause rejection of your submission by the directory editor, but write normal informative phrases describing your website topics, services, products, ideas.
• If the web directory submission rules allow using 2–3 keywords or key phrases in the title and description, do not miss that chance; however try to “mix” the keywords with other normal words.
• Do not exceed the allowed limit of characters otherwise your title will be truncated or the whole listing rejected.
• Vary the link title and description at least slightly for each submission to make the links look natural in eyes or search engines. When search engines find hundreds or thousands of links to your website with the same anchor text (title) and description, they just discount the links value and your money and time were wasted to no result in rankings. It’s enough just to change one word in title and phrases order in the description from directory to directory, and use different keywords for every 10th web directory to get natural links for your website and improve its rankings for all the keywords.
• Remember that human users are also interested in your website listing and will follow the link if they find it interesting and useful. That’s why to use normal language for the title and description, that takes attention of the users and prompt them to click the link.

5. Write down all web directories you have submitted your website to

• The first reason for this is to avoid repeated submission to the same web directory because this may cause the first submission rejection or deletion.
• Also it’s just helpful and handy to have summary list of where and when you submitted your website, so in few weeks you can return and check if your website has been added, because some web directories send notification about website inclusion but some do not and you have to check it manually.

These 5 tips are simple but very effective because you know you spend your time and money on submission that brings great results.

About the author:Julia Ramyalg,Internet Marketing Manager
SEO friendly online web directory - JuliaWebDirectory.com accepts website submission for regular listing $1/year and featured listing $7/year.

• 300+ categories
• Deep Linking is allowed for regualr listing
• 24 hours Listing Approval
• Quick Indexing by search engines
• Relevant content on the pages of categories – all you need for building your website link popularity.

Submit your website to 100% SEO friendly directory HERE!

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MySpace is well-known for its huge online community and the way to do social networking, but it also can be a way to get your message out about your service or business if done in a non-pushy casual way. Today's generation has seen so many ads and can block it out in a flash. What's important to remember that MySpace and social networking is about making friends and casually mentioning what you do, what you've found helpful etc. It is not about hard selling.

After you set up your profile at MySpace you can explore using the various feature which include adding friends, sending out bulletins, joining a group, blogging, writing comments and sending e-mails to your friends. Also when you set up your profile you are assigned a number but it's nice to change it to a catchy phrase because that will be part of the url or website address people use to find you.

The group tab on MySpace is wonderful to browse because you can find groups that are targetted on your niche and join them. For instance, if you study the pets and animals tab you'll see there are several groups available for dog lovers. The Dogs are the Best group has 31,901 members. There's another group titled My Dog Rocks that has over 54,000 members. There's also specialized niches as well such as a pit bull group that has 9000 members.

After you join a group you need to wait a week to post and then you can either answers people's posts or post your own topic or question. It is best to put your offer in your signature file and to build up relationships with people in the group rather than be an aggressive marketer. Some groups also have a bulletin section which allow ads and you use that section as well in a more direct way. I have found that being anecdotal and talking about my own interest in the topic help builds connections with other group members. Think how long it would take you to grow a newsletter list yourself of 54,000 members and you'll get a glimpse of the potential this has to let others know about your product or service.

Another feature I like is the commenting aspect. You can leave a comment on your friend's profiles that everyone who goes to their page will see. It can be worth it to make or buy a pretty banner so that you can include that within your comment. I always study someone's page before I make a banner so I can customize my remark to their personality. It takes more time but again it helps to build the relationship. If I see that the person likes a certain book I like or hobby I will mention that in my comment and then put a link to my site using a banner or a text link.

Blogging using the MySpace blog system is also a very good way to get traffic to your site. I usually will post something in a diary or casual way and have a link to my site. I then will send out a bulletin to tell people I've updated my blog. Don't neglect MySpace in your marketing campaign as it has wonderful opportunities to help people get to learn about your website, service and business.

About the author: Dee Cohen is a psychotherapist and online marketer. Visit to get a free 22 page report on how to market on MySpace. http://www.socialsitesmarketing.com and learn ways to get your message out to others. Free 22 page MySpace Marketing Tips Report

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Link popularity is the single most influential factor for determining how well a web site will perform in search engine rankings. A web site's link popularity is computed from the number and more importantly, the quality of links pointing to a web site.

Link Popularity history

To gain a better understanding of link popularity it is useful to know why it became so crucial for search engine rankings. In the past a web page's ranking was determined, amongst other factors, by the number of keyword occurences within 'on-page' elements i.e. in page text, META tags, title tag. When web developers learned that they could trick a search engine to return their web pages by cramming keywords into their pages the search engines had to get a bit smarter. They were using 'on-page' elements to determine relevance so it was only natural that they would look to elements out of direct control of the web page creator i.e. 'off-page' elements. Search engines made the assumption that the greater the number of links from other sites pointing to a web site, the more popular the web site is and therefore a more quality resource. This worked nicely in theory but in practice it was also to be abused.

Web site owners figured out many ways to get links pointing to their web sites one example of which was through the use of link farms, pages the contained nothing more than a collection of links, Quantity of links was being abused so the search engines made use of the old saying "quality not quantity" and began to assign a quality factor to each of the links pointing to a web site. Now web sites that had a higher number of high quality links were looked upon favourably by the search engines. Building link popularity became a science in itself and today is still the most time-consuming and frustrating activity for a search engine optimizer.

Main classes of links

Note: In the following examples SiteA is our web site and SiteB is an outside site (i.e. a web site under a different domain name than SiteA).

Inbound links:

Inbound links to a web site are links that originate from an outside web site. An example would be a link on SiteB pointing into a page on SiteA.

SiteA (----- SiteB

Outbound links:

Outbound links from a web site are links pointing to a page on an outside web site. An example would be a link on SiteA pointing out to a page on SiteB.

SiteA -----) SiteB

There are two further classifications of links:

Reciprocal links:

An example of a reciprocal link is when SiteA links to SiteB AND SiteB links to SiteA, the link is reciprocated by both parties.

SiteA -----) SiteB

AND

SiteA (----- SiteB

To achieve a high link popularity the type of links to build are inbound one-way links. This simulates how natural links are created i.e. links that people create to point to your site because they found it worth linking to.

For outbound links it is natural to assume that they might decrease link popularity of a web site but this is not true. You do not give away your link popularity when you link to another site. They do not add to your link popularity though.

Reciprocal links can add to your link popularity if the web site that you exchange links with has a higher link popularity than your site. However they are not as powerful as inbound, one-way links as they are quite artificial in nature i.e. most probably created by communication between the owners of both sites.

How to build link popularity

So it is quite obvious that to help build up a nice link popularity many inbound, one-way links need to be created. This can be achieved in a number of different (and most importantly, legal) ways:

Directories:

Directories are categorized listings of links from around the web. Many, many directories exist and vary in their methods of getting your link posted on them. They provide a great source of quality inbound, one-way links. Getting listed in quality directories such as DMOZ or Yahoo can be more beneficial for your link popularity than a lot of links from smaller, newer directories.

Great site content:

The most powerful way to get inbound, one-way links is to have great site content that other web sites will want to link to. This allows you to get links from sites other than directories, which can definitely be better. The best thing about this is that it requires no communication on your part, it just happens naturally. If your site has poor content then others sites may not link, including the directories. Most of the top ranking web sites today got to the top because of great content. Writing interesting and informative articles for your web site is a good way of getting these kind of links.

Emailing web site owners:

If you come across a listing of links on a web site other than a directory e.g. a links page on a somebody's personal web site, it can do no harm to write the web site owner a polite email requesting a link to your site from their page. They may request a reciprocal link in return but sometimes they do not and you can get a quality inbound, one-way link for your efforts. I have got many links in the past using this method. In my email I always ask them to visit my site first before making a decision to link and I personalise each email with a comment or two about their site.

Summary

The best and most effective way of increasing your search engine rankings is working to improve your web site's link popularity. This can be achieved by getting as many inbound, one-way links as you can from quality sites such as directories. Other ways to get these links are having great content on your site and requesting a link to your site from other web sites.

Increasing link popularity is a time-consuming and sometimes frustrating process but is definitely worth the time and effort when you see a dramatic increase in traffic.

About the Author: Frank Kilkelly is a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Expert and Webmaster at http://www.seo-ireland.com/, a complete search engine optimization resource. The highlight of the site is an SEO forum ( http://www.seo-ireland.com/forum/ ) for discussion of the latest techniques and tips to improve the ranking of your web site.

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