Increasing Your Web Traffic Starting NOW

Internet. Business. Profit.

To fully integrate all of these words into a successful merging you will need another word. Traffic. Every article and reading material you will find about making your site or company successful would always include the importance of generating traffic.

So, we all know that in the core of it all, traffic is the most essential thing to a successful Internet based business company. Aside from ensuring that you have a great product to sell, and you have your company’s internal organization well taken core of, it would be time to get to the nitty-gritty of things, generating traffic.

If you already have a site and you want think that you’re not getting the traffic that you’re supposed to be getting, then its time to reconsider. If you are contending in these very competitive business, you should always be a step ahead of your competition, increasing your traffic flow should have been done starting yesterday. [Read more →]

Scott’s December 5th training was based upon his article How I Made the Blog A-List (And You Can Too).  (Scott’s article is a MUST READ for community members who are serious about promoting their blogs.)

For those of you who were unable to attend Scott Allen’s training, please refer to the above article and notes below provided by Sandra Boyer.

Traditionally, making the A-list was measured through citations; in other words, who got cited the most.  Technorati uses this idea to measure blog authority in a time box for a period looking at the past 6 months.  They look for links to other blogs and keep track of all of them to know how many links are made to various blog posts for those past months. 
Google is slow on updating their database of links.  Technorati updates instantly the rankings of the top 100 and posts the updated list either daily or every couple of days. 
Authority is a count of number of inbound links as measured by Technorati.  Based upon this ranking, they can break blogs down into several groups.  A cut off point of 500 links in the last 6 months equals a very high authority.  The next cut off is between 150-500, which equals a high authority.  A medium authority is measured from 10-150, and a low authority is less than 10.  These authorities can be considered the A-list, B-list, etc.
Kinedia uses tools for URLs that lets you know your ranking.  Source URL is on that site where you can see your ranking. A link in a bloggers group can help find people who share your common interests. 

A great strategy is to build links—you build links, you build readers!!  Beside the search engine benefits, it also drives direct traffic from people who follow the link.
What builds links?

1. Basics.  Write well and write often.  Link to other bloggers!  Spend 50% of your time off your blog.  Read others blogs, get ideas, write posts in their discussion forums, and then turn it into a blog post for yourself.  Comment on others’ blogs.

2. Frequency of post is important.   It’s good if you do it, but it won’t break you if you don’t.  Don’t pan your blog if you go a couple of weeks without a post.  It’s better to keep up a fairly sustained effort for 6 months.  Every post is an opportunity for someone to link to.  A blog network (like Connecting with Women) helps.  It is tremendously powerful.  Your Sidebar links get counted.  An active community writing posts is great.  Write large comments on your blog and link back to the network blog.

3. Link list posts are link bait.  People love lists!!!  Lists are resources to people for people that are not easily searchable on search engines.  Some like big long lists such as Bootstraps and Mashables (high authority blog) have 100 elements broken down in categories, but ultimately it is a mini directory.  Go for shorter list, 10-20 that are carefully selected with commentary added to it to help people know about whether to click to it or not. Make sure you search around to see if it’s already out there.  You want to be original. 

4. Unique content.  There are original ideas.  Use your own unique perspective.  Tell your own story of how you accomplished something!  This is guaranteed to be unique content.

5. Blog carnivals–#1 strategy to get inbound links to your site.  (Originally they were considered  a traveling road show.)  Don’t participate in ones that have single host, use those that move hosts from week to week. At blogcarnival.com you can find them by category and find which ones that are active. You can find 5-10 carnivals to submit to.  If you can find 5/week, that’s 125 inbound links.  Consider hosting a carnival because those who submit will link to your blog, other regular readers will link to it.  You can get 20-50 inbound links for hosting and can get 200-250 links from hosting alone.  Highly proactive carnival strategy can get you to the A-list.

6. Make your blog page your home page.  When anyone links to anything on your site, it counts as a link.  Your blog page is pretty much your whole website anyway! One trick is Technorati doesn’t care.  They look at everything under the blog domain.  Any links to your blog get counted.  They just look to see if there’s a link to that page.  Let your homepage be your blog.

Tell the story of how you established a successful blog is link bait.

Blogs are a distributed conversation.  It’s all over the place.  It can be a conversation, not just a publishing mechanism.

SEE what’s out there and engage in what’s there!  Interaction is what makes it effective. 

Leave comments on other blogs.  Whenever you do it, you put in your name and link to your blog.

P.S. Mark your calendar: Scott’s teleconference trainings are every other Wednesday evening. Scott provides the kind of help and training that most people trying to market online only dream of having access to on a bi-weekly basis.

If you did not receive an email with the information for Scott’s trainings, please contact your Connecting With Women mentor.

Video: Writing Blog Posts

The following video was taped at the 495 Business Expo in Sept of 2007.

10 Steps to a Killer Blog Post!
By Thomas Sinfield

Ever wondered why some bloggers seem to have all the success, while you are sitting there typing away post after post - with no one reading? Here are a few tips I have tested that have not only worked for me, but that I have seen implemented in the majority of the top blogs.

1. Chose Your topic Carefully -

The best of writers can talk about anything and make it sound good, but why make it hard on yourself? choose a topic that you are passionate about, and let your enthusiasm show shine. It will compliment your writing style and make for a more interesting read.

2. Study The Topic -

Read up on the subject your are about to write about. Find out what others have written, and let it spark some creativity in your mind.

3. Create A Killer Headline -

This is the most important step of them all. In fact it should probably be point number one, because if people are intrigued by your headline, why would they read the rest of your post? Don’t be afraid to flaunt your headline, people don’t like bland and mundane.

4. Deliver The Content -

Your headline has promised it - now deliver! There is nothing worse then reading the title of a article, thinking it is going to revolutionize the way you view a topic, only to find it is a boring ‘copy and past’ job, that has taken 2 minutes to throw together. This hits on point 2, make sure you study the subject so you can deliver the content!

5. Use Bullet Points -

formatting is so important! People like structure, and bullet points make articles much easier to read, and also helps the readers retain the information by giving them the key points of the article.

6. Choose Photos Wisely -

No one likes a bland blog, but that doesn’t mean just splashing a random photo here and there just for the sake of it. Make sure the images compliment the article.

7. Make Your Opinion Known -

People read blogs because they are written by people, people with opinions. If they wanted a scientific explanation to something they would consult a textbook, so let your readers know what you think personally about the topic you are writing about.

8. Use Lists -

I know there are so many top 10 lists and I’m sure everyone is getting sick of them, but the thing is, they work. A busy reader can easily scan the main points to see if its is of interest before deciding whether to read on.

9. Provoke Your Readers -

If you want to really grab your readers attention you have to challenge the way they think, question their beliefs and push their buttons. So start your blog with a statement or challenge that will make your reader need to read the next couple of lines to make sure you said what they thought they read.

10. Don’t Go On Too Long -

Say what needs to be said and then get out of there. No one likes a rambler. Enough said.

Thomas Sinfield is a young entrepreneur that is blogging about his journey through entrepreneurship at his blog http://www.thomassinfield.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thomas_Sinfield
http://EzineArticles.com/?10-Steps-to-a-Killer-Blog-Post!&id=737223

During Scott Allen’s last training for the Connecting With Women community, he discussed his 50/50 rule - meaning that 50% of your time should be spent on your blog and 50% of your time should be spent on other blogs of your same topic.

One thing you should be doing during your 50% off-blog time is making comments on other related blogs. The following video tells how you can use commenting to draw attention to your own blog. THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT CONCEPT!

Video: Use Blog Comments To Get Traffic

Learn from an expert how using audio and video on your blog will make you more money.

Video: How to make money with Blogs

The following article weighs affilate marketing against working an MLM online. Connecting with women provides commentary at the end of the article.

Affiliate Marketing vs. Internet Based MLM
By Michael Noto

Affiliate marketing or internet based MLM? This is like asking Durant or Oden prior to last years NBA draft. Is there a right answer? No, obviously not. Does everyone have an opinion on the matter? Yes, and because of that it is hard to decide which is better for you. I have decided to ditch all of my affiliate marketing ventures for internet based MLM opportunities. I just wanted to be straight with you before you read this article. Hopefully by the end of this article you will see why I am so excited about online based MLM.

Ever since I was a little boy I knew that I wanted to own my own business when I grew older. When getting involved in affiliate marketing at a relatively young age I thought I was accomplishing that goal. I figured since I was my own boss and working when I wanted and where I wanted that I was somehow entitled to some type of real ownership. However, as my business acumen began to grow and I grew a little older I began to realize, I in fact did not own anything as an affiliate marketer. After the one time commission I made from a sale or referral I did not see anymore money from that particular transaction.

For some people that is all they want and all they strive for is to make some cash on the side. I on the other hand wanted to own a business system that would provide me with the lifestyle I wanted to live. When I was introduced to online MLM I knew I had found the opportunity I was looking for.

The main aspect of MLM that was appealing to me was the fact that I owned the business and I would be eligible to receive residual income that was not available to me as an affiliate marketer. Plainly put, I could do work once and be paid for it over and over again. Honestly what beats that? At the end of a day with an internet based MLM business I have a fully automated marketing system that will provide me with income for years and years to come. As an affiliate marketer what did I have left at the end of the day? Not much but a one time commission.

Well this is why I decided to switch the primary focus of my business ventures to online based MLM opportunities. Hopefully this article provided you with some help as to which business opportunity might be right for you. Remember, neither of these business models will prove to be successful if the MLM business owner or affiliate marketing rep does not have a strong work ethic, which is the foundation needed for success in any business model or program.

Discover how a normal, everyday surf bum cracked the $200K a month code with The Reverse Funnel System at http://www.ReverseFunnelExpress.com today. Also, visit The Reverse Funnel System Blog.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Noto
http://EzineArticles.com/?Affiliate-Marketing-vs.-Internet-Based-MLM&id=835406

The author is obviously promoting a specific MLM, but many of his points are valid. The article ends with describing a need for strong work ethic. Unfortunately, work ethic is only the beginning. We hurt people by not explaining that proper tools and training are also vital. I promise there are plenty of people wanting to work from home that try hard, but never make it because they don’t have the necessary tools and mentoring. This is one reason that I highly recommend everyone read The 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing. (It’s available in a free eBook form.)

Working from home can mean owning your own business or being employed by someone else. The following article discusses some of your choices.

Work From Home - Customer Service
By Rebekah Mack Bono

Are you looking for customer service work from home? Work at home employment that is legitimate, is much harder to find online than one might think.

There are some, however, not nearly as many as you would think considering the amount of interest there is in working from home. Research is key in obtaining legitimate employment. You also must weed through the many online scams. Many people who locate customer service work from home start out working in an office, but are able to make arrangements with their employer to work some or all of the time at home.

We all know someone who works part-time from the office and part-time from home in order to accommodate their children’s school schedules. People who have good relationships with their employers, are more easily able to negotiate flexible work schedules including at home employment.

There are companies that hire people directly to work from their homes. Many of these positions are those where you cover a territory for an insurance company or a consumer products or publishing company, for example, and spend some time on the road and some time in your home office. There are also jobs available in:

- Customer Service

- Recruiting

- Sales

- Technical Writing

- Telemarketing

- Virtual Assistant …and many more.

In many cases, the jobs are commission based, part-time or pay a flat rate for a completed project. Full-time jobs that provide health insurance, vacation, a pension and other benefits while you work full-time from home are few and far between.

Finding them online is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Flexibility is one of the most factors in finding home employment. If you are willing to consider freelance or contract work, or are willing to combine a couple of part-time positions, you will have greater success in locating work at home employment opportunities.

Customer service work from home is really like any other work from home job. If you have the skills and the right mindset, you just have to get out there and give it a good solid effort. If you do your research, and truly dedicate yourself to your work at home venture, you will succeed.

Program yourself right here and now, that quitting is not an option, and in one year from today you will look back and see just far you have come.

You can do this! There is nothing holding you back but you, so go out there and find your perfect customer service work from home job, or whatever you feel would be the best match for your skills.

Rebekah Bono is an expert in the work at home field. She is author of The Best Work At Home Resource Guide. http://www.best-work-at-home-resource.com/work-at-home-guide.htm -
http://www.best-work-at-home-resource.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rebekah_Mack_Bono
http://EzineArticles.com/?Work-From-Home—Customer-Service&id=730302

Understanding your own goals is the first step to deciding if you want to work from home for yourself or for someone else.

Note: This article on working at home is followed by commentary from the Connecting with Women staff and a request for your opinion. 

Starting Your Work at Home Business The Right Way
By Samantha J Jane

There are disadvantages that must be recognized and dealt with, by acknowledging the disadvantages of an online home business, an entrepreneur can put together a much better business plan. With a better business plan, the home business is off to a good start. The right way to start a home business is to fully understand the difficulties that will be encountered along the way and make plans to overcome these difficulties.

Working while in your most comfy wear is attractive because a person need not spend time thinking about what to wear and some savings on the laundry. A work at home business demands no formal uniform which means that any online entrepreneur can wear anything he or she wants.

Unfortunately, what people wear affect their moods and their productivity levels. The comfy pajamas induce a person to laze around and sleep. To avoid this tendency to lower work productivity, the entrepreneur must plan on having a routine before starting to work on his home business. The routine may involve some exercise, a shower, and putting on comfortable and clean clothes.

Having no boss is another great attraction for those considering a work at home online business. No more senseless ideas, no unfounded and biased criticism and the best part, there is no one who will dictate orders on what to do. But this does not mean the entrepreneur answers to no one. As an employee, he or she answers only to the boss. With the work at home business, the entrepreneur becomes the boss and answers to a lot of people such as clients, business associates, and even the family.

In other words, the entrepreneur must still ensure that the set-up and systems of the home business must be working properly and efficiently. The clients must remain satisfied. The business associates must be given more income opportunities. And the needs of the family must be met. And finally, the flexibility of having an online home business makes the entrepreneur own his or her time. The home business owner can easily rearrange the work schedule so that other activities, such as doctor appointment and sporting activities can be done.

But the work needed for the home business does not disappear. If the home business owner spend hours watching television during the day instead of putting together an advertising strategy, he or she may need to stay up late at night to make up for the lost time. To prevent this from happening too often, the business plan should include work hours.

Samantha Jane writes articles on several subjects including internet marketing and building your own work at home business. You can see more of Samantha Jane’s work at home articles on her website and sign up for a free newsletter : Work at Home

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Samantha_J_Jane
http://EzineArticles.com/?Starting-Your-Work-at-Home-Business-The-Right-Way&id=827158

I disagree with the author’s opinion that working in your pajamas promotes laziness. If I am still in my P.J.’s at noon it is because I sat down at my computer and got so engrossed in my work that I didn’t bother to do anything else.  Although, I think working in the same clothes that you sleep in promotes imbalance. In other words, if you don’t have a daily routine that involves taking care of yourself, you may not ever get around to it.  Although you may be highly productive during the day, putting yourself last may backfire.

What do you think?

Q:

Sabrina, you have in the last few months started an internet business where you sell products online. What is your back ground?

A:

I had actually never done anything like this before. I didn’t even know much about computers, other than checking my email.

Q:

Wow! So would you say that anyone can do this?

A:

Yes, I believe they can. Like I said, I had no experience, so if I can do it anyone can.

Q:

What is your secret to such quick success?

A:

How did you get started advertising your website? I just signed up for a Google account, and set up a simple Google pay-per-click ad.

Q:

What is a pay-per-click ad?

A:

Well, it is an ad that you set up with a series of key words or phrases. Through the set up process, you are asked to place a maximum bid for how much you are willing to pay if somebody clicks on your ad. The higher the bid, the better your chances are that your ad will get first page rankings. When somebody types one of your keywords or phrases into a search engine, like Google, your ad will pull up in the column on the right side. These are called “sponsored” listings. You only have to pay if that person clicks on your ad.

Q:

: Why should you start with a pay-per-click ad?

A:

I think you should start with a pay-per-click ad because, for me so far, it has been my favorite way to advertise. It has been my favorite because it has been the most effective. Also, it was fun and easy to set up and it is really fun because you can monitor your ads throughout the day. You can see how many people have typed in your keywords, and it will show you how many people have clicked on your ad. It is just so fun to watch as the numbers grow!

Q:

How do you set up a pay-per-click ad? First you want to choose which Search Engine Company you want to go through. Some of the top companies are, Google, Yahoo (if you do a search for Yahoo, you can find deals where they will give you a $50.00 credit when you set up a pay-per-click ad), there is also, AOL, Excite, and Lycos to name a few. After you figure out who you would like to use, set up an account.

The objective while setting up your ad, is to try to get your ad to pull up on the first page.

To do that, you need to first pick which products you would like to advertise. It’s best not to advertise your site as a whole because the competition will be much higher. Choose your products by uniqueness and profitability. Competing with the big guys for common products may be very difficult unless you are willing to spend a lot of money. You can research your competition by typing your product or keywords into a search engine, then see how many ads pull up in the right hand column. If there are only a few ads in that column, then you know that your competition is slim.

Next, take the time to set up your account. First decide what you want your ad to say. Come up with something that will attract people to your site. If you have a product with a better price than anywhere else or if you have a special offer like free shipping, include this in your ad title. Don’t use all caps or too many exclamation points or your ad will be rejected.

After you come up with your ad, you will be asked to type in key words and phrases. These are words that someone will type into a search engine while looking for a product. Come up with as many words or phrases that you think someone might type in while looking for your product. The most obvious key words or phrases will have more competition, you still need to enter these, but also try to come up with words that are unique to your product.

Then, you will be asked to set a daily budget. The daily budget controls your costs. When the daily limit is reached, your ad will stop showing for that day. You can change this setting as much as you would like. Now don’t put all of your eggs in one basket, plan on budgeting for at least a few different campaigns for a few different products. After the daily budget, you will be asked to set your cost per click or CPC bid. You influence your ads position by setting its maximum cost per click. The maximum cost per click is the highest price you are willing to pay when somebody clicks on your ad. You won’t always pay the highest amount. It just depends on the competition of the particular key word that was used to find your ad. You can also change this setting as much as you would like. Now, remember, just because somebody clicks on your ad, doesn’t always mean a guaranteed sale. Don’t misinterpret clicks for sales. You should still be conservative with your budget.

After setting your budget, review and submit your ad. And now is the fun part. Now you get to monitor your ad. This is my favorite part. You will find that you are checking your ad constantly through the day. If your ad isn’t getting a response, you might need to up your cost per click, or try another campaign with a different product. Even if you are getting clicks, but after a while you haven’t made any sales, you might want to try a different product. If your ads are getting a response, and you start making sales, just sit back and watch as your numbers grow! You will be surprised at how quickly you will start to catch on to this. It is really very easy!

And that is how you set up a pay-per-click ad.

Q:

How do you find the products that you sell?

A:

I use drop shippers.

Q:

What are drop shippers?

A:

Drop shippers are basically wholesalers who are willing to ship their products directly to your customers.

Q:

What are the benefits of using a drop shipper?

A:

Well the way I like to put it is, “If you use a drop shipper, you don’t have to deal with all of the B.S.” meaning, Buy, Store, and Ship. First of all, you have very low start up business costs because you don’t have to spend a fortune buying inventory before you start. This means that you don’t have the risk of purchasing large quantities of products and then finding out that you can’t sell them. Which brings us to storing: You don’t have to “Garage Stock” any products, and then be left trying to figure out what to do with all of the products that you had to buy, but couldn’t sell. And finally we have shipping: You don’t have to ship a single thing. Just sit back while it is all done for you.

Sabrina Gunn since doing this interview a year ago has become a Master Mentor for ConnectingWithWomen.com and RealGuyTalk.com. You can visit Sabrina at her blog: http://www.HulaGirlsTravel.com/blog. For information on Sabrina’s favorite drop shippers or help with blogging, contact her at http://hulagirlstravel.com/Contact%20the%20Hula%20Girls.php.

Popular blogger Seth Godin published an article telling the most effective placement of ads on your blog, the best types of images to use, favored paragraph and font sizing, and loads of information that is important to your success. This article is a must read for serious bloggers!

Visit http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/11/eye-tracking-ru.html and get the low-down.