Monday 10 November 2008

How to Create a Successful Blog

In today's Internet Marketing environment having a Blog is not just a nice to have, it's becoming essential. More and more people are reading Blogs and they offer great opportunities to promote your products or services. In addition if your Blog becomes popular you can create a good passive income through the adverts that you carry.

As an Internet Marketer if you want to create a really successful blog, there are three main things that you need to concentrate on to get started. Many Internet Marketers make the mistake of thinking that building a successful blog is one of the easiest tasks out there and they couldn't be more wrong!

A successful Internet Marketer needs to do more than just set up a blog page to chat about their products. You need to focus on three essential building blocks in order to have a successful Internet Marketing blog. These three building blocks are not enough of themselves to make your Internet Marketing blog successful however they will give you a great start.

Look
The first building block for a successful Internet Marketing blog is The Look. What this means is that your blog should start with an appropriate style. A style which reflects the rest of your online business or at the very least conveys your professionalism. You can begin when you first start your blog.

Many blogging software programs will help you out with the style of your blog. If you are using a blogging program that is aimed mainly at beginners, you will find that it will offer different templates for you to choose. There will be something for everyone. You can go through the templates to choose which colours you like best for the layout.
Experiment with the layouts to see which templates look best on the computer screen and which most readily match the rest of your Internet Marketing sites. You have the option to go back and change the template later if you want to change the look of your Internet Marketing blog. Make sure that if you are creating your own Internet Marketing blog, without using a pre-created template that you make it look as professional as possible. You can even hire a professional to do the job for you if you wish. The more professional your blog looks, the more seriously your readers and potential customers will take your posts.

Content
The content of your Internet Marketing blog is the second key building block you will need for a successful blog. While you can choose to create posts that have no direction or purpose, you will find that when you post interesting commentary or short information filled articles that your traffic will increase. Although you may think it is interesting, most readers will not enjoy reading about your day to day Internet Marketing activities, unless you make them into humorous stories.

It should also be noted that the more content you have on your site, the more successful your site will be. It is basically a numbers game at this point.
The more you post, the more chances you will have that one of your posts will attract the eye of someone searching for a related topic.

Advertisements
The third building block is advertising. Internet Marketing Bloggers can make a steady passive income using advertising on their blogs. The trick is to have a good mixture of ads and content however. If you fill your blog with ads and have no content for readers, they will be distracted and not visit your site again. A good rule to remember is that you should never have more than two or three ads per blog page. This is an important rule to remember.

You should not overwhelm you readers with ads. You should only present them so that the readers can further explore them if they wish. Don't use flashing ads or other bold ads that will annoy your readers. Choosing the right type of advertising program is part of it as well. In fact I would go as far as to say that the best way to advertise is by using Google's Adsense Program which will place ads relevant to your Internet Marketing activities - as long as you talk about them in your content! You have the option with Google Adsense to filter out your direct competitors which is an added bonus.

Dedication
The most important building block of a great Internet Marketing blog is dedication. You must be willing to be dedicated to your blog. You have to put in the time and energy to get positive results. Even with the other components in place, unless you take the time to update your posts on a regular basis, you will not be getting optimum results. Dedication can help a lot. It can mask the fact that you are a beginner and allow you to create a profit producing and functional Internet Marketing blog. No matter how little experience you have simple dedication can take you a long way and you are
learning all the time whilst building up your Internet Marketing activity. You can have a great blog as long as you take the time to commit to your latest Internet Marketing project.

Tuesday 4 November 2008

Tips on Generating Website Traffic

If you're looking to generate free website traffic, the internet has many available options. There are certainly companies that will be more than happy to take your money to try and increase your website traffic. These services are fantastic if you don't have the time to do the research on strategies yourself. However, if you have the time and the inclination to learn about driving traffic, your best bet is to generate your own free website traffic.

The people who generally opt out of using free website traffic are people who want many clicks on third-party ads. If that is your situation, and you are making most of your money from those clicks, it is a viable option. You have to weigh what you make with those clicks, versus what you are paying to get them. You also have to ask yourself if this is the kind of traffic promotion you want to do. Paying for traffic won't necessarily garner fans for your site.

One of the biggest trends to attract more free website traffic is to develop a blog. What began as a personal journal shared with the virtual world has turned into a necessity for successful business websites. Some site owners hire writers to blog for them to keep content fresh and interesting. Use the blog to offer a small taste of what you have to offer on the rest of your site.
Another way to get free website traffic is to use search engine optimization. In order to do this, you'll need some idea of how search engines work. You don't have to be an expert -- or hire one, either -- if you don't mind experimenting a little. Don't let professional traffic promotion sites tell you otherwise.

Don't think of the internet is an ocean swimming with -search engine optimizing sharks- looking to gobble up all your hopes of more website traffic.
Rather, it is a multi-layered ecosystem where different people, at different skill levels, can all thrive if they just learn how to get around. Of course, the option to hire someone is always open to you.

The most important thing to know about getting free website traffic is this:

  • You need to have a good site. It needs to be focused, with easy-to use, relevant information that will provide something for the reader. All the traffic promotion in the world will be of little use if your site is sub-par. You may see some increased traffic temporarily -- but if your site doesn't do what it promises, then your success won't last.
  • There is no substitute for a good product.
Would you want to increase your website's traffic, I got just one tested and trusted company that can do the job for you. They even offer much more than you'd expect.
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Sunday 2 November 2008

Choosing The Right Internet Service For Your Company

If you need someone to help you with your online marketing campaigns and you can't find someone within your own company for the job, then you may want to consider hiring an internet marketing service. You probably well know that it is important to have a web presence, and that to obtain that presence you need a solid online marketing plan. Maybe you don't have the knowledge or expertise to do that on your own, and that is where internet marketing services come in.

Hiring just ANY internet marketing service isn't going to cut it. When it comes to seeking out internet marketing services for your company, here are some factors to consider;
  • Any internet marketing services you consider should have the expertise you are looking for. This fact may seem obvious, but too often small business owners make a marketing decision based solely on how big the company is or how fancy their letter head looks.You should make sure that for the specific goals you have in terms of internet marketing the company you choose is right.
  • Have they got experience in the areas you are looking to get help in?
  • Are they dedicated to one area?
  • Do they have their own products?
Secondly, internet marketing services that you trust to work with your business should have a working knowledge of your company and in order for them to have that, YOU should have it. That is right; you need to know where your company's strengths and weaknesses lie.
If you don't know your own company then a hired service won't either. The only way they will get to know your company is through you. So make sure you know your company intimately. Know where your company is positioned in the market and where you want it to be. Only then can you impart that knowledge onto someone else.

Thirdly, because anyone can throw up a website and claim they are one of the thousands of internet marketing services out there, you should check them out. "Google" them by typing their name at www.google.com. Read the reviews and see what they've been up to. Look for former or current customers you can talk to and ask for references if you can. Look for testimonials. This will ensure that you get a company that can truly help you with your company's needs.

Having a web presence is important. What is more important than that is making sure your web presence is taken to the masses in the right manner.
If you don't know how to do that on your own, then it may be time to look for experts. Internet marketing services can help you get the exposure you need, but before you choose one make sure you know what you are looking for, that you understand your company's needs, and that you check out your candidates. Once you do that you will have the marketing expertise that can take your company into the "big leagues".

I would recommend just 2 companies (out of my well of company's list) that will take care of all your internet marketing worries. 'Seeing is believing' is a cliche.
See for yourself their ranking records and choose wisely - SiteBuildIt! and InternetMarketingCentre
To your success in business...