Most online businesses appreciate being able to do things themselves …I know I do. It not only saves me money but I learn a few things along the way  

SEO isn't hard; it's just a matter of knowing the key strategies, understanding why they work and putting them into practice.  As soon as you start doing them they'll become second nature to you and pretty soon you'll be doing them without even thinking about it. 

So if you've got a website and want to optimize it without hiring a professional or using expensive tools, here's what you need to do …       

Use Your Best Keywords
This is a pretty important one and you should really take your time to examine your options. For example, each page of your site should be optimized for the best keywords possible.  Start by 'summing up' what the page is really about, then ask yourself what keywords accurately describe the content.  Once you have a good list of about 2 or 3 keyword phrases use a keyword tool like Wordtracker to determine which keywords get the most searches and have the least amount of competing web pages.

Learn to stay away from general words like pets, candy, shoes, computers; instead look for niche long tail keywords like 'women’s red tennis shoes' or 'black licorice candy sticks'.  Long tail phrases like this target several keywords, for example, ‘black licorice candy sticks' includes the keywords, 'black licorice', 'licorice candy' and 'licorice candy sticks'.

Create Search Engine Friendly Content
The search engines have always looked for content however it's more important than ever.  That means you have to focus on creating only good, quality content that is unique and useful. 

You also have to make sure the search engines can read it. Flash content or text embedded in images can't be read by the search engines. You're far better off using anchor text and make use of 'alt' text in your images.   Also use your best keywords that you wish to rank high for in the body of your text, use heading tags correctly and don't try to hide text by blending it into the background of the page.

Ensure Your Content Gets Indexed
Once you create content and upload it to your site or blog, check to see if it has been indexed by the search engines.  This may take a few days, however if you don't get indexed it may be because the site is still fairly new, there may be duplicate content, there may be links generated by JavaScript instead of HTML, it could have poor site architecture or has orphaned pages or various other factors.  If your site isn't getting indexed try writing to Google and asking them. Their responses can sometimes be a little cryptic but sometimes they do provide a few good suggestions. 

Get inbound links
Inbound links are simply your links that appear on other websites. If you have lots of quality sites that display your website's URL the search engines determine this as a vote for your site.  There are lots of ways to get inbound links, all of which are completely free methods.  However those sites that contain your link should be well-established sites that have quality ranking themselves.

Exchanging links with other sites is still an acceptable method but there are much better ways.  Keep in mind that using link farms and buying links are frowned upon with the search engines so avoid them.  Here are the methods that work best:  

• Submit to directories like Yahoo! Bizdirectory.org, DMOZ, Joeant.com and others
• Find blogs that relate to your site’s topic and make constructive comments or ask questions.
• Write articles that contain your website link and submit them to relevant websites and article directories
• Submit a press release that creates a backlink to your site. 

Start participating in social media and bookmarking communities
Social media and bookmarking is pretty new but it's creating quite a buzz and sites using them are experiencing some amazing traffic results. Social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, Furl, Digg, Del.icio.us Reddit, and Technorati provide users a way to store their favorite pages and media online plus share it with others.

In addition services like Facebook and Myspace provide services for creating a comprehensive profile that gives you a way to promote your content which in turn helps you create your own personal "buzz" throughout the internet. 

A word of advice, social communities won't do much for you if you are pushing or promoting products.  Social media is based solely on popularity, so if what you are sharing with people isn't interesting, unique and of interest to them you won't generate much interest. 

If you're pretty much on track with all of the above suggestions …and I hope you are, but you need to get on a faster track, then you're probably an excellent candidate for Traffic Secrets 2.0.  It's designed for the user that needs more of a competitive edge by getting the high octane strategies that can sky rocket your traffic.  It's definitely worth a peek.   

You've got nothing to lose except tons of traffic.

It took me a long time to actually begin using ezine advertising for my business but once I begain cranking out ezine ads I soon came to realize that ezines are actually one of the most effective and affordable forms of website advertising for promoting your products and services and encouraging traffic to your web site.  
 
The number of ezines published on the net has exploded from several hundred in 1996 to literally thousands of publications today that cover a range of topics so they're a pretty good form of advertising for any online business.

You can find ezines that sell ads for as little as $8 an ad, however solo ads generally pull the best resonse. Top sponsor ads on the other hand allow you between 5 and 8 lines of copy and are included in regular ezine issues near the very beginning of the newsletter.

Here's a breakdown of the ezine advertising options…  

Classified Ads
Most classified ads are the cheapest type of ezine ad. Classified ads are usually about 2-3 lines and are typically placed at the end of the ezine.  For classified ads be sure your ad is in an ezine that has at least 30,000 subscribers or more otherwise your may get little response.

Sponsor Ads
These are the next most expensive ads, but they yield a much better response. Sponsor ads can be placed at the top, middle or bottom of an ezine issue and will allow more text in your ad.  Sponsor ads are a great way to test your ad before placing it as a solo ad.

Solo Ads
These are the best of all ezine ads because they will be sent exclusively to everyone on the mailing list and they get full attention of the subscribers, that's because a solo ad is sent just as it says, 'solo'.  There are no articles or other ads included.

A Solo ad is more expensive but you'll enjoy about a 20%-30% response rate.

So how do you find a good ezine to advertise in?

If I find an ezine that looks good, I simply subscribe to it.  This gives me the best feel for how the ezine works.  If I as a subscriber, like the publication, chances are others will too.

Here are the things I look for after subscribing:

1. First of all find an ezine that is targeted to your specific products.  Selling advertising for your pet care supplied in a fashion magazine is not likely to bring you much interest.

2. Once you find an ezine that relates to what you are selling check to see if the ezine has a website and if it offers opt-in subscriptions?  A publication that has a separate website is a good indication that the publication is a legitimate business and that they are serious about what they do. 

Look to see that they also have a clear opt-in form on the site.  After you subscribe to the ezine, be sure they send you an email that confirms your subscription.  This indicates that their readership is highly targeted and interested.

2.  Does the ezine accept all three levels of advertising, classified ads, Sponsor ads and Solo ads?
 
3. Check for an article archive and for how often they publish.  This shows you how long the publisher has been in business but it also shows how often the publications are published.    If you begin receiving ads on a daily basis, that's a good sign that viewers may be desensitized to this ezine and its messages. A weekly or bi-weekly publication is preferred.

4. How large is their subscriber base?  This is important primarily if you'll be doing classified ads for which you'll want a reader base of about 30,000 or more.  In general a good customer base should be at least a 1000 or more.

5. Test the publisher by asking questions.  Their response will indicate how helpful they are and how interested they are in your business.

Now let’s write your ad…

1. Create a captivating headline
Write a headline that gets attention and at the same time draws the reader into the body.  If you can think about who your customer is it will help a lot in determining what benefits appeal to them and why they would want to purchase.

2. Outline the benefits of your offer in the body.  Emotionally connect to the reader with benefits that appeal to their wants and needs. 

3. Create a call to action Tell the reader what to do next.  Things like 'click here' or 'take a look now'.  This step is even more effective if you create a sense of urgency — give them a reason to act immediately.

4.  Keep it short
Most ezine ads vary between 25 and 50 words, including your URL. This means that you have limited space to create maximum impact.

5. Test & Tweak
Create 5-10 variations of your ad. Test different headlines, bodies and different calls to action. This will help you see which ads get the best results.  When you know you've got a winning ad it will continue to work for you over and over.

6. Run ads multiple times
Running an ad once won't give you enough information about how effective it is.  The more the ad appears, the greater the likelihood that the ezine reader will take notice. Over time, you will begin to see which versions of your ad are more effective.

Writing ezine ads takes time so don't expect to crank out perfection right out of the shoot.  Remember to get into the head of your readers, figure out what it is they 'really' want in terms of making their life easier, getting it done faster, saving them money, making them look better, etc.  Then attach a sense of urgency to it. 

Writing an effective ad whether in an ezine, magazine or on your own website, writing copy that sells gives you a huge sales advantage over the competition. 

For a great reference I really liked the 'Copywriter's handbook' by Robert Bly.  Definitely a good read and it has everything you'll need for writing competitive ads that get the clicks.  

One of the things that's important to the success of your website, but often overlooked, is your website's structure. Today the search engines place fairly hefty weight on how your site is laid out, what components are included and your content.

Let's start with one of the basic components that easily get out of whack for most sites — directory structure…     

Before you begin building your website, sit down with a pencil and paper and map out what topics your site will include.  Your main topics should be included in your site's navigation.  Each topic should link to a separate page.   Don't try to include too much varying information on a page, instead divide your information into chunks and link each chunk to a separate sub-page.  

Try to keep your links no deeper than 3 pages deep as the search engines rarely index beyond that. 

Your Website Keywords
Your site has an overall theme or niche for which your site's domain name should reflect the best keyword.  If your site is about 'running shoes', then the words 'running shoes' should be in your domain name. It is imperative that you find not only relevant keywords but the keywords that will get you the most traffic.  That's why Wordtracker is my tool of choice.  Another pretty good tool is Google's Keyword tool, which is free

Next, each page of your site should reflect what is called your long tail keywords. 

For example, a site about running shoes should have ‘running shoes’ in the domain name.  A page talking about 'how to buy running shoes' might look like this:

http://www.runningshoes.com/how-to-buy-running-shoes.html

Your Title, Description & H1 Tags

It's a big deal to be #1 on the search engines but not everyone at the #1 spot gets the clicks they expect, that's often because their title and description tags fail them, meaning the title and description aren’t compelling enough to warrant enough interest. 

How unfortunate is that!

Your title tag should contain a clear title for your page that also contains your best keywords, but also think of the title tag as if it were an ad because this is what the search engines will use as the link descriptor to your site, so it's to your advantage to make it something that encourages a click. Keep the title to about 5-10 words, anything longer than 65 characters will get cut off so keep it short and direct.

I recommend creating a separate description for each page; your description can also influence the reader to click so again use your same keyword phrase as in the title tag and use a description that expands on your title tag. 

Your Heading or <H1> tags

Your heading tags are just good practice.  It's also a reinforcement for the search engines that your page really does contain what your title and description say it contains, and you want all the reinforcement you can get.

The header tags appear like this: <h1> Page Header </h1>

Your Site’s Content

The search engines require sites to offer value to its readers.  A search engines determines value by the amount of fresh, useful and unique content they find.

But what does unique content really mean?  Unique content is content that isn’t found everywhere.  An article on your site that is on 500 other sites isn’t going to do much for your reputation.  That’s precisely why private label content has become extremely popular because many PLR writers only distribute a set number of licenses. 

However the very best way to generate unique content is to generate your own.   Here are a few ideas for coming up with unique content:

• Perform your own case studies
• Perform your own product reviews
• Create an FAQ page derived from your own visitors
• Request feedback from viewers and post the results
• Start a forum – this is an excellent way to encourage people to visit and comment
• Personally comment on industry related news items

It's not hard to figure out how to create a website and there are plenty of easy website builders and information on how to create a blog, however before you start building and creating your website or blog make sure you focus in on a profitable niche, have a good idea what your will be offering on your site and organize it into a logical order and keep each page of your site focused.  No matter how good the site builder it will still depend no your ability to include the necessary information and organize it so your readers can find it.

[tags]website structure[/tags]

Recently I've been following the buzz that Ken Evoy has generated with the article he sent out called:

"Why Blogging Is A Massive Mistake".

Just the title is enough to raise an eyebrow.

I don't think blogging is a mistake and I'm sure the millions of bloggers out there would agree.

If you read Ken's article, he makes some interesting points, but they are all debatable.

For example let's look at the 3 major flaws Ken points out with Blogging…

Fatal Flaw #1) Blogs Do Not Deliver Useful Information Resources

Wow, I've seen just the opposite of that.  I subscribe to several blog RSS feeds simply because that's exactly what I do get – useful information and resources.  But not only is there a ton of useful information in these blogs, I also get lots of good 'food for thought' from the comments of others.

Ken also talks about how articles and posts are dated and their usefulness plummets with time.  This may be true but not all articles or posts need to be dated. I often create content 'pages' instead.  Also posts don't have to be dated; you can leave off the date and it's easily done with WordPress. 

Fatal Flaw #2 – Blogging Navigation and Internal Organization Are Inherently Awkward

Not sure about the internal mechanics of blogging navigation but there are certainly organizational and management tips that you should pay attention to when creating your blog and if followed they all keep your navigation nicely in check.  For example:

1. Make sure there is a link to your home site.
2. Create links or pages to articles or information that may be of particular interest to readers of your blog.
3. Create logical categories and organize your posts logically under those categories.
4. Use anchor text links that are descriptive and point viewers to permalinks or comment links.

And finally…

Fatal Flaw #3 -  Blogs Do Not Meet the Natural Needs of Most Small Business Opportunities

Ken feels that not all businesses are well suited for blogging, however if you're in a fast moving field that experiences frequent changes and new developments, such as in the field of internet marketing, then blogs are a good thing, but for everyone else blogging should be avoided.  

Ken goes on to say:

"The nature of your business and its related subject matter is most likely inappropriate for blogging. Your own business is almost certainly better served by a Theme-Based Content Site. Why? Because your future customers will be better served by information delivered in this manner. Theme-Based Content Sites flex to meet the goals, knowledge and circumstances of everyone… "

Hmmm ….obviously Ken hasn't seen Manolo's Shoe blog 

Manolo is right on with his "shoe fashions", theme-based blog, not to mention it gets tons of traffic, lots of comments and does a really good job in keeping up with shoe trends and styles. I'd even be willing to bet he makes a killing in sales! 

In closing I also found it interesting, funny actually, that Ken points out that bloggers often "burn out" from the pressure and stress to blog.  Perhaps if you feel pressured to comment 'every day' — that WOULD be stressful! But personally, I don't think daily blogging is necessary.   I prefer to take my time and find something worthwhile and informative to comment about on a 'once a week' basis.  If I have something to post, I post it, if not, I let it ride until I do.  I almost look forward to making my blog comments.

So what do you think?

PLR means "Private Label Rights" content.  This is content that someone else has written that you can use on your website, blog, e-book, newsletter, whatever you choose.

If you're doing business online you probably have lots of PLR articles sitting on your hard drive.  If you do have lots of articles sitting around, or even if you don't, you can easily get some, and then you can turn that PLR content into a cash making business for you.

Here's what to do…

Below you can download a free report called:
 
"PLR SECRETS: How to Use PLR Products to Create a Money-Making Small Reports Business"

This is a powerful 43 pages of solid content by Nicole Dean that will teach you how to use and monetize PLR content.  The report is a quick read with lots of good cash pulling information that I want you to pay attention to.  

Download the PLR Secrets report here…