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.

I often hear the word "professionalism" tossed around, but sometimes people think that it simply means looking good, having a great website, products, etc. 

While that's all part of being professional there's also the piece about dealing with others that a lot of people miss. 

Take for example this morning, I was trying to access an affiliate program that I hadn't been on in awhile and for some reason I didn't have it in my affiliate programs excel spreadsheet that I keep, my bad  :- |   So I wrote to the affiliate manager and asked for my password, most programs are automated for retrieving passwords, but this one wasn't. 

Anyway, a few hours later I received a scathing message saying: 

"Do you think I just have all day to look for your password?  Here's your password and stop wasting my time."

"Yikes!" Ok, what do you think I'm going to do with that affiliate program? 

First of all, I'm finished promoting them, actually it wasn't a very good affiliate program anyway.

Secondly, that was not a "professional" response, at all!

Professionalism means responding to customers, clients, colleagues or whoever in a courteous, calm manner.  This means no matter how angry or disturbed with them you are, there's no need to be rude or unkind.

Whenever I find myself feeling angry with someone on the other side of my emails I always start with addressing them by name, I answer their question or comment in a direct, courteous manner and never become emotional and say things that aren't in a friendly tone.

It may be hard to kill them with kindness but it's definitely an example of how to be "professional".

Oh well, thanks for listening to my rants …it's been a tough day

Ms. Liz