Archive for October, 2009

As you attempt to earn your income pulling free traffic to you web site, there is a long road before you. While AdWords marketing can pull visitors to your site right now, it will often devour the majority of your profits and then some if you let it.

The cheap path of natural search engine optimization takes a lot of waiting. Sure, there are small successes along the way, but it is oftentimes many weeks before you’ll find any notable traffic on your main keywords from the search engines.

I don’t know if you relate to this, but I often get discouraged when I can’t immediately see my results. I am very accustomed to tracking two specific stats which are all but drops in the bucket for new websites. These measures are visitor hits and clicks on my ads and affiliate links.

If I am going to stay in this SEO game, I need to begin to track my progress using different stats. These stats include the number of pages indexed along with number of backlinks. Both of these stats will lead to good keyword ranks, but this will take some time. As for now I will be happy as I see my pages indexed and backlinks improve each day.

Because of this need, I created a PHP script to automate this checking. You input every domains you want to track. It even allows you to track article titles to see how widespread your article is being published on the Internet. Each day I just click the “Update Stats” button and it pulls the latest stats for all of my domains and articles. The best thing is that it keeps the data for each day so I can view my progress.

So be encouraged. Whether you use this software or you record these numbers yourself, your promotion efforts are bearing fruit. It is crucial that you stay the course and find your successes along the way.

Matt Tamor
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/site-page-tracker-track-your-progress-in-the-search-engines-48163.html

Fellow Internet marketing professionals are putting a lot of emphasis on the search engines, as they proclaimed that more than 80% of their website traffic comes from them.

OK, fair enough. If you can get your site listed on the first page of google, then you can have potentially an avalanche of traffic pouring into your website. But what if you wake up the next day and find that your site is nowhere to be found?

Internet marketing experts with an astute business mind will tell themselves not to put all their eggs into one basket. By concentrating solely on the search engines, you will be subjecting yourself to the tiresome ever-changing algorithms of the search engines.

So why do you have to be a slave to the search engines, when you can use other traffic sources not connected to them at all? You will have a better chance of long-term success with these alternative traffic sources, provided you put them into good use and execute them efficiently.

Below are some of the unconventional traffic generation methods which you can put into practice to spice up your Internet marketing efforts.

1. Social Networking

Social networking websites are once known as fun dating sites, but not anymore now. They are now gaining much more respect as established social networking sites. Myspace, for example, is consistently ranked in the top six of the Alexa rankings, so you can just imagine the massive amount of traffic that it is getting. If you can tap into this vast network, then you are literally stepping on a goldmine.

All you need to do is to create a profile, gain a lot of friends, and invite them to your own website. Just imagine if you have got thousands of friends. You would have potentially thousands of hits to your website. Friendster and Multiply are two other social networking sites that are worth a try.

2. Blog and Ping

Some people are saying that blog and ping are no longer as effective as before. But with the explosion of blogs on the Internet, this Internet marketing strategy is still worth a try. Generally, blogs are online journals that command a huge and loyal readership. There are also a number of blog directories to help blog readers find their favorite blogs.

You can set up a blog to promote your online business, and then ping your blog to the many blog directories whenever you have made a post. By doing this, you are effectively telling the directories to come and visit your updated blog. Do this over a period of time and you will generate a steady flow of traffic to your site.

3. Tag and ping

Tag and ping is the newest and also the hottest Internet marketing strategy for bloggers on the Internet right now. Blog directories like Technorati and Del.icio have introduced this technique for their members to take advantage of this innovative traffic generation method. Instead of keywords, they use tags.

Now, what are tags? Tags are simply words or phrases that you can use to categorize your blog posts, and this effectively puts you in full control. The interesting part is that every tag will have its own landing page, and the latest entries to be submitted will be found on top of the list for that tag. This is a great way for your blog to attract massive readership, and it will eventually bring success to your online business.

4. The power of Digg

The immensely popular Digg website is a collection of the best news stories on the Internet. News stories are contributed by the members, and they get to vote for their favorite stories via a process called digging. The story that receives the most number of digs will get to appear on the main page, and this is where the fun begins.

Digg is consistently ranked in the top 100 in the Alexa rankings. So if your story do appear on the front page, a huge avalanche of traffic will pour into your profile page, and thousands of them will click through to your website. And this is only for one story. What if you regularly contribute stories to Digg? The numbers will really add up and then multiply exponentially. You are only limited to your own imagination!

So my friend, it is really high time that you say goodbye to the search engines, and say hello to the interesting and innovative outlined in this article. These are hot new Internet marketing techniques, so put them into good practice now so that you are one step ahead of your competitors.

Wyatt Lee
http://www.articlesbase.com/sem-articles/are-you-tired-of-the-search-engines-then-chuck-them-away-for-good-63244.html

The Google Alert Tool is actually a gadget that can be used for the purposes of search engine optimization (SEO). This tool allows you to fill in perimeters on a form so you can keep your eye on new entries that make it into the top 50 on Google. You enter up to one of 5 keywords to a total of 150 query requests and google will email you every time a new entry enters the top 50 results. You can also narrow the number down to the top thirty or ten hits on a keyword or the top one hundred. Putting the perimeters at 30 is not a bad idea as being in the top thirty page rankings on Google is what is thought to make you money.

Why is it so important for you to know what the top sites are? It is because these are the sites that are going to let you know who the top players are when it comes to your competition. And rather than treat them as competition you are going to try to make this site your partner by trading links with them. If you are really lucky, the site is brand new and you are the first one asking for a link exchange. Chances are that anyone who has a site in the top 50 is probably a good partner for your site and knows what he or she is doing. There is also a chance that the person may not know that his or her site is in the top thirty or fifty and you can be the one that brings them this good news.

Once you trade links with a site that is ranking this high your own site’s ranking in the search engine pages should also be given a very healthy boost especially if the service or product or information being sold is new.

Chris Angus
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/seo-using-the-google-alert-tool-86947.html

Applying for an account with Google Adsense is simple and easy for any interested webmaster. Just direct your browser to http://www.google.com/adsense and click on apply. Click on the drop down menu under account type and select whether you’re an individual or business. If you’re not sure which one to pick, click on the question mark to the left. After that, select your country or territory.

Under website information, it calls for your primary URL. If you have your own domain, list it here. If you are using a blogging site such as http://writingup.com or http://blogspot.com that address goes here.

Choose your website’s primary language. Google Adsense supports English, Spanish, French, Chinese (simplified), Hungarian, Dutch, Portuguese, Finnish, Danish, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Polish, Russian, Swedish, and Norwegian.

Select the product you prefer on your pages. Adsense for content means you will have advertising adapted to the content on your pages. For example, if you write about flooring, you might have carpet ads on your page. Adsense for search is for you to put in a Google search box to your pages. To maximize your Google Adsense earnings, you would need to have both.

After that, it’s just the standard contact information and you’re all set. You should receive an email in two or three days notifying you if your application is approved.

Do I Have to Pay Taxes on My Earnings From Google Adsense?

Google Adsense is obligated to obtain tax information from those who participate in the program. If you’re a business, you’ll have to put your EIN number on your application. If you’re an individual, you’ll just need your social security number. If you don’t have that information handy when you initially sign up, you may still apply for the Google Adsense program. But, be aware that Google Adsense will withhold payments to you until they get your tax information.

While google does not withhold taxes or offer any tax advice, they will send you a 1099 form once your earnings reach a specific amount. Of course, if you are a non-US business and have no activity in the United States, you will not be required to provide this information. For additional tax information regarding the Google Adsense program, visit the Google Adsense Support site. For other tax-related questions or issues, you can log onto http://www.irs.gov.

Daniel Davis
http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/applying-for-google-adsense-and-paying-the-taxes-102700.html

You have probably just built a new website, submitted it to search engines and are now waiting wondering where all the visitors are that are going to put hundreds of dollars into your bank account. A few weeks pass by and you are still left wondering where all your website traffic is. Your website is open for business but no-one seems to know about it.

If this situation sounds familiar to you then you have probably thought about giving up and thowing the whole thing away. This is NOT what you should do and this is not how your website is going to rank high in the search engines.

There is one critical first step that you must follow when creating any website. This crucial first step involves picking the best keywords for your on page optimization and the only way you can decide which keywords will get you the highest rankings for your website is by doing some research.

Your first point of call must be at one or all of the following online keyword research tools:

http://www.goodkeywords.com
http://www.digitalpoint.com
http://www.overture.com
http://www.wordtracker.com

All of these tools are free (there is a free trial for Wordtracker); however, where Wordtracker differes from the other websites mentioned above is it shows you how competitive your keywords are compared to other websites. The higher the KEI analysis number the less competitive the keyword phrase is and the easier it should be to get a high ranking with that chosen keyword.

In Goodkeywords you type in your chosen niche topic. For argument sake we will use the example camping. Goodkeywords will bring up the top 100 keywords related to campming that were searched in the last month. On the right the number of times that keyword has been displayed appears for the last 30 days. It is absolutely critical that you do NOT start on page optimization of your home page for keywords at the very top of the list. Before you think I’m crazy there is a very good reason for this and that is if a certain keyword high on the list is searched that many hundreds of thousands of times you will have an almost impossible time to get noticed between all the other hundreds or millions of competitive websites that are also targeting that same keyword. For this reason alone do not start off optimizing your website for the keyword camping.

Let me go back a minute to show how competite the word camping is. If I go to Google and enter camping I find that there are 230 million other websites targeting the same phrase. It is always best to start of targeting keywords that have the least competitive keywords as possible. Once you start getting traffic from search engines with your main keywords you may then start targeting more competitive phrases.

Using the online tools I’ve mentioned above it’s easy to find a few less competitive phrases that can be a good base for our on page website optimization related to camping.

It is also important to repeat the same research process by going to Google and seeing how competitve your chosen keywords are. I will start with the keyword and take a few minutes to analyse the number 1 website for that keyword on Google.

It is also critical to analyze what the page rank is of the number 1 website for your chosen keyword. Page rank is used by Google in ranking websites and generally the more links that you have pointing back to your website by other websites the higher your Google page rank will be. Download the Google toolbar for free to find out what your page rank is and the page rank of other websites at http://toolbar.google.com.

Now we need to do a little spying on the website that has number one for that keyword. We do that by looking at the HTML code or source code of their website. Go to that website url and click on View and then Source. That website’s HTML code will appear in a notepad file. That file contains what the web page will look like when “read” by search engine robots. This trick will show you exactly what on page optimization is being used to rank so highly in the search engines.

Search engine optimization involve both on page and off page optimization. In this article I am focusing on on page optimization. I will deal with off page optimization in more detail at another time.

Now when we view the source code we want to look at the header tags for a start. Do you see h1 at the very top of the source code. If not then that’s a bonus. If you do then it is important to make a note of what words they are using for their heading 1.

The next thing you need to look at is title. What is the title that they are using. This should appear immediately below the head tag. It is also important to make a note of the keywords that they are using in the title. The less words you actually have in your title the better. It is also critical that your main keyword or keyword phrase is in your title too.

Now take a moment to check out the keywords that they are using in the meta tags and make a note of them. Use the same keywords they use, check out the keywords that they have used in their description. Make a note of their description. A good guide for you is to repeat your main keyword or keyword phrase two or three times in the description but obviously in a way that makes sense.

Look at their webpage to find out if they have bolded, underlined or italicised their main keywords. If they have then you know that you need to do the same thing to achieve high rankings for your chosen keyword. If you have trouble looking for these codes in the notepad file simply look at the webpage itself.

One more thing to look out for in their source code is wehther they have optimized their images for the chosen keyword. For example, some website images will simply have bigebook.jpg as the name of their image but have not used alternative text. An example of an alternative text would be home made dog treat ecover.

Just following a few of these very simple SEO techinques and strategies will greatly increase your rankings in the search engines. To ensure you get the highest possible search engine rankings that you can it’s absolutely critical that you spend a little time finding out search engine optimization secrets of the professionals. Fortunately affordable small business seo techniques and help is readily available if you know where to look.

Karin Manning
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/how-to-get-your-website-to-the-top-of-google-and-all-major-search-engines-fast-59583.html

Most web marketers would agree that the number one and most fundamental aspect of any successful website is; “The more traffic, the better!” In keeping with that strategy, please let me share a few thoughts on how to actually accomplish this.

The one thing you can always count on in this world we live in, if you own a car of course, is getting stuck in traffic. There are those who experience this on a daily basis and for the rest of us, who do not drive to work, hopefully only once in a while.

Nevertheless, for most people this is a huge source of frustration and stress. Why? Because drivers hate the very thought of being stuck in one place when they want to be in another place. Take a look at the people around you the next time you’re in a traffic jam. Is everyone smiling and having a good time? Probably not…

So, how many of you would like to know how to alleviate the upset and the anxiety associated with being stuck in traffic? Because, and here’s the thing, traffic jams are not going to disappear anytime soon. As long as we as a society rely on cars and trucks to get around there will always be traffic! But, even though it sounds crazy, I personally have learned to love traffic jams. Here’s why….

I’ve always maintained there are only 2 things you can do in any stressful situation; you either accept it or you can remove yourself from the situation. Beating yourself up or blaming someone else for the traffic jam only makes it worse. That’s what most people don’t understand. It’s not the traffic jam that’s the problem; it’s your resistance to it. And, it’s that resistance that causes the stress. In other words, it’s the amount of energy you put into resisting your situation that causes the stress, not the situation itself.

In the case of traffic however, it’s obvious that you cannot remove yourself from it if you’re already in it. So, the only other thing you can do is accept it, right? Complete 100% of acceptance of the situation is the only way to alleviate 100% of the stress. Now, I can hear your brain malfunctioning right about now and your saying to yourself, “how can I possibly learn to accept traffic?” Ah ha! Therein lies the secret to getting what you really want. Because that’s what life is about, getting what you really want instead of what you don’t want, right?

What you really want is more success. And, even though success means many different things to many different people, it’s still something that most people with the wherewithal to achieve big things, strive for each and every day.

Success? In a traffic jam? You’re saying to yourself, “now, I’m really confused!” You see, there is one place where a traffic jam is a beautiful thing…the Internet! That’s what we call in the internet marketing business the key to any successful website, “lots and lots of traffic.” And, the more traffic jams we can create on our websites, the better!

So, if you want more success, at least in business, start getting more traffic to your website. There are of course many other things to consider when designing your site to make this happen, but without traffic a website is useless.

So, you now know what you really want - more success. You now know what you need to do to get it generate more traffic to your website. But, the most important part of this 3-part formula is; knowing how to do it! Without knowing how to do something you will never get the success you most certainly deserve. And, because business is about customers - the more customers you have the more success you’ll have. Knowing how to get more customers to your website and create a traffic jam is a science and it is definitely a skill which can be learned.

Now let’s look at the many resources available to you to generate the traffic you need to run a successful website; search engines, affiliate programs, content submissions, email campaigns, joint venture partners, link exchanges, blogs, pay-per-click advertising and a whole host of other resources too numerous to mention here. If some of these things sound unfamiliar to you, my highest recommendation is to at least find out what they are and some of the things you need to do to make them work. For the purposes of this article, we’re going to focus on one thing; search engines. Why just search engines? Because that’s where statistics have shown that 70% of your website traffic will be driven through search engines like; google, Yahoo, MSN etc. Plus, it’s free!

How do you make search engines work for you?

First, you need to optimize your website to get a high search engine ranking. This means selecting relevant targeted keyword phrases and placing those keywords strategically on your web pages. How do you know what keyword phrases to use? That’s where many people make huge mistakes because they actually optimize their sites for keyword phrases that nobody’s actually searching for. Hint! Find out first what people are searching for and then build your web pages around that. There are tools out there to help you chose what search terms are relevant such as; Google’s free service called Overture, and WordTracker which is a paid service.

Once you’ve chosen your keywords it’s time to place them on your site. This is what we call keyword density. My suggestion for optimal results is to place one or two keyword phrases on each page in your; Page Title, Meta Description Tags, Meta Keyword Tags and a few times in the text of your webpage. This alone will significantly increase the ranking of your site for engines like Google and Yahoo. You see, these engines think like people. They look for what’s important on your website and how relevant your site is to what key phrases you’re optimizing it for. So, in other words don’t optimize your site for “free movie downloads” if you’re selling cosmetics. Bad idea! You can actually get penalized by engines for trying to trick them into sending you traffic.

Finally, the most significant factor in increasing your search engine optimization is incoming links. And, if you’re wondering how important this is? That’s the million dollar, drop the gates, release the hounds, key to the universe! Why? Well, think of it like this. Even if your site is optimized with relevant keywords, who’s to say that you’re any good at what you do. Who’s to say your products and services are any good. That’s the way engines like Google think. They want to know from others if you do what you say and if you’re any good at doing it. How do they do this? By finding links to your website, on other sites, that promote what you’re saying on your site. The more links into your website promoting what it is you do, the better!

Are you ready for the kicker? You mean there’s more? Yep, there’s more! If the last paragraph was a million dollar technique, this is definitely a two million dollar technique. Make sure that the links on other websites, which lead to your website, use your keyword phrases. Therefore your links in from outside should look like this… Piano Music by Paul Tobey where the link underneath “piano music” is the url of your site ie: http://www.paultobey.com. An engine like Google searches for the keywords first and then follows the link to see if it’s relevant. If it is relevant, which in the case of the preceding example it is, then the ranking for the keyword search “piano music” will go up every time Google or another search engine, finds one of these links.

So, the next time you’re sitting in traffic and you start to get agitated, stressed and filled with anxiety, think of all the traffic your website will be generating while you’re stuck in the car. Take a look at all the angry people around you, give a big smile and say out loud to yourself, “I Love Traffic Jams.”

Paul Tobey
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/i-love-traffic-jams-73155.html

In many webmaster forums, you are likely to come across this question: “How can I make money with Google Adsense?” Google Adsense is arguably the most popular pay-per-click advertising program today. Many webmasters are earning considerable money by displaying Google Adsense on their sites.

Yes, it is very possible to make money with Google Adsense. There are several effective and proven ways you can do this. The best part is that they are not complicated ways; they are in fact very simple and easy to implement. Of course, exactly how much you make from Google Adsense largely depends on how much effort you put into your sites. Don’t fall into believing that you can make money from Google Adsense overnight. Like other types of work, you need to spend time as well as have the commitment and perseverance.

With all that said, you will learn three effective ways you can generate cash with Google Adsense — through niche sites, forums and blogs.

Niche Sites: Targeted Market Equals Targeted and Higher Adsense Clicks

The word “niche” is today’s buzz word. A niche is a specific market you want to focus on. If you are in the antique business, exactly what kind of antique do you deal with? Are you in the antique furniture business? antique dolls? antique cars? That’s your niche.

Niche websites are sites that are focused on very specific markets or audience. Instead of a broad category, you narrow down into a target market or audience. For instance, a guitar website can be further made specific and focus on Fender Stratocaster guitars. People who are into Fender Stratocaster guitars are your target audience. Google Adsense ads that appear on this particular niche website appeal to your target audience and visitors. By being specific, you can generate higher clicks to your Google Adsense, which translate to higher Google Adsense earnings.

If you want to maximize your Google Adsense earnings, put up several niche websites instead of one website devoted to a broad category or topic. Instead of putting up a website about cars, put up several small websites focused on car repairs, care restoration, antique cars and such. By narrowing down your website’s focus, you can attract targeted visitors who are likely to click on your Google Adsense ads.

Forums: Placing Google Adsense Ads that Stand Out

Do you run a highly active forum or online discussion board? If your forum receives a lot of traffic and has many members who regularly participate in online discussions, you can monetize your forum pages by inserting Google Adsense in them. While forum users are known to be “ad blind”, you can insert Google Adsense codes smartly.

For instance, you can make your Google Adsense ads stand out by using very bright colors. On niche sites, it is recommended that your google Adsense ads blend in with the site. In online forums, however, you can make money with Google Adsense by making the ads stand out. You can also make Google Adsense appear after a certain number of posts. Many forum owners have discovered that Google Adsense ads placed at the bottom of the last post on every page generates a lot of clicks.

Blogs: Easy to Monetize with Google Adsense

Today, many are able to establish an online presence and have their voices heard. They do this by creating and maintaining their own blogs. In the last two years alone, literally hundreds of thousands of blogs have cropped up. Blog software like Wordpress and blog networks like Blogger make it easy for anyone, even the least techie, to set up his or her own blog and make money from it. There are bloggers who are reportedly making four-, five- and six-figure yearly income just by placing Google Adsense on their blogs.

Since Blogger is owned by Google, people with blogs on Blogger can easily integrate Google Adsense into their account. Even if you don’t have an account with Blogger, you can still make money displaying Google Adsense ads on Wordpress-powered blogs hosted on your server or third-party host. Blog software like Wordpress have Google Adsense plugins. This means you can easily insert Google Adsense ad codes in your blog posts with just a click of a button.

To make the most out of your Google Adsense ads, it is recommended that you place a Google Adsense unit after each of your blog posts. If you are posting a long article, consider placing a Google Adsense unite in the middle of the article. And if you technically inclined (or you aren’t afraid of a challenge), you can insert Google Adsense codes into your blog template. Do it this way and your Google Adsense ads will display on all your blog pages.

There you have it — three ways you can generate cash from Google Adsense. Niche sites, forums and blogs are only three of the many ways you can make money from Google Adsense. If you are new online, start with a blog. Create an account on Blogger.com and test out the waters. As you become comfortable and acquire more technical skills, you can advance to creating niche sites and starting your own online forums and monetizing with Google Adsense.

George Chao
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/3-ways-you-can-generate-cash-using-google-adsense-102997.html