RSS FEEDS: Whither Thou Goกest?

RSS FEEDS: Whither Thou Goกest?

by: Tony Dean

I open up the กFeed Readerก every day on my laptop and cruise the กnews feedsก I กsubscribeก to. The amount of information is now overwhelming, I need to just กsubscribeก to only the กfeedsก that are of immediate interest, else I would be reading กfeedsก twenty four hours every day.

When I click on a link to find out more about a news item, I am taken to a web page with the article of news on it, also there are banner ads, advertising icons to click on, and other side news items to click to take me elsewhere.

The potential for advertising on those web pages for interested marketers is great, not withstanding the change in the news article each day on that web page. One day it might be about Amazon and the กoutageกsก they kept getting, or the next it could be a pending court case about กcybersquattingก a brand name. Whatever article is shown the advertisers get their message across. It may not be part of the advertising ploy to sell goods and services from that advert, but to กbrandก their products, or name, for future sales.

One research company predicts internet advertising revenues will rise by 19% next year, they also predict that newspaper advertising will drop considerably.

Future habits of net cruisers will be to immediately open up the กfeedsก and cruise all the latest news, in contrast to going for Google and Yahoo, inputting search terms, and then cruising only those web sites that come up. Please! Don’t laugh, most of us still do this!

If a web site has not got itกs own กnews feedก, it will not get any กeyeballsก.

Those interested in marketing to the masses should think about trying to get adverts placed on pages of those sites with a กnews feedก, with their name, or web address written prominently, for cruisers to come and visit, but the main objective is to create กbrandingก.

The usage of search engineกs for locating web sites will decline, unthinkable at the moment for most internet users, but their rss feeds directories will be the most sought after to be able to access more กfeedsก. So search engineกs will still survive, but usage habits will change.

The กbigdogsก in rss feeds update news on their กfeedsก every fifteen minutes or so, they know that to keep a captive readership that they have to update frequently, or they will lose กeyeballsก to some other service thatกs giving out more frequent news. This is critical from an advertisers point of view who wants his ads showing on web pages with updated news as frequently as possible.

I can feel the nudging elbowกs already as advertisers are trying to get the best กspotsก.

The most money to be gained from rss feeds is by the person who owns one, the advertising revenue from กspotsก on the web pages the กfeedก points to will be flooding in, and with the decline in effectiveness of newspaper advertising, the rss feeds are the only place most advertisers are going to spend their money. The younger techsavvy 1824 year oldกs don’t buy newspapers, they also don’t switch on the television as much anymore, so television advertisers are looking at rss feeds, especially the big media companies who have millions of ad dollars to spend.

Remember this, anybody, even you, can put up a rss feed.

About The Author

Tony Dean is a published author and runs a website at: http://www.ebooksales.com. He is author of the ebook:’really Simple RSSก available from his web site.

This article was posted on December 10, 2004

by Tony Dean

How To Be A Web Content Provider!

How To Be A Web Content Provider!

by: Stuart Elwell

Would you be happy with reaching literally millions of people by being a web content provider. Whatever you’re selling, it would be nice if you could do this on a regular basis, FOR FREE, through a large number of other peopleกs ezines and websites, wouldn’t it?

Well this is what you can be doing when you start writing content and articles for the countless online newsletters, ezines and webpages that are looking for your input. One thing common to all Internet publishers is that they are all looking for good articles to publish.

If you can be a content provider of interesting and informative articles for them you stand a good chance of getting included in their website/next publication. However you probably won’t get included if it is simply a sales letter disguised as an article. But if you can provide good quality and informative web content you can often be their savior.

Then, they will give you what you need in exchange. They will give you exposure for your business…

How Web Content Providers Benefit:

The publisher will actually expect you to include a small advert at the end of the content you provide. This will get published along with the article itself, and is seen as a fair exchange for the content you have provided. Itกs how you benefit from the deal!

This small ad is usually referred to as a ‘resource boxก, but you can put almost anything you like in here so long as it is only a few lines long. You are free to advertise whatever you are promoting. You could point people back to your website, affiliate program, or tell them how to subscribe to your own newsletter etc.

If you’re like most web content providers you probably don’t consider yourself a writer. It doesn’t matter, it is your knowledge thatกs important. What do you know about your industry? If a friend who understands very little about your specialist subject was to ask you about something related to that industry, what would you say. Write it down. You don’t have to write like an English professor. If fact this would put a lot of people off from reading all your article. To be a good web content provider you should write as you speak, be down to earth and userfriendly.

The Internet often seems so impersonal. Your readers are seeking someone who is real, so why not write as a real person in a conversational manner.

Have a think and try to choose a hot online topic. Look at the articles from other magazines and newsgroups in your industry. A good web content provider should write about current subjects that you’re pretty sure will interest people.

The title is important and should grab people’s attention otherwise they may never read the rest of the article. If they don’t read the article, they won’t see your resource box. Therefore have a good think about the title and live with it for a few days until you feel you cannot improve it.

For the actual web content, around 500 words is a good rule of thumb. Try not to be too long winded. Most users will do a quick scroll to see how long the article is before reading. If itกs too long or too short you may lose them. People don’t like to read for too long online so stick to the point.

At the end of the article add your resource box info. You will receive the best results if you can include a short message related to the article you have just written.

If you have impressed readers with your expertise, thereกs a good chance they will want to learn more about you and what else you can offer them.

Just like with the headline, youกll need to leave your article for a short while, and กsleep on itก. Come back to it the next day and edit it. Improve parts that you then feel could be made a little better. Itกs amazing what a short rest will do for the creative process.

Once you’re happy and cannot improve the article any more, now itกs time to submit to ezine publishers. Below I have provided a list of places that ezine publisher look to find the articles of web content providers. If you can get your article published at these websites, getting into many ezines should be the logical outcome.

http://www.websource.net/

http://groups.yahoo.com/

http://amazines.com/

http://bpubs.com/

http://ezinearticles.com/

http://goarticles.com/

http://promotenewz.com/

http://www.articlecity.com/

http://www.certificate.net/

http://www.articlecity.com/

http://ideamarketers.com/

Remember, this process could get you huge targeted exposure, so itกs well worth the effort and it costs you nothing but your time.

Best wishes for your future.

Stuart Elwell

(c) Copyright 2004. All rights reserved.

Publishing Guidelines: This article may be copied for use on websites or ezines providing it is not altered in any way (which includes the small กArticle byก paragraph at the end) and all links are live and clickable. If adding to a website I have made it easier for you, simply copy from this html version: http://www.websmartmarketing.com/articles/cetm.html

About The Author

Stuart Elwell, Webmaster for WebSmartMarketing.com; http://www.websmartmarketing.com/home.html which provides sound advice and strategies for making money from the Internet.

This article was posted on August 07, 2004

by Stuart Elwell

7 BIG Ideas for Better eMail

7 BIG Ideas for Better eMail

by: BIG Mike McDaniel

More about eMail from BIG Mike McDaniel.
1 Empty your InBox daily.
Don’t use it for storage. Check incoming eMail at least once a day and deal with it. Move unread mail into folders for later viewing. Free detailed article on how to create and use filters and folders available by eMail. Send blank message to [email protected]
2 Don’t Set Fire to Outgoing eMail
Hastily typed angry words and a click on send and poof there is no taking it back. eMail Flames can burn without your knowledge. For an article on this subject, send a blank eMail message to [email protected]
3 Use more than one virus checker.
Keep a virus checker installed and running 24/7 in your machine. Really good ones are available FREE. Use a backup for a double check. To learn how to use 2 virus checkers every day for free, send a blank eMail message to [email protected]
4 Treat Attachments Carefully.
Most computer viruses arrive in attachments. Never open an attachment from someone you don’t know. Learn all about attachments in a free article. Send blank eMail to [email protected]
5 Fight Spam Vigorously.
When you กclick here to removeก you are actually clicking to double or triple your junk mail. Spam blockers are only part of the fight. Get 10 ways to fight spam by sending a blank eMail to [email protected]
6 Always sign your mail.
Half of 5 BILLION eMail messages a day arrive without a signature. Learn how to tell your computer to sign it automatically. Send a blank eMail message to [email protected]
7 SHOUTING is bad form.
eMail typed in ALL CAPS is SHOUTING. Research has shown ALL CAPS are harder to read and comprehend that regular sentence structure. Better manners in eMail is called กNetiquetteก. Read all about it by sending a blank eMail message to [email protected]

About The Author

MailTo:[email protected]

©2004 BIG Mike McDaniel, Professional Speaker and Former Major Market TV News Anchor. The BIG Ideas Group helps small business grow with mastermind groups, seminars and sales training.

http://BIGIdeasGroup.com

Subscribe to กBIG Mikeกs BIG Ideasก Newsletter:

MailTo:[email protected]

[email protected]

This article was posted on May 10, 2004

by BIG Mike McDaniel

Using Your Controllable Advantages

Using Your Controllable Advantages

by: Kevin Bidwell

Good news: You can beat your competition.

You can beat them, even if they were there first, have more money and are king of the hill right now.

How can you beat them? You can beat them by taking charge of your กcontrollable advantages.ก Hereกs how you can do that:

1. Work harder than they do.

People are lazy. One of the reasons your competitors got into web business in the first place was so they could ‘relax.ก

Well, don’t relax. Instead, pour your energy into your business. Spend your time really working, not just goofing around. Most of them are only spending 20 hours actually getting anything accomplishedthe rest of their time is spent chatting, กsurfingก or in other nonproductive activities.

2. Work smarter than they do.

In addition to working harder than the competition, you can also take time to become an expert. Read the best resources on marketing your products.

For example: You have been hearing me talk a lot lately about Brad Fallonกs search engine techniques. Brad is a regular guy who simply applied his knowledge and in just a few months built a store generating over $100,000 per month in sales.

(You can get the full story on Bradกs techniques here: http://www.AllInOneBusiness.com/seresults )

3. Use leverage.

If you want to make $100 an hour, don’t spend time doing everything yourself. Instead, hire someone to answer your phone and sort your emails. Spend your time doing the one thing that actually makes you money: Marketing your site and products.

If you want to make $150,000 per year, you have to be spending 30 hours per week doing $100/hour work. Refuse to do things where you can hire someone to do it for you.

4. Make Weekly Progress.

Most of your competitors have made their week routine: They answer the emails, send out the products, maintain their site.

You need to make sure all these get done (see #3), but you also need to do one more thing: Move ahead. Set a goal to create a new product, explore a new marketing channel, make a new affiliate connection.

And then progress in that area every week.

You can beat your competitionyou just need to do the things they aren’t doing.

For more ideas on how to beat the competition dayin, dayout, see these resources: http://www.AllInOneBusiness.com/recrec

Copyright 2004

by Kevin Bidwell

AllInOneBusiness.com

About The Author

Kevin Bidwell is owner of http://www.allinonebusiness.com

Kevin is offering a FREE BUSINESS STARTUP KIT to everyone who visits his site. If you liked this article, you will want to subscribe to his newsletter. To subscribe visit: http://www.AllInOneBusiness.com/subscribe

This article may be reprinted for use in newsletters and websites provided that this information box is kept intact. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: [email protected]

This article was posted on August 04, 2004

by Kevin Bidwell

Metrics Matter!

Metrics Matter!

by: Philippa Gamse

Recently, I talked with a speaker about her กextremely successfulก Website. She based this opinion on the fact that she was selling several ebooks every day and generating กsome callsก. When I asked if she was reviewing her traffic analysis, she said กNo, why should we itกs clearly working we can tell that from the salesก. I didn’t ask if she knew how her sales and calls compared to the actual visitor numbers for the site I suspected that sheกd have been shocked to learn how many more opportunities she was losing.

Metrics Matter!!

If you don’t know whatกs happening with your Website visitors, where they go, what they’re looking for, what they respond to, and what turns them off about your site, you can’t possibly make the most of your online potential. Your Web traffic reports offer unprecedented opportunities to analyze these relationships on a onetoone basis.

Here are some examples of using your metrics to ask intelligent questions and make informed adjustments to your site:

Tracking your Promotional Efforts

There are many ways to promote your site, both online and offline. Some are free and some, while not costing money, do take up time and effort. Itกs important to know the marketing options that generate the best return on investment for all your resources.

Joyce Weiss works with her public relations consultants to analyze the immediate impact of her radio appearances on her Website traffic (at http://www.joyceweiss.com). She said ‘this way we can decide if the Website needs to be tweaked for radio shows, or if I need to say something different on the shows to get people to sign up.ก

Following the links to your site (called ‘refering URLกs in the reports) can be very useful in creating good professional relationships. Often, site owners won’t tell you that theyกve quoted you so itกs important to check that the reference is appropriate.

And, itกs important to say thank you. I once followed a link to my site and found that one of my articles was required reading for a course at the University of Southern Oregon. When I dropped a note to the Professor telling him how honored I was, he replied กNot at all, I really like your ideas and by the way, we’re looking for a speaker for our next conference . . .ก

Dave Paradi does this too: กI do check out those sites that link to mine. One time I found that the link was to an old page, so I wrote to them and suggested that they update the link. I was also able to mention my other articles that would benefit their visitors.ก

If you’re paying for traffic, make sure that the keywords youกve selected, or the sites that you’re advertising on are generating good quality leads. Abby MarksBeale told me how she does this:

กIกve set up separate portal pages for those who come to me from my payperclick program through Overture. This way I can see if the program is really working.ก

In other words, you can create special entry pages for visitors from Overture, Google AdWords, ezines that you sponsor, or other campaigns. If a visitor enters through one of these pages, they can only have come from this one specific source. Then you can follow where on your site these visitors subsequently go, how they respond and ultimately decide whether they’re good leads and whether your money is well spent.

Hot Content Areas

Your traffic reports list the most requested pages on your site, telling you whatกs hot and whatกs not about your content. If you’re offering downloadable articles or special reports, you can see which of these are most popular.

Mitchell Gooze makes a point of doing this: กWe track white paper downloads by person, and we know exactly who downloads which white papers. We store this information in their data records. We also know which topics are most interesting to visitors.ก

Knowing the hot content areas on your site can give you great ideas for future product and program development. Rita Risser (http://www.FairMeasures.com) developed a whole set of online checklists and policy guideline documents based around the subjects that her visitors were searching for.

Calls to Action

One of my favorite mantras is กEvery Page of your Site Should Have a Strategyก. You should absolutely know which segment of your target audience each page is aimed at, whatกs in it for them and what you want as a result. Provide clear (and clickable) calls to action at every point in your copy where the reader might be ready to make the next move whether itกs กSign up for our newsletterก, กBuy our productก, or กContact me to ask about our servicesก.

Sometimes this means directing the visitor to the next page that youกd like them to see. Dave Paradi told me:

กI realized that people were entering my site on one of two specific pages, which are a couple of my articles that now have great placement on Google. I also noticed that almost all of these visitors entered and exited on that page, not visiting any other pages.

กSo how could I get them to see the rest of the site particularly the products that I hoped they would buy? I included a link to my products page at the bottom of each article. And last month, the products page jumped to the second most visited page, and it appears that many visitors, based on the value of the articles, are checking out the products.ก

And heกs taking this a step further:

กIt hasn’t yet resulted in increased orders, but I think the next area I need to address is writing more successful copy for the products page.ก

At the Risk of Repeating Myself . . .

I like to think of Web traffic analysis as กmarket research that cannot lieก. The reports show you what visitors do on your site of their own accord, without prompting or other influence. Not to discount focus groups, surveys and asking your favorite clients for feedback those are important tools as well, but not as powerful.

So, if you haven’t clearly defined the strategies, target markets and outcomes for your site, and if you aren’t looking at your metrics to evaluate the success of these, then you’re shooting in the dark with your Web investment. The examples in this article show you just a few of the many ways that you can use this information I hope that you’re now motivated to find out more about your own site.

(c) 2003, Philippa Gamse. All rights reserved.

Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is a Web strategy consultant and professional speaker. Check out her free tipsheet for 23 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html Philippa can be reached at (831) 4650317.

About The Author

Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is a Web strategy consultant and professional speaker. Check out her free tipsheet for 23 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html Philippa can be reached at (831) 4650317.

This article was posted on October 29, 2003

by Philippa Gamse

Making Direct Mail Work for Small Businesses

Making Direct Mail Work for Small Businesses

by: Sky Maya

If you own a small business, then you know the value of affordable and effective marketing. Unfortunately, many traditional and online advertising methods are becoming quite expensive. This article will explain direct mail guidelines and methods.

Direct mail is an often overlooked method that can be very effective if executed properly. There are three guidelines to follow when conducting an effective direct mail campaign:

1. Catch the readerกs attention immediately. You only have a few seconds to do this before your mail ad is thrown away as junk mail. Therefore, opt for postcard mailings instead of sending your offers in an envelope. If your business is relatively small and unheardof, the reader will never open it unless your companyกs name is familiar to the reader. Envelope advertising is cheaper than postcard advertising, but is only effective if you have already built up name recognition.

When using the postcard method, you will need to be able to print images on the card. I highly, highly recommend investing in a quality home photographic printer. You will end up saving money in the longterm, and your printer will be right where you need it whenever you need it. Whenever you have materials printed professionaly, you pay for labour, expensive inks, and expensive equipment.

When searching for images to print on your postcards, remember the the point of this first guideline: catch your readerกs attention. Of course you don’t want an offensive image for your cards, but you do want one that is slighly กcontroversialก. When choosing images for your cards, ask yourself these questions:

Does it stand out among the rest?

Does it contain bold colors (but isn’t an eyesore)?

Does the image relate to my business or current offers in some way?

Does the image request user interaction? (ex. a face staring directly at the reader, someone pointing at the reader, etc.)

Does the image have enough whitespace for some large text?

2. Offer the reader an incentive for responding. Unless the reader is and has been genuinely interested in your services/productsfor a period of time before receiving your postcard ad, they will never repspond unless you offer some sort of incentive. For instance, you postcard could also serve as a coupon; tell you reader to bring in that post card for a discount. Also, you could use the postcard ad as an announcment for a storewide sale. Be creative when offering incentives to your readers.

Be sure to make your incentive very visible on the postcard. Letกs say, for example, your postcard is also serving as a coupon for 20% on your products/services. Print that ก20% offก in large text with the image, along with your product type, such as ก20% all dog bedsก. Then, on the other side of the card, usually with the recipientกs address, print the discount again with any terms that may apply.

3. Target your readers. The best way to waste advertising money is by sending your direct mail to random people, paying no attention to whether they would actually buy something from you. This is much easier when dealing with businesstobusiness advertising. When it comes to consumers, find out their interests is a little difficult.

Test out the waters first. A good place to try first is InfoUSA. They sell mailing lists of consumers and businesses and may provide targeted consumer lists. You may be able to create interest in someone who has never heard of your products before, but when you are starting a new direct mail campaign and you have a very small budget, keep your list targeted. You don’t want to try to sell a web site to a business that already has one, or try to sell a dog bed to someone who only keeps cats.

I hope this article has given you some ideas on making your next direct mail advertising campaign more successful.

About The Author

Sky Maya is the author of Best SEO Tactics an excellent guide to optimizing your web site for high search engine rankings using proper and ethical tactics. Proven techniques! Buy it today and watch your site traffic explode!

This article may be reprinted freely as long as this resource box with all active hyperlinks remain intact.

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 11, 2003

by Sky Maya

How and Why to Build a Linking Strategy for your W

How and Why to Build a Linking Strategy for your Web Site

by: Michael Rock

Why would you want a linking strategy for your site? The most important reason is to drive traffic to your site, which in turn would increase visitors that would either purchase from you, make your web site more popular, or reach a larger audience to inform for your cause. The second reason to develop a linking strategy for your site is to help increase your rankings in the search engine. With Google this is very important for achieving high web rankings, and I expect the other search engines to follow suit relatively soon.

There are many ways to develop a linking strategy where the links to your site will multiply without any effort from you. This is the most effective way to generate links to point to your site. In this article we will discuss how to do this, debunk myths, and how to do this without unintentionally harming your siteกs status.

Debunking myths:

Linking software

I personally don’t approve of linking software that does the work for you. Why? Because the software does not do a good enough job where it can tell if the site it has the same theme or relative content that matches your site. Many errors slip through the process when this is done, that can cause damage to the reputation and rankings in the search engine. Also each site that you would like to link to you should have a decent PR ranking from Google to help your siteกs rankings. (PR ranking is a method that Google uses to put a value on the web site) If you have too many web sites pointing to you with a poor PR ranking it could actually make your site drop in the rankings. And in addition sites with excellent PR rankings would help your rankings a great deal.

Linking farms and automated link exchanges

Linking farms and automated link exchanges are not recommended for the same reasons as the linking software. Poor quality links and potentially harmful to your site. In addition these two methods carry another danger. If the site that links to has been put onto a black list for spam, and your site points to that site your web site will automatically get black listed and your rankings will go down as well. That is why I prefer one way links to your site instead of reciprocal links. It may sound hard to do, but it isn’t and I will show you a way to do it below.

The more sites pointing to your site the better. Right?

Wrong! In the past search engines would rank you higher in the search engines by judging the value of your site to the number of links pointing to it. But because people have abused and try to cheat this system, the rules have changed. Now they actually penalize you for too many sites pointing to yours if they are deemed suspicious. For instance many other sites pointing to you with the same IP address (caused by you putting up mirror sites to build links), links that point to that do not have the same content as you (กonce I saw a web design site having a reciprocal link with a lingerie siteก), and links that have low PR rankings pointing to your site (in this case the more the merrier does not work).

กIกve seen a site with only 10 links pointing to it (links from government sites) do better with searches than a site that had over 10,000 links pointing to it.ก

Another thing to consider: Google has just bought rights to register domain names. So, here is a theory of mine that may show up later. Google may update their algorithm to check links to see if the domain name those links are registered under contain the same registration information. This way it could penalize sites that register a bunch of domain names to point to their site and try to cheat the system.

‘the only time you would like a lot of links pointing to your site is if they are from respectable sites, have a high PR ranking, and have relative content.ก

Who links to your site now?

An easy way to find this out is to type in link:www.yoursite.com into a search engine and you will receive a list of web sites currently pointing to you.

Are they quality links?

You can use Google toolbar located at their site to read the PR ranking, an addon extension for Firefox, or visit a web site that will tell you the PR rankings of sites that you type in. If you type in page ranking tool in the search engines youกll find plenty of resources for this.

Who links to your competitors that are high in the search engines?

Examine and study the links to and from your competitors web site to learn more. And request links from the same people for your site.

How do I build links pointing to my site?

These are a list of ways to build links to your site that are one way links instead of reciprocal links. I highly recommend these ways to build a solid link foundation:

1) Content and more content. Content will increase your rankings in the search engine and people are more likely to link to you if you have valuable content. One time I had a large college link to one of the articles at my site for a research paper. The college had a high PR ranking and the link is in their archives. (This is a way to have your links multiply without the effort)

2) Add a link to us page to your web site. Where you can give the visitors to your site to apply a text link or banner. I recommend a text link to your site that contains keywords for your site. For example, web development contractor would point to my site via hyperlink. (This is a way to have your links multiply without the effort)

3) Start a blog on your site that people can go to and bookmark for the latest information in a category that relates to your site. (This is a way to have your links multiply without the effort)

4) Offer a free helpful กhow toก ebook to give away that has links inside of it that point to your site. (This is a way to have your links multiply without the effort)

5) Submit to online directories. Online directories usually have high PR rankings and get picked up by other directories and web sites to include on their sites.

6) Write a testimonial for a site you like that has the same relative content as yours. Chances are that if you praise their site and sign it with a link (to your site) of who praised them they will post it on their site giving you a free one way link.

7) Create a free article directory asking people to submit articles to your site, and in exchange for posting their articles on your site have them post a link on their web site stating where their article can be found. (your site) Iกve seen people put a list of where there article can be found to impress the visitors on how popular they are. (This is a way to have your links multiply without the effort)

8) Lastly, and most importantly write articles yourself! When I wrote my first article I submitted it to 25 places. (places with higher traffic views) and the next day over 180 sites were pointing to my web site, because I had a nice keyword enriched link pointing to my site in the article. The next day the total was over 300. How do you find out if they are pointing to your site? Type in your article title in quotes into the search engines and then youกll find out how many sites are posting your article on their site. (This is a way to have your links multiply without the effort)

One thing to do for sure is monitor your results. Who is driving the most traffic to me? Which ways of linking are producing multiplying links without any effort on my part? Which links are actually harmful to me? Do these links compliment my site? Do these things and I guarantee you that the links to your site will increase ten fold.

Be looking for more articles soon!

Copyright © Michael Rock

Web development contractor (Web Design and Hosting)

Internet Presence

www.TheInternetPresence.com

About The Author

Michael Rock

The owner of this registered company has over twenty years experience with DOS, windows business applications, numerous programming languages, artistic development, and web design. Other areas of interest include web marketing, web promoting, and business marketing and development. After the persuasion of those praising his work, he decided to go into business himself and highly suggests everyone else to do the same.

Internet Presence was founded in 2003 from a desire to become independent. Less than 1 year later Internet Presence has had accounts in three different states ranging from a locally owned auto collision repair shop to a glass packaging industry that sells its product worldwide.

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 07, 2005

by Michael Rock

How To Set Up an Ezine Encyclopedia

How To Set Up an Ezine Encyclopedia

by: Michael Southon

Do you read all your Ezines? Or do you file them away in special folders and then forget about them?

I used to be like that.

When I first started subscribing to ezines I was amazed at the quantity of valuable information that was available for free.

But I soon became complacent about it. If anything, the 60odd newsletters I was receiving each month became a burden. I was suffering from กinformation overloadก.

Ezines contain a wealth of information. Every week, in hundreds of newsletters across the Web, experts share with their readers the latest tips, techniques and resources they’re using to succeed in the world of online business.

But if you don’t have a system for processing and organizing that information, youกll quickly become overwhelmed by it.

I use a system that I call the กEzine Encyclopediaก. This is how it works:

1. Open a document in Microsoft Word. At the top of this Word document, type in 15 to 20 กCategory Headingsก, one per line. These are the categories I use:

Ad Tracking

Affiliate Programs

Auction Sites

Auto Responders

Banner Advertising

Copy Writing

Credit Card Processing

Discussion Boards

eBook Compilers

eBook Promotion

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2. Now highlight all of these category headings. Then go to the toolbar at the top of your Word screen and click on กFormatก. In the dropdown menu, click on กStyleก. A new window will open with a box titled กStylesก. Click on กHeading 1ก and press กOKก. These category headings will now all appear in กHeading 1ก format.

3. Now place your cursor at the end of the first line (in my example, กAd Trackingก) and press RETURN twice. Two paragraph marks (in กNormalก style) will appear beneath your first category heading (this is where you will insert the text of your articles). Repeat this for each category heading (place your cursor at the end of the line, and hit RETURN twice).

4. When you see an ezine article that contains valuable information, highlight it, copy it, and paste it under the appropriate กCategory Headingก.

5. Highlight the title of the ezine article and use the same procedure described above, but choose กHeading 2ก (instead of Heading 1).

6. Now click on INSERT in the toolbar of your Word screen and go down to กINDEX AND TABLESก. In the new window that opens up, click on ‘table of Contentsก. In the lower right of that window is a box with a white background that allows you to set the levels between 1 and 9. Choose 2. Then click กOKก.

Youกll find that your กInformation Categoriesก appear as Chapter Headings and the Title of the ezine articles appear as a Sections within a Chapter.

Notice that the page numbers at the far right of your Table of Contents are hyperlinked; you can go to any ezine article with the click of a mouse.

This Word document will become your personal กEzine Encyclopediaก.

It will contain everything important that youกve ever read in an ezine. Isn’t that better than having that information scattered amongst 20 or 30 ezines?

When you have in place a well organized system like this, it changes the way you view new information. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by new information, youกll simply place it under the appropriate Information Category.

And when you need that information, instead of searching through dozens of folders in your email client, youกll know exactly where it is. This system has saved me an enormous amount of time.

Eventually youกll end up with a large document that contains as much valuable information as any web marketing book. And itกll be much more up to date!

(c) 2000, by Michael Southon

About The Author

Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3 years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this simple technique to get massive free publicity and dramatically increase traffic and sales. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This article was posted on August 30, 2002

by Michael Southon

How To Write A MiniCourse

How To Write A MiniCourse

by: F. Terrence Markle

Do you use minicourses in your online marketing? If not then maybe you should! Minicourses are an important part of Internet marketing. A minicourse is a tool that enables you to provide valuable content to your subscribers and promote your own or affiliate products at the same time.

A minicourse is fr*ee information on a specific topic. It is normally distributed as multiple articles in email format over a defined period of time. The minicourse also goes by the name eCourse, free report or autoresponder course.

Before attempting to write your minicourse, identify a ขniche marketข that has a unique need for information. A niche market is a small segment of the total general market. It is a group of individuals with a common interest that have specific wants and needs. Individuals in a niche market may also have a common problem that needs a solution.

Creating a minicourse is similar to creating an ebook but on a smaller scale. You need to select a ขkillerข topic that is of interest to your niche market and satisfies a want or need or solves a problem.

There is an unlimited amount of information that can be used in a minicourse. The key is to know what information to use. What information do most people want? Individuals look for informational products that satisfy their most important wants or needs. This includes information on: how to do something, money, time, work, health, selfimprovement, entertainment, hobbies and sex.

How can you find your killer topic?

Listen to your customers. Look for problems they are experiencing when they communicate with you.

Conduct a survey of your customers and the visitors to your website and ask for comments.

Join niche discussion boards and chat rooms. What items are discussed on a repeating basis?

Subscribe to article announcement lists in your niche and identify the key topics being published.

Next, look for common issues or problems in the information you have collected. Can you solve any of them? If not, locate an expert that can help you.

Identify creative and useful solutions to the issues or problems. Develop an outline to be used as a guide in writing your minicourse. Perform the necessary research to obtain the information you need for the minicourse. Present your information in a manner that satisfies the wants and needs or solves the common problem of your niche market.

You need to have a killer title to grab the interest of your visitors. Select a title that compels your visitor to want to see your report. You want your visitor to request the report, download it, read it and purchase your product offerings.

All of your work in creating the minicourse is of no use if nobody reads it. You want a title that reaches out and pulls the individual into downloading your course. Instead of using a title like ขMy Report on Golf ข use something like ขHow to Take Strokes Off Your Golf Game.ข Which title is more likely to grab the interest of the high handicap golfer?

Once you have the attention of your audience you want to be able to keep them. The opening paragraph must excite your reader and make them want to know more. Use an opening sentence that pulls them into your report like ขEverything you ever wanted to know about improving your golf game and more!ข Your opening paragraph also needs to define the main objective that will be presented in your minicourse.

The course content is the most critical part of your minicourse. Make certain your information is presented in an organized and meaningful manner. Content can be presented to your readers in many different writing formats.

Some of the most common formats include:

Howtodo something tutorial

List of ways or tips to accomplish a desired objective

Interview of one or more experts regarding your topic

Narrative discussion of the issues at hand.

Whatever format you select, it must be easy to read and understand. Do not use difficult words or long sentences and paragraphs. Write in a straightforward manner. Let your personality show in your writing. People that are comfortable with your writing are more likely to buy from you.

Be careful in promoting your own products or affiliate products in the minicourse. The products and services promoted need to relate to the content you are providing. Blend the product or service promotions into your content so that it supports the content. Find ways to weave your product or affiliate program information into your content in a lowkey manner.

Avoid outright blatant advertising except in the top sponsor, bottom sponsor and other designated areas of your articles. Blatant advertising in the wrong section will be a quick turnoff. Your minicourse will be viewed as a sales letter and probably not read. Keep your audience in focus. They are reading your minicourse primarily for the valuable content you promised to deliver in the beginning.

The last segment of your minicourse needs to provide a conclusion or closing section. Pull together what you have presented in the course and present your findings. It should satisfy the original objective of your course or provide a solution to the stated problem. Finalize the minicourse with words of value to your readers. Direct your readers to utilize the information you provided. Instill in them the desire to get involved and follow through with your conclusions or implement your solutions.

Organize the information into article segments of roughly 700 to 1,500 words per segment. Keep the length of the minicourse in the range of 3 to 8 segments. Try to avoid information overload and unnecessary padding in your articles. Determine the distribution cycle of the articles. In general, one segment should be delivered each day or every 2 days. Personally, I prefer once every 2 days to avoid overloading the recipient with too much information if they don’t check their email on a daily basis.

The best way to distribute your minicourse is by autoresponder. Set up the autoresponder to automatically distribute your articles according to your defined time schedule.

Use the minicourse to promote yourself, your business and your products. It is fr*ee advertising. You can use the following methods to promote your minicourse:

Include in the resource box of an article you wrote

Include in your newsletter

Include in your signature file

Provide as a fr*ee bonus on the purchase of your product

Place in an advertisement

Provide as a promotional tool for your affiliates to use.

In conclusion, your minicourse should deliver valuable content to your audience with the side benefit of promoting your ezine and products. Create your minicourse with a clear picture of wants and needs of your audience. You have wasted your time and effort if the report has little or no value to your reader. Produce a quality minicourse and both you and your subscribers will benefit.

Best of success in your online business activities.

Copyright © 2003 F. Terrence Markle – All Rights Reserved

Get the FR*EE 8Day Internet Business MiniCourse at:

http://www.QuikSystems.com/WMC/FreeBizCourse.htm

About The Author

Copyright © 2003 F. Terrence Markle has worked for over 20 years with public and private companies. He has an MBA in marketing and finance. He has been involved with Internetrelated businesses for over 3 years. His primary focus is the marketing of affiliate programs.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 01, 2003

by F. Terrence Markle

7 Ways to Increase Web Traffic

7 Ways to Increase Web Traffic

by: Terrence Drumm

Every website needs traffic, in order to get traffic people need to know and find your website. There are many ways to increase traffic some free some cost. But like anything else word of mouth is the best. Here are 7 ways to increase Traffic cheaply.

1) Submit your website to search engines preferably the major engines such as google and yahoo. Google has a free submission and Yahoo has a free and payed submission depending where you want placed but there are better ways to spend that money so use the free.

2) Submit your website to free directories such as http://dmoz.org/. This increase your link popularity which increases your odds of having higher listings on search engines that rate based of off link popularity such as google.

3) Get involved in a free link exchange.

4) Write Articles and offer them up for reprint with your resource box. Doing this increases your link popularity plus adds your link to many other sites that use your content.

5) Use rss, lots of people are now using rss readers. Using rss allows them to be updated when you change your website rather than them having to stop in to check whether or not you have updated.

6) Payper Click ads are the only real cost I would recommend using if you have the money to spend on them. There are a number of businesses out there that offer this, the best ones are Overture and Google’s adsense.

7) Join a discussion board with similar topics and put your address in your signature this way they will see your signature and may be interested and click and explore your site, even if you don’t get any clicks from the forum you will still get a increase in link popularity.

This article may be reprinted and distributed freely as long as credit is given and the article remains unchanged.

For more business and website information vist www.thetdog.com

About The Author

By Terrence Drumm

The TDogกs Blog

www.thetdog.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 05

by Terrence Drumm

Deep Linking Strategy for Content Sites

Deep Linking Strategy for Content Sites

by: Jack Humphrey

Linking what a mess if you don’t know whatกs going on. Either linking is กINก or itกs กOUTก according to what you read these days.

Hereกs the good news: Linking Works.

Hereกs the bad news: HOW It Works Has Changed!

The good thing is you are going to pick up a linking tip today that will put you light years ahead of most webmasters who think a reciprocal link directory is all you need to gain link popularity in Google and traffic from other sites.

Link directories are still ok, but the key is moderation. Directories with thousands of links are a dark ages website promotion tactic.

Today there are many people focusing on content again, thank god. And that means you have a lot more real estate than just a home page and a link directory to work with.

People have written to me to completely disagree with me on what I am about to show you, but believe the expert, it works!

Say you have 500 pages of article and resource content on your site. If you are publishing articles on several categories you could have many more pages than that.

But even if you only have a 30 page site right now, it should be growing all the time and will be large eventually. (If not, forget about Google staying excited about your site if it never changes.)

Each of those articles and resource pages is a link to your site waiting to happen.

There are two ways to get links to your site here:

Ask for a link to your main page in exchange for a link on one of your relevant article pages to the site you are requesting an exchange with.

Deep Linking: Ask for a link right back to the specific page on your site you are going to link to them on. Again, find relevant pages of content to the sites you are going after. People respond well to this, especially if you say you are limiting your outgoing links to กfurther resourcesก to 5 per page. (The number is up to you.)

What does this do for your site?

It gets webmasters WAY more excited about linking with you because you are putting them ON your site, not in some cobwebridden part of your site that no one ever visits.

It lets other site owners know you have ACTUALLY taken the time to review their site enough to know where they would best fit on your site according to the topic of the page you want to link to them on. Again this is a way different message to them than the กLetกs swap linksก letter we all trash these days.

You start building link popularity and traffic direct to pages within your site other than your index. (If you choose to direct swap with them.)

It gives you leverage to ask for a better link from other sites than just being thrown in their link dump (link directory) where, again, far fewer people ever visit. You command the power to ask for a similar link of importance from the pages their visitors actually see. WinWin

You increase the value of your links page because you are not loading it down with any and every person who will link with you. You can go back to old school linking to sites that you HONESTLY do recommend and that list can be far smaller and really fit on 12 pages. All the sudden you have traffic to your links page again and can truly reward webmasters who are on it with some traffic.

The links you get this way are going to be some of the first links you have probably ever gotten that actually send you significant traffic. The same goes for your link partners.

กBut Jack, I don’t want to send traffic away from my site!ก Yes you do, in fact. Because you are asking your link partners to do the same. Links like this are just as profitable in the long run as Google Adsense ads because you are finally engaging in a real traffic exchange and leveraging your eproperty for what itกs really worth. Trust me this works. Send some traffic out and see what happens to your referrer stats.

Never give more than you get. Many people won’t understand this form of linking for another year or so. They will try to shove your link in a dark hole on their site. Don’t let them do it!

If someone doesn’t understand the power of deep linking from their content pages, send them this article as a last ditch effort and tell them Jack said so. Otherwise, move on, take their link down, and find someone smart enough to see where linking is headed.

Overall, you are going to find it is much easier to get links this way, even from sites bigger than yours. Telling people กI want to link to you as a recommended resource on (name of article) page…ก tells them that you are a pro and not some schmuck who has a linking program that spits out cookie cutter emails.

Too much work? Hire someone and pay them per link they secure in your name. Write the letter and have them fill in the blanks for specific sites. Teach them how to go through your site, learn the content, and go out and find RELEVANT recommended resources for each page.

Youกd be surprised to find out how cheaply you can get good work done these days on Elance.com and other กfor hireก sites.

Sit back and watch your incoming QUALITY links soar from month to month!

Copyright 2005 Jack Humphrey

About The Author

Jack Humphrey is the author of Power Linking 2: Evolution at http://powerlinkingprofits.com and marketing consultant for http://webfoxmedia.com.

This article was posted on January 06

by Jack Humphrey

The Myth of Search Engine Submission

The Myth of Search Engine Submission

by: Mario Sanchez

Contrary to what most people think, it is not necessary to submit your site to the search engines. In the early days of the web, when search engine technology was still primitive and search enginesก ability to crawl the web was somehow limited, it made sense to submit your site.

Today, search engines like Google, MSN or Yahoo! Search have no problem crawling billions of pages and adding them to their index every month (and sometimes even more often). Most likely, they will find your site once they find a link to your page in another website.

That website can be a directory (a site that uses human editors to select, categorize and list websites), a site you exchange links with, or an articleposting site where you submit articles you write, complete with your resource box (a small bio about yourself with a link to your site).

The two best general directories are Yahoo! ($299/year fee) and DMOZ (free, but they may take a while to list your site). Listing your site with them will give you two of the best links you can get.

When exchanging links, make sure you do it with reputable, noncompetitive sites with a topic related to yours (for example, if you’re a real estate agent, you may want to trade links with a mortgage brokerกs site).

Writing articles and posting them in sites like Article City or Ideamarketers is not only a good way to get links, but also a great way to establish yourself as an expert. The idea is to allow other webmasters to reprint your articles for free, provided that they include your resource box (with a link to your site) at the end of the article.

In summary, don’t waste time, energy and money submitting your site, or using one of those services that claim to submit your site to ‘thousands of search enginesก (they are worthless). Instead, focus on getting highquality inbound links. They will get your site listed faster while building your siteกs online reputation and popularity.

About The Author

Mario Sanchez: http://www.theinternetdigest.net.

For more search engine tips go to: http://www.accordmarketing.com/seotips/.

This article was posted on December 04, 2004

by Mario Sanchez