Reciprocal Linking

Reciprocal Linking

by: Jason Blackston

Reciprocal linking is considered by many people the most effective way to increase traffic to your website. You often get hits from the web sites that you have exchanged your links with, and reciprocal linking also helps boost your search engine rankings.

What is a reciprocal link?

A reciprocal link is a link to a website that carries a similar link back to your own website.

A reciprocal link is a common thread between you and another website owner. You both likely share similar websites and content, and you are oกkay with the possibility of a viewer leaving your site to take a look at your linking partnerกs site.

What a reciprocal link is not…

A reciprocal link is not a cure all! Many times webmasters have a ton of links. The problem is that many of those links are broken or out of date. I will share a resource to help you find those broken links in a minute. But first you need to find sites to link to!

A great way to find sites that might like to link to your site is to use Link Finder at http://siteowner.bcentral.com/linkfinder.cfm Here you can check for links to your competition or other sites that are related to yours.

*Getting back to finding those broken links…

You can find broken links, spot bad HTML code, check browser compatibility, find slowloading pages, and check your spelling at http://www.netmechanic.com/cobrands/zd_dev/

By utilizing reciprocal linking strategies, you can enhance your web presence. Take advantage of these tools and start climbing to the top!

About The Author

Discover proven methods of converting website visitors into paying customers! Pick up your free epackage at http://www.govisitors.com. And be sure to utilize the resources page for free articles, ebooks, and other information, that can help enhance your marketing campaigns.

© Jason Blackston

This article was posted on January 27, 2004

by Jason Blackston

Secret F/r/ee Ingredient Transforms Web Sites Into

Secret F/r/ee Ingredient Transforms Web Sites Into Money Machines

by: Jorge M Vega

The key to transforming your website into a serious income generator that consistently converts visitors into cash customers is right in front of your nose. Without beating around the bush, the often overlooked secret ingredient is, quite simply, to pay very close attention to the proper use of language on your site. As a professional marketer, you can’t afford to undermine your own image, or tarnish your good reputation, by using imperfect ad copy anywhere on your website.

Itกs plain and simple, words sell!

You have to choose them wisely and กpackageก them correctly. They’re the only vehicle you really have for making the sale. Everything else is just fluff along for the ride.

Recognizing the importance of this key ingredient, which costs you nothing, and taking appropriate action as suggested below, will set you apart from the millions of other webmasters who are just spinning their wheels…and making no sales!

Negligence on your part in this department, on the other hand, will cast all your marketing efforts into an uncontrolled tailspin, and turn your visitors away faster than if you stood before them wearing a big sign around your neck reading: กDanger Infected With Contagious Diseaseก

This key ingredient is all the more critical on the Internet because it is, and I think we can all agree, a text driven medium: words are its fundamental building materials.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE PROBLEM

All the fancy pictures in the world, even with just the right combination of colors, in the most imaginative layout, along with the most creative use of popup and popunder windows, cannot help your marketing efforts one iota if you use the wrong words in an incorrect manner. Meaning, do not expect miracles if, to use common street vernacular, กYou’re just trying to get over.ก

These props can only enhance, but never replace, your fundamental written message. Dignified, careful use of the English language is a prerequisite to successful online marketing. But, many marketers are blatantly disregarding many, if not most, of the basic rules of English usage. Sad, but true, just about everywhere you look online, the English language is suffering a fate worse than death.

Now, please note, Iกm not suggesting that before you design your website youกll need a Ph.D. in English literature, or be a noted, prize winning author. But, what I am suggesting is that you should be as careful as you possibly can with the contents of your website if you wish to attain recognition as a professional marketer. A professional marketer makes every effort to show his/her target audience that their approval, and their respect, are valued.

A shabbily written website conveys just the opposite sentiment. In fact, poor grammar, sloppy punctuation, and misspelled words galore tell the reader that they are not worthy of your very best effort; you are saying, กHereกs the best I could muster under the circumstances. Take it, or leave it. Pay me the $29.95 on the way out for taking a look.ก How inconsiderate!

Of course, this is not to suggest that all, or even most, sites are carelessly and sloppily contrived. Quite obviously, most webmasters invest a great deal of attention in all aspects of their creation. And, letกs face it, web design is a creative process.

ELEMENTS OF THE UNPROFESSIONAL SITES

At one end of the spectrum, there are enough กbad penniesก around to keep any surfer busy for hours rinsing out the bad taste from their mouths after a visit.

At the extreme end of the same category, encounters with sites where the choice of vocabulary is not in the best of taste, where reasonable attention to grammar and spelling have been grossly disregarded, and where simple English been battered beyond recognition, may leave an uprepared visitor with permanent, debilitating, psychological damage, such as a hard to diagnose speech impediment, or maybe an involuntary nervous twitch across one cheek.

In my personal case, after so many chance meetings with disastrous, unacceptable sites, Iกm left with a uncontrollable, drooping eyelid over my left eye which makes Bank tellers stir nervously whenever I announce a withdrawal. : )

Sites that have been compiled irresponsibly indicate a questionable professional intent by their owners, and a lack of interest in putting forth their best effort. Not only would I not buy anything from them, but you can bet your bottom penny that Iกll never revisit.

SOME SHINING EXAMPLES

At the opposite end of the spectrum, among the most professionally done websites I have visited are those belonging to Corey Rudl (this is not a plug, the man makes enough money without my help.)

Obviously, his sites are carefully reviewed for grammatical errors, punctuation is exemplary, spelling mistakes are usually nonexistent; they’re, all in all, a clean, crisp, professional rendering truly worthy of their creatorกs pride.

Two other marketers whose websites are a joy to visit, given their fastidious attention to the proper use of language in the manner described throughout this article are Bryan Winters, of www.pushbuttonpublishing.com, and Chris Carpenter, of www.googlecash.com. Again, as in the case cited above, both these gentlemen care enough about the impression they make on prospective customers to always กput their best foot forward.ก

Their websitesก content has been double checked for common usage errors, relieving the reader from any undue distractions; their sales messages come through as clear as a bell. Like Corey Rudl, they leave you with the image of a polished and sophisticated marketing professional. Your ultimate buying decision is based solely on the merits of their products, not on whether they botched up their sales pitch with carelessness.

Please note, my mention of these three particular marketers should not be considered endorsements of their products. I am a happy customer, but they are simply being singled out in this article as prime examples of how, in my modest opinion, one should handle the use of language as a skilled, responsible, Internet marketer.

SUGGESTIONS AND RESOURCES

A professional looking website, within the parameters I have pointed out, is not that hard to achieve. There are inexpensive, easy to use tools and aids to help you accomplish this indispensable goal.

For example, if, like most of us, you have a tendency to misspell words, take advantage of the SpellCheck feature built right into most word processor programs to double check your work. Or, better yet, since youกll be actively engaged in the process, buy yourself a pocket Dictionary for about six bucks to look up words. Personally, I own several of these, with a few foreign language versions for both Spanish and French.

If punctuation and grammar give you migraines, buy yourself a College level English Usage or Style handbook at any used bookstore in town. Then, when in doubt about any facet of your written work, leaf through it to find an acceptable solution. In no time at all, with just a little effort on your part, youกll gain mastery over any aspect of the English language which previously derailed you.

Personally, I use one, or both of the following when I run into a grammar roadblock: William Strunkกs Elements of Style, and American Heritage Book of English Usage.

And, if you’re fortunate enough to have, either a member of your family, or as a friend or neighbor, an educator who teaches English and whose expertise you trust, ask them to review your written work prior to publishing it as a website.

Youกll receive invaluable insights and suggestions from a specialized professional, at zero cost to you. Naturally, for your own peace of mind, refrain from taking their suggestions personally; it might be helpful to pretend that the work being reviewed by them is not your own.

Additionally, should be inclined to doing your revisions online, I offer up this list of grammar related resources with accompanying descriptions. They’re all fr*ee:

1. http://www.chompchomp.com/terms.htm Grammar terms are listed and each is linked to its own page of explanation and examples of correct and incorrect usage. There are also online exercises. By one Robin L. Simmons.

2. http://www2.ncsu.edu:8010/ncsu/grammar/ Home of the Grammar Hotline. Has tips and links. From North Carolina State University.

3. http://www.well.com/user/mmcadams/words.html Glossary of grammar terms and their meanings. From magazineediting guru Mindy McAdams.

4. http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/errors.html Paul Brians of the Department of English at Washington State University talks about common mistakes and about perfect English that is often changed in error by wellmeaning editors.

5. http://www.worldwidewords.org/ All the pieces here are about English words and phrases—what they mean, where they came from, how they have evolved, and the ways in which people sometimes misuse them.

CONCLUSION

Thankfully, for the kind of writing that we do for the Web, you will not have to become adept at unraveling such mysteries as: What emotions dictate the use of the Subjunctive voice? Or, define a prepositional phrase. How about, what is the difference between a definite and an idefinite article? Or, can a personal pronoun be used in the possessive form? Better still, how would you indicate possession for a noun ending in the letter กs?ก Last but not least, does the English language have a future perfect tense?

Cast all your fears aside, because not only would answering those questions be beyond the scope of this narrative, they would surely be well beyond my own limited and flawed intelligence, as well! For website publishing, we only have to concentrate on writing clearly, sharply, and concisely; clean, simple, and well thought out copy is all we’re after. A basic common sense approach. Pulitzer prize winning authors are bred elsewhere.

Youกll find that, by taking the simple precautions and suggestions I have oulined here to spruce up your website, your professionalism will shine through, making you feel proud and empowered, your feelings of self worth will rise dramatically, giving you added confidence to tackle more and more written projects, praise from others will allow you to recognize your dormant talents, helping to fuel your creativity to a higher level…and your bottom line will inevitably soar as a result!

Copyright 2004 Jorge M. Vega After struggling for years trying to figure out what worked and what didn’t work online, the author has started to กbring home the baconก marketing on the Internet. See the few select, surefire ways he has found that anyone can use to begin making a comfortable homebased living, starting today: http://www.earnlarge.com/pbi

About The Author

Jorge M. Vega is foreignborn, and thanks God daily for the privilege of living in the land he loves, the good olกUSA. Taming the Internet beast took several years, but heกs found several easy ways to online profits which he gladly shares.

This article was posted on April 19, 2004

by Jorge M Vega

Making Money with Popular Search Engines

Making Money with Popular Search Engines

by: Mark Bellinger

With so many internet and home business opportunities on the world wide web nowadays it is very confusing as to know which ones are scams and which are not.

However, even though I am sure that most of the money making schemes advertised have their merits, it would give the entrepreneur great peace of mind to know that he was building an internet business in conjunction with a credible and high profile corporate.

Credibility is a vital component of doing business on the Internet and I am sure that you would agree that credibility would give any ขInternet Business Opportunityข the ability to convince you that it was all above board and a genuinely sound opportunity.

Well there are such opportunities and you do not even have to have a website to capitalize on them and to build a successful online business.

This is how it works…

Some of the top search engines have pay per click programs that essentially show small text advertisements to the right of their many search engine results (and in other places for that matter – for instance Google shows them on websites whose publishers have signed up to display them).

These advertisements have been paid for by advertisers who are participating in the respective search engine’s pay per click program and are displayed and ranked according to the keywords they have selected and how much they have been willing to bid for them.

Now for the important part…

The power of this marketing strategy is such that with a well driven pay per click campaign, huge amounts of traffic can be driven to a particular site almost immediately.

For those of you who know, many sites have huge hours invested in them to improve their search engine rankings and to generate traffic and after years (in most cases) don’t come close to the amount of traffic that a Google Adwords campaign, for example, can generate overnight.

This type of campaign can have your text ads displayed in both the search engine results pages as well as one appropriate websites all over the internet. Therefore the reach of your advertising would be immense.

This means that you can set up a Google Adwords campaign and drive traffic to your affiliates’ sites (with your affiliate id in the url of course) and receive the commissions for all the sales that have been generated by the traffic driven through your adwords.

This all sounds great, but whatกs in it for you if you don’t even have a website?

Well, if you are affiliated to a site/s or company where you earn commission on sales, your commissions will skyrocket with an Adwords campaign aimed at your affiliates’ sites.

One word of caution…

You could waste your money and become disillusioned by embarking blindly on your pay per click campaign.

Therefore, it is highly recommended to read up on how to maximize your earnings & not to spend money unwisely and research carefully as to how much to bid on specific keywords and what keywords would work best for you.

For more resources on this subject go to http://www.income.za.net and http://www.internetbusiness.co.za.

About The Author

The Author, Mark Bellinger is an Internet Entrepreneur and creator of the following sites:

Internet Income: http://www.income.za.net

Internet Business: http://www.internetbusiness.co.za

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 2

by Mark Bellinger

Are You Guilty of Stinkinก Linkinก Thinkinก?

Are You Guilty of Stinkinก Linkinก Thinkinก?

by: John Gergye

Do you know what kind of sites are suitable link partners for your site?

If you do give yourself a gold star since many seem not to. At least based on the questions I get.

You see most think small. Too small. And limit the potential universe of perfectly good linking partners.

In fact many seem to think relevant means กsites exactly like mineก. So if they had a site about กjuggling midget circus clownsก the small thinkers would say they could only trade links with other juggling midget circus clown sites.

Hogwash.

I call this stinkinก linkinก thinkinก and frankly it drives me crazy! Because there are any number of related sites that have little to do with juggling midget circus clowns that are still perfectly good link partners. Because their visitors are just like the ones the owner of the clown site covets.

Remember too you typically get three things out of any link trade

PR (pagerank)

Traffic

Link Reputation (from the link text you use)

Almost any link trade should give you PR and Link Rep. While trading links with relevant sites will get you traffic. Some more than others naturally.

But Here’s the Big Idea: When you think relevant you really want to think in terms of related families of sites.

In the case of juggling midget circus clowns that would include

personal clown sites

clown training

balloon sculpting

face painting

clown costumes

Broadening the scope a tad …

circus companies

family circus

ringmaster schools

circus books and videos

A bit further afield would be …

juggling sites

juggling suppliers

juggling training site

plus if any such sites exist …

lion tamers

trapeze artists

mime

fire eating

But I’d even go as far as …

kids entertainment

birthday party sites

or magicians even.

All of which says the juggling midget circus clown site owner has a whole world of potential link partners that would be able to deliver up appropriate traffic. And even if one didn’t flood her site with traffic getting two out of three (PR and Link Reputation) still ain’t bad.

Okay but say you’re drawing a blank when it comes to related sites. Here’s a short cut that can light your linking efforts on fire. Since it gives you a quick feel for appropriate types of sites to approach for links.

Type กYOUR KEYWORD resourcesก (with the quotes) into the Google search box and hit enter. Obviously replacing YOUR KEYWORD with your focus or theme keyword phrase.

This search will return all sorts of links pages and directories. Clicking on the listings returned will quickly reveal related types of sites others are using as link partners.

For instance entering กclown resourcesก returned among others this site www.clownresourcedirectory.com. By itself this one alone would give the owner of the juggling midget circus clowns all the relevant site ideas she’d ever need. Plus it can turn up some decent linking partners too!

So banish stinkinก linkinก thinkinก from your mind right now. Don’t handcuff your linking efforts by thinking small. Instead think big. Expand your linking universe like this and soon you’ll expand the number of links you’ve got to ride to higher Google rankings.

Copyright 2004 John Gergye

About The Author

John Gergye shares more ideas like this in his just updated eBook ‘traffic From Google in 35 Daysก. Find out more here: http://www.traffictesttube.com/j/tfg35cl.shtml. Or test your search engine IQ by taking his seo quiz http://www.traffictesttube.com/searchenginequiz.shtml and get the free special report กComing Out On Topก.

This article was posted on November 04, 2004

by John Gergye

The Dark Side of P2P File Sharing

The Dark Side of P2P File Sharing

by: Bill Paulk

P2P file sharing programs are free. Period. But there are P2P scam sites out there that want you to pay them instead. P2P scam sites are rogue companies that have set up shop to fleece unsuspecting music downloaders looking for file sharing programs by charging a fee for an otherwise free service.

No P2P file sharing software costs money. Exceptions would be a site asking members to make a monetary donation to help pay for bandwidth, hosting costs, and other administrative costs.

Some P2P file sharing programs offer กproก versions of their free software. But again, their basic service is free to the public. I want you to fully understand this, because paying a P2P scam site money can not only make your wallet a bit lighter, it can also make your computer vulnerable to dangerous spyware.

Thatกs right. These scam sites are only interested in making money off you. As well as actually taking your money by fooling you into paying them, theyกll make money off you by installing spyware on your PC, so that they can get paid by sharing your online habits and personal information with others.

For music download beginners, all of this can be very confusing. Why? Because these scam sites advertise all over the Internet. Search engines return results chockful of these scams alongside the real P2P file sharing programs; their banner ads riddle the Internet landscape; sites are promoting these scams to get their piece of your money.

Most real P2P programs don’t advertise much on the Internet. The reason is that they’re not money makers. It takes money to advertise, and who has more moneythe free P2P file sharing programs or the scam artists? You guessed it. P2P relies on word of mouth. The scam sites rely primarily on advertising.

How Can I Tell a P2P Scam Site?

This is the easy part, if you know what you’re looking for. P2P scam sites often use phrases like 100% Legal, which is absolutely untrue. This is a trick they use to prey on people interested in P2P file sharing programs, but who are worried (rightly) about Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) lawsuits. Keep in mind that sharing and downloading of copyrighted files is, at this moment, an illegal activity.

Another tactic is to use fake endorsements and recommendations from legitimate companies. Other cons are to use phrases like Direct Downloads!, Get Access Now!, Download Unlimited Free Music!, and other phrases that are promising you things they absolutely CANNOT deliver.

How Does It Work & How are They Doing It?

To be honest, I do not know the ins and outs of P2P scam sites. But I know this: all P2P file sharing programs are free. Think about it a moment. It is because music files are being shared free of charge (without artists receiving royalties) that organizations like the RIAA are mad and suing.

These P2P scam sites are merely taking your money, downloading a little spyware to your PC, then connecting you to one of the real P2P file sharing programs.

This is all convoluted by the nature of P2P, which is a series of servers networking files to one another. Unless you’re buying your music MP3 downloads from a legitimate company, either per song/album or through a monthly subscription, you cannot be sure where your music is coming from.

The legal status of P2P file sharing programs is confusing. We know that MP3 files themselves are not illegal. For example, itกs legal to possess MP3s, to rip your CDs to your hard drive, and to burn CDs for your personal use. But, by sharing and/or downloading these files, you are breaking copyright laws. To my knowledge, P2P scam sites are not actually breaking any laws. But why pay for something you don’t have to?

One of the most common techniques these scam artists use is to set up sites that are misspellings or derivations of popular P2P file sharing programs. KaZaA is probably the most hijacked name being used these days.

Other sites may not actually charge you anything at all, but theyกll กgive you the software for freeก if you give them your email address. This too is a scam. Because once again, they’re just sending you along to a proper P2P program, but after collecting your email address, they’re selling it to third parties. Don’t give these scammers any of your personal information!

If you’re on a website you trust, even this website, you may see ads by these scam artists, preaching their lies about 100% blah, blah, blah. For your own security, don’t click on the links. They’re still scams. (Many independent websites rely on ads to pay the bills. We don’t always have full control over what advertisements appear on our sites. Keep in mind that most online advertisements are arranged and distributed by thirdparty companies who pair up advertisements with appropriate keywords. So a page that discusses กmusic downloadsก is likely to have an ad from a scam site singing their own false praises.)

On this note, there are sites all over the Internet that actually promote P2P scam sites. Why? I have my opinions. First, these scam sites are paying large sums of money to affiliates who promote their sites. For example, a scam site may be charging you $29.95 for their nonservice. Well, they’re paying affiliates over half (Iกve seen the payout as high as 75%) of that just for getting you, the visitor, to their scam sites.

I Think Iกve Used One of these Scam Sites. What Do I Do Now?

Stop! Right now, stop using that service. If youกve got some type of monthly payment with them, stop paying them. Cancel your กmembership,ก contact your bank or credit card company, and stop paying them immediately! Secondly, your computer has probably have been infected by spyware, and you need to remove it right away. I recommend purchasing spywareremoval software like Pest Patrol because they do the best job at clearing out spyware parasites.

If youกve been pulled into a scam site, just rack it up to experience. Their ad copy is very convincing, and you just wanted to กbe legalก while downloading. Take heart in knowing that you’re not alone. But you’re better off now, with this information at your disposal.

In my opinion, this is another reason to consider not using P2P file sharing programs as a means to get your online music. I think that these P2P scam sites will increase in number, and will use more clever tactics to get your money and your information. Until the peertopeer communities are regulated in some way, I fear that these types of activities will get worse before they improve.

About The Author

A former financial advisor and NYC book editor, Bill Paulk blends these two experiences by helping people make sound buying decisions. His passion, building digital music collections through MP3 downloads, is the subject of his first website. http://www.mp3musicdownloadsscout.com reviews and recommends the best in legal MP3 downloads.

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 12, 2004

by Bill Paulk

Who Else Wants Their Share Of Residual Income With

Who Else Wants Their Share Of Residual Income Without Having To Go MLM? (Or How I Increased My Monthly Revenue While Sitting At The Beach in Africa…)

by: Stephanie Hetu

Last week, I read a very cool case study written by Anik Singal (sorry, can’t give you the link to the case study, it is available only inside his exclusive Affiliate Classroom, which I highly recommend, by the way http://www.membershipsitereviews.com/affiliateclassroom.html ) where he was explaining how last month, while being very sick, he still managed to create a 4800$ RESIDUAL income.

I found his report very cool, because Anik has a way with words, and he was telling exactly what I am trying to teach on my site about promoting or starting a membership site : it is one of the BEST way to create RESIDUAL income online!

I know many people, when they hear the word ขresidualข, they have a bad taste in their mouth, mostly because they have tried and failed big time in MLM, where they often promise you extremely high residual income but where in fact, only a few people at the top make real money. Been there, done that. I think every single affiliate marketer has been down this road at some point. Why? Because mlm is everywhere, and the recruiting is very heavy online.

But what if I could teach you a way to build REAL residual income? And what if I told you that you DON’T have to buy a starter kit…or to buy expensive products every month?

It is totally doable, and it wont cost you a cent. Let me explain.

………………………..

How to do it : make the best choice

………………………..

There are two types of affiliate programs online : the ones that pay a onetime commission, and the ones that pay a residual commission.

The difference? For the SAME EFFORT, the first option brings in a onetime income, and the second option brings in a MONTHLY income.

Think about it, if you had to choose, which one would you promote? Residual commission affiliate programs, of course!

Let me repeat this, it is extremely important : for the same EFFORT, you get paid EACH MONTH instead of only once!

………………………..

What is the secret?

………………………..

There are no secret… only one very interesting way to create that residual income : membership sites.

Membership sites are not for everyone, of course, but let me show you the two options you have (one for the lazy guy, another for the creative one!)

1. The creative option

If you have a real passion, in a profitable niche, you can create your own membership site. The one thing I hear a lot is ขyeah..but people won’t PAY for content, there are so much free stuff online!ข. This is absolutely FALSE. Why? Because time is money. Yes, there are tons of free content online, but in it there’s a lot of crappy content too! In our busy world, people are HAPPY to pay to get the real information quickly.

Of course, you have to offer great value for the money, but it is totally possible to create a very successful membership site. Many are doing it right now, and making real big bucks too!

Think about this : let’s say you start a site about info product creation and you decide to charge 27$ per month to your members. Well, once you have 100 members, you will be making 2700$ per MONTH! This is much better then doing 27$ once, when you sell an ebook.

Some will argue that it takes a real big effort to provide fresh new content each month. Let me tell you this : for my own membership site, I don’t do everything myself. Each month I set aside a part of my revenue and reinvest it in the site for fresh content. This way I can pay a few writers and specialists to help me out!

2. The lazy option

If you are not really interested in starting your own membership site, the lazy option is this : promote someone else’s membership site! You see, most membership sites has an affiliate program in place. Why not take advantage of it? The real big difference is that instead of getting paid once, as I mentioned earlier, most membership site affiliate programs pay you a residual monthly commission.

Think about this : if a membership site pays 50% commission to its affiliates, you get exactly the same share of profit then the membership site owner, and all you have to do is promote it!

………………………..

Conclusion

………………………..

By now, you should be convinced that promoting membership sites, or starting your own, is a great way to increase your monthly revenue. Even if finding those membership sites to promote is not easy, it is worth the extra research time!

………………………..

Hey… but what about the beach in Africa?

………………………..

Nearly forgot to mention it. Great headline don’t you think? Just kidding here. Well, it is totally true! I spent 2 weeks in Africa, doing a tour, and I stayed a few nights at a luxury resort on the beach. And while I was there, I did not have to worry about money, because I new that I was making some more even while I was away! Not only my monthly income is insured, it is always growing because my advertising campaigns are on autopilot!

Ok, I can’t guarantee you will make millions of money tomorrow by promoting membership sites, but you should really try it, it’s a lot of fun and you will be very happy you did, a year from now, when you will have a steady monthly income coming in 😉

Your partner in online success,

Stephanie Hetu

This article can be reprinted as long as the resource box stays intact.

About The Author

Stephanie Hetu has been working on the web as an affiliate since 1999. She owns her own membership site: a niche site offering dog training help to dog owners (with a residual affiliate proram, of course!). Her passion for the subject has led her to create a unique site about… membership sites (!) where she reviews tools to start a your own, and membership sites you can promote.

To receive her membership site reviews, subscribe here (there’s a gift with it!) :

http://www.membershipsitereviews.com/newsletter.html

This article was posted on February 22

by Stephanie Hetu

Ready, Aim, Fire…Oops…Whereกs The Target?

Ready, Aim, Fire…Oops…Whereกs The Target?

by: Patty Baldwin

Everywhere you go on the Internet you find the words, "target market." What do they mean? What does it have to do with you? Well it has everything to do with your success in sales.
Let me give you an example. A few weeks ago an online entrepreneur asked me to review a direct sales presentation for him. Letกs call him "Joe". His product and service is excellent. Top quality and performance, excellent customer service and support. The product will produce desired results for any business advertising online.
In this particular case, Joeกs potential customer is in the furniture manufacturing business. The company owns a small chain of outlet stores and advertises on the Internet. Basically, an excellent candidate for Joeกs offer.
Well, Joe sent me his package. In the offline world, it would have required UPS to deliver it with a hand truck! Now, that is an overstatement, but it consisted of a threepage cover letter, with four separate attachments and a CD presentation that he was going to mail as a followup.
Hereกs my response to Joe:

"What a tremendous amount of work you have put into this presentation.
Having been on the receiving end of proposals such as this, I must tell you that it would be the recipient of the "delete" key. Why? Too much to wade through. Too much for me to absorb. Too much for me to do. Nothing to compel me to read on.
Having said that, letกs pretend for a moment that I am Mr. Jones.

Where are the needs development questions?
What tells me that you have done your homework and know about my industry?
What are my problems and how will you solve them?
How much does the average household spend on furnishings annually? (In the US itกs about $1,000)
How are you going to help me capture a share of those dollars?
How has the economy affected my business?
What qualities separate my business from my competition?
How extensive and how important are brand names to my customers?
What are my specialty areas?
What market do I target and why?
Why do my customers keep coming back to my stores?
What are some of the hot buttons or copy points that you might use to target Mr. Jones?
What is his business terminology?

Joe, here are two sites that can help you develop a more "targeted" approach to Mr. Jones:
http://www.furnitureinfo.com/1061.htm
http://www.furniturestatistics.com/statisticalreviewsales.html
I hope this helps, Joe. Decision makers are bombarded daily and we must be ever diligent that we are focusing in on "WIIFM" (Whatกs In It For Me)".

Now, what was the message to Joe? Do Your Homework. Mr. Jones doesn’t give a rip about your product unless it can fulfill his needs, but first you have to know what those needs are.
Joeกs presentation, which probably took him hours if not days to prepare, was a classic case of overkill. The two sites referred to would have given Joe all the ammunition he needed to prepare an effective presentation and in just a few short minutes.
By the way, the research tools that I use to study markets, trends, and individual sites are listed below. Both are free to download and are priceless.
http://www.copernic.com
http://www.alexa.com
Ready, Aim … Get Ready To Fire!

About The Author

Patty Baldwin is a former Better Business Bureau executive and the owner of several online businesses. A successful net marketer, she invites you to visit any one of her sites at:

http://www.allbizservices.com

http://www.4bstrading.com

http://www.allbizwealth.com

This article was posted on January 20, 2002

by Patty Baldwin

All About Links Interview With Link Building Ex

All About Links Interview With Link Building Expert , Bob Gladstein

by: Julia Hyde

Julia: Welcome Bob. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions about link building. Iกm going to jump right in ask you why Web sites need links?
Bob: There are a number of reasons to have links pointing to your site. But let’s start with the reason they were created in the first place. The original purpose of the Internet was to enable the sharing of information. For example, if a scholarly paper existed on a server at the University of California, and a professor at Oxford wanted to read it, the Internet made that instantly possible. Now, if the Oxford professor had a paper that referenced information from the UC paper, they could link directly to that other document rather than just quoting from it. So a hyperlink was intended as a way of connecting data, ideas, and references together. It’s like saying, ขif you’d like further information on this topic, here’s a place to find it.ข
When the Google search engine was created, its developers took this into account. And drew the conclusion that a link was an indication that the page being linked to was relevant to some particular subjectmatter.
So that’s a rather long introduction to a short answer to your question. Web sites need links because they send traffic that’s already targeted to their subject matter to other sites, and because they help the search engines determine both their theme and what the web as a community deems their importance to be. Basically (although not absolutely), the more links that point to a page, the more relevant that page is determined to be. In addition, links are now considered the most reliable way (apart from paying) to get a site into the search engines in the first place.
While both Google and Yahoo allow you to submit a site to their index, it’s clear that the best way to get the search engines to pay attention to your site is to get a page that their spiders already know about to link to yours. The spiders then follow that link to your site, and add it to their index.
Julia: Thanks, Bob. But there are different types of links aren’t there? Can you explain differences?
Bob: As we discussed in the previous question, there are text links from other sites. Some of these are reciprocal (that is, they link to you and you link back to them) and others are oneway (the owner of the other site decides, for whatever reason, to link to your site and doesn’t expect you to link back).There are also image links: banners, buttons, etc. These have the advantage of standing out visually from the rest of the page, but many people have become immune to the standard banner ad and just ignore them, because it’s assumed they’re just advertisements, and as such, not necessarily relevant to the page on which they appear.
Then there are directory listings, where a link to your site appears on a page containing links to numerous other sites in what the directory editor has determined to be your particular niche.
An important thing to consider regarding getting a link is the code behind it. If your primary concern is to send traffic to your site, this isn’t important. In that case, what you need to think about is whether the link is going to send the right people to you. But if you want the link to be recognized by the search engines and to contribute to your ranking in searches, you need the link to be in simple HTML, without JavaScript or other code that will hide the link from search engine spiders.
There are also links that won’t help you at all, or will put you in danger of losing your position on the search engines. Guestbook spam, the practice of going to a site’s guest book area and posting a message like ขNice site. Come visit mine, at…ข will do you no good. The search engines know that such links carry no value, and just ignore them. The same is true for freeforall links pages, on which you can immediately add a link to any site, without any editorial oversight.
Link farms are a far more dangerous subject. These are networks of sites that are heavily crosslinked and offer to link to you as long as you link back into the network, or host a page on your site that serves as a directory of sites that the link farm has linked to. The idea here is to abuse the power search engines give to links by exponentially increasing the number of links to your site, without regard for theme or value. You link into the farm, and you have hundreds, perhaps thousands of links pointing back to you. But the links are only there to increase link popularity. The sites on which the links reside are not intended to actually be viewed by people; they’re just intended to give search engine spiders the mistaken impression that your site is extraordinarily popular.
Julia: So, whatกs the best way to get legitimate and relevant sites to link to yours?
Bob: Before you can get a site to link to yours, you first have to find it. You need to do research on the subjectmatter of your site by searching on the keywords you hope people will use to find it. The results of those searches will give you a list of sites that are already performing well for those keywords. You should then study those sites, so that you can write to the webmaster and request a link in such a way that demonstrates that you understand the purpose of their site. And give reasons as to why you think their audience will find your site of interest.
You can buy links from sites as well, sometimes on a single page, and sometimes all across the site. These are just like any other form of advertising. So before you part with your money you need to determine if they’re worth the purchase price by deciding if they’ll send you enough of the right traffic. That’s why sites that offer the opportunity to buy links will make claims about how much traffic they get and how their audience is made up of ขdecision makers.ข
Finally, there are directories, which normally require you to drill down to find the most relevant category for your listing. You can then (depending on the directory) either contact them with your information, or fill out a form on the directory itself and request a listing.
Julia: What would you say to Web site owners who are reluctant to use links because they think it will take people away from their site?
Bob: For one thing, a Web site without any offsite links is a dead end, and there is some evidence to suggest that search engines view sites that don’t link out as being less valuable.
Unless you’re willing to pay, you may have a hard time convincing people to link to you if you’re not planning on linking back to them. But it’s still possible, especially if you’ve got content that’s so good people will want to link to you anyway, but it’s definitely harder to get oneway links than reciprocal ones. I’m not suggesting that people link directly to their competitors. The idea is to link to sites that complement the content that you’re providing. By doing so, you’re contributing to the impression that your site is an authority on your theme: not only do you have great information, but you have links to other sources of information. That’s another reason for people to come back to your site more often. And if you’re still worried about sending people away from your site and never seeing them again, you can set your offsite links to open in a new window, by adding target=ข_blankข to the code for the link. If you do this, however, it’s a good idea for usability purposes to let people know that the link will open in a new window. Otherwise, people who have their browser windows maximized may not realize what’s happened, and should they try to get back to your site by hitting their back button they’re likely to be confused when it fails to take them anywhere.
Julia: We often hear the term กAnchor textก. Can your explain what this means and why itกs important?
Bob: Anchor text is the part of a text link that’s visible on the page. On a Web page, that would look like this: Search Engine Marketing and Copywriting Services. ขSearch Engine Marketing and Copywriting Servicesข is the anchor text. What’s important about it is that it tells both the user and the search engine spider what the page the link points to is about. In a search engine optimization project, getting links to your site that use your keywords in the anchor text helps to get your page to rank higher for those keywords. That’s why it’s important to have something other than ขclick hereข as anchor text.The power of anchor text can be seen by the example of the practice of ขGooglebombing,ข in which numerous sites will link to a particular page using the same anchor text. If enough sites do it, Google will rank that page at the top of its listings for searches on that text. George W. Bush’ biography page on the site of the White House is still number one in Google for the query ขmiserable failureข about half a year after that particular Googlebomb was created. Whether or not you personally agree that those words do a good job of describing Mr. Bush, Google accepts what it sees as the opinion of the general online community. If enough pages tell Google that miserable failure George W. Bush, then as far as Google is concerned, it must be true.
Julia: Another thing we hear a lot about is Pagerank™—a tool webmasters often use to determine whether a site is worth linking to or not. What does this mean?
Bob: PageRank (not to be confused with ขpage rankข) is a part of Google’s algorithm for ranking pages. There are numerous theories as to how it’s calculated, but only Google knows for certain. In any case, that’s not important to this discussion. What matters is that PageRank is a measure of the value of a page based on the links pointing to it, the value of the pages on which those links reside,and the number of other links that are on those pages. It’s strictly numerical, and has absolutely nothing to do with relevance or value to the reader. In other words, if I have a page about Shakespeare, and I link to two pages, one about Shakespeare, and the other about the care and feeding of parakeets, the same amount of PageRank will be passed to both of those pages. The fact that one of those pages is about the same subject as my page does not enter into the calculation.
You can see an estimation of the PageRank of a given page if you have the Google toolbar installed. But it’s important to keep in mind that PageRank is not everything, nor is it the most important thing. It’s one of many factors Google takes into account when it ranks pages for queries, and it’s not at all uncommon to see that a site that ranks on the top of a SERP (search engine results page) has a lower PageRank than the pages below it on the SERP.
One of the reasons people believe that PageRank is important is that if you do a backlink check in Google by typing ขlink:www.site.comข in the search box, you’ll generally (but not absolutely) only see pages that link to the URL in question and have a PageRank of 4/10 or higher. People have taken this to mean that a link from a page with a lower PR doesn’t count, and that simply isn’t true. It’s true that, all other things being equal, the higher the PR of a page linking to yours, the more PR it’s going to pass to your page, but as I said, PR is just one aspect of Google’s algorithm, and every link apart from the troublesome ones we spoke of earlier has some value.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that a page that shows a PR of 2/10 in the toolbar today may have a 5/10 or 6/10 a few months from now.When I’m looking for sites from which I may wish to request links, the only time what I see in the toolbar matters to me is when I see that it has no PageRank at all. Assuming the site isn’t new, that can sometimes be an indication that the site has done something which caused Google to demote it. That is, it may be what Google refers to as a ขbad neighborhood,ข and as such, you should be extra careful in checking it out before you agree to link back to it.
Julia: Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, Bob! I hope you all will check out Bobกs site at www.raisemyrank.com for more information about his company.

About The Author

Julia is an independent copywriter specializing in advertising and search engine marketing services. To learn more about how Julia can help boost your companyกs profits visit her site at www.juliahyde.com. You may also like to sign up for Marketing Works! Juliaกs monthly ezine. Visit her website or email Julia for details.

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 22, 2004

by Julia Hyde

What Can Lots Of Content Do For Your Site?

What Can Lots Of Content Do For Your Site?

by: Matt Colyer

Today there are so many web sites on the web, but so few of them have good content and there are even fewer web sites that have large amounts of content. Why is the web like this? For one most webmasters are trying to make a quick buck and others don’t know where to begin or are too lazy to do the work.

Content really is king! Why? because visitors will stay longer or will come back more often and they are more likely to buy from your business. Visitors know you are an expert in your siteกs topic because you write informative articles, which leads the visitor to trust your business more. And to your visitors itกs all about trust because if they can’t trust your business, how can they trust the product/service you sale or how can they even know that they will receive the product/service.

Most of the time before an Internet surfer buys a product they will search the web to get more information about it. Sometimes they are just looking to see how it really works or maybe they want to know more about a certain feature. If you write articles about your products, surfers are more likely to find your web site in the search engine and you may even steal a few sales from your competitor, which will result in more sales for you!

Having a site with great and informative information will make another site owners more likely to link to your web site. Think about it! Would you link to a site that just had their products and service web pages? Or would you link to a web site that has great content that will help your visitors? If you are like most webmasters you would chose the 2nd one because this will benefit your web site because it helps the visitors know more about your products.

Search engines such as Google and Yahoo! love themed sites! Having a good themed web site means your ranking is more likely to rank higher than other web sites. Not only does this help out your siteกs theme, but also allows you to target more keywords. Surfers will find these web pages when searching the web and will result in more sales.

About The Author

Matt Colyer is the owner of the Marhen.com Network which includes www.linkexchangeit.com and is a parttime SEO. He also is a php, CGI and ASP developer.

This article was posted on August 10, 2004

by Matt Colyer

Yahooกs Back!

Yahooกs Back!

by: Shawn Campbell

I was all set to write an article predicting the future of search engines, when Yahoo dropped Google and replaced it with its own engine. Now thatกs big news. In less than twentyfour hours, Google went from about 79% of the market share to about 51%, almost overnight. And what a welcome relief it is too! Being #1 in Google was great, but when you had the misfortune of dropping even a couple of positions you really felt it. Now there will be more stability; if you drop in Google today, your hits from Yahoo will remain consistent.

What is the new Yahoo?

Last year, Yahoo bought the AltaVista, Fast, and Inktomi search engines. The new Yahoo results are none of these. Many people are saying that the results come from a new Inktomi because the results are similar; but the results are also similar to all the other search engines out there. In comparing these engines, it seems to me that Yahooกs results are from a brand new engine. Maybe they took parts and ideas from all the search engines they bought maybe they even took the best parts , but whatever they did, the result is something completely new.

Which search engine is better?

I will be comparing Google and Yahoo for the terms กmusicก, กart prints and postersก, กBahamas real estateก, กmosquito netsก, and กliposuctionก. The other search engines all hold less than 4% of the market share (except for MSN which uses Yahooกs Inktomi), so I won’t be considering them. Here is what I found in the top 10 results for each keyphrase:

Music

Yahoo offers a lot of music resource sites. Information about music from different sources such as magazine, TV and other music news sites are found 6 times in the top 10 results. It also offered downloading and file sharing programs 3 times. The 10th result was an audio player program site.

Google has a lot more diversity. There were 3 music resource sites (but no magazines), one downloading program, one CD store, one radio station (Yahoo radio), one music directory, and the 10th result was an audio player program site. Google also had 2 sites in its top ten that were of no value whatsoever; MP3.com which just has one page stating that they no longer offer the services that they used to (with links to their parent company), and music.com, which is nothing more than an email gathering site for a newsletter (not a single link on the entire page).

Googleกs diversity is a big bonus, but the 2 spam/junk/useless sites really hurt it. The results? Yahoo 1, Google 0.

Art Prints And Posters

Yahoo offers 6 stores, while Google offers 5. The other links are all affiliate spam with no content whatsoever (just links to stores), with the exception of one of Yahooกs links, which has some biographical content about artists. So Google has 5 spam sites, and Yahoo has 3 and a half.

Yet another round goes to Yahoo.

Bahamas Real Estate

For this keyphrase, I found results between Google and Yahoo to be quite similar. The only differences were sites by actual realtors and sites that were simply property listings. Both types of results are useful, with Google having an edge in realtors. Google had some lower quality sites, but the information was just as good even though they did seem less professional. On the other hand, Yahoo did have one site that was nothing more than a links page from another realtorกs site. Big boo boo.

This one goes to Google.

Mosquito Nets

It seems to me that someone searching for กmosquito netsก wants either A) to buy them, or B) to learn about them, so I was expecting to find either stores or information about mosquito nets. Yahoo showed me 6 stores and 2 informational pages. The other results were a search result page (not a good result) and an inner page from a previous result (also not a good result).

Google gave me 7 stores and 3 charitable organizations (one of which was a store as well). The other 2 charitable organizations were a news article outlining what they had done regarding mosquito nets and information about mosquito nets.

So even though I didn’t necessarily want the latest news about what a charity did regarding mosquito nets, I think getting the same site twice from Yahoo (not to mention the search result page) is the bigger nono. Google wins this round.

Liposuction

I expected to find information about liposuction, liposuction organizations and either doctors or centers where you can have liposuction done. What I got was a lot of กhow to find a doctorก sites, with a lot of good information.

Yahoo results included 3 sites doubled. This is a problem that killed AltaVista in the late 90กs. Hopefully they will have it fixed soon. Other than the 3 doubled sites, the results included 4 informational sites, 2 sites for finding doctors and one poorly written article about the history of liposuction.

Google gave me 4 good informational sites, 2 good กfind a doctorก sites, one recent article about liposuction for people in the industry, one site with very poor information one written by a single doctor and one site that was nothing more than a directory.

Google gets this round as well. Overall, it looks like Yahoo needs to fix its doubling of sites and Google needs to clean out some spam (poor sites).

And The Winner Is…

You! Having two good search engines to choose from makes searching that much better for everyone. It also makes getting listings better. It also makes marketing better. It also makes traffic to your site steadier. The only way this could have been worse is if Yahooกs results sucked, and they don’t. They seem just as good, if not better, than Googleกs.

So rejoice, and enjoy a more dynamic world of online searching!

Shawn Campbell

About The Author

Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce marketplace, and cofounded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc. (http://www.redcarpetweb.com/). He has been researching and developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field.

Contact: [email protected]

This article was posted on April 05, 2004

by Shawn Campbell

Website Imperatives and Solutions

Website Imperatives and Solutions

by: Richard Keir

When you take a look at the most visited sites on the internet, what hits you in the face? Change, growth, new content. In a sense, a search engine is the perfect web site. By itกs very nature, it grows and changes continuously and moment by moment adds new content. But, most of us are never going to build a Yahoo or a Google. The competition at that level is horrific.

But the lesson is there to be read. You could build a great site with terrific content never seen before and do very well for a while. But the imperatives that control our success or failure revolve around growth, change and new content. An obvious solution is to continually provide new content for your sites. Basically this means writing or constructing new pages, preferably with unique content.

There are, certainly, several easy ways to get content for your site. The first is to use other peopleกs articles. Nearly all of us who do write and publish articles want people to pick them up and use them with live links to our sites, naturally. Despite a lot of mindless babble about a duplicate content penalty, article syndication is alive and working as well as ever. Just don’t scrape a site and replicate it.

Another source is RSS. Most feeds are meant to be syndicated (but not all so you do need to check Terms of Use) and they provide updated content. Other sources include content in the in the public domain.

Like all easy solutions, there are a couple of drawbacks. Other peopleกs articles may not be focused as well as youกd like to your site content and goals. And they don’t help your siteกs link popularity. Along with growth, change and content, incoming links are a critical success factor.

Using RSS feeds or other searchbased content can raise copyright issues, irritate some feed or site owners, and may be even more poorly focused to your siteกs content than articles. If you use RSS feeds, almost inevitably youกll see content on your site that is absolutely irrelevant.

Public domain materials are extremely useful as content sources if you can find matches to your site content. Assuming that you can, then you will need to convert the material into pages or into a form useable on your web pages. This can be timeconsuming, but it may be easier than writing your own content.

Ghost writers are yet another alternative. Here you trade time for money. But this can be a tricky process. Some are not really fluent in English and you may need to do some rewriting. Also, you may need to doublecheck and make sure that the articles provided are actually original and not nearly identical to existing copyrighted material. Some ghost writers seem to work by finding a site with a related theme and then pretty much copy material from that site with minimal changes. Not a good idea for you to post that as your own.

Another source would be sites offering private label products. Many of those products can be mined for excellent targeted site content. Some products sold with Master resale rights also allow you to use the materials as site content. In this last case, you need to be certain exactly what you can and can’t do under the specific rights package. Sometimes you can alter the materials, sometimes you can’t.

Private label products with you having full rights, including the right to alter them and put your own name on them as author can be one of the easiest ways to meet all of the imperatives. With rights to an informative, new and interesting book on a niche topic, you can rework it a little, maybe add some nice graphics, generate a PDF and sell it.

Or you could generate that PDF and also generate pages for your site from the book. Give the PDF away in exchange for signing up to your list. Extract tips and ideas from the book and put together 2 or 5 or more articles based on the book. Publish and distribute the articles to generate links to your site and help brand yourself as an expert.

>From one private label product you can generate a lot of new real estate for your site, add a viral product that you can use to build your lists, and through articles generate incoming links and do some useful branding.

It really doesn’t get any easier than that. It takes some time and effort, but nothing like the effort of writing 5 or 10 articles from scratch, building 30 or 50 or 150 web pages, and writing your own viral book for listbuilding.

What about the other people who belong to the same private label site? Isn’t everybody going to have duplicate content? In the real world, 90 percent of the people with access to a product will do nothing at all or the absolute minimum. Very few will mine the product, produce articles, produce web pages, or produce a nicely modified PDF. And of those that do, each will follow their own unique path. The chance of near identical content is pretty low. The PDFs produced may be more similar, but consider how many people make serious money with resale rights selling identical material.

Thereกs a lot of room out there. Even within the most competitive niches, a thoughtful, patient marketer who pays attention to the imperatives and works smart, can make a living few would complain about. But there are also less competitive niches where the same marketer could become the dominant force. The materials are out there to get you going. Use them and work smart.

None of this is rocket science. The first, and ultimate, imperative is take action. Too many will fail, because they never even really began. Start today.

Copyright 2005 Richard Keir

About The Author

Richard Keir writes, teaches, trains and consults on business and professional presentations and eCommerce related matters. For more information on eCommerce sites and eCommerce site building http://www.buildingecommercewebsites.com and http://www.buildingecommercewebsites.com/articles for more eCommerce articles.

This article was posted on September 14

by Richard Keir

Guaranteed Ways to Build Up Your Ezine List

Guaranteed Ways to Build Up Your Ezine List

by: Suzanne FalterBarns

Here are tips gleaned from roughly 5 years spent building up an ezine list. Iกve also incorporated comments and tips from Jenna Glatzer, who successfully built her list up to 75,000 at her excellent site, www.absolutewrite.com

1. Free Stuff. Pick genuinely useful free stuff that you know your audience wants and needs. For instance, my brand new ezine, Expert Status, attracted 600 readers in just a few weeks by offering a report, ข25 Top Self Help Literary Agentsข. The practical freebie works. Jenna Glatzer offers two free ebooks/reports to subscribers on agents who are receptive to new writers, and on writer’s markets. She notes: ขBefore I did that, my subscriber numbers were in the hundreds, not thousands.

2. Put a subscribe box on every page of the site. This has worked for both Jenna and me. Mine is parked in the left hand column of the site. Experts advise putting a simple sign up box (with freebie mentioned) in the top left hand corner, as that’s where the eye naturally travels first. A simple sign up box that requests only email address works best.

3. Ad swaps. Exchange plugs for your ezine with another website, to run in eachother’s ezines. Be sure to mention those freebies! Doing this on a regular basis with a rotating selection of web partners will keep your subscription page busy.

4. Crossregistration. I’ve found subscribers by having a plug for my ezine on the thank you page of a comparable (but not directly competitive) website. This offer is made to folks who just signed up for an ezine, and are therefore deemed ‘in the mood for more.’ Offer a swap with your site, and try not to list more than about two other ezines. Also, make a point of including only really good, reliable publications that reach your target market.

5. Give away a bonus for other sites to use, based on your ezine. A popular web marketing technique is the special one or twoday promo that offers big bonus lists when you buy a certain product on those particular days. (I cover this promo technique in more detail in my ebook/binder, Get Known Now; How to Build Your Platform as a Self Help Expert.) So collect some of your best ezine essays, pack ‘em up in a downloadable PDFbased ebook, and offer it as a bonus these sites can use in their special promos. Don’t forget juicy descriptive copy about your ezine, and a subscribe link at the end of your ebook. I’ve gotten hundreds of new readers this way, and much traffic to my site.

6. Announce ezine ‘events’ on PRweb.com and other PR sites. There’s an entire world of webbased press release distribution services out there, some of which are low cost or even free. So use them. But be sure to only plant press releases that are truly newsworthy, and thus likely to get press attention. Even if the media don’t use your words this time, they’ll hopefully file you as an expert for future use.

7. Use discussion boards or groups. These are sites frequented by gangs of people interested in the same thing. Avoid the unmoderated sites, because they’re likely to be spam targets that generate little bonafide traffic. Boards found on member sites are the best. Don’t spam the board with your subscribe message. Instead, offer some genuinely helpful info. Then sign off with a signature line that includes ezine and subscribe info. You can find some of these groups at groups.yahoo.com, topica.com, maillist.com, and listfool.com for starters.

8. Sponsor other people’s contests. Jenna Glatzer gives away products like her paid newsletter, Absolute Markets Premium Newsletter, to writers’ groups, contests, and conferences that request it, regardless of size. I’ve tried this too, to good effect. Simply run an announcement in your ezine that you’d be happy to sponsor comparable events. Ask them to provide a URL for an event description so you know it’s legit. Then offer up your gifts, and ask for a plug for your ezine and for them to talk up your dazzling freebie, as well. Jenna notes that groups she sponsors ขoften send out ads for us to their lists … just as a thank you.ข

9. Run quality content. There’s no substitute for heartfelt writing plus solid information about a subject that matters. Jenna writes: ‘The main reason our list stays so big is our ‘letter from the editor’ … Each week, I chronicle my writing life and my triumphs and failures … when an article is killed, when I’m having trouble finishing a book … And I share personal things, too, like when my grandfather died…. People write: ‘ I feel like I know you so well.’ And I think that’s why they stay on the list, even when their mailbox fills up with dozens of other writer’s newsletters.

10. Allow reprints. Allow any newsletter that wants to reprint your articles do so. I like to have an email requesting permission, so I can enter their info into a big database I use to track where I can send more articles in the future. I end each article with the line: You may reprint this article in your own ezine or website. Simply send an email requesting permission to EMAIL ADDRESS. Please be sure to include our full bio box at the end.

11. Create a survey or contest. This would be one of those newsworthy ‘ezine events’ I mentioned above in point # 6. Make it a fun, relevant question that you could really develop a good, newsy story from. I did a survey asking people what they fought with their spouse/partner/boy or girlfriend about. The results made for the kind of reading offline media enjoy running short, 100word pieces about (fillers.) I made sure to attribute the survey to my ezine, The Joy Letter, with a mention of the site’s basic URL. You can get the technology to run your own survey and collect responses at surveymonkey.com (for a fee) or bravenet.com (for free.)

I think I could actually go on and on here. The possibilities seem to be endless. If you try even half of these techniques on a regular basis, you’ll find your subscriber rates double and even triple. Here’s to building your list … the foundation that much of your traffic and success rely on.

Copyright 2004 Suzanne FalterBarns

About The Author

Suzanne FalterBarns’ website, The Self Help Salon (www.selfhelpsalon.com) offers tips and tools that help you build your platform and get known as an expert in your field. Sign up for her free ezine, Expert Status, and receive her free report, ข25 Top Self Help Literary Agents

This article was posted on September 09, 2004

by Suzanne FalterBarns