4-Step Plan To Improve Your Website Traffic

By: Nigel Robinson

If you have seen the Kevin Costner movie "Field of Dreams" you would think that having designed and built your website, all you have to do is to sit back and watch the visitors arrive in their droves. But of course, it's not that easy is it? However, if you follow this four-step plan you will begin to see those visitors arrive, if not in spectacular numbers:

1. Announcing your website’s presence

With the majority of traffic being generated through the top search engines (Google, Yahoo, AOL, MNS etc.) the starting point is to let them know that your website exists. This is achieved by submitting a request through their "Add/Submit URL" facilities. You can do this individually or you could think about using software to submit a batch request to most of the search engines that now exist. It you look for "search engine submission software” you will find an abundance of free and paid-for services, but I would advise against parting with your hard-earned cash at this stage.

2. Achieving a high a search engine ranking

You will probably already understand the concept that when that the search engines deliver results from your key word entry, the websites are ranked according to both the relevance and popularity. So let’s examine what is meant by these terms:
Relevance - you will read a lot about making sure your website contains material that intrinsically carries value. If for instance, your website is about tropical fish, then make sure it is packed with facts about the subject and don't be shy about it. Make sure your website content carries the key words that the tropical fish fraternity will search for. If not, you can be sure your website will be consigned to appear on page13,563 of the search results. You guessed it, no one will ever see your masterpiece!
Popularity - the principal way in which the Search Engines determine the level of a website’s popularity is to take into consideration the number and quality of links from other websites. The ranking algorithms used by the Search Engines are closely guarded secrets, but his is widely recognized that popularity is determined as follows:
- by the absolute numbers of links;
- they are not weighted according to the ranking or popularity of the website they are coming from;
- whether the link itself is from a website in a related sector (i.e. an aquarium wholesaler linking to a tropical fish retailer).

3. Generating Direct Traffic

This is probably the most difficult and time-consuming strategy to generate visitors. So is it worth it? I would definitely recommend it if you are offering a niche product or service or you're trying to generate leads in your local market. You can do this in a variety of ways. For instance:
-by distributing ‘fliers’
-testing the market with highly targeted advertisements
-taking every opportunity to include your website's address on e-mail, letter headed paper etc
-by word of mouth

4. “Pay-Per-Click” advertising

More and more businesses are turning to sponsored links as a means of guaranteeing prominence in the Search Engines. Google’s Adwords programme is by far the market leader in pay-per-click advertising and generates millions of dollars in revenue every day. However, unless you have particularly ‘deep pockets’, you should make sure you don't rely exclusively on pay-per-click traffic to your website and you should try to organically improve your visibility in the free search engine results as well.

Tips On Blogging For Dollars

By: Seth Willis Jr.

After you’ve made the decision to set up and create an ongoing blog for your AdSense revenue, make sure you stay up to date on trends and articles that will drive traffic to your site. It’s easy to fall into the trap of reporting and blogging on outdated material, and today’s readers need timely and newsworthy information so that they can stay excited and eager to read your work! AdSense advertising will be effective only when it is attached to a worthwhile blog or site. Make sure that when you’re blogging for dollars, it’s worth your effort and time.
Some key things to remember when you are blogging for dollars include:
Choose the right keywords. Make use of Google’s and Yahoo!’s keyword selector tools and get comfortable with the scope and subjects that are popular. Blogging is much easier when you are knowledgeable and confident about a particular subject.
Target your site to a single topic, and branch out. It’s easy to start to take in too many different subjects, and this will only confuse your readers. Choose an industry that interests you, and slowly evolve and develop the site to introduce additional and relevant information.
Don’t click your own ads! This is a big mistake for your budget, revenue goals, and analysis of how well your site is doing. Spend time promoting your site and driving traffic in other effective ways.
Don’t include popup ads on your site. Web visitors find this a nuisance, and they may even leave right away if your popup ad appears more often than not!
Don’t pull any ad-clicking tricks. There’s no need for hiding an ad, or making sneaky requests when providing information. Keep it clean, direct, and open; your visitors will appreciate it!
Use RSS feeds. This is a great way to encourage people to keep reading your blog, and will help you drive traffic with much less effort.
Promote and submit to multiple sites. Make sure your blog topics and content are available to others; try e-mailing them to people you know, promoting it on discussion boards that are topic-relevant (make sure to stick to the moderator’s rules), and send it to the major search engine directories if you can.
Use metatags. These are becoming more popular with the increase of social networking sites that aggregate information online simply by using tags to describe the Website, blog, or piece of information. By making sure you have many metatags included in your blog’s description and header, you can increase the chances of exposure.
Use free tools, such as Keyword Digger (http://keyworddigger.com/ ) and Google’s Traffic Estimator (http://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox) to calculate specific keyword costs and popularity.
Analyze your results! It’s important to make a process or system to calculate and analyze how well your keywords and specific blog sites are doing. Try doing this on a weekly or even two to three-day basis. Use Google Analytics to help you create your best reports and features that you may need (http://google.com/analytics/). The site is particularly tailored for Google advertising campaigns.

Three Blogging Tips

By: Peter Nisbet

This article is not intended to provide you with a host of blogging tips, but simply to guide those of you who have either just started or have been blogging for a while but have some bad habits.
Bad blogging habits are easy to get into, and one of the worst is to leave your ‘About’ page unchanged. You know the page: it is provided by Wordpress as standard and a whole host of bloggers leave it unchanged. Why they do this is known only to them, because this is the first page that a large number of first-time visitors to a blog check out, and the reason why many of them leave without looking further.
All you have to do is to say a little about yourself, who you are, and what your blog is about, why you feel qualified to write a blog about this topic and how you can be contacted. If your blog covers a particular niche, rather than being simply a log of personal comments, then your potential readers will want to know why they should believe what you say by reading your credentials on the subject.
There is nothing wrong with having a personal blog about your personal thoughts on things, but if you are presenting yourself as a form of expert on a specific topic, then you will have to persuade readers that you have a right to do so. You should use your ‘About’ page to do that.
Another tip you should take is to claim your blog with Technorati. This registers it as yours with Technorati, and you can get a whole load more visitors. Since joining Technorati most of my blogs’ traffic rocketed. It takes a while for new blogs to get going, but it’s a lot easier if you make use of sites such as Technorati. The same is true of most of the social bookmarking sites if traffic is important to you. If you are using a blog to promote a product, then this is essential.
If you have a website then don’t get lazy and be content to run your blog from a hosting site such as wordpress.com. It is better to download the software from wordpress.org, and host your own blog. You have much more control over the look and feel of it, and can use any of the thousands of plugins that are available online. You can also use any template you want, or even design your own. That way you get total customization of your blog pages, and can make it more distinctive than the majority hosted on Wordpress or Blogger’s site. If you have tried and had problems downloading and installing it then send me an email. If needed I can take you through it online, or by telephone.
These are the two main tips that any blogger should take if they intend to blog seriously. However, was I to provide the third most important tip for anybody interested in blogging, then it would be to monetize your blog. Don’t blog for nothing. If your blog concerns a specific niche subject you can likely throw up one or two affiliate programs on your sidebar so that they appear with your new posts. A three column blog is useful for this, since your regular sidebar will generally be full of permanent links.
If you monetize using Adsense, a three column layout is even more essential, since you will want a vertical block down one of the columns, in addition to some at the bottom and the middle. A good Adsense layout would be a column to the left or right of the main text column containing a vertical ad unit, a horizontal link unit at the bottom of the blog, and also a horizontal ad unit at the bottom of the latest post. You could also include a search box at the top or bottom of your main sidebar that allows a search either on Google, from which you get income, or on your blog.
You could also include one of your websites as a second search option, providing three altogether. The income might not be a lot, but most blogs with a few hundred visitors a day should be able to make from $10 to $20 daily minimum, depending on the niche. All you need are a few blogs like that.
These are my three main blogging tips. Yours would likely be different, since blogging is a very personal thing, but if you take these three on board you will likely find that you will get more visitors, have more fun and also be able to put a bit put aside for the holidays or that unexpected bill that always comes at the wrong time.

Home Based Internet Business Opportunity - 5 Internet Home Business Mistakes

Submitted By: Lubano Lim

Are you looking for a home based business opportunity? Since you are reading this article, I assume that your answer is “yes”.
Before taking up any opportunity, you should be aware of some common mistakes that new internet entrepreneurs made. Let’s go through some of them.
1) Failure to plan
There is a saying, “When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Yes, I know you may have heard of it before. But let us look at why failing to plan is planning to fail.
If you do not plan what you are going to do for the day, this may happen.
You sit in front of your computer for the whole day. 6 hours have passed. You realized that you have spent 5 hours surfing the net aimlessly. Does this happen to you? If your answer is yes, then one possible problem is due to the lack of planning.
2) Not tracking your campaign
Assuming you have done everything you are suppose to do. Squeeze page, sales page, autoresponder series, ppc campaign, submitting articles to directories etc. You manage to get a few sales.
Now, you want to improve your sales. But how are you going to do that if you do not know where your sales came from? Is it from the articles you have written, or from ppc.All successful marketers track their campaign in details. It is only through tracking that you will know how to improve your campaign without second guessing.
3) Trying to do everything yourself
Perhaps when you first started as a newbie with limited funds, you may have to do everything by yourself. However, all of us only have 24 hours. There is only so much things that we could do for ourselves.
Once you started earning some profits, you may want to consider outsourcing. For example, if you are not a technical person, you should outsource the task to others so that you can spend more time on marketing. Ultimately, it is the marketing that is going to make you more money.
4) Not going residual
Consider the following 2 choices:
a) Promoting a $197 eBook with $90 commission.
b) Promoting a $47 monthly membership site with $20 commission every month.
Which will you prefer? I will definitely prefer choice (b). As you progress through your internet career, you will definitely want to consider going residual. You will get paid again and again just by putting in one time effort.
5) Ignoring big ticket items
If your target is to make a million dollar, how are you going to achieve it?
a)You try to sell 100,000 copies of a $10 product.
b)You try to sell 10,000 copies of a $100 product.
Which is easier? Don’t you think option (b) is easier? A lot of people make the mistake of promoting products that only pay them pennies. Why not try to promote a higher ticket items. You do not have to work that hard but you will be able to earn more!
In fact, some people only buy high ticket items. Have you ever wonder why people buy branded goods? Are branded goods necessary better?

How To Earn Money Through The Internet

How To Earn Money Through The Internet
Submitted By: Mario R. Churchill

Nowadays, the Internet has become an invaluable resource for anyone looking for ways to earn money. There are several ways to earn money online. The most popular ones are listed below.
Earn money by reading emails
This is probably the easiest way to earn money online not to mention the most accessible since almost everybody has an email address. The mechanics are simple. Online advertisers provide commissions to the companies that assign the paid emails. An individual who receives a paid email will get paid when he or she clicks on the links or visits the websites of the advertiser.
The problem with paid email programs is that they do not pay much. The average earning for this type of activity is between $0.01 to $1.00 for every paid email. Most paid companies also have a payout minimum which means that they pay the email reader only after he or she has reached a certain amount of emails.
Get paid to take surveys
This is probably one of the easiest ways to earn money on the Internet. Imagine, all you have to is answer a couple of questions and you get money in exchange. Your opinions are indeed as good as gold. There are hundreds, even thousands of online merchants, who want to hear what you have to say and are willing to pay you a good amount of money just by letting them know what you think about their products.
The only problem with paid survey programs is the fact that you have to pay a certain amount in the form of an access fee so you can start answering surveys. But the amount is nothing compared to the money that you can potentially earn.
Like in paid email programs, you must be careful in choosing the right paid survey programs so as to avoid being scammed. The best thing you can do to avoid falling for fake paid survey schemes is to access databases of survey programs.
Complete offers and earn money
Completing offers is a more lucrative way to earn money online that paid emails and paid surveys. And just like paid emails and paid surveys, you can also do this at the comfort of your home or room. In this type of program, you will be paid for trying out products and services or participating companies. The offers involves a wide range of products and services including club memberships, samples, free trials, credit cards, etc.
Individuals who complete offers earn as much as $70 for very completed offer. You just need to shell out cash for shipping and handling of products or for trial memberships. Usually, the greater the amount you put out, the more cash you will earn. This is actually a great deal because the offers you will complete are mostly useful. This means that your hard earned money won’t be wasted. It is like getting paid for shopping.
Earn money as you shop
And speaking of getting paid for shopping, there is actually a program where you actually do get paid for shopping. For this scheme, individuals get paid a percentage of what they spend at online stores. So if you are individual who does a lot of online shopping, then this program is definitely for you. You get to do the thin g you love to do and get paid for doing it.
Join an affiliate marketing program
If you really want to earn big bucks on the Internet then the bets way to do so is by joining affiliate marketing programs. New affiliate marketers earn between $23,000 to $25,000 a year.

How To Earn More Money From Google Adsense And Exceed Your Best Ever Adsense Income!

How To Earn More Money From Google Adsense And Exceed Your Best Ever Adsense Income!
Submitted By: Peter Phillips

If you’re not in it for money - Adsense making money tips
To paraphrase the lovely Shania Twain - “If you’re not willing to give it all you’ve got- get out of here!”
It's easy to waste your time trying to understand the internet business and end up being in a daze, surrounded by too many miracle cures and instant success stories.
It’s like a tsunami of information drowning you, and there is no escape to higher ground.
I don't know how someone got my email address, but some drongo (an Aussie term - you’ll figure it out!) wrote to me asking me to put in just 5 dollars and immediately get back 20 without my doing anything…. one of those “instant cash doubler" schemes.
After all this time I’ve got more common sense... and so should you...than to get into his "program." That common sense will tell you that the only way you will get back 20 dollars for five is if five other mugs like you fall for his scam and front up with their five dollars, so that the promoter can pay you and keep some for himself.
All very well if you are one of the first in line, and get your seed money back with just one payout, but that very rarely happens.
I just got I don’t know how many of these "miracles" and at least one "NextProduct" alert in my mailbox which is supposed to help me get instant riches in internet marketing.
Listen, if you really want to make serious money, you have to be one of these promoters, cobble together a few tips and tricks that anyone can get for free, give it a catchy name, and get one of the big hitters to promote it to their list. I’m sure you’ve seen your inbox flooded by lots of these people, all trying to sell you the same thing, and with ever increasing bonuses which you will never use, but they sound great.
However, for most of us down in the food chain, that’s not a realistic option - we don’t have our own product, and no guru will touch us.
Let me tell you, the only solid money I’ve ever made is from using Google Adsense to make money. Sure I won’t retire from it, but I am making around $2.50 a day from my sites. Not much, I know, but what if I had an Adsense network of 100, or even 200 sites? (That’s $50 a day for you non-accountants!) That’s how much you can make, and that’s the secret of making money with Adsense.
You can not only use Adsense on your site, you can use Adsense in Wordpress blogs, use all the Google information marketing tools, Adwords etc.
Of course the drawback is that you have to set up those 200 sites and maintain them with constantly changing content, and that content has to be sufficiently interesting to make a few people click on a few ads.
However, there are ways to do this, using RSS feeds, feeds from other blogs, and other auto blogging techniques, but be wary of not overdoing it, make sure the feeds add genuine interest to your site.
The main problem will be in setting up 200 attractive, keyword and Adsense rich sites.
To do this yourself will take a lot of time, effort and money, and you will never do it if you’re just mucking around with internet marketing.
You will have to spend some serious cash on hiring someone to do it for you, or get a website generating software program, and a really good one will not be cheap, but if you’re serious, you will spend that money, which gets back to the thrust of my opening paragraph - “If you’re not willing to give it all you’ve got - get out of here!”

Work From Home On The Internet - You Have A Unique Home Based Business Opportunity Right Here

The internet has become a very powerful tool in the marketing world. People all over the world are using the internet and just by following a link from a site they end up where they can buy what they need.The internet is an industry where money is being made for real and it keeps improving as more and more companies starts to promote their products or services online and that offers a unique home based business opportunity for anyone with an internet connection to make money from home.If you work from home on the internet you can get a piece of the cake by selling as an affiliate, which means that you sell other peoples products and get a commission for each sale you make.You do not need to have your own product to sell, you do not need to have a big budget to start you business, 20 dollars a month is all the expenses you need to have.If that is too expensive for you, you can even do it for free (more work required and less profits) Affiliate marketing is a very profitable way to work from home on the internet there's a lot of people out there who is making big sums of money monthly. Every body can do it, it really works but it requires some work from your end of course witch is an understanding you need to have before you get started, (a lot of people think you can get rich over night without doing anything.)