Archive for Internet marketing
Finding Your Traffic With Articles
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the biggest keys to success for your online business, products or affiliate sites is finding your traffic. The reason I say finding your traffic is because often times people think that doing nothing will bring great results.
While there are many ways to gain traffic I want to share some easy to use tips today for using articles to find traffic sources. While this technique isn’t new or some earth shattering revelation…. many people are not using this technique.
For this example we are going to assume you’re in the dog drooming niche.
OK, the idea we are going to use here is to get your article viewed by more people. First, if you’re unsure what to write about in your niche you’ll want to do some research.
FIRST: Go to www.ezinearticles.com
#1. Type your keywords in the search bar.
#2. Browse the articles in the database.
Simply click on one of the articles that comes up (or all of them if you’d like) to see how many searches they are getting. If you can find several articles getting a decent amount of article views chances you’ll want to look at what keyword phrases they are using. For instance if your main keywords are Dog Grooming but you see an article for Dog Grooming Kits Online you might want to figure out if they are getting traffic for Dog Grooming Kits instead.
So how do you do that?
Simple. Open up your browser to www.google.com and check. Most of the traffic to articles comes from natural search engine rankings (usually).
Inside Google simply type in "dog grooming". If that doesn’t return any results for an Ezine Article then type in Dog Grooming Kits. If that brings up the keyword results then you know that they are ranking for those keywords.
Next, simply write a similar article (do not copy them or write anything too similar but use similar keywords). I like to write most of my articles at 500 words or more but I’ve found hundreds of barely over 300 words ranking well (like top 5) on Google.
Make sure your resource box has links going back to your site where you want people to either click you affiliate links or adsense banners.
That’s it! Pretty simple and easy.
Let’s look at a couple other things though. I like to give my articles a boost by writing an additional article and pointing it from other article directories to article I want to rank high in Google. I simply write another similar article that and add it to a few other top directories (www.goarticles.com , www.articlealley.com, www.buzzle.com – will do). Inside the resource box from that article I put a link with slightly varied anchor text pointing back to that original ezine article I wrote. This will give you some extra juice in Google.
What I like tyo do is fire up my copy of Niche Research Commando and check that original article I want to compete with (the article we originally found in the search engine "dog grooming kits")
Inside Niche research Commando I just type in the keywords (dog grooming kits) and then start and within as few seconds I’ll be able to see all the backlinks going into that article. This will allow me to decide if I need to promote more links pointing into my article or just a few. If they have no backlinks I’ll usually just put only one article into 3-4 other article directories with a link going back to my article I want to rank for.
It typically doesn’t take long for Google to pick up my article and for it to start climbing the ranks in the search engine.
I’ll probably do a follow up to this post later this week as this is just the surface. in fact, there is so much more you can do here. But, for most people reading this, this is a great start to getting more results from your articles.
Let’s recap what to do.
#1. Search ezinearticles.com for you niche keywords.
#2. Look to see if the articles are getting views.
#3. Find a few getting the most views.
#4. Determine if that article is ranking for the main keywords or some other keywords.
#5. Search Google to determine.
#6. Write a similar article. (includes links to your site in the resource box).
#7. If you own Niche Research Commando fire it up and check for backlinks. (optional)
#8. If article has low backlinks you’ll only need 1-2 articles written.
#9. Write the additional articles and upload them to some high PR article sites (shown above.)
#10. Make sure the article points back to your article that you want to rank. (Vary the anchor text – don’t just use one phrase).
#11. Repeat if you want to do more. ( You should want more 
)
This works great for users of www.nicheblitzkrieg.com and www.megaclassifiedmillions.com as well.
You can do this in any niche and it’s an easy way to generate some more traffic to your site or affiliate sites. Leave you comments, questions or any further ideas below. Already using this technique? Tell us your results.
Why Even Bother With Email Marketing?
Posted by: | CommentsBefore you start don’t mind the blog to much right now I’m in the middle of upgrading it. Soon it’ll look pretty cool.
A few months back before I began work on my latest course called "The Email Initiative" I polled several people in affiliate marketing, business owners, product creators and blog authors to see what they thought about email marketing. An alarming 95% had no idea what I was even talking about. Much of the other 5% had little to no success and under 1% said they do it regularly.
So that made me think how can I explain to someone the importance of email marketing? Is it enough to point out it’s one of the biggest factors that I achieved some nice success in a short amount of time? I mention in my video I created to teach people about it (Found right here) that it can triple a marketers income or virtually change their life… none of which is far fetched.
Everyone should be using email marketing no matter what business they are in.
Let me start with an example of an affiliate marketer. Imagine that you have a small website and to that website you have regular visitors coming in. Let’s say it’s just 500 visitors per month.
500 is not many but what if I told you that within 6 months you could an email list built with 500-1000 members on it?
Would you do it? Maybe maybe not…..
But, what if I told you from that small list you built that you could potentially make thousands? That’s more like it, right?
Well that is the reality of email list building and marketing. The idea isn’t like what you may have heard before, you know what I am talking about: "You need a huge list to make money" or "the money is in the list".
You can make money with a small list and in fact GREAT money and the money isn’t in the list – but in how you treat that list. So basically, the money is in you.
I have a pretty good relationship with my list. Some of my members I’ve talked to on the phone, many send me regular emails, most have at least one product of mine and in fact, I can’t even count how many people sent me well wishes after getting a horrible flu in the middle of the summer. It’s a pretty awesome feeling to know that not only do I give them respect but they give me respect back and we all benefit. I help them grow their business they help me grow mine.
But, that poses a question I’ve answered numerous times "Michael, you run a business teaching people how to grow their businesses but what if you’re in the (insert niche) market? Can email marketing still work?"
YES. It works in any market and here’s why.
Everyone is looking for something online and they typically want help in their quest. Whether they are looking for information, product shopping, comparing prices, or simply need help. Everyone needs something when they are searching.
So if someone happens upon your site where they are looking to buy a new bread maker and you have an article or information about how to buy a new bread maker don’t you think they’ll take notice? What if you have an email opt in form on your site that said "FREE BREAD RECIPES Just enter your name and email below and we’ll send you a 7 day email series of over 50 bread recipes you can use in your new bread maker." How likely is that person to opt in? I’d do it and I bet many others would to. Statistics of my own also prove me right.
Now imagine you’re helping that person but what if after that email series you send them a recommendation for even more recipes which is a $29.97 book on Amazon that you make commission off of and help that person in the meantime? Win/win. That’s how you have to look at email marketing.
I can’t tell you how many times you land on some "Guru" list where all you get is one solicitation after another. This technique works for them because they have volumes of people who are sacrificing their list for their cause because they are both lining their pockets. I’ll tell you you should avoid using those techniques. Instead help your list first, recommend later and only recommend things that will truly help them.
Imagine if you were on a list and every couple days you got a message that said "Wow – this is going to make you $10,000 next month!" Then in a couple more days "Are you ready to make Thousands with the best program ever?" Only to find a a week later another email from the same person that says "This is the most important program you’ll ever see?" All three email promoting different products with the same language. How likely are you to stay on that list?
Now don’t get me wrong there might be times where you’ll have a higher % of promos than you usually do. But, the good advice should outweigh sales pitches. In fact, sales pitches are over used and recommending is a much better technique in any event.
These same set of rules apply to any niche market as well. So give your list the good stuff and keep giving it to them and they’ll love you for it.
I want to close with some tips.
#1. If you haven’t started an email list for your niche START ONE. You can watch my vid and get my entire course on the subject for $1.
#2. Give your list what they want. Value them.
#3. Don’t sell them and it’s best if you can recommend only things you’ve used if possible. This way you can give them the most accurate truth on the products.
#4. If they send you an email back – answer it if possible. I know it can be hard sometimes but if you’re recommending something the best thing to do is to respond if they have questions. A side note: when someone sends me a message asking me a question about a product I recommend or even my own they almost always BUY. Of course if it meets their needs they will buy if not, they won’t.
#5. Be truthful. I’ve turned down a lot of business over this one. But, someone asked me one time if they would be able to make $10,000 a month online in 2 months with one of my products. While that’s possible it certainly isn’t the norm and if I had said yes and he went on to buy he would have likely been disappointed. Even if you’re promoting affiliate products (in any market) be upfront about it. This will help build your reputation and they will tell their friends and builds a loyal following based on trust. Plus, you’ll sleep better at night.
#6. Start a list!
#7. Start a list!
#8. OK, you see where this is going. But, you have to take action and start for this thing to work. Start small and grow. Even a small list can make you a lot of money. Go watch my video if you haven’t yet and see what I am talking about.
Simple Way To Submit Press Releases Automatically
Posted by: | CommentsWell the title might be a little bit decieving as this is more semi automatic but so far I have never found anything that works 100% perfectly with complete automation for press releases. However, press bot is pretty darn close.
Below I demo the product and how I use it. This video is taken from my Niche Blitzkrieg training course. If you own a website and need some easy traffic press releases are a brilliant way to do it. You’ll also get the backlink benefit from many press release sites. It’s not a bad option to automate as much as you can and below you’ll see why I recommend press bot.
So check press bot out if you’re interested here. Keep in mind one thing I forgot to mention in the video is you can actually add more press release sites inside this software but it comes equipped standard with the 25 sites to submit to. If you already have this product let me know what you think below or if you have questions, likewise.
Using Mozy To Backup Your Websites
Posted by: | CommentsI want to address an issue many people seem to be having; Backing up their sites. There are many ways to do this but I am going to show you one that even the rawest newbie could use. We are going to do this using a service called MOZY. Keep in mind you can just sign up for a free account (you get 2GB) of storage but the paid let’s you upload unlimited files and it’s only $4.95 per month.
*Backups this way will be especially important for people who have numerous wordpress blogs they need to back up or if you are working with a program like Niche Blitzkrieg or Affiliate Money Revolution.
Here are the links for Mozy – Join Paid or Join Free.
Starting free is a good option but you will fill that 2GB up faster than you think! Especially if you start backing up more files on your computer with this system.
After you’ve signed up wait to download the mozy tool and instead head over into your hosting Cpanel where your websites reside.
#1. Once inside your Cpanel scroll down until you see a section titled FILES and click the BACKUP icon.
#2. Click the Home Directory button. This will allow you to backup the main directory that all your websites are installed on. Depending on how many files you have in your home directory.
#3. Now click on the individual databases you have in the database section. This will insure that you’re backing everything up.
Keep in mind if you’re using vista most of your files will probably get downloaded to your DOWNLOAD folder unless you specify otherwise. Make a separate folder on your computer called Website Backups and put all of your website backup files into this folder.
#1. Now, log back into your mozy account and click Download Mozy on the left hand side.
Just follow through all the Prompts during the install. You’ll eventually come to a point where Mozy will ask what folders you want to backup. Make sure to backp whatever folders you’d like as well as the Website Backup folder.
Mozy will always do automatic updates for you unless you upgrade. With an upgraded account you will be able to schedule when you want Mozy to do a backup for you. This is nice because even when you’re sleeping it can automatically back up whatever files you’d like.
I recommend you backup all your sites like this weekly at least. If you run a site that has high traffic or makes alot of money you might even want to do daily or hourly. The paid version makes scheduling this simple. Also don’t limit yourself to just backing up your website, consider backing up all the impotant things on your computer. The first time might take awhile but once you start scheduling backups it goes FAST and you’ll hardly notice it.
Keep in mind you’ll also have your website files on your computer but more importantly an outside source incase anything were to happen. This will help keep your a lot more safe for the future.
