Blog Commenting

If you are familiar with the general layout of a blog, chances are pretty good you’ve seen a place where you can actively participate and share your comments on the topic being discussed.  Each individual blog has it’s own style of displaying comments, but the whole idea is pretty much the same.  It is most common to see a link at the end of each blog post, giving you the opportunity to leave your opinion.  There are some who just enjoy participating in the discussion, but the main reason people participate is to leave a link to their own website with hopes of getting some traffic.

Now before going you go wild and start leaving comments on a bunch of blogs, you should learn the right way to do it.  I can’t tell you how many times I see people go about this all wrong.  Commenting the wrong way will just be a waste of your time and energy.  Remember, you are trying to build traffic and make some money during the whole process.

Begin the process by doing a little research.  Search for active, current, and popular blog posts that are related to your own niche.  You want to find posts where you can provide at least some intelligent feedback.  One line comments that aren’t very informative will simply be overlooked.  Comments such as “nice post” or “thanks for sharing” really don’t add much to your credibility.  You don’t have to write an essay either.  A brief informative comment on a relevant topic can drive significant traffic to your website.  The blog post you are commenting on should be on a high traffic website.  Leaving a comment on a website with little to no traffic won’t produce results.

Engaging in the conversation with a helpful comment will spark interest in who you are and what you have to say.  It even works great if you sometimes question the original authors perspective on the topic.  Adding a little fuel to the fire and starting a little debate can also put you in the spotlight.  Just always remember to be professional, polite, and informative.  This will help you come across as someone who has a good degree of knowledge on the topic being discussed.

It is important to stay on topic and follow through with this process.  This method of driving traffic has proven to be highly effective, over and over again.  It is very simple to do, takes very little time, and once again…it’s free!

Some of these methods may seem repetitive, but they work! If you are already implementing them, GREAT! If you haven’t used these methods and techniques yet, now is the time to learn how and why you should be using them.

Blog All About It…

Blog it! It’s as simple as that. Take a few moments to create a free blog on either Wordpress or Blogger. Once you have your free blog set up, link back to your product site. You’ll be amazed how much free laser targeted traffic you can obtain through free blogs. Just be sure that your blog is relevant to your product site. Splash your blog with some high quality content such as articles, related industry news, etc. Remember that you want to be using certain keywords and keyword phrases while creating this content.

Participate in Related Communities, Forums, Groups, and Message Boards…

There’s nothing like becoming part of groups and forums that bring people together interested in the same topics as yourself. Just remember not to spam these sites with your business information. If you interact with others in communities, provide useful information and build a bit of reputation for you and your business. You just may be surprised at how much good and quality traffic you can obtain.

Write Articles…

I’ve mentioned this a billion times before. Writing articles can drive massive amounts of laser targeted traffic to your web sites. Check out ways you can outsource article writing if you are not interested in writing articles yourself.

Don’t Forget The Basics…

Forgetting the basic ways to drive traffic to your site is easy to do. I shared some traffic increasing tips a little while back, so feel free to review some of the basic effective methods.

Pay Per Click Advertising…

If you have a little money you can spend on advertising, PPC advertising through Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing can bring a significant of laser targeted traffic to your site. Just be cautious so you don’t go broke in the process. PPC is awesome when it works, but if you’re not careful you can go through a lot of money with little results. Take the time to research specific keywords and phrases, and learn a little bit about your competition.

I have had much success using Google AdSense, but I am very careful when choosing which sites I want to display ads on. Below you will find 5 reasons why you should not use AdSense on certain websites.

1. Google AdSense Can Be Bad For Business

Did you know that you could be severely harming your business by choosing to display Google AdSense on your website? I know, you’ve probably read countless articles and e-books claiming you can become a millionaire through AdSense. I am not here to say this can’t be done, but at what cost to your business?

I’m quite confident in saying that Google AdSense can be bad for your business.

I’ll set up a little scenario to help you understand how Google Ads can be bad. Let’s say you own John’s Used Cars, a used car business. And let’s say that you have one of the nicest looking used car lots in town. Your car lot is set up better than the rest of the ones in town.

Now picture all your cars lined up nicely on the lot, all waiting to be sold. Except there is one thing different about your car lot. Next to each car you are selling is a billboard, or a sign with an advertisement on it if you will. Each advertising sign that is next to the cars you are selling is telling your potential customer to check out another used car lot down the street. Sounds a bit silly doesn’t it? Here you are displaying your cars for sale, surrounded by signs advertising sales at other used car lots down the block.

Now apply this scenario to your online business. If you have a nice looking website created for your business, full of high quality content, why do you want your content surrounded by advertising links to other relevant websites? You are literally telling your customers to go somewhere else and shop. And what’s in it for you? A few pennies here and there when the visitor to your website clicks a Google AdSense ad.

What you just did is sent your customer away from your site, a really big mistake. This is bad for your business, because you set yourself up to lose potentials customers, sales, and leads. All the time you have spent trying to drive traffic to your site goes down the drain.

2. Google AdSense Unprofessional?

I’m willing to say that if you have Google AdSense ads plastered across your site, your site falls into the unprofessional category. I know many will argue about this, but in my view it’s true. People who use AdSense will go hog wild and begin placing ads carelessly throughout their website. This is usually done because others say earning money through your ads is all about placement. This is true, however your nice looking website has now become a huge bulletin board of advertisements.

Google AdSense does allow you to customize the look of the ads you place on your website, but only to a certain extent. Let’s go back to the used car lot business that I mentioned a few moments ago. Let’s say there are two sales people working at this used car lot business. Both sales people are dressed very professional, however one is wearing 25 buttons advertising other businesses. Which sales person would you be more comfortable with? Without being too judgmental or bias, it’s pretty safe to say that you’d rather be approached by the sales person who is dressed professionally, without all the buttons.

3. Google AdSense Creates a Distraction to Your Visitors

How many times have you visited a site about a certain topic, only to be bombarded by ads for another topic? It happens all the time. If you have a website about video games, why have a bunch of advertisements for wedding dresses? There is usually some sense of control, but there are times when the ads just don’t match up to the content. I think this is a HUGE problem, and creates an unnecessary distraction to your site’s visitors.

It’s crucial that you grab the attention of your visitors within the first few seconds, otherwise you just may lose a customer. If you focus on creating a web site with less distractions, you will more than likely have better results in the long run.

4. Google AdSense Can Cost You Advertising Money

Using Google AdSense can end up costing you more than you think. This applies to many web site owners who use Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising to drive traffic to their site. PPC can be a highly effective form of advertising, but you just might be throwing everything out the window when you use PPC advertising and AdSense at the same time. Imagine you are spending a specific dollar amount on PPC advertising each day, yet the majority of your traffic that comes through PPC ends up clicking on the AdSense links on your site. Where’s the benefit here?

You just spent advertising money to bring a visitor to your site and immediately send them somewhere else. You didn’t capture any leads, make any sales, and just drove the customer away from your business. NOT good! Yes, you can earn money from the AdSense ads that are being clicked, but they aren’t worth nearly the same amount value as a good lead you might have captured during this process.

5. Google AdSense Can Cause Lack of Focus

This one is important to you as a web site owner. It’s very easy to lose focus while creating a decent quality web site. Many will lose focus on creating good content, and will constantly be looking for ways to increase revenue through their AdSense ads.

This is fine if you have a website with a sole purpose of earning money through AdSense ads alone, but if you have a website for your business, you’ll begin to lose focus on creating content that can increase the revenue for your business. And the whole point of creating a website for your business is to build your business, build a customer database, and earn money.

So there you have it, some of my reasons to think twice before adding Google AdSense to your business site. I am not here to tell you that you should never use Google AdSense to earn money. You just should be cautious when it comes to using this method to make money.

If you are not quite sure what HubPages is, let me help you become a little bit familiar with the site. HubPages allows users of the website to create their own unique page, a Hub as they call it. You can pretty much customize the page any which way you choose, selecting various types of content such as pictures, text, videos, links, etc.

The nice part is that it’s extremely fast and easy for users to begin creating their own Hub. All you have to do is create a free account, pick an appropriate title for your Hub, add a few tags, and you’re well on your way. Pages are created using capsules, and it’s the capsules that contain various types of content. If you have created a Squidoo page, you’ll be able to relate to this type of page creation.

Once you have added the capsules you choose, all you have to do is publish the page. Within minutes you’ll have your own unique Hub being displayed for others to see. This is where all the good stuff comes into play, because you’ll have an audience to market to, and the potential of making some money is quite good.

Your page will not automatically make money for you however, you’ll have to put some thought into it’s creation. You will have to put forth a good amount of effort and spend quality time on your page to take full advantage of the money making opportunities HubPages offers. HubPages has a rating system in place, called a HubScore. The HubScore is a score ranging from 0 to 100, with 100 being the highest quality score. The more original and unique content you have on your Hub the better your score will be. There are a variety of factors which ultimately determine your HubScore, but you’ll receive a higher score if you focus on original and high quality content for your page.

So now that you have somewhat of an idea of what HubPages is, let me share with you a few ways you can make money with HubPages.

• Create A Unique Hub

Like I mentioned a few moments ago, a high quality hub will boost your status on HubPages. You want to reach out and grab the attention of your readers. There is no better way other than creating high quality and original content. You’ll be off to a great start if you have had experience writing good articles. Visitors to your page who enjoy what you have created will often leave comments.

There is excellent potential of building a steady stream of traffic to your page. This is where you want to be sure and link to your own personal website for the products and services you offer. Just remember to link to relevant information. If you have created a Hub about digital camera products, don’t link to your website that’s selling cookbooks. If you are providing useful and informative content, chances are you’ll be able to build traffic to your own site if you add links in the appropriate places. Building traffic is a key to making money on HubPages, and with that said I’ll move on to the next bit of advice…

• Add Tags

Don’t forget to add tags for your Hub. Tags are important because they help catogorize the information that your Hub is offering. Remember that you want to add relevant and high quality tags, because these tags are important keywords for your site.

• Build Traffic

You want to get your Hub noticed by people, so you’ll have to become active and participate in various activities. Comment on other people’s pages, join groups, join fan clubs, and participate in forums. All these types of activities will allow others to discover who you are and the Hubs you have created. Remember, your goal is to be seen. You can create a funnel of traffic from your Hub page to your personal site by simply becoming active and gaining trust from your readers.

• Google AdSense, Amazon Affiliates, and eBay

If you create a good Hub page and build a good amount of traffic, you can make some money through Google AdSense, Amazon, and eBay. Now I have a slightly different opinion that many when it comes to earning money using these methods. If I’m trying to market a specific product or service and am trying to ultimately direct people to my own site, I don’t want people to click away on Google AdSense or Amazon/eBay affiliate links.

Yes, you can make money when people click on these links if you are setup with Adsense, Amazon, and eBay, but use caution and know when and when not to use these methods. If you’re simply creating an informative Hub about a certain niche, by all means use these methods of making money. If you’re marketing your own website, think about it a bit more before sending your readers off in another direction.

Following these tips will most certainly help you create a decent Hub at HubPages. As always, I suggest experimenting different methods and techniques to see what works and what doesn’t. Testing can make a huge difference when it comes to your profits. Oh, and as always, Have Fun!!

Did you know that simple images on your site can drive traffic to your website for free? Best yet, if used correctly, the traffic that comes to your site will be targeted traffic, the best traffic you can receive. I’ll quickly share a few tips on how to experience an increase in traffic. These are all extremely quick and easy to do, and best of all it doesn’t cost you a single penny.

Naming Your Images

Focus on the titles that you assign to each image throughout all of the content on your website. Naming your images so that they are SEO friendly is an important step during this whole process. Let’s say you have a website that’s focused on recipes, better yet, leftover turkey recipes. When listing your recipes, you may choose to display a photograph of the finished recipe, such as a photo of a turkey pot pie. Instead of displaying your image with an obscure title such as “tpp01.jpg”, name your image “turkey-pot-pie-recipe.jpg”. Using hyphens to separate each word in the title of your image is a better option than an underscore.

Use Alt Tags

Always remember to add alt tags to your images when you are including them on your website. Your alt tags should be relevant to the image that you are posting. So let’s go back to the turkey pot pie example. If you wish to display an image of a turkey pot pie created from a recipe, label your image with an alt tag such as “Turkey Pot Pie Recipe”. The alt tags show up on search engine result pages rather than the titles of the image.

Choose Your Images Wisely

If you haven’t experimented around with image searches such as Google Image Search, now is the time to do so. Spend some time searching through the site before adding a specific image. I’m going to dive back into the whole turkey pot pie example once again. Let’s say you use Google Image Search to search using the phrase turkey pot pie. Click on the image beneath to get a better look at what’s being shown. You’ll see that searching for this phrase will return 808,000 results.

Now let’s try something a little bit more specific. Try a Google Image Search using the phrase double crusted turkey pot pie. Click on the image below to see that this search will return 85,100 results. This opens up a window of opportunity for you. If you choose to be a bit more specific and include an image on your site of a double crusted turkey pot pie rather than just a turkey pot pie, you’ll have less competition when it comes to having your images indexed and displayed on Google.

Relevant Text With Images

Remember to include relevant text and keywords near the images you are posting. This can help the search engines index your site and rank your images. There are all sorts of ways you can include images within the content of your website, however you’ll have to experiment with what works best so that you can achieve the best results.

Making Your Images Unique

Nothing is better than including your own unique images within the content of your website. But of course there are times when you’ll include some images or photos that are available for free across the internet. When you use free images, be sure and resize them and make them unique to your content. Having a new and fresh resized version of the image can help separate the image from all the rest across the web.

I’m certain that if you implement these tips that you’ll find an increase of traffic to your site. Always remember to monitor your site’s stats to see what is being found and what isn’t. This will give you the ability to make necessary changes when it comes time.

Just about everyone wants to implement the most cost effective techniques when promoting their product. Thankfully there are plenty of low cost and even FREE methods of promotion that you can implement. FREE is always good, right? Well, it’s good to some extent. I find that some of the free techniques are easily abused, and this can do more harm to your marketing campaign than good in the long run. Many who see a free advertising opportunity will get carried away and instantly begin to turn their advertisement into SPAM. Two words for you, not good.

I know not everyone has the time and unlimited financial resources available to create the most perfect campaign, but if you want to get the most out of your promotion, you’re going to be required to put a significant amount of effort in to it. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t receive the results you want. There’s times when marketing campaigns go good, and time when campaigns go bad. My advice is to roll with punches and keep trying.

If you are working with a limited budget, the possibility of obtaining good quality targeted traffic to your site through low cost marketing is achievable. You don’t have to spend a huge amount of money to get your promotion in motion. All you need is a little bit of confidence and clever thinking to get the ball rolling. As I have mentioned many times in the past, writing articles is a highly effective method of free advertising. If you aren’t able to write articles, you can outsource this for a very low cost. Article marketing will bring a decent amount of targeted traffic to your site and should not be overlooked.

Once you have some original articles written, you can distribute them to a few article directories. It won’t be long until you see a nice steady stream of traffic flowing to your site. The key to this free method of advertising is high quality and original articles, distributed to high quality article directories. EzineArticles is a good place to start.

Another free method of promotion is through the use of blogs. I know many internet marketing professionals who despise blogs. But the fact of the matter is they are pretty much here to stay, and they work! If you have limited funds and are seeking ways to promote your products or services for free, blogs are the way to go. You can setup a free blog through sites like Wordpress, or Blogger. Keep in mind that if you use a blog, stay professional. Stay on topic with the product or service you are marketing. Always remember to include the link of your own web site on your blog. And also remember to keep your blog posts a bit interesting. The whole idea is to provide high quality content, just like when you are writing your articles.

If you still are convinced that blogs just aren’t for you, try setting up a free Squidoo page, or a page at HubPages. Both these sites are free for you to use, and they offer you a huge audience to market to, right up front. Another advantage of utilizing these sites is that you don’t have to be a web guru to get your page started. They make it extremely simple to get started, and you’ll be able to promote your product within minutes.

And of course you can expand your ideas through the use of social media marketing. This option is completely free, and extremely effective. Use tools and resources such as Twitter, Stumbleupon, Digg, Delicious, etc. Chances are you’ll have positive marketing results if you utilize these tools. Just remember, don’t spam.

There are many more free and low cost methods of promotion, but these are just a few to get your creative thinking process in motion. Remember that you don’t always have to spend your life savings on advertising. Think smart, be creative, utilize resources, and put it all into action!

I think if you want to stand out from the rest you have to take a whole different approach to the topic you are writing about. For example, one of the hot searches this very moment on Google Trends is “what does the secretary of state do”. That means a whole lot of people are searching this phrase right now, primarily focused on finding out what the Secretary of State does.

People with web sites that follow the trends will be quick to post this keyword phrase on their own site, eager to get in with the web surfing crowd. The whole goal for the web site owner is to get their site out in front of the rest. The owner of the site wants to build traffic, and if their site ranks well they will be able to get indexed pretty quick.

But what if they would just take a whole different approach and make it a bit more interesting? Stand out from the rest! Instead of simply throwing the search topic around carelessly, like “what does the secretary of state do”, incorporate this into something of more interest. Expand a bit on the topic. Yes, you’ll want to answer the question that is being asked, but throw in some additional helpful and useful information for the reader.

If you can be unique and offer up something more related to the topic other than a carbon copy article of your competitors, you’ll have an edge. It seems like quality news has been placed on the back burner. This is where I see a significant opportunity. If you maintain a website that is up to date with the current hot topics and trends, why not try and take a whole different approach. Be creative and try and do something different with your articles. Give some thought and write an attention grabbing headline. I believe if you can offer content that is of better quality than the next guy, and “think outside the box”, you’ll be able to grab a bit more attention right from the very beginning.

Yahoo! Answers is successful simply because many are tired of the same old traditional way to find an answer to their question. Those who seek out information have a pretty good chance of finding an answer to their question once they put it out there in front of millions.

Potential

Here’s where you come along, as an internet marketer, ready to market your site. The potential of gaining targeted traffic to your website is HUGE. There is absolutely no advertising cost involved. The only cost to you will be a little bit of time and effort. When visiting Yahoo! Answers, browse through the categories that relate to your business or product, look for the questions people are posting. Do you see the potential?

Building Trust

Now don’t go all crazy and start spamming the site. I’ll tell you now, that will harm you way more than it will help you. As with any other social networking community, you’ll want to establish a presence and become a trusted member of the community. Building a little bit of trust among users will go a LONG way.

Getting Started

This doesn’t take much time to get started. Sign up and become a member of Yahoo! Answers. Remember to completely fill out your profile. You’ll want your profile to proudly display who you are and what you’re all about. Once you have that all taken care of you can begin browsing the site. Remember to focus on categories that are relevant to the products or services that you are marketing on your website. In these categories you will want to look for questions that you can answer.

Only focus on questions that you can provide an honest, legitimate, and valuable answer to. This will certainly pay off in the long run. It’s a good idea to search keywords that are relevant to your own website. Doing this will certainly narrow things down a bit.

Once you have found the questions you can answers, occasionally link to your website as a reference. Don’t link the same way every time, because this will easily be noticed as spam. And it’s probably a good idea to link to other relevant sites as references as well.

Network With Others

You’ll want to participate in various ways while utilizing Yahoo! Answers. Don’t just use the site as a place to advertise your website. You’ll want to actively take part and vote for other positive answers too. Connect with others and build relationships. You just may be surprised at how rewarding this becomes in the future.

If you follow these suggestions, it won’t be long until you start seeing a steady increase in traffic to your site. Just remember to participate responsibly. Yahoo! Answers has proven to be a useful tool to many worldwide, so give it a shot!

If you are serious about producing high quality content, you must understand that it will take a little bit of time and effort to get things done.  Remember that your ultimate goal is to create something interesting for your readers.  Being original is extremely important during this time. The last thing that you want to do is plagiarize.  In other words, don’t copy other people’s content.  Not only is it ineffective, it is illegal.

Research your topics thoroughly, take notes, and gather your information in a way you can comprehend it best.  Then when it comes down to writing out articles, share the information you researched in your own words.  This way you are creating something original.  Just remember to keep your content interesting.  I can’t tell you how many times I find a website with a wealth of information, only to find it displayed in a completely boring fashion.  You want your readers to enjoy reading your content.  Everyone has their own style of writing, and I find it best that you read through your own style and examine it thoroughly.  If you find that your own writing is boring, chances are your reader will too.

Sometimes your time is limited when it comes to content creation, but you want to spend as much time as you can researching your topics.  You may find it beneficial to outsource some of your content creation if you are in a real big rush.  I personally don’t like outsourcing, but that’s my own preference.

Just remember that visitors will appreciate your site more if your content is good.  It may seem difficult when you are starting from scratch, but you’ll find it much easier as time goes on.

1. Content Content Content

Those who enter the world of internet marketing can easily get tired of the word “content”. But, if you really want a successful website, you are going to have to provide a lot of content. Not just any content either, QUALITY content that is highly relative to your website. The last thing you want to do is write articles about stuffed animals on an investment website. Take the time and research your topics. I guarantee you that you’ll win over your readers in a flash if you provide high quality and informative information revolving around the topic of your site.

2. Submit Your Website To Directories

Directory submissions can be a touchy subject with internet marketers. Some will swear by it, while others believe that submitting sites to directories is a waste of time. I personally think that directories can prove to be quite beneficial in the long run. Just be sure that your site is completely up and running before you make that submission. When submitting your site, be sure to submit to the appropriate categories. Following the site’s submission rules is important. Submitting to directories like DMOZ and Yahoo! can be an excellent start.

3. Offer Freebies

Everyone loves something for nothing, it’s a simple fact of life. Offering a free product or report can do wonders for your website. Just be sure that what your offering has something of value. It’s easy to offer junk for free, and you know what most people simply throw junk away. This goes back to the whole high quality contact factor. You can easily promote your website through free reports, free e-books, or free software. Try creating a report that is relevant to the topic of your website. Then offer this as a free report to other website owners. Many other website owners are eager to offer up additional content on their site, and at the same time you’ll be able to gain exposure and attract more visitors to your site.

4. Video Marketing

Video marketing is huge. You’ll easily see an increase of traffic to your website if you take the time and produce high quality relevant videos for your website. YouTube can potentially provide you a HUGE swarm of traffic if everything falls in to place. Again, this will only be accomplished through experimentation. You have to think with your audience’s mind. Create a video that is interesting to your viewer. Be sure that the content of the video pertains to the topic of your website. Always remember to keep things original, because adding a copy of the same old content on YouTube will get you absolutely nowhere. Don’t forget to add your web site’s URL in the video, because once your video goes viral you’ll want everyone to see your website address nice and clearly.

5. Signatures

A signature is probably of the simplest ways to attract more traffic to your site. Signatures are most effective at the end of your email, or when used properly on a message board or forum. Be careful not to carelessly advertise your website in forums. Most forums will have pretty strict rules when it comes to signatures, but when used properly they can be a highly effective tool to bring traffic to your website.