“How to Boost Your Traffic and Profits with Content!”

Are you aware of how vitally important and valuable
CONTENT is to your online business? In fact, content
can do more to build your business and profits than
just about any other resource or service available.

Following is a list of 5 key ways that content can help
build your traffic, subscribers, and customers starting
today!…

1. Boost your search engine ranking and daily visitor
count by posting keyword rich articles and content on
your web-site. For example, if your business involves
offering products and services related to fitness,
posting fitness related articles and content will
attract unlimited prospective customers on a regular
basis!

2. Generate double or even triple the number of
newsletter subscribers you do currently, simply by
offering content in the form of “special reports” or
manuals as bonuses for subscribing to your publication.
People love freebies, so give them what they want and
watch as your results increase!

3. Create an automated cashflow by using content to
formulate multi-part email training courses with
related web-site or affiliate links “sprinkled”
throughout each course. Use an autoresponder service to
automate the delivery of your training course (such as
a 5 part training course delivered over a 5 day
period).

Training courses can also serve as excellent bonus
offers for your prospective newsletter subscribers.

4. One of the most important keys to a successful
online business is not JUST having a list of mailing
list or newsletter subscribers… It’s about building a
trusting relationship with your subscribers (ie,
“cultivating” your list)…

By sending informative articles (content) to your list
on a regular basis you will establish yourself as an
expert on your topic of business, as well as gain the
trust of your subscribers over time. As a result, your
subscribers will be EAGER to take advantage of your
“paid” product and service offers. (Just make sure
that you NEVER take advantage of the relationship you
develop with your list by offering products or services
of poor quality just to make a quick buck!)

If there is one “constant” in Internet marketing, it’s
this: A cultivated list of subscribers is as good as
money in the bank. Write that down and never forget
it!

5. Another excellent way to generate no cost traffic is
by submitting ready-made articles to “content hungry”
web-site and newsletter publishers with your “resource
box” attached. A resource box is nothing more than a
little 3-6 line “bio” about you and/or your web-site -
including a link to your site (or even instructions on
how to subscribe to your newsletter)…

When submitting or offering your article(s) for reprint
purposes, just make sure to specify that each article
is to be reprinted “as is” with your resource box
attached.

…Even one article can go a LONG way towards
generating no cost traffic and visitors for you. Just
imagine your article being sent out to a newsletter
subscriber base of 100,000 individuals – many of whom
will be reading YOUR included resource box and clicking
on your URL to learn more about what you have to
offer!

Well there you have it, 5 sure ways to build your
online business exponentially with the help of articles
and content…

With the declining effectiveness of many of the online
advertising methods that we’ve relied on in past years,
content is only strengthening its position as the
ultimate KEY to generating unlimited traffic,
subscribers, and customers!

David

Using Social Media to Boost Search Engine Results
By Lauren Hobson (c) 2009

Most of us are well aware that the search engines frequently
change their algorithms to improve search results for users (and
foil spammers), which can make it challenging for small
businesses just to keep up. But as web technology continues to
evolve, it also creates new opportunities for small businesses
to improve their SEO strategies and boost their rankings as
well. Social media (sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
Technorati, Digg, etc.) provide an excellent opportunity for
small businesses to not only promote their products and services
online, but also to gain significant ground in the search engine
results.

One of the most critical components to getting top search engine
rankings is the number of inbound links and link popularity a
web site is able to build. Although there are several existing
link building strategies available to small businesses (e.g.,
press releases, directory submissions, article syndication,
etc.), social media can help create additional high-value,
on-target inbound links that are essential to achieving top
placements in the search engines.

For example, each time you use Twitter to publish a link to new
content on your web site, that link gets "planted" on the
Twitter page of each person following you, and has the potential
to spread even further as your followers share that information
with their own network of contacts.

Integrated Social Marketing (ISM)TM

If you have properly integrated your social networking profiles
together, that same Twitter "tweet" could then be fed via RSS to
your Facebook business profile, your corporate blog, your
LinkedIn account, and any number of other social sites that you
have set up for your business. It's not a far stretch to imagine
the link you broadcast on Twitter could reach dozens, hundreds,
or even thousands of other places on the web, all pointing back
to your web site! By integrating your social networking
profiles with each other, with your web site, and with your
existing marketing initiatives, you can easily make one single
marketing action (such as a tweet) show up in multiple places
online, each containing a new, relevant inbound link to your
site.

Quantity AND Quality

In addition to the sheer number of inbound links that are
created through social marketing, the value of the links that
are created is another important criterion that search engines
consider. To be valued by the search engines, inbound links must
be from relevant, "quality" web sites, and search engines today
give social sites like Facebook and Twitter great value. These
sites are highly visible to the search engines, and are
constantly taking updates from users. Links tend to be shared
according to subject matter, which means the search engines will
see them as being relevant and on-target. All of these factors
combine to create high-quality inbound links in the eyes of the
search engines.

Online Visibility and Branding

Creating visibility for your business and your "brand" is really
key when using social media for building links. The power of
social media is realized when other users see your links or
content, then share that information with their own network of
contacts. Simply adding a bunch of links to your social profiles
is not enough; you need to have a strong reputation and a brand
that users trust so they will feel comfortable sharing your
content with others. Brand recognition typically leads to
natural link building anyway, which means your inbound links
will end up coming from bloggers, colleagues, customers, and
other people who are exposed to your links and find them useful
enough to share with their own contacts.

The Proof is in the Rankings

A recent example from Website Magazine explained somewhat
surprising results when they searched for their publication's
name in Google. As expected, their web site came up as the
number one listing on the results page. But what was not
expected was the number three listing on the results page was
the magazine's Twitter page. They then performed a number of
Google searches for the terms "Chicago Tribune," "Chicago Public
Golf," and "Daily Career Tips," all with similar results in
Google - the Twitter page for each of these terms came up near
the top of the search engine results every time.

The conclusion was that given these results, Google must be
giving serious weight to Twitter content, and I happen to agree.
The search engines of course keep their ranking algorithms
top-secret, so there's no way to know how much weight (if any)
is really given to Twitter or other social media sites. But
results like those in the example above are hard to ignore!

A Great Opportunity

Social media is here to stay, and small businesses are beginning
to use it to effectively promote their businesses, reach their
customers, find new leads, keep customer mindshare, and
instantly communicate with customers. But maybe one of the
biggest benefits of adding social media to your marketing mix is
the creation of high-value, on-target inbound links that can
help improve visibility in the search engines and boost your
business to the top of the search engine rankings.
================================================================
Lauren Hobson, President of Five Sparrows, LLC
(http://www.fivesparrows.com/), has more than 16 years of
experience in small business technology writing, marketing, and
web site design and development. Five Sparrows provides
professional web site and marketing services to small businesses
and non-profit organizations, giving them access to high-quality
services at affordable prices. To read articles or subscribe to
Biz Talk, please visit http://www.FiveSparrows.com/biztalk.htm.
================================================================

Blog Flipping: 10 Important Factors When Selling Your Weblog Or Website
By Chuck Crawford © 2009

The market for blogs has exploded. Many companies do not want
to invest the time in developing a blog in their respective
niche, which has given rise to a whole new cottage industry,
blog flipping.

Blog flipping is done in a few different ways. Some flippers
buy an existing blog that has potential, but is not currently
producing. They take that blog and build the traffic and sales
up to a level productive enough to reap a profit from their
investment, and then sell it.

Or, more common in today's blog flipping market, is to research
a specific niche, develop a domain / blog, and then sell it.

But what does "developed" really mean? It depends on the
flipper. So buyers really need to do their homework (read due
diligence) before investing in an "established" blog or website.
Because "established" is in the eyes of the beholder, and means
many different things depending upon who you consult.

In my opinion, established means that the site, or blog, is
profitable. Now profitable can be defined very differently for
different companies. It doesn't mean that the site has to be
making money, though it does help justify the investment when
purchasing the blog. It can mean to a prospective company only
that the site has traffic that company believes it can convert
into sales. Not everyone can convert website traffic in the same
way. So there are companies out there looking to buy blogs that
have a certain, specific reader demographic that fits their
market. However, these types of sales are few and far between.
Companies that are buying blogs normally want to see one thing.

Profit.

Not just income, because a blog's gross monthly income and it's
actual profit margin can be two very different things as well.
We've all seen the advertisements screaming that you can make
ten thousand dollars a month blogging, or with Adsense, or
whatever. But the part usually left out is the investment it
takes to get that income. Sometimes the cost is far greater than
the income, making the blog or website a LOSER.

So what steps should you take to sell your blog if you are a
would be website flipper? Here are a few factors your blog or
website should have in order to get top dollar:

1. Real Web Property

Your blog needs to be a real web property. What I mean by this
is that it needs to be a real domain, on hosting you are paying
for. Free hosted blogs are not a viable investment for most
companies and corporations. There are exceptions to every rule
and I'm sure that there have been a few sales of extremely
popular Blogspot blogs, but unless you have a million visitors a
month, you're probably not going to sell a free hosted blog
anytime soon. Buy a domain, pay for some hosting, build
something that has value.

2. Professional Appearance

Your blog or website needs to have a professional appearance.
Custom design is always better, but at the very least, it needs
to have a template or layout that fits that blog's readership or
market. If you have poor graphics, even if your blog has monster
traffic, you'll sell it for much less than you could have if you
had professional web design. It's sort of like house flipping or
selling a used car. If you can afford it, a fresh coat of paint
usually brings the resell value up substantially.

3. Developed Traffic Sources

Potential buyers want to see traffic. Not just any traffic will
do for most serious investors. They want to see solid, search
engine traffic and a solid bookmarked reader base. StumbleUpon
and other social bookmarking websites are awesome traffic
sources, no doubt. But when it comes to someone buying your
blog, they want to see more than just a few traffic spikes from
a front page listing on Digg. They want to see that the traffic
is going to keep coming for months and years to come. Without a
lot of work if they can get it.

4. Documented Traffic Statistics

It is going to take more than just the summary of "hits" screen
capture from your webalizer stats to make the sale. You are
going to need at least three months history of actual traffic
statistics. Unique visitors, tracking cookie info if you have
it, Google Analytics, etc. Numbers, numbers, numbers.
Corporations want numbers in order to convince their board of
directors that your blog would be a sound investment. Private
investors are no different for the most part and they want to
know exactly what they are buying when it comes down the actual
traffic your blog has.

5. Profit and Loss

Lots of income statistics. If you are looking to sell your blog
or website for real money (read more than a few bucks nabbed on
EBAY) then you are going to need to show your buyer some stats
about money. P&L statements (Profit and Loss) for as far back as
you can go will help your buyer make his or her decision. It is
one thing to tell a potential buyer what the gross income per
month is, it's a completely different thing to show them exactly
what the net income is and how it is obtained each month. Keep
good records of your website expenditures and what the income
received from those investments are. Include every cost. Website
hosting, design, redesign, employee or outsourcing costs,
whatever. Include everything and show them the real bottom line.

6. Set a Fair Price

I know you love your site, I love all of mine too. So it's easy
to attach an emotional value to your blog and inflate the price.
It's also really easy to confuse a blog's actual value with your
vision of it's potential value. What you think the site will
make someday and what it's making now are two very different
things. Sorry, but what you think it will make someday has zero
value to a would be investor. They only want to know what the
net profit is, right now. Yes, you can take some long term
income growth statistics and make profit projections, but unless
you have these statistics going back a year or more, most buyers
are going to dismiss them entirely.

Set a real price. In the bricks and mortar world most companies
sell for 2 to 3 years of the total net income. Online, this
number is usually cut down to one year. So if your website is
netting $300 per month, the actual value of your blog is
probably somewhere around $3600. Once again, it's easy to add an
emotional price tag for all the hard work you've done to get
that blog making $300 clams a month, but your sweat equity
doesn't mean much to a buyer.

Neither do website values created with online calculators.
These sites are traffic magnets and are built totally to obtain
webmaster traffic. If you search long enough and hard enough,
you'll find a website value calculator that comes up with a
number you like. It still means nothing to a buyer. It's not
what your site is really worth and should have no bearing
whatsoever on your sale price.

7. Where to Sell your Website

Where and how you sell your website is super important. The
profit you make will be directly related. Try to stay away from
auction type formats if at all possible. If your site has some
real value, use a website broker. A broker will help you
determine the real value of your blog or website and then help
you find a qualified and interested buyer. You would call a real
estate agent (read professional) if you were selling your house,
right? So why would you rely on your "for sale by owner" plan
when it comes to your web property? Call a professional.

Sadly, one of the main reasons most flippers don't call in a
pro is because deep down they don't really want to know what the
site is worth. They want to live in their imaginary world where
their holdings are worth millions. They can put a site up for
sale on Sitepoint or Ebay for whatever price they want. Creating
the illusion that they are worth substantially more than they
really are.

8. Pie in the Sky Promises (magic beans)

Stay away from "Pie in the Sky" promises to potential buyers.
When it comes to buying a website or blog, 99% of the buyers out
there are from Missouri (the "Show Me" state) and only want to
see the cold hard facts. Offering to take them to some new level
of income at a later date is only going to make you look
unprofessional and like an amateur.

There are sales contracts that require you to assist the new
buyer for a set period of time. But these are normally for sites
that are currently making money and allow time for you to teach
the new owner just how that income is made. These clauses in
sales contracts are not designed for you to hatch your half
baked plans or for time to realize "what you think" the site's
potential might be someday.

9. Accessible Communication

You need to be extremely accessible to both your broker and
potential buyers. They are going to have questions. So you need
to have a cell phone number and an office number where they can
reach you. You need to check your email often and respond
quickly. Slow response can be a red flag signaling uncertainty,
and that's something an investor just does not want to see when
they are thinking about laying some cash on you. Be available to
talk to them.

10. Know the Details

Communication is only effective if you have answers. If you
have to stumble and stutter with your answers, it's going to
have impact on the sale. You need to have done your homework and
you need to know the answers to the questions in advance.

There you have the basics for flipping your blog or website. Of
course there are many more points that can increase the actual
dollar amount realized when you sell your blog, this only covers
some of them.

But if you follow these guidelines and are realistic with
yourself and your buyer, you can sell your website for a profit.
So take the time to prepare your web property for a real sale.
Writing a good sales pitch is fine, but it's not going to be
sufficient for most investors. You're going to need to have
these bases covered.

Good luck. I hope you sell your blog for what it's worth.
================================================================
Chuck Crawford is an established expert in web design, traffic
development and website financial analysis. He has been helping
people design and develop their internet business since 1995.
Visit http://www.business blogs.us/blog/
================================================================

Copyright © 2009 Jayde Online, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

Blogs, WordPress and Google

It’s no secret that a continually updated website with new content being added regularly stands a good chance of doing well in Google. One of the long standing methods to regularly expand a site’s content is through the use of a blog.

While there are numerous platforms to choose from for managing a blog, few can compare with the immense flexibility offered with WordPress, and at a cost of free, the price can’t be beat either.

Google likes fresh new content, and setting up a blog on your site, assuming it is updated often with interesting and relevant material, can be one of the best things you can do to help out your search rankings. The beauty behind WordPress is that there is a wide array of totally free plug-ins you can easily install that will make your blog totally search engine friendly.

The following are some basic guidelines and essential plug-ins you should consider when you install your WordPress blog.

Template Design

The first configuration you need to do is work on customizing the design template to match your existing site. I suggest finding a template that matches as closely as possible to the look you are going for then work on tweaking its graphics, colors, and other particulars till you achieve the desired appearance.

Most of your changes will occur in the header.php, footer.php, index.php, and page.php files in the theme editor, however, the theme you install will dictate which files actually need to be updated. You will also need to make some adjustments to your CSS file. These changes all involve working with code and graphics, and are most likely left to a professional.

Once you have your design set up, the rest of the customization is considerably less technical. The following are suggestions that most people can do themselves and you probably will not need an expert to help you here.

Settings

Permalinks
The next thing you need to do is customize your URL’s. You do not want the default post URLs (”pageid=#”) as they are simply not search friendly and you want your default names to have some meaning to them. While you can customize your URL’s with various plug-ins, you may not always think to do this, so be sure to have a default you can live with.

Under the settings tab in your dashboard, clíck on permalinks. Here I suggest choosing one of the settings that includes the post name. Including the month and year is totally optional as it will have little to no impact on your search rankings, but you definitely do want to include the post name.

WWW or no WWW
With WordPress, there is no need to worry about the www vs no www redirects. It is handled for you, but you do need to select which variation you want, and it’s very simple to do. Under “General Settings” you will see two fields; one for “WordPress address” and the other, “Blog address”. Ensure that both these fields include the “www” (or not), whichever you prefer, and that’s it. (I always recommend using the “www” version of your URL as most people linking into your site will use it, and this will help keep a consistency among your site.

Required Plug-ins

There is an almost endless supply of free plug-ins out there that you can add to your site ranging from photo galleries and spam protection, to social media integrators for Twitter, Facebook, Digg, and others. While many of these others will benefit your blog and search rankings, the XML Sitemap, and SEO plug-ins are truly essential.

SEO Plug-in
When setting up your new installation, the first plug-in you need to install is one that will allow for totally customized title, meta description tags, and page URL’s. There are a number of tools that do this ranging from the widely popular “All in One SEO Pack” to a relative newcomer “HeadSpace2″.

While I personally have yet to try HeadSpace2, it is high on my líst, as it has been recommended by many industry professionals as the best WordPress SEO plug-in. For any new blog installation I highly recommend this plug-in be installed right away.

XML Sitemap Plug-in
To the best of my knowledge, HeadSpace2 does not have an XML sitemap option, and as such I highly recommend “Google XML Sitemaps” . This plug-in will automatically generate XML sitemaps for you on the fly and submit it to Google every time you add, delete, or update a page or post. This helps ensure that Google has the latest information at all times. It’s a very simple plug-in to install and configure and once setup, you can forget about it and it will do the job for you.

A well optimized site loaded with relevant content can do very well in Google if setup correctly. The power of WordPress can make this process incredibly easy so all you have to worry about is writing those great articles and selling your customers. The plug-ins and functionality of WordPress are endless and when installed correctly can make the optimization of your blog considerably easier, increasing your chances for top rankings.

About The Author

Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Web Marketing Inc.; based in Victoria, BC, Canada and founded in 1997. You can read more of Scott’s articles and those of the veteran StepForth team at http://news.stepforth.com or contact us at http://www.stepforth.com, Tel – 250-385-1190, Toll Free – 877-385-5526, Fax – 250-385-1198

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