Strategies to make your Blog More Interesting

Putting up your business blog is an advantageous way of establishing your presence on web. It’s no longer just about putting plain texts up on your blog.
With continuing stream of new software, publishing tools and plug-ins, today’s blogger have the means to create interesting and fun blogs. Here are some of them.

1.Put photos on your blog. You can try this free software called "Hello", found at http://hello.com.

2.Add audio clips. Try http://www.AudioBlogger.com and follow instructions.

3.Put streaming video clips on your blog. One of the emerging service providers of video clips is the http://instantvideogenerator.com.

4.Syndicate your contents. You can use the more popular RSS format. You can do this by checking the web for companies
that offer this service.

5.Provide space for your readers to give you feedback by checking your blog setting and modify this to allow posts.
Of course, leave a reminder, that they are free to post contrary comments as long as they do it in a polite and considerate manner.

6.What do the majority of your readers think of your blog?
Do you want to know and tally this up? And show off the results on your blog? Run polls. Some examples of free poll service are the web poll central and free polls.

7.If you use you use WordPress, a server-installed, open-source (free) state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability, try their email notification plug-in. This plug-in notifies your subscribers of your blog posts through email.

8.Trackback is a great blog feature, for it allows for a continuing conversation between you and bloggers of
similarly themed blogs. When you comment on another blog
posting in your blog instead of in that blog's comments
page, the trackback link connects these posts so the
thread isn’t lost.

All of these software or plug-ins will help you illustrate your point in a fun and interesting way. But you should remember content is king on the net. These devices are not substitutes for great content, which is what really what drives traffic to your blog.


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Mal Keenan is editor and publisher of the Home Business Tips Blog:
http://www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com/blog/
Visit his Internet Marketing Plug In Training site for great strategies and step by step processes in running a successful online business:
http://www.pluginprofitstraining.com/

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Search Engine Metrics - Organic vs. Paid Placement

Let me preface this report by citing advertisers in 2004 have spent 4 Billion dollars on search engine marketing according to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO).

Website marketers cited Search engine positioning was the top method to drive traffïc to their sites (66%), followed by email marketing (54%). Source: Direct Marketing Association. Accordingly, the most cost effective way to market your web site online is to obtain several top 10-search engine rankings in the major search engines for your keywords.

According to a recent Jupiter Research Survey, searching on the search engines is one of the main uses of the Internet among 79% of users. Source: September 2002 Jupiter Research Survey. So that being the case, whatever your promoting you'll want to make sure it can be found on the first page of the search engines results page.

The reason is numerically simple. An Iprospect Survey in 2002 reported that 78% of web users abandon their search if the first 3 pages don't provide an answer to their question, and 28% don't scroll past the 2nd page of results. Source: Media Post article reporting results of Spring 2002 IProspect survey.

Combine those facts with the Internet's explosive growth rate of 1.8 Million people worldwide going online every week for the very first time, Source: Official Guide To Internet Promotion and you can soon appreciate what a top 10 ranking can mean to you.

Google receives approximately 39.4% of all search engine traffïc. Yahoo receives approximately 30.4%. They're simply the largest search engines being utilized online today.

Bringing up the rear is MSN at 29.6%, and AOL 15.5% then Ask Jeeves with 8.5%. Source: Nielsen//NetRatings January 2004

How much traffïc is that? Well, Google and its partner sites were reporting a whopping 250 million searches a day in February 2003.

Overture and its partners were reporting over 167 million searches per day. Inktomi reported 80 million followed by LookSmart with 45 million per day.

FindWhat reported 33 million while Ask Jeeves reported 20 million, Alta Vista reported 18 million and finally Fast reported 12 Million searches per day. Source: Searchenginewatch.com 2004.

With all said, you can easily see how your search engine rankingsare directly proportional to the traffïc your web site receives, and your site traffïc is directly related to your potential to profit online.

Oh, and in case your wondering how much monëy is spent online; a recent Forrester Research Report indicated that online spending reached $95,700,000,000 million in 2003! That's a cool 95.7 billion dollars. Projected online spending is estimated to grow to $229 billion in 2008! A whopping 139% increase in online spending! Source: Forrester Research

Now with these facts in mind I'm confident you can clearly see what a top 10-search engine ranking can mean for your bottom line. Although it does leave a question unanswered in my mind, what has a higher ROI... organic search engine optimization or paid search?

According to SEMPO's key analysis, the U.S. & Canadian SEM Industry Size Estimate by tactic in 2004, organic SEO accounted for 12% of the market share or $492,057,200 while Paid Placement accounted for $3,341,878,176 or 81.8%.

Interestingly, 9 out of 10 respondents are actively engaged in organic SEM marketing programs accounting for 89% of the respondent advertisers. This trend can be contributed to the average cost of popular keywords continuing to escalate.

If the escalation continues to rise it could make paid search engine advertising exponentially cost prohibitive for all but the largest advertisers... the 900lb gorillas!

Simply put, ROI is outpacing inflation: SEMPO's key analysis indicates advertisers could afford to pay on average 33% more for their keywords and remain profitable, while they say prices have gone up 26% on average in the last 12 months. That leaves a 7% advertising margin to maintain current profïts for 2005!

SEMPO's data also noted that advertisers will get smarter about managing their paid placement programs before they cut back on spending.

This is also consistent with a report released by Nielsen/ NetRatings indicating that the growing demand for search engine advertising is outstripping the supply of currently available advertising space.

These findings seem to indicate the inventory of keywords is approaching a critical demand problem however; most advertisers felt they still have some degree of price flexibility in their paid placement programs before they reach the threshold of diminishing returns.

Is there any wonder why organic search engine positioning has gained popularity for online marketers in 2004? Could it be higher (ROI) return on investments?

SEMPO also cites that 43% of advertiser respondents have shifted their budgets away from other marketing programs for Organic SEO.

So what does it all mean? Let the numbers speak for themselves.

Organic SEO is undeniably gaining favor over the lower ROI paid advertising. This is evidenced by virtue of the fact that paid advertising is becoming less profitable.

Although paid advertising will continue to hold a large portion of the market share, as paid advertising returns diminish and keyword costs soar, my early 2005 forecast is for the materialization of a progressive organic SEO market trend to facilitate the need for advertising space.


About The Author
Lawrence Deon is an SEO/SEM Consultant and Author of the popular search engine optimization and marketing model Ranking Your Way To The Bank.

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How to Get Your Blog Site Listed

BLOGS... they seem to be the talk of the Internet marketing world these days, and for good reason.

Not only do the Search Engines love them for there Content Rich pages, you also have the ability to plug your Blogs "Site Feed" into an RSS feed and then have it syndicated to thousands of websites and directories giving your content more exposure to your target audience.
RSS(Real Simple Syndication) is a very Powerful technology that has been around for quite some time and when used correctly, can build an audience overnight.

If you want a crash course on what RSS is, in more depth, since the nature of this article is to show you how to get your Blogs "Site Feed" listed in Yahoo! and MSN, I've provided a link to a page full of articles on RSS related issues. http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-articles.htm

Now, depending on where your Blog is hosted, whether its through a free service like Blogger.com -- http://www.blogger.com or hosted on your websites server you should have a "Site Feed URL" that has the .XML extension.

This is your "Site Feed URL".

You'll usually locate it within your Settings area of Blog control center.

Here's what mine looks like as an example:
http://theiwe.blogspot.com/atom.xml

This URL is intended for a RSS News Reader, so disregard its appearance.

Once you find your "Site Feed URL", copy and paste it into Notepad because you'll need it for the next steps coming ahead.

Now, what you need to do is go and set-up an My Yahoo! and My MSN account.

I've provided the links for you below.

- My Yahoo! ==> http://my.yahoo.com

- My MSN ==> http://msn.com

It should only take you about 15-20 minutes at the most.

If you already have accounts with My Yahoo! and My MSN, read on.

This is assuming you already have your accounts set-up, so your next step is to Login to your My Yahoo! account.

When you login, you'll be taken to your Yahoo! page immediately.

What you want to do next is go look under the Yahoo! search box to the left and click on the "Add Content" link.

This will bring you to a new page.

From there, over to the right by the "Find" button you'll see an "Add RSS by URL" link, click on it.

A new window will open with a "Web Form". Simply copy and paste your "Site Feed URL" from Notepad into the web form and click on the "Add" button.

Now, you should see your Blogs name infront of you. Simply click on the yellow "Add To My Yahoo!" button and your feed will be added.

The next thing you should see is your "Site Feed" with your "Headlines".

Click on one of them, it should take you to your Blog, to the desired Headline you chose.

Your My Yahoo! page should Now have your Blogs "Site Feed"
Headlines listed at the bottom.

Scroll down to check. If you don't see them, it sometimes takes up to 24-48 hours for them to appear, so just check back later.

Now that thats done, everytime you update your Blog with NEW content, it'll "Automatically" update on your My Yahoo!
page and everybody else's pages who have subscribe to your feed, plus, within 24-48 hours your feed will get Spidered and Indexed by Yahoo!.

Talk about getting the word out in a HURRY with very little effort on your part.

This is "Viral Marketing" at its Best in my mind.

And... it's so simple to implement.

Okay.

Now it's time to do the same to your My MSN account as what you did above to your My Yahoo! page.

Here's the link to go login(click on Sign In from main
page): http://www.msn.com

Once your login to your My MSN account you should see an "Add Content" link under the MSN logo to your left. Click on it.

A pop-up should now be displaying. Simply copy and paste your "Site Feed URL" from your Notepad into the web form provided and click the Search button(the green button with the arrow).

You should now be looking at Check Box with your Blogs name beside it. Check off your "Site Feed URL" and then press the OK button at the bottom.

PRESTO! Like magic... your Blogs site feed has now been added to your My MSN page which will then be spidered in the next 24-48 hours and Indexed by MSN.

That's the Power of BLOGS (Web-Logs) and RSS (Really Simple
Syndication) combined with two Internet giants.

The only thing you have to bring to the table IS, fresh, quality content that your audience WANTS, and do it on a regular basis.

I post my articles that I write on a weekly basis, making my Blog called... The Internet Wonders Blog - http://theiwe.blogspot.com - a search engine Magnet!

You can do the same because I just showed you HOW.

In conclusion, creating BLOGS and using RSS as a vehicle to syndicate your Blogs content is a Sure-Fire way to get your content spidered more frequently by search engines and the exposure it deserves, which in turn, will build you a large audience of buying customers that TRUST you.


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Want to find out more about BLOGS and RSS? SEARCH CBmall==> http://www.internetwondersezine.com/cbmallsearch.htm
-- Or if you want to get MORE 'Insider' marketing Secrets, subscribe to Cory Threlfall's ezine called... The Internet Wonders eZine -- http://www.internetwondersezine.com or you can visit his BLOG at -- http://theiwe.blogspot.com

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The Power of Topic Specific Search Engines

What are Topical Search Engines?
Simply put, topical search engines are search engines focused on a specific industry, sector or topic.
While many marketers are scrambling for links, any links, an area that is often overlooked is topic-specific search engines. What many don't realize is that these engines do produce traffic, and they often contain traffic that is very targeted. Anyone who has taken the time to analyze weblogs and track sales sources will likely see that targeted traffic converts at a significantly higher rate than non-targeted traffic.

A savvy online marketer realizes that often, the quality of the visitor is far more important than the quantity of visitors. Web marketers should focus their energies on attracting targeted traffic whenever possible.

For example, if you sell saddles, advertising on a site related to horses or advertising on a topical search engine like http://www.horse-stall.net will bring significantly more sales than advertising on a generic web site or search engine.

Niche engines are considerably smaller than general search engines but they can still be quite lucrative. The small size of a niche or topic-specific engine ensures that the there are few competitors, and advertisers are generally willing to pay a little more for the focused traffic.
Advertisers appreciate the unique benefit of reaching a very targeted audience who have a higher likelihood of purchasing their product or service. As a result, topic-specific search engines and directories are a burgeoning market. There is far less competition in niche directories and dominating a specific market segment and establishing brand recognition is significantly easier.

It is virtual suicide to attempt to compete with the behemoth search engines like Google. Web-surfers are interested in simplicity and efficiency, which translates to as few clicks as possible. This is an area where Google really cannot compete with a topic-specific search engine.
Creating a simple, clear navigational structure of related content while cross-promoting related products or services will increase the site's value.

Advertisers will also flock to search portals that are industry-specific, as they appreciate the unique benefit of reaching a very targeted audience who have a higher likelihood of purchasing their product or service.

Consider the niche search engine, Alarm Tools - http://www.alarm-tools.net . The traffic this portal attracts will be of significant interest to manufacturers of security equipment or emergency supplies. Imagine the targeted traffic that an alarm company could receive from a link in the above search directory.

Comtemplate the quality traffic a financial planner could glean from an RSS search directory focussed on finance and investing at http://www.finance-investing.com .

Locating topic-specific search engines is not all that difficult. Consider using the resources provided by Search Engine Watch, Web Search Engines, and Search Engine Guide to locate engines that are topic-specific:

Search Engine Watch -
http://searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156351
Web Search Engines -
http://www.web-search-engines.net/directory/topic-specific.h
tml
Search Engine Guide -
http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html

Qualified 'clickers' or interested buyers is what it is all about; whether you are selling a product or advertising, the more targeted the traffic the better the fit. As an advertiser, consider topic- specific search engines. As an online marketer, consider creating a niche search portal, as the market is ripe.


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Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

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3 Steps to Online Marketing Competence

Whoever said knowledge is power, was wrong.
Way too many people read a few online marketing books, and then figure they know everything there is to know in those books just because they read them. And then at a certain point they stop buying any more books, because they know EVERYTHING. But guess what? They don’t practice any of it.
And then they wonder why they’re not making any money marketing online.

I’m going to let you in on a big secret. Until you actually do something with what you learn, you haven’t really learnt ANYTHING. If that’s you, you would do well to go out of your way to buy as many books, courses, tapes etc. as you possibly can until you feel so stupid for learning the same things over and over again…or you go so broke… you’re finally forced to get off your duff and do something with all that “knowledge”. Good grief!

You would be amazed and stunned at the amount of money spent each year on marketing books, tapes, CDs, etc, that never get read, much less acted upon. The number is mind blowing. Everyone is looking for the silver bullet. Well I’ve got news for you, it’s probably sitting right under your nose, on your book shelf, or on your hard drive somewhere right now, and you just don’t know it. You’re blind to it until one day; you see the same old tired idea presented in a slightly different light and aha!

Finally you get it.

Finally your mind puts those pieces together in a way that inspires ACTION. Was it due to some brilliant wordsmith who reached deep into your cranium, pulled some levers and switches until you suddenly became an online marketing genius actually capable of doing something? Probably not.
It was the repeated exposure to a very simple but subtle idea, viewed from a variety of different angles until you finally got it. You finally understood what you needed to do to twist it just so…so it would work, FOR YOU!

Here’s the crux of the biscuit.

Until you commit any of the material you think you’re actually learning to “long term” memory… to the point that you can prattle it off instantly when your spouse wakes you up in the middle of the night… you don’t have it. What you think you know doesn’t mean squat. Why? You’re just too slow. You’re not commercially adept, because you have to “think” about what you’re doing.

How do you become an unconscious competent, and therefore, “commercially adept”?

3 Steps To Online Marketing Competence!

1 - You have to get off you butt and try more things, with the understanding that you could very well fail. In marketing, there is no such thing as failure, only feedback. Put some skin in the game. Spend some time, put some money on the line, and chock it up to education. There is nothing like taking a little risk to supercharge your synapses, and burn those marketing lessons into your brain.
Nothing.

But it’s all worthless unless you…

2 – Ruthlessly track your results. There is absolutely no point in taking the aforementioned step without first putting a mechanism in place to measure results, and I’m not just talking about sales. For the first little while, you may well be focusing almost exclusively on clicks, or opt-ins, or time on page. As long as you do something with what you learn, that’s OK. Don’t be discouraged if at first you are disappointed with the results. Just take the feedback, and tweak your little experiments until they start moving in the right direction.

3 – Develop some tricks that allow you to internalize what you learn more effectively and quickly. For example, if you buy an ebook, instead of just reading it, you can create a mind map out of each chapter. Instead of just reading great sales letters and marketing pieces, you can copy them out in your own handwriting, & read them aloud. And before you study anything, take a few deep breaths and remember “WHY”
you are learning it by visualizing that brand new house or car that you’re after. The more of your senses you can involve, and the more you expose yourself to proven concepts and ideas (presented in a variety of different ways), the sooner you will have committed the lessons contained to long term memory.

It’s a virtuous cycle. The more you do, the more you commit to long term memory, and the more you commit to long term memory, the more you do, until one day you’re marketing in your sleep… and snoozing all the way to the bank!


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Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto Canada. Recently, Daniel & world-renowned publicist & copywriter Joe Vitale teamed up to co author “Million Dollar Online Advertising Strategies – From The Greatest Letter Writer Of The 20th Century!”, a tribute to the late, great Robert Collier.
Let the legendary Robert Collier show you how to write words that sell...Visit the below site & get 3 FREE Chapters!
Advertising-Online-Strategies.com/ad-strategies.html

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Website Design Graphics - How Much is Too Much?

Graphic intensive sites look pretty, but what are the downsides?

1. Loading time

When developing a website, a good website designer will take into account the "lowest common denominator" in its design. This is, for instance, why a properly constructed website should be optimized for a screen resolution of 800x600 pixels - if you create the site for a larger screen resolution, the 800x600 users will get that feared horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of their screen - having to toggle left and right to see the entire content. This is an example of building a site with the "lowest common denominator" in mind.

The same lies true for graphics. In this case, we are worried about download time. Thus, the lowest common denominator is connection speed - specifically, dial up connection speed. A page that takes only seconds to load on a cable or DSL connection may take several minutes to load on a dial up connection. Therefore, care should be taken to minimize image file size (image file size optimization) for speedy downloads even on a dialup connection.

2. Search engine ramifications

Further, search engines don't know what a graphic is - they can't "see" the graphic and then index it - so, we have to rely on some tricks with regard to naming the image files and their attribute tags to help the search engines along. This is especially true on sites without much written content - such as most ecommerce sites - these sites rely on pictures of the products in order to sell the product, but contain very little content other than the price of the item, for example. In sites such as this (ecommerce sites), it is imperative to utilize search engine optimizing techniques in the naming of the graphic files and thier html attributes. Also, it is strongly recommended to include a written description of the item with the picture - that adds content - and helps you sell the product.

These are but a couple of the concerns when implementing a graphic design into a website.

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Website Design and Use of Flash Elements

Is the use of a flash element or flash website worth the expense?

Basically, it depends on several factors. Flash development can get very expensive, depending on the needs of your website. When planning your website design, you must consider a number of factors, such as:

-The ability of the users to navigate about the website
-The aesthetics of the website
-Search engine readability

1. The ability of users to navigate about the site.

You must consider the end user when developing a website based on flash. Problems that you may encounter include whether or not the user has the correct flash player, the type of internet connection that users utilize, and whether or not you wish to develop a "non-flash" mirror site.

2. The aesthetics of the website.

Without a doubt, a properly designed flash website can be extremely pleasing to the eye, engaging the user in interactivity with pleasing graphics, motion, video, and sound. This is perhaps the most compelling argument for the use of a flash website.

3. Search engine readability.

This is without a doubt the most compelling argument against the use of a flash website. Search engines can't read the flash movie, can't follow it's links, and often a flash website is seen by search engines as just a blank website. The use of a search engine optimization expert can help you get around these obstacles of flash website design.

What about the use of flash elements?

A flash element is basically a flash movie inserted into a "normal" html website. The use of a flash element can provide the eye-pleasing graphics desired, at a lower cost, and makes the site much more search engine friendly as the search engines are able to read the html code of the site (although they still cannot read the flash element). So long as you don't rely on flash elements for navigation, which would prevent search engines from seeing your interior pages, there is no other major obstacle to utilizing such website design techniques, although, as with any website design, it still must be properly optimized for search engines for maximum visibility on the internet.

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