Web Design Discussion

If you want to instantly attract targeted visitors to your web site, pay per click (PPC) marketing enables you to create ads that appear on the first page of the top search engines. This means you can start making sales immediately. Even if you don’t have a web site you can send visitors to an affiliate site and reap the rewards.

Most people that try PPC marketing often give up because they end up spending more than they invest. You can quickly and easily spend 100s or even 1000s of dollars and not see a profit.

Dollar a Day Strategy Case Study

Setting up my first Google AdWords campaign

When I set up my first Google AdWords campaign I wanted to make sales immediately so I made sure I got the top ad position in and set a high daily budget with the idea I would generate a lot of sales. Within a week I received 1000s of impressions, 100s of clicks but didn’t generate one sale. I used up all my budget which amounted to 100s of dollars.

I subsequently set up several more campaigns hoping to achieve success by doing extensive keyword research, tweaking and split testing my ads, however I still didn’t make any profit and ended up spending more than I invested.

Creating multiple campaigns with Dollar a Day Strategy

After getting the wind knocked out of my sails from my initial campaigns I read books and attended seminars on pay per click marketing. I was inspired by the idea of just spending a dollar a day to test affiliate products to market so I bought the Dollar A Day AdWords ebook.

Lessons learned from Dollar a Day Strategy

1. Test marketing

Before investing money in your campaigns test them. The Dollar a Day strategy enables you to test multiple campaigns at the same time without spending a fortune on your budget. Once you start making sales you have the option of increasing your bids and daily budget.

2. Keyword strategies

If the cost per click of your keyword is high you’ll spend your budget very quickly. With the Dollar a Day strategy you’ll learn effective keyword strategies that enable you to reduce your cost per click.

3. Write effective ads

You only have a few lines to make the visitor click on your ad and see your offer. The Dollar a Day strategy will show you how to write ads that communicate your offer to your customer and improve sales conversions.

Conclusion

If you want to maximize your profits without spending a fortune marketing your product on Google AdWords, learn how to test market your products, learn effective keyword strategies and write traffic pulling ads, pick up a copy of Dollar a Day AdWords.

I highly recommend it!

If you want to get lots of free traffic from writing articles they need to get high rankings in the search engines. A first page listing means your content will be viewed many more times than if your article appeared on the second page or beyond.

Most writers will simply put an article together without including the necessary elements for it to get good rankings. Web designers do the same…they know how to create a beautiful design but don’t know how to build a web site that’s search engine friendly. Your article or web site should be designed to attract free search engine traffic. To do this it needs to rank right.

7 ways to write an article to rank right

1. Keyword research

Before writing your article on the topic you’ve chosen, create a list of related keywords using the Google Keyword Research Tool. Look for long tail keywords. They will have less searches however it’s easier to get good rankings for them.

2. Title

Use your main keyword at the beginning of your title. Search engines place more weight on titles that start with the keyword.

Example

Article Writing – Write Articles to Rank Right

3. Main content

Weave your keywords into the paragraphs of your content. This includes the introduction, body and concluding paragraphs. Don’t overdo it as it won’t read well and appear unprofessional. Find creative ways to incorporate your keyword in the sentence structure by using synonyms, and action verbs.

4. Anchor text

Anchor text is is a hyperlink that contains text. Including your keyword in the anchor text is more powerful than simply using a web site address. Most article directories allow 2 links in the resource box, one with anchor text and the other a standard hyperlink.

If you’re writing the article for your blog or web site, link relevant text within the main content (anchor text) to related articles within your web site. This will boost the rankings of your article.

5. Generate backlinks

Another main factor that helps attain high rankings (apart from writing an optimized article) is to generate lots of backlinks to your article. The more high quality backlinks you get the better your rankings.

Ways to build lots of backlinks include:

• Link to relevant content within your web site (internal linking)
• Submit your article to multiple directories
• Repurpose your articles into videos and submit them to video sharing sites
• Offer your article as a guest writer on a high traffic blog
• Create a short report from a collection of articles then offer it for free
• Create an ebook that contains links to your web site
• Submit to social marketing sites ie twitter, facebook, etc.

All of these methods include placing anchor text within your content.

6. Write for your readers

If you write captivating content it naturally gets passed on to others. Look at a popular news item. It spreads rapidly throughout the Web because 1000s of people link to it or place the content on their web site.

7. Learn from others

Improve your writing skills by observing what other writers do to attract an audience. For example view magazine and newspaper headlines for article title ideas. Look at “the most viewed” articles in the ezinearticles directory to see which articles get your attention. Enter “keyword+article” in the Google search box to find articles that rank well for your keyword.

********************
Learn how to drive attract 1000s of visitors to
your web site by getting a copy of my ebook:
Article Marketing Strategies

Link popularity refers to the quantity and quality of other web sites that link to your site. As your link popularity increases so do your search engine rankings. One of fastest and easiest methods for getting one-way inbound links is by writing and publishing articles.

Types of links

Reciprocal linking

This is where you exchange links between 2 web sites. You should only exchange links with sites that compliment or relate to your own web site. This is a time consuming process. Most requests will go unanswered as site owners receive multiple requests from unrelated sites. They may consider it spam and delete the emails.

To receive a reciprocal link, offer a well written article or short report on the topic of the web site you want to exchange links with. Include your web site link in the resource box at the end of the article. Offering something of great value will make you stand out from all the other link exchange requests.

2. One-way linking

This type of linking doesn’t require reciprocal linking because it only goes “one-way.” It’s also called an “incoming link” or inbound link.”

Writing and submitting articles to article directories is a great method for acquiring one-way links because you don’t have to ask for a link exchange. Article directories allow you to insert one or two links in your resource box.

Since article directories get indexed by the search engines every day, your article will almost immediately appear in the search engines. Depending on how competitive your topic is, your article may enjoy good rankings.

Ezine publishers, web site owners select articles from article directories to publish in their newsletters, websites or blogs. These are all one-way links. If these properties receive lots of traffic, the link popularity and traffic generation to your own site will increase dramatically.

3. Internal linking

This refers to linking to other pages within your own web site. Often the home page receives the most links whereas internal pages receive none or a few.

To improve the link popularity of your web site link your internal pages to related pages within the same web site with anchor text (hyperlinked text).

Encourage other web site owners to link to your internal pages by finding the page that relates or compliments their own content. Strengthening your internal pages by getting inbound links will boost your overall site rankings and traffic.

*************************
Improve your link popularity by learning the correct methods
for writing, optimizing and publishing your articles.
Visit Article Marketing Strategies

Do you currently have a social media presence for your business?
Are you overwhelmed by the amount of time it takes to monitor these sites?

Social media marketing can easily consume a large portion of your day if you are not organized or have a clear focus. The article below provides 5 easy steps you can do daily to monitor your social media sites.

How to Monitor Your Social Media Presence in 10 Minutes a Day

Monitoring your business’ social media presence is incredibly important. You need to respond to people talking about your brand and understand how people view your company. However, a common concern is that it takes up too much time.

The team at HubSpot spreads out the responsibilities, but it’s entirely possible for one person to keep an eye on things. If you set up a solid routine, monitoring your online presence doesn’t have to be a hassle at all.

Here are five free, easy steps you can take to get things started. Do each task in the morning when you start work, and you should be good to go. (If you want to further automate this sort of work, checkout HubFeed, a monitoring service built into all HubSpot software packages.)

1) Check Twitter for chatter about your company (2 minutes): Use tools like TweetDeck or Twitter Search to monitor conversations about your company in real-time. To check once a day, set up an RSS feed for a specific Twitter Search to go straight to your Google Reader. Do this by clicking the little RSS icon after you complete a search. Now, ongoing search results will be sent to your reader.

2) Scan Google Alerts (1.5 minutes): Check your Google Alerts for your company name, products, executives or brand terms. To set this up, enter your search terms and select to receive updates as they happen or once daily. Now, when people blog about your products, an alert will be sent to your inbox. You can read the articles and respond right away!

3) Check Facebook stats (1 minute): Visit your Company Page’s Facebook Insights. This can be found by clicking “more” under the page’s main photo. Scan your fans and page views count. If you are a member of a group, check to see if any new discussions started.

4) Answer Industry-related LinkedIn questions (3 minutes): Search for questions on LinkedIn that you or members of your company can answer. You can set up an RSS feed for specific question categories to go to your Google Reader as well. When you find a relevant question, respond and include a link to your website.

5) Use Google Reader to check Flickr, Delicious, Digg and others (2.5 minutes): Also set up RSS feeds for searches on your company name and industry terms in other social media sites. Similar to monitoring LinkedIn and Twitter, your Reader will serve as a great place to centralize your other searches too!

Resource
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4663/How-to-Monitor-Your-Social-Media-Presence-in-10-Minutes-a-Day.aspx

If you’re not tracking the number of visitors you’re receiving from your articles you won’t know their effectiveness. More visitors means more traffic, sales or subscribers. You want to get the maximum output from every article. Instead of just focusing on writing lots of content work on improving the quality of each article.

Ways to monitor article visitors

1. Ezinearticles statistics

This article directory keeps statistics on the articles you submit. Simply login to your account, go to author tools-view my article reports. It will display the number of article views and URL clicks (people that clicked on the links). You will also be able to read any comments readers added.

2. Web site statistics

If you published an article on your web site or blog you can view the hits and page views provided by your hosting service. It will also show the keywords people entered to find your article. By monitoring your site stats you’ll see what content is the most popular. This will give you ideas for future articles.

3. Tracking software

Software such as AdTrackz allows you to cloak and track your links. For instance the URL for my newsletter is http://www.isitebuild.com/newsletter.htm and the tracking URL is http://www.drostdesigns.com/at/go.php?c=nl. The software monitors the number of people clicking on the link to read my newsletter.

Example
If you write a guest article for a blog or newsletter you can track the number of visitors that click the URL in the resource box by cloaking it.

Use these 3 methods to monitor the effectiveness of your writing. Set a goal to increase the number of visitors to your web site. If you already get 500 visitors a month, write and submit new articles until you’ve achieved 1000 visitors a month.

***********************
Also read 7 Habits of Highly Effective Traffic Generation

There is no doubt writing and submitting articles attracts a continuous stream of visitors to your web site however if done incorrectly it may only result in a trickle.

To get the maximum performance from your article submissions follow these 7 tips:

1. Check grammatical errors

At the very least check for spelling errors by running your article through a spell checker. I write my article in notepad then copy and paste it into MS Word which has a spell checker and can also do a word count.

2. Get someone to proof read your article

When writing your own articles it’s easy to make mistakes that you don’t see initially because you have been engrossed in creating the content. The creative aspect of your mind is working well but your detailed mind is not. Give it to someone else to proof read. They will be more objective and will read it with a a fresh pair of eyes.

If no one is available, let the article sit for a few hours or a day then come back to it. You’ll be amazed how many errors you’ll find plus you’ll find better ways to construct your sentences to improve its readability.

3. Select the category that relates best to your article topic

Now that you’re ready to submit the article choose the most appropriate category. For example if your topic is on “article writing” select the “writing and speaking” category then select the subcategory “writing articles.”

4. Write an appealing title

Even though you already have a title for your article, review it again before entering it in the article directory. The title should encapsulate the description of your article content. Make sure it grabs the attention of your readers and include your main keyword. Search engines will index and rank content based on the keywords you use.

5. Create a great description

Publishers looking for articles for their ezines will scan the titles then read the brief descriptions in the article directories. They’ll choose the one that appeals to them most therefore write a description that will make the reader want more.

6. Include a call to action in the resource box

Your content prepares the visitor’s mind to take action. It should naturally transition into your resource box so it looks like part of the article. The resource box is where you ask the reader to subscribe to your ezine, visit your web site and/or download a free report.

7. Include links back to your web site

EzineArticles (the most popular article directory) allows 2 links in the resource box. Use anchor text (live link text) for one link, and your full web site address for the other. This is to make sure your URL still appears at the bottom of your article should the reader just copy and paste your article into their newsletter.

Tip
Don’t submit your article to 100s of directories. It will look like you’re spamming the search engines. Submit to ezinearticles first because it receives the most traffic. Wait till your article has been published before submitting it to other article directories. Google only indexes and ranks original content. If you submit the same article to other directories it will be recognized by Google as duplicate content.

******************

Attract a continuous stream of NEW visitors to your website by picking up a copy of Article Marketing Strategies.

Herman Drost is the CEO of http://www.iSiteBuild.com
Affordable Web Site Design, Web Hosting and SEO.

So you’ve decided to write and publish lots of articles but don’t have a clear plan how to go about it. Without creating a clear plan for writing and marketing your articles it will be difficult to fulfill your objectives.

Before writing your first article ask yourself this question:

What’s the purpose of my articles?

Get more subscribers

If you want to get more subscribers for your newsletter write informative articles that leave the reader wanting to get more information. Include a link to a free report or software in exchange for their email address. Make it clear during the sign up process they’ll be receiving your newsletter.

Build link popularity

If the purpose of your articles is to get incoming links to your web site or blog, include 2 links in your resource box. One will contain anchor text (ie “article marketing” will be a live link to your site), the other will be your full web site address (ie http://www.domain.com).

Article directories also make the article title a live link. This is what appears first in the search engines so make sure you include your main keyword in the title and place it near the beginning.

Get top rankings

If you want your article to appear on the first page of the search engines you need to optimize it correctly. This means researching the keywords people are entering in the search box to find your article or web site, then include those keywords in your article title, content and resource box.

If you want to get top rankings for your web site you need to write multiple optimized articles targeting the keywords contained in your meta tags and web copy. By creating and submitting lots of articles to article directories and ezine publishers you’ll see your rankings increase.

Attract 1000s of visitors

Visitors will naturally gravitate to your articles if they contain information they want, need or desire. The methods mentioned above will attract readers however if you want them to keep coming back your content needs to be compelling. Each article should contain at least one nugget of information they can take action on right away.

If you consistently write unique content your visitors will recognize you as the leading authority on the subject.

Make a goal

After deciding on a clear purpose for writing and publishing articles, make a goal how many articles you intend to write and when they will be completed. Recently I joined the challenge of writing and submitting 100 articles within 100 days. Having a goal helped me to focus my mind on churning out one article per day.

Create a schedule

Decide how many articles you’ll write/submit each month, week and day, what time of the day to write and how many minutes you’ll spend writing and submitting.

Now that you have a clear purpose, goal and plan of action you’ll achieve success in your article marketing efforts.

********************
Learn how to drive attract 1000s of visitors to
your web site by getting a copy of my ebook:
Article Marketing Strategies

Have you sat down to write an article only to get so distracted you still don’t have it done by the end of the day?

It leaves you frustrated because article marketing is the life blood of your online business. It attracts visitors, builds backlinks and boosts your web site rankings in the search engines.

Top 7 tips for eliminating article writing distractions

1. Clear your mind

It’s hard to start writing when your mind is cluttered up with thoughts going in all different directions. Close your eyes and visualize a beautiful, peaceful place in your mind. It could be a calm sea, a beautiful garden whatever calms your mind. With a clear mind thoughts will flow a lot easier.

2. Choose the most creative time of the day

This is different for each person. The morning is the most creative time for me before I delve into all the tasks for the day. If I leave my article writing for later saying “I’ll do it after I get all these tasks done”, it never gets done. If you haven’t discovered your optimal time to write try writing at different times of the day or night to see what time is the most productive.

3. Clear your desk

Have you heard the phrase “out of sight out of mind?” A cluttered desk makes it difficult to concentrate because it grabs your attention. It you clear your desk of clutter it will help you to focus your mind on the task at hand.

4. Turn off alerts

This means turning off your cell phone, email notifications or any other device that makes a noise and grab your attention. When you answer a client’s call or instantly respond to an email it interrupts the flow of your thoughts and may take 10-15 minutes to refocus your thoughts again.

5. Write from an different location

If you find it difficult to write from your home office, try another room in the house, sit outside or go to an internet cafe. When I go to an internet cafe it enables me to focus on one thing only…writing the article.

6. Handwrite your article

I wrote a whole article on a piece of paper while waiting in the doctor’s office. There’s something about writing your on a piece of paper that helps you to easily create an article. Try it…you may be pleasantly surprised.

7. Use a timer

Setting a time limit to write your article helps focus your thoughts and attention. You’ll be surprised how much writing can be accomplished in 30 minutes or 1 hour. I simply write the start time on a piece of paper then start writing. Starting is the hardest part but once you get going time goes by very fast. Another idea is to use an online stop watch such as online-stopwatch.com.

********************
To become an expert in Article Marketing pick up a copy of
Article Marketing Strategy

There are 100s of methods of traffic generation however unless you master these 7 highly effective habits you may only receive a trickle of visitors to your web site.

1. Learn multiple traffic generation methods

Don’t rely on one method of generating traffic. You never know when one strategy will lose it’s effectiveness. Different products often require alternative or a combination of methods. For instance optimizing your articles for the search engines before publishing them uses a combination of SEO and copywriting.

2. Become an expert in one method

Online marketers often spend to much time and money trying several methods to generate web traffic. They keep purchasing new ebooks and software hoping this will be the secret source for boosting their web traffic. They don’t become an expert of any marketing method so they continue to fail in attracting many visitors. Select one traffic generation method that works well and become an expert on it.

3. Tracking

If you don’t monitor your traffic generation method, you won’t know how effective it is and how to improve it. Regularly check your web site statistics to see where your visitors are coming from, what keywords they are using to find your web site and monitor the number of unique visits you receive each month. If it increases every month you know the method is making an impact.

4. Consistency

You need to promote your products or web site consistently to produce a never ending stream of visitors. Create a timetable for yourself. For example if you do article marketing, write and publish 3 articles a week and stick to it. If you need more traffic increase the frequency of your promotions by writing and publishing more articles.

5. Set goals

Make a goal how many visitors you want to attract to your web site. If you are currently getting 1000 visitors a month, build it up to 2000 a month. The more traffic you receive the more sales you’ll make…it’s a numbers game.

6. Stay focused

If you’re the sole proprietor of your online business it’s easy to get distracted by other duties such as web design, copy writing, email, blogging, etc. These are all necessary to run your business however if you slow down or stop marketing your products your sales will decline. Stay focused on your marketing goals by taking action on them.

7. Be ready to adapt

Technology can change very quickly. If your main marketing method ceases to work well, look for an alternative marketing strategy. Don’t place all your eggs in one basket. For instance if all your traffic comes from getting and maintaining top rankings in the search engines, then suddenly your rankings disappear due to a change in search engine algorithms, your sales will decrease dramatically. For example video marketing has become popular recently. Be ready to adapt and learn other marketing technologies.

********************
To become an expert in Article Marketing pick up a copy of
Highly Effective Article Marketing Strategies

Short reports are a great way to share your expertise and make money as well. A short report consists of 15-20 pages and is usually sold from $7 to $17 whereas ebooks may be over 100 pages and sell for $27 and up. Short reports are easier to sell because they don’t affect the pocket book as much. Your visitors will buy them without thinking if they can afford it.

So how do you create a short report?

1. Select a topic you are interested in

It’s easier to write on a topic you know a lot about than one where you need to do a lot of research. It will take less time and the content will come easier.

2. Create a list of 7 tips

Ideas for the tips may include, 7 top reasons, 7 benefits, 7 ways…you get the idea. Write a paragraph of 5 to 10 lines on each tip to create your 7 tips article. You now have created your first article. Use the content of this article for the introduction to your short report.

3. Expand each tip into an article

Write as much as you can on each tip. If you get stuck for content visit article directories, forums and blogs that contain content on the same subject. This will stimulate your create juices to flow. Once you’ve completed your 7 articles you’ll have 8 articles altogether (including the 7 tips one you wrote in the beginning).

4. String the articles together

Create an attractive title for your short report. Use the first article as your introduction followed by the main body of your content. This where you simply string all your 7 tips articles together. Remember to include your bio and a link to your web site at the end of your report.

Use Microsoft Word or Open Office Software to create your report. Open Office is a free download at openoffice.org. It allows you to quickly convert your document to a PDF file which can be read on any computer with any type of browser.

After you’ve completed your first report it becomes easier to create many others. Use them as free bonuses to promote other products or sell them for a small fee.

This can be the beginning of building your own information empire.

Also read Make Money With Your Blog – Write an Ebook or Report

***********************
Pick up a copy of Write That Report
to learn a quick-and-easy method for creating high quality reports in no time and how to build an army of affiliates to sell it for you.