Once you overcome the technical hurdle of getting your website up and going, the next major hurdle is how to get eyeballs looking at your website.  You can have the most fantastically designed website in the world but design doesn’t really matter if you aren’t getting people to your site.

Once you get people to your site, you can then test various designs to see what is working and what isn’t but the important thing is to get them there in the first place.

Getting people to visit your site can definitely be challenging.  Here are some off page search engine optimizations tips you can use to ensure you have traffic coming to your website.

1. Visit forums and start posting comments and providing useful advice to forum members.  Whilst most forums won’t let you put your website links in the body of your message, they will often let you put your website link in the signature section of your profile. Incidentally, if you do this make sure to use anchor text that links to your URL and not the URL itself.  To find forums, simply type in your “keyword+forum” in Google.
2. Start visiting blogs and make comments.  Let the owner know that you like the information they have provided and why. If they like your comments they will approve it and you might find that you have a few more links pointing back to your site.
3. Set up your email address with a Gravatar. Your Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. Not only does it help identify you, it also encourages people to click on your gravatar and go to your site. It can also provide a valuable link back to your site.
4. Use FireFox as your browser and install the FireFox “NoDoFollow” plug-in. The plug-in will show which blogs are good for making comments on and which ones are not so good. Hint: the not so good ones don’t give you any links back to your site and have no SEO value.
5. Locate blogs that use the Comment Luv plug-in.  To do this, visit Google search and type “title=”CommentLuv Enabled”” Keyphrase making sure you replace the “Keyphrase” terms with the actual keyword you are targeting.
6. Alternatively, type “your keyword”+”do follow blog” and get the results. You should have a nice juicy list of blogs where you can make comments.
7. Download Comment Kahuna and enter your keyword. The software will enable you to search by page rank or no follow / do follow.  Hint: you want “do follow” links.
8. Make a video and upload your video to You Tube. In the description, type in your website URL making sure you put http at the front so that a link is generated.
9. Locate You Tube channels in your niche that allows comments.  To do this go to Google and type in “Keyphrase” “Channel Comments” site:youtube.com/user. Just like blogs, make a useful comment about the channel. People will follow you back to your channel.
10. If using WordPress, use social media bookmarking tools such as Only Wire, Social Marker, Socialable, Sexy Bookmarks, Share This, TweetMeMe and the Facebook like plugin to help users share, bookmark and email your posts.
11. If you have other websites in related markets, make them work harder by getting them to link to each other.  Visitors might then go off and visit your other sites. However, do be careful with this strategy and ensure that each website is not just reciprocating links back to each other.
12. If you have physical products include the website address on your packaging. You’ll be amazed how many people will check this out and visit your site.

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If you are an Internet marketer, you will no doubt be aware of the overwhelming amount of information that is available to you. The hardest thing to do, particularly when you are starting out, is to set filters for yourself so that you are not spending all your time processing information and ideas without actually implementing any of them.

One of the first things you will probably need to evaluate is what type of Internet Marketing business model you want to make a living from.  There are many alternative Internet Marketing methods and fast web formulas available. Perhaps you might do one model or a combination. Will you continually design and make websites so that you can sell affiliate products? Will you develop your own products? Will you take your online knowledge and apply it to offline businesses? Do you want to become a recognised expert in one area of Internet marketing such as Search Engine Optimization ?

Once you have mapped out your chosen path it is important to focus in this area and not get sidetracked by the peripheral goings on. This will just take up you valuable time. One thing you will definitely get sidetracked by is the absolute mountain of free information and resources by so called experts that you can tap into to get you on your way.

You will also come across a mountain of information, courses, workshops and seminars that you will need to pay some hefty prices for, in order to obtain further knowledge in your chosen field.

Similar to the free information you receive, you must also filter these paid services as it can easily become an expensive exercise when you discover that you have paid for courses that are not delivering you the content that you expected.

You owe it to yourself to talk to others and research any course or Internet marketing guru you are thinking of enrolling with. The last thing you need to be doing is spending thousands of dollars on content that is out of date, obsolete or just plain out, does not work.

I have heard many stories from a lot of disgruntled people who realise too late, that what they have paid good money for is effectively useless to them. In fact, I’ve got a story or two I could tell myself.

That is why, after searching the world (you can do that on the Internet!) I think I have found the perfect Internet marketing program for everyone.  The Fast Web Formula program covers all aspects of Internet Marketing from buying and selling domains, affiliate marketing, outsourcing,search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, content creation, buzz marketing, web 2.0 social media marketing, copywriting, website creation and marketing strategies.

James Shramko, a marketing whiz from Sydney Australia has pulled together a seminar where many world class Internet marketing leaders will share cutting edge information and the many alternative Internet Marketing business models. The information that you will take away with you may change your business forever.

Basically though, it does not matter what area of Internet marketing you choose, this guy will have solutions to your problems and will give you answers to your questions, even before you ask them. This guy delivers the goods in down to earth and authentic kind of way.

The bad news is, you will have to pay. The good news is, learning from a proven Internet Marketer is worth every cent. The information he provides is cutting edge, up to the minute and tailored for Intermediate to Advanced Internet Marketers who want to learn how to accelerate their results.

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Webinars are a powerful marketing and training tool but there are some key things you should know before undertaking such an event.  Here are some three tips that will help you organise and plan your first webinar.

1. Preparation
2. Privacy
3. Practice

Preparation

The first tip is about preparation.  If you are running a webinar, you should prepare you presentation in advance and make sure your presentation message matches the needs of your audience. For example, there is no point giving technical information if your audience is not technical and just wants to understand the big picture of your message.

Be prepared by making sure you have set the right date for webinar. You should set your alarm to prewarn you that the the webinar will be starting shortly. Its amazing how many times you can caught up in the day to day stuff and lose track of the time.  There is nothing worse than leaving your audience waiting.

Conversely, add in a time zone converter when people are invited to register for the event so that people in different time zones can easily work out when the webinar is scheduled. This will help increase the participation rate of your webinar.

You can also be prepared by making sure your laptop battery is fully charged and you have enough bandwith on your Internet connection to successfully run the webinar without interruption.

Privacy

Make sure you use two monitors during the webinar so you don’t display any information that you might want to keep private such as password lists, personal information and any websites you are working on that you may want to keep private.

You can use one screen to log into personal accounts and then drag that screen to the other monitor once you are logged in and demonstrate what you are doing to your audience.  Having two screens also means that you will be able to make sure that your webinar is actually working and you can watch it in action.

The other area related to privacy is to ensure you clear your browser history if you are demonstrating something on in the Internet. The main reason for this is that you could have been working on a client or your own website and you may want to keep this detail private for commercial reasons such as avoiding people copying your work.

In addition to clearing your browser and using two screens, you should also make sure you hang up properly after the webinar.  It is amazing how many people hang on to the end of the webinar and if you do not hang up properly, then there is a risk that you may say something after the event that you will regret.

Practice

Make sure you have reviewed all your notes and practiced your presentation. Webinars are strange in that it feels like you are talking to yourself and that nobody is there listening to you.  This can be a strange feeling to overcome so practice talking to yourself and do the presentation before hand to prevent any last minute nerves.

If you make a few mistakes, don’t worry. Remember that even the most experienced have stuff ups but if you know some of the traps, you may be able to take some steps to avoid it.

James Schramko a successful Internet Marketer who runs weekly webinars has even more useful tips on how to run a webinar.

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In line with the trend towards more people watching video, webinars are set to become the next biggest thing. Webinars (web conferences) are one of the best ways to reach a large audience without having to travel anywhere. What is great about them it that you can sit in the comfort of your own home or office and check out the latest news or training without having to waste hours travelling in traffic or by air.

The time spent in travelling to and from meetings would have to be one of the biggest productivity wasters for most people and businesses. The trouble is that most businesses think that they have to have meeting rooms specifically set up for a visual teleconference. This is no longer the case. Webinars eliminate the need for this. So not only can you save travel time you can also minimize the costs required in setting up expensive meeting rooms and maintaining the equipment.

The simple truth is that any person or organisation can set up a webinar and communicate news simultaneously to all staff even if they are located in several geographic locations. Imagine the cost savings a business could generate by using technology to hold a webinar instead of having their Chief Executive Officer travel to several office locations and factories to communicate the same information to employees. Imagine how much time he or she would save.

If you are a small business that operates from home the good news is that you don’t have to hire meeting venues with teleconferencing facilities to do business with overseas contacts. You can do it all from the comfort of your own home by using third party services.

Information from a webinar can also be leveraged. That simple webinar can be recorded and a link to the webinar can be sent to anyone who missed the event. If the content is valuable or scarce, the information could also be recorded and sold as a product. The key is to become an early mover and start it before it becomes common place.

Webinars can be used to:

• Sell products or services
• Launch products
• Demonstrate products or services
• Train staff
• Provide “how to” information
• Provide industry relevant information
• Conduct research
• Provide free or paid information
• Educate members of a community
• Create content for membership sites

There are hundreds of other topics that you can have a webinar on.  All you need to do is work out what your audience might like and find useful.

Webinars also allow a level of interactivity with your audience that you may never have captured had you held a physical meeting. Often, people are too embarrassed to speak up or ask questions in front of a large crowd however with a webinar, you can raise your hand during the presentation and type your questions in for the presenter.  Other participants need not know who asked the question.

Another thing that is great about webinars is that anyone can hold one. All they need is a laptop, internet connection and a subscription to a webinar service (like GoToWebinar).

The next steps are pretty straight forward:
- Invite your audience,
- Find out what things will interest them,
- Prepare your presentation
- Match your message to your audience
- Create a link for your audience to register
- Promote the webinar
- Practice your presentation
- Run the webinar
- Leverage that content
- Repeat

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I often get asked about WordPress and other Website Building programs.  I have gone down the path of road testing many different programs – from Coffee Cup, Big Pixie, Artisteer, NVU, Joomla and Web Creator Pro 4. I have wasted a lot of time trying all these programs out, however now I am a complete and utter WordPress advocate.  I mean the wordpress.org not wordpress.com. Here’s why:

• You own your site with wordpress.org because you host it – you can therefore put as many affiliate links you want on your page. I’ve known people who have been banned for putting too many affiliate links on WordPress.com
• You can have an unlimited amount of WordPress sites on one hosting account – a reseller hosting account costs $24.95 for unlimited sites versus one site building program I know of that costs $30 per month per site.  If you use hosting with the add on domain feature, hosting can even cost you as little as $6.95 per month for unlimited sites.
• WordPress has thousands of free and paid themes that you can use.  It would be rare if you couldn’t find a theme that you didn’t like.  This site uses Thesis which is a paid theme but it is by far one of the most customizable themes I have used.  The software program Artisteer can also design templates specifically for WordPress.
• There are hundreds of plug-ins that give your site extra functionality even if you don’t know html, css or php. You can use the plug-ins to have a facebook like button, a twitter button or even add contact forms or even add extra search engine optimization features.  It even has plug-ins that mask affiliate links and plug-ins that help you submit articles directly to ezinearticles from your website.  I could write at least 10o pages on the plug-ins you can use with WordPress but for now I’ll keep it simple.
• Google also loves blogs – why is this so?  This is because blogs are often updated with fresh content. Google loves fresh content and does not like thin sites with just a landing page.  With over 90% market share, you have better do what Google likes.

This subject has been debated by many newbies to Internet Marketing and also another Internet Marketing group we manage. The trouble is that many newbies are often recommended programs or website packages that are owned by the speaker and their prime motivation is to make even more money from you.   If you check out what sites they are using for themselves, you’ll often find that they are using WordPress as their platform of choice.  You would think that if their program was any good, they would use their own products.  You would think that, wouldn’t you?

I believe most serious (and ethical) Internet Marketers will agree with my opinion.  WordPress is awesome.  Some Internet Marketers still use xSite Pro but many have moved away from using this program all the time to predominantly using WordPress – although xSitePro still has a place for Internet Marketers.  I use one of the products from xSitePro, xHeader which I have written about in another post.

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Keyword research is one of the most critical things you can do as a Internet Marketer or even as a Business Owner because it will help you search engine optimize your website. Think of keywords as the founding blocks of your website because if your site is targeting the wrong keywords, search engines and potential customers may never find you.

This will result is lost dollars and rankings in Google that mean absolutely nothing. For example you might rank number one in Google for a particular keyword but if no-one or if only few people are searching for that keyword then the keyword is useless. If you put the wrong keywords on your site, you can also waste time, energy and valuable advertising dollars.

One fantastic tool for doing Keyword Research is Market Samurai. Market Samurai helps you target keywords that are commercially viable, have reasonable search volume numbers and relatively low competition. The software also enables you to check how viable a market is before you begin creating a website. This means it saves you time from toggling between Google’s Adwords Editor to check out search volumes and Google’s search pages to check out competition. With Market Samurai, you can do all this is one easy manoeuvre by applying filters. In addition, this wonderful tool help you check out your competition to see how they rank as well as get an understanding of what you need to do to outperform them.

The trouble is that many people think that they can do keyword research themselves but there is quite an art to keyword research. Market Samurai makes the science of finding keywords a lot easier and quicker. It is simply the best keyword tool available.

Check out this training video. It is one of many videos that the Market Samurai team offer.  You can even download your free Market Samurai evaluation version.

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One of the most common questions that is heard from new Internet Marketers is “How do I make some money today?” This question is never usually answered, at least not satisfactorily, because those involved in the industry, generally just think to themselves “Here comes another one!”

Everyone wants to make a quick buck without any effort. The reality is, you must spend considerable time building your Internet business and developing your structure before you really start to make some decent income.

That being said, Internet Marketing is a fantastic way to start a business when you have limited funds available to you. What most people will not tell you is that there are ways to make some fast cash to enable you to build your business with.

Assuming you have some very basic knowledge about Internet marketing, here are some simple ideas to get some fast cash immediately.

1. PPC – Trend Marketing
2. Flipping websites
3. Pounce approach – Build the surfboard, ride the wave
4. Create a product
5. Provide a service

With Trend Marketing you could simply target an upcoming event, develop a website around that event, and sell a product to enhance that event. A good example is the Superbowl story. Target the upcoming Superbowl, build a website and promote the fact that people who cannot get tickets to the Superbowl can watch it live for free on their PC. Then point them to an affiliate product selling “Live TV on Your PC”. People Buy, you get a commission.

Flipping or selling websites can be an easy way to make some fast cash. Set up a website with an affiliate product, add analytics, get testimonials, and you then have a ready made product to on sell. How easy would that be, even I can build a website, but thousands can’t.

The Pounce approach is to identify an upcoming big launch of a product, become an affiliate, and develop a product or service to attach to it as a bonus. Essentially, you need to build a surfboard that will allow you to ride somebody else’s wave.

You can create a product for very limited cost. Develop a Survey asking what people want to know about a certain subject. Gather the results, build a list of questions, approach an expert in that particular field and record an interview with them asking these questions. Sell a copy of the recording back to the same group of people who filled out the survey. Easy

Other than that it can be very easy to provide a service to small business. You could build websites for them. If they already have a website, sell them the idea that they need to collect names and follow leads. With this technique you are then in a position to set them up with an autoresponder and receive monthly recurring commissions. They wont know how you do it, because most of them don’t know what an autoresponder is, and if they do, they don’t know how to set it up.

So there you go, hope that stimulated your brain and got you motivated to get out and make some Fast Cash. Sometimes you just have to think a bit laterally, and understand that there are a lot of people out there who do not know half as much as you do.

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