Top search engine placement is equivalent to climbing Mount Everest for online marketers. Thanks to the spread of the Internet globally, going online to use the search engine is the first thing a lot of people will do when they're searching for something, be it a product or a topic, which is why it's important to make your website easily found by the search engine spiders.
However, it's not enough for your website to just be indexed by the search engine. The important thing is for then to rate your site highly enough that they will display it near the top of their search results listings. Studies have shown that most people click on the top three search listings and only rarely venture beyond the first page.
Consequently, the goal of online marketers is to be on the front page of the search engine results, and preferably at the top of the SEO rank, to increase their chances of attracting visitors and making sales. This article talks about how you can achieve top search engine placement through SEO, to increase the traffic on your website and get more sales - in five straightforward steps.
1. Use a Domain, Not a Subdomain
Before you think about how to do Google search engine optimization or any other SEO objective, you need to ensure first that you get a domain for your website and not a subdomain. While subdomains are definitely cheaper - as you can put as many subdomains on one domain as you like - registering a domain will not only net you better control over your website thanks to more efficient hosting, but search engines tend to index domains much faster. And that means you can reach your goal of reaching top search engine placement much quicker.
While you're at it, make sure that you choose an attractive, easy-to-remember domain name that is related to your niche. That way, users will be able to find your website more easily, since it has a higher recall value than a website that has a hard-to-remember name that is also unrelated to what the websites topic is. Using your primary keyword phrase in your domain is highly beneficial.
2. Make Use of Meta-Tags
Meta-tags are commands placed in the HTML codes on your web page to help search engines categorize websites into different categories based on what their topics. For example, if you use a cooking meta-tag, your website will automatically classified with other similar websites, making it easier for those using the search engines to find your site. Make sure that the meta-tags you're using are relevant to your pages. This is particularly true for the title, as a lot of search engines use the title meta-tags to determine which site gets top search engine placement.
It is said that many search engines, Google included, don't look at meta tags any more. This is almost certainly true of the keywords meta tag, because it was abused too much in the past. However, the title tag and the meta description tags are still very useful.
3. Maximize the Use of Keywords
Keywords are also another vital factor that you need to pay attention to so as to get top search engine placement. Like meta-tags, make sure that the keywords you use are actually relevant to the content of your web page, since search engines use these to categorize and rank your efforts. There are certain websites you can use to check what keywords are most relevant for your niche so you can use these on your website. Do note that more is not necessarily better in keywords. If you overuse keywords, your website can also be penalized for this.
1-2% density for your primary keyword is optimal, but make sure you haven't inadvertently used another word or phrase more frequently or the search engines will get confused about what your pages is actually targeting. A free tool such as that found at http://keywordhacker.com/ can be of great help in determining exactly what the search engines sees on your page.
4. Focus on the Style as Well as the Substance
Having meta-tags, keywords, and good text are not enough for your website to have top search engine placement. You also need to focus on the appearance of the website. Make sure that the design is neat and attractive, and at the same time, suitable for your niche. An attractive website can go a long way when it comes to retaining activity on the website. No matter how good your content is, people will inevitably choose another website over yours if your site is cluttered, uses an unattractive color palette, or has too small font sizes.
Also, do make sure that wherever possible you use multimedia to make your website more attractive to people. Pictures, videos, audio and other such files can be used to add interest to your website. You can also label your multimedia files in accordance to what your keywords are for better optimization. This is especially important since there are some people who are exclusively looking for pictures and not text.
5. Use Backlinks to Your Advantage
Your work doesn't end once your content is up. In order to reach your goal of reaching top search engine placement, you will also need to get incoming links to your website. There are link exchange programs between associates, affiliates, and peers from the same industry. If you're only just starting out in that industry, do some networking to get to know these people. That way, you will also be able to share links with them, which can then improve your website's page ranking.
The more incoming links your website has, the better your chances of reaching top search engine placement. However, don't make the mistake of using black hat techniques, such as backlinking to your own pages. Some search engines actually can detect this, and they punish website owners accordingly. As a result, instead of reaching top search engine placement, your website can instead be taken out of the search engine results completely, making you far worse off than where you were at the beginning.
While far from being easy, having top search engine placement is certainly not impossible, as long as you are willing to take the time and effort to do SEO on your website. If you're not familiar with good SEO techniques, there are SEO specialists who will be willing to perform these tasks for you for a fee.
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Easy Ways to Increase Search Engine Ranking for your Website
Many businesses that rely on their websites often disregard the importance of the many techniques to increase search engine ranking. The sites that end up on top of the list of searches when you Google a particular topic may not necessarily be the best sites out there, but they have managed to persuade Google that they are the best around right now. And in general, they've done that by superior search engine optimization.
The problem with putting yourself on top of the search list is that there are millions of other sites that are competing against you to be on that top list so getting there can be a challenge and so can staying there.
Research Keywords
Luckily, there are things you can do to improve your search engine ranking. The most important of all is to research the keywords. You must decide what the most frequently searched keywords are and focus a page on your site on each of them - or as many as is practical. For example, if your website is selling an anti acne cream, research on what words or phrases people often use when they are looking for acne products. Top keywords could be acne treatment, and acne cure. Don't try to combines all these words onto one page on your site - devote an individual page to each. That way the search engines will be able to match the searches to your content easily.
Select Low Competition
You would also do well to select the keywords that have a low number of competitors. This way, there is more chance that your website will be one of those that will populate the list of top searches. This is useful when you are promoting a product that is unique and cannot be found anywhere else but in your site.
Keyword Density
DIY SEO is not simple. You also have to take note of your keyword density. This refers to the number of times your keywords appear in the text, over the total number of words in your article or content. The standard keyword density for many sites who wish to increase search engine ranking is 1-2%. For example, if an article has 500 words and your keyword density is 2%, then you will have to repeat the keywords 10 times throughout the article. A free tool at http://keywordhacker.com/ can help you determine the keyword priority and density of your web pages and articles.
Exceeding Density
You also have to be wary when you overuse your keywords. Search engine giants like Google and other article websites are prone to blacklist websites that abuse the keyword density. Search engines will naturally want the best quality and authoritative content from the searches they make, and not just pages full of keywords, that are there to mislead the search engines and confuse human readers. Although we have said that 1-2% keyword density is the optimal level, some niches demand even lower figures - check the top ten listings of your keyword before you proceed.
Title Tag
The title tag is also a very important factor if you want to increase search engine ranking of your site. It is the place that you first tell the search engines what your page is about. Ideally, your title should contain your main keyword. The worst thing that could happen is that your site will have an untitled page! This is a big mistake that is often overlooked.
Links
Links are also very useful if you want to seriously increase search engine ranking. Big search engines prioritize sites that have links to high quality content from the relevant, related sites. You can see what sites are usually linked to your site using free tools available online.
You can make use of backlinks to increase search engine ranking. They are incoming links from a website or page. The number of your backlinks is very important since this is one of the determinants of your ranking in the SEO.
SEO Outsourcing
One very popular option that businesses choose to increase search engine ranking is SEO outsourcing where you pay third-party companies to optimize your sites for you. There are many companies that provide this type of service. Their job is to help your business increase search engine ranking by doing research and improving the keyword optimization of your website while you get on with running your business.
Commonly, these SEO Outsourcing companies are also web content providers. They will write the content of your website for you, bearing in mind the need to stay on top of the search engine competition. They do this by applying all the techniques mentioned above.
If you want to increase search engine ranking, you can ask the help of an SEO company. Orders are based on article requests from the company, which you use to boost your ranking in SEO. The articles will have varying keyword densities and styles, depending on your instructions.
SEO companies are normally composed of good writers, who are adept at research and article composition. They create articles by researching on the Internet for sources. You can also request article rewrites. You would do better when you hire the professional service of SEO Companies. Rates are based on article requests, which are rated by the number of words.
Outsourcing SEO is a very good idea, but to gain the most benefit your really should learn as much about search engine optimization yourself first, and preferably put in the work to become effective at it. That way you will be able to brief an outsource company better and be able to monitor and understand the results they get for you.
If you want to seriously increase search engine ranking, follow the tips stated above, or outsource the job to SEO companies. You can't really help but gain more profit, customers, and popularity when you're on top of the search engine results.
The problem with putting yourself on top of the search list is that there are millions of other sites that are competing against you to be on that top list so getting there can be a challenge and so can staying there.
Research Keywords
Luckily, there are things you can do to improve your search engine ranking. The most important of all is to research the keywords. You must decide what the most frequently searched keywords are and focus a page on your site on each of them - or as many as is practical. For example, if your website is selling an anti acne cream, research on what words or phrases people often use when they are looking for acne products. Top keywords could be acne treatment, and acne cure. Don't try to combines all these words onto one page on your site - devote an individual page to each. That way the search engines will be able to match the searches to your content easily.
Select Low Competition
You would also do well to select the keywords that have a low number of competitors. This way, there is more chance that your website will be one of those that will populate the list of top searches. This is useful when you are promoting a product that is unique and cannot be found anywhere else but in your site.
Keyword Density
DIY SEO is not simple. You also have to take note of your keyword density. This refers to the number of times your keywords appear in the text, over the total number of words in your article or content. The standard keyword density for many sites who wish to increase search engine ranking is 1-2%. For example, if an article has 500 words and your keyword density is 2%, then you will have to repeat the keywords 10 times throughout the article. A free tool at http://keywordhacker.com/ can help you determine the keyword priority and density of your web pages and articles.
Exceeding Density
You also have to be wary when you overuse your keywords. Search engine giants like Google and other article websites are prone to blacklist websites that abuse the keyword density. Search engines will naturally want the best quality and authoritative content from the searches they make, and not just pages full of keywords, that are there to mislead the search engines and confuse human readers. Although we have said that 1-2% keyword density is the optimal level, some niches demand even lower figures - check the top ten listings of your keyword before you proceed.
Title Tag
The title tag is also a very important factor if you want to increase search engine ranking of your site. It is the place that you first tell the search engines what your page is about. Ideally, your title should contain your main keyword. The worst thing that could happen is that your site will have an untitled page! This is a big mistake that is often overlooked.
Links
Links are also very useful if you want to seriously increase search engine ranking. Big search engines prioritize sites that have links to high quality content from the relevant, related sites. You can see what sites are usually linked to your site using free tools available online.
You can make use of backlinks to increase search engine ranking. They are incoming links from a website or page. The number of your backlinks is very important since this is one of the determinants of your ranking in the SEO.
SEO Outsourcing
One very popular option that businesses choose to increase search engine ranking is SEO outsourcing where you pay third-party companies to optimize your sites for you. There are many companies that provide this type of service. Their job is to help your business increase search engine ranking by doing research and improving the keyword optimization of your website while you get on with running your business.
Commonly, these SEO Outsourcing companies are also web content providers. They will write the content of your website for you, bearing in mind the need to stay on top of the search engine competition. They do this by applying all the techniques mentioned above.
If you want to increase search engine ranking, you can ask the help of an SEO company. Orders are based on article requests from the company, which you use to boost your ranking in SEO. The articles will have varying keyword densities and styles, depending on your instructions.
SEO companies are normally composed of good writers, who are adept at research and article composition. They create articles by researching on the Internet for sources. You can also request article rewrites. You would do better when you hire the professional service of SEO Companies. Rates are based on article requests, which are rated by the number of words.
Outsourcing SEO is a very good idea, but to gain the most benefit your really should learn as much about search engine optimization yourself first, and preferably put in the work to become effective at it. That way you will be able to brief an outsource company better and be able to monitor and understand the results they get for you.
If you want to seriously increase search engine ranking, follow the tips stated above, or outsource the job to SEO companies. You can't really help but gain more profit, customers, and popularity when you're on top of the search engine results.
A ten-point SEO checklist to make sure your site ticks the right boxes
Before you launch a website live onto the Internet, it is always a good idea to run through an SEO checklist! When launching any website, you should keep in mind that you are not doing it just for the sake of having a website, especially if this is for your business. There are things you need to consider when you are fixing the contents of your website to give it the very best chance of attracting the search engines' interest. This SEO Checklist provides the important things you need to check before launching a website.
SEO Checklist
* Have you done good research on your keywords? It is very important that you choose the most used terms that are relevant to the topic you want to promote. This is the first priority in your SEO checklist. Keywords are very important, because these are the things people type in searches. If you want to be on top of the search engine rankings, you must have good popular keywords and each page on your site must have a clear focus as to which keyword it is targeting.
* Do you have a good Page Title? A good page title will usually contain the primary keyword that your page is written for, and must have a concise description of the webpage or product you are promoting. Google gives importance to the title of the pages, which is why you need to make a title that will say everything about your product or article in just a few words. The title refers to the text between the title tags in the head section of your webpage's source code.
* Is your keyword density sufficient? That's an important point to consider in your SEO checklist. Your keywords will need to be repeated several times in one page. This will increase your chance of ranking well in search engine results. You might ask, why not make a page with keywords repeated again and again without really making any sense? Good question. Google is aware of keyword stuffing, as such abuse is called, and will penalize a web page that it considers guilty. A keyword density of your primary keyword in the range of 1% to 2% is considered plenty. A free tool at http://keywordhacker.com/ can help you determine the primary keyword and density of your web pages or articles.
* Another important thing you will want to include in your SEO checklist is the on page SEO. How do you make sure that your website is friendly to search engines? Unique content is one way of earning those points. You will also do well if you label your headlines using H Tags. This shows the search engines which lines are most important to your page - in particular the H1 tag.
* Backlinks are also very important in your SEO checklist. The number of your backlinks plays a very important role in increasing your search engine ranking. However, you cannot post links to your website indiscriminately; you also have to bear in mind the quality of these links and whether they have any relevance in your website. Google places a lot of importance on quality backlinks to your site from other related ones on the Internet as it considers each inbound link to you as a vote of confidence..
* Content Writing is another factor in increasing SEO ranking. It is a very important item on your SEO Checklist because Google is constantly improving its search engine so that it only offers results that have high quality, useful content. The Internet is full of content that is there simply to raise keyword count. The results are content that have useless text. Natural content is achieved when you genuinely try to HELP other people who may visit your site. It is done through good research, patience, and strategic arrangement of the information in your website. Some of the best natural content articles are press releases because they tend to be genuine-sounding content and get right to the point without unnecessary waffle. Google's recent Panda/Farmer update has reinforced their desire to weed out poor quality content and reward the better written web pages.
* Your SEO checklist must also include the work you do to market your site. One good way of doing this is through article marketing. Create articles about your website and then submit these to the Internet Article Directories, of which there are thousands. You can also promote your website in forums that are dedicated to the industry you are involved with, say cosmetics forums, or health supplements forums, but be careful that you don't contravene the forums' house rules - some do not allow self-publicity.
* Finally, although it is important to make your website as attractive as possible to the search engines, because it is they who will send you free, natural traffic, always remember that it is real people who will make you money. You site must tick the SEO boxes, but it must always remain human-friendly and capable of answering questions and problems that real people are asking. One of the biggest mistakes that Internet marketers make is to focus too closely on the needs of the search engines and forget that real people have to use the web site.
Overall, you can create a website that is SEO friendly and user friendly simply by following the tips above. You may ask the help of SEO companies to enhance your content for SEO. If you like, you can create or select articles and then submit these to your SEO company; they will review your article, and rewrite it to make it more SEO friendly. It is difficult to stay on top of the competition when it comes to SEO ranking, but if you follow these tips you will be ahead of the crowd.
SEO Checklist
* Have you done good research on your keywords? It is very important that you choose the most used terms that are relevant to the topic you want to promote. This is the first priority in your SEO checklist. Keywords are very important, because these are the things people type in searches. If you want to be on top of the search engine rankings, you must have good popular keywords and each page on your site must have a clear focus as to which keyword it is targeting.
* Do you have a good Page Title? A good page title will usually contain the primary keyword that your page is written for, and must have a concise description of the webpage or product you are promoting. Google gives importance to the title of the pages, which is why you need to make a title that will say everything about your product or article in just a few words. The title refers to the text between the title tags in the head section of your webpage's source code.
* Is your keyword density sufficient? That's an important point to consider in your SEO checklist. Your keywords will need to be repeated several times in one page. This will increase your chance of ranking well in search engine results. You might ask, why not make a page with keywords repeated again and again without really making any sense? Good question. Google is aware of keyword stuffing, as such abuse is called, and will penalize a web page that it considers guilty. A keyword density of your primary keyword in the range of 1% to 2% is considered plenty. A free tool at http://keywordhacker.com/ can help you determine the primary keyword and density of your web pages or articles.
* Another important thing you will want to include in your SEO checklist is the on page SEO. How do you make sure that your website is friendly to search engines? Unique content is one way of earning those points. You will also do well if you label your headlines using H Tags. This shows the search engines which lines are most important to your page - in particular the H1 tag.
* Backlinks are also very important in your SEO checklist. The number of your backlinks plays a very important role in increasing your search engine ranking. However, you cannot post links to your website indiscriminately; you also have to bear in mind the quality of these links and whether they have any relevance in your website. Google places a lot of importance on quality backlinks to your site from other related ones on the Internet as it considers each inbound link to you as a vote of confidence..
* Content Writing is another factor in increasing SEO ranking. It is a very important item on your SEO Checklist because Google is constantly improving its search engine so that it only offers results that have high quality, useful content. The Internet is full of content that is there simply to raise keyword count. The results are content that have useless text. Natural content is achieved when you genuinely try to HELP other people who may visit your site. It is done through good research, patience, and strategic arrangement of the information in your website. Some of the best natural content articles are press releases because they tend to be genuine-sounding content and get right to the point without unnecessary waffle. Google's recent Panda/Farmer update has reinforced their desire to weed out poor quality content and reward the better written web pages.
* Your SEO checklist must also include the work you do to market your site. One good way of doing this is through article marketing. Create articles about your website and then submit these to the Internet Article Directories, of which there are thousands. You can also promote your website in forums that are dedicated to the industry you are involved with, say cosmetics forums, or health supplements forums, but be careful that you don't contravene the forums' house rules - some do not allow self-publicity.
* Finally, although it is important to make your website as attractive as possible to the search engines, because it is they who will send you free, natural traffic, always remember that it is real people who will make you money. You site must tick the SEO boxes, but it must always remain human-friendly and capable of answering questions and problems that real people are asking. One of the biggest mistakes that Internet marketers make is to focus too closely on the needs of the search engines and forget that real people have to use the web site.
Overall, you can create a website that is SEO friendly and user friendly simply by following the tips above. You may ask the help of SEO companies to enhance your content for SEO. If you like, you can create or select articles and then submit these to your SEO company; they will review your article, and rewrite it to make it more SEO friendly. It is difficult to stay on top of the competition when it comes to SEO ranking, but if you follow these tips you will be ahead of the crowd.
You can create your own product - here's how!
There are many different ways to make money online, but for Internet marketers two of the most popular are to sell other people's products for a commission (affiliate marketing) or to create products of your own to sell.
Many people steer clear of creating their own products because they think it is difficult or complicated, but the truth is that anyone can do it - and you don't even need to buy any software to help you!
Information marketing is about packaging up information that people are looking for - answers to questions they may have, solutions to problems, strategies or business plans - and making easily downloadable ebooks out of them.
If that sounds technical to you, think again! All you need is a free program called Open Office.
Open Office is an office suite - a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool and so on, that rivals Microsoft's Office in features and performance, but which is available for anyone to download for free.
It is quite a big download and may take a bit of time, but it is well worth the wait.
For the creation of information products, the only part of the suite that you'll need is the word processor, which looks and performs almost exactly the same as Word.
In this word processor you can put your ideas down on virtual paper and then format them to look pretty.
Don't think that you necessarily need to write something massive - an ebook can have anything from about 20 pages up - barely more than 5000 words and a few pictures.
If you can't write that much though, don't worry. Smaller ebooks can be released as 'special reports' and can be anything from a single page up! It is the information you provide that is important, not necessarily the number of words or pages you write.
When you have finished writing your ebook, and have saved it safely to a file on your computer, the Open Office word processor then has another clever trick up its sleeve. At the click of a button it will turn your book into a PDF that is ready for you to sell.
It is much better to sell a PDF file that a word processed document because the former cannot be changed or easily copied by the reader, while a regular .doc file is open to all kinds of abuse.
If you prefer speaking to writing, why not consider creating an audio product?
Another free piece of software you can download is Audacity, which, if you have a microphone (or headset) will let you record and edit audio files with ease.
Many people like to listen to audio while commuting or exercising, so there is a ready market for an information product in this format.
Where to get the information to sell?
Once you know the questions people need answers to, researching the answers is the fun part. Google will allow you to find information on almost anything and your job as an information product producer is to do in-depth research and to package it up into a unique, easy-to-read solution.
This isn't plagiarism if you paraphrase and rewrite the information you find - it is research. However, don't take all your information from one source as that could get you into trouble if you don't rewrite it sufficiently well.
Why would people pay good money for information that they could get themselves for free? After all, if you can research it, so could they. The answer is that you are providing a valuable service. Not everyone has the time or the inclination to spend hours researching. They may not have the skills to do so.
An ebook can be downloaded cheaply, easily and almost instantly, so it is a very attractive proposition for many people. Price it right and they will be beating your door down!
Creating your own products is, in the long run, a better business model that selling other people's wares as an affiliate.
For one thing, you get to keep all the money on the sales that you personally make, but for another, you can start to attract affiliates to sell for you. Yes, you may have to pay them 50% or even 75% of the purchase price in commission, but each sale they make is one you would not have been able to make on your own.
And so even 25% of the price is free money for you. And there is no limit to how many affiliates you can have.
Creating your own digital information products to sell online is a great way to make money and is entirely under your own control. If sales of one of your products starts to fall, there is no restriction on you bringing out more - until eventually you'll have your own stable of products bringing you in a very nice regular income.
Many people steer clear of creating their own products because they think it is difficult or complicated, but the truth is that anyone can do it - and you don't even need to buy any software to help you!
Information marketing is about packaging up information that people are looking for - answers to questions they may have, solutions to problems, strategies or business plans - and making easily downloadable ebooks out of them.
If that sounds technical to you, think again! All you need is a free program called Open Office.
Open Office is an office suite - a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool and so on, that rivals Microsoft's Office in features and performance, but which is available for anyone to download for free.
It is quite a big download and may take a bit of time, but it is well worth the wait.
For the creation of information products, the only part of the suite that you'll need is the word processor, which looks and performs almost exactly the same as Word.
In this word processor you can put your ideas down on virtual paper and then format them to look pretty.
Don't think that you necessarily need to write something massive - an ebook can have anything from about 20 pages up - barely more than 5000 words and a few pictures.
If you can't write that much though, don't worry. Smaller ebooks can be released as 'special reports' and can be anything from a single page up! It is the information you provide that is important, not necessarily the number of words or pages you write.
When you have finished writing your ebook, and have saved it safely to a file on your computer, the Open Office word processor then has another clever trick up its sleeve. At the click of a button it will turn your book into a PDF that is ready for you to sell.
It is much better to sell a PDF file that a word processed document because the former cannot be changed or easily copied by the reader, while a regular .doc file is open to all kinds of abuse.
If you prefer speaking to writing, why not consider creating an audio product?
Another free piece of software you can download is Audacity, which, if you have a microphone (or headset) will let you record and edit audio files with ease.
Many people like to listen to audio while commuting or exercising, so there is a ready market for an information product in this format.
Where to get the information to sell?
Once you know the questions people need answers to, researching the answers is the fun part. Google will allow you to find information on almost anything and your job as an information product producer is to do in-depth research and to package it up into a unique, easy-to-read solution.
This isn't plagiarism if you paraphrase and rewrite the information you find - it is research. However, don't take all your information from one source as that could get you into trouble if you don't rewrite it sufficiently well.
Why would people pay good money for information that they could get themselves for free? After all, if you can research it, so could they. The answer is that you are providing a valuable service. Not everyone has the time or the inclination to spend hours researching. They may not have the skills to do so.
An ebook can be downloaded cheaply, easily and almost instantly, so it is a very attractive proposition for many people. Price it right and they will be beating your door down!
Creating your own products is, in the long run, a better business model that selling other people's wares as an affiliate.
For one thing, you get to keep all the money on the sales that you personally make, but for another, you can start to attract affiliates to sell for you. Yes, you may have to pay them 50% or even 75% of the purchase price in commission, but each sale they make is one you would not have been able to make on your own.
And so even 25% of the price is free money for you. And there is no limit to how many affiliates you can have.
Creating your own digital information products to sell online is a great way to make money and is entirely under your own control. If sales of one of your products starts to fall, there is no restriction on you bringing out more - until eventually you'll have your own stable of products bringing you in a very nice regular income.
Why private label is your best friend
One of the biggest problems that would-be Internet marketers face is where to get good content to fill up your web pages or blogs. This article looks at private label as being an ideal source, if you know how to use it the right way.
Content is King, for sure. The search engines are not interested in ranking thin, content-poor web pages and are actively working to adjust their algorithms to weed out those pages that don't provide useful information.
That makes it increasingly difficult for website builders because with the best will in the world, very few are ready, willing and able to continue to write an endless stream of quality content for themselves.
For many people writing is difficult to start with, but factor in the limited time that people have these days and the likelihood that however passionate you are about your niche, you'll soon run out of things to say, and it gets almost impossible.
And of course, if your web site is on a subject that you don't have personal knowledge or passion about, writing fresh content may be completely impossible for you.
All the evidence suggests, though, that the need for on-topic, well-written content is growing. The search engines have as good as said so and are now, more than ever before, looking to de-list sites that they consider to be lacking authority.
All this means that one supply of content that has gone in and out of fashion over the years, private label articles, it coming back with a vengeance.
Private label articles, or PLR articles as they are commonly known, are very cheap, but can totally transform your Internet marketing and web building.
PLR stands for private label rights and describes the licence you get for using them after you've bought them.
Private label means that once you've bought them, all rights of ownership are transferred to you. You then have the rights to treat the articles as your own, as if you had written them.
Unlike other ways of buying 'information', there is no copyright on PLR so you are free to change them, rewrite them, repurpose them, even put your own name on the top and claim authorship.
In general, you cannot resell them in an unchanged state, and many article directories do not allow you to post them, but other than that, they become yours to do with as you please.
That wide-ranging 'right of use' is a very powerful thing indeed and makes PLR one of the most undervalued heroes of online marketing. Far too few people have really understood just how many ways PLR articles (or even entire books) can be used, and how much money some people are making by using them.
Having said that, it is also important that you understand that as with many things, there is really good PLR material out there and a lot of absolute garbage.
Over the years a lot of really bad articles have been written, more often than not by people with really bad writing and language skills, that are identifiable as private label from a mile away. If you can see an article is badly written and makes no real attempt to cover its promised topic, you can bet the search engines can weed it out too. Using such trash doesn't do your site any good at all.
In fact, with new changes that Google have announced that will make it easier for them to weed out what they consider to be spam websites, using poor quality PLR can be really harmful to your business. So to that end, make sure you read what you buy and at the very least, rewrite it to correct blatant spelling and grammar errors. And if you can, add more meat to the thin articles as well.
You will often see offers online of thousands of articles being sold for peanuts. 10,000 articles for $10 is not unusual! Steer clear. The articles in these packages are almost all horrible. They have been around for many years, have been used to death and, all too often, are not PLR material at all - they have been stolen from non-plr websites. It is a case of buyer beware.
Luckily, there are many very reputable sources of great PLR articles. Some will sell you packages individually and others are membership sites that provide a steady stream of articles to their members.
Look to see examples of their work before you buy - all reputable PLR sellers will be happy to provide you with a sample or two if you email and ask - and check for spelling, grammar and language use. If they make mistakes in the articles they send out as samples, you can bet they are equally sloppy in what you'll buy.
Look also, for the articles to have a certain depth. A good article should read naturally and not appear as if it has been created purely as a keyword holder. And when you get the articles, rewrite them.
I know I said that PLR makes your life easier, and it does. It is far, far easier to rewrite an article into your own words - just take it one sentence at a time - than it is to research and write a new article from scratch.
You'll save a huge amount of time and effort, but the end result will be content on your website that is fresh, relevant, authoritative and, to the search engines, exactly what is needed. And that is money in the bank.
Content is King, for sure. The search engines are not interested in ranking thin, content-poor web pages and are actively working to adjust their algorithms to weed out those pages that don't provide useful information.
That makes it increasingly difficult for website builders because with the best will in the world, very few are ready, willing and able to continue to write an endless stream of quality content for themselves.
For many people writing is difficult to start with, but factor in the limited time that people have these days and the likelihood that however passionate you are about your niche, you'll soon run out of things to say, and it gets almost impossible.
And of course, if your web site is on a subject that you don't have personal knowledge or passion about, writing fresh content may be completely impossible for you.
All the evidence suggests, though, that the need for on-topic, well-written content is growing. The search engines have as good as said so and are now, more than ever before, looking to de-list sites that they consider to be lacking authority.
All this means that one supply of content that has gone in and out of fashion over the years, private label articles, it coming back with a vengeance.
Private label articles, or PLR articles as they are commonly known, are very cheap, but can totally transform your Internet marketing and web building.
PLR stands for private label rights and describes the licence you get for using them after you've bought them.
Private label means that once you've bought them, all rights of ownership are transferred to you. You then have the rights to treat the articles as your own, as if you had written them.
Unlike other ways of buying 'information', there is no copyright on PLR so you are free to change them, rewrite them, repurpose them, even put your own name on the top and claim authorship.
In general, you cannot resell them in an unchanged state, and many article directories do not allow you to post them, but other than that, they become yours to do with as you please.
That wide-ranging 'right of use' is a very powerful thing indeed and makes PLR one of the most undervalued heroes of online marketing. Far too few people have really understood just how many ways PLR articles (or even entire books) can be used, and how much money some people are making by using them.
Having said that, it is also important that you understand that as with many things, there is really good PLR material out there and a lot of absolute garbage.
Over the years a lot of really bad articles have been written, more often than not by people with really bad writing and language skills, that are identifiable as private label from a mile away. If you can see an article is badly written and makes no real attempt to cover its promised topic, you can bet the search engines can weed it out too. Using such trash doesn't do your site any good at all.
In fact, with new changes that Google have announced that will make it easier for them to weed out what they consider to be spam websites, using poor quality PLR can be really harmful to your business. So to that end, make sure you read what you buy and at the very least, rewrite it to correct blatant spelling and grammar errors. And if you can, add more meat to the thin articles as well.
You will often see offers online of thousands of articles being sold for peanuts. 10,000 articles for $10 is not unusual! Steer clear. The articles in these packages are almost all horrible. They have been around for many years, have been used to death and, all too often, are not PLR material at all - they have been stolen from non-plr websites. It is a case of buyer beware.
Luckily, there are many very reputable sources of great PLR articles. Some will sell you packages individually and others are membership sites that provide a steady stream of articles to their members.
Look to see examples of their work before you buy - all reputable PLR sellers will be happy to provide you with a sample or two if you email and ask - and check for spelling, grammar and language use. If they make mistakes in the articles they send out as samples, you can bet they are equally sloppy in what you'll buy.
Look also, for the articles to have a certain depth. A good article should read naturally and not appear as if it has been created purely as a keyword holder. And when you get the articles, rewrite them.
I know I said that PLR makes your life easier, and it does. It is far, far easier to rewrite an article into your own words - just take it one sentence at a time - than it is to research and write a new article from scratch.
You'll save a huge amount of time and effort, but the end result will be content on your website that is fresh, relevant, authoritative and, to the search engines, exactly what is needed. And that is money in the bank.
Why a newsletter is your fastest route to online income
For as long as there has been an Internet people have been saying 'the money is in the list.' In fact, they've been saying it ever since postage stamps were invented!
The reason that so many people extol the virtues of creating your own list is simply because it works. Now we have the Internet and don't have to pay for paper, printing, envelopes and stamps to send things to our 'list' it works phenomenally well!
At its heart a list is simply a bunch of people who have, by supplying you with their email address, given you permission to send them messages.
Not so long ago, when the only way to communicate with your subscribers was through the mail, it cost a bundle to send out your message. At least $1 per person was the rule of thumb back then and now it would be far higher. Sending out to even a relatively small list of 5000 could be a serious investment and so you had to sell very hard to get a return. The failure rate was high.
Now, though, things are very different. You can send out to 5000 people in the blink of an eye and it will cost you absolutely nothing. Email is still free.
That means that you need a far lower response rate to make a great profit - but if your communication and sales skills are even half decent you will make a killing!
It is not unusual to make thousands of dollars from a single mailing that takes you just a few minutes to write.
And there is nothing to stop you sending out to your list again and again.
In fact, the essence of a good newsletter is that you do email frequently. Twice a week or more is common, and quite acceptable. But there is a catch.
People may willingly give you permission to email them, but they will only consistently read what you send if you are able to catch their attention. And having caught their attention, you need to have established a trust between you so that your readers will happily follow your recommendations to buy the things you promote.
So, as the title of this article suggests, running your own newsletter is the fastest route to an online income, but only if you know what you are doing.
The old pre-Internet mail order way of selling to a list entailed sending out long, professionally written sales letters. That doesn't work in an online newsletter. Online newsletters, or ezines, are not about hard selling, they are - or at least the most consistently successful ones are - about entertaining, educating and pre-selling.
Pre-selling is the art of warming an audience up - making them desire the product you are recommending - so that they will take your advice and follow the link you provide to the product's sales page. That's where the selling takes place, not in your newsletter. The link you use to send them to the sales page will be coded with your affiliate link and so when they do buy the product, you will get a commission credited to you. In
Internet marketing, that commission is often in the range of 50% to 75%.
In some circumstances you can even get 100% commission - the entire selling price - because the product's vendor is more interested in getting a new customer than in making an immediate profit.
But as I said, your ability to get your readers to click on a link depends on the rapport you have built with them and the level of trust they have in you.
Learn how to write a newsletter the right way and online profits will come your way as fast as you can click on the send button in your autoresponder!
The reason that so many people extol the virtues of creating your own list is simply because it works. Now we have the Internet and don't have to pay for paper, printing, envelopes and stamps to send things to our 'list' it works phenomenally well!
At its heart a list is simply a bunch of people who have, by supplying you with their email address, given you permission to send them messages.
Not so long ago, when the only way to communicate with your subscribers was through the mail, it cost a bundle to send out your message. At least $1 per person was the rule of thumb back then and now it would be far higher. Sending out to even a relatively small list of 5000 could be a serious investment and so you had to sell very hard to get a return. The failure rate was high.
Now, though, things are very different. You can send out to 5000 people in the blink of an eye and it will cost you absolutely nothing. Email is still free.
That means that you need a far lower response rate to make a great profit - but if your communication and sales skills are even half decent you will make a killing!
It is not unusual to make thousands of dollars from a single mailing that takes you just a few minutes to write.
And there is nothing to stop you sending out to your list again and again.
In fact, the essence of a good newsletter is that you do email frequently. Twice a week or more is common, and quite acceptable. But there is a catch.
People may willingly give you permission to email them, but they will only consistently read what you send if you are able to catch their attention. And having caught their attention, you need to have established a trust between you so that your readers will happily follow your recommendations to buy the things you promote.
So, as the title of this article suggests, running your own newsletter is the fastest route to an online income, but only if you know what you are doing.
The old pre-Internet mail order way of selling to a list entailed sending out long, professionally written sales letters. That doesn't work in an online newsletter. Online newsletters, or ezines, are not about hard selling, they are - or at least the most consistently successful ones are - about entertaining, educating and pre-selling.
Pre-selling is the art of warming an audience up - making them desire the product you are recommending - so that they will take your advice and follow the link you provide to the product's sales page. That's where the selling takes place, not in your newsletter. The link you use to send them to the sales page will be coded with your affiliate link and so when they do buy the product, you will get a commission credited to you. In
Internet marketing, that commission is often in the range of 50% to 75%.
In some circumstances you can even get 100% commission - the entire selling price - because the product's vendor is more interested in getting a new customer than in making an immediate profit.
But as I said, your ability to get your readers to click on a link depends on the rapport you have built with them and the level of trust they have in you.
Learn how to write a newsletter the right way and online profits will come your way as fast as you can click on the send button in your autoresponder!
Three easy ways to publish a real book
They say that there is a book inside every one of us. That may well be true, but until quite recently, finding a publisher willing to invest in your masterpiece has been the hardest part of the process.
Even Harry Potter was rejected by twenty publishers before JK Rowling found one willing to take a risk on an unknown author.
Self publishing has always been a possibility. However, the fact that it has acquired the name 'vanity publishing' makes you realize that going that route has really been seen as something for the desperate. If no other publisher would take you on, you'd vanity publish to satisfy your own ego.
Many self-published books have gone on to enjoy enormous commercial success. One such famous example is 'The One Minute Manager' by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. They wanted to charge the then unheard of price of $15 for their book and all publishers said it couldn't be done. So they self-published and cleared out 20,000 copies in the San Diego area alone before a publisher took it on to more than 12 million worldwide sales.
Amanda Brown wrote a novel that underwhelmed traditional publishers but she believed in her story. So she went the self-publishing route to start with. Legally Blonde went on to prove her right and the publishing industry wrong.
Until very recently, self publishing had a major drawback - while you could produce the book yourself easily enough, the self publisher doesn't have access to the publishing houses' publicity machines. That's why the vanity publishing name stuck - you were far more likely to end up with a brown cardboard box in your garage with 500 copies of your book inside than ever seeing it on sale in the bookstores.
But things are changing fast.
For one thing, real world publishers are struggling under the triple onslaught of the growing popularity of ebooks and ebook readers like Amazon's Kindle. The availability of most bestsellers in electronic format at a lower price than the paper versions, with the added convenience of being able to store your entire library in a device that is thinner and lighter than the average paperback is quite compelling. And traditional publishers have been very slow to notice this paradigm shift in their own market.
For another, online bookstores like Amazon are rapidly stealing market share from real world bookstores. Household name chains of book sellers have been closing their doors for a few years and many more are heading that way. Small local independent bookstores are all but extinct already.
And finally, the cost of publishing your own book has never been lower and the ease with which you can make it instantly available to a huge market - even without the publishing houses' publicity machines is open to almost anyone.
So here are three ways that you can have your book published and on sale, faster than you'd ever have thought possible.
1. Amazon CreateSpace.
Amazon are unimaginably huge. They are the biggest book seller in the world and are growing fast.
Recognizing that a lot of people would like to publish a book but don't want the hassle of finding an offline publisher, Amazon set up their own print-on-demand operation.
You write your book on your own computer, format it in a word processor, like Word or Open Office, to the specifications that Amazon give you (page size, margin widths and so on) and make it look and read exactly how you want it to.
Then you upload the file to CreateSpace and either also upload an image file for the cover or use the inbuilt cover making software and you are done. A few days later you'll be mailed a proof copy of your very own paperback book.
You can then order as many copies of your own book as you like so you can sell then it to your friends or offer it at talks you may give.
But being part of Amazon, CreateSpace will also list your book in the Amazon marketplace alongside all the regular books. So you can expect to make a few sales there too.
2. Lulu.
Another company that lets you upload your files in a very similar way to CreateSpace is Lulu.com. Lulu's process is also dead easy and if you opt to have an ISBN barcode on the cover, Lulu can offer you book to the independent book trade as well as making it available on Amazon and other online book stores.
3. Go Digital!
If you have created your book in a word processor and made it look pretty, turning it into a physical book may not be the best option available to you.
If your book is information based (as opposed to fiction), you might consider simply using the word processors inbuilt ability to turn it into a PDF file and build a website to offer it for sale as an instant download.
Prices for such digitally downloadable information products are often a lot higher than their paper and ink equivalents, so you can expect to make a lot more money too!
You can manage the payments yourself with PayPal, or sign up for a company like ClickBank, who will also help you find affiliates to sell your product for a commission.
Of course, for fiction or non fiction, you may consider making your book available as a Kindle ebook - Amazon have a service that helps you do just that - and take advantage of that massive, and growing marketplace.
Publishing is changing fast. Self publishing has moved away from the old vanity image to being a real money-making alternative now.
Within a few years it will almost certainly become the mainstream as traditional publishing houses fail to keep up with the changing marketplace.
Even Harry Potter was rejected by twenty publishers before JK Rowling found one willing to take a risk on an unknown author.
Self publishing has always been a possibility. However, the fact that it has acquired the name 'vanity publishing' makes you realize that going that route has really been seen as something for the desperate. If no other publisher would take you on, you'd vanity publish to satisfy your own ego.
Many self-published books have gone on to enjoy enormous commercial success. One such famous example is 'The One Minute Manager' by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. They wanted to charge the then unheard of price of $15 for their book and all publishers said it couldn't be done. So they self-published and cleared out 20,000 copies in the San Diego area alone before a publisher took it on to more than 12 million worldwide sales.
Amanda Brown wrote a novel that underwhelmed traditional publishers but she believed in her story. So she went the self-publishing route to start with. Legally Blonde went on to prove her right and the publishing industry wrong.
Until very recently, self publishing had a major drawback - while you could produce the book yourself easily enough, the self publisher doesn't have access to the publishing houses' publicity machines. That's why the vanity publishing name stuck - you were far more likely to end up with a brown cardboard box in your garage with 500 copies of your book inside than ever seeing it on sale in the bookstores.
But things are changing fast.
For one thing, real world publishers are struggling under the triple onslaught of the growing popularity of ebooks and ebook readers like Amazon's Kindle. The availability of most bestsellers in electronic format at a lower price than the paper versions, with the added convenience of being able to store your entire library in a device that is thinner and lighter than the average paperback is quite compelling. And traditional publishers have been very slow to notice this paradigm shift in their own market.
For another, online bookstores like Amazon are rapidly stealing market share from real world bookstores. Household name chains of book sellers have been closing their doors for a few years and many more are heading that way. Small local independent bookstores are all but extinct already.
And finally, the cost of publishing your own book has never been lower and the ease with which you can make it instantly available to a huge market - even without the publishing houses' publicity machines is open to almost anyone.
So here are three ways that you can have your book published and on sale, faster than you'd ever have thought possible.
1. Amazon CreateSpace.
Amazon are unimaginably huge. They are the biggest book seller in the world and are growing fast.
Recognizing that a lot of people would like to publish a book but don't want the hassle of finding an offline publisher, Amazon set up their own print-on-demand operation.
You write your book on your own computer, format it in a word processor, like Word or Open Office, to the specifications that Amazon give you (page size, margin widths and so on) and make it look and read exactly how you want it to.
Then you upload the file to CreateSpace and either also upload an image file for the cover or use the inbuilt cover making software and you are done. A few days later you'll be mailed a proof copy of your very own paperback book.
You can then order as many copies of your own book as you like so you can sell then it to your friends or offer it at talks you may give.
But being part of Amazon, CreateSpace will also list your book in the Amazon marketplace alongside all the regular books. So you can expect to make a few sales there too.
2. Lulu.
Another company that lets you upload your files in a very similar way to CreateSpace is Lulu.com. Lulu's process is also dead easy and if you opt to have an ISBN barcode on the cover, Lulu can offer you book to the independent book trade as well as making it available on Amazon and other online book stores.
3. Go Digital!
If you have created your book in a word processor and made it look pretty, turning it into a physical book may not be the best option available to you.
If your book is information based (as opposed to fiction), you might consider simply using the word processors inbuilt ability to turn it into a PDF file and build a website to offer it for sale as an instant download.
Prices for such digitally downloadable information products are often a lot higher than their paper and ink equivalents, so you can expect to make a lot more money too!
You can manage the payments yourself with PayPal, or sign up for a company like ClickBank, who will also help you find affiliates to sell your product for a commission.
Of course, for fiction or non fiction, you may consider making your book available as a Kindle ebook - Amazon have a service that helps you do just that - and take advantage of that massive, and growing marketplace.
Publishing is changing fast. Self publishing has moved away from the old vanity image to being a real money-making alternative now.
Within a few years it will almost certainly become the mainstream as traditional publishing houses fail to keep up with the changing marketplace.
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