What are Back Links, and How Can I Generate Them?
Posted on September 30, 2009 | Filed Under Online Business, Promotion and Marketing
In simple terms, back links are incoming links to a website or page. This means that some other website has a hyperlink on one of its pages which is “pointing” to your website. In terms of search engine optimisation, the higher the number of back links you have pointing to your site the better, especially if the site is particularly relevant to your niche.
As the primary goal of almost every website or online business is to increase its traffic, i.e. individuals intentionally going to the website, it just makes sense that in order for this to happen you have to find a means of making the website very visible. Generally, if you want to make your website very visible, individuals have to be able to easily find it when they look up keywords which are directly related to your product, niche, service or whatever else your particular website happens to represent. People are generally looking for such information via the major search engines, and the operators of those engines have somewhat complex algorithms to help them determine whether a given website is relevant to the searchers query, or not.
Even though they won’t divulge any details as to the basis of these algorithms, the individuals who run the search engines do assure us that relevancy, from a particular point of view, is their primary concern. If it’s readily apparent that you have a large number of back links from other websites – of page rank 1 to 10, which have some degree of relevancy to yours, this is definitely a plus. In addition, if the site linking to you has a fairly high “page rank”, this helps as well. Page rank is Google’s proprietary means of assigning a number (zero being rock bottom and moving all the way up to ten) which indicates how important a website is inside its particular field.
There are a number of ways to achieve back links for your site.
ARTICLE MARKETING.
As Bill Gates once said, “content is king”. Article marketing is known as one of the most solid Internet marketing methods. By writing highly relevant and informative articles and submitting them to high profile article directories you do several things, not the least important of which is to help establish you or your site as an expert in your niche. Within your article, published in the article directory, is a resource box which contains your details – who you are and what you do, and a link back to your site, the all important Back Link.
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING.
There are many hundreds of social bookmarking sites, and their primary motive is basically to provide a way of informing people about the existence of content related to any niche or interest in a very manageable format. You can sign up and initiate a process of notifying social bookmarking sites about fresh content, including back links in many cases. It should be noted at this point that some website webmasters initiate a “no follow” tag which can negate the impact of a back link, as the no follow tag tells the search engine spider not to give you points, or link love.
SOCIAL MEDIA – TWITTER.
Whilst Twitter and other similar sites are becoming increasingly more powerful in marketing terms, you should know that to include links within your “tweets” or in your URL profile box is not a powerful back linking strategy, as these are all allocated the dreaded no follow tag. However, you may find that it is possible to link within a bio box and get some link love this way. Also, if you syndicate, your Twitter feeds are updated via the RSS aggregators, earning you back links.
BLOG COMMENTING.
Firstly, you will need to find blogs or forums that are relevant to your niche. This is not difficult to do as a simple and relevant search will find hosts. Once you find these blogs you can sign up and create a profile. Often you will be allowed to create what is called a “signature”, and within that signature you incorporate your links. Note, you should check to see if there are any no follow tags, as these will appear occasionally.
Enter into the spirit of the place by interacting with other members and making entries and posting comments that are relevant, useful and educational. In addition to a back link appearing every time one of your comments is posted, you will also build a valuable relationship with members – and this can lead to all kinds of new opportunities.
Back link building remains one of the most important SEO strategies to adopt for virtually any website development.
Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, a highly qualified Executive Virtual Assistant Service which helps businesses and individuals accomplish every detail of their professional aspirations. Want to discover more about these insightful online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Today!
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13 Elements That Your Salesletter Must Consist
Posted on September 30, 2009 | Filed Under Online Business, Promotion and Marketing
Regardless of whether you’re doing online marketing or niche marketing, you need the right components on your salesletter like guarantee, sub-headline and so on to improve your immediate conversion.
Here are 13 elements of a salesletter to get flood of sales…
1. Headline: Get your readers attention immediately.
And, to get their attention, you should speak directly to your target audience. One of the ways to do this is to use a pre header, in smaller type, just above the main headline. It’s a bit like shouting out someone’s name in a crowded room. It gets their attention above the hubbub. It says: “To all copywriters . . This is for you – take a look!
It also gives you two shots at getting attention. Here’s an example of a pre heading: “If you haven’t got a million dollar yet . . . read this”
That then leads the reader into your main headline, which should carry the main benefit of the product, preferably with a time scale. For example, “How To Change Your Life In Seven Days As A Copywriter…”.
2. Immediately support the claim made in your headline (which should be as outrageous as the proof will allow), with a testimonial (preferred) or some other proof (such as cheques, bank statements, merchant account screenshots, et cetera)
3. You might have a sub heading, explaining the benefit in more details. After which you gently lead the reader into the body of your letter and build interest by establishing your credibility, showing them you are just like them and demonstrating you have the knowledge/ authority/experience to solve their problem. This is just about the only time you can talk about yourself, rather than the prospect’s problems and desires.
4. Define the problem, sympathies with the reader, and then lay on the agony of the problem in the most graphic terms possible.
5. Introduce the product as the perfect solution. Then, whet the reader’s desire with the product’s benefits and say what these benefits mean to them. For example: This CD player has a digital graphic equalizer (that’s the feature) that means you can adjust the sound profile (that’s the benefit bestowed by the feature) which means you can match the sound to the room, so your favourite music sounds great in any room of your house (that’s the higher level of benefit, demonstrating the product in a way the prospect can personally relate to).
6. Intensify the reader’s desire by showing them testimonials from satisfied customers, which show the product in action. This not only provides proof of your product’s effectiveness, it also provides Social Proof, which reassures the prospect other people have already bought and been satisfied.
7. List any additional items the reader will get as part of the basic package (excluding any time-sensitive bonuses you’re keeping for later). Also plant a scarcity element into the conversation at this stage – or earlier. For example, there are only a certain number of this particular deluxe model available.
8. When the reader is reeling under the full impact of all what he’s going to get, point out that this package is so good they’ll naturally understand that it’s not going to be cheap. Then build further perceived value in the mind of the reader by comparing the cost of some alternative high price solution, like a personal consultation and so on.
Then reveal the price, which will be minimized by comparison with the high price the reader has been made to focus on. Always include a reason why you can offer this product so cheaply, whilst retaining all its virtues. For example, it might be a digital product, so there is no shipping or product cost, so you are happy to pass on the savings to the prospect.
9. Enhance the attractiveness of the offer even more by listing the bonus items they can receive provided they order by a certain deadline. An alternative – and even more effective way is to offer the first X number of buyers the bonuses. This adds a further element of danger.
Why?
Because, with a fixed deadline, the prospect will “put off” ordering until five minutes before your bonus deadline – assuming they don’t forget all together. But by introducing the thought of a scarcity – and an unknown scarcity at that, you really light a fire under your prospect. After all, the more they want the product, the more they think the world and his dog is snapping up the last copy right now!
10. Introduce your guarantee. This should be as generous and as long – 90 days minimum- as you can make it. Try to make sure the customer actually comes out better than when they started. For example, allow them to keep the bonus items, even though they get a full refund. A good strong guarantee will go beyond simply reassuring the customer they aren’t taking a risk. It will also demonstrate your absolute faith in your product.
11. Ask for immediate action by stressing the scarcity factor you already planned back at item 7 and working on the prospect’s self interest by showing what they will lose if they don’t act quickly.
12. Always include a couple of Post Scripts. One restating the main benefit and the other telling the reader of another loss they will suffer if they don’t act right away or another benefit they will gain (peace of mind, once they’ve ordered the product or discovering the secrets five minutes from now – if it’s a downloadable product)
13. Lift letter. It’s always a good idea to include this as a last chance to persuade a wavering prospect. In conventional mail order this would be in the form of an envelope marked “Open only if you are still undecided”. On the internet, this would simply be a “Click here if you’re still undecided” button that takes the prospect to another page on the website.
Either way, the prospect would then see a new letter with all the testimonials listed with a statement to the effect that all these people had gone through the same dilemma as the reader is now doing. But all the people who wrote these testimonials finally ordered the products and were very pleased they did – as the reader will also be delighted . . . It’s also a good idea to restate the guarantee and list the bonuses that will be lost if the reader doesn’t order right away.
It’s sterling and proven rule of getting the customer to take action that they are more motivated by the thought of what they will lose rather than by what they will gain. Forbidden fruit, I suppose.
Get Patric Chan’s internet marketing course for free today at his website, patricchan.com.
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Marketing Tips To Make Your Business Profitable
Posted on September 29, 2009 | Filed Under Online Business, Promotion and Marketing
In the recent times it is not a tough job to set up a new venture but what is tough is to get it the right kind of visibility and separate space to make it a profitable venture. But this field of marketing too has evolved over a period of time and old and conventional ways of marketing have been gradually replaced since the rise of the internet. The modern modes of marketing are not only more effective but at the same time are hassle free .
There are a number of ways to gather attention from prospects. You could start off with creating web properties for your business. This might be in the guise of a blog or a website. You should stress on submitting content on your website that relates to your defined niche . It could be technology or health related, but the main point that you need to remember is to educate your audience rather than give them the hard sell. Once you have launched your own website and have it working you can start your promotional campaign. Write and submit articles to article directories, submit your RSS feeds, bookmark your pages, and submit comments on authority blogs that relate to your niche market.
The next best step should make you prepare a campaign using websites like Squidoo, Ning, Multiply, and Wetpaint and link these back to your website. The content submitted here should ideally be educative and informative. The idea of using bookmarks and submitting RSS feeds is also a very good one in order to correctly market your business by means of your website. For information on similar topics like Internet Marketing feel free to visit our website.
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How To Get Content Idea For Your Online Business
Posted on September 29, 2009 | Filed Under Web Development
Have you got stuck with thinking of what to write for your niche? This article will give you the quick and simple way to overcome this…
Let’s say you’re doing niche marketing and you’ve identify your niche as ‘fix relationship problem’. Now you want to create some content to generate traffic from the search engines, social websites, etc.
Here’s how to get the article’s body content — go to Yahoo Answers and search for variations of your keyword. This will tell you what problems people are having and what kind of solutions are being given to them.
If you pay really close attention, you will pick up a couple great titles for articles and a list of different things that you can write about.
Let’s say your niche is “fix relationship problem” — what we are going to do right now is head on over to http://answers.yahoo.com and type in a variation of our keyword, for now we will stick with “relationship problem”.
One of the first threads I see is:
answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ar492YbXt0SqNty7VUZaxmQjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=1006060207896
Just from the title of the post alone, I can come up with a couple of article titles right off the top of my head.
*How To Tell If Your Love Partner Is Ready
*5 Steps To Start A Serious Relationship
*How To Express Your Feeling To Your Love Partner
Do you see what I am doing here?
You see, internet marketing is easy when you know the trick.
I am letting other people who are having problems in this area of their life determine what my content is going to be so that there is not a whole lot of guess work. I do not have to wonder whether or not my content is something that people will want to read. People are already telling me that they are searching for this type of information to help them in their lives and their relationships.
Let’s take a look at the next question and do the same thing. Even though this might seem repetitious on my part, I want to be absolutely certain that by the time you are done reading this technique you will be able to put it aside and carry all of these steps out on your own easily and with confidence that you are doing it correctly.
Now that we have a couple article titles, the next thing we have to do is come up with content for the articles. This is what I like to use Google and my own life experiences for.
You can also read other articles that are in circulation and put your own spin on things. I know that when I read almost any article, when I am done, I have ideas for how I could expand that topic in three different directions. This does take a little bit of creativity on your part, but the more you do it, the easier it will come to you.
We now know how to come up with content to write about, so it is time to put it into action.
Get Patric Chan’s internet marketing course for free today at his website, patricchan.com.
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How to Save Money by Moving Your Business Online
Posted on September 28, 2009 | Filed Under Online Business, Promotion and Marketing
Entrepreneurs and VA’s are a fairly recent combination, yet an increasingly desirable strategy for operating almost any online business. Who would have ever thought that the age-old personal assistant would be usurped by a new and far more dynamic, cost-effective and incredibly versatile Virtual Assistant?
The Internet has a great many purposes, but the most advantageous application for small to medium sized business owners is that the Internet can – with a bit of very carefully designed website development, literally be their place of business, where all of their information and personal files can be stored, employees can be taken on and an office can be set up and maintained – all entirely online, so irrespective of where you happen to be and what you’re up to, you can log into the office whenever it suits your schedule.
Of course, some individuals may be uncomfortable with the concept of never meeting the person they’re working with face to face, and some might have difficulty accepting that they can’t be there to watch over the work activity, while others might believe that their personal information is simply too vulnerable to be stored on the Internet. These are all very valid reasons to be worried, but with a professional virtual assistant at you side, these concerns will soon diminish and you will be left with a more profitable, more streamlined and far less stressful enterprise.
Doesn’t that sound better than paying huge overheads to rent an office, having to shell out for sick pay for staff and sifting through stacks of paper and files to find out what happened to a missing invoice or to a potential client’s phone number?
However, if this virtual paradise is to be realised, you’re going to need to find a truly exceptional VA to point your business in the right direction.
Here are a few tips:
First, decide what you would like to achieve with your business, tell your potential VA what your goals are, and develop an idea of how you see things working for you. This information will allow a VA to understand how best they can assist you. Leave the employee mindset. Your VA will most likely be a business owner as well, with as much drive and ambition as you have! Treating your VA as an employee will only lead to problems in the long term. Virtual assistance is a partnership on equal terms, and mutual respect is paramount to success.
Every VA will need to establish whether your business would be a good fit for theirs. Make a list of all the tasks and jobs (no matter how large or small) you would like to see the back of, then speak to a few VA’s who have the skills and capabilities to take them off your hands – you will soon find out which VA’s are on your wavelength. Shortlist the ones you see with the most potential to fulfil your plans.
Finding your VA is slightly harder; there are thousands out there, from all walks of life, and all corners of the world. You may need to do some research to find the right one that meets your criteria. Other times, you may just get lucky first time round. The internet should be your first port of call, and Google is a great place to start, just type in “Virtual Assistant” and see what you find. You can also search “Virtual Assistant Directory” or “Virtual Assistant Networks” which will bring up a host of sites where VA’s congregate and list themselves and their services.
A virtual relationship is built on trust, and this will come in time. In a virtual world, if you move, then so does your VA – it’s perfect for the makings of a reliable, long lasting relationship.
Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, an Executive Virtual Assistant who assists businesses and individuals with achieving their professional goals. Want to find out more about online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Now!
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