Michigan Blog marketing

Blog marketing is a simple concept but one that many marketers do not fully utilize. So many people seem to believe that a person can simply start a free Blog about their business, interests (or their niche), type a few paragraphs a month and wait for their bank balance to grow like a tree. Unfortunately, this is not the way the real world of blogging works. As with anything worthwhile, creating and maintaining a Blog effectively does take some work. Here are the top 3 things that every marketer must remember about making money using blog marketing:

1. Content (unique and quality) is king: The idea that you can simply throw previously used content onto a Blog and expect great results is wrong. Google knows when something is considered to be unique content. Therefore, the more unique your content is (and the more related it is to your niche), the better rankings you can expect.
2. Consistency rules: If you create a Blog, post one entry and then sit back in your recliner, you are not going to be cashing any big checks soon. You simply must do the work to keep your Blog updated on a regular basis. You have to give that fresh content that Google loves on a regular basis.
3. List Building: With most Blogs, your goal is to create a loyal following that will want to come back and read your information over and over again. By offering them something of value (an ebook, a short report, etc.), they will be more willing to provide their contact information. This gives you a steady traffic source since you will now be able to stay in touch and send them valuable offers in the future.

Blog marketing is big business these days, and it is certainly something that can be lucrative. As with anything, blogging is something that you must be consistent with and constantly work on tweaking. In the end, however, it can prove to be a great way to make an income!

Michigan small businesses that might need Blog marketing services can visit the Net Marketing Pros website for more information. Net Marketing Pros have helped businesses in White Lake, Highland, Milford, Farmington Hills, Southfield, Troy, Pontiac, Livonia, Auburn Hills, Waterford, West Bloomfield, Ann Arbor, many parts of Oakland and Macomb County, and other areas of Southeast Michigan.

Michigan Search Engine Optimization

Nothing gets talked about more than Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in the Internet marketing industry. This term often gets batted around, but a lot of people really do not understand what it involves. Here are some things to remember about SEO:

1. SEO is the process of optimizing your website’s content in such a way as to attract more search engine traffic. The more the search engines read your website pages, the better chance you have of ranking higher when someone searches for your search terms.
2. If you are building your website using Wordpress, there are great plugins to help with SEO. The most popular one would be All In One SEO which allows you to put a site title, description and tags in. These are very powerful in the crawling process of Google.
3. Unique, quality content is king. Make sure that you do not add rehashed PLR, copied content or spun articles. The search engines want to see unique content, so give them what they want.
4. Keep it current: You need to keep your site’s content updated on regular basis so that the search engines will know that your site is not just some static, abandoned site that does not get updated often.
5. Try to leave links on other high quality sites that lead back to your site.
6. Link out from your site to other high quality, non competing sites. Google likes to see that you are providing relevant content. When you link to non-affiliate sites, you show Google that you are there to provide information and not just to sell things.

There are literally hundreds of ways to improve your on page SEO. The keys are consistency and good quality content, however. If you have those two things, you are doing very well!

Michigan small businesses needing website search engine optimization can visit the Net Marketing Pros website for more information. Net Marketing Pros have helped businesses in Farmington Hills, Southfield, Troy, Pontiac, Livonia, Auburn Hills, Waterford, West Bloomfield, Ann Arbor, many parts of Oakland County, and other areas of Southeast Michigan.

It probably helps to think of Twitter as a kind of mini blog. You’re posting updates about what’s going on in your life at the moment. As an example, I might post a tweet that says “Just had breakfast, and now I’m starting work on my new eBook,” or it might be “Feeling tired after a hard day’s work,” or even “I’m in the pub having a beer!”

Twitter marketing lets other people know what you’re doing, and in today’s society we’re pretty obsessed with other people’s lives, which have a lot to do with why Twitter has become so popular. You can even set up your phone to work with Twitter so that you can send your tweets even when you’re out and about. Twitter is very useful to us an Internet marketer.

Firstly, it allows you to link to your own websites, and perhaps equally as important is that it allows your readers to gain an insight into YOU. People are far more likely to buy from people who they feel they ‘know’ and have a pre-existing relationship with. Twitter is a great way of building that relationship. You can even use something called TwitPic to post and share photographs.

There are also Twitter tools that can help local businesses find local followers to receive your Tweets.

Twitter is one of THE hottest subjects right now, and if you’re not currently using it in your Internet marketing business then you really are missing out.

Many Michigan small businesses need social marketing help in the form of Twitter marketing. To learn more about Twitter marketing, contact the Net Marketing Pros website for more information. Net Marketing Pros have helped businesses in Farmington Hills, Southfield, Troy, Pontiac, Livonia, Auburn Hills, Waterford, West Bloomfield, Ann Arbor, many parts of Oakland County, and other areas of Southeast Michigan.

People that don’t “live” on the Internet like we do, are quite often forgetting to do some “required maintenance” for their website or blog. The tasks that follow should be taken very seriously, because ignoring them could result in:

1. No access to email – in or out, maybe permanently (read on)
2. Not getting orders / inquiries from your website
3. Your website disappearing from the Internet
4. Loss of the control of your website name
5. A loss of your businesses credibility
6. Your customers getting upset and / or leaving you

Do these things really happen? YES! Speedy Sites has been involved in three situations just like the ones above – IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS!

The following tasks are absolutely required if you want to be on the Internet.  Look at them as a “cost of doing business” on the Internet. Just like filing your taxes, sending out invoices, and helping customers. It is all about protecting your assets, your business, and your livelihood.

So, here are six of the most important, but VERY often overlooked tasks that should be executed, without fail, on a regular basis:

1. Is your site on-line? – Check your website or blog to make sure it’s on-line – daily, or weekly at least. If you go longer than usual without getting emails, check your website! Generally, if your site is not on-line, your email won’t be going through.
2. Is the credit card “on-file” current? – This is HUGE! At the same exact time every year, you need to check the expiration of the credit card on file with your hosting company and (if different) the company you registered your domain name through. In some cases, even if the hosting and domain name are with the same company, they are considered different purchases and will store the credit card in two different places. Worse yet, if you cancel a credit card due to loss, divorce or theft, you effectively have no credit card on file! If you lose the “lease” on your domain name, it can cost many hundreds of dollars to get it back. If it’s “expired” for too long, other companies will register it and you may never get it back! If you lose your domain name, you no longer get emails at that address – EVER! Remember, when you “register” a domain name, you’re just “leasing” it for as long as you pay to keep it registered. If you stop paying, someone else can lease it and you’ll never get it back. Nobody truly “owns” a domain name. Don’t get fooled by this. But, responsible people can lease it for life. Also, if you use an autoresponder service, email service, shopping cart service, or any other web-hosted service that you pay a monthly fee for, check those credit card expirations.
3. Are your Internet assets backed up? – Every time anyone modifies your website or blog (be it code, photos, copy, or other) you need to make sure “someone” makes a back-up copy of your website files. These backups can be on CDs or DVDs or flash drives – it doesn’t matter. Store those back-ups in a safe place, preferably in multiple locations. All hosting companies don’t do this automatically for you. It usually takes less than 10 minutes to do, but is almost always overlooked.  Without backup copies, your web designer would have to redevelop the site from scratch. Can you say “EXPENSIVE”? If you use an autoresponder service, email service, shopping cart service, or any other web-hosted service that contains a database of your information (your client’s email addresses, your product data base, etc.) – BACK IT UP! We’ve seen servers crash, service companies go out of business and hacker attacks that have caused companies like your to lose 1000’s of email addresses, entire product databases, autoresponder content, website content and much more. This leaves you with the only option of closing up shop, or spending the time and money to re-create all this from scratch. Can you say “EXPENSIVE”?
4. Do you know your IDs and Passwords? -  If you own a website or blog, you likely have IDs and passwords for your website access through FTP, reporting tool, control panel, forum administration, and other aspects of your on-line presence. Did you save copies of the emails with this information when your hosting company set up your hosting account? Can you find them when you need them?
5. Do you know the contact information? – You have technical contact names / phone numbers, and email addresses registered with your hosting company and domain registrar for your website. You also have the credit card type, number and expiration date stored with the some companies. You may need to know (for security reasons) all this information to get technical support for your website or email if you have problems. When problems happen and you need to call for help, will you have those numbers handy? If not, they may not be able to help you. Did you save copies of these emails when your hosting company set up your hosting account?
6. Do you know your server information? – Your website or blog runs on a “server”, or a computer that your hosting company owns and maintains for you. It has a name, an “IP address”, passwords to access it, user names to access it, incoming and outgoing server names for your email, port numbers, etc. This information is critical for the resolution of some problems. Did you save copies of these emails when your hosting company set up your hosting account? Do you have them handy?

Print this blog post now. Put in on the wall near your computer. USE IT! Please.

Speedy Sites doesn’t normally maintain this information for you. We can help you with these tasks, if needed. We can also recommend a strategy for maintaining and protecting your passwords and critical server data, if needed.

Well, I’ve discovered a solution that meets the above criteria, that’s actually fun. I made money last night while I slept!

Here’s what you won’t need to be able to do:

• Be able to build a website 
• Inventory products
• Get involved with shipping
• Invest a ton of money up-front
• Be a marketing genius

Here’s what you will need to be able to do:

• Pick a profitable niche market
• Spend a little time learning pay-per-click (PPC) marketing
• TAKE ACTION

Seriously, that’s it!

What do you need to be successful? You’ll need the support of a huge company that can take care of the hassles for you (shipping, inventory, billing, etc.). It would also be nice to have a business model that’s been proven to work. Having 10’s of thousands of products to sell would help, wouldn’t it? Have you ever priced out a website that has all the features I’ve mentioned in it? I can’t afford one, and I build them for a living!

Well, here’s the deal. I recently became a re-seller for Amazon.com. Heard of them? I thought so. In less than an hour I “built” a website to sell Christmas toys for the holiday season. While I slept last night, I sold a $500+ Nintendo WII. While I ate lunch today, I sold another one! And I’ve got a bunch of folks that have filled their shopping cart, but haven’t checked out yet. Please go to www.toydeals.biz and see how this highly-cutomizable sites looks. It’s easy to navigate, clean, has numerous feaures common oin high-end sites, and you can even buy something! Prices are great, shipping is quick (and it’s one of the only places you can get a Nintendo WII before Christmas!). Heck, I’m selling products on the Internet two hours after I started, and www.toydeals.biz isn’t even listed in the search engines yet. 

In another hour or so, I built multiple Google Adwords pay-per-click campaigns. I used the easiest, most full featured software in the world to research the campaign. It’s called Keyword Elite, and I strongly recommend it to anyone that is serious about driving traffic to their website or Blog with PPC techniques. PPC is the fastest way to drive traffic on the Internet.

The steps were straightforward:

• Get a site name at iPower (FREE) and hosting ($3.95/mo. or FREE) – 15 minutes
• Set-up the Amazon website (fill-in-the-blanks) - 45 Minutes
• Set up the PPC campaigns – 60 minutes
• Post on a Blog, forum, Craigslist to get it indexed FAST (optional) – 5 minutes.
• Watch for emails to tell you how much money you’re making!

Speedy Sites is available to answer any questions you have about Amazon re-seller stores. Give us a jingle (sorry for the pun!) – click here to contact us.

Last week, Derek wrote an editorial telling you how to get high quality links pointing to your site by registering your site with the ‘Net’s top paid directories.

This week, Derek has asked me to write an article explaining how you can expand your link network by getting FREE links from other sites.

This process is a little more time consuming… but the links you’ll get will definitely be worth it. (Not to mention all that extra traffic thanks to your improved search engine ranking!)

But before you set off in search of free links that will propel your site to the top of the search engine results, here are 5 things you need to consider:

1. Pay attention to PageRank — but don’t live or die by it!When trying to find sites to link to their site, most people tend to look for ones that have a high PageRank.(PageRank is a function of Google’s toolbar that supposedly measures the importance of a given website.)

   However, all this focus on PageRank has resulted in many people looking ONLY at PageRank when evaluating possible linking sites. They also spend a lot of effort trying to improve their own PageRank — without stopping to consider whether their actions are helping their actual ranking in Google’s listings.

   And that is not a good thing.

   The fact is, no one is really sure exactly how much Google takes PageRank into account when calculating its natural search algorithms.

   For example, sites with very little PageRank can be found at the top of the search results, while sites with a high PageRank are languishing on the fourth or fifth page… or even lower!

   On top of that, it’s hard to tell exactly what PageRank uses as its criteria to measure a site’s “authority.”

   Government sites such as FEMA, the IRS, and the FBI all have a PageRank of 8 out of a possible 10. Yet I can’t imagine there’s a more authoritative source of information on the IRS than the IRS itself!

   Finally, PageRank “addicts” should know that unscrupulous webmasters can steal another site’s PageRank and use it to manipulate their own PageRank numbers!

   (In fact, this is what lots of shady “link sellers” do — they sell links based on their PageRank, but often that PageRank has been artificially inflated!)

   So while you should still pay attention to PageRank, it’s certainly not the only thing you should look at. You need to consider what the actual rank of that site is, and how well its content relates to the content on your site.

   (More about that in a moment…)

2. Looking for links from a commercial site? Make sure its products are complementaryThere’s no point in trying to get a link from a site selling something that has no relation to your business! You need to look for commercial sites that sell things that go well with your product.If you sell the cola and I sell the glasses and ice, it could be the beginning of a beautiful joint venture relationship that provides great value to both your customers and mine.
3. Look for web pages with content that’s closely related to the content on your pageI would argue that this is just as important as a site’s PageRank, if not more so.You want your links to come from pages whose content is as focused on the content on YOUR page as possible.

   It’s not just a matter of getting links pointing from another site’s homepage to your homepage! Try to go deeper and more specific than that.

   If you sell used tennis rackets and you find a site that talks about tennis topics in general, try to get a link on a sub-page that talks specifically about tennis rackets.

   And if it talks specifically about used tennis rackets, even better.

   Also look for web pages that have content related to your product or service, even if the site itself doesn’t have any real relation to your business.

   For example, if a popular blogger who typically writes about her daily life writes a post that directly relates to your product in some way, ask her if you can get a link on the page that has that particular blog post.

   Or maybe a general information site has an article that relates to your product. THAT’S where you want your link — right on the article page itself.

   Links from general information sites can still be valuable, provided they’re heavy traffic-sites with a great search engine rank.

   But in general, it’s more effective — and in many cases, much easier — to try and get a link on a web page whose content directly relates to your own, even if that site is lower down in the search engine rankings and doesn’t get the same volume of traffic.

4. Is this a good page for a link? Consider it from the user’s perspectiveWhen you’re debating whether a web page is a good link source, think about it from the perspective of the visitors to that site.They’ve come to a page, and on it they see a link to a site they’ve never heard of before. It’s got intriguing anchor text and it’s embedded in content they’re interested in.

   Now… if they click on that link, are they going to be happy?

   If they don’t find what they expect to find — based on the content of the page that led them there — they’re going to be disappointed, and they’re going to leave. And they’re going to think less of the site that sent them there.

   So if you’re going to try and get links from other sites pointing to yours, make sure the people who click on that link are going to find something valuable to them!

   Offer them free information — maybe something they can download, like a free report. Because if you don’t send them to a page that makes that click truly worth their while, you’re just gaming the system.

5. When you ask for links, emphasize what’s in it for THEMThe days when you could email people and ask, “Please link to me” are long gone.When you approach other sites owners to ask them to link to your site, what you’re really asking is for them to share some of their traffic with you.

   Smart website owners are jealously protective of their traffic. They’re not going to share it with just anybody. The sites they recommend reflect back on them. If they tell people to go to a low-quality site, their visitors aren’t going to like them very much for it!

   That’s why you need to emphasize the benefits of linking to your site — both for their visitors and for them.

   How will you provide value to the visitors they send you? Are you a great source of information? Will your product help their visitors solve a problem you know they’re experiencing? Do you offer something the other site owner simply can’t provide — something you know their visitors want?

   That’s what you need to tell them in order to convince them to link to your site.

   Never forget: when you ask for a link from a site, you’re essentially borrowing that site’s credibility, and you need to be respectful about that.

Building a network of free links definitely takes some time… but you have to remember the benefits…

Not only will you enjoy the indirect benefit of better search ranking and the traffic it’ll bring you, you’ll also get the traffic sent directly from the links themselves!

And all that extra traffic will make all your efforts worthwhile.

[Ed. note: Andrew Mallory is one of our top Internet Entrepreneur Club experts.]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to start profitable Internet businesses that make $100,000 to $2.5 Million (or more) per year. To get instant access to all his most profitable marketing campaigns, strategies, tools, and resources that he’s used to grow $25 into over $60 Million in online sales, visit: http://www.marketingtips.com/tipsltr.html

But despite the ability to control Google Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing gives you over your ads — how much you spend on them, where and when they appear, etc. — I’m constantly meeting savvy Internet marketers who are wasting tons of unnecessary money on their pay-per-click campaigns because they are either…

a) Making “okay” money from their campaigns and too lazy to do the work to make them really successful

– or –

b) They just don’t know any better!

No matter how you’re doing with YOUR pay-per-click efforts, here are 4 tips that you can start applying today to fine-tune your campaigns and boost your ROI.

Tip #1: Keywords… keywords… keywords!

Even if your business targets an extremely narrow niche market, your campaign should begin with at least 100 keywords.

I have yet to come across a niche market for which we couldn’t find that many keywords for the initial round of testing. In fact, the majority of businesses I deal with start in the range of 500-1000 keywords!

If it sounds like a huge challenge to come up with that many keywords, don’t worry.

With tools like Wordtracker and Google’s Keyword Evaluator, you don’t have to come up with the keywords on your own. All you have to do is identify a core list of keywords and then let technology do the work for you.

Now, is every single one of those keywords going to make you money? Nope! Some will bomb horribly.

But I’ll talk about how you deal with that in a second…

Tip #2: Never stop testing new ads

When you first start your pay-per-click campaigns, you should be writing at least five different ads for each keyword group.

Note: a “keyword group” is a cluster of closely related keywords that say exactly the same thing, in slightly different ways.

For example, a keyword group for a site promoting a bed and breakfast in El Paso, Texas could include:

… and so on.

(As you can see, the variations between each keyword phrase are very slight.)

Once you’ve written your five plus ads for your keyword group, run them all at the same time. Keep them going until you get enough impressions to determine which one is the winner — and then roll out the winning ad across the entire group.

Congratulations… you now have a winning ad!

But don’t stop now… continue to work on your ads and try to come up with one that will beat your current front runner. If you beat your winning ad, roll-out the new ad across your keyword group and then try and beat that ad.

Then keep on repeating this testing cycle indefinitely, to ensure you’re always running the best possible ad you can.

Tip #3: Design targeted landing pages for each keyword group

Nothing will turn a visitor into a customer faster than a message that tells them exactly what they want to hear. So, if I have multiple keyword groups that target different themes, each ad should be driving visitors to a landing page with salescopy that reflects the theme of a single keyword group.

For example, if different themes an El Paso bed and breakfast owner could try targeting might be:

“family friendly bed and breakfast el Paso” or “el Paso couples bed and breakfast”

The first ad could lead to a landing page that emphasized all of the great family activities available in and around the bed and breakfast, while the second one could talk about how great the same bed and breakfast is as a romantic getaway.

By testing out different themes like this, you can see which theme gets the most sales and focus more of your PPC dollars there!

Tips #4: Detailed tracking

If you want to get the most bang for every PPC buck you spend, then simply tracking the overall effectiveness of your campaigns won’t do. You need to track the effectiveness of every individual keyword if you want to crank every cent out of your PPC efforts!

Like I said in Step #1, you will be starting your campaign with hundreds of keywords. But not all of those keywords will be profitable. It’s your job to weed out the unprofitable ones right away.

There are four different keyword performance scenarios you will encounter:

1. Keywords that aren’t driving any trafficAfter you’ve tested a few different ads to confirm these keywords are ineffective, get rid of them. They’re useless. Even though they’re not costing you any money, they are cluttering up your campaign.
2. Keywords that are driving traffic — but no salesThis is where a lot of your wasted PPC dollars go! If you find this happening to you, look at your ad and make sure your landing page relates back to the keyword.Does the landing page meet the expectation your ad creates? If yes, then get rid of the keyword. It’s only costing you money.
3. Keywords that are driving traffic and opt-ins — but no immediate salesIf you are a savvy marketer, chances are you have a good autoresponder sequence that builds a relationship with your subscribers and eventually converts them to sales.If this is the case, I would keep these keywords. The ROI is not immediate, but don’t worry — it will come!In fact, if you are trying to sell a higher-ticket product through PPC without much success, your entire marketing campaign may be more effective if it’s based around driving leads to an opt-in form or squeeze page and then working up to the sale as you establish a relationship with your susbscribers.
4. Keywords that are driving traffic and salesObviously these are the keywords we want to keep… but status quo is not enough!You need to track the conversion of each individual keyword. Some will convert higher than others, which will ultimately dictate how much you can bid on those keyword and still remain profitable.In other words, if I have a top performing keyword and I am not ranking in the top 3-4 positions, I may want to spend more to increase the position, my clickthrough ratio, and sales.

So there it is! Four strategies you can apply today. If you are already doing all of these, great!

However, if you are missing just one, there is a very good chance you are missing out on sales. And you could end up throwing good money after bad!

If you are just getting started with pay-per-click advertising, you can get far more detailed training in my exclusive Search Marketing Lab, which I will let you try for the next 30 days for only $2.95!

Happy “pay-per-clicking!”

Derek Gehl

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to start profitable Internet businesses that make $100,000 to $2.5 Million (or more) per year. To get instant access to all his most profitable marketing campaigns, strategies, tools, and resources that he’s used to grow $25 into over $60 Million in online sales, visit: http://www.marketingtips.com/tipsltr.html

In a nutshell, PPC marketing is essentially paying the major search engines to advertise your website or blog on their search engine results page and paying them a small fee every time someone clicks on your advertisement. Once a search engine user clicks on your advertisement link, they are directed to your website or blog. That click to your site can cost you just a few pennies, up to a few dollars or more. 

So, you ask, why would I want to do this? Well, for a few reasons.

• PPC advertising is the fastest way to get traffic to your site (you don’t have to wait for search engines to list your new site (can take weeks).
• PPC advertising also is a nearly endless stream of traffic, depending on how you structure your PPC campaign.
• PPC campaigns are easily justified if you sell a product that justifies the expenditure. If you structure the campaign correctly, it can provide very targeted traffic for you.  

For a great article on how to create a PPC campaign that works the best for you and produces cost-effective, targeted traffic, click here.

You may be a pizzeria owner, a dry cleaner, a real estate agent, or a piano teacher. If the nature of your business restricts you to serving a local geography, then your marketing should focus on that local market. Advertising on Google and getting people to find your business that may be three states away is a waste of marketing dollars,

Google local, and Yahoo local are the geographically oriented parts of the two major search engines.  One of the recent trends with the search engines is that the public that uses these search engines for research are starting to understand the real value of local search. Getting tired of getting search results for the kinds of businesses they need that are 2,000 miles away, has prompted many folks to move to local search.

Speedy Sites recommends that you go to Yahoo’s local search and Google’s local search and take five minutes to submit your business to Yahoo or Google local. You’ll need to set up a free account with Google to use the local service.

Entering your business in local search will provide more in-bound links to your website, create more exposure for your business and best of all – it’s free!

To find a directory for the niche market you are in, type “niche website directory”, where “niche” is the name of your niche market – real estate, soccer, accouning, computers, etc.

Speedy Sites has had good luck in submitting our website to the no cost directories and getting valuable one-way links back to the Speedy Sites website. These one-way links are invaluable when it comes to search engine optimization.

We have found a program called Directory Submitter that speeds up the submittal process by orders of magnitude, compared to manual, hand submittal. This program can allow you to submit your website to 30 or more directories in an hour’s work!

Please have a look at the program in more detail by clicking here. They have a full-featured, free version to get you started on your first 300 directories! Results start showing up in a week or so.

 

If your business is located in the great state of Michigan, we know of a great directory that we can tell you about that is dedicated to Michigan businesses and gets great traffic. Email us on this page, tell us you want to know more about the Michigan business directory and we’ll tell you all about it!