Internet Profit System

Archive for November, 2007

Keyword research is the process of determining which keyword phrases will describe your website’s products and/or services and are actually used in web searches. It is insight into the needs of your customers or clients. Bottom line it is finding out what Internet surfers are actually searching for.

Choosing keywords or keyword phrases can be very confusing for new site owners. If you don’t have keyword or keyword phrases optimized on your web site, you will not get the traffic you want and individuals will not stay on your site, read your information or buy you service or product.

Keyword research can be broken down into a three step process. The first step is the discovery phase. In this step you want to focus on identifying as many keywords or phrases as possible.

Initially you need to sit down and brainstorm a list of keyword/keyword phrases that address the topic of your web site. Have a dictionary and thesaurus handy. At this point include every word or phrase that you can think of.

There are several keyword tools that are available to help you generate a keyword list. Some of these tools are free (www.goodkeywords.com and Google Adwords Tool) while others (www.wordtracker.com) are fee based. With these tools you will be able to generate hundreds of keyword phrases.

The second step in the analyzing phase. This step involves analyzing the popularity and competition for the keyword phrases. The quickest way to perform the analysis is to use one of the fee based keyword tools like Wordtracker.

Wordtracker is able to quickly take your list of keyword phases and give you the number of searches in the past 30 days and the number of competitive web sites for each phrase. Wordtracker also supplies a numerical value called a Keyword Effectiveness Index(KEI) that helps determine the competitiveness of a keyword phrase. A keyword phrase with a high KEI means it is less competitive.

From Wordtracker you are able to export your keyword list along with the KEI, search and competitive site data. This information can then be entered into Excel spreadsheets. This will allow you to make comparisons between various keyword phrases and do away with any unrelated or undesireable keyword phrases.

The third step is the selection of keyword phrases. From your analysis phase, you should be able to identify a number of high quality keyword phases that can accurately describe the qualities of your website.

In your final selection of keyword phases you need to look for phrases that have a high level of search activity, while the level of competitiveness is relatively low. For making your final selection of 15-20 keyword phrases you will want to do a Google search on the keyword phrases and view the top web sites listed for each phrase. Are the sites professionally designed? Can you design a web page that can move up into the top ratings for this keyword phrase? These are all important questions to ask.

When starting a new web site it’s highly recommended to target only one unique keyword phrase per page. With your newly researched keyword list you can write your content with a balanced use of unique phrases that will help generate traffic to your web pages.

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, keyword research, Niche Marketing

You know by now that you should be building an opt-in list. It’s one of the best ways to earn money on the Internet.

When you have a list, you can send members a newsletter with one or more interesting articles along with ads for products related to the topic of your list. The larger your list, the greater the positive response will be to your ads. And, the more money you will make.

Creating and managing an opt-in list involves a number of tasks, including:

- Defining an appropriate topic for your newsletter
- Implementing software or subscribing to an external opt-in list service
- Attracting potential list subscribers
- Preparing articles and ads to send to your list

In this article we’ll discuss an aspect of attracting subscribers by offering a free article or ebook.

Today, nearly everyone expects an incentive in return for giving you his or her name and email address. It’s not enough merely to receive your periodic newsletter. After all, they don’t know the quality or content of your newsletter. So they expect something of value up front.

The typical product you can offer as an incentive is a free ebook or article.

To successfully get new opt-in subscribers you’ll need to offer an ebook or article that provides immediate benefits. That is, your product must solve some problems or answer some nagging questions of your target audience.

You can offer an ebook or article you have resale rights to or you can create your own. Most existing ebooks with resale rights have been marketed for some time and often people with more resources and experience than someone just creating their first list have marketed these products. So, the information in these ebooks is often familiar to many people.

You’ll often find that if your product has unique content you can corner the market for your particular set of solutions. This offers an advantage because your target market can only get these solutions from you.

How to Develop Ideas for Your Ebook

As you gain experience with your topical area you’ll probably be able to identify some of your target audience’s problems or concerns. And, knowing their concerns or problems, you’ll likely be able to offer a few solutions.

Once you have identified some solutions, you can expand your thoughts to a few paragraphs. To explain them clearly and give examples, each solution may be become a chapter of several hundred or even thousands of words.

You can often research your topic and look for additional solutions by using the search engines or by searching various article sites. Once you locate material that describes solutions you can express those solutions in your own words. You can add your own examples to make your expression of the solutions unique and more personal.

While copyright protection applies to the expression of ideas, it does not prevent you from expressing those same ideas in your own words. There are many books and ebooks that express the same concepts in different words. So, your expression of the solutions you choose to present will not conflict with the rights of others.

Preparing and Publishing Your Ebook

Most people use a product like Microsoft Word to prepare their ebook or article. With it you can check spelling and grammar, create chapters, headings, bulleted lists and a table of contents. You can also add photos and clip art to help explain and illustrate your ideas.

You may already have access to a commercial clip art package. Many packages are available at your local computer store.

Microsoft allows you to download and use any of over 150,000 images and sounds from their online library. To search and download art from Microsoft using Microsoft Word, select Insert -> Picture -> Clip Art. Then select the Clips Online tab. You will then be able to search photos, clip art and sounds for just the right images to illustrate your ideas. As long as your purpose is to enhance your own product, you can freely include Microsoft’s images.

Once your ebook or article is complete you’ll want to create a PDF file. This is the most popular format for downloadable ebooks and articles. People using both Windows-based PCs and Macintoshes can view documents in PDF format.

You can “print” your document to a PDF file using any of several free conversion applications. Newer PCs often come with this conversion software preloaded. If your PC does not have this software you can get it free from several sources. Three free products that create PDF files from virtually any Windows applications are:

- PrimoPDF (http://www.primopdf.com/)
- PDFCreator (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/)
- doPDF (http://www.dopdf.com/)

After creating your PDF file you can then upload the PDF to your server. You’ll need to upload it in BINARY format rather than ASCII format. To make sure you did everything correct you should download your PDF and test it to make sure it is viewable.

You’ll also need to create a web page that promotes the benefits of your ebook or article, describes your newsletter, and includes a subscription form. In addition, you’ll need a “Thank You” page that has a link to your ebook PDF file so subscribers can download your product.

With unique content that offers an immediate benefit to potential subscribers, you’re sure to have a successful list building experience.

Technorati Tags: List Building, opt in

There are many factors that make blogs much better than normal WebPages including the speed at which blogs are indexed, ability to submit to blog directories & normal directories, pings and track backs. All these little things can help drive more traffic to blogs. Here are 15 popular techniques you can use:

1.) Create at least four keyword posts per day. Most of the top blogs such as Boing Boing, Daily Kos, and Instapundit (with literally tens of thousands of visitors per day) publish an average of 30 small 100-150 word posts per day according to “Secrets of the A-list Bloggers: Lots of Short Posts” by TNL.net

2.) Submit to My Yahoo! When you submit your own RSS to My Yahoo it is indexed by Yahoo.

3.) Submit to Google’s Reader. When you submit your own blog RSS to Google’s Reader the Google Blog Search will index your site.

4.) Add a relevant link directory to your blog and trade links like a demon possessed! Although it may take more time than simply submitting to a search engine one time, this method is perhaps the best way to drive traffic to your site. Use software such as Zeus to speed up the link trading process.

5.) Use ping sites like ping-o-matic. Ping your site every time you add a new post.

6.) Submit your blog to traditional search engines such as AltaVista, and MSN.

7.) Submit your blog to traditional directories such as DMOZ. Directories (particularly DMOZ) increase relevance with Google. DMOZ is very picky, but what do you have to lose by trying?

8.) Submit to as many RSS Directories and Search Engines as possible. This is a simple but repetitive process that can be done with software such as RSS SUBMIT.

9.) Comment on other blogs. Do not just leave short, lazy comments like “I agree.” Leave well thought out replies that will force readers to wonder “who wrote this?”

10.) Use track backs. If there is a blog that you refer to or quote and it is highly relevant to your subject, leave a track back. It increases your link popularity and may even score a few interested readers from the linked site.

11.) Go offline. Use newspaper ads, public bulletin boards, business cards, even stickers to let as many people as possible know your blog exists.

12.) Ad a link to your blog in your e-mail signature block.

13.) Use Groups (Usenet). Find a relevant group on Google groups, Yahoo groups, MSN groups or any of the thousands of other FREE group services and find like minded people and talk with them. Make sure your use your blog URL like it is your name.

14.) Use Forums. Forums are one of the best places to go for advice. Go to forums and find problems to solve. Make sure you leave your blog name, but be tactful about it; some forums get annoyed with those who selfishly drop a few links to their own site and leave.

15.) Tag your website. Tagging is a new idea that has erupted across the web. Sites like Del.icio.us, Technorati and many others have a social feature that allows you to place your article under keywords or “tags” that everyone interested in that tag can see.

Although these are some of the most popular ways to drive traffic to your blog, do not limit your self to tips and lists. Use your imagination and you will come up with thousands of ways to drive traffic to your blog!

Technorati Tags: blog traffic, Traffic Generation, web traffic