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Monday, September 24, 2007

Are You Going To Be One Of The 90% Of Internet Marketers Who Quit?

By: Jo Han Mok

It may seem obvious that if you quit, you won't succeed. However, too many people let the challenges, obstacles and temporary failures that happen stop them in their tracks. If you're used to instant gratification and immediate, predictable rewards, get ready for a different way of doing work. Work as if you'll never get paid. Do the work because it needs to be done, and done well. Forget about your reward, for now.

Rather than trotting out every quote, saying, cliche and parable about persistence, just know this: a mediocre but persistent person will always win out over a brilliant but inconsistent person. You may be a genius, but are you successful? By "success", I mean, "The progressive realization of a worthwhile dream or vision." Action over time can move mountains. Quick action that fizzles out is like fireworks - pretty, but temporary.

The real challenge for people to face is long periods of action that don't pay off. You've been working steadily for months (or even years), and haven't made a thing. According to everything you know, you're doing it right, but it isn't working for you. This is the point where most failures occur. The person either spends too much money trying to "jump start" the business, or simply gives up the daily effort necessary to sustain the business according to the business plan.

First of all, never throw money at a problem you really don't understand. Second, take the time to rethink what you are doing, especially the assumptions you made when you started. Third, if you decide to change things, change them one at a time, rather than all at once. Finally, if you ask for help, be prepared to sacrifice your ego and do what you're told to do.

Most businesses fail at the point where they're expanding. They don't have the cash to support the expansion. A little thought and a clever use of other people's resources may get you what you thought you had to buy yourself. Need more advertising? Get partners or affiliates to do the job, rather than spend money on traditional or Internet ads. Joint ventures, bartering and peer networks can be a resource you cannot buy with money!

Unchecked assumptions can spell death to a business venture. If you assume that the product you developed as a labor of love will be loved by the world, you might be wrong. Yes, it may be wonderful, but people won't spend money on it. You must test your assumptions and abandon those projects that don't pay off. There are simple and inexpensive ways to do market research that will predict the viability of an idea, product or service. Learn them and use them.

Don't fall into the trap of revamping your entire business all at once. Unless you know for a fact that your entire marketing approach is a train wreck, change things one at a time. As you change each element, find a way to measure the effect of the change. If you cannot measure something, you cannot manage it. Change for the sake of change is foolish and costly. Test and measure each change.

If all of these efforts have failed, get help. Ask your peers for feedback. Consider hiring a consultant with a proven track record of success in helping others become profitable. If you do ask for help, do what you are told. Don't let your ego, presumptions and biases get in the way. Dump your precious but failing methods and use what works in real life.

Above all else, don't quit. Quitting is the only guaranteed method of failure. Everything else is possible, if you persist.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Jo Han Mok is the author of the #1 international business bestseller, The E-Code. He shares his amazing blueprint for creating million dollar internet businesses at: www.InternetMillionaireBlueprints.com

Thursday, September 13, 2007

A Guide To Improving Your Google Ranking

By: Jim Pretin

Google is by far the most important search engine on the net. To rise to the top of their search engine, you need to improve your link popularity and you need to understand how they measure your link popularity (over 50% of all search engine traffic comes from Google, and if you can rise to the top, you will likely rise to the top of all the other search engines as well).

Link popularity is defined as the number of sites that are linking to your site. Some websites have thousands or even millions of sites linking to them, while others might have only a few. The search engines use the number of inbound links your site has as a measure of how important your site is, which translates into your search engine ranking.

The actual number of links to your site is not the only variable used to calculate your link popularity. The search engines also examine the relevance of the links to the subject matter of your site. For example, if a website that sells vitamins has 4,000 inbound links, but the source of most of the links are websites that have nothing to do with vitamins, then the algorithm that search engines use to determine link popularity will take that into account, and the link popularity score will not be very good.

It is possible for a website with a relatively small number of quality inbound links to be ranked higher than a site with a bunch of irrelevant or insignificant links. If I have a website that offers quotes for auto insurance, and I have 800 quality inbound links, then I might receive a much higher search engine ranking than another mortgage site that has 3,000 links that stem from link farms or Free For All (FFA) pages.

If you try to acquire inbound by using link farms or FFA pages, not only will it hurt your search engine ranking, but you might get permanently removed from the search engine listings. Links farms are sites where you can instantly exchange links with all the sites listed in that directory. FFA pages are pointless link directories. The search engines usually discount any links that come from either of these sources.

Now that we understand what link popularity is and how it works, we need to look specifically at how Google measures it. They use a number of variables in their algorithm to calculate your overall link score. The higher your score, the higher you will be ranked in the search listings.

One factor that Google uses in their algorithm, obviously, is the total number of sites linking to you. The more links you have, the higher your score will be. However, their algorithm is a little more complicated than that, and it is possible for a website with fewer links to be ranked higher than a website that has more links.

The reason for this is because Google also measures the quality of your links. If your website is about vitamins, and the site linking to you is a video game site, then that is not considered a quality link. The link still helps your score, but the link would help your score much more if it were from a website whose subject matter is the same as yours.

Also, Google gives a higher score to a link if it comes from a page that has actual content that relates to your keywords. For example, if your site is about jewelry, and another jewelry website has posted a link to your site on their links page, that link is not as valuable as a link to your site coming from a blog or a message board where a lot of information about jewelry is being written or discussed.

Also, they give an even higher score to a link if it contains anchor text that matches one of the keywords that describes your site. For example, if I have a site that sells lawnmowers, and a blog about lawnmowers has posted a link to my site, it helps my score even more if the link text (also known as anchor text) is LAWNMOWERS. To learn more about anchor text, go to a search engine and look up ANCHOR TEXT and you will be able to learn about it.

Another factor used by Google to score your link popularity is the diversity of keywords contained on sites linking to you. For example, if you have a site that sells handbags, and all the links to your site are from other sites that contain nothing but the keyword HANDBAGS, Google considers that to be abnormal. To get a higher score, you need to have links coming from sites that contain a variety of keywords related to handbags, such as BUY HANDBAGS, LEATHER HANDBAGS, etc.

It is difficult to increase your link popularity, but now that you understand how your score is calculated, you can devise a plan to improve your score. You might want to consider posting to forums and blogs that contain information that is related to your site, and when you post, include a link to your site.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Jim Pretin is the owner of www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Avoid These 4 Lethal Affiliate Marketing Mistakes

By: Steve Welker

There are an amazing number of myths on the internet in regards to affiliate marketing. Many of these myths survive because they are far more appealing than the truth.

Many people persist in believing that affiliate marketing can make you a millionaire overnight. Stories abound about the affiliates who are raking in huge sums of money.

While in many cases these stories are true, the people who believe that they will instantly do the same when they start affiliate marketing are sadly mistaken.

It is true that there is enormous profit potential in affiliate marketing, and there are many people who have worked hard to rise to the top rank of marketers that are now reaping the rewards of their effort.

Many of these people now lead very prosperous lives that they probably could not have attained any other way. These are the people that have taken the time to learn all about internet marketing. If you talk to any of them they will tell you that there is a lot of money to be made but none of it is "easy" money.

Many people are ignorant of the knowledge and work needed to be successful affiliate marketers, which invariably leads them to failure. They enter the business with nothing more than myths and visions of great wealth for the taking. They don't realize that this lack of knowledge will lead them to make mistakes that will doom their business enterprise.

This lack of knowledge is why some affiliates make very large sums of money but most make little or none. They try to be successful at this business without ever really understanding exactly how it operates.

Throwing a few links up on your website is not enough to make a fortune as an affiliate. You must learn the market and what your customers needs are to be successful.

Here are some of the most common mistakes made by novice affiliates. Hopefully by dispelling some of the myth and pointing out these common errors it will help people enter into affiliate marketing with a greater chance for success.

1. Failure to understand search engines

If you want to become a successful internet marketer without a large advertising budget you will need a way to get traffic to your site for free.

Traffic from search engines is the best way to accomplish this. You will need to learn to work with the search engines and make them your best friends. You will need to learn how to optimize your sites to place high in the searches for relevant key words.

Do not make the mistake of trying to "game" or trick the search engines. If you are good or lucky you might manage it for a little while but eventually the search engines will figure out your tricks and you will find yourself with no traffic. The search engines become more intelligent. Every day learn to work with them and not against them.

2. Not providing good information

Many affiliates just throw some banners or text links on their site and wait for the money to roll in. You will find that this strategy will give you very low click through rates.

You need to provide good useful content about the items you are trying to promote. Give your visitors good information and you will find that your click through rates and sales will increase dramatically.

3. Not diversifying

Many affiliates make the mistake of only promoting a single item or the best items from a single provider. If you give your customers more choices and options you will get more sales.

The other problem with this strategy is that all of your eggs are in one basket. If the product you are selling goes out of production or the company you represent goes out of business you are suddenly left with no income.

4. Lack of Focus

The other end of the spectrum is the affiliate that tries to offer everything on one site. These sites lack focus making it harder to drive traffic to them. The lack of focus is also very distracting to the visitors you do manage to attract. Because of this very few will remain on the site very long and even fewer will purchase anything.

There is a lot of money to be made as an affiliate but the ones who are successful are the one that take the time to learn all about internet marketing. Then to take that knowledge and apply it on a regular basis to build a successful business. Be sure to look in the resource area to learn how you can get more information for free.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Get a free copy of Internet Affiliate Marketing Revealed by visiting http://www.dw-solutions.net