When discussing website promotion, one of the tips always given is to submit to directories and search engines. The reader always thinks that it makes perfect sense and that he pretty much knows how to go about it, but the fact is he does not really understand the logic behind it, how it works, and how one actually goes about it.
What is the difference between a search engine and a directory anyway? A search engine uses a program for searching documents, mostly HTML, based on given keywords. It generates a list from its database put together by two programs, a spider, which fetches corresponding documents, and an indexer, which reads documents and creates the database based on their word and idea content. A directory, on the other hand, is a listing of submitted and approved websites. Basically, the main difference between search engines and directories is that the latter rely on submissions while the former have programs that scan the net for websites to include in their database. Keep in mind that search engines and directories are two different things, so it is best to come up with separate plans for utilizing the two methods for website promotion.
With search engines, it is all about keywords and HTML layout. You can look into discussions about keyword density, prominence, and placement to better equip yourself for targeting high search engine rankings. Remember that search engines can pick up your pages without you ever submitting them, so design your site accordingly.
As for directories, there are several steps you may have to undertake to prepare your website before submission in order for it to have a better chance of being approved. First and foremost, make sure that your website has been up and running for some time before you submit it. If you had recently made changes, again, wait a short while. You must know that some of the qualities of a good site, according to directory standards, are clean and attractive design, useful content, and fast loading pages.
Once you feel confident about your website, you can start the submission process. You usually have to start with picking out the category or categories which your site falls under. Think this through as this could have a great impact on your site’s exposure. Before submitting your URL, thoroughly read instructions, terms, and suggestions from the administration. Since directories depend on the information you give them, be as accurate as possible when asked for a description.
The top directories out there are Yahoo and DMOZ (also known as Open Directory Project or ODP). With ODP, it is not really as tough to get accepted, but there are so many submissions and they are usually short on staff which is comprised of volunteers. This is actually something you can capitalize on by volunteering to be an editor yourself and accepting your own submission. You have to realize that the Open Directory will not bring an amazing amount of traffic to your site, but it has its ways of influencing rankings, especially with Google. Remember, Google is like the godfather of all things SEO. It is always best to do things that are favorable to it.
Directories usually have a lead time after submission, so do not expect your site’s exposure to be magnified immediately. It may be necessary to submit specific web pages that can fall under different categories or to resubmit the actual website especially if you do a lot of tweaking or if you feel that the course of the site did a turn and it can now fall under a different category. However, do not be so aggressive about your submissions that you are practically spamming the directories. This may lead to detrimental consequences with regards to your active listings.
Do you know anyone who doesn’t know what YouTube is all about? Your dog would probably know what it is if he knew how to use the computer! Everybody is talking about it from kids to adults. Even the world of advertising is taking notice of the vast possibilities that it offers. It is the power of advertisement at its very best.
About YouTube
In the middle of February 2005 former employees of PayPal, Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, created YouTube. In July 2006, YouTube disclosed that over 100 million videos are being watched every single day, and that’s an estimated total of 2.5 billion videos watched in that same month. Also, it was further claimed that in May 2006 50,000 videos were uploaded in a day, and it had reached an astonishing 65,000 uploads in July 2006. YouTube stated that virtually 79 millions users have watched more than 3 billion videos in January 2008.
The Wall Street Journal, in August 2006, wrote an article about YouTube. It revealed that YouTube has hosted 6.1 million videos, and that it has 500,000 registered users. By April 9th, 2008, a search return in YouTube has resulted in approximately 83 million videos and about 3 million user channels.
Google Inc. announces in October 2006 that they will purchase YouTube for a staggering amount of US$1.65 billion in stocks. The purchase eventually pushed through on November 13, 2006. According to the regulatory filing of Google Inc., YouTube is presently non-profitable, stating further that the income that it generates is immaterial.
What is YouTube?
YouTube in its simplest context is a website that shares videos. Users can upload, view and share these videos. It utilizes Adobe Flash to show a wide range of user created video contents, which include music videos, TV clips and movies.
Unregistered users can view and watch nearly all videos on YouTube, however, only registered users can upload limitless quantity of videos. Uploading videos that contain harassment, pornography, slander, nudeness, encouragement of a criminal act, and commercial advertisement are not permitted.
Videos are classified by the use of titles and tags that are located to the right side of a video. In the second year of YouTube’s operation, additional features were provided to enable users to give their personal comments and subscribe to a video’s RSS feed.
Who Uses YouTube?
The inclination for the Internet is opposing. Eyes are still tuned in directly at the television, but now it is through the internet as an alternative! What the Internet has to offer is a more personalized experience, because people have the option to choose what and when they watch. They can even involve themselves by expressing their personal opinion on what they’re watching.
Big players in the advertising industry are taking notice and are seriously considering what YouTube has to offer. Even the entertainment world is very much into promoting their new stuff on YouTube, such as uploading of teasers for new music videos or trailers of forthcoming movies. Charity institutions are also not left behind when it comes to YouTube, because they also create their own videos for campaign awareness with various messages. Even politicians are using YouTube to strengthen their campaign. Basically, YouTube is for everybody as long as you have a computer to use.
How to Use YouTube for Your Marketing Scheme?
Incorporating YouTube for your marketing scheme will give you unlimited possibilities. However, do not rush things and just create and upload your videos, remember that getting it wrong will hurt your brand. Bear these few tips in mind before you take the plunge:
1. Video campaigns that are uploaded on YouTube can be more viral, compared to sending links of your video on your website through email. It is better to upload it on YouTube and include your URL. This way your video will have a greater chance of being seen by a huge audience resulting in more website visits from users.
2. You can create concepts with YouTube in mind. For instance, you can run a contest and have the participants create a video for the best use of the products that you have. This will definitely amplify traffic to your website especially if you have prices to give.
3. You can Do-It-Yourself or hire an advertising agency to create a video. The catch is to create a video that represents your product in the best possible way, with the idea and focus for it to become a viral success.
4. Look for an opportunity to place ads on hot videos on YouTube.
5. More and more websites are already linked to YouTube, having your website listed will definitely improve and help your optimization strategy.
It is simply not enough to build a website, have a product or service to offer, be talented, or anything that is worth mentioning. What is the use of it if nobody will ever see or hear about it? A lot has been said about how to achieve an effective marketing strategy. If you diligently search the Web for tips and guides, you will probably come up with several hundreds on your list. One of the most popular techniques is Viral Marketing.
What is Viral Marketing?
Viral Marketing is analogous to a computer or pathological virus because of its capability to replicate itself, thus making it possible to be propagated. It is a marketing strategy that utilizes pre-existing online social networks. The sole purpose is to increase awareness to a particular brand (products and/or services), person, organization, and anything or anyone who needs to be advertised. It can be done through word-of-mouth, media (TV, radio or newsprint), and through the Internet.
The idea of viral marketing is to get people to voluntarily spread your marketing messages for you. Viral promotion can be created in any conceivable form; the popular ones are through articles, newsletters, videos, games, e-books, software, applications, images, and yes, even text messages. Viral marketing is somewhat based on a humans natural behavior. For instance, a person will probably tell three of his friends about a product or service that he likes, and more than ten people for those he doesn’t like. So, it goes without saying that you’d rather be among the three rather than the ten.
How to Use Viral Marketing to Your Advantage
The goal is to create a winning viral marketing program that will appeal to individuals with a soaring social networking potential. The idea is that this viral marketing campaign should be able to identify with the greater population of this network, thus giving a higher possibility that it will be passed along.
There are several methods you can employ for you to have an effective viral campaign to showcase your company, your talent, your website, your products and/or services. These methods should be free for all because, basically, you want it out there. Restricting it will not help as it’s obviously against what viral marketing is all about. Here are some popular methods:
1. Email Signature – The most common and simple of all viral marketing methods. Most email providers allow its users to create their own signature. The idea is to create a catchy tagline with your URL on it which will catch the attention of the readers. This is very effective especially if you’re sending out emails that contain useful information that has a high probability to be passed around.
2. Giving Away Freebies – It can be anything from games, videos, applications, screensavers etcetera. Even bigwigs on the World Wide Web are giving away freebies such as e-mail accounts, private messengers, and a lot more. It is very effective, as who wouldn’t want to have something for free? People tend to talk a lot about things they got for free – and what better way to be known than to be talked about?
3. Penning an Article –With the ever growing need for information, there will always be thousands of topics that you can write about. Your articles should at least be relevant to what you offer. There are a lot of article submission sites on the Web. Submit your work there and grant permission to reproduce so long as the original “resource box” is intact.
These are just a few of the hundreds of possible ways you can utilize the power of viral marketing. Your real goal here is to create witty, cool and exciting content that has a “shareable characteristic”. You have to create a feeling of “must-have” for your target audience, and to able to hold on to that interest. In the end, creativity is what sets apart the losers from the winners (harsh, but true). You have to have a level of inspiration that can help your campaign seize the opportunity that the Internet has to offer.
It is a tried and tested marketing ploy. Just go to the supermarkets and line up for all the freebies you can get. Sometimes, you get just a small taste of something. Sometimes, it is a mini-sample that you can bring home and add to your stash for emergencies. All the companies are doing it because it is a proven method of creating buzz for a product, especially new ones.
In the world of the internet, freebies work just as well. Even blogs with no actual product to sell are doing it. Giving away something generates excitement and, let us just face it, it is so much fun. Anyway, it works too. You should see the hits all those homemaking blogs make on something they call “Freebie Friday”.
If you do decide to go the freebie route of website promotion, here are some ideas on what to give as freebies:
Now that you have ideas for giveaways, how are you going to go about it? You can have contests or plain raffles. You can have specific requirements, perhaps in aid of boosting traffic. You can even do a seasonal thing. Give away pencils right before school starts or T-shirts for Christmas. Of course, there is the standard giveaway for every purchase. It is up to you. Just spread the word that your website has freebies up for grabs.
Webmasters need to keep up with the ever-changing tide in the race to have the best search engine rankings. Every website is dependent on the ranking of their site on Google. Usually, users will focus on the top 10 results. Beyond that, your website is left to fate. Here are 10 solid tips to improve your rankings:
1. Submit to Google Directly– You need to submit your website info to Google. Be sure that your website is completely ready to be crawled by Googlebot.
2. Keyword Research – This is very significant in gaining a good ranking in Google search engine. What you should do is conduct a brainstorming meeting, study your customers and the market, use keyword research tools, chart your selection of keywords, and test and analyze their performance to get the best refined selection of keywords.
3. Ease of Access – An accessible website is crucial to the successful delivery of its contents. The pages, server, HTML elements, components and coding should all be valid and running. If these are disregarded, then Google may favor other sites over yours.
4. Meta Tags, Title Tags and URLs’ – These give information and a description of your website to search engines. Keeping them pertinent, convincing, and precise are your keys to ranking well in search engines. You can also utilize these areas for your keywords.
5. Information Structure – The document and link configuration of a site is beneficial to search ranking, especially when done correctly. The key to an effective structure is in its usability to its users:
• Sitemap – This is the page that links all the other pages in a website.
• Category Structure – Begin with a broad topic category, and then you can expand it to deeper pages of definite topics. This will convey a message to Google that your website is appropriate and includes thorough topics.
6. Duplicate Content – Probably the most universal problem a website can encounter, especially those who have huge, high-capacity websites powered by a database. If your website has several pages with similar contents, then you are causing those pages to lose valuable ranking in the search engine result pages (SERPs). The answer to this problem is to identify all pages with duplicate content and use a 301 Redirect.
7. Penning First-Rate Content – The true potential of a website is shown through the quality of content that it contains. If your website delivers content that a majority of users need, then that will constitute a high ranking on Google.
8. Public Relation and Press Release – If you can influence the mainstream press to feature your website, that can get you attention. There are a lot of press release websites that can be your starting ground for getting traffic and links, and what’s better is that these sites feed major news search engines such as Google News.
9. Assess Your Success – Do not rely on good faith alone that what you are doing is right. It is imperative that you check statistics, which will greatly help analyze and improve your SEO campaign.
10. An SEO Strategy that Works – You may have a killer website that everybody will envy, but if it will not show up in the top SERPs, it’s worthless. Patience is a virtue when planning your SEO. Google can be very slow – but let’s face it, SEO is a very long and tedious process. To ensure that you succeed in the end, you must seriously consider these guidelines: Uniqueness and quality of content, access to communities, links that are format friendly, budget planning, and market knowledge.
Information sells. In the days before the Internet, mail order companies made huge fortunes selling booklets and books by mail to people hungry for information on specialized topics. Today, even with the abundance of free information available online, people will still pay—and pay well—for information products created by experts. In addition to SEO and Website promotion, why not create your own information product for sale on your website?
If you are thinking of creating your own information product, or if you’re currently creating or marketing an info product, there are some things you should know that can increase your product’s quality and your resulting sales.
1. Not everyone likes audios and videos. There is a tendency now to offer audio products and videos, rather than ebooks, because “no one reads anymore.” Actually, a lot of people do read, and when it comes to information, many people prefer to flip back through a book looking for something specific, rather than having to listen to a whole audio again. Your best bet is to offer your product either as a combination of ebook and audio or video, or as a choice of ebook or video. This way you capture both audiences—the readers and the non-readers alike.
2. Your cover graphic matters. When ebooks were new, cover graphics were fairly crude, and no one really noticed. There are still several products on the market that create these rudimentary cover graphics. However, if you hire a cover designer, or invest in a high-quality cover-creation program, you will sell more copies of your product than if you have a noticeably “old”-looking cover.
3. Set your price point carefully. For a while, it was not uncommon to see a simple ebook going for $97, with some bonuses included to make it look like more of a “value.” Now, the prices of ebooks seem to be going down to $47 and below, while videos, audio series and home study courses are occupying the top pricing ranks. When you price your ebook at a lower price, you are likely to more than make up the difference in volume.
4. Think carefully about bonuses. Some marketers do not include bonuses with their info products at all. In their sales letters, they explain that the information is valuable and that they feel adding a lot of bonuses with inflated values would cheapen their product, not enhance it. Other info product owners add five, ten or even fifteen bonuses, to increase the perceived value of their product. Both approaches can be successful; the key is deciding whether your audience will be more receptive to bonuses or the no-bonus technique.
5. Promote your product through affiliates. Set up a good affiliate program and encourage people to sell your product to their website visitors and customers. When you have a large affiliate base, you will sell more products, and build your own email list much more quickly than if you go it alone. Make sure your affiliates receive a decent commission and a portion of any “back end” sales of other products. If you have a good ebook, audio or video program that people want and need, your affiliates will be glad to help you sell it.
Marketing your own information product is the best way to make money online, and if you have a good idea and the determination to create a great product, you can do quite well.
In business, it’s a fundamental truth that it pays to advertise. However, it does not necessarily follow that businesses have to pay to advertise. In the case of running a website, it is certainly much easier to promote your business online and there are several ways to do so without paying a single cent. This is especially advantageous for start-ups in that stage of venture when all the money involved is outbound. It’s always a good rule of thumb that, even with an ample operational expense budget, if there are things you can get for free, you wisely go for them. Once money starts coming in, then you can begin to consider paid methods.
What exactly are these little tricks that you can employ to promote your site and generate more traffic?
There are other free ways to go about promoting your website. Just commit to doing the brunt work yourself, get creative, and keep in mind that exposure is key.
You would think that article writing would not figure much into the advertising scene except in coming up with promotional write-ups. In the age of internet, article writing is one of the most effective tools in online marketing. However, article writing for online promotion is not exactly the same as writing articles in the traditional setup. No matter how well-written your piece is, if it does not have the factors to influence search engine rankings, it would not be worth much.
Keywords naturally play a major role in article writing. There’s a recommendation for the number of times key phrases should appear and where they should be placed. Having said that, let it also be known that keywords should not make up your entire article. How many times have you clicked on a link only to find an article that did not bear anything useful or even to end up on a page with just an enumeration of keywords? Your content must have substance. It should, at least, make sense. Search engines will pick up the kind of traffic you get, whether your visitors stay exactly one second and then leave, their disgusted exclamations are practically audible through the web.
What are the other things article writers must bear in mind as they write their pieces?
Once your articles are written, what are some techniques you should employ in aid of online promotion?
Online marketing with articles is a powerful promotional technique that can give any website a boost, whether in terms of search engine ranking or in terms of sales. It is definitely a winning option.
If you run a business website, or plan to start a website for your business, you may know that getting links back to your site is critical to your success. You have probably heard people talk about “reciprocal linking” and “backlinks.” Still, you might not understand exactly what this linking process entails or why it’s so important for your business.
Search engines, especially Google, look at the number of links to your website in determining your ranking in their search engine results pages (SERPS). Google PageRank is based largely on the number of backlinks your site has, and the quality of those links.
Note that the quality of the links is important. Website owners used to submit their sites to Free for All links pages and get lots of links back to their sites. As with many other things that used to work when the web was smaller, this is no longer a reliable way of getting quality links. The search engines look at these “link farms” as junk links, and don’t count them in your backlinks.
It is more important than ever now to create quality links back to your site. Ideally, these links will come from sites that link to you without your having to link back. These are called one-way links, and are the most valuable links your website can have.
Article writing and submission is one good way to get one-way links; the article directories and ezines that use your articles will publish them with your link intact. These are good quality links, and the more articles you create, the more links you can accumulate.
You may also pay for one-way links, but the word is that Google is starting to ignore obviously paid links. Some of the larger companies selling one-way text links are now “flagged” by Google, and links purchased from these companies do not count in Google PageRank.
Not all good links are one-way links. Google also respects reciprocal links, or link trades, if the linking site is a quality site and not a link farm. While one-way links are more valuable in calculating PageRank, reciprocal links are easier to get, and Google does pay attention to them.
One way to get reciprocal links is to visit other websites and ask them for a reciprocal link, or a link exchange. While this is a tedious task, it is a good way to find well-qualified sites to trade links with. It is well worth spending some time finding really good sites to do exchanges with.
You can also use a reputable link exchange directory to find sites that are interested in exchanging links with related sites. When you choose a directory, make sure that it includes the types of sites that you’re looking for, and that the links will come directly from the other sites, rather from the directory. You’re using the directory primarily as a search tool to find related websites that may be interested in exchanging links.
As always, the quality of your website still matters, of course, but you can give your site a real boost in search engine rankings by getting good backlinks from related sites.
When you set up your business web site, choosing a domain name is one of the most important steps you’ll take. This domain name will “go on your permanent record,” so to speak; this is how people will find your web site, now and in the future. You want to make sure that you choose a domain name that will help you build your business. While it may seem like a minor detail, this is a very important decision.
The following tips will help you choose your domain name well:
1. Know what you want your domain name to do. Many people use their domain names primarily to introduce themselves, especially when they’re networking locally. For instance, a photographer might have a domain name such as JudyTaylorPhotography.com. That works well as an introduction, but if her goal is to market herself on the web as a baby photographer, she might do better with Philadelphia-Baby-Photograpy.com.
2. Use keywords in your domain name to market your business. If you intend for your domain name to be more than an electronic business card, you should research and include keywords that people will search for to find you. For instance, if you sell vintage Mustangs in Waco, Texas, you might use a domain name such as Texas-Vintage-Mustangs.com or Waco-Vintage-Mustangs.com.
3. Use hyphens to make your domain name more search engine friendly. While your customers might remember TexasVintageMustangs.com just fine, or even more easily, search engines may not see all the keywords unless you use hyphens. Keep this in mind when you’re choosing a domain name for marketing purposes.
4. Use a reputable domain registrar. There are a few big companies selling domains, and some smaller companies reselling for those companies. There are also a few low-end, independent companies selling domains. Watch out for these small registrars; not too long ago one of them went out of business and refused to release their records to another registrar until a court intervened. Their customers’ domains were unreachable for several days. Many of the large, reputable companies are very competitive in price. Make sure you’re working with a company you can trust.
5. Get a dot-com name if possible. It may be harder to find your chosen name with a dot-com extension, but it is well worth the effort to brainstorm and research possible names that are available with a dot-com extension. People tend to memorize your domain name, or try to. If they think it’s JoesPlumbing.com and your address is actually JoesPlumbing.net, you may lose business to another Joe.
6. Research similar domain names. If you intend to register The-Online-Golf-Store.com, keep in mind that you may lose business to Online-Golf-Store.com, just because people forget the “the.” Know what similar domains are registered, and to whom, and make sure you choose a unique name.
7. Remember you can direct two or more domains to the same website. If you are not sure which domain name serves your business better, or if you would like to market yourself with multiple domain names, you can point each name to your main website and use all the domains you want.