How to Learn from Unsuccessful E-Commerce Blogs

It’s true that no matter how good your products or services maybe, the marketplace is likely going to be extremely competitive. It’s also true that there is no such thing as a guarantee that your e-commerce blog is going to be successful. However, despite what the odds may be, and despite how competitive your particular market may or may not be, the prospect of starting your own e-commerce blog is one that should always be explored.

One thing any successful e-commerce blog is going to need to make it is hard work. That’s a give-in. Another give-in is that your e-commerce site is going to need great ideas.

However, you can also learn a lot about running a flourishing e-commerce blog by studying. What you study, of course, are the patterns of unsuccessful e-commerce blogs. The benefits of doing this will be almost immediate. Trends that led to the downfall of one e-commerce blog or another will quickly begin to emerge.

Whatever you do on the road to a successful e-commerce blog, learning from the failures should definitely be on your itinerary. 

Unifying Patterns Of Unsuccessful E-Commerce Blogs

You may notice some unifying threads between unsuccessful on your own, but here are five that you’re definitely going to pick up as you study the ones that just didn't make it:


High Prices

Maybe it’s because of the cost involved, or maybe it’s due to a serious miscalculation on the part of the blog owner, but high prices will almost always reduce someone’s interest in a product.


Poor Shipping Practices

No one is saying you have to offer shipping options as dedicated and far-reaching as a giant like Amazon.com, but with e-commerce, fast, reliable shipping can quickly separate a thriving e-commerce site from a dying one. Make sure you offer fast shipping, with multiple options for those who are willing to pay extra to get their products even faster.

SEO
Search engine optimization is sometimes overlooked by e-commerce site owners. Typically, those sites don’t last very long.

User design
Who cares about great products, if the site is a huge headache to navigate? Make sure customers can find the product they are looking for with the minimal number of clicks.

Products
Keep a theme in mind. Go for a niche market. E-commerce sites that offer too many different things just look cluttered and disorganized.

There are plenty of pitfalls that can sink your e-commerce blog in a hurry. The more you study these pitfalls from past examples, the better you’ll be at avoiding them.

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10 tips for coming up with fresh ideas

Coming up with fresh ideas is what turns small businesses into big businesses. Sadly, it is at this point that a business becomes more uniform, less unique, and begins to slowly lose customers to its competitors. This is actually what started to happen to the Apple Company. That was until they created the iPhone and started a new mobile revolution. The Apple Company was forced to be unique and fresh, otherwise they were heading for oblivion.

Here are a few ways you may come up with fresh ideas for yourself.

1 - Get a life and live it
Have you ever heard those pretentious people who say they have traveled the world and now they feel invigorated and refreshed? Feel free to knock the watercress sandwich out of their hands and step on their suede shoes. However, you should note that people with an active life will often have fresher ideas.

You do not have to travel the world, but you cannot just sit at home or work all the time. This sort of thing happens to comedy TV writers all the time. They start their job full of ideas that they have pulled from real life situations. But, a few series into it they run out of ideas. This is because they work all the time (on tight deadlines) and do not get out there and live.

They do not see real life interesting people, or funny incidents that happen in real life. This is also why a lot of comedy shows will parody movies, because the writers are either sat at home, or watching a movie at home. If you want fresh ideas then be more active, aka, get a life!

2 - Keep your problem in your mind
There is a difference between worrying about a problem all the time, and keeping it in your mind. People who are motivated and need new ideas in order to solve a problem will keep the problem in the back of their mind all the time. They will walk around garden centers with their spouse, or watch a soccer match with their kids, and will keep the problem in their mind.

They will often see things during their day that gives them a bit of inspiration. Before they know it, their mind has connected the dots (so to speak), and they are full of new and fresh ideas to solve their problems. Keeping it in the back of your mind will allow your subconscious to have a think about it, whilst you get on with your life.

3 - Use active imagination
You should really research into this technique. Some people believe it is a way to communicate with your subconscious. Other people believe it is a way of tapping into your creativity, and others believe that it is a way of clearing your mind enough to come up with new ideas. It is probably a combination of all three.

4 - Ask your friends and co-workers
If you get really stuck then have a quick conference with your coworkers and your friends. You will probably hear no suggestions that you have not thought of yourself, but there is always a chance that one of them will come up with a great idea.

5 - Look at how others solved their problem
Have other people had your problem in the past? How did they solve their problem? Just because an idea has been used before does not mean it is not fresh to you.

6 - Research into your problem
This does not just mean do a little bit of analysis, it means look into how other people came up with fresh ideas and how they solved their problems. Read books, go to seminars and watch educational programs.

7 - Brainstorm
Sit in a dark room with a digital recorder, and just think about your problem. Record yourself speaking aloud any of your ideas, and you will soon have a recorder full of fresh ideas.

8 - Think of ways to make it worse
Ironically, if you look at a problem and come at it from the other side, you can come up with some new solutions and idea. You first think of how to make the problem you have worse. You then think of ways of hindering your methods of making it worse. The way you would stop yourself making it worse is often loaded with fresh ideas and solutions for your problem.

9 - Do market research

Ask your audience. This is one way of getting new ideas that are fresh and unique. Ask open-ended questions and probe the people you are trying to appeal to. Get their opinions and try to engage them. You may be surprised at the results you get. The added benefit is that it only takes one good idea from one person to turn things around for you.

10 - Hire a consultant

Let us face it, a consultant is expensive and will drain productive hours from you and your staff. However, a consultant may sometimes bring new ideas to the table that you have not thought of (that is basically their job). They have no doubt had a lot of experience with other companies in your industry, and so have a wider view of your particular problem or concern. They are often able to come up with ideas that other people have used, but that are unique and fresh to you.

Written by: Kate Funk from Tutorsville.
 

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How to Extend Your Online Ads

The Adwords system offers some rewards for advertisers that use multiple Google products and one very nice bonus is available for advertisers who also have a Google merchant center account. Google's merchant center allows retailers to upload product data that can be found on the other Google properties like Google product search and sometimes even on the Google.com search results page.

For example a search for men's clothing on Google.com/products shows results uploaded from the Google merchant center. You also see Adwords ads on the page. Remember, this is yet another place that your ads can show if you are opted into the search partner network. If you have a merchant center account you can connect it to your Adwords account and showcase your products in an Adwords plus box ad.

So how does this work? Well when your Adwords ad appear, if your Google merchant center account includes a relevant product Adwords may show an extension that includes images, titles and prices of your closest matching products beneath your ad using a plus box format. To set up this extension you do have to have an existing Google merchant center account and have products listed in it. Assuming that you do, you should now connect your Adwords account to your merchant center account.

First just select the campaign that you want to work with over on the left side bar view and then click the add extensions tab. Remember, if you do not see the ad extension tab just use the drop down to the right to make sure that it's selected to show in your account. Make sure that your viewing the product extension set from the drop down to the left. If you have a merchant center account you will be able to select from the products that you have in that account from a drop down. Pick the one that makes the most sense for this campaign and then you are done. Your ads will now be eligible to run with product extensions. That is it; you have now connected your merchant center account to your Adwords campaign.

So take a look at what this report looks like after your product extension ads have been running for a while. Here you can get data on clicks and impressions, click the rates, your costs and even your average positions. A few more things to note about product extensions, Adwords does not allow you to select specific ads to connect with specific products in your merchant center. But you can help the system connect the most appropriate products with your ads by including product information in the merchant center account. These are called attributes and they help Google understand the nature of the products that you are uploading into the system.

You can find all the details over at Google.com/merchants but just know that the more information that you provide the more likely that Adwords will extend your ads with product information and the more likely it will select the more appropriate images from your inventory in the merchant center.

Once you connect your accounts it can take up to twelve hours to see product extensions with your Adwords ads. And remember Adwords does not show them all the time once it's setup you will have a chance to really showcase your merchandise on the Adwords search engine results pages, once again making your ad stand out from the competition.

About the Author: Sadhiv Mahandru has been involved in online marketing for over a decade covering PPC, Affiliate Marketing, SEO, Content Creation and also creating effective websites. A SEO Company in Manchester and providing services throughout the UK. You can learn more about Internet Marketing and SEO by reading his own blog which is updated frequently.
 

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How to Write High-Quality Content Quickly

Successful bloggers know how important it is to add interesting and high-quality content to their blog in order to keep their readers and their search engine results position. But some bloggers find that adding useful and interesting content to their site on a daily basis is not so easy to do, but it doesn't mean that it's impossible. 

Here we will share some advice for all bloggers concerning how to create effective content for their websites quickly and efficiently:

1. Selecting your ideas
What do you do first when you sit to write an article for your blog? Do you spend a lot of time developing ideas?

When time has passed from the last post publication, and time runs out, you have no time to wait for inspiration. In such situations, we advise the following: whenever there is free time, start a brainstorm to generate ideas for articles, and do not forget to write them down.

Read other blogs of the same niche and do not forget about Twitter! Who knows, maybe you will be able to tell about the same topic in a more interesting and understandable way.

Subscribe to online newspapers, magazines of your favorite topics preferably, and write all the information to your notebook.

2. Combine all the information you have gathered
Gather all the information, simply insert it into a Word document, and write a few chapters of your own. The next step is to format the text, remove all unnecessary words, and distinguish titles. Then you can build a table of contents, it will give you some cross-links, facilitating the search of interesting information in the text.

3. Build a publishing plan
Having a few articles in the reserve, it is not necessary to post them all at once, it is better to plan their publication for a month for example. Believe us, such a step has many advantages. Just think about it: you will not be distracted from your personal affairs and rest, but your blog will be updated with new and interesting content regularly.

4. Objectives
Now, when a publishing plan is ready, you face several more challenges.

The first one is to create a separate file for each message (it can be a Word document for example).
The second one is to create catchy titles for each article.
The third one is to write tags, keywords, and insert pictures – believe us, they will make your blog more attractive.
The fourth one, if necessary, is to add the appropriate information on existing researches and links where the materials used in the article came from.

Having done all this in advance, you will be surprised how much free time you have now, which can be used to promote your blog and increase its popularity.

5. Publishing the post
Now you are ready for publication. All you need is to download the chosen article and publish it on your blog. Make sure you've read it one more time and edited any mistakes if necessary.

6. Scheduling
Even after all the above, it is difficult to stick to the timetable. The main thing is to create a good atmosphere for yourself, which would help you to work at the most convenient time. Just decide when it is more comfortable for you to work: days or nights, mornings or evenings.

7. Write all your thoughts down
Writing down all your thoughts, clever and useful ideas, you will spend less time on the work with an article itself. Also, if you want you can share your main thought on a few posts, it depends on your imagination. Try not to be distracted from the main topic.

And, probably, the most important advice for every blogger is: Write full, interesting articles, and write them for people, not for search engines!

Content Written By: Alex Strike, who writes for writing-help.com and Essay-Writing-Service.net at the moment and can't imagine his life without writing.
 

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Top Internet Marketing Strategies and Tools

Online marketing has opened a whole new world of possibilities for those who want to promote their products and services more efficiently. Internet not only allows companies to lower marketing costs, it also helps distributing information to an incredibly wide range of potential clients. Now let’s discuss those online marketing strategies and tools that have proven to be effective over the course of time.

Websites

The main difference between websites and other marketing media is that websites are available 24/7, which allows potential clients to find you when your services are needed the most. Unlike ads on TV, radio or periodic press the content you put on your website will stay there for as long as you need. Business owners can always get feedback from their customers thanks to live chats, contact forms, comments and so on, which allows evaluating qualities of your services without having to hire focus groups and conducting surveys.

Forums and blogs 

These internet tools are much cheaper than professional website, but they also give business owners an opportunity to be in touch with customers and create more online awareness of their services and products. Blogs and forums serve as a great platform for discussions between current and potential customers and business owners or marketers, which enables getting helpful feedback.

Social media sites

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, LiveJournal – these social media networks have taken over the internet and provided business owners with another one incredibly effective business tool. Due to the specific of these sites, ads on social networks can be targeted on specific age or gender group, which boost marketing efforts immensely. Social media websites, especially Twitter, can also help to create awareness of your company’s special offers, discounts and promotions.

Pay per lick (PPC) advertising

This is another example of highly effective internet marketing tool, when advertiser pays when users click on their ad. PPC model is extremely popular since here it’s the result that count, meaning you pay only for the number of visitors and not for the number of times your ad has been shown. This model not only brings instant results but also allows showing your ads only in certain locations or on the sites that post related content. It also enables you taking full control over the costs of the campaign since you usually can set upper limits on your total daily spend, which means you spend as much as you can and not more.

Emails

Even with all the new strategies and tools email marketing is still widely used, especially among small business owners who want to enhance or maintain customer relationship and advertise products.

The key to successful online marketing is using these tools in combination. If you choose not to hire professional marketer who would manage your marketing efforts, you are going to need special software for keeping all the aspects of the campaign under control. Work management software can help you create flexible workflows that you can change according to the situation on the market. It will also help you to keep in check any number of promoting campaigns and their status and see which employee is responsible for the task. And built-in task software will help to track costs, deadlines and tasks’ priorities enabling you and your team working more efficiently.

Content Written By Jannet Sparts: Hi, my name’s Jannet Sparts and I’m working as an editor of Online Issues. I write for several blogs sharing my experience and observations. I have worked as a project manager in several companies. So I have tried different PM tools, collaboration programs, including task tracking software solutions. For the moment PM software is my primary field of interest.
 

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Tips to Choose The Right Set Of Keywords For Your Website

Why do you create a website for your business? That's right – for promoting your products/services to a larger number of potential buyers in the online space. While searching for anything on the web, people use specific 'keywords' and 'key phrases' – and you need to be aware of the popular ones related to your line of business. Once you do that, you can frame such CMS website development plans, which would target those keywords. In this article, we will provide some handy tips, for choosing the right set of keywords for your website: 

Research for keywords
Think up all the possible words and phrases that can be used by people, who are looking for the products/services you have to offer online. Google Adwords and WordTracker are two extremely popular keyword research tools, from where you can get a large number of useful keyword suggestions and ideas too. 

Do a competitor analysis 

Your website will not be operating in the online space in isolation, and you need to take stock of the keywords/phrases that are being targeted by your professional rivals as well. That way, you will get a clear idea of the keywords that are generally targeted by the market leaders in your industry.

Balance search volume and competition levels 

In any good online keyword analysis tool, you will find the search volume of all the keywords you wish to target – over a specific time period (usually, a month). You are also provided with an idea of how competitive each of the keywords are. Choose such keywords that have a proper balance of competitiveness and search volumes.

Choose specific keywords 

If you are in the business of manufacturing 'toy horses', will 'toy', or 'horse' work as effective keywords? No they won't – simply because they are too broad, and would only result in the arrival of an unnecessarily large number of general visitors. Optimize your website design services and content material, by using specific keywords – that provide a clear idea of your line of business. Don't choose too specific keywords though – which might keep your visibility low.

Consider targeting long-tailed keywords, as well as those in 'exact' and 'phrase' matches 

While searching for anything online, people generally use a specific 'group of words', instead of the exact name of your product category. For example, people looking for canvas paintings in Australia are more likely to use 'cheap canvas prints in Australia' as a key phrase, rather than only 'canvas prints'. Similarly, do make use of keywords in their 'phrase' match form too (i.e., the keywords will be present in a certain sequence in the search query).

Distribute the keywords properly on the different pages 

According to the latest Google algorithm update, the home page of your website should have the maximum percentage of your primary focus keywords. More deep-linked pages should have the keywords, in decreasing proportions. Plan your web design & development in a manner that – each of the pages can serve to target one or two specific keywords.

Keep in mind the negative keywords 

This is of particular importance when you are launching a paid advertising (PPC) campaign to promote your website. Make a list of the words that are not related to your products/services, but can lead to your ad being displayed. To cite an instance, if you are selling 'racing cars', make sure that 'plastic' is added as a negative keyword. You do not deal with plastic cars – so why should you pay for the unnecessary clicks?

Keep in mind the above factors, while determining the right set of keywords for your website. If images feature prominently in your website design plans, make sure that keywords are present in their ALT descriptions. Change the targeted set of keywords, as and when necessary – depending upon their performance. A regularly updated, properly framed keyword list can help you to connect with the maximum number of potential buyers in the online space.

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How To Make Money Off A blog

What is Blogging? 
Blogging initially began as a means to publish and provide informative articles and ideas online. The emergence of blogs began towards the latter end of the 1990s, as more user-friendly web publishing tools became more widely available, which allowed people to share articles and even diary entries without needing the technical knowledge previously required to post content on the web.

Blogging has become more interactive, and readers of blog posts are encouraged to comment and debate on the articles posted. While blogging began as an informal means of communicating ideas and is often regarded as one of the original methods of social networking, budding entrepreneurial spirits have recently begun capitalizing upon and monetizing their blog posts.

Converting Your Posts Into Cash
In uncertain economic times, many of us are worried about our finances. This means we are searching for ways to bring in a bit of extra income. While it is important to remain realistic about how much revenue your blog could bring in, it’s entirely possible to make a reasonable income from blogging, with successful bloggers claiming to earn well over 50% of their total income online.

If you’re not already in business, the first step to making money off a blog is to come up with an original idea. The web is saturated with blogs on all manner of subjects, so it really pays to be original in your content, tone, style and execution. As with all business ideas, it’s important to do some research and try and spot where the gaps in the market are.

Once you’re satisfied that your idea is a money-spinner, it’s time to get the ball rolling. There are plenty of platforms which facilitate the uploading and hosting of blogs. Most offer similar general features, although there are small differences which you might want to utilize. You’ll also want to register a domain name which is catchy, memorable and related to your subject.

In order to monetize your blog, you’re going to need to exponentially increase the number of visitors to your pages. The more traffic your site receives, the more value it gains and the more advertisers are willing to pay in order to advertise their services on your site. Pay attention to the analytics of your site, and make a note of what blog subjects are bringing in greater levels of traffic.

Making the Most of your Business
Of course, if you already have a business which trades online, blogging needs not be a direct source of income. There is a direct correlation between site traffic and revenues, and blogging about subjects on your website which are relevant to your business means that your search engine rankings will undoubtedly improve, which in turn will lead to potential customers checking out your site and the products you offer, leading to increased sales.

Of course, it's important to remember the old adage: Rome wasn't built in a day. Monetizing your blog takes time, effort and patience, and if you put in the work, you should successfully reap the rewards.
 

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How to make a Travel Blog Stand Out With High Quality Content

 

These days, more than ever, travel bloggers are becoming aware that by implementing SEO to their travel blogs they can increase traffic and generate a larger readership to their blogs. There are a wide range of SEO strategies and tactics that are being used by travel bloggers. However, even with the most effective SEO strategy, a travel blog will not have a considerable online presence and gain publicity without a continuous flow of high quality content.

What defines high quality travel content?
As we all know, high quality content has the necessary characteristics which readers will look forward to. Thus, content should be informative but not too technical, interesting, and relevant.

As for travel blogs, high quality content could mean travel experiences that are laid out in the most interesting ways, travel tips that address a prevailing and common travel problem, amazing travel destination suggestions other than those that anyone would normally find in other travel blogs, or reasonably priced travel service offers.

How can a travel blog stand out with high quality content? 
The notion that a travel blog will stand out with high quality content is not difficult to comprehend. But in what ways can a travel blog really achieve this? 

A descriptive and unique title will make readers visit the blog to get hold of the whole article
SEO may make a content or travel blog be easily found in search engines. But without an enticing and unique title, a reader will simply continue scrolling down the search results page to look for more titles that seems to manifest a more helpful article. 

High quality travel content will make a visitor read through the whole article 
An enticing title can do a great job in making a reader check out the article. But if the content doesn’t seem to have interesting and helpful information or is difficult to read with long sentences and paragraphs, the reader will simply go back to the previous search results and find another better travel content. Travel readers, especially those who don’t have the luxury of time, are always searching for quick but helpful information. Thus, they want content that are direct to the point and has an easy to read format. Travel bloggers believe that content does not have to be encompassing. It has to focus on a particular aspect which is deemed to be more helpful, rather than general information which are common in travel blogs.

High quality travel content will make readers go through other content within the blog
It is common among readers who are impressed with an article to check out other posts within the travel blog. After reading a well-written content, they are expecting other posts to be as helpful and interesting as well. Travel bloggers should take advantage of the readers’ expectations as a result of the high quality content which the reader checked out in the first place. They should ensure that they maintain a continuous flow of travel related content. In may be difficult to sustain this with the travel blogger’s own efforts but with the help of other sources such as freelance writers, guest bloggers, or travel writing services, this is certainly, not far from being possible. 

High quality travel content will be shared by readers even without the travel blog owners’ solicitation
Thanks to the prevalence of social media these days, sharing a link to as many networks of people as possible can be done easily and quickly. As soon as the reader finishes reading the article, he can simply click on the social media buttons somewhere within the page (usually at the bottom) to share the content or blog to his different networks in social media.

Final Words 
The competition in the travel blogosphere is getting fiercer. These days, it takes more than just an extensive travel experience, knowledge, and passion for writing to make a travel blog successful. One has to ensure the quality of the content in order to achieve the benefits listed above, and to give the travel blog an edge in the travel blogosphere. 

Content Written By Sandy Allain: Sandy Allain is a passionate writer who covers helpful tips in blogging and SEO for travel website and blogs. Find out more about him and his services in his website, sandyallain.com
 

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How to Increase your Page Rank

We are all trying to seo our websites, we talk about them non stop on social media and post about them in unlimited numbers of directories, forums and blog comments. But is this just a waste of our time and money? 

Google states on their own website you will rank well if you help customers get the answers they need, the product or service they want and give the full customer service experience. So in order to rank my keywords well I like to follow my 5 main ranking steps for keywords.

 1. Keyword in the meta tag on the page I am trying to rank

 2. Keyword used amongst other content on the ranking page

 3. Keyword written in URL for the page to make it relevant

 4. Keyword hyper linked to the page from other website pages

 5. Use the keywords in social media when linking to the pages 

Now that is about keyword ranking but on to ranking the overall website, trying to achieve page rank and getting your website popular with google. Once you have a Page-rank score (a ranking from 1-10) this tells you how important your website is in the terms of google. It is very rare that websites get a score of 8-10, only sites like wikipedia get the really high scores so something like a PR2-PR5 and you are doing quite well. Google will also keep visiting your site more and more if you keep updating and keeping it important.

The way to get ranked is so simple, I think people just like to over complicate it. Ask your self what you want your website to sell, put those products on and then see what else you can offer the customer. Can you offer them some information on how to use the product? Could you give them a guide to help them or maybe there is another way you can help your customers out by adding something to your website. Remember it is all about adding content that is useful and relevant to the customer. So If you sell cake decorations then you may write tutorials about how to create cake decorations or tools needed for specialist cakes.

Social Media is another area where if you only have a few likes it really isn't worth spending hours per day promoting, however if you pay to have sponsored posts and adverts on facebook about your business and grow your facebook followers then you will be able to get customers interacting and asking questions.

Content Written By Gemma Dawson: Gemma Dawson offers many themed party items including Disney Cars party supplies . 
 

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Optimizing Images for Better Search Engine Rankings

 

Organizations, big and small, employ SEO or Search Engine Optimization to build brands over the Internet. They understand the importance of having an online presence. As a result, businesses end up investing thousands of dollars attempting to get the best positions on Google and other major search engines. In some cases, rankings equal revenue; hence determining the best ways to optimize SEO results tactically is essential to succeeding in the worldwide economy.

Images, as a plus point for search engine optimization and organic search results are often neglected. Images are capable of drawing traffic using image search, with inclusion in complete search results. There are numerous aspects to image optimization that includes better ranking in search results, optimization for trouble-free sharing of pictures on the social web, and in some cases optimization for consumer experience.

For image SEO, it might be useful to consider optimizing images, for example optimizing a small webpage within your page. Just like normal web pages, factors for optimizing images for search engines are url structure, expressive tagging and anchor text.

 Here are a few interesting tips for optimizing your images to perk up their performance in the search engine rankings: 

Look for the right images
Finding the appropriate image is extremely important. Good images can add a further dimension to a page or article that’ll encourage individuals to share the page and generate some great backlinks. According to research, although text is still the first thing perceived on the page, the image is what trades the page. Some of the best pages to find images are Flickr, stock.xchng and iStockPhoto. As long as you’re searching with the proper license, you may also make use of Google Images to find images for your website.

Add keywords in the file name
Just as keywords in post urls are indespensable for pages, the same is applicable for images. Using keywords in your image filename is essential for helping search engines find out relevancy. For instance, naming an image as 'istock_0003221Xsmall.jpg" won`t provide much information about the webpage. If there`s an article about blog themes, a relevant picture and a suitable file name should correspond to your article.

Google advises you to place your images in a single folder on your site, in stead of placing them in haphazard folders all through the website. One more suggestion from Google, linked to URLs of images, is to ensure that you use regular image file types like JPEG, PNG, GIF and BMP.

Build descriptive alt text
An added way that search engines help find out what your image is about is alt text or tags. Different from traditional web content, search engines fail to detect the text content of an image. Consequently, search engines have to depend on descriptions around the image, file names, alt text and other adjoining text.

If you add meaningful text in the alt tag, it’ll help the search engines in determining what the image is all about. If you’re using an image for a link to a different page, make sure that you use an alt text that’s relevant to the content of the site being linked to.

When all these things get lined up, it helps search engines substantiate that you aren’t spamming and that the image is of superior quality and relevant.
 

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Why SEO is the Best Internet Marketing Strategy

 

Internet marketing provides a wide range of options as far as strategy is concerned. But if you want to take your business to the next level, you might want to consider applying SEO to your site to rank higher on the top search engines.

Search engine optimization, by definition, is the process of designing your site so it’s search-engine-friendly. The purpose is to improve the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's natural search. There are several factors involved with search engine optimization such as keyword analysis, creating keyword-rich content, use of meta tags, and many more.

Businesses that aspire to gain a high page rank on Google, and other major search engines for relevant keywords can choose from a number of internet marketing techniques. Most internet marketing experts recommend a combination of these techniques to ensure that they can reach their target audience. But to get the best results, SEO is believed to be the best strategy for these businesses. With a huge percentage of internet users relying on the search engines to obtain the information they need, you should exploit this opportunity to boost your internet exposure. 

Here Are 5 Reasons Why SEO Is Considered To Be The Best Strategy: 

1. As mentioned above, getting your website to rank on the search engines for a relevant search term is the best and most rewarding way to get exposure. People use the search engines to get information they need and getting listed is a recommendation that your website is a valuable match for their needs.

2. Reaching a top ranking on the search engine results page is a form of positive feedback for your website. Websites that rank high in the search results page are often perceived (by web users) as well-reputed or high quality sites.

3. It enables you to leverage the tremendous amount of traffic that is coming through the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing on a daily basis. Millions of users visit Google on a daily basis, which means that you can generate a lot of traffic to your site even if you only attract a small percentage of that traffic.

4. The search engines offer equal ground for all business sizes to compete. This means that a small business will have an equal chance to reach the top of the Google search results ranking for a particular keyword or key phrase as websites owned by major corporations do.

5. It provides a cost-efficient approach to reach out to your intended audience. With proper keyword research and use of ethical promotion, it is possible to hit the number one spot in ranking over a given period of time.

Designing an SEO friendly website is only as good as building a website that will be of value to your intended audience. Getting visitors to your website is not enough, you have to give them a reason to stay.
 

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Understanding the basics of email marketing

 

Throughout 2012 I kept a record of email marketing methods which irritated me enough to make me consider unsubscribing. Some of the errors were remarkably basic but that is no reason not to point them out.

1. Frequency
I can forgive an infrequent increase in frequency, especially during times like the approach to Christmas or the anticipated rush of holiday email marketing in the New Year. What is unforgivable and self-destructive is continually pestering subscribers week after week. A basic one to start with.

2. Lies
It is pointless telling me, or any subscriber, that a certain offer will never be repeated and then, a month or two later coming up with an even lower price to clear unsold stock. Further, can I be the only person who feels irritated by time-limited offers that go on forever?

3. Lower offers
Repeat offenders here where I had bought items only to have the same article offered to me later at a lower price later. Email list data should be used to stop this.

4. Additional costs
If it is impossible for anyone to buy the item at the banner price then not only will that put them off buying that specific product but your next one as well. If they feel they can't trust you then the unsubscribe button looks very attractive. Be honest.

5. Confusing offer
It is not a good idea to make me wonder if I am becoming terminally confused. If I have to read the offer twice to find out what it all means, I am unlikely to read it twice.

6. Same difference
If your first offer did spectacularly badly, do not just change the words and the colour of the banner then send it out again. If your subscriber gets that feeling of déjà vu then he will probably do exactly the same as he did last time.

7. Lack of detail
Just one lone example for this and one which, although I went on to buy the product offered, is extremely dangerous. In order to discover whether or not a piece of software could cope with a specific file type, I had to phone the company and speak with one of their tech guys. Her reassurance gave me the confidence to buy. But the question that should bother anyone in email marketing is how many others would follow my example. Is it too much to ask for a hotlink to the full spec?

8. Uninspiring
Fair enough I subscribe to a considerable number of email marketing lists but most are insipid and bland. Try to brighten my life and your returns with an interesting design.

9. Nothing personal
If I have already bought some software which requires a fair degree of technical knowledge to use, I do not want to be told basic details on its upgrade offer. It is as if I wasn't valued.

10. Obey the law
I didn't make any entries on this because there would have been too many things to list. However it did surprise me how many companies ignored the requirements of the regulations covering email marketing. I would not buy from any such company.
 

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7 Great Tips For Business Blogging

More and more businesses are turning to blogging as a way of advertising their products and services to potential customers and online shoppers. It has become a much easier way to develop an online presence than using the more traditional and cost consuming methods of employing web designers and so forth. Starting a successful business blog can be done quickly and effectively with a minimal costs, time and effort.

Here Are 7 Tips And Techniques To Start You On The Right Path: 

 Choose the right blogging platform

The most popular blogging platforms are Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, Drupal, and Movable Type. Many others are also available, so be sure to shop around for the one that best fits your business needs.

Don't Over Advertise
Not all of your posts need to be product adverts or promotion for your company. If there's anything interesting or relevant to your customers or something that you think they might want to read about, don't be afraid to post it. They'll find your blog more appealing and the content variety won't hurt your blog in search engine rankings either.

Choose a Domain Name and a Hosting Provider
Your business site will appeal more to visitors with its own private domain name and hosting. It doesn't cost much to purchase a hosting package and even shared hosting packages are usually sufficient for blogs and come complete with included domain names.

Build a Community
One thing that will benefit your business blog immensely is getting your visitors to interact with you on a regular basis. Posts that encourage your readers to comment, by asking them questions or giving them the chance to contact you or directly influence the content of your blog, will give them a real sense of being important to you and will help bring them back to you. The feedback will be invaluable in giving you fresh ideas for content as well.

Don't Just Write Anything
Don't post something just for the sake of having a post every day. Make sure that everything you post on your blog is there for a reason. It doesn't have to be a product advert or a business update, but ask yourself whether or not it is something that you would want to read yourself. Write posts about the type of subjects that your users find interesting or topics they want to know more about. Even one or two useful or entertaining posts a week are more beneficial to your blog than a daily meaningless comment or advertisement.

Socialize
Make sure that your blog is socially connected. It's easy enough to give your visitors the chance to connect your posts to Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other social media sites allowing them to share posts that they enjoy reading. Don't stop there though. Interact with other blogs that you find interesting or share a similar market or common theme with your own and interact with them. You'll soon find that many of them will start to take an interest in you.

Look at the big picture
While it might be natural to only pay attention to the products and services you offer, you can benefit as well from widening your range. For example, if you create a blog for your book store, your target audience may be interested in posts about eBooks, used books, or even children`s books. Stick with your overall business blogging theme, but explore related topics.

Although there are numerous other things a business blogger must put forth to become successful online, we think applying these 7 tips and techniques would be a great start for you and get you on the right path to starting a business blog.
 

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How to Create the Perfect Landing Page

A landing page also known as a known as a "lead capture page" is the first page a person views after he or she finds your site from a search engine results page and decides to click on the link. Having an optimized landing page is very important to internet marketers and online retailers to generate leads, sales or opt-ins for specific products or services.

A Perfect Landing Page Will Deliver The Right Message To The Right People At The Right Time! 

Page Headlines and Ad Copy

The landing page headline and advertisement wording should compliment each other.

Clear and Concise HeadLines 
Being one of the first things a visitor will read, the landing page should not confuse or bore, but compel a visitor take a closer look. Addressing a specific point that is related to the content of the site will catch a reader`s attention more than having a vague and uninteresting headline.

Flawless Grammar
In the example of an online marketer that is asking for visitors to buy a product or service and give their personal billing information, the customer`s trust will be at risk if there are spelling errors and flawed grammar.

Taking Advantage of Trust Indicators
For an effective way of building trust, incorporate testimonials, press mentions, guarantee seals, and third party trust and security certification (Better Business Bureau, VeriSign, ect.)

Use a Strong Call to Action
After a visitor reads the landing page headline, it is crucial that they know what to do next. Take for example when Mozilla Firefox changed their call-to-action from "Try FireFox" to "Download Now - Free", it out performed the original call-to-action by 3.6% resulting in 600 more downloads during the time of the test.

Buttons and Call to Actions Should Stand Out
Identify the keywords people interested in your service might be searching for and use words such as "free", "new", "buy", or "download now". A conversion button should stand out and be placed right below a call-to-action or have the call-to-action as the button. None the less, the button should be big, bright, and above where a user would have to scroll to it. Using orange or yellow buttons help catch a viewers eye.

Go Easy on the Links
Links connecting the user to too many other sites or pages will distract them and have a negative impact on conversations. Lots of links may make sense on a regular homepage, but on a landing page simplicity is key.

Use Images and Video that Relate
Implementing motivational speeches, videos of user testimonials, and product images into a homepage can have a positive impact on viewers, as well as give shoppers an extra push to look further into a product.

Keep it Above the Fold
The space a visitor sees without having to scroll is where the most important parts of the page should be.

Always be Testing
Optimize a landing page for conversion over time. Run tests, change images, and calls-to-actions to see what works best for you. Testing two completely different site designs against each other can be beneficial in the long run.

Hopefully this article has given you an insight on creating landing pages that will prompt your visitors to take action and result in higher conversion rates for your online business
 

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Choosing the Right Ad Network or Banner Exchange for Your Blog

 

Now that you have decided to give up a portion of your blog for an ad or two, you need to make a decision about how you go about attracting advertisers. That means deciding which of the following approaches best suites both you and your site.

Banner exchange network is a free network in which sites submit their banner ads and agree to display the banner ads from the other sites in the network. This benefits you not with a direct monetary gain, but by sending more traffic to your site, which means you can make more money (such as selling stuff or selling ads). The network also sends out ads from paying customers, which is how the network makes it`s money.

Ad Network is a company that contracts with a number of advertisers and so generates a pool of ads. It then uses an "ad server" to distribute those ads to sites that have signed up with the ad network. Your site typically gets a percentage of whatever revenue the ad network generates, typically 40 to 60 percent.

Important Things to Consider Before Signing Up:

There are thousands of banner exchange and ad networks online that are available to bloggers and website publishers, but how do you choose the one that`s right for you? Here are some things to look for.

Credit Ratio
On a banner exchange network, this is the number of ad impressions your site has to generate before having one of your ads diplayed by someone else. this usual ratio is 1:2, meaning your ad gets displayed once for every two impressions you generate.

Payment
Does the ad network CPM or CPC to determine how much you get paid? Are there different rates for different ad formats? How do they pay you ( check, PayPal, direct deposit )? Is there a minimum payment? For example, most networks won`t send payment unless your account is at or above some minimum amount (such as $100).

Minimums
Does the network require a minimum number of monthly impressions, a minimum number of unique daily or monthly visitors, or a minimum click-through ratio?

Image Specifications
Does the banner exchange network have any specific requirements for the image files you can use as an ad? For example it may want only GIFs or JPEGs, it may require file sizes to be certain number of kilobytes or less, or it may not allow animated GIFs.

Ad Formats
What type of ad formats does the network serve, and can you choose the formats served to your site? For example, if you think your site visitors will hate pop-unders (most people do), avoid a network that serves them or does not allow you to choose a different ad format.

Ad Position
Does the ad network require that the ads be positioned above the fold? Are below the fold ads used?

Multiple Ads
Does the ad network restrict the number of ads that can appear on the page?

Site Type
Does the ad network restrict the type of sites it deals with? For example, many networks won`t serve ads to sites on free servers, sites where the proprietors don`t own their domain names, or site that are composed only (or mostly) of chat rooms, bulletin boads, or links to other sites. Also many banner exchange networks are geared to sites with specific types of content, such as business or sports.

Let`s Take a Look at the Two Most Popular Ad Networks:

Google Adsense (www.google.com/adsense) is by far the most popular because it offers ads that are contextual, meaning they`re targeted at the specific content of the page on which the ad appears. There are no page view or visitor minimums, you get 50% of the ad revenue, and the threshold for the first payment is $100.

Chitika (www.chitika.com) is an online ad network that is known in the industry for the ability to perform unlike any other by delivering the right ad to the right user at the right time. you are allowed to use chitika with adsense because chitika ads are non-contextual and do not look like adense units. Minimum payment threshold of $10.00 (USD) for PayPal payouts or $50.00 (USD) for checks.

Choosing the right ad network for your site does not have to be a difficult task, with a little research, patience and the information I have provided here, you should be on your way to displaying profitable ads on your site in no time.

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