Start a Business Building Websites http://build-websites-for-business.com Work for no one else but yourself Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:43:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/http://creativecommons.org/images/public/somerights20.gifSome Rights ReservedBuildWebsitesStartABusinesshttp://feedburner.google.com How do I increase the value of my inventory to get higher eCPMs? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuildWebsitesStartABusiness/~3/LYjswfVDJD0/how-do-i-increase-the-value-of-my-inventory-to-get-higher-ecpms http://build-websites-for-business.com/how-do-i-increase-the-value-of-my-inventory-to-get-higher-ecpms#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:43:23 +0000 admin http://build-websites-for-business.com/?p=672 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "How do I increase the value of my inventory to get higher eCPMs?", url: "http://build-websites-for-business.com/how-do-i-increase-the-value-of-my-inventory-to-get-higher-ecpms" });

How do I increase the value of my inventory to get higher eCPMs? published at Start a Business Building Websites

]]> The phrase “location, location, location” is commonly used when considering real estate value. It also applies to ad placement on websites. Advertisers want to be on well constructed sites with good ad placement that will give users a positive experience.

Ad placement is basically where ads show up on a page: the physical location of the ad and the placement of the ad relative to the content on the page. This can affect your ability to generate more value. Footer banners, for example, are typically much less desirable in comparison to the following areas that have better visibility and are likely to have greater user interactions:

1. Top left: studies show that when a user first arrives on the page, this is the first place they look
2. Next to the scroll bar: typically produces a higher click-through rate than an ad placed elsewhere on the page
3. Third of the way down the page: this has to do with how the user sits at their computer and where their eyes are focused. It’s often used to divide articles and is a more esthetically pleasing way to lay out a website.

Next up is placing ads within the content of your website. Ads placed near relative content tend to perform better because users are focused on the content in that area of the page. You can compare this to ‘upselling’. Your site’s content provided value to the user, but presenting an ad for a related product or service provides an added value, and improves the users’ overall experience.

Finally, limit the number of ads per site and avoid clumping them all above the fold. Too many ads dilute your property’s value to advertisers and users. It is possible to have an ‘ad zone’ on the right side of the page but proceed with caution: too many ads and users could dismiss the ‘ad zone’ as annoying, rather than targeted advertisements, resulting in lower conversion rates. It’s better to stick to 3-4 well placed ads. Remember, less really is more, if the ads and ad placements are well thought out.

If you’re going to invest the time and energy to put ads on your site, you should take your users into consideration when constructing the site and placement of ads. Relative ads placed strategically will improve users’ experience. And if you do, you should see an increased rate of interaction and conversions.

How do I increase the value of my inventory to get higher eCPMs? published at Start a Business Building Websites

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]]> http://build-websites-for-business.com/how-do-i-increase-the-value-of-my-inventory-to-get-higher-ecpms/feed 0 http://build-websites-for-business.com/how-do-i-increase-the-value-of-my-inventory-to-get-higher-ecpms How To Write Niche Articles http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuildWebsitesStartABusiness/~3/hwbdEbH0g9I/how-to-write-niche-articles http://build-websites-for-business.com/how-to-write-niche-articles#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:44:19 +0000 admin http://build-websites-for-business.com/?p=669 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "How To Write Niche Articles", url: "http://build-websites-for-business.com/how-to-write-niche-articles" });

How To Write Niche Articles published at Start a Business Building Websites

]]> Definition: Substantive Articles – Articles that contribute to your niche. These include suggestions, ideas, sources of information, insights into the topic and almost anything that will stir discussion.

Your readers should want more! They should comment on your article and offer you suggestions for more articles. If you’re getting this already, you know the meaning of substantive … Keep up the good work!

If you’re not having this dynamic conversation with your readers, then here are some tips that will help you achieve this:

  • It’s Not OK to be Short and Sweet – Saying something is a cool idea without adding the WHY does nothing for the reader. This is not quality – this is easy writing. Your readers will see right through it. Good writing takes hard work and research.
  • Relate Yourself to Your Work – Readers want to know how this has affected you and why it works. Add YOU to the topic by offering tips and further exploring why the tip works. People want MEAT. They want to know they can trust you. You’re the expert, so show them you are. Give them the MEAT.
  • Make Connections with Your Audience – Do your research and ask them what they want. Then deliver this value in articles. This is worthwhile stuff. Readers want to know what they will find valuable TODAY. They don’t want to know what happened in the news last year. Think EVERGREEN!
  • Think 400-600 Words as Your Quality Base – Don’t fill your article body with FLUFF just to reach this word count, but rather allow yourself enough room to explore the topic.
  • You Won’t Know Until You Try – Perfection should always be your goal, but remember to submit and learn along the way. Trust me, you’ll get better with time.

Remember, writing high-quality, original content is not an overnight process – it’s hard work. Keep going, and you’ll get there in time.

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]]> http://build-websites-for-business.com/how-to-write-niche-articles/feed 0 http://build-websites-for-business.com/how-to-write-niche-articles 3 Tips for Getting Your Articles Approved on the First Submission http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuildWebsitesStartABusiness/~3/Y2QdLfJ2Si8/3-tips-for-getting-your-articles-approved-on-the-first-submission http://build-websites-for-business.com/3-tips-for-getting-your-articles-approved-on-the-first-submission#comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:07:13 +0000 admin http://build-websites-for-business.com/?p=667 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "3 Tips for Getting Your Articles Approved on the First Submission", url: "http://build-websites-for-business.com/3-tips-for-getting-your-articles-approved-on-the-first-submission" });

3 Tips for Getting Your Articles Approved on the First Submission published at Start a Business Building Websites

]]>
  • Don’t Get Promotional in Your Title or Article Body – Putting your name, product’s name, or website name/URL in either of these fields makes the article promotional. Instead, use these areas to provide quality content that draws your readers in. If the reader finds value in your article, chances are better they’ll consider visiting the links provided in your Resource Box.
  • Sort Your Links – Self Serving links (SS links) are links that you own, or have a vested interest in. Non-Self Serving links (NSS links) are links that you do not own, but you provide in your article as examples or references. Use these link guidelines to increase your chances of article publication:
    • All links should be “Below the Fold,” meaning no links can appear in the top half, or first 3 paragraphs, of your Article Body.
    • Your article can contain no more than 4 links – 2 SS links, and 2 NSS links.
    • Place one SS link in the Resource Box and one in the Article Body or place both in the Resource Box.
    • Use appropriate anchor text with SS links to make them non-promotional.
    • Place NSS links wherever you like in the Resource Box or below the fold in your Article Body.
  • Use Good Grammar – Good grammar leads to a positive reader experience. Although some people have a strong understanding of English grammar rules, many others still struggle. Having someone else proofread your article is always a good idea. Beyond that, it takes time, practice and attention to detail in order to polish your grammar skills to a reasonable level.

    • 3 Tips for Getting Your Articles Approved on the First Submission published at Start a Business Building Websites

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    ]]>     http://build-websites-for-business.com/3-tips-for-getting-your-articles-approved-on-the-first-submission/feed 0 http://build-websites-for-business.com/3-tips-for-getting-your-articles-approved-on-the-first-submission     Common Grammatical Errors That Make Authors Look Dumb http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuildWebsitesStartABusiness/~3/ct4vCHdFrHI/common-grammatical-errors-that-make-authors-look-dumb http://build-websites-for-business.com/common-grammatical-errors-that-make-authors-look-dumb#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:12:21 +0000 admin http://build-websites-for-business.com/?p=611 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Common Grammatical Errors That Make Authors Look Dumb", url: "http://build-websites-for-business.com/common-grammatical-errors-that-make-authors-look-dumb" });

    Common Grammatical Errors That Make Authors Look Dumb published at Start a Business Building Websites

    ]]>     Here are some common errors that are guaranteed to make you look unprofessional:

    1. Lose and Loose

      2. – These are not the same word! “You can lose your car keys if you put them in your very loose pants.” They are not interchangeable!

    2. Affect and Effect

      3. – If something affects you, it has an effect on you. For example: I am affected by the wind. The effect is that my hair gets messy.

    3. Semi-colons

      4. – Semi-colons are not commas. They’re also not colons. A semi-colon is used between closely related independent clauses not conjoined with a coordinating conjunction.

      Which means something like this:
      “I went to see a movie; I was told it was sold out.”

      Or between items in a series or a list that has its own punctuation:
      “I have three friends: Maddie, who is my aunt’s daughter; Jane, who is my sister’s teammate; and Nancy, who is my father’s sister.

    4. It’s for Its – and vice versa

      5. – “It’s” is short for “it is.” “Its” is the possessive form of “It.”

      So…you have then:
      Yes: “It’s a good day for going to the beach.”
      No: “Its a good day for going to the beach.”

      And: Yes: “This is a really cool gadget. Just look at all of its features.”
      No: “This is a really cool gadget. Just look at all of it’s features.”

      A good way to remember is to say to yourself while typing, am I trying to say “It is” or not?

    5. Their, There and They’re

      6. – They’re over there, in their yard. OK.

      Simply put:
      They’re means “they are.” If “they are” doing something, then this is the proper one to use.
      If something belongs to them (as a collective group) then you use “their.”
      If you’re (not “your”) going somewhere – you are going “there!”

    6. Then and Than

      7. – Then is what happens next. Than compares items to each other.

      “It is sunnier today than it was yesterday”
      “This box is heavier than the last one.”
      “If you are still having trouble after reading the directions, then you had better call John.”
      “I’m going to the store next and then I’m going to the bank.”

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    ]]>     http://build-websites-for-business.com/common-grammatical-errors-that-make-authors-look-dumb/feed 0 http://build-websites-for-business.com/common-grammatical-errors-that-make-authors-look-dumb     10 Tips I Use To Build Traffic http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuildWebsitesStartABusiness/~3/u0TaO5eGWaI/10-tips-i-use-to-build-traffic http://build-websites-for-business.com/10-tips-i-use-to-build-traffic#comments Sat, 05 Sep 2009 20:26:48 +0000 admin http://build-websites-for-business.com/?p=608 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "10 Tips I Use To Build Traffic", url: "http://build-websites-for-business.com/10-tips-i-use-to-build-traffic" });

    10 Tips I Use To Build Traffic published at Start a Business Building Websites

    ]]>     1. Make use of article distribution sites. This is one of the fastest, and most straightforward ways of getting your content ‘out there’ and absorb by websites. Do it as soon as you have enough original content. Don’t go for too many, just select about 3 article distributions sites and submit away (I like EzineArticles, IdeaMarketers and GoArticles).

    2. Insert images into your web pages. I checked my logs and I have proof that images draw in a lot of ‘extra’ traffic. People search for images as well as web pages. So if your web page is about ‘how to buy a laptop’ and you have a picture named ‘how-to-buy-a-laptop.jpg’ – you will cover both the image searches and text searches.

    3. Participate very actively in ONE forum. If you participate in an online forum, you will slowly build credibility with your web readers. Don’t spam – please – just contribute and solve others’ problems. And my style is to select only ONE forum to participate in. That way, you can build up your contribution base very quickly. If folks see you have 1000 posts in a forum, they tend to read what you say. And that means they are more likely to click your links or signature.

    4. Send out your newsletter regularly. This is another important point. I personally fail to send my SBI newsletter regularly and it is costing me traffic. If you judiciously send your newsletter out, you get more and more traffic because folks come in to your website, read the latest articles and spread the word around. You also load a fresh copy of your newsletter in the SBI site so folks can search and find your newsletter page.

    5. Respond to emails your readers write. Try to make it a point to solve problems and answer your readers emails. Trust me, if you build credibility this way, soon the word gets around and you will get more traffic.

    6. Write more content everyday. Try to commit to write 2 articles a day. Don’t give up – writing consistently is the surest way to build traffic over time. Keep it up, don’t give up!

    7. Don’t try to do small tricks. Ok, this is not exactly a way to build traffic. But it does indirectly focus your energy and time, so in way, you will do the correct things to build traffic. What I mean here is to avoid doing small tricks to get traffic. For example, posting answers on Yahoo Answers, posting stuff at WikiHow, setting up scam auctions to attract people to your eBay page containing your URL – stuff like that. These things, when added up, take up a tremendous amount of time. Instead, cut away all these time wasters and just write those 2 articles a day. Then distribute them to an article directory.

    8. Set goals. It is very important to set goals in this Internet stuff. I used to plod away randomly day to day writing content. Now I know better. I set a goal of 50 fresh articles per month. What I do is set up folders everyday in my laptop (e.g. ‘20 May 2008, ‘21 May 2008′). I make sure that every one of those folders gets filled with 2 articles a day. That way, I will surely meet my goal each month. 50 articles a month = 600 articles a year – believe me, the traffic WILL come with that volume of content.

    9. Choose a topic where you can write a lot of ‘how-to’. Here is something I learnt from experience. I know a lot of you choose SBI website topics based on your passion and interests. However, I’d like to add one more tip to guarantee greater success in building traffic. Choose a theme where you can write a LOT of ‘how-to’ articles. Why? Because ‘how-to’ articles build credibility. And they’re easy to write. For example, for one of my sites, I chose a topic on digital photography (heck of a lot of ‘how-to’ I can write there). On another site, I chose a topic on baby strollers (there is not much ‘how-to’ I could write there). Needless to say, I closed down the baby stroller website.

    10. Faith and passion. I don’t mean to make this sound like spiritual advice, but having faith in your SBI site is very important in building traffic. Faith and passion is the fuel that will make you come back to write articles day in and day out. So keep that plenty of that fuel there inside you. One day, you WILL succeed.

    10 Tips I Use To Build Traffic published at Start a Business Building Websites

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    ]]>     http://build-websites-for-business.com/10-tips-i-use-to-build-traffic/feed 0 http://build-websites-for-business.com/10-tips-i-use-to-build-traffic     The Comment Box http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuildWebsitesStartABusiness/~3/AdUq_XVMr98/the-comment-box http://build-websites-for-business.com/the-comment-box#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:21:45 +0000 admin http://build-websites-for-business.com/?p=579 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The Comment Box", url: "http://build-websites-for-business.com/the-comment-box" });

    The Comment Box published at Start a Business Building Websites

    ]]>     You know the feeling of excitement you get when you open your mailbox and discover a letter from an old friend? That’s the same feeling bloggers get when they see someone’s left them a comment. Lately I’ve been wondering: what if we applied the Golden Rule to commenting and sent more “hand-written notes” to brighten each other’s day?

    After all, blogging isn’t just about speaking your mind; it’s about joining a conversation, reaching out to new people and exposing yourself to new ideas and cultures. When you read a smart, funny or engaging blog post, there are a lot of different reason to leave a comment: to learn, to convince, to reinforce, or just to be part of a community.

    Plus, not only does commenting let the person whose post you’re reading know what you’re thinking, you may also attract a few new friends, neighbors… and comments of your own! And, if you’re not sure what to say, [this is good] is a quick and easy way to let someone know you enjoyed her post.

    Leaving comments will likely get you more comments in return, but if you want to ensure you get more comments from your friends and neighbors, here are a few simple things you can do:

    Ask for them. Pose questions. Be open-ended. Respond to those who do leave comments.

    The Comment Box published at Start a Business Building Websites

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    ]]>     http://build-websites-for-business.com/the-comment-box/feed 0 http://build-websites-for-business.com/the-comment-box     Feed Google Alerts Into Your Twitter Account http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuildWebsitesStartABusiness/~3/6mJxDIairlU/feed-google-alerts-into-your-twitter-account http://build-websites-for-business.com/feed-google-alerts-into-your-twitter-account#comments Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:06:05 +0000 admin http://build-websites-for-business.com/?p=544 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Feed Google Alerts Into Your Twitter Account", url: "http://build-websites-for-business.com/feed-google-alerts-into-your-twitter-account" });

    Feed Google Alerts Into Your Twitter Account published at Start a Business Building Websites

    ]]>     This may not be suitable for everyone!…and it may take some time and testing to set up
    Google alerts with the right keywords, so that the Google alerts feed relevant
    information into your twitter account for your twitter audience.

    This process will take 3 different web sites (tools).

    http://twitterfeed.com/ – http://bit.ly/ – Google alerts (your account)

    Open all 3 in a different window.

    You obviously will need a Google and a twitter account for this.

    Go to your Google account and click on Google alerts. Enter your Search terms.

    I leave it on comprehensive, but you may want to change that later. After some time check
    your twitter account and see if the Google alerts are what your “followers” may want to
    read about. You can also try different keywords for the alerts until it fits your needs.

    Click create alert.

    On the next page find your alert and click edit. On the drop down menu change this from
    email to feed and click save. This changes the Google alerts into a RSS feed and later it will
    be feeding directly into your twitter account as “tweets”. You can also preview in the
    Google reader to see what the feeds will look like. Modify your search terms if it is not
    what you want.

    Click on the feed. On the next page find the URL to the feed and copy the URL only
    (”http://…and the feed”—everything between the 2 double quotation marks.) I hope this
    is easy enough to follow.

    Next, go to http://bit.ly/

    We will shorten the URL of the Google feed in bit.ly, since twitter only allows 140
    characters.

    Sign in with your twitter username and password at bit.ly

    You will have to find your API login and API key on bit.ly

    Click on Post to Twitter as “yourtwittername” Change (click on change)

    Click on: Add another account

    Find your API Key and API login.

    Next: Go to http://twitterfeed.com/

    You do not need an open Id for Twitterfeed. If you have a Google account you can sign in
    at Twitterfeed with your Google account.

    2. Login to Twitterfeed (click on that)

    This will take you to the login page. There is a drop down menu.

    On the drop down menu click on Google (make sure you are signed in your Google account so
    Twitterfeed will detect that). Click login. The first time it may ask you for permission.
    Click continue.

    Click “go to my feeds (or create a new one)”

    On the next page click on “create new feed”.

    On the next page enter your twitter username and password.

    Click on test twitter authentication.

    Enter your Google alert URL that you copied earlier at “RSS Feed Url”

    Click test your RSS feed. This should check positive.

    Update frequency….go easy to test it out. Maybe every 4 hours for now.

    Post up to: maybe only 1 for now.

    Include: I only include the title here.

    Shorten link through: on the drop down menu find bit.ly

    This opens up “Your login” and the “API key” from bit.ly

    Now go back to bit.ly and copy and paste the “API login” and the “API key” one by one
    over to Twitterfeed. (Make sure you capture the whole API key)

    Click “create it”.

    You are done. This will take some time for it to kick in and be fed to your twitter
    account as tweets.

    Modify the Google Alerts as needed later. You can view your feeds when you go to your
    Twitter account’s profile.

    Of course, this is also how you can feed your Site Blog into your twitter account. Every
    time your blog is updated it will be fed into your twitter account.

    Feed Google Alerts Into Your Twitter Account published at Start a Business Building Websites

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    ]]>     http://build-websites-for-business.com/feed-google-alerts-into-your-twitter-account/feed 1 http://build-websites-for-business.com/feed-google-alerts-into-your-twitter-account     Automate Twitter http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuildWebsitesStartABusiness/~3/txHw0qBEDF8/automate-twitter http://build-websites-for-business.com/automate-twitter#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:01:41 +0000 admin http://build-websites-for-business.com/?p=542 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Automate Twitter", url: "http://build-websites-for-business.com/automate-twitter" });

    Automate Twitter published at Start a Business Building Websites

    ]]>     Automate The “follow” Process

    Go to http://www.twollo.com/ and Login with your Twitter username and password.

    Once you are signed in you will see a box which reads “follow”…leave that.
    The “up to” drop down menu – set that to “up to 500″. (It’s “up to” you)

    In the box that reads: Twitterers talking about: Enter your niche keyword. Click Add.

    You can add as many keywords as you want. One at a time (can be more than 1 word).
    You will figure this out later as you get familiar with this.

    Test It
    Click on “Quick Run”next to your keyword.
    This will add a few followings to you Twitter account.

    Twollo will periodically find Twitter users with the keywords you are adding.

    Add more keywords later if you want to grow your Twitter account faster.

    Wait a day or so and see what it does for you. Don’t go crazy with this in the beginning.
    The beauty is that Twollo will find users to follow for you which tweet about your
    keyword/s.

    No manual work to find Twitter users to follow, unless you want to.

    You can always find people to follow by going to http://search.twitter.com/ or use the
    search function on twitter.

    Bulk Follow and Unfollow

    When you have too many people that don’t follow you, you do not have to unfollow them
    manually anymore. Every 2 days or so you can go to: http://www.dossy.org/twitter/karma/

    Sign in with your Twitter ID and password. Click on Whack (I didn’t pick that name).

    Twitter Karma will download all your followers and followings from Twitter. Be patient.
    This may take a while.
    The larger your twitter “followship” the longer it will take. It’s worth the wait and
    it’s FREE.

    This would take you forever manually especially when your Twitter account has many
    followers.

    Where it says Show: drop down menu. Choose “only following”. Now, this will show you the
    people who you are “following only”. You can choose one by one or just bulk unfollow the
    checked.

    Do the same with “only Followers” which means the ones that you have not followed yet.
    I just check them all and bulk follow. I don’t want my Twitter account to look too
    unbalanced. If people don’t follow you after a couple of days, they probably won’t follow
    you.

    Automate Your Tweets

    Sign in with your Twitter username and password @ http://www.tweetlater.com

    Check: Automatically send a welcome message to new followers.

    My message goes like this:
    Thanks for your follow! I will make sure to follow you back. Find out more about me on my
    website: http://www.paradise-pattaya.com/

    Check: Automatically follow people (new followers) who follow me from this point
    forward.

    Check: if you select this option, TweetLater will automatically unfollow those folks who
    unfollow you. To protect you from any system glitches, we will never unfollow more than
    ten people in one single go.

    Don’t check the email option unless you love hundreds of emails because tweetlater will
    send an email to your email account every time someone follows you.

    Click save.

    On top click on “Tweets”, then on “New Tweets”.

    Tweet: here you write your tweet 140 characters. I usually check Save As Draft: Save
    this tweet text as a draft that can be re-used later.

    That way you can find the same tweet for later re-use. Here you can also schedule your
    tweets to be “tweeted” at a later point in time. This is a very useful automation.

    Automate Twitter published at Start a Business Building Websites

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    ]]>     http://build-websites-for-business.com/automate-twitter/feed 0 http://build-websites-for-business.com/automate-twitter     Start using Twitter. Its easy. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuildWebsitesStartABusiness/~3/y8dYzWc4BN0/start-using-twitter-its-easy http://build-websites-for-business.com/start-using-twitter-its-easy#comments Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:00:02 +0000 admin http://build-websites-for-business.com/?p=540 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Start using Twitter. Its easy.", url: "http://build-websites-for-business.com/start-using-twitter-its-easy" });

    Start using Twitter. Its easy. published at Start a Business Building Websites

    ]]>     Twitter is also a great way to make yourself and your web presence more visible to a
    broader audience in your niche, helps you find link exchange opportunities, and get to know other
    interesting people.

    Every time you “tweet” (send a message of a 140 characters) on twitter you will get an
    average response (a user clicking on a link in your tweet) of about 2% or 2 clicks per
    100. These numbers may be slightly different for you.


    Sign Up With Twitter

    Sign up with Twitter @ http://twitter.com/

    -Use a user name that includes your niche keyword preferably.

    -click settings and give yourself a name. I used mydomain.com

    -More Info URL: URL to your website, blog or other site.

    -One Line Bio: be descriptive and interesting (you only have 140 characters)

    -Location: this should be obvious

    -Click on the pictures tab and upload a picture of your pretty self preferably.

    -Click the design tab and play around with it a little bit. Upload a background image if
    you like. Make it look a little different than standard look.

    -Click the notices tab. Uncheck it all if you do not want emails send to your email
    account. I unchecked it all since I don’t need more emails. I have enough of those
    already.

    Are you happy with the look of it?
    If not you can come back later and change it.

    -Click the Home tab at the top of the page.
    On the right hand side do a little search for your niche and follow a few users. A few
    will do for now.

    Start using Twitter. Its easy. published at Start a Business Building Websites

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    ]]>     http://build-websites-for-business.com/start-using-twitter-its-easy/feed 0 http://build-websites-for-business.com/start-using-twitter-its-easy     Article marketing Works! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuildWebsitesStartABusiness/~3/ZQrHyObhFBw/article-marketing-works http://build-websites-for-business.com/article-marketing-works#comments Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:13:08 +0000 admin http://build-websites-for-business.com/?p=547 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Article marketing Works!", url: "http://build-websites-for-business.com/article-marketing-works" });

    Article marketing Works! published at Start a Business Building Websites

    ]]>     Article marketing absolutely works to bring in that initial bit of cash to make you stay the course on your online journey.

    Even better, you don’t need to buy “spinner” software or submission services or anything else. This is all free.

    In July of 2009 (so not even a whole month has passed), I started a new site in a legal related niche.
    The Site

    The site uses a basic wordpress theme optimized for high adsense CTR rates (the CTR so far on this theme is about 4x my SBI site’s, with an ECPM over $100).

    I wrote 5 pages for the site and uploaded them right around the holiday.

    I also put Google analytics on the site to track where traffic was coming from and more importantly what traffic resulted in adsense clicks/affiliate sales.

    Marketing With Articles

    Then I published 2 articles on ezine articles. They had good headlines, used good but somewhat incomplete information to encourage people to click the resource box below. For example, I would talk in the article about the risks of using a fly-by-night online company to draft your legal document, and then direct them to check out my site for recommended providers.

    The day the articles were approved by ezinearticles (which takes up to a week if you’re not a platinum member), I started getting traffic. Between 4-10 visitors a day. Not a lot, but these are true visitors, and not spider visits as SBI’s internal numbers often show.

    Monetary Results

    So far this month, the site has made $17 and change with adsense. Almost all of it from ezinearticle referrals.

    It has also made a $17.00 affiliate sale for [legal document] making software.

    The month isn’t over yet.

    So, about $35 so far this month on a brand new site. Spent nothing on promotion, and did not link to it from any of my existing sites. From pure typing on the computer (and using a $17 theme, which I can re-use on as many sites as I want). Site hosting on a shared hosting account I have for other non-SBI sites, so no additional cost there either.

    There has been no significant search engine traffic so far.

    Why did I try this strategy?

    There was a site for sale on sitepoint (now flippa) which claimed to be making $1,000/mth and it was only a couple months old. I started emailing the owner and asking him how he did it. He was real nice, and even made some screen capture videos to walk me through his income proof. He basically did what I outlined above, but instead of 2 articles, he wrote and submitted about 200 (spent almost $1000 outsourcing them).

    The fact is that system really does work. If 2 articles made me $35 in the first month with no SE traffic, I could see how 200 articles could make $1,000.

    It’s important to note that these sites used high CTR themes (2 column, adsense right below headline, navigation to the right–very simple blog theme); and we picked high adsense payout topics. His was related to mortgages, mine to the legal market.

    How it fits into SBI

    I’m not telling anyone to abandon SBI or anything like that. My SBI site makes as much in a day as that new site makes in a month, and my SBI site has hardly been updated in the past couple of years. SBI works.

    I’m just saying that adding simple article marketing, particularly for new sites, will help a lot.

    From the frustrated posts I see from newbies, many would be happy to just make back their $25/mth SBI fee during the first year. That first real check from Google is awesome–proof that “this internet thing” actually works. I want SBIers to experience a check in hand during the first 3-6 months.

    Writing a dozen articles or so as outlined above will result in targeted traffic.

    Bottom line:

    Don’t buy any software/services yet. Learn how to do it manually and see how it works first.

    Write some articles for ezinearticles. The important thing is to have a good headline, give some good information but leave out the ultimate solution (they need to come to your site for that).

    Don’t worry about “keyword stuffing” your article. Just write naturally.

    Your resource box at the bottom of your article should sell the click. If the article is about a topic that is better covered by a specific page on your site, then direct link to that page as well as your homepage.

    You probably “know” that articles generate targeted traffic.

    However, there is knowing something because you read it in the AG or on a forum, and KNOWING it because you took some action and at the end of the month saw $30, $40, $50 in your bank account. Big difference.

    Try it out.

    Article marketing Works! published at Start a Business Building Websites

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