The centerpiece of this priceless suite of online business toolbox is the Google Keyword Tool. This is where you go to start doing your keyword research which is really the foundation of most website projects. There’s an instructional video, vital information for absolute beginners who are not even sure what a keyword is, and a help center with videos and contextual help.

Google’s Webmaster Central provides tools that are geared towards helping you to get more targeted traffic to your website. There are video guides, a help center, and a webmaster forum, which is a huge, user-generated knowledge base where you can ask questions and offer what you know to others.

You’ll find a link to their free browser called, Google Chrome. It’s an alternative to Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. You might want to install all of these browsers on your computer so that you can test how your website looks and works across the various browsers.

OK, now here’s the part where you’ll learn how to make money. It’s the website owner income earning program called AdSense. Most online entrepreneurs are familiar with this program where you place Google ads on your website and then you get paid when your visitors click on one of those ads. It’s one of the easiest and often the first way people learn how to make money online.

The Google Trends Timeline is a great tool when you are looking for hot, timely topics to write about. You will get an idea about what the trending topics are in real time, and you can research a topic’s timeline as well.

Google Analytics is a power tool that most people probably take for granted. Before GA was available for free, webmaster would have to pay thousands of dollars for the same information from SEO specialists. GA tracks everything about your website with regard to where your visitors are coming from, what they do when they visit your site, how much time they spend on your website, what keywords they are using to find your site and so much more.

One of the most valuable products on this page is the Official Google SEO Starter Guide. Written by Google employees, this guide will help website owners to improve the performance of their website with regard to their rankings in the search engines.

Make use of the robust products in the Google Keyword Toolbox that are all geared toward helping you improve the improvement of your website.

For more webmaster tools and tips about building and growing your online business visit http://mcreasite.com/blog today.

What is CPA marketing?

CPA stands for, cost per action because you will get paid each time a visitor to your site views the offer takes the desired action thus generating a lead for the advertiser. There are lots of companies that will give you a payment for each lead that you generate for them.

For example you might have a weight loss blog. You would then host a cpa offer that would appeal to your existing customers. Typically the offer would consist of the visitor filling out an online form or a survey. Once the visitor has submitted their information you have just generated a lead and the advertiser will pay you for it.

How much can I earn doing CPA marketing?

The payments for CPA offers varies widely. Some offers pay anywhere between $1. to $5 per lead, while other offers in more highly competitive markets can offer payments of over $20. per lead. So you can see how important it is to drive lots of targeted traffic in order to earn a decent income with CPA marketing.

Here’s how to get started with CPA marketing.

Start a blog on a targeted niche topic. Drive a ton of traffic to that site and then start looking for CPA networks to join. Sign up as a publisher or affiliate at one of the dozens of CPA networks online such as:

• MAX Bounty
• Commission Junction
• Peerfly
• NeverBlue
• ClickBooth

When you are applying to a CPA network, you want to come across as a professional. Keep in mind when you are new you may get rejected on your first try, but don’t give up. There are other networks out there.

Make sure your website looks professional, apply using an email address with your own domain rather than a free gmail account, and be prepared to report how much traffic your website gets and where it’s coming from.

Your key to CPA marketing success

The way to success with CPA marketing is to learn how to drive lots of targeted traffic to your offers. Once you have mastered a particular method, try another method and keep adding until you can get a dependable flow of traffic to your offers.

Do your research and consider taking a training course in traffic generation techniques. Keep testing and tracking your results so that you can constantly improve your results.

CPA marketing is a good way to diversify income streams for affiliate marketers, and it’s a good way to put your existing online marketing skills to good use.

CPA marketing is one of the many ways to make money online. For more information about online marketing visit http://mcreasite.com/blog today.

Here are five copywriting tips that you can use in your daily business. As with any skill, the more you practice the better you get, so make it a point to use your copywriting skills at every opportunity. You will definitely notice your skills improving and you will notice your response rate going up as well.

1. Be clear and concise.

Make every word carry its own weight. Break up long sentences, and vary the lengths of the sentences in your copy. Find a colleague that you trust who is willing to proof and critique your writing. Making your message clear and direct while making sure that the reader knows exactly what’s in it for them makes your copy more effective.

2. Convey a sense of urgency

Everyone’s natural instinct is to put things off. Your goal is to move your prospect to action as soon as possible. The job of your copy is to convince the reader that now is the very best time to act on your offer. Whether it’s a sale with a limited time frame, a certain quantity of products, or a specific limit on the number of people you can work with, putting a deadline on your offer and explaining the scarcity can inspire buyers to take action.

3. Be trustworthy

Don’t write overtly hyped-up sales copy that sounds like a used car salesman in print. Tell the truth, warts and all, about your product. No product is the be all and end all product. Tell the truth about its strengths and possible weaknesses. Your prospective buyers will appreciate your candor. Remind buyers of whatever money back guarantee that you offer. This helps lessen the inherent element of risk that some buyers feel when they are getting ready to make a purchase online.

4. Always include a call to action

This tip is from copywriter Susan K. Jones, “The goal of every component of a direct marketing campaign is to induce action: whether ordering by mail, calling, agreeing to buy, or coming into a store. This action must be spurred by the copy, but without coming on too strong.” melissadata.com/tips/copywriting10.htm

5. Never stop learning about copywriting

Copywriting is such a vital skill it makes sense that you would want to invest some time in improving your skills. Read books, take online courses or attend live writing classes, and follow the blogs of your favorite online copywriters. There are so many absolutely free copywriting resources online. Most of all, practice copywriting every chance you get.

Copywriting is a lucrative skill that you would do well to keep improving. If you’d like to learn more about how you can build and grow your business online visit http://mcreasite.com/blog today.

Pinterest is an online pin board where users can collect and ‘pin’ images that they find online. Once the image is on a user’s boards others can see it, ‘Like’ it, and comment on it. The people in your network can also ‘re-pin’ an image that you’ve pinned to their boards. If you take a look around you will see that some images ‘go viral’ and get pinned hundreds and even thousands of times.

After you create your profile on Pinterest you’ll have the opportunity to add a bookmarklet widget to your browser’s toolbar. The next time you are browsing a website that has an image that you’d like to save, you just click the ‘Pin It’ button, and the image is taken into Pinterest and you assign it to one of the various boards that you can create according to any category you choose.

It’s easy to get started with Pinterest because it links either your Facebook or Twitter account, so if you’ve got a good following on either network, those who are on Pinterest will automatically be brought into your network.

Pinterest sounds like a lot of fun, but how is it going to help my brand? That’s a great question. Along with each image is a link to the page that it came from. Some of these are no follow links, but when human visitors click on them they bring traffic to your website. So, the more people view, pin and share your images, the more traffic and exposure you can get for your website.

Here are a few tips for making the most of Pinterest:

• Actively ‘pin’ images that you like, re-pin the images that your friends pin and comment on images. There is a little image avatar beside every comment that you leave, which is an opportunity to share your thoughts about the image.
• Pinterest RSS WordPress plugin

Download and install the free plugin to your wordpress blog, and you’ll get a sidebar widget that displays images of    your latest pins.

• iPhone app

The Pinterest iPhone app lets you pin photos of what you see in your daily life.     You can also browse the recent pins of the people you follow and you can add a location to the photos you take.

• Follow Me & Pin It Buttons for websites

You can easily add the ‘Follow Me’ button by cutting and pasting a bit of code where you want it to appear. The ‘Pin it’ button will allow your readers to pin your product images to their Pinterest boards.

While Pinterest might seem like a lot of fun, it’s already having an impact on social media marketing and it’s creating a great way to gain favorable exposure and build your brand. For lots more tips and strategies on building your business online http://mcreasite.com/blog today.

Today we’re going to take a look at five of the newest plugins for WordPress blogs that you might want to try this year.

1. Kindle This

Have you ever found yourself reading a blog post, and then wish you could save it and read it later on your kindle? Well, now there’s a plugin for that. This sidebar widget gives your readers the opportunity to type in their Kindle email address and your blog post will show up on their Kindle the next time they make a wifi connection.

wordpress.org/extend/plugins/kindle-this/

2. WordPress SEO by Yoast

This plugin promises to help you to increase your search engine rankings, and increase the click through rate for organic search results. This is a comprehensive SEO plugin which also helping you to write better content because it forces you to choose a keyword to focus your blog post on.

wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-seo/

3. A/B Test for WordPress

Splittesting is one of those things that you know you should be doing more often, but may not be high on your priority list because you’ve got so many other tasks to maintain your blog. But if you had this handy plugin you could do it with just a few clicks. You can test content, styles, Javascript and themes.

wordpress.org/extend/plugins/abtest/

4. Pinterest RSS Widget

This plugin creates a widget that displays the thumbnail image and title of the latest pins on Pinterest from a specific user via their Pinterest RSS feed. The dimensions of the widget are adjustable, and it allows you to add the official, “Follow me on Pinterest,” button beneath your pins.

wordpress.org/extend/plugins/pinterest-rss-widget/

5. WP Super Cache

This plugin is a very fast caching engine for WordPress that produces static html files, which speeds up your page’s load time. Since Google uses page load time as a metric in their ranking algorithm, using this plugin might help boost your page rank over time.

wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/

Whether you are launching a brand new blog or you are maintaining an existing blog, you always want to make sure that you have the plugins that you need to keep your blog looking and functioning at its best.

Note: We haven’t thoroughly tested each of these plugins, we are simply sharing some of the new plugins that are available for you to try. When you visit the plugin download page, make sure that the plugin is compatible with the version of WordPress that you have installed (which should always be the latest version available). As always when you install new plugins be sure to back up your blog before installing them.

WordPress plugins help make your blog more efficient. For more tips and strategies for growing your online business visit http://mcreasite.com/blog today.

When it comes down to it, SEO is all about finding ways to make your website as appealing as possible to the search engines (mainly Google) so that they will send you as much free, organic, search engine traffic as possible. So, if you have an affiliate marketing blog, SEO is something that is always on your mind. In this article we’ll look at five tips that you can use to help your affiliate blog get found so that you can attract targeted traffic and make more sales.

1. Quality content is job one

With all of the upheaval caused with the Google updates you can no longer get away with poorly written, low quality content on your sites. Now affiliate marketers must find ways to create better quality content that falls within Google’s new content guidelines.

The freshness of your content also matters as does the relevance. You’ll want to mix it up and provide your visitors with a variety of content formats such as audio, and video in addition to text. Interact with your visitors and encourage lots of user generated content. In the end it is quality, fresh, relevant keyword-optimized content that will attract the human visitors and the search engines to your site.

2. Make your site mobile friendly

Mobileis sizzling hot at the moment. We are coming into a time when smart phones are taking over and more people are accessing the Internet on mobile devices—that is cell phones, tablets and other Internet ready devices—than with their desktop or laptop computers. You can even take a peek at your analytics and see how many of your current visitors are accessing your site using mobile browsers. If you want mobile users to stick around and access what your affiliate marketing blog has to offer, then make sure that there is a version of your site that provides a satisfying experience for your mobile visitors who are viewing your content on a tiny screen or a touch screen.

3. Be active in social media

Since the Google plus your world update, the importance of having an active presence on Google+ was underscored. With this new update, when the people in your network do a search using any of the keywords associated with your niche, your Google+ profile results will appear on the first page of the search results they get.

You also want to be active daily and in some cases several times a day on Facebook because of the SEO benefits of the inbound links. Create a business page, and use the Networked Blogs app to gain more exposure and links to your blog.

Twitter is as important as ever to help boost your SEO because of the inbound links from a high page rank site. With Twitter you want to be on the lists of influential people in your sphere, and create lists that people want to be on and subscribe to.

5. A new link building strategy

Since traffic is the life’s blood of your affiliate marketing blog, you’ve got to stay up on all of the changes that are happening in the search engine world. You’ve got to develop a new link building strategy that focuses on quality over quantity. One of the best ways to get high quality, targeted inbound links is to do guest posting gigs. Make a list of the top five blogs in your niche and make contact with the authors. Offer to do a guest post for them and in return you’ll get exposure to a new audience and a high page rank link back to your blog. Do this often enough and you’ll begin to see the benefits accumulating.

To successfully attract as much organic search engine traffic as possible become a student of SEO. Take action on these tips with your affiliate marketing blog and test and track your results.

If you found these SEO tips useful there’s more where these came from. Visit http://mcreasite.com/blog for more information about growing your affiliate marketing blog today.

Here are five of the top affiliate marketing trends that will have an impact on the industry in the year to come:

1. Mobile

You might have been hearing that mobile is coming, but guess what?Mobileis here. This long-ish, but worth watching video tells a compelling story of the future of digital marketing. Pay close attention at around 3:30 it goes into predictions and projections for the mobile industry.

The Future of Online Digital Marketing 2012 -2015

youtu.be/CwTAARorGbk

With more people accessing the Internet on their mobile devices than with PCs, you will begin to get the picture that if you want to reach people, you must get involved with mobile marketing to grow your business.

2. Research

While research has always been an important component of affiliate marketing, it’s becoming increasingly crucial as competition increases. Forrester has predicted that retailers will be spending upwards of $4 billion on affiliate marketing programs by 2014. This means increasing competition as more and more affiliates jump in for their piece of the exponentially bigger pie.

You’ll want to invest time in market research and keyword research. If you lack knowledge in this area you will want to invest in the tools and training required to build your skills. Invest in cutting edge keyword research tools and learn how to use them. Invest in coaching or training offered by those who have demonstrated real-world, tangible results.

3. Keep your eye on the Panda

Last year the Google Panda updates rocked the world of many affiliate marketers. This was a subtle reminder of the need to keep your eye on Google. It also points out what has been true all along—the demand for high quality content. If you focus on raising the quality, freshness and variety of content on your affiliate sites you really can’t go wrong when it comes to the search engines.

4. Get smart with conversion optimization

Sarah Bundy of Revenews.com, says this about the growing importance of conversion optimization, “By combining both the affiliate’s conversion optimization efforts in AB-tested creative (e.g., landing pages, content, and calls to action) with the merchant’s efforts to convert the final sale, consumers are more likely to complete the desired action at a lower overall cost. Mutual conversion optimization this year will lead to higher profits for both affiliates and merchants alike.” Take the time to learn how to do A/B testing. There are a ton of free tools that make it fast and easy. Alternatively, hire someone to do the testing for you, or you will be leaving money on the table.

5. Adaptability to change wins the day

OK, so this one might not technically be a trend, but it’s a skill you’ll want to hone in the months and years ahead as big changes come quickly and without warning. Being adaptable means that you can change your game plan on a dime to keep up with what’s happening in the industry.

Affiliate marketing is an exciting business model, but to be successful at it you should never stop learning and increasing your skills. To learn more about how to build and grow your online business, visit http://mcreasite.com/blog today.

If you take action on these five tips you will certainly see improvements. But first you’ve got to take stock of where you are and what your goals are before you can measure the changes that will take place. Let’s take a look at the tips:

1. Define your ideal visitor

This is really going back to basics. When you started your blog you most likely had a topic in mind that you were passionate about, so you started writing a few posts a week on your topic, but did you ever take the time to really think about who you are writing to? It’s just like finding your ideal customer when you are in sales. Having an image of the age, sex, likes and dislikes of your ideal visitor will make it so much easier to write for them, and then will really enjoy how perfectly your content fits their sensibilities.

2. Stand for something

People don’t visit your blog to hear bland, vanilla content. You are the one who sets your blog apart from the millions of other blogs out there. So, don’t be shy. Have an opinion and share your unique perspective with the world, and you will establish a loyal following of those who agree with you, and maybe create a bit of controversy with those who disagree with you.

3. Post consistently

Here’s where you’ll have to get creative because often time we begin a project like a blog with the best of intentions, but when it’s no longer new and the excitement has worn off you’ve got to come up with ways to stick with it if you want to reap the rewards that a popular blog can provide for you.

Try getting guest bloggers to fill in for you when you can’t publish a new post. Whenever you sit down to work on a new post, try to crank out a few extra posts on evergreen topics that you can post when you are stuck for time.

4. Use compelling headlines

A good headline draws the reader into the post, so take the time to study good headlines. Create a swipe file of headlines that move you to action and use these to inspire your own titles. Come up with a few different headlines for the same post and pick the best one.

5. Work your blog stats

Keep tabs on your blog’s analytics. Watch your traffic stats to see what kinds of keywords your visitors are typing in to find your blog. check your bounce rate, and the most popular landing pages. Figure out what’s working and what needs improving.

Your blog is your platform and your money maker. Try these tips to breathe new life into your neglected blog.

Looking for more blogging tips? Visit http://mcreasite.com/blog where you’ll find lots of ideas for growing your business using internet marketing today.

While snapping and sharing pics on your mobile phone sounds like a lot of fun, brands have been taking advantage of Instagram’s popularity and gaining lots of exposure by way of the user-generated content that their fans create and share. Instagram can add a whole new dimension to your social media marketing campaigns.

iPhone users can download the app for free, set up their profile and start snapping pictures within minutes. After you take a picture and apply one of the many filters to it, you’ll want to apply the appropriate hashtags that will help categorize your pictures. You’ll find the hot, trending hashtags at, web.stagram.com/hot. You can then share it on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Lately there have been a lot written about how brands can leverage the power of Instagram to build their brand. Here’s a few of them:

Jeff Bullas of jeffbullas.com, shares 3 Instagram success stories in his post, How Instagram Harnesses the Awesome Power of Mobile, Social Media and Photos: 3 Success Stories, about TV chef Jamie Oliver uses the app to market himself, his cooking show and his publications. He writes about how Starbucks has amassed over 200,000 Instagram followers who connect with the already famous brand through photographs, and fashion brand, Burberry, which uses Instagram to share behind-the-scenes looks at their photo shoots and fashion shows.

John Jantsch of the Duct Tape Marketing blog, writes about, How to Use Instagram to Tell and Sell Your Marketing Story. He shares several tools that work with Instagram to help people network and promote their business.

We found a really cool infographic from Followgram that chronicles Instagram’s short but amazing journey since it came on the scene in October of 2010: digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-instagram-facts/

The ClickZ marketing news blog shares, 5 Instagram Tactics for Brands, which include:

1. Sneak peeks

2. Popular hashtags

3. Increase visibility

4. Campaign extension

5. Geotag photos

Source: clickz.com

John Paul Titlow shares6 Effective Waysto Get More Instagram Followers in his readwriteweb blog post. He offers tips for what to do on Instagram to attract a bigger following.

The best advice is to get in there and start taking and sharing photos that are relevant to your brand without blatantly advertising your company and its products. Brands that are successful in building a following on Instagram have created a community and users who are loyal to that brand willingly share photos using their favorite brand’s hashtags.

If your product or service relies heavily on images such as hairdressers, makeup artists, fashion designers, decorators, etc., try adding Instagram to your social media marketing campaigns and see what kind of results you get.

For more tips and strategies for using social media marketing to grow your online business visit http://mcreasite.com/blog today.

Most of the people who visit your site for the first time are not going to buy a thing from you. In fact, most marketers don’t realize that it takes about seven or more encounters with your brand before customers will feel comfortable enough to buy from you. People are becoming increasingly comfortable buying goods and services online, but they still want to make sure that you, your products and services are a perfect fit for them before they pull out the plastic and place an order.

What is social proof?

Aileen Lee, in an article on TechCrunch, says, “Social proof is the new marketing,” and she defines it as, “the positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something.  It’s also known as informational social influence.” What we do and what we say has an influence on those around us. Social proof provides evidence that others consider us to be legit and worth buying from or working with. Testimonials are the best way to demonstrate the social proof that will help new visitors feel more at ease and willing to stick around and learn more about what you have to offer.

How do you get good testimonials?

The best testimonials come unsolicited, but there’s no reason you can’t ask for them. If you’ve got a few favorite clients that have already expressed their pleasure from having worked with you, or their satisfaction from a purchase they made from you, ask them if they would give you a testimonial that you can post on your website. Rather than just generic, glowing praise, the best testimonials are results-based. You want them to describe the tangible results they received from working with you or using your products.

Offer a testimonial for a favorite product or service

Sometimes if you go first, and offer a testimonial, then others may reciprocate and write one about you. Be genuine and accurate when you give a testimonial.

Get testimonials in several formats

Video testimonials can be the most powerful because you get to see their face, hear their voice and really get a feel for their reaction to your products. Written testimonials are also great when they are accompanied by a photo, a name and either a business name, or where the person lives.

When people are reading testimonials about a product or service that they are considering using, they are looking to hear from people who are more or less similar to themselves, so the closer the testimonials are to your target audience, the more effective they will be.

Ask for testimonials, create a place on your website where people can leave a testimonial, and post them throughout your site so that visitors can see them from whatever page they happen to land on.

For more information about online marketing, visit http://mcreasite.com/blog where you will discover lots of tips and strategies fro growing your business with Internet marketing today.