What is SEO?
This is the abbreviation for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of using keywords to bring targeted traffic to you. Ideally, when people enter their search keywords into any of the most popular search engines, your website content, videos and audio media should pop up in the first page of search results. That is what everyone wants to achieve. The better the search engine rankings the more likely you are to get buyers who are ready to spend their money on what you have to offer.
How to Use It
Now, there are courses that teach search engine optimization. There are also SEO firms that will gladly take your money in exchange for their help in outfitting your website for the traffic that you want. They can promise front page Google and Yahoo rankings within web searches. But, all of this costs money and it’s not pennies we’re talking about here.
It may take you longer, but you can learn how to use SEO yourself. As a student of Internet marketing, you have to be willing to do the legwork required to gain the knowledge you seek. It sounds a little Zen but it works.
1. Know how to use the resources available to you. If you don’t have any keywords in mind, you can use free online keyword tools to help you discover the viability of keywords in your niche. They will also rank them for you. Keep a spreadsheet of all the words you use so you can track how they work at increasing your visitors, sales and search engine rankings. Here are two free keyword tools you can start with:
2. Pick a keyword or two and use it on your website. Website optimization is a bit trickier than optimizing content (we’ll get to that later). For your website, these keywords can appear in webpage headlines, picture tags, taglines, anchor text (the words that hide a hyperlink within the text of an article) and other places. When your website is registered with search engines, the bots and spiders crawl each page. You want them to find your keywords and rank accordingly.
3. Use the keywords in your content displayed on your website. Keyword density is the number of times that a certain keyword appears in a piece of content of a certain size. Optimal keyword usage is between 1% and 3%. Going over that could be considered “stuffing” and get you reprimanded.
Search engine optimization is trial and error. Others can do it for you for a price. But, if you are dedicated and want to increase your skillset, you can learn to use it for yourself and drive traffic to your website and increase sales.
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]]>As a business owner, you have several skills. One of those skills is what your business is based around. If you know how to craft, then crafting is a logical business. If you have expertise in Internet marketing then helping others to take advantage of your knowledge is a business in itself. The point is that your skills are being put to good use.
Everything that you do in business is not in your area of expertise. For instance, business owners have to keep up with their finances, taxes, website maintenance, creating fresh content and several other duties. To wear all of those hats, and do it successfully, you’d have to be several people.
Since there is no such thing as a duplicating machine for humans, you are going to need help. Spending all day answering emails or setting up an autoresponder program or building your website leaves no time to actually build your business.
Outsourcing
There is an answer to your dilemma. It goes by the name of “outsourcing”. We’ve all heard of it. It’s what big corporations do when they build factories in other countries to make their products. Even online business owners can outsource to save themselves both time and money.
When you work solo, building your online business and advertising your products, it leaves less time for administrative tasks. Even breaking up your day into blocks of time to spend time on all your tasks can be counterproductive. Your loss of time actively seeking new business equals loss of profit.
You can find others who have made it their business to aid the business professional. These people are virtual assistants, freelance accountants, bookkeepers, graphic designers and affiliate managers to name a few.
Virtual assistants are not glorified secretaries but professional business men and women who have built up a skillset that is valuable in the online business world. They can type letters, send emails, handle customer service, build websites, write copy and press releases and a host of other duties. It is like having an entire office of people in one person.
If you are thinking about money, compare the cost of you doing something for three hours that will take them one. And, virtual professionals are paid for the work that they do. If they work for an hour on your project, then you pay them for an hour. There is no padding the overhead. In the meantime, you are handling the business end of your business.
Do you need help growing your business? Consider outsourcing to lighten your load so you can pay attention to other things.
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]]>A quick review why I all it my road map instead of goals, to me life is a journey and we need a map to get from point A to point B and these are the places I am hoping to ‘visit’ on my journey though 2010.
For Business
- work on marketing
- improve writing
- Build a Community
- Work on Ebooks
- Build Affiliate Program
For me
- Work out 4 times a week
- Go out of the house alone once on Neds off
- Take me time
For the House/ Family
- Family Home Evening Regularly
- Get Family to get more exercise
- Get the family out of the house more often
- Help the children become more organized
- Help them read the Scriptures daily
Thank you for stopping by and reading my new road map for the last 6 months of 2010. I look forward to sharing this journey with you and hope to have these stops completed by the end of the year. If you ave ideas or suggestions please let me know on how to reach these stops.
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Well Here we are Summer has arrived in Eastern Washington. Finally if you ask me. I really thought there for a while that the winter was just the new season up here.Now that the school year come to a close we have lots of free time on our hands. I never really know what to do to keep everyone busy with the different age groups we have here. I am looking and doing what I can to keep them busy aside playing on the Wii and Nintendo DS.
Ok On with the round up 
- What is one thing you have done this week that has made your life easier?
- Share something that made you smile?
- Did you do anything to help you reach your goals?
- What was something you did with your kids?
- What is one thing you have done this week that has made your life easier? Worked on Menu plan, this has made it easier to create healtheir foods, eating out less and make it so I don’t have the ‘whats for dinner’ question at 5pm
- Share something that made you smile? Something I smiled about was listening to Brendan and Rebecca discuss kissing.
- Did you do anything to help you reach your goals? I jumped back in the ’saddle’ and started working on blogs again.
- What was something you did with your kids? I took the kids bowling. This is something we all love to do the little two are actually getting really good at it.
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]]>Software enables us to do what we do without always being there or spending time that we don’t have. Sometimes we don’t think about software needs because a good portion of it is probably already loaded onto our computers when we buy them. All of those tools are useful:
- Microsoft Office – If this isn’t included there is a great open source (free) counterpart called OpenOffice that works just as well.
- Adobe Acrobat reader
- Microsoft accessories (Windows Live, net meeting software)
This is only the tip of the iceberg. Online businesses need other software products to take the place of actual people in the office (if you have a traditional business model). Some new business owners don’t know what they need, so here is an abbreviated run down:
- Project management software
- Autoresponder program
- File backup system
- Shopping cart program
- Affiliate program software
- Security software
For most of your software needs, there are free and paid versions. Investigate both thoroughly before making any decisions about what you want to use.
Project Management Software
- One option that works well for businesses that use freelancers as staff is Basecamp. You can test it out for a 30-day free trial and then choose a plan that works for you.
- A free program that allows you to share documents is Google Docs. All you need is a Google account to get started. You can share spreadsheets, word processing documents, etc.
Autoresponder Program
- Autoresponders allow you to send emails and newsletters to more than one person at a time. It saves time for you when you need to get information out fast to all of your customers. Aweber is a great autoresponder program that allows for testing multiple facets of your list from the look of your opt-in box, tracking clicks on your links, segmenting your lists and more.
Shopping Cart Program
- You’ll need this so customers can pay for their products. There are several to choose from and some even allow you to pay on a monthly basis for their services. This works better for many business budgets.
File Backup System
- Backing up your business data is crucial. Computer hard drives crash…all the time. You can back up data yourself with CDs or invest in an online storage system for free or pennies a day. Mozy is my backup tool of choice.
Affiliate Program Software
- Affiliate programs are a way to promote your products when you have grown a little and are ready for the next step. Using software helps you to manage your affiliates, pay them on time and keep everything in order. You’ll find many shopping carts include affiliate program software to help you stay in touch with and provide for your affiliates. 1ShoppingCart is a great example.
We won’t go through all of the ones listed above, but you get the picture. A wise suggestion is to try the free versions of the software that also has a paid component. If you like it, upgrade. If not, keep shopping. You don’t necessarily need the package with all the bells and whistles if the one with only bells will do.
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]]>What is Twitter?
Most people have heard and seen the little blue bird. Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media platforms. It makes use of short, 140 character messages that are meant to inform, excite and draw a crowd. Businesses are using Twitter to keep up with their staff and have round table discussions on everything from project management to what the word on the street is about their brand.
But, Twitter doesn’t just work for big companies. It is a tool in the online businessperson’s tool shed as well.
How Can Twitter Help Your Business?
Twitter works by communicating these short messages called tweets. People can read a tweet and tweet back. They can share these tweets with others and get them talking too.
With your business, how do you currently conduct customer service? It may be a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page, a call center, a phone number, an email autoresponder system, or something else like a virtual assistant. All of these things work, but they take time.
Here’s an example. For your email system, you probably have an automatic message that goes out to customers depending on what box they check as the area of concern. They can write a message detailing their problem which someone will answer within a day. It is a fast response, but not immediate.
With Twitter, you can always be connected to your customers. Twitter can be monitored on your laptop, desktop and your cell phone. You can read and answer tweets while you’re at the park, in the store or anywhere else.
Customers can get immediate answers to their problems from you or someone else who works for you. You can issue a blanket response to answer their question that all customers can read for future reference. You can also go into more detail on a problem with that customer if you need to.
Twitter is NOT a Replacement – Just Another Avenue for Keeping in Touch
Now, Twitter doesn’t replace all of your other methods of dealing with customer service but it can build a stronger image of you in the customer’s mind and save you money. Instead of paying an answering service to take your customer service calls, you can use Twitter. If you hire a virtual assistant for other duties, they can also be available to communicate with customers via Twitter.
Want to save some time and money along with putting another feather in your business cap? Try using Twitter to beef up your customer service response. Who knows? Your business may grow on customer service alone.
