Ash Summerville – Internet Marketing

Building Successful Businesses Online

Archive for October, 2009

Tips For making Your Site More SEO Friendly

October 31st, 2009

If you’re looking for more qualified traffic to your site, here are some very simple ways to help ramp it up. Before you spend a lot of money with a SEO firm, take some time to understand the basics of Search Engine Optimization and try these simple steps:

1. Domain Name.

A. If you are a company that requires name recognition, make sure your name is in the domain, if possible.

B. If you are company that depends on what you do, choose a descriptor domain (e.g., www.24hourcouriers.com.)

2. Sign up for a Google Analytics account at http://www.google.com/analytics.

Depending on how your site is constructed, you may want a web company to help you with this step. Using analytics will help you see what search terms people used to find you, what region of the country they came from, and where (what page) they landed on your site.

3. Page Titles.

Title your home page (located in the title bar of the browser window).

A short description of what you do is even more paramount than your company name. Because your name is located throughout the site, what you do is even more important.

Never call it “HOME” or solely the name of the company without a reference to what you do. This way, potential visitors can search you by name or the product or service you provide.

Interior page title names.

Much in the same way that the home page is named, it is important to create page titles that are based on possible search terms relevant to page information.

4. Footer at the bottom of each page.

Make sure that you have a footer on the bottom of every page that contains your physical address, all types of contact information, and all cities where you service clients. This will help people find you by location and/or service if they don’t know your company name.

5. Reference your clients within the web page text.

Use your clients’ names to drive traffic to your site. Write a case study about what service or product you provided for them.

6. Add a WordPress blog to your site.

This can be added as a page within your website from WordPress.org. Update it on a weekly basis using articles that promote your products, services, or the audiences you serve. Blogs are traffic-driving champions compared to a standard website.

There is a free version at WordPress.com that is hosted outside of your site, but you may have issues driving people back to your site once they land on your blog.

This step can be done with some basic knowledge of Web development, or you can hire a web company help at very little cost. Before spending a lot of money, first try these six steps and see how your traffic stats change.

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Posted in Business

Tags: SEO

An Effective Article Writing Formula

October 26th, 2009

Here’s the formula that I learned from Willie Crawford, one of the Godfathers of Internet Marketing, to quickly write informative articles that get results. For many of the articles that are writen, the goal is to get visitors to a website where they take some action related to the topic of the article. Often the action that they take is to buy some product that is recommend.

Here is the formula that I use to write articles almost in an assembly line fashion. The reason that I write so many articles is that in some niches you need dozens, even hundreds of articles, to break through the clutter.

I begin with keyword research. You want to know what keyword phrases your ideal customers are using when searching online. They come online searching for solutions to their problems, and when they come across your articles offering a solution, they become raving fans.

To do keyword research, I often use the “Google External Keyword Tool.” You can find it by googling that term. This tool shows you how many searches are made on a given term in a month, plus how many webpages there are out there already targeting that phrase. The tool also suggests
related terms that you might want to target. You can use this tool to compile a list of suitable keywords and then download your research results in an Excel spreadsheet.

In looking at keywords, what you’re trying to identify, in addition to search volume, is “What problems are these searchers try to solve.” People come online looking for solutions to their problems. You identify those problems and then let them know (via your articles) that you have
the perfect solution.

In crafting my article titles, I use my keywords but also work in a promised benefit. My titles promise to show them the solution to a nagging problem. When they see that title listed in the search engines, this is what entices them to click through to your target site.

In crafting the body of my articles, I use the “problem, agitate, solution” formula. I describe the problem to let the reader know that I understand their problems. I then go into excruciating details explaining the problem, and how it’s not going to get any better unless they do
something about it. Finally, I point out the obvious solution, which is my recommended product.

Sometimes I only point them to a website to read more about the problem. On that website, they’ll also find my recommended solution. This is a less-threatening, soft-sell approach.

When I do my keyword research, I sometimes identify hundreds of related keywords that are being searched on a lot. At the same time, I identify several different painful problems (or variations of the same problem). This is what allows me to write articles in almost an assembly line fashion.

After the articles are written, I use an automated submission service to submit them to the top article directories. I use automated submissions because otherwise I’d spend countless hours submitting each article (not a very good use of our time).

In the resource box of these articles, I point readers to a target site. Where permitted I use anchor text in the links in these resource boxes. That anchor text is generally the keyword that I’m targeting (the same keyword that I used in my title).

I also post these articles to my blogs or maybe to a static page on one of my sites.

Since I like to leverage my time, I also turn many of my articles into videos, and podcasts. I generally create the videos by putting the main points of the articles on PowerPoint slides. Then I read the article as I go through the slides – recording then using Camtasia (screen capture
software).

Alternatively, I sometimes simply turn the text of an article into a PDF. Then I scroll down my computer screen reading the article, and again, recording it using Camtasia.

To create the podcast you can use recording software probably already on your computer, or you can download one many free pieces of software such as Audacity. Simply read the article as you record it. I generally save it as an MP3.

Submit the videos to video sharing sites, and submit the audio to podcast sites. I use an automated submission service for this, submitting to numerous sites!

Here’s one final tactic that I use to get my articles to rank higher for a target keyword and get noticed more readily in the search engines. I look for ways to create external links pointing to my article in one location – generally my main blog. I do this by bookmarking the blog post that contains the article. This is perhaps the easiest way to give the article a search engine boost.

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Posted in Business

Tags: Affiliate Marketing Articles Keyword Phrases

The Marketing Plan

October 26th, 2009

There are some things that should be avoided when putting together your marketing plan. Keep in mind that a good marketing plan is a collaboration of good strategy and tactics, and you cannot do either one effectively without the other.

In formulating a sound marketing plan here are some things that you should at all cost avoid:

Relying too much on creativity – I am not saying that being creative is wrong, it is actually okay. However as an aspiring entrepreneur you should not rely too much on this aspect. Sometimes when we write our marketing plan we see too much creativity that we tend to overlook tactics which will of course hurt the business in the long run.
Not paying attention to numbers – business in general is all about math and math is about numbers. So in short your marketing plan has something to do with numbers as well as it is part of your business. If you do not know your numbers that well then rest assured the results will not be good. Creating any marketing plan without knowing how much it will cost to acquire your customer, what your average sale needs to be, what is the required profit margin will result to failure. If you are going to invest $500 on advertising alone, how many leads and sales will you have to make in order to cover for the cost of the ad and at the same time profit?
Filling your marketing plan with unnecessary stuff – of course unnecessary stuff will just confuse you, so let it go. Generalities are also qualified as “unnecessary stuff.” Stating that your target market is “everybody” or “adults 50- and above” is not explicit enough and will result to problems down the road. Instead of doing this, start thinking of a niche. Narrow it down to “young males 16-plus who play video games and ride skateboards,” instead of stating “everybody.” While writing your marketing plan, keep in mind that marketing is all about buying your customers. Imagine going into a supermarket and buying everything that your heart desires. The question is, “Can you buy everything you see?” Let us face the harsh reality that, your resources would never allow it. In marketing terms, this means buying your ideal customer with the resources you already have. A sound marketing plan should mention exactly how much you are willing to spend to acquire your ideal customer.

A sound marketing plan should adhere to balance, and it is also important to show risks are being acknowledged. Like a business plan, a marketing plan is a vital guide. There are many entrepreneurs who do not understand the value of a marketing plan, and still others are clueless as to exactly what a marketing plan is. Every start-up venture and existing business needs a business plan, yet many entrepreneurs choose to forgo with that hence they throw away possible success. A marketing plan is required if you want your business to become a household name. Your marketing plan provides structure to the marketing efforts of your business.

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Posted in Business

Tags: Beginners marketing Marketing Opportunities Niche Niche Market Niche Marketing

Accounting For Your Business

October 20th, 2009

Getting up to speed on business accounting?

Accounting isn’t the most glamorous part of running a business. Most entrepreneurs would rather spend their time developing their product line or growing their client base, looking at click through rate, conversions PPC costs, etc, but accounting is important.

Without it, your business will never reach its full potential. A lack of adequate accounting could even create legal problems that could easily have been avoided.

The purpose of accounting is two-fold:

First, a basic small business accounting system generates a record of the receipts and expenditures of your business’ day to day activities. This data is vital for the completion of your annual tax returns and other legal documents. It will also be required by lenders when you apply for a business loan.
Second, business accounting provides you – the entrepreneur – with a valuable tool for assessing and analyzing your business’ performance. With just a little practice, you will begin to notice trends that highlight your business’ strengths and weaknesses. This information will help you make informed decisions about how to improve your bottom line.

The good news is that legally you are not required to maintain your financial records in any specific manner, as long as the records accurately reflect your business’ income and expenses. Most businesses maintain their records in a ledger, which is simply a record of sales receipts and expenditures

The process of transferring individual receipts and expenditures to a ledger is called posting. How often you post to your ledger usually depends on the volume of receipts and expenditures you need to record. Many businesses find it necessary to post to their ledger on a daily basis. However, you should plan to update your ledger on a weekly, or at least monthly basis.

Once you have posted your receipts and expenditures to the ledger, you can begin to compile financial reports for your business. The most common types of reports for businss are income & expense reports, cash flow reports, and a balance sheet.

The balance sheet is an itemization of your business’ assets (cash, inventories, accounts receivables, etc.) and liabilities (loans, debts, accounts payable). If done properly, a good balance sheet will provide an accurate snapshot of where you actually stand because accounts payable and accounts receivable items do not usually show up on in your receipts and expenditures ledger.

In a perfect world, your business would employ a bookkeeper to keep track of your finances. But since most entrepreneurs can’t afford to employ a bookkeeper (at least not initially), here are a couple of tips to help take the headache out of doing it yourself.

Tip #1: Consult an accountant. You’re probably thinking the last thing you need is another expense. But unless you know how to do income tax reporting yourself, you’re going to need to find an accountant eventually anyway. By consulting an accountant to help set up your accounting system, you can save time and money when it comes time to prepare our income taxes, especially if you use the same accountant for both jobs.
Tip #2: Purchase accounting software. One of the best things you can do for your business is to purchase small business accounting software. There are several affordable programs such as QuickBooks and Peachtree that not only keep track of your receipts and expenditures, but automatically translate them into quality financial reports as well.

I am an Accountant by profession so trust me when I say that we hate noting more than shoe box accounting where the business owners have everything shoved in a shoe box, and that is their record keeping. Not only does it cost the business owner more in professional fees but the business operator really does not take ownership of their business. It is just a job for them.

How can you track sales? How do you know what margins you are making? What are the most profitable products? How is you business performing against other in your niche?

Accounting may be a VERY boring part of business but trust me when I say that it is probably up there with one of the most important things that must be done.

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Posted in Business, Just Me

Only A Few Internet Marketing Guru’s Are Without a WordPress Blog

October 15th, 2009

Only A Few Internet Marketing Guru’s Are Without a WordPress Blog

But then they realize that maintaining control over their blog on a domain of their own is of utmost importance – and WordPress is what most people use to create an online presence.

It’s very easy to insert a WordPress blog into your domain once you have hosting with a cPanel. Here’s what you do using HostGator, for example:

1.) Log into your hosting account and click the Fantastico button (a smiley face) under the Software and Services section.

2.) On the left-hand side, under Blogs, click on the WordPress link.

3.) Click the New Installation link.

4.) From the drop-down menu, pick which domain you want to install the blog on. You can also choose where to install the blog. If you want the blog on the primary domain, then leave the space blank where it says, “Install in directory,” but you may want to put a landing page on the primary domain and put your blog on a different area such as domainname.com/blog.

5.) Enter your admin nickname and password that you’ll use to manage the blog’s content on a regular basis.

6.) Click Install WordPress.

The next screen will show you where your access URL will be for your blog. Make sure you keep track of this information. To complete the process, click Finish Installation. Once your blog is installed, you can pick a theme that will match your niche topic.

Then you’re ready to start posting to your blog! The more you post, the more often various search engine spiders will visit your blog and index your site for relevancy to your niche topic.

Make sure you post frequently and use keyword phrases in the titles of your blog posts as well as your content. Have a strategy in place to monetize your blog with the sale of your own products or as an affiliate to promote someone else’s products.

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