words

Revealed: The Secret Source For Winning Google’s Love

by Paul Joseph July 28, 2011 Featured

In my last post on Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, we talked about the big fat truth – without unique, fresh, and lengthy content your blog search engine rankings are as good as dead. Check out the previous post here: Blog Writing 101: How To Satisfy Readers And Deliver Top 10 Google Rankings This time I will take it a step further and explain why, without great content, no link building campaign will take you as far with search engines as you would like to go. Some time ago, I ran a series on my blog on how to build an email list. It was only natural to discuss email autoresponder options in one of the posts in the series: after all, the emails you write to your list are only as good as the provider that delivers them or sends them to spam – depending on which autoresponder service you choose. Naturally, I wanted to rank my post for any and all possible keywords that had anything to do with Aweber , which is what I use, and autoresponders in general. Lo and behold, as I did my research on who was holding the current rankings for some of those keywords, Yaro’s blog kept popping up on the first page for almost all of them. Yes, Yaro’s AWeber Review – Email Autoresponder post was what stood between me and high search engine rankings of my own Aweber review. Naturally, a little competition never scared me away, so I started to drill in on Yaro’s links that played a huge role in ranking his post so highly. Checking Out Your Competition The best way to know what you need to do in order to rank your post for any keyword is to see which websites are currently ranking for that keyword and what their link building profile is. Since it would require a lengthy explanation as to how exactly I do competition research, I will direct you to read this post to learn more on how to use their competition link profile to outrank them: Link Building Tip: How to Do It the Smart Way . As I was doing research on Yaro’s Aweber post, I discovered that it was (and is currently) ranking for 10, what I would call, “money” keywords – the type of keywords that the potential Aweber buyers would be searching for when trying to make their final decision on their autoresponder choice. Now that I knew how many and what keywords he was ranking for, I needed to find out what links to his post allowed him to have such high rankings. And that’s what stopped me dead in my tracks. You see, as I previously mentioned, the easiest way to rank your own post for any keyword is to match and outdo your competition linking profile. Find out what their links are, in other words, get most of the same links and throw in a couple of extras. In most markets (barring you are going for some of the most competitive keywords, of course), that should do the trick and at least get you on the first page of Google . In Yaro’s case though, most of his links came from within content on other blogs . Learning that pretty much sucked, because there was no way I could get all those blogs to mention my Aweber review in their posts! The Secret Was In The Source Yaro’s Aweber post was so thorough and so good that many bloggers read it, loved it, and linked to it in their own posts, giving Yaro significant advantage in high rankings. It was HIS CONTENT itself that tipped Google scale in his favor. It is all coming together now, right? YOUR CONTENT is the single most important factor that will make or break your search engine rankings and either will bring you floods of targeted FREE search engine users or leave you with a donut whole. You can submit all the articles and videos you want, leave tons of comments on all kinds of blogs, spend some time building links through forums, but if I get a few bloggers to link to my post from within their content, as in mentioning my post because it was that good, I will have an upper hand in search engine rankings for sure. That kind of link building is what is referred to as “natural” link building and is definitely the best way to get your site ranked and swarming with search engine visitors. Link Building As A Search Engine Factor As I did in the previous post, I’d like to take you back to this recently released SEOmoz report on search engine ranking factors . After all, talk is cheap, but the collective opinion of 132 SEO experts around the world should definitely shed some light as to what are recognized as the best link building practices right now and in the future. We have already talked about your content being the cornerstone of any successful link building campaign – master that part and the links will come naturally. To further illustrate my point, allow me to quote the following from the report: “Through all this analysis of search optimization – we will always conclude that a site needs “more links, more quality links, more content, and higher quality content” – Todd Malicoat What other areas of link building should we pay close attention to? Diversity of links outweighs pure quantity : diversity of IP addresses, root domains, subdomains, linking pages where your links are coming from play a huge role – the more diverse, the better. Number of root domains linking with partial anchor text : yes, PARTIAL anchor text plays the same, if not bigger, role in successful search engine rankings than precise anchor text, as it used to be the case. If you don’t know much about anchor text or would like to learn more, I suggest reading this post: Your Ultimate Anchor Text Tutorial – from Basic to Advanced . Relevance of links . This one has been and I am sure will remain one of the most debated SEO link building factors: does it matter if the website that is linking to you is on the same subject as yours? Well, the consensus in this report says yes, it does.So don’t do link building to your cooking blog from a site that sells tractor parts. Nofollow matters : many SEOs say that nofollow links can help your rankings, which definitely goes against the very idea of Nofollow to begin with.Nofollow attribute is added to links to let Google know that, although you are willing to link to a particular website, you are not willing to vouch for them and share your site authority with them. Thus, any of your site PageRank will happily stay with your site and not be passed to the site you are linking to. To learn what Yaro thinks of Nofollow, take a look at this post: No More NoFollow . This new wave of expert SEO opinions on Nofollow links only strengthens “natural” link building point of view: you need both Dofollow and Nofollow links to have the kind of diverse linking profile Google would like to see. The Future Of Link Building What do SEOs believe will happen in the future with Google’s use of ranking features in the future? Prominence of ads vs content will remain a factor. Content usability / readability / design will increase as a factor. Analysis of perceived value to users will increase GREATLY. Social signals at domain level and page level will increase DRAMATICALLY. Marketing Takeaway Link building is here to stay, no question about it. However, the face of link building is changing and the type of CONTENT you serve to your readers is rapidly becoming the most important factor in any successful link building campaign. Ana Hoffman Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: book, online, search, words

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How We Grew Our Fashion Accessories Business To Over A Million Dollars In Sales

by Paul Joseph July 7, 2011 Featured

As with any company, growth happens in stages, but especially a company with physical products. Research and development, sample making, marketing the product and perhaps even handling some of the preliminary sales are some of the stages of expansion. However, with my handbag company charm and luck , to grow our business we realized we needed to find sales partners to handle our sales. To achieve the growth we wanted for our company, we had to be able to focus on churning out new designs and handling our infrastructure and growth; thus, we created a team of salespeople to bring our sales to the next level. Business Mindset & Goals With looking for salespeople in the fashion industry, our mindset was that we were looking for partners . Domestically and internationally, we sought out companies who had sales procedures in place, as well as a list of clients who had purchased from them in the past, and who would most likely purchase from them again. My immediate goal was to have a showroom in every market in the US – Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. It was important for us to find independent sales representatives (salespeople who would travel and call on customers), showrooms and international distributors. Several years later, when our business had stabilized and I felt secure in my company’s growth, we actively sought top-tier accounts, which we then handled in house. Eventually, our biggest client we maintained was the Home Shopping Network (HSN), and we grew that relationship to be one of their top handbag brands . Where To Find Salespeople To Sell Your Product In the beginning, when looking for salespeople to sell our product, we signed up for our first trade show, and then just keep ‘our ears to the ground’ for news of showrooms or salespeople who were looking for new and fresh lines. I certainly would approach people who I knew owned multi-line showrooms and ask them to take a look at our brand. It was during the New York shows that I met our first showroom who was based in Atlanta. In reality, we never actually left our Atlanta showroom as we were always very pleased with their performance. After Atlanta, we added our Dallas showroom and then Los Angeles. Our Los Angeles showroom opened up the specialty realtor Nordstrom account for us. After we were in Nordstrom for our first couple test orders, they eventually put us in all stores (80+) and purchased our wallets and belts, as well as our handbags. At this point, Nordstrom was ordering monthly orders from us for their entire company, which in retail lingo is called an all-door order . Once we were in Nordstrom, it was quite easy for us to find a prestigious New York showroom. One of our top goals was always to have a New York showroom, especially one who had established relationships with the top accounts from Europe, the Middle East and Russia. Things really started to come together after our New York showroom was in place, because we then signed an exclusive contract with a distributor for the Middle East. Our contract was a multi-year agreement, which resulted in a $100,000 USD minimum buy each year and granted exclusivity to our distributor in the Middle East. Because of this exclusive agreement, we opened up charm and luck boutiques in several high-end stores in Dubia and Riyadh. Right after this deal was done, we inked a deal with another distributor in Germany, as well as a distributor in Japan. Business Growth Follows Clear Goals Although these events seem rather organic, I was very systematic about how I wanted our company growth to be. My first goal was to establish a strong distribution channel here in the US. Secondly, as we were growing our business domestically, we then went after high profile and large stores when we felt we could handle their production demands. Thirdly, we pursued and were pursued by international game changers who propelled our business forward. Lastly, almost all of the showrooms, salespeople and distributors that we worked with stayed with us for years. One of my personal goals has always been retention. I tried very hard to make the right decisions about distribution agreements, partners and employees, so we would not have a lot of backward movement. In other words, I wanted growth and forward movement, and I did not want our progress to be impeded by poor training with our employees or salespeople. Consequently, I felt I needed to make the right decisions from the outset. Before starting my handbag company, I worked at management in Nordstrom and had to hire and fire at least 100 people during my tenure. I really hated to invest time in someone and then have to lose them and start again, so I tried very hard to make the right decisions regarding work relationships . Consequently, when I started my own company, I really tried to improve upon some of the hiring mistakes I made while at Nordstrom. These lessons I then applied to my hiring of employees, salespeople and even our trading partners such as our factories. Application Of Lessons Learnt The lessons I applied to my own company were: Listen to your inner voice or gut . I usually get a read about a person by spending a few minutes with them especially in a meeting environment. I have absolutely passed on deals that I did not have a good feeling about. Ask probing questions . How someone answers a question can be quite telling. Check references . If it is for an employee or new business partner, ask for references. I would always check at least three references. Review their written communication . This part mainly refers to employees, as it said something to me if there was a mistake on their resume or in their email communication. To me, it showed a lack of detail, and when working with fashion especially, it is all about the details. In closing, in growing our company I applied the many lessons I learned along the way regarding treating people with respect, follow through and never letting an opportunity pass me by. When presented with the opportunity to meet with a new client unexpectedly or take an unscheduled phone call, we always did it. For me being an entrepreneur meant doing whatever we needed to do to bring our company to the next level, and by finding partners who helped with our sales, we were able to increase our sales very quickly. Christine Syquia Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: business, infrastructure, internet, words, young

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Building an Online Business During Commercial Breaks

by Paul Joseph June 10, 2011 Featured

One of the biggest challenges many small business owners and entrepreneurs face is time. We just need more of it and there doesn’t seem to be enough of it. I get it. Many of us are still working the 9 to 5 day jobs so we can support our lives and working on our business whenever we can. Or maybe you have a family that you have to attend to. Small children don’t understand that mom or dad have a business to run; they just want your time. There may be endless of reasons why you just can’t seem to make a dent in your business. It seems as if your “to-do” list is growing, yet your time to get things done is not. This is ironic considering with new emerging technologies that are supposed to speed things up and “create” more time for us, just doesn’t seem so. So I’ve created a system which I like to call Creating Your Online Business During Commercial Breaks . It has allowed me to continue to work on my business daily even with dealing with raising two small children and managing my time with family and friends. Here’s how it goes. Very simple – work on your business during commercials! OK, well not literally. Let me elaborate a bit more. Creating your business during commercial breaks is just an analogy for finding minutes of your day to work on your business. Think of a commercial for a moment. Commercials for the most part can last anywhere from thirty seconds to a couple of minutes. Because of this, the message they want to convey has to be targeted, intentional and powerful. We are talking about a lot of money at stake here. There is little room for error. Screw up your message and whom you are sending it to, you are possibly losing thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. So advertisement companies have gotten extremely good and honing in on their most powerful message and putting it out there in the right place at the right time. Well the same goes for your business. See the problem is not that you don’t have enough time. The problem is that you haven’t quite managed it well yet. If you knew all you had each day with ½ an hour to work on your business (and this may be the case), how would you maximize your efforts to convey your message? In other words, how do you get the most bang for your buck. What kind of “commercial” would you create for you business. Here’s an action plan for you: Write down all the things in your business if you only had an ½ hour per day to work on it. Remember, we are looking for intentional, powerful and impactful actions. Hint: something that’s going to affect your bottom line. Create a two minute commercial for your business. Yup, create an actual video of your business that’s going to encapsulate all that your business is, what it offers, how others benefit from it and what results they can get. Don’t worry, you don’t have to share this video. This is for internal use only. Make it a point in everything you do to ask yourself, “is this action moving my business forward”? If not, dump that action and starting more of the ones that do! Of course it would be ideal if you had more than ½ an hour per day to work on your business. And odd are that you do. For many of us, our business is our full time job. The point is not whether or not you have ½ an hour per day or 10 hours a day to work on your business; they point is how are you going to choose to maximize your time and efforts during that time to get the biggest results possible for your business. How are you going to “advertise” your business in a way that if I gave you two minutes to see and hear all you can do, I would respond with a resounding “YES, I want to work with you!” Michele Welch is a Personal Coach and Online Business Advisor . She shares online business tips with those looking to start their own online business ventures, through her blog.  Read more about Michele here .

Tagged as: internet, online, small-business, words, your-business

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Why Thinking Like A Fish Can Help Your Business

by Paul Joseph June 1, 2011 Featured

When we are operating a business, we are often told to try and think like the consumer . To ‘walk in their shoes’ or to ‘get inside their head’ and know what they are thinking and feeling. All this is done with the end goal of creating a better experience for the consumer or of providing them with exactly what they want. I remember a story told by a famous copy writer about a fisherman. This was no ordinary fisherman. He had gained legendary status in fishing circles. He was always top of the trophy board. The fisherman was routinely famous for out fishing a boat of fisherman all by himself! And he did it with old school tackle. None of this fancy rod and reel stuff that his competitors had. How Did He Manage To Do It? He says the secret came to him years ago when he was thinking about how to catch more fish. He reasoned if his desire was to catch fish, then he needed to know everything he could about fish. So he vigorously set about learning everything about fish. He learned their feeding habits, how they fed, when they fed, their migration habits, their relationship to currents, how they behaved in different types of water, how they fed in different seasons and weather conditions. He spent a lot of time studying the ocean, and weather. He studied the relationship the fish had to the ocean and weather. His competitors were out studying to become better fisherman. They were investing their time in fishermen related things. Buying fancy lures or bait, upgrading their rod to the newest model and playing with their sonar fish finders. Come tournament time, because the famous fisherman had spent so much time trying to think like a fish, he knew exactly what they, the fish, wanted. All the guess work was removed. So he would size up the weather, the currents and sea conditions, and he knew exactly where the fish would want to be feeding. So all he did was pick the right location to drop anchor, based on his intimate knowledge of the fish’s behavior, and cast out a line and start reeling them in. Moral of the story: To catch fish, you need to think like a fish NOT like a fisherman. Translation for the entrepreneur: To sell your product or promote your business, you need to think like the customer NOT like a businessman. For the entrepreneur business person, we must always keep in mind our customers . Despite the fact what we want or think is best, our personal desires come second to the customer’s. It is something that is very hard to do, but the sooner you can start applying this principle, the better service you will be providing your customer. Walk In Their Shoes There are instances where by chance or luck we have walked in the shoes of our potential customers. Think of people who have transformed themselves through weight loss and are now sharing their methods with other people. They can relate to their potential customer in the most real sense, because at one stage they were in the exact position of that customer – the position of an overweight person looking for a weight loss solution. Do you think they would know the emotional journey of their potential customers? What about the ‘ hot buttons ’ of the customers? Would they have a good idea of the doubts and fears that an overweight person has while looking at diet solutions? They would know the answer to all these questions and more, because they have personally been there . If you are fortunate to be doing your entrepreneurial endeavors in an area where you were once in the shoes of the consumer, then that is great. You have been inside the head of the customer. You know their wants, needs, desires and objections.  Everything you offer should cater to their needs and help move them closer to their end goal. This can be applied to end product creation and also in the building of relationships with the potential customers. If you are in the information niche, it may be the offering the perfect free report you use for an email opt in, the content on your website or the angle of your email autoresponder series. This type of insight into the mind of the potential customer can also be gained from having a lot of contact with that type of customer. Think of some personal trainers at the gym. They would know all the nuances associated with weight loss and the head space that someone who is trying to lose weight occupies. Simply because they have spent considerable time communicating and being around overweight people. At times you may find yourself entering a market which is way out of your comfort zone and you may venture into totally new territory, which you have no idea about. This is common in affiliate marketing, especially when you are promoting the next ‘hot thing’ or a high converting product. What If You Don’t Have Experience Being A Consumer In Your Niche Or The Niche You Are Entering Is New For You? Then you need to do some investigative work and role playing. You can discover this by visiting sites like these: http://www.boardtracker.com/ http://answers.yahoo.com/ http://omgili.com/ http://blogsearch.google.com/ http://www.samepoint.com/ http://alltop.com/ Above is a list of forums, websites and blogs. Find and hang out in forums related to your niche. Be a fly on the wall. Do some market research . See what people in the niche are talking about, how they are talking about it, what frustrates them, what hopes they have, what obstacles they face, etc. Sometimes, you may have to pick up some new lingo to converse on the same level as potential customers. Outside the seduction niche if I used the words PUA, SHB and AFC, they mean nothing to you. But within that niche, this is their language and if you don’t use it then you may not be accepted as ‘real’. To take it a step further, after your research you want to create a fictional avatar of your potential customer. Give them a name, find a photo on the internet of what you think they would look like. You want to be able to write ‘their story’. Who they are, what they want, what they are currently doing, what frustrates them, what are their dreams and goals etc. Now to really get inside their head you can use what is called an empathy map . The empathy map represents aspects of that person’s sensory experience. What they are thinking, feeling, saying, doing and hearing. Filling it out is a really great way of “getting to know” all aspect of the person. When it comes to doing anything related to promoting your business or product you simply look at the avatar you have created and write as if you were writing to them. So now all communication you do for your business is more focused on your potential customer . You are writing to a ‘real person’, you are communicating to a ‘real person’, you are helping a ‘real person’ get one step closer to their goal. Knowing your potential customer well can only help you provide them with a better service, and if you can help people achieve their goals better, then this ultimately leads to a more successful business for yourself. Leevi Romanik Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: customer, internet, language, mind, mindset, people, research, words

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Company Karma: How to Handle Conflicts of Interest in Business

by Paul Joseph May 20, 2011 Featured

Life presents us with conflicts of interest and ethical dilemmas all the time, does it not?  The business world is no different.  Depending on what stage your business is in, I am sure you have faced a number of challenging situations, where ethical questions come into play.  Typically, the more opportunity and money is on the line, the greater the potential for ethical violations.  This is the power of greed at work, and it should come as no surprise.  According to a recent study from Transparency International, 25% of the world’s economy runs on corruption.  So if such a Corruption & Ethics Index were developed, where would you and your business rank?  In other words, what is your company’s karma? It is hard to be objective in such matters, as research also shows that most of us rate ourselves better and more just than what we truly are.  Especially as business owners, we tend to think that others are possibly taking advantage of us, whereas our own business practices are above board.  Popular quotes like “business is business” or “nothing personal, it’s just business” allow us to conveniently distinguish between ethics in business and life outside of work.  Is this a sound way to think about ethics or just a convenient rationalization for disregarding ethics in business? Let’s look at a couple of common situations and consider the ethical issues that come into play.  There are not necessarily ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ answers to each scenario, especially those that involve multiple parties and complex relationships. Situation #1 – Personal Affairs on Company Time: How do you feel about employees using company time to check their social networks and talking to friends?  Consider your company’s policies in this area.  Personally, at Blueliner, we don’t have a policy that deters staff from social networking during the workday.  By the nature of us being a digital marketing agency, all of our staff has to be well-versed in social media – so blocking Facebook with a firewall wouldn’t make sense for us anyway.  Naturally, we still expect that people will focus on work during the time they’re at work.  As long as they are not excessive and continuously being distracted with personal instant messages or phone calls, I think it is fine for a little personal break here and there throughout the day. Not all business owners would agree; I know that by having these types of discussions with clients.  Business owners have every right to lay down the laws.  Some are more democratic than others when it comes to developing workplace policies.  I encourage this type of collaborative rule-making, because there are different interests at hand for everyone involved.  That’s the whole reason why we have labor negotiations, to find a balance between different interests. In this case, the primary ethics in question have to do with how employees behave once the rules are in place.  Secondarily, how do business owners and managers deal with monitoring staff and violations when they occur. Situation #2 – Former Employees Leveraging Current Staff: How about employees who leave the company, and then leverage relationships that they built during the time they were with the company?  The legal bindings aside, there are a lot of gray areas and ethically questionable scenarios to consider here.  For example, let’s say an employee leaves the company to start their own business in a similar field.  Naturally, non-solicitation and non-disclosure agreements (if they are in place) provide some guidance on this.  Most small businesses however don’t go to the extent of having such paperwork in place with staff. Let’s say this employee starts communicating with existing staff that he or she had worked with while at the company.  Is this a red flag for the current employee who is still with the company?  In my eyes, it is a clear ethical violation by the current employee, who may be giving away trade secrets and otherwise helping a now competitor flourish, possibly at the expense of their own company – a major conflict of interest.  A business owner can rectify the situation by firing the employee or at least giving them a stern warning.  As for the former employee, while I also believe it is an ethical violation to try and capitalize on knowledge and relationships gained while at the company, there may not be as much a business owner can do about it if such points weren’t covered by a pre-existing NDA.  I would leave that up to karma.  When the employee-turned-entrepreneur starts hiring their own staff, similar dynamics are likely to present themselves, and they will see what it is like to be on the other side of the fence. Situation #3 – Building a Side Business from Company Leads: At a basic level, most of these dynamics come down to conflicts of interest as they relate to people’s time and relationships.  Consider a high-ranking manager working for a consulting company.  The company frequently comes across business opportunities that are passed up because they are too small.  The manager, involved in sales and business development, creates a nice side business out of those discarded opportunities, having them serviced by herself, outside of work hours, and a group of outside freelancers that come in as needed.  The company’s CEO and shareholders have no knowledge of this situation.  If you were the CEO or an investor in this company, how would this make you feel?  Does it depend on whether the manager is doing a solid job or not?  How about whether they are corresponding with these “side clients” on company time?  This can be very tricky to deal with, especially if the manager is doing a good job for the company.  This kind of scenario is happening all the time, at companies of all sizes. Potential Remedies There are two sides to every coin.  How you feel about these ethical dilemmas probably depends on which side of the fence you find yourself on when they arise.  I am a big believer in the concept of karma, on both individual and organizational levels.  Everyone gets what they deserve in the end, which may not be so easy to measure, especially from a purely materialistic standpoint.  Someone may cheat and “win” in the short-term; but the price they will pay in relationship damage and other karmic consequences will be equal to or greater than their violations. I urge you to step back from time to time and look at things objectively.  This isn’t about what’s legal – it’s about what is ethical.  Unfortunately, we can no longer count on the legal field for guidance us when it comes to ethics.  While there are certainly good lawyers out there and they can help business owners protect themselves, the profession has been degraded to a practice of helping their clients get away with whatever they possibly can, with little regard for ethics.  If it’s all about maximizing profits by any means necessary, where does it leave the concepts of honor, honesty and ethics? In case you haven’t noticed, conflicts of interest and opportunities to compromise ethics increase as your business grows.  The stakes are higher.  Your moral compass will be continuously tested and refined through each conflict of interest.  It is important to be proactive not only after conflicts arise, but beforehand, when potential conflicts first present themselves.  Head problems off by convening with the parties involved and coming to terms on how such things will be handled.  Putting things in writing, with or without the help of lawyers, is always a good way to be specific about whatever is agreed in principle.  Creating and updating your company policies manual is a healthy exercise that gives business owners a chance to communicate clearly on ethical issues.  Since people generally don’t read long, ‘boring’ documents, you’ll have to come up with other ways to engage staff and ensure that they are aware of the company’s policies, as well as consequences for violating them. If you are a business owner, you are likely to feel that whatever you say goes, and employees have to get on board or get out.  To some degree, if you have that level of authority, this is true.  But what is the price for having one-sided policies?  Employees will try to get away with whatever they can, not go the extra mile for you, and always have their eyes on “the next best thing”.  Things degrade to a level where it is a purely transactional relationship, devoid of emotional bonds and low on loyalty.  Is that what you want?  If not, you have to be more objective and open-minded to employee-friendly policies. On the other hand, if you are an employee, you also have to look in the mirror on these issues.  Do not assume that your employer will keep operating profitably regardless of what you do, and try to understand that your actions can really hurt the company.  Be careful not to take advantage of the access to information and people that you are afforded by being part of the organization.  Don’t assume that just because you are not monitored and that you can get away with certain things, that it is right for you to do them. Conclusion Whether or not you have formally thought about your moral compass and how it manifests through your business decisions, it is a critical factor to your long-term success.  Your finances, professional reputation and personal relationships are all impacted by how you deal with conflicts of interest.  Practicing empathy and objectivity, by putting yourself in the shoes of all other parties in a particular business scenario, shows emotional maturity and character.  To make millions is a worthy achievement.  However, to be recognized as a trustworthy, honest professional is an even more profound and respectable feat! Arman Rousta is Founder & CEO of digital agency, Blueliner, which services start-ups and established companies such as IZOD, California Closets and Lufthansa. Read more about Arman here .

Tagged as: employees, facebook, finances, nature, power, small-business, social, words

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How To Craft Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

by Paul Joseph May 18, 2011 Featured

In “The Social Network”, the movie based on Facebook’s meteoric rise to prominence, my favorite line is when the young college students sit around a Harvard dorm talking about how fast their idea took off. FaceMash had just been coded, and the first few emails went out to friends. The hero’s dorm mates ask, “How many people are you going to tell?” And he replies: “The really important question is: How many people will THEY tell ?” One of the key features to branding and positioning yourself in today’s attention economy is to make yourself (and your business) WORTH RECOMMENDING. How To Become ‘Worth Recommending’? One way is to be the very best at everything you do. Another is to be obsessive about delivering value – all the time. And have a story that spreads – often one that is tied to your purpose. Watch this powerful video presentation at TEDtalk by Simon Sinek called “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”. It’s about the Golden Circle, and finding your WHY…a simple, effective way to get your prospects eager to do business with you . Once you’ve reached this stage, one other thing matters. You’ve got to give your eager, interested prospects a COMPELLING REASON why they should buy from you, rather than anyone else. And that means positioning and defining yourself in a unique way that sets you apart from the competition. In other words, you need a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) . Why Should Customers Buy From You? The vast majority of businesses do not have a good, compelling or unique reason. Understand that this differentiation should confer an advantage from the perspective of the BUYER. Saying you’ve been in business since 1932 isn’t really a benefit that’s immediately perceived – unless you can translate that into a benefit, as in: “Tailors for well dressed gentlemen since 1932. Our skilled designers have always been on top of current trends.” The message to grab here is that conveying your uniqueness to your prospects involves a degree of EDUCATING them about yourself , your business and what you do to benefit them. Without the information, they will hesitate to make a buying decision. When they see all the facts, they’ll see the reason why what you’re offering is a wise buy. Rolex Watches And Internet Marketing Many years ago, I saw a magazine ad for a Rolex . In great detail, the ad explained what went on “beneath the dial” with beautiful pictures showing dozens of interlocking ratchets, with wheels within wheels. Each tiny, perfectly handcrafted element was responsible for a critical function. They all integrated perfectly, worked in synchronicity, coordinated wonderfully. How did prospective buyers know all that? Because marketers TOLD THEM the story. Explained how their watches worked. Highlighted the benefit from such precision technology so that prospects were convinced that they wanted to own a Rolex, a masterpiece based on such technological excellence. Schlitz beer ramped up from #5 in the U.S. market to capture the #1 slot after a skilled copywriter named Claude Hopkins decided to tell the story of how exactly they brewed beer . Strangely enough, the story was NOT unique. All beer manufacturers use nearly the identical process. Hopkins was the first to tell the story. That was unique. No one else was doing it. When Schlitz did, they acquired top-of-mind awareness – and business boomed. Domino’s Pizza entered a marketplace that was already dominated by Pizza Hut , but differentiated their offering by promising “Hot, Fresh Pizza, delivered at home within 30 minutes – or it’s FREE!” That’s a benefit powerfully denominated in terms that appeal to the buyer, who sees a tangible advantage or benefit from choosing Domino over any other competing brand. FedEx was launched on the promise of “When It Absolutely, Positively Has To Be There Overnight” – and they came to attain a near monopoly position in the business courier market. That’s the target audience who values speedy and prompt delivery of mission-critical documents. FedEx built a huge business on the back of that compelling promise, and by consistently delivering on it. How To Devise Your USP? More often than not, your USP evolves from how your market (if you already have customers) defines and perceives you. So it helps to ask your clients through a short survey . Find out why they bought from you. What made them choose you over other competitors? Offer them a range of choices to pick from, in case they can’t clearly define a reason. In my own online information business, when I surveyed my buyers, I discovered (with a bit of surprise) that the single biggest reason people bought my infoproducts was because they were happy that a part of their purchase price was helping a child receive a life-saving heart operation . While that definitely was something unique about my business model, I hadn’t highlighted it earlier, because I thought people would be more concerned mainly about the value in business terms that they were getting from my products. After this survey, I realized what mattered more to my clients. So I bumped up this angle, telegraphed it more clearly, and have attracted clients who are even more loyal than the ones I had before! On my website at www.DrMani.com you’ll find this: “Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian is a heart surgeon and Internet infopreneur using his information business to fund heart surgery for under-privileged children.” Not all of the benefits your USP statement focus on will be direct and visible. Others may be more intangible and subtle. They may appeal instead to deeper feelings and emotions, desires and dreams . Think of how your product or service may be of value to your market, and come up with a statement that encapsulates that advantage. Simpler (or more complex) Cheaper (or more expensive) Ubiquitous (or exclusive) Advanced (or basic) Available in a wide range (or limited choice) Fastest Easiest Longest track record Celebrity endorsement …and so on. Another approach is to focus on your product or service, and answer questions about it: What does your product do? Who benefits from it? What is the biggest benefit they’ll get from it? How can you prove your claim? How will prospects perceive your benefit, as compared to competitors? Drafting Your USP Statement The key to a USP is that it should be brief, yet complete – and highlight the points that make your business unique in the eyes of your marketplace. It also should have three key components: a benefit that is easily perceived by your customer a statement that is memorable, catchy and to the point believability Drafting a good ‘Unique Selling Proposition’ may take many attempts. The process can last for weeks, if not months, before you get it right. Your USP, when it is done, should convey a positive feeling about your company and business, avoid defining your offering as a commodity, and focus on a promise of emotional gratification. Once you have a working statement, make sure it is visible and communicated everywhere. Put it into your marketing message, your website, within your information products, in your email communications and in all other channels through which you connect with your audience. There’s a lot more to crafting your USP, and there are comprehensive guides and books written on the subject. One that I highly recommend that you read is by my mentor, Jay Abraham . It’s titled “How To Create A Unique Selling Proposition”. This article you’ve just read is itself a modified excerpt from my infopreneur mentoring program in which we delve deeper into other elements of positioning your business as ‘special’ and ‘unique’ in a remarkable way. To learn more about it, please contact me. These are three month sessions held thrice every year, during which I guide Internet entrepreneurs through some of the core components of building a business that lasts and thrives – by basing it upon a meaningful purpose that’s fired by your own passion. Dr. Mani Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: article, clients, internet, marketing, mentor, movie, social, time, words, young

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How To Write Winning Content

by Paul Joseph May 3, 2011 Featured

Almost every article I write and almost every discussion I have about blogging goes pretty much the same way: If you write a lot of quality content , your blog can’t help but be successful . Whether your content is self-created, you have staff, or you rely heavily on guest posters, having lots of fresh content is almost a guarantee you will have consistent readership, you will attract new readers who will become loyal readers, and you will open up income streams, some of which you have never thought about or didn’t know exist. A lot of these criteria are a matter of opinion and perception, but I have tried a few and I am more than willing to share my results. What Is A Lot Of Quality Content? I hear from other bloggers all the time that they create “a lot” of content, have “plenty” of guest posters, or they post but when I look at their blogs I often feel this is the area where people are confused and don’t put their best foot forward. When I first started my blog, about three years ago, I wrote a post a day. As I learned the subject matter and my audience started to build (of course it “grew” but when I had three visitors in my first month it’s tough not to grow), I started to get a better feel as to what type of articles they came for. This revelation of finding something that worked was such a rush almost immediately the ideas and thoughts started running through my head. Within days of my traffic increasing, I was writing two, three, four or more articles every day. My page views always jumped with the more content I had, which meant I was holding my readers and had them looking over the site for more, but I was also bringing in new readers who were looking for a specific thing and found me through the search engines. One thing that has evolved over time is I have more contributors on my site, I have more content, and my traffic goes up. Because certain things we cover on my site are seasonal and some things are just more popular than others, my traffic is seasonal as well – with the Fall and Winter being my busier times, and the Spring and Summer being a little slower.  These cycles aren’t because of anything I am doing or not doing, if anything I branch out more in the slower months as I try and add more parts to make a bigger whole. I personally don’t think my site would be nearly as successful if I didn’t have multiple articles every day. The number one comment I get from my readers is that they love my site and come back often, because they know every time they visit they will find something new . To me, comments and emails like this are a clear message that what we are focusing on trying to do is working and is what the audience wants to see. As I said in my last post , I use a team of writers now and I pay them based upon income the site takes in. I received mixed comments on that article and I received some emails about it as well, but it works for me and it helps me reach my goals. While everyone’s goals are different and everyone’s perception of what is a lot of content is different, for me at 800 articles per month we are putting our best foot forward, and if for some reason we ever failed, it wouldn’t be because we were too lazy to generate enough content or because I was misguided by what a lot of content is, and what is worth paying for. I pay my writers not because they ask for money (they don’t), not just because they work hard and really treat their role like any other job where they have a commitment, obligation, and show up every day, but really the main reason I compensate them is I think it would be some seriously bad karma for me to sit back and make millions of dollars, and for them to receive nothing in return except a back link or a Sports Chat Place T-Shirt. I know my site would be successful if it was just me, it was successful when it was just me, but really it comes down to the interpretation of success. Would you rather have a million dollars or half of 10 million for slightly more work? The way I think about it is I am working on the site most of the time anyway, it’s the only thing I really do and what my occupation is, so why stand in the way of letting it grow into whatever it can become? I try not to talk about money too much, I leave that to the “make money blogging” people but trust me on this, I make a pretty good living watching sports and writing all day. How Do I Come Up With Good Topics? Something I hear all the time is I am lucky to have such a popular niche. While my niche is popular, I also compete with some of the heaviest hitters and biggest budgets anywhere. While people think competing with top bloggers like Yaro , Darren Rowse , Brian Clark , and others is tough competition, I lock horns with ESPN , Fox Sports , CBS Sports , Sports Illustrated , and many others each and every day. What I have found is that while those sites do a great job covering sports news, it still leaves a lot of ground to cover and plenty of new ways to look at a lot of the same basic fields, and just present it in a way that they don’t. In other words, I don’t go head-to-head trying to cover the news and do recaps of games with these guys, they are way too big and have massive budgets. My biggest asset is my opinion and the opinion of those who write at the site. It’s something that no matter how big someone’s budget is, they can’t get, and while a lot of the guys on other big sites might be more well-known than I am, I’m not so sure that if they didn’t get the exposure from being on the big news sites if they would be as popular on their own as we are at Sports Chat Place . While I’m not the only site doing what I do, I consider us the best . What My Readers Want Finding out what my readers wanted to see from my site took some time to figure out and it took some pride swallowing as well.  My readers don’t care that I went to one of the top schools for Communications and Journalism, they don’t care if every prediction I make comes true, what they do care about is that I deliver what I say I am going to deliver with no strings attached . While I have a hugely successful Premium Area on my site, I give away more content for free. When I give free content I don’t promise free content and then make my readers triple opt in to a newsletter, submit 37 tweets and Facebook like me, I simply give them the free info right in the article they click on. While this doesn’t kill six birds with one stone, it does build a loyal following, readership and trust, which I can later use to ask my readers to do all of that other stuff, and many of them, while they are at it, enter their credit card number and join my premium site. I like to believe that it’s because I have delivered and over delivered on what I said I would give them , so they know with the premium section it will be more of the same. Common Content Mistakes Taking too long to write the article: Have you ever told yourself you were right the first time or your first instinct is always right? It’s the same with writing. Your article can always be better, but usually the first draft is what you wrote from your heart and passion, no need to dress it up, over clarify, or over edit it, if you have reached the right audience they will care less about the editing work you have done and want to either read your opinion on something or how to solve the problem that had them scouring the internet. The longer you take on one article, the less time you have to produce more content. Making the article too long: There are few people talented enough to keep the attention of the bulk of Internet users for more than a minute or so, from the studies I have seen, that’s even a long time. By making your articles too long you really hurt yourself twice. Firstly, you will be creating content that more than likely most of your readers won’t read, and secondly you have wasted an opportunity to create fresh new content for your blog with little to no more time and effort than you have already spent. If you have an article that is long enough, try breaking it into pieces and if you can, which is even more effective, try and make the pieces their own separate subjects. Try doing at least two but if it’s long enough try three or even more, this is something you’ll get more comfortable with as to what is acceptable over time. This works well on so many levels that you will truly be floored by the results. Firstly, it gets you indexed multiple times in the search engines for something you would have been indexed only once for the one article. If you title the articles correctly it will also open up new search terms. If you have only been posting one article a day, don’t be afraid to post all of these spate articles the same day, as if you continue to use this method you will have plenty of content every day. Don’t worry that your readers will miss something, if they are your regulars they won’t and will be appreciative that you are taking your content to a new level. If they are people who came from the search engines, if you have done your meta data and titling correctly, you have probably grabbed some people who would have probably never found you. Accepting too many guest posts: If a post doesn’t fit what you are doing at your site, don’t take it. Most guest posters do it for the link, which they will stuff like crazy into the semi-relevant articles they give you. This isn’t worth it in most cases. Be selective and make sure it is original content that isn’t going to other sites. Google is cracking down on Article Farms and that’s not a list of associations you want to be on these days. If it isn’t original content, you could be turning your readers off as well as they may have seen the same article somewhere else, and then all of the sudden the blog you put so much work into is now categorized as being one of “them”. Forgetting content really is king: While everyone says content is king, few people actually practice it. It is content which drives the site and the content which all of those people you spend so much time attracting want to see when they finally get to your site. If you do not have fresh content, people will not come back. I think it’s easier to have people coming to my site once a day or more than to have them check back once a week or so. If you can make visiting your site part of what people do every day, that’s a pretty cool thing. I have had days where I have had tech issues and people have written to me asking where my new video is as watching it is part of their daily routine, so I can’t help but think I’m doing something right when I read that. Mitch Wilson Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: book, credit-card, internet, news, online, opinion, search, words

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Creating a Dream Team to Guide Your Business

by Paul Joseph April 28, 2011 Featured

You hear it called by many names: a mastermind group, success team, think tank, advisory board, etc. But it’s got one purpose, and that is to help you get your business to where you want it to be. Whether you’re just starting out, struggling to make it, or looking to take your business to the next level, the right group of advisors can help you achieve your goals. It takes time to build the right group, but it will be well worth the time and effort in the end. Who Should be on Your Team? I refer to this group as a “Dream Team” to emphasize the importance of getting the right people together. Your team will typically be made up of as few as three and as many as ten professionals from various backgrounds. Ideally, you want to find experienced business people with a range of strengths that compliment one another. For example, if you’re an ideas person but not great at creating processes, it’s good to have an operations-focused team member to advise you on the area where you need help. Each member of your team doesn’t have to have a different area of expertise though. For example, it’s a good idea to have more than one creative thinker, or idea person, on your team, and having multiple marketing brains in the room can also be helpful. On the other hand, having more than one accounting pro to advise you probably isn’t necessary, and might just be confusing. Where will You Find Them? Once you’ve decided the kinds of expertise you’d like to have on your team, where do you find these people? Will other business people really be interested in helping with your business – for free? The short answer is, yes. Not everyone will be up for this, but there are plenty of business owners, professionals, and retired professionals who love to help other businesses however they can. Not only does it feel good to help someone, but being able to list several businesses for which you are an advisor adds credibility and positive reputation to your name. Additionally, many people who agree to be part of your team will do so because they are “paying it forward.” In other words, someone helped them when they needed it, and helping you is a way of giving back. So, where are these people? Start by networking, both online (LinkedIn is great for this) and at local business events. Get to know people and figure out who would make a good dream team member. Then, just ask. You might be surprised how many people are not only willing but anxious to be part of your team. In return, you may be asked to sit on other advisory boards, which is good for you, for all the reasons stated above. What Should You do at Meetings? You’ve found a group of pros willing to advise you as part of your dream team advisory board. Now what? There are some important points to keep in mind when holding meetings with your team. First, these are busy people. Have an agenda that will fit within the allotted time slot, and stick to it. Respect everyone’s time, and they’ll come back – don’t and they won’t. Next, make sure you’re clear on what you need help with and how you’ll go about brainstorming ideas to solve issues or plan for the future. Don’t think that just because you’ve got a group of smart people in the room the meeting will run itself. They are there to help you, so ask for the help you need and be clear about how you’d like that help. Perhaps most importantly, show your appreciation for their time and expertise. They’re not doing it to get praise from you, but it’s common courtesy to thank them and reciprocate however you can. One small way to show your appreciation is to have water, coffee, soda, and snacks at the meetings. But also take the time to thank each member individually and let them know how much their help means to you. Why go to All This Trouble? As I stated before, putting together a dream team to advise your company takes time and effort. Not only do you need to find the right people, but you’re likely to have challenges with some people not showing up as they committed, and some personalities may clash, which can present a challenge as well. So is it really worth it? Heck yeah, it is. Even though you might run into some challenges, and it might take you a while to get the perfect group to commit, think about what that could mean for your business when you pull them together. Without paying for high priced consultants, you will have a group of advisors who are experts in their respective fields guiding your company. The value in that can be huge! When Should You get Started? Now!

Tagged as: business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, small-business, starting a business, words

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How I Started Selling Information Online: What It Takes To Become An Infopreneur

by Paul Joseph March 22, 2011 Featured

I’m an Internet infopreneur .  The term itself needs some explaining upfront, so let me begin with that.  An infopreneur is an “information entrepreneur” , someone who turns words (or more specifically, information) into income – in a number of innovative ways.  I’m an infopreneur who uses the Internet as a medium for distributing and monetizing information. How Did This Avenue Of Making Money Online Appeal To Me? It all began when I read a short free report – around 11 pages – by famous author and real estate specialist Robert Allen .  In that report, Bob explained the real value of building a business around information and infoproducts.  Two things about it attracted me immediately. #1 – You can add value to the world through your words. There is a deluge of data all around.  But data, while helpful, isn’t quite valuable.  What’s really valuable is INFORMATION.  It turns what was a noisy cacophony into a melodious symphony, and information is what people in need or search of it will pay you for – happily. #2 – You can get paid forever for work done once. Think about an author who writes a book.  Let’s say it takes a year of hard work to get it finished.  But then, if it becomes a best-seller, it could sell a few MILLION copies over the next twenty years, and the author will get paid royalties all through this time…even if he doesn’t write a single word more! These were the benefits that turned me towards information entrepreneurship. My Internet Infopreneur’s Journey The year was 1995, and the Internet had just come to India.  I was an early adopter, and found myself fascinated at the global reach and access the World Wide Web offered at my fingertips. For the first few months, I simply browsed and learned.  Everything was exciting and fun.  I could read documents from the world’s most famous medical libraries, follow discussions on public forums populated by top specialists in any field, and download reports, read articles and explore websites providing very niche information on diverse subjects. Consuming quickly led to creating.  I built my first website in 1996.  It was about heart disease (my area of specialization as a medical professional) and hosted on the free Geocities server.  That website was a labor of love. I wrote detailed articles about various facets of heart health and preventing or treating heart disease. No thought of making money from it had struck my mind, even after reading the infopreneuring document by Bob Allen. For eight months, hardly anyone read my site.  The monthly visitor count barely hit double digits.  But since then, and until today, I maintain that it is never about “how many” but always about “who” is in your contact network.  One of the people who read my articles was Bob Schulties , whom I later discovered was scouting for writing talent to populate a new website with content. At that time, no one had heard of “The Mining Company” .  Today, many million Netizens know of it as About.com , the Web’s 7th most visited online property! I was the heart disease guide on the service for nearly 2 years.  It was the first time someone thought my content valuable enough to pay me for it, and right from that time, I’ve been paid a lot for my writing!  (In fact, my writing has helped fund my surgical work with under-privileged children born with congenital heart defects, but that’s another story for another day!) Valuable Lessons Even this very early foray I took into infopreneuring has many valuable lessons for today’s beginners thinking about becoming information entrepreneurs.  Here are some: 1.  Be the expert. I doubt if my writing would have appealed to anyone if it had not been rooted in specialist knowledge that was designed to help someone solve a problem.  And we are all experts at something.  Finding that area of special knowledge, and tying it in to a need that exists in the world, is at the root of being a successful infopreneur. 2.  Just do it. Too many people try to figure it all out before they begin.  This can be harmful, because more often than not, you’ll end up convincing yourself about how sure you are to fail!  Instead, if you have a fair idea what you’d like to do, just go on and try it out.  Sure, you might still fail – but even if you do, you’ll learn something valuable. Then again, you just might succeed! 3.  Be patient and passionate. I’m a contrarian in what I teach about information marketing because my emphasis is on following your passion and doing something you like and enjoy.  The rationale is simple.  Meaningful success in writing and information product selling is bound to take some time and effort.  If you pursue topics you are not really engaged with or enthusiastic about, it becomes easy to give up when things go slow or bad.  Be prepared to wait for success.  It will arrive – in time. 4.  Information is precious. Information is the distilled, curated, analyzed, interpreted and collated version of raw data.  The expert infopreneur has the skills and knowledge to go after sources of data, sift through the mess, and come up with the rare golden nuggets – and then present them to an audience in a way that is easy to consume, and of tangible value to them. 5.  Residual income is the goal. Working on a strategy with your information business is important if you’re looking to make it a reliable source of profit and something to scale, develop and turn into a valuable asset – maybe even sell off for a big payday somewhere down the line.  A strategic approach is what turns casual article writing and occasional ebook publishing into a sustainable information product empire that grows and gets more and more profitable over time. It took me ten years to wrap my head around the intricacies and nuances of information marketing.  But for all that time, it was enjoyable, exciting and educational.  That’s the reason I stuck with it.  After gaining so much experience and expertise, I decided to write a book that teaches information marketers the steps along the path. That book took almost a year to finish, but “Think, Write and Retire!” became an Amazon.com Top 100 seller within 24 hours of its launch.  The title was chosen specifically to encapsulate the infopreneur’s dream. “Think” – because you need to plan your strategy, identify your expertise, and analyze your market’s needs.  “Write” – (or record/tape) because nothing happens unless you just do it, create that infoproduct, share your knowledge with others.  “Retire” – because that’s what infopreneuring can help you do, if you want. In another article soon, I’ll explore more specific areas of the infopreneur journey I’ve been enjoying for a decade and a half.  This short report was more of an overview of the process.  We’ll dig deeper into different parts of it, so that you can learn how to be an information entrepreneur too. If you have any questions or issues you’d like addressed, please leave a note in the comments. Dr Mani Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: knowledge, words, world

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7 of the Biggest SEO Mistakes Most People don’t Know they’re Making

by Paul Joseph March 21, 2011 Featured

It’s been said that the first page of search engine results is the most highly coveted real estate on the Internet. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of websites exist for the same keywords, but only around 10 can appear on page one for a given search. Perhaps even more infuriating is that there is no way to pay for a front page listing, and no definitive guide for getting there every time — you just have to figure out how to rank well on your own, which can be pretty scary for a new business without much SEO experience. Thankfully, you don’t need to pay an expensive consultant, or trust the mystified “secrets” of SEO charlatans promising to reveal “Google’s top-secret algorithm” at an exorbitant price. The following tips for avoiding big SEO mistakes can put your website on the path to the top. Furthermore, so few website owners take the time to address all of these issues that simply correcting them all will put you lightyears ahead of the competition. Not Writing Content for the Human Reader High keyword density (the number of times a keyword appears in your content) is no longer a deciding factor in search ranking. In the past, it was common to stuff your website content with the keyword you wanted to rank for, and begin to see results. Today, this misguided strategy not only doesn’t work, but could begin to hurt your ranking. Why? Because search engines have gotten smarter. Search engines, especially Google, now use Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms to analyze the text on a website and determine if it sounds the way a person would naturally write. In other words, Google can tell if you purposely filling your content with awkwardly placed keywords in an attempt to game the system and rank high. Don’t focus on having your main keywords appear as many times as possible, strive instead to create quality content written for a human reader, and you will be rewarded by the search bots. Ignoring HTML Errors It’s a fact — Google’s ranking algorithm hates HTML errors. Having errors on your page will count against you and could cause your rank to fall significantly, even if many other of your on-page factors are good. Unfortunately, website owners may not even know if their site contains errors, because web browsers don’t always show problems when you view a page. A great way to find and correct HTML problems is to make use of the free W3C HTML compliance checking tool . Simply input your website address and the tool will scan your page for errors and report back how many problems there are, and where in the code they exist. This makes it easy to find and fix any issues you may have before beginning your full-forced SEO push. Not Checking URL Canonicalization Have you ever noticed that there are two ways you can type in a website address? You could type “www . YourWebsite . com,” or you could simply type “YourWebsite . com.” While both of these URLs may resolve to the same website, they are actually different website addresses in the eyes of the search engines. As you build out your website, publish content and seek inbound links, your link total will actually get split in half, as some bloggers will type your URL with the “www” prefix, and others will leave it off. The solution is to tell the search engines to group both URLs together using a 301 redirect from one to the other. This is called URL canonicalization, and it can double your search engine power when done properly. It does not matter which URL — “www . YourWebsite . com” or “YourWebsite . com” you choose to redirect to the other, all that matters is that the redirect is a 301 (or permanent redirect). Any other redirect type will not work. Reciprocal Linking You have probably wondered how you will go about getting links from other bloggers and thought about offering an exchange — “You link to me and I’ll link to you, and we will both benefit.” Logical as this may seem, it won’t help your search ranking one bit. This strategy is known as reciprocal linking (two sites that link to each other), and is ignored by Google. When you link to a site that is linking to you, the links cancel each other out, and neither site gets the SEO benefit. Putting Important Content in AJAX AJAX is a great tool for making your website very pretty and user-friendly, and is a common staple of today’s Internet. If you put the wrong content in AJAX, however, it can negatively effect your SEO efforts. AJAX works by reaching into a server and pulling content out to display on demand, without having to refresh the web page. This means that this content is not readily available for search engine bots to scan, and will be skipped entirely when the they index your website. Imagine if 70% of your homepage was done in AJAX (not uncommon these days), and most of your important, descriptive content was containing within this framework. That would mean that almost all of your website would go unseen by the search engines, making you look irrelevant to all of your keywords. Avoid this problem by making sure you have your most important content in actual, on-page text. AJAX is great for some jobs, but don’t over-use it or your site will be invisible to Google’s ranking system. Using Keywords in the Wrong Context Google now looks as much at the text surrounding the keyword as they do the keyword itself. This is an attempt to determine the overall theme of a website — essentially asking “what is this site mostly about?” Therefore, if you’re trying to rank for a keyword such as “health insurance policy,” but your website publishes a lot of content about movie reviews to get traffic flowing in, Google will take notice that your target keyword appears in an irrelevant place. In the above example, the search engine will scan all of the content on your website in an attempt to theme it, and will deduce that it’s a “movie review” website. Therefore, if every movie review ends with a quick blurb about getting your “free health insurance quote,” it will devalue that keyword placement as irrelevant to the rest of the website. Additionally, inbound links from totally irrelevant sources are valued less than those from relevant websites. Make sure that your website is themed around the keywords you’re aiming to rank for to make the most of your written content. Focusing too Much on On-Page Factors While on-page factors — the elements of your website that you can control — such as HTML errors and keyword context are important to SEO, they are only a small part of a much bigger picture. Think about it — if there was a recipe you could follow to make your site rank on the first page, the search engine results would be a joke. They would be dominated not by the best, most relevant and helpful websites, but by whatever businesses cracked the mystery code and slid their site onto page one. Needless to say, this is antithetical to the search engine philosophy. To solve this problem, search engines now rank a site largely based on the number of other sites that link to it. The idea here is that if other people find your website helpful or entertaining enough to recommend that their visitors check it out, it must be worthwhile. Therefore, it must be stressed that the majority of your SEO efforts should be spent seeking inbound links, not endlessly tweaking your own website. On-page optimization should be thought of a quick prerequisite to getting links, and quickly taken care of early on. About the Author: Jerrimie Allen is a freelance writer for Invesp. Invesp helps businesses improve their online revenue, reduce customer acquisition cost, and provide their visitors with a better user experience through landing page optimization .

Tagged as: code, entrepreneur, internet, real-estate, search, search engines, seo, time, words

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