So often, we try to complicate things.
Especially in internet marketing where it’s way too easy to take 200 steps where 5 would do.
Of 101 different methods when, if we stopped to apply the 80/20 rule, we’d only be using a handful.
We do the same with gadgets – extra features we’re never ever going to use sell us on the higher end model.
Going back to basics with internet marketing is well worth it!
Link building should only be done ethically.
That should go without saying but so many people look for short cuts on the internet that it’s worth re-iterating.
Google’s algorithm has a long memory and anything that you do to trick people will come back to bite you. Usually in the form of lower rankings and less traffic.
So what kind of link building is whitehat and ethical?
Emailing your list isn’t a science.
There are lots of thoughts, lots of suggestions.
You’ll never please everyone all the time.
So what should you do?
Dmoz – the Open Directory project – has been going for years.
At the time of writing, it had 4,258,294 sites listed by 89,262 editors (nearly all of whom are volunteers) in over a million categories.
It’s varied in importance over the years. At one stage, Google used it as their directory but that stopped in 2011.
In theory, getting listed in Dmoz is simple. But there are a few things to consider:
Using web 2.0 sites for link building sounds like win-win: you get to put a page on a high authority site and hopefully at least some of that authority and credibility passes across to you.
But is it worth doing?
And, if it is, how should you do it?
Planning your internet business is boring but important.
Too often, our internet businesses just “happen”. Some of that is due to outside influences – we can’t control what the search engines do, for instance – but the more proactive you are, the better your chance of success.
Of course, you need to do what you’ve planned rather than leave it sitting around getting bored!
Ranking a video on YouTube is similar to ranking a site on Google: it’s a mixture of making sure your video (page) is optimised for your keyword phrase and a number of other factors, some of which are part of YouTube’s proprietory algorithm.
But – as you’d probably expect from a company owned by Google – the basics are the same as ranking a web page.
Autoresponders are an essential part of internet marketing.
Most people – including myself – normally suggest Aweber. It’s long established and has an excellent relationship with the main email companies, so your messages are almost certain to get delivered. It also copes with very large quantities of emails if and when your business gets to giant numbers.
But all that comes at a price and when you’re starting out, costs seem to mount up quicker than income arrives.
If that applies to you, there is a free WordPress autoresponder plugin that works well and has some scaleability as well.
This is going to be a short but potentially very valuable post.
Early bird lists are a good way to announce upcoming products.
They’re a good way to build a list of potential buyers and I know several people who use them to kick start sales of a product.
Here’s a neat idea you can use for early bird notifications to earn more cash from them:
WordPress needs tweaking before it becomes SEO friendly. Here’s a set of 3 video WordPress SEO tutorials that will show you what to do to get your WordPress SEO up to speed.
Video 1: Basic WordPress SEO
Video 2: Using the Yoast plugin for WordPress SEO – basics
Video 2: Using the Yoast plugin for WordPress SEO – other things to consider
You can find out more here about creating good content for your blog quickly.
And if you’d like to know how to make your content work harder for you, click here.
Or if you’d like to join my weekly tutor group, you can find out more here.