Increase Your Blog Traffic Part 1

Submit your site to various search engines such as Google, DMOZ as well as any directories that are appropriate for your content.

If you are a WAHM, add your site to one of the several WAHM directory sites.

There are directories for homeschool moms, Christian moms and many more. Find out which directories your likely readers will be checking and make sure they can find you there.

Do a search in a major search engine for your topic or related topics and add the word "directory" to see what other users will see and make sure that you submit there.

Don't forget, follow me at Twitter.com/MommyEbiz

Duplicate Content- Not Worth It

Seems some bad Internet marketers/ SEO chasers may buy hundreds of domains and duplicate content across all of them creating what Google calls "a poor user experience" for those who are using their search engine. As a result, Google and other search engines appear to have gone a little crazy with not indexing duplicate content in their main search pages.

What's an honest network marketer to do?
1. Do not be tempted to post your blog articles in different venues. Write new articles for article submissions.

2. Read the Google guidelines for webmasters on html specifics you can implement for specific circumstances.

3. Don't worry- Google says the good guys should not worry too much about this. If you say so...


Don't forget, follow me at Twitter.com/MommyEbiz

Monetize Your Blog Part 2

Scribefire, the nifty Firefox plug-in for quickly posting to your blog, now offers an ad network.

Scribefire aggegates a number of ad placements, including Adsense, and allows you to feature ads on your blogs and get PAID!

Remember to check the ads being placed to insure that they are relevant to your visitors. And most importantly, keep creating great content because that is what will bring the visitors who will click on the ads.

Depending on the ads and the audience, expect a conversion rate of not greater than 3% on average. You will need a lot of visitors to click if each click is worth only a few cents and you would like to make hundreds or thousands of dollars per month from advertising. (these figures are highly dependent on the type of ad, blog, audience demographics and more but just to give some sample figures...)

See Monetize Your Blog Part 1


Don't forget, follow me at Twitter.com/MommyEbiz

Monetize Your Blog Part 1

Text Link Ads is an easy way to monetize your blog. I was amazed at how simple it was to set up.

Once you sign up and confirm your registration by e-mail, give a little information about your blog or website, get the RSS, place it on your site and forget about it!

Text Link Ads, as their name implies, are contextual ads that are meant to blend seamlessly into your site, offering your visitors opportunities to learn more about products and services related to your content.

It is nice to have some Adsense alternatives. Many of the big-name Internet marketing gurus (like John Chow) state that they make much more from ad sources other than Adsense.

Don't forget, follow me at Twitter.com/MommyEbiz

25 Twitter Tools

Twitter rocks and I was happy to come across this list of 25 Twitter tools and Firefox Plug-ins.

I have tried many of these and they make twitter even more fun.

Don't forget, follow me at Twitter.com/MommyEbiz

Tweet Later Allows Scheduling of Tweets

Internet Marketing Efficiency Tip- Schedule as much as you can to automate your Internet marketing.
Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site is becoming a more important and useful Internet marketing tool. It is important to make the most of Twitter without allowing it to overwhelm your greater goals of quality content creation.

TweetLater allows you to do just that.

Log into your Tweetlater account, verify your twitter account to which you would like to "tweet later", write a future tweet from your account, adjust your timezone and hit save.

This feature is especially handy if you are going on vacation or perhaps busy working on another project. You can still be providing your twitter followers with useful information even in your absence.

Follow me on twitter- username mommyEBiz

Google Gadgets

Most people do not even know the full extent of Google tools available to assist in Internet marketing.

Right now Google is at the top of the SEO heap so as you learn about SEO and Internet marketing, you must learn about Google.

Start by looking at the very long list of Google tools, applications and more in this Wikipedia article.

Best Web Hosting For SEO

Web hosting is an important foundation of the Internet marketing arsenal. The difference between good and bad web hosting can affect the way search engines see your site and thus affect your SEO. When your site is down, so is your SEO. Here a brief review of some of the more popular and reliable web hosts today.

1. Reliable, Affordable Business Hosting from Bluehost.com.

From BlueHost:

Hosting plan includes: - 1 Free Domain (1 and 2 year plan) - Free Setup (1 and 2 year plan) - 300 Gigs of Storage Space - 3,000 Gigs of Transfer - 2500 E-Mail Accounts - SSH, Perl, MySQL, FrontPage Extension Support, Fantastico, WYSIWYG Site Builder, Free Marketing Services and more. - Unlimited domains can be hosted for no extra charge on 1 account Our technical support leads the industry and is located at our corporate headquarters here in the USA. We offer chat, email and phone support to our customers.

Bluehost was recently awarded Best New Hosting Company and Best Customer Support by the some of the leading hosting review companies.
My husband and I have had very good experiences with BlueHost. The support is excellent.

2. GoDaddy.com, the world’s #1 domain name registrar also provides web hosting. I have been used GoDaddy web hosting and website creation services and have no complaints.
GoDaddy.com Hosting Plans


3. HostDime Web Hosting starting at $8.25/month, Free Setup

From the company:

Our most popular package:
200GB Disk Space
2000 GB of Bandwidth
Host 10 Addon Domains
Cpanel w/ Fantastico
Unlimited E-mail Addresses
Unlimited MySQL Databases
24/7 Phone Support
$9.00/month
$99/year

4. iPower - The Leader in Web Hosting

iPower is one of the World's Fastest Growing Web Hosting and Domain Name Registration Companies. iPower currently hosts over 500,000 websites.

Shrink Those URLs!

Want to direct readers to a specific page within a site that has an unwieldy and long url?

Take advantage of several free services that will shrink down those urls for you making it easier for you to Twitter, e-mail or text them. Some, like is gd are available as a Firefox add-on- See more on why I recommend Firefox and Firefox add-ons for Internet marketing here.

Here is another:

tiny url

PR for Christian Marketing

If you are running a business of interest to Christians and would like to get the word out to appropriate news sources, Christian Newswire may be a good option for you.

According to the site:

Over 900 public policy groups, government agencies, PR firms, religious organizations, think-tanks, watchdog groups, advocacy groups, coalitions, foundations, colleges, universities, activists, politicians, and candidates use Christian Newswire to distribute their press releases.

Getting the news about your website or blog in the right media hands can mean quite a bit of publicity and a targeted press release in your industry or area of interest can make all the difference.

SEO Graphical Tool

I found a really cool SEO tool to help you visualize which related keywords associated with your main keywords are most-searched for.

This can greatly help you align your site for SEO purposes with what your website visitors are looking for as they search online.

MSN Keyword Graph Tool for SEO

Keyword Funnel

MSN tools offers a very useful SEO tool, a keyword funnel analysis of websites to help you determine a users search behavior after they search on a key term.

You can aid your SEO efforts by discovering additional keywords that visitors may use to find your site.


Click on the link below to try it out.

Keyword Funnel Tool

Use Google Insights For SEO Help

Google Insights is a terrific new google tool that can give you important information about what micro-trends are occurring within search terms that may be important to your business.

Check it out at Google Insights.

Twitter is Hot

With lots of new apps coming out and more in the works, Twitter is the darling of the social media world and my personal favorite. Look for great things to come from Twitter! I will be featuring several posts about what is hot with twitter in the coming week.

Sign up for Twitter at Twitter.com.

Find me under user name MrsCarrington.

Domain Registrations On Sale

Domain registrations are on sale for just $7.49! Hooray! I just picked up a couple of new domains for a new blog network I am crafting. And then, I just get carried away. Domain registration can be a bit addicting once you let your creativity run wild. I guess that is what entrepreneurship is all about. Click below to go crazy registering.

Go Daddy $7.49 .com Sale!


If you are going to be registering a lot consider theGoDaddy.com Discount Domain Club
.

Fast, Easy Websites With GoDaddy

I first used www.GoDaddy.com
for website design and hosting when I knew little about the Internet or Internet marketing. It was very easy and fast. I recommend the GoDaddy hosting and website creation options because for ease-of-use and price, it can not be beat.
Click and build your very own Web site online!


GoDaddy now also offers custom web design.Go Daddy Custom Web site Design
If you are really in a hurry and know little of even basic web design, this may be the most efficient option for you.

Make a decision soon because it is harder to succeed in Internet marketing without a website or blog!

Blog To Twitter

Internet Marketing Efficiency Tip: Maximize your online efforts by using less time to accomplish more functions.

I am a busy homeschooling mom so efficiency is a must as I operate in the Internet marketing sphere. I will frequently share Internet Marketing Efficiency Tips on this blog for your consideration.

How about keeping your Twitter updated by killing "two birds with one stone"? While you get a blog post done, why not do a tweet at the same time?

Twitterfeed allows you to do just that. I totally love this service and could not live without it.

Adsense Case Studies

Adsense can be a very successful way for the Internet marketing content producer to generate income from content. Using Adsense, contextual ads that target your visitors based on why they came to your site, are useful for the visitor because the visitor gets exposed to more resources in the area of interest.

You as the publisher can get reimbursed for your writing and information procurement skills by providing the context for the ads.

Using Adsense is not always as intuitive as one might think and I have found actual case studies to be very useful in helping to answer the question of "How to make money with Adsense".

These case studies are available for free on the Google Adsense blog. Take a moment to read a few and see if they inspire you.

Rank Your Posts

This very handy tool allows you to rank the posts within your RSS feed for your own blog or to filter content of RSS feeds you would like to subscribe to.

Do better SEO by having a better idea of what posts are most popular and give your readers more of what they want.

Post Rank gives you more intelliegence about what your subscribers and readers are doing with your content.

That can only help you to create better content, a better user experience for your visitor and if your site is monetized, more profits for you.

Again, this handy tool is available as a Firefox extension.

See my article on why Firefox is the best browser for Internet marketing today.

SEO Tip: Mine The Long Tail

One of the many counter-intuitive aspects of SEO is the concept of mining the long tail of your keywords. This not-so-obvious strategy involves paying attention to and adjusting your SEO to maximize the performance of your lesser-searched for terms.

Why on earth do you care about the little-searched terms that are associated with your main keywords?

1. Internet searchers are looking for those terms, no matter how few they may be (remember, you are in the business of Internet marketing to help those who come online for a specific purpose to accomplish their purpose!)

2. Less competition. You will face much less competition for keywords related to your main keyword that are less popular. Less competition translates into fewer advertising dollars you will have to spend to get that keyword seen by Internet searchers.

3. A little times a little adds up to a lot. By mining 50 long tail keywords you may only get one visitor per day for each keyword but that adds up to an additional 1500 visitors per month for your site! Imagine that.

As an example, I run a women's plus size site. Plus size, plus size woman and plus size clothing are very popular (and expensive) search terms. However, there are many more long tail keywords that are searched for but at a lower rate such as "cheap plus size" or "plus size belt" that can also bring visitors to my site.

As you are deciding on what keywords to target for your site, include long tail considerations as part of your SEO strategy.

Free Teleprompter For Video, Podcasts

Is part of your Internet marketing strategy involve making videos or podcasts? It should. If it does, you may find a software that turns your computer monitor into a teleprompter useful.

Cueprompter.com will help you to avoid stumbling over words or saying "uh" constantly, thereby reducing your editing time.

Easy to use and free, this teleprompting solution is worth a try.

SEO: Viral Marketing

Would you like to have word about your website or blog go viral? Of course you would! The best Internet marketing thrives on viral marketing. A very thoughtful viral marketing campaign can catapult your Internet marketing efforts to the next level.

This excellent article by Jennifer over at Search Engine Guide, is very helpful.

For good SEO, you do not need to resort to back-handed tricks or so-called "Black Hat" SEO. Just do your research, do your work and keep learning all the time.

How do you know what online business to start? The key is to research well before you start. What are the main areas you should research?

1. Yourself. Write down your skills and talents and your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Your market. It is usually best to target a market to which you belong or one of which you have intimate knowledge. This makes promoting your product or service among your existing networks very easy.
3. Your product. You will need to consider the sources and costs of a product and the training and other resources you may need to offer a service.
4. The trends. Is your potential product or service trending up or down? Is this a hot trend that is growing or one that is nearing it's apex?



In future posts on this topic, we will look at tools that you can use to complete your research in each of these areas so stay tuned.

SEO Tool for Adsense

Considering running Adsense on your blog or website to generate income from your writing? Just slapping some Adsense on your site and hoping for the best is not the smartest strategy.

Some keywords seem to generate ads that are not very appealing or relevant to the actual market. This is one reason why it is helpful to have some knowledge of your target market as you are preparing your Internet marketing strategy. If you note that the ads are not appropriate or relevant for your site, you may choose not to run them at all.

Labnol has a very handy SEO tool, Google Adsense Sandbox, that allows you to quickly view the ads for a given keyword. It is the only one of its kind as far as I know. Check it out and bookmark it for future reference.

SEO Tip: Solve A Problem

Did you ever think about how many problems you confront and often solve each day? Do you ever use your computer to search for answers to the problem?

If you have, then you probably have in your search history potential content that can boost your SEO.

If you had the problem and looked online for the solution, someone else probably did too.

This is largely why I started this blog. I had a lot of questions about Internet marketing and affiliate marketing, spent a lot of time researching answers, discovered that others had the same questions I did so I began to publish some of my questions and answers.

Read a good article on this topic here.

HTML for Internet Marketing

At least some basic knowledge of HTML, the language used to create websites, is important if you are interested in Internet marketing or affiliate marketing.

HTML is relatively easy to learn and basic instructions are readily available online.

Please don't tell me "I can't learn HTML." Can you follow instructions? If you can, you can learn and implement basic HTML.

I often go to HTML Goodies if I am stuck and just need some basic help.

I suggest that you add the site to your bookmarks toolbar as I did.

Estimate Your Traffic With Google Tool

The Google Traffic Estimator is a very important free tool that can serve two purposes well.

1. If you are buying ads on Google search pages, this tool can tell you how much you can expect to pay for each keyword you want to use. It will tell you the cost per click and estimate the number of daily clicks. Before you set your budget for your campaign, this is crucial information to have to insure the success of your Internet marketing campaign using Adwords.

2. If you are a publisher (information provider) who features Google Ads on your site, the Traffic Estimator can give you information about how likely visitors may be to click on your links given the keywords that predominate in your content. You will of course have to estimate and the tool is most useful in this way to compare keywords.

Add the Traffic Estimator to your arsenal of SEO research tools to help you zero in on the content you would like to provide that might also be most profitable for you.

Google Analytics Key Research Tool

If you have not installed Google Analytics tracking to each and every one of your websites and blogs, run, do not walk to Google Analytics right now!

At least for now, this extremely powerful tool is completely free, and I can not see how one can mount an effective SEO campaign without using an analysis to tool to monitor websites regularly.

Among some important metrics you will be able to track:
-keywords visitors use to find you
-top content pages
-bounce rate
-time spent on pages
-visitor loyalty/returning visitors
-traffic sources

You can also link the results to your Adwords campaign, analyze your site in real time and more.

IMPORTANT: Once you sign up go to the Filter option and remember to block your own ip address.

Google Base: Rank Your Product On Google

Imagine getting a primo spot for your product in Google search listings for your product. It is easy to do if you just sign up for Google Base.

Once you are signed in, you can upload one product at a time or many products using a feed. Detailed instructions are included as google help pages.

Your results will also be fed to to Google Shopping results.

One caveat for affiliate marketers: You can not use Google Base for affiliate marketing according to the Google Base TOS. Sorry.

Internet Marketing Success Story- A Guitar Teacher

So, have you started your Internet marketing only to find your efforts are falling flat? Do you feel like giving up? Well, don't!

Perseverance and a willingness to learn and try new plans is essential for success in Internet marketing.

Read the story of a desperate guitar teacher and how he turned failure into making a living online.

Make A Home Business Plan

The US government's small business site at SBA.gov has a wealth of free information.

It can be overwhelming but worthwhile to spend some time learning business basics. Much of Internet marketing is just business basics applied to the Internet. The basic principles in running an Internet-based business are similar to those of non-Internet based businesses.

Because most internet marketing focused businesses are home based businesses as mine is, I wanted to post here a business plan for the home business.

Running any business without a plan is like walking down a long and dangerous path blindfolded. It is wrong to think that you will set up shop selling something on the Internet, sit back, relax and wait for the profits to come rolling in.

Make a plan using the excellent material from this Home Business Plan, courtesy of the SBA.

Firefox Best For Internet Marketing

The Firefox browser has been instrumental to my success. It's many SEO savvy add-ons make it easy for the Internet marketer to do everything from make a blog post on the fly to keep an eye on competitors. If you are not already on board, check out the impressive list of useful Firefox Customizations and then consider downloading the latest version today.

MAC and Windows are both available.

I will be featuring some of the Firefox tools that are especially helpful to Internet marketers and SEO junkies in future posts.