Michael J Byers

Backlinks are the foundation of any SEO effort, and one of the most important parts of your online marketing efforts. Despite many online marketers deriding SEO as a marketing form, its benefits are very real, very measurable and very important. As such, assigning a great deal of marketing muscle and time to monitoring and building backlinks is an intelligent and important decision.

First things first - what is a backlink? A backlink is simply a link to your page from another external source. This could mean a link from a relatively popular blog, highlighting the services, applications or content on your website. It could be a link from an online journal or newspaper, explaining your website as part of a current event or as an external source. In addition to that, it could even be a review of your website from a top blogger or online authority. In all circumstances, backlinks are important for raising your online profile and boosting your search engine results.

So where do you start your backlink building efforts? For many marketers, building organic backlinks starts with fertilising some of their own. You can start with article marketing - a popular form of online marketing that involves writing articles, blog posts and related content about your website - and distributing it around the internet. Many marketers choose to start by hiring writers to create and distribute content for them, either through article directories or through posts on third party blogs.

Whatever way you go about it, you'll quickly find that building this initial content is key to building the organic content further down the line. Online marketing is often about "passive income" and it's quite simple to think of SEO in this sense. To build that passive SEO, you need to actively work towards building those links initially. Once you've created enough of a presence on your own, people will begin to take notice themselves, and eventually begin distributing and linking to your website for you.

It all comes down to building that initial awareness. Whether you are a blogger, an online service company or a developer, building that initial audience and awareness is what will propel you to great online heights. By creating that initial audience, you solidify yourself as an online authority, create search engine juice that will allow other bloggers and webmasters to find you, and effectively control your online brand in the early stages of your business.

So if you want to create an organic online presence, don't be afraid to start by planting the seeds yourself. You can't build your online presence and expect people to find it straight away, and by focusing on the initial wave of SEO and interest, you can easily push other people to link to you. Have an eye for interest-building content, get out there writing, and you'll eventually see your organic backlinks building. It's not instant, it requires a dedicated initial effort, but once it pays off it's all worth it. 

Search Engine Optimisation, Search Marketing search engine optimisation, search engine, seo, article marketing

Statistics such as those reported by The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Optimization (Entrepreneur Press, Madison, Wisconsin, 2008) show that 70 percent of adults use the Internet and that over 80 percent of online transactions start with a search using a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, or Ask.

Those listings that come out at the top of the results lists from those online searches are using search engine marketing (SEM). As such, SEM is responsible for the success of a slew of online retailers and web based businesses. The foundation of SEM is search engine optimisation (SEO).

SEM

What is SEM and how is it used? A few quick facts about SEM will help explain the basics:

• SEM and SEO are used interchangeably. Both relate to marketing a website via search engines. SEM is basically improving the rank of a website in the search engines using a combination of search engine-related techniques to get a web site optimally ranked.
• SEM also involves using links to other pages and other websites that are directly related to the company's website.
• To achieve a high search engine rank, SEM strategies have to be implemented.
• Both SEM/SEO techniques are just part of the toolset in a company's marketing toolbox and cannot be considered an end-all to marketing.
• Anyone can learn to use SEM effectively.
• Google, who is responsible for much of the technology that drives SEM, has webmaster guidelines available at its site. Take at look at those guidelines before getting started.

SEO

A few facts and guidelines about SEO include:

• SEO involves finding and using targeted keyword phrases throughout the content of a website. Keywords are words or phrases that customers would enter into the search engine search box.
• There are several ways to find keywords and phrases. Look through competitor's websites, read trade related magazines for catchphrases and words, or do test searches by typing in words and phrases in the various search engines and see who comes to the top of the list. A faster and often more reliable research method is to buy a subscription to an online commercial program. There are several effective and low cost keyword research programs available such as wordtracker.com and keyworddiscovery.com.
• Keywords and phrases found through the research should be used in every aspect of the website including the domain name, page titles and subtitles, articles, advertising, press releases, fact sheets, internal and external links, and throughout every page of the site.

To see the results of SEM and SEO, spend time doing serious search trials in the big four search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask) and review the results list to see which sites come out at the top of the list.

Look to see how many of the results contain the word used in the search box. Or, try searching for book or music titles at Amazon or do a job search at Monster.com. Both of those online companies use SEO/SEM to its fullest.

Search Engine Marketing

Web success is an opportunity that any size or type of business can achieve by implementing a few practices such as SEO and SEM.

As with all things Internet or cyberspace related, experience is the best teacher. With just these few basics, a company can start considering using search engine marketing.

Search Engine Optimisation, Search Marketing seo, seo tips, search engine optimisation

In an uncertain economic climate, a business must employ all the tools at its disposal to be able to reach new customers and to keep its current clients. A business must be connected to its customers so that it can improve and develop. It must look further than short-term gain and rely on its ability to bring value to the marketplace.

A website offers all businesses, from the smallest to the largest, the opportunity to reach more potential customers than ever before possible. It is a cost-effective way to create unmatched exposure for a service or product worldwide, and is also a gateway for you to connect with your customers to further understand their desires and needs.

One of the fundamental laws of marketing is to understand your customer's needs and desires, and then to fulfill them. A website can provide information that used to be accessible to companies only through highly expensive market research studies, which could never provide real-time and constant information.

The internet allows businesses to expand their reach around the globe for a fraction of the cost of opening international stores and branch offices. Before the advent of the internet, reaching customers in other cities or countries required extensive financing and logistics. The brick-and-mortar expansion system cannot reach the number of customers that a website can reach. Even the largest businesses, with points of sale all over the world, have limited access to customers while a website can attract a global audience.

Internet usage statistics (source: Internet World Stats) show that over 1.5 billion people access the internet on a daily basis. This translates into 1.5 billion potential customers for your business, all at a fraction of the cost of what opening an off-line point of sale would entail.

Your website's conversion rate of visitors into customers will increase if you implement an adequate SEO campaign. SEO is a process which optimizes various aspects of your site, including content, so that search engines see it as a relevant site. Subsequently, when an internet user searches for a certain keyword that is relevant to your service or product your website will appear in the search query results, helping to drive targeted traffic to your site. A professionally designed and managed SEO campaign will increase the chances of your site ranking on the first page of the search results. Bringing targeted search traffic to your website is akin to finding gold at the end of the rainbow, since most of that traffic is looking for your product or service.

A website provides access to an almost limitless customer base and to a targeted audience, as well as reducing overhead costs, one of the main culprits in the failure of a business. Your store no longer requires salespeople to serve your customers, which greatly reduces costs. Reduced costs lead to competitive prices and increase the percentage of sales.

It is a wise decision to have your website professionally designed to be more attractive to your customers, and to guarantee that ever-important search placement. Being on the first page of a search engine's results page is like having your storefront on the highest traffic pedestrian avenue you can think of. But imagine if those pedestrians are all people who want or need your product, then the chance of you making a sale increases exponentially. Now, imagine that avenue is filled with millions of pedestrians. It is a pure numbers game, if your conversion rate is 3%, under normal circumstances, then with your website you get 3% of millions, versus 3% of thousands or tens of thousands.

A website is truly the most effective marketing tool available, and the best opportunity for a business to grow without having to make massive investments. A professionally designed and optimised website is a business's path to survival and success in a global economy.

Search Engine Optimisation, Website Promotion website promotion, search engine optimisation, seo

All internet marketing professionals want their website to come among the first couple of pages on any search engine. Search engine optimised content is one of the best tools to achieve the same. Back-links is one of the most potent tools of search engine optimisation. And link baiting has emerged as an ideal way of acquiring sound back-links to your site.

What is link baiting?

The article or the content is the most important part to attract interest from other users as well as get back-links. If a website has a great article then automatically others will link to it. So the article or the content here plays the bait for organic and authentic back-links to your site. This is called link baiting.

A well maintained web page attains a huge number of one-way links. Basically it is all about attracting others by writing about topics which interests others the most. Link baiting is link building in an unconventional way. In case of link baiting, links are not pursued. To acquire links, hooks can be of several types like:

• News hook: Content on the latest news can attract links to it.
• Contrary hook: Some articles can be written in a way to raise arguments from people. If done effectively, side-stepping controversies or personal vendetta, it is one of the best link-baiting methods.
• Resource hook: If the article is very rich and high on quality, links pour in as users refer to it as a genuine resource of information.
• Humor: Humorous articles in web sites can also act as effective link baits.
• Attack: This is a type where other content/articles are criticised, invoking a response from the other author – as well as back-links on their profiles/web sites.

In short link baiting is all about making the article or the content very interesting and attractive. There are some important tips that help to be a successful link baiter:

• Try to write about topics which might interest people or which is very popular on public forums. Don’t write any boring or repetitive articles; else nobody will even go through it.
• Try to promote your work through blogs, reviews, interactive forums, etc.
• Write about anything which is current, spicy, interesting and very informative. Don’t write on old topics (if not as a response) as old news is no news.
• Write the content in a way that stands out from other articles. Think out-of-the-box.
• Try to invoke others’ reactions or views as people often link back to interactive articles.

There are several advantages for link baiting

• Links acquired via link baiting can be crucial to improve your site’s search engine ranking.
• The more links you get, more your website’s value increases. People view your website having a large amount of back-links as a reliable site and a potential resource for further information.
• Vastly improved conversion rate of the website.

Pitfalls of link baiting

Link baiting is all about capturing links though articles but it can act as a double edged sword. You should know what to write and should not exaggerate or fake just to attract people. This might get you a large inflow of back-links initially, but may put your website’s authenticity and professionalism at stake. Even if you criticise any other content or competitor then you must have logical proof and arguments to support the same.

Link baiting can create wonders if executed right. All these depend on the quality, importance, logic, and how presentable your article is on the website. The most important of all is to have an in-depth knowledge on the subject you are writing about.

Summary

Link baiting is a method to capture links but this method should be executed well in order to obtain results.

Reference links

http://www.ezinearticles.com/?What-is-Link-Baiting?&id=1438138

http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Website-Promotion-Via-Link-Baiting&id=964054

http://www.thatseoguy.com/2008/10/10/the-pitfalls-of-link-baiting/

Search Engine Optimisation, Website Promotion website promotion, seo tips, seo, search engine optimisation, article marketing

The URL of your website is a key factor in search engine optimisation. It is important to choose a search engine friendly URL that search engine crawlers can read without problems. If the URL can be easily read and crawled, then the likelihood of getting your site to the top of the search engine ranks is increased. Here are some tips for creating an SEO friendly URL.

1. Create a short and static URL. Static URLs do not contain special characters or long strings of code. They usually take the structure of www.michaeljbyers.com. Search engine crawlers prefer this form of URL as they prioritize short and static URLs when indexing web pages.
2. You should include keywords in your URL. For example, if a site is selling digital cameras, then the URL should contain the keywords cameras or digital cameras. There are two advantages for constructing the URL in this way. The most significant is that search engines will identify your site when someone makes a search for digital cameras. The other advantage is that web users can easily remember the address of a site that has a short, relevant URL.
3. You should always endeavour to organise your URL structure based on your website topics and site map. This way, search engines will be able to index all the pages in your website efficiently. Website users will also have an easier time navigating a website that has a well made URL structure.

Search Engine Optimisation seo, seo tips, search engine optimisation, search engine

When you have your own internet business, the amount of traffic that visits your site is what determines how much you will earn. It is the lifeblood of that business and in order for you to be successful, it is imperative that you generate a constant flow of traffic to your site. Basically, the more visitors you receive at your site, the greater the likelihood that you will generate a viable revenue stream.

If you're a relatively new internet entrepreneur, this guide will give you an idea why sufficient traffic to your website is so important. Additionally, you will find information throughout the report regarding ways to develop streams of visitors to your site, as well as how to convert it into sales so that you profit from that traffic.

Here's something that is even more important where getting traffic to your website is concerned. It isn't just the quantity of traffic that matters, it's the quality of it combined with how well you convert that traffic into sales. You could be getting a million visitors a day to your site, but if those visitors aren't buying, you won't be in business very long. No matter what type of online business you are involved in, website traffic (or the lack thereof), can be the life (or death) of an online business.

First of all, you want to make sure that your site is optimised for the search engines. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the single most important technique you can employ in order to get traffic to your site. When someone is searching the web for what you are selling, keyword rich advertising and content is what will bring those visitors to your site to investigate your products. SEO content increases your chances of being noticed when someone is surfing the web to find the products that you are offering.

Secondly, traffic exchanges are an often used form of advertising, and if worked properly can bring tons of traffic to your site. TE's, as they are often referred to, are "websites that provides a service for webmasters in exchange for traffic". The benefit to these sites is that they are a cheap form of advertising for the novice entrepreneur to market their businesses, products, or services online.

Article content is another traffic generator as well. You have numerous opportunities based on the type of content and subject matter that you write on to generate traffic to your website. You can write eBooks, publish newsletters, and post at forums. And forums should be taken advantage of whenever you can, provided that they are related to your business endeavor. You are usually allowed to post your links in a forum, so why not take full advantage of that opportunity as well.

TE's take a lot of work and that is their downside. Basically, the more you surf the different exchanges that you're a member of, the more credits you build up. You use these credits for ad banner, text link, and website impressions. Once you have enough credits built up from surfing, you convert them to impressions so other people will see your banners, links, and site URL's

Understand that it doesn't matter what type of business you're engaged in. You could be an Adsense Publisher, an online reseller, or a traffic exchange owner. Just be aware that there are certain ways that you can drive traffic to your website. There are all kinds of marketing options and techniques for building a constant flow of traffic to your website, but one of the best methods is affiliate marketing.

According to Wikipedia, "Affiliate marketing is a web-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's marketing efforts." It's basically a web-based marketing technique wherein one website is used to drive traffic to another.

Shortly after the onset of internet advertising, affiliate relationships between websites began to develop and the concept of affiliate marketing was born. Other terminologies often used when referring to the subject are:

• Pay-per-performance
• performance-based marketing
• referral-based marketing
• revenue-sharing

There are two basic truths about affiliate marketing. First, it is one of the easiest and safest online businesses you can start on a paper-thin budget. Secondly, when it comes to selling any products, there is usually no inventory to purchase, stock, or ship to your customers. The parent site does all that for you. Your only investment is your monthly membership fee (in most cases). Some websites have different levels of membership with different fees attached to them. Technically, the higher your membership rank is, the higher your membership fee will be, and consequently, the higher your earnings will be.

When people come to your site, they see the parent site just like you did when you first investigated being an affiliate of the site - with one small exception. Your site has an identification factor in the link/URL wherein the parent site identifies you as the one sending the traffic. Normally, you have two opportunities to earn revenue from an affiliate business.

First, the sale of products results in a commission for you because they used your link to get to the parent site and purchase them. Or when you get visitors to sign up under you, and do the same thing that you are doing, this also results in revenue for you. When you sign up new members, it is usually referred to as your downline.

Secondly, affiliate marketing is the epitome of Multi-Level Marketing, or MLM as it is most often called. It creates residual income for you because you receive a percentage of their paid membership fee each month. As long as your downline members stay active and pay their membership fees, your earnings don't dissipate.

Technically speaking, the more members you sign up, the more your income increases. Some affiliate programs let you earn commissions more than one level deep, therefore, affording you more income as a result. In other words, you receive commissions from your downline's downline, and their downline, and their downline, and so on.

Search Engine Optimisation, Website Promotion website promotion, seo, search engine optimisation, affiliates