What is Really Simple Syndication
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is one of the best tools that you can use to help bring in subscribers to your blog or website. RSS basically works by allowing your readers to subscribe t your blog and get notifications when you post new content. If you’re struggling to find readership on your blog or website, you can submit your RSS feed to different directories. This will broadcast your content across the web at put you at the forefront of readers who would not have found your blog or website otherwise.
Getting The RSS Feed
Depending on your host, your RSS feed will basically be your domain followed by “feed.” This will look like domain.com/feed. If you’re looking for an easy way to track your feed, you can use Feedburner. This is a service provided by Google and is typically used with blog feeds. For a website, you can also use Feedburner or any other aggregator on the market.
Do a quick online search for RSS directories and you’re sure to find hundred of directories that are willing to take your feed. Don’t sign up for a directory that requires a reciprocal link or a fee. You should not be paying to submit your feed, nor should ever have to put a link to another site on your blog or website. You might have to sign up for an account with the directory though. This is fairly typical and you shouldn’t be weary of signing up for an account.
RSS Software Submitters
There are a ton of RSS submitters on the market, but try to stay away from them. First of all, submitters are only good for blasting your feed to the Internet. The problem is that you don’t know where the feed is going. You could be paying hundreds of dollars for a piece of software that is going to put your feed on thousands of websites with a PR rating of 0. The feed submission could even go to websites that are banned by search engines.
The RSS feed from your site or blog is a great way to get backlinks and new readership to your site. But when you’re submitting your feed across the web make sure that you’re not getting the short end of the stick. Follow these guidelines and you should stay in the clear.
Is Article Marketing Dead?
Article marketing used to be a staple of building backlinks to your website. With the new Panda updates to Google, article marketing has basically come to a halt. Although the traffic going to article directories like Ezine and ArticleBase is down, some people still use article marketing as a way of building backlinks to their site. But is it worth it? Although having backlinks is important for maintaining your ranks, there are a few things you should consider before you throw all your eggs into the article-marketing basket.
Duplicated content is a huge concern with any article that you publish on the web. But article directories are one of the biggest scavenging grounds for thieves. If somebody steals your articles you could be penalized. Of course they could do this from your website also, but article directories are known for their wealth of articles. Be aware of this before you post your articles.
The time it takes you to submit your articles to directories is another concern you should have. When you are submitting articles to directories you are basically taking time away from your website. Are you going to get a backlink to your site? Of course. But this backlink shouldn’t be as important as creating new content for your site. Always remember that Google loves fresh content over article directories.
Check the PR rating of an article directory before you ever submit anything to them. Yes, you are going to get a backlink to your site, but it might be on a directory that has a PR rating of 2 or 3. This doesn’t do much for you in the long run. You want your backlinks to be on websites that have a PR rating of at least a 5 or more.
So if article marketing is out of the picture, what do you have left? One of the best ways to get a backlink to your site is to do blog comments. Blog comments are a sure fire way to get your backlink embedded on a high PR site and get it approved. Remember to read the content from the blog before you comment on it so your comment is relevant to the article. This increases your chances of getting approved and having your backlink.
dlvr.it Publishing Your Stuff
Most businesses have a blog that they put fresh content onto. If your business is using a blog and you want to get more readers to your website, you can easily link your blog to Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin using a simple tool called dlvr.it. Dlvr.it is a service that automatically uploads the content from your blog to your Facebook and other social media profiles through your blog’s RSS feed. You’re probably familiar with RSS, but if you’re not, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.
Every blog comes with an RSS feed. RSS feeds are great because it allows your content to be uploaded to other blogs and services that use RSS. When you post a new article on your blog, dlvr.it will retrieve the post and automatically upload it to your Facebook, Twitter and Linked in accounts. This means that you when post fresh content, an update appears on the pages of everybody who has subscribed to your account.
Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social media websites on the Internet. The more Facebook and Twitter followers that you have, the more customers you will be able to reach. Sending out a Facebook update or Tweet every time that you update your blog can be a hassle. Dlvr.it performs this service for free. When you go to the site, all you have to do is enter your social media information and your RSS feed.
If you don’t know how to get you RSS feed, you can find it through Feedburner or by clicking on the RSS tab on your blog’s control panel. RSS takes all of the hassle out of opt-in and opt-out emailing because when somebody subscribes to your blog, they are automatically getting your feeds. RSS feeds are also optimized for mobile web so Facebook and Twitter will get the alerts through apps.
Social media is one of the most important ways to market your business. If the company has a blog that is updated weekly or even daily, dlvr.it can be a time saver and a lead generator. The process only takes a couple of minutes. Once you are signed up, your accounts will update within a couple of hours after your post new content on your blog.
Social Marketing and Beyond
Social media is one of the fastest growing ways of marketing your website. Using sites like Twitter and Facebook has become the norm for any business. Having a company profile on Facebook and using Twitter to get the word out about your company’s promotions is a great way to gain a notable following online. Facebook gives people a chance to have people follow them. This creates authority online and adds to the company’s trustworthiness. Facebook also gives people a way of getting in touch with your company if they have any questions about your products.
But Facebook and Twitter aren’t just good for lead generation; they can also be an asset when it comes to engaging with your already existing customer base. It’s been said that it’s ten times more expensive to gain a customer than to keep one. Having Facebook and Twitter accounts that display your promotions allows a company to easily engage their customers with the latest deals they are offering. Through a simple click of the mouse, thousands of people will know that you’re running a 10% off sale on one of your products.
As an effect of being in touch with your customers, you can also improve your products and services. Social media gives customers a way to leave you feedback on what is working with your product or service and how you can improve it. Businesses always want to improve their services so having instant feedback on what needs to be improved can help them offer more features.
One of the best reasons to use social media is that it’s free. Signing up for Facebook and Twitter is of no cost to the business and can save thousands of dollars each month on marketing fees. Some companies even use consultants to set up their social media profiles to gain more customer attention.
The age of social media marketing is here. Any business that does not use Facebook or Twitter to engage their customers is missing out on hundreds of potential leads. Social media marketing is the most cost effective way to get your business to the top while reaching a whole new set of customers. Combine this with the ability to gain instant feedback on what is working and what is not working with their products and your business has a cost effective way of keeping their customers happy.
How To Spot An Internet Marketing Scam
Internet marketing scams have run rampant over the past decade. Everywhere you turn you hear about people who have been taken for a run by online affiliate marketing scams. If you are one of these people you know the headache involved with getting your money back. To avoid losing any money again, here are a few ways to spot an Internet marketing scam.
One of the best ways to get your website noticed online is through search engines. While we all know this, so do the scammers. You should know that there are about 4 search engines online that handle almost all of the traffic. When you submit to anybody else you’re just wasting your time. Never pay to have your website included in search engines other than Google, Yahoo, MSN or Bing.
#1 On Google
Sure, everybody would love to be #1 on Google, but is this possible? It’s probably possible for you to get on Google’s #1 page, but not for the keyword that you want. Avoid these kinds of scams at all costs. You will wind up paying to have a keyword that nobody is searching for.
Backlinks Scams
Backlinks are really important for getting ranked in the search engines. However, if you are paying for your backlinks, you might be hurting yourself. Most of these scams will put your backlink on sites that have been designated as spam. They might even put your backlink on directories that aren’t even ranked in the search engines. Avoid this scam at all costs.
Email Ads To Opt-In Subscribers
This scam is actually very dangerous. Due to the Can-Spam Act, most of these scams are all but dead. This is basically spamming people. Opt-in lists are not for use with private emails. You can send out emails to people who legally opt-in with your website, but paying for it is illegal.
Internet marketing can be a great way to make a living, but you need to be cautious when paying a service. All Internet marketing greats have done their research and worked their way up through the ranks organically. Remember that there is not a silver bullet in Internet marketing. You must put in the work to get your rewards.
The Effective Domain Name
The domain name is your first line of contact with the search engines and your readers. If you don’t have an effective domain name, you could be missing out on potential customers looking for your products. The fact of the matter is that even if you have a great domain name in mind, it might not be right for your website. Website domains should reflect your products or your services. If you are about to start a website, read a little further. Here are a few tips in choosing an effective domain name.
Domain lookup tools should always be used when choosing an effective domain name. One of the best websites to use Whois.com. This service allows users to check the domains that already exist against the domain that they want to use. If your domain name is already taken, you will need to choose another one. Pick something similar to the one that you were going to use or use a different extension such as .org or .net.
Limit the amount of words in your domain to two or three words. One-word domains are usually taken and you will have to buy the domain name from the current owners. They might charge you a lot of money for the domain so it’s best to just use two to three words. In fact, this can be a little bit better because your reach a bigger audience with two to three words domains in the search engines.
Choose a domain that is based on your location. For instance, if you are a plumbing company working out of New York, you might want NewYorkplumbers.com or something similar. Choosing a geographical domain will get you higher in the search engines. Unfortunately, it might hard to find a domain that reflects your geographic location. As stated before, you might want to use a .net or .org extension. These extensions will also rank well in the search engines.
Shortening words is another technique that can be implemented when choosing your domain. For instance, if you are running a contractor business you might want to use contractnewyork.com or something similar. Shortening the words is a great way to get the intention of your business across without having to pay for the entire word or buy a competitively priced domain name.
Article Marketing
One of the best ways to get your website ranked in the search engines is have backlinks pointing to your website. Even if you’re just running a blog on a free host like WordPress or Blogger, you can get more traffic by using article marketing. Article marketing gives users free information and creates authority on a niche online. When you use article marketing, you submit articles to a directory that will house the article and a link to your website. If the reader is interested in your niche, they will click on the link to your website to see what other information they can get.
But articles aren’t just used for readers, they are also used with the search engines. Article directories rank very high in search engines so they are crawled a lot. When you submit your article into a directory, it is indexed much more quickly than a post on a less known blog. This means that readers can find your article fast, but also that your backlink will be recognized by the search engine. Your website or blog rank can go up depending on the amount of backlinks you have for your site. This establishes online authority and creates popularity for your site in the search engines.
A great way to use article marketing even further is to allow other people to use your articles on their websites or blogs. If you plan to implement this, be sure that you require a byline to your article so the website or blog owner is not taking credit for your work. This gives other websites and blogs free content while creating a backlink to your own website or blog. If your article is found on a website with a high PR rank or the owner is using PPC, banner exchanges or other SEO techniques, you could see a massive increase in your traffic.
Article marketing is a time tested way to get your website higher in the search engine ranks. Most article directories will allow you put links inside your article that point back to your site. These directories are free, but the editing times can vary for each directory. If your article is rejected, you may want to consider revising it and sending it back. Some of the directories will give you a reason why the article was rejected so you can revise accordingly. Implement this technique into your marketing endeavors and start seeing more traffic come to your website or blog.
Why You Should Be Using Multiple Affiliate Networks On Your Website
Affiliate marketing is the number one way that people make money online. Once you build your website and are starting to get some traffic, you can start adding affiliate links to your content. Depending on your niche, affiliate links can be a great asset for making money online. But how do you choose the right affiliate network for your niche? Many people are members of different affiliate networks such as Clinkbank and Commission Junction. Other people choose to stay with one affiliate network. If you aren’t a member of different affiliate networks, you are missing out on products and possible income.
Clickbank is the most famous of all affiliate networks. They offer thousands of products for affiliates to sell. The problem with Clickbank is that they do not offer banner ads. Banner ads are one of the best ways to monetize your website or blog because it can replace all of the Adsense banners. Adsense can give you anywhere from a penny to dollar per click, but a sale through an affiliate like could give you up to one hundred dollars per sale. If you are using Clickbank as your only affiliate website, you are missing out on banner ads. Standard HTML “Click Here” ads are effective, but they are not an impulse click. Depending on the color scheme and copy on a banner ad, somebody could skip over your content completely and go right for the ad.
Another issue with Clickbank is the fact that they do not offer Javascript for their affiliate links. Commission Junction does. When you get an account with Commission Junction, you have a choice of HTML, Javascript or regular text links. Having a variety of ads to put on your website or blog will help you bring in more clicks. There are affiliate links all over the Internet and almost every site is jammed with Adsense. You want your website to look different. Standard ads have been seen over and over again. This means that a lot of your readers have probably already clicked on them. Using a lesser known ad will create curiosity within your readership.
Before you sign up for a lot of affiliate networks, you should always research the company. If you find that the network has problems paying on time or they don’t have enough clients, you should be a little weary. Test all of your affiliate links before you allow them to go live on your website. You can easily do this by opening a Word document and connecting to the Internet. Paste the link into your Word document and then click on it. If the link takes you to the product page, it works.
Google+’s +1 Button To Change Social Media
Web marketing has traditionally been done on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, however, the recent implementation of the Google+ has brought a new way to use social media for online marketing. At first glance, the +1 button looks very similar to the Facebook “Like” icon. Even with this similarity, the button can be found all over the Internet. In it’s first week, 35% all links shared on Twitter were shared through the +1 button.
So will Google+ be the end of other social media venues? The answer is still to be determined. Social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin simply offer different features than Google+. This difference will separate Google+ from other sites like Facebook and give users another way to share information. However, Google+ probably does not have the power to shutdown the authority that Facebook and Twitter has already gained.
Google has long since been a giant in how people search for information online. Google’s +1 button could, in time, be the leader in how Google ranks content for the search engine’s results page. This will not replace links shared on Facebook or Twitter, so the two will still have mass appeal to web marketing. Since Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin do not use Google as their website’s internal search engine, users will not be affected by the +1 rankings.
One way that Google’s +1 button will help web marketers is through the recent release of the +1 WordPress plug-in. Having the ability to put the button on a blog can instantly have an effect on blogging. If a reader uses the +1 button, the blog could rise in the search engine results page via Google’s web crawler. This is good for organic SEO and ranking for relevancy on the search engine.
In short, the Google +1 button could change the way that web marketers start seeing their webpages rank online. Although the button will probably not be the end all for other social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, this could be a very helpful tool for web marketers. The implementation of a WordPress plugin will come in handy because WordPress is one of the most used platforms for websites, blogs and sales pages. If you would like to add the +1 button to your website, you can find it for free through the Google+ website.
5 Ways To Increase Website Traffic
Starting a website can be a very exciting opportunity. However, if you have started a website and you’re not getting the traffic that you want, there are a few things you can do to help your search engine rankings. Spending thousands of dollars on search engine optimization is not in everybody’s budget. In fact, spending money on SEO can be a complete waste if you are willing to do the work yourself. Here are 5 ways that you can start getting better website traffic with little hassle.
Using Less Competitive Keywords
Keywords are the most frequently used method for search engines to find your website. If you are using keywords that are highly competitive, you will be competing with websites that have a greater online authority. By using less competitive keywords in your content, you can increase the web traffic exponentially. Google has a free keyword tool that you can use to find less competitive keywords.
Keeping Content Fresh
Have you added content in the last week? If not, you need to! The search engines love websites that are constantly updated. If you are not added content to your website, the search engines are going to pass over it. Add fresh content to all of your websites to get them ranking better. This is also an organic way of getting your website seen by the search engines.
BackLinks
A backlink is a very important part of getting traffic to your site. Backlinks are links placed on another site that link back to your website. There are a lot of companies that will build backlinks for you, however you can do it yourself. Once of the best ways to get backlinks is to use forum and blog posts. Article marketing is another great way to implement backlinks for your site.
Adding A “Follow” Button To Your Site
If you are relying on search engines or people remembering your website as the sole means to getting traffic, you should put a “Follow” button on your site. This allows your readers to follow you. They will be updated when new posts are put on your site. This also allows people to see how many readers are following your site. If you have ten thousand followers, new readers can assume that your information is pretty accurate and they will follow you too.
Social Media
Using Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin as a venue for your website is a great way to get new readers. Facebook and Twitter alone are some of the best outlets for connecting to people and sending out updates. If you are offering a product or service on your website, Linkedin may also come in handy. Linkedin is more for businesses so this could give you a bigger clientele for your products.
A website that has no traffic is not profitable and can be frustrating. Getting traffic to your website is essential for building readership and selling any products you are offering. By following these 5 methods, you should start to see an increase in your web traffic in minimal time.
What Is E-Commerce Hosting? Do I Need It?
The World Wide Web gives people methods to get what they need when they need it. One of the biggest factors in making an order online is the purchase price. Internet vendors may give people a price that’s more competitive because they do not have the overhead of an actual retailer. However, every e-commerce website needs prospects and those shoppers should have the opportunity to purchase a service. What is the point of having a customer if they are unable to purchase from your shop? This is where e-commerce hosting comes in.
What Is E-Commerce Hosting?
E-Commerce hosting is a hosting company that gives websites the resources they need to host web stores. The concept is fairly simple. E-commerce hosts are responsible for delivering servers, disk space and RAM so the store can continually be online.
What Are The Differences Between E-Commerce Hosting And Typical Hosting ?
Regular hosting packages are generally on a shared server. Because of this a lot of different Internet websites are shared on the same server. When that server crashes, every one of the Internet sites on the server also drop. If you are running an e-commerce website, it is essential for the website to be up continuously. When the webpage crashes, you lose business. E-commerce hosts will offer dedicated servers or specific software to allow purchasing through the server. This is often different from an informational hosting plan with lower bandwidth and a smaller quantity of disk space.
How Is E-Commerce Hosting Beneficial To My Company?
E-commerce hosting is essential to your business because it is tailored to your business. If you have large traffic going to your web store, you need a hosting plan which will be able to handle that traffic. Having the ability to handle your subscriber base is the first line in business. Is the web store growing dramatically? One of the best popular features of an e-commerce hosting plan is scalability. Scalability allows you to update your disk space, RAM or main system inside an hour or so. In the height of your business, you do not want to lose a customer mainly because your bandwidth was too low to work with the load. E-commerce hosting covers this.
How Is E-Commerce Hosting Beneficial To My Consumers?
To put it simply, e-commerce hosting gives your visitors what they need: instant gratification. We are living in a society where we can get information and products with the click of a mouse. If a client cannot visit your e-commerce web store, they will visit your competition. Everybody in business understands that if somebody has a pleasurable experience at a retail outlet, they are likely to shop there once again. If a buyer cannot get on your Internet site, they will not return. E-commerce hosting makes certain that every customer can order from your store safely and swiftly. Customers like to know that their information is will be safe and sound. E-commerce hosting gives clients a chance to buy products safely through security encryption.
Why You Need E-Commerce Hosting.
The age of digital customers is here. Clients flock to e-commerce websites with the capacity to save time and funds when acquiring items. If you are on a shared web hosting plan, you may not have the ability to handle an influx of customers. The main thing to remember is that when your web page is down, you won’t be making sales. E-commerce hosting plans take all the risk away from having your site go down. Having the ability to scale your bandwidth, disk space, and RAM is vital to building your clientele. A good investment in an e-commerce hosting plan is an investment in your business’ potential.
Suntrader Networks offers ecommerce consulting services.
