A backlink is simply a link to your site from another site. Backlinks are also referred to as inbound links, incoming links and inward links. Having a good amount of backlinks leading to your site can do a lot for your search engine ranking. Your goal is to have numerous backlinks from authoritative sites and sites that are relevant to your site.
One way backlinks are much more effective in improving your search engine rankings than the traditional reciprocal links. A reciprocal link is when two websites trade links but this method has been somewhat abused over the years so backlinks are much more impressive. Reciprocal linking will still help your ranking if done properly but you want to work on getting powerful backlinks.
Below are ten ways to help you get more successful backlinks to help improve your search engine ranking.
1. RSS Directories – If you have an RSS feed you will want to consider submitting it to some of the top RSS Directories. Submitting to RSS directories will get your updates indexed and back linked quickly. Some of the top RSS Directories are Feedburner, Blogarama, RSS Network and Golden RSS Feed. Do a search to find many more.
2. Social Media – What list would be complete without social media? Get involved with your social sites and post relevant content. Respond to people. Comment on other posts. The more relevant content you post and the more you get involved, the more chances you have of people reposting your content resulting in a backlink to your site.
3. Forum Marketing – Get involved on message boards, discussion groups and community sites. Become a valued member. Do not just post thank you and I agree with that type posts. Be sure to offer information and resources that are really helpful to people. With every post you will have a backlink to your site included in your signature.
4. Freebies – Write an information filled report or ebook. Offer it free to all your visitors. Add a page to your site highlighting this freebie and offer people permission to post it on their site as well for their visitors. People love good freebies so this strategy could give you a considerable amount of backlinks.
5. Commenting on Blogs – Some blogs will allow you to add your link for posting comments on their content. Make these comments count so the blogger will allow them to be posted. Bloggers want good solid content and comments on their blog to attract more interaction so don’t just attempt to post one-liners.
6. Article Marketing – Write information-packed quality articles and start submitting them to authority article directories such as Ezine Articles. Watch for article banks loaded with spam articles. You want your backlinks to mean something to the search engines. Write an effective resource box and add your link for a backlink people will click on.
7. Web Directory Submissions – Search for and find some of the top website directories. Be sure to read their guidelines so your submission is accepted. Some examples of quality website directories are: Web World Index, So Much, Search Sight and Direct My Link. There are countless more to which you can submit your site.
8. Link Baiting – Link baiting is a marketing strategy by which a person adds content to their site which is designed to gain attention and to get people to link to the content. A lot of the time, hype and controversy are used for this purpose such as celebrity gossip, news stories, human interest stories, etc. Using innovative or cutting edge content can gain a lot of backlinks as well.
9. Guest Posting on Blogs – This is similar to article marketing. Write relevant content for numerous different blogs and submit them for acceptance. Getting your posts with your link on quality blogs is a great way to add to your backlink arsenal.
10. Blog Carnivals – Blog carnivals are online magazines that accept article submissions from other bloggers. They are basically periodic collections of links to blog posts and articles. You can read more about blog carnivals and how to use them for more backlinks at Blog Carnival or Blogger Carnivals.
Years ago when linking was first implemented in internet marketing, people went for quantity. Get as many links as you can but now the search engines are looking for relevant links to high ranking sites with quality content. Do not just plaster your link anywhere. The search engines believe in the guilty by association rule. If your link is placed on a spam, porn, gambling or other poor quality site, it will definitely affect your rating in a not-so-good way. So, let’s be careful out there and link to the best sites we can!
About the Author:
Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business. Terri Seymour can help you make money online. Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at: ==> http://www.SeymourProducts.com
In my last article, I listed ten ideas for business events on your blog or website and in this article, I would like to offer ideas for promoting those events. By holding various events on your blog or website you are giving people an incentive for visiting your website and you are also stirring up more interest in what you have to offer.
Events are an excellent way to get people to interact with your site and business. And by creating more interaction, you are making your site much more memorable.
Below are ten ideas for promoting your event.
1. Event Directories – There are many sites that list all kinds of events and are many times free. If you are holding a contest, do a search for contest directory. There are sites that are event specific and some sites will list all types of events. Some of the most popular are Zvents, Yelp, Eventful, Eventbrite and EventSetter.
2. Social Media – In this day and age social media is always on the list! 
You can send invites to all your friends on Facebook but if you get a lot of these invites, you can get in the habit of just deleting them without even reading them. Truth be told, they can be annoying. So, rather than just sending mass invites, post teasers about your event with a link to more details. Let your friends who are interested go find out about your event so you are not just getting deleted.
LinkedIn offers a new event promoting tool that will highlight your event to your network connections that are more likely to be interested in what you are offering.
Promote your event on Pinterest with a visually stimulating pin with teasers and relevant information. Be sure to take advantage of all social media sites that can help draw more people to your event.
3. eMail Signature – Add a small teaser to your email signature.
For example:
Win free prizes while building your business!
Expand your network while having fun!
Think what would make you click on a link and use that. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes.
4. Announcements – Send announcements in your newsletter or send an announcement to your email list. Build the anticipation so people will want to attend.
5. Video Announcement – Add a short video to your site letting all your visitors know about your event. Offer a free gift at the end of the video so people will be more likely to listen to your announcement.
6. Cross Promoting – Contact other business owners who are also promoting events and work together to promote each other’s event. Working with others not only can increase your exposure but can help your business in other ways as well.
7. Start Promoting Early – I would recommend starting at least 2-3 months before the event. You want time to build up a lot of anticipation and reach a large target guest list. Be consistent the whole promotion time. Don’t start off with a bang and then let your promoting lapse.
8. Promote Offline – Tell everyone you know about your event. Ask them to tell everyone they know who might be interested. Print out flyers or postcards highlighting your event. Have some of these with you at all times to take advantage of every opportunity.
9. Attend Similar Events – Attending similar events gives you a chance to get more leads on people who would be interested in your event.
10. Message Boards and Discussion Groups – If you are involved in forums such as these, add a link in your signature and promote it as much as the board or group allows.
Holding online events can do a lot for your business. They can increase your networking connections, bring more people to your site, raise awareness of what you offer and much more.
Take the time to plan and promote your event effectively for more success. A well-planned event could be just what your business needs!
About the Author:
Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business. Terri Seymour can help you make money online. Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at: ==> http://www.SeymourProducts.com
In the business world, an event is a public gathering for the purpose of networking and/or marketing. Holding events on your blog or website can help give your traffic a substantial boost. By holding different events, you bring more life and interaction to your blog which in turn will bring more traffic.
Contests and giveaways are effective events to stir up some interest and excitement. If you are not sure which type of event to consider, below are ten ideas to help you to get started.
1. Charity Week – Offer to pay a percentage of all orders to charity. Have your visitors post information about their favorite charities and donate to them. Present prizes, discounts, gift cards, etc., for your visitors. Hold auctions with your products to raise money for various charities. Ask people to help you raise money by making others aware of your charity event. NOTE: Please be sincere in your efforts to raise money for charity. Do not just use it as a marketing ploy!
2. Meet & Greet Event – Hold a meet and greet event for other bloggers. Invite bloggers to come to your event to meet, network, and brainstorm with fellow bloggers. You could have a couple of games for prizes such as trivia or other quick and easy games. Have a question and answer forum to offer advice, experience and expertise. Present guest speakers to share their knowledge and expertise as well.
3. Comment Contest – Let your readers know that if they post a comment, (with substance, not just thank you for the info or anything on that order) they will have a chance at winning a prize. You can do a random drawing for the prize or you could have a secret word (which directly relates to your content) and anyone who uses that secret word in their comment gets a shot at the prize. Make it fun and use different tactics each time.
4. Holiday Events – For Halloween, hold a costume contest. Have people post pictures of themselves in their costumes and then have all posters vote for their favorites. The one with the most votes wins. For Christmas, you could have a “Find Santa” contest. Put a pic of Santa somewhere on your site and the first to find it wins. For Easter, you could have an Easter egg hunt. The possibilities are endless!
5. Guess the Location Contest – Post a picture of a semi-famous location (don’t make it too easy) and see who can guess it by vague clues given to them by you. Offer a new clue each day until someone discovers the location in the photo.
6. Photo Contest – Ask your visitors to post a photo they took along with their comment and let everyone vote on which one is best. People love to vote on things and to win prizes so it is a win-win contest!
7. Parade of Blogs – Does your community ever hold a Parade of Homes? You could do something similar with blogs. Contact other blog owners and see if they would be interested in participating. You again could let people vote on the blogs they liked best for certain categories such as products, content, user-friendliness, etc. This would be a great way for blog owners to learn how to make their blogs more successful as well as being a good opportunity for networking.
8. Group Discussions – Hold monthly group discussions similar to a book club only you could discuss ways to increase sales, traffic or build your business in general.
9. Trivia Parties – There aren’t too many people who don’t enjoy a good trivia challenge so why not hold periodical trivia parties.
10. Scavenger Hunt – Have a list of objects for people to find on the internet. Give them clues as to where they can find them. Each person has so much time to see how many of the objects they can find. Have them give you the url from the site where they found the object so you know it is the right one. Just doing a Google search for each object and going to any site is not allowed! Make it a specific object on a specific site.
Proper planning will be a big part of your event, so don’t try to schedule these events on the spur of the moment. Be precise and effective in your planning so all goes well.
I hope these ideas help to inspire you to organize your own successful event. Hold events and contests recurrently to help keep your blog active, alive and profitable!
My next article will highlight different ways you can promote your various events and entice more visitors to your blog.
About the Author:
Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business. Terri Seymour can help you make money online. Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at: ==> http://www.SeymourProducts.com
According to Wikipedia, advertising is a form of communication for marketing and used to encourage, persuade, or manipulate an audience (viewers, readers or listeners; sometimes a specific group) to continue or take some new action. More simply put, advertising is letting people know about your business and showing them you have the solution.
Advertising began thousands of years ago when ancient Egyptians started carving out announcements and notices in steel. Now, we have so many forms of advertising, it can be hard to choose which ones to use. Online marketing has taken the business world by storm!
Some of the standard online advertising strategies consist of banner ads, newsletter ads and website link exchanges. These methods can be effective but you need to get out of the box and find new and clever ways to advertise your business.
Below are ten fun and creative ideas that could breathe new life into your advertising success!
1. eMail Sigtag Buddy – If you send out a lot of emails, having your link on each one will get you a lot of exposure. Then consider having that doubled. Research other online businesses to fine one that works well with your business but does not compete. Contact the owner and discuss a cross promotion deal. You will put a link to their website in all your outgoing emails if they will do the same for you. You could work with several business owners and rotate partners. This easy and free strategy could double or triple your exposure!
2. Resource Box Buddies – This would be very similar to the email sigtag buddies but you would trade links in your article resource box. Most sites will allow you several lines in your resource box so make the best use of them.
3. Referral Club – Meet with several online business owners and discuss a possible referral club. This will only work well if the businesses are not competing. Learn about each other’s products and services so you can efficiently refer your customers to them when needed.
4. Customer Appreciation Party – Hold regular online customer appreciation parties. Show your customers how important they are. Play games, offer prizes, discounts, free gifts and more to show them how grateful you are. Encourage each of them to bring a guest and offer a special incentive for doing so.
5. Connect to Something of Importance – If your product or service can appropriately be connected to an important event or story it could add credibility to your business. For example: ebooks are good for the environment. Or, if you sell pet products, each purchase could mean a donation to stop animal cruelty. But be sincere in your efforts and really care or your customers will definitely see through you!
6. Contests – Everyone loves contests! Offer a different contest each week or month. Make them fun, interesting and even educational.
7. Partner with Complementary Business – Find a business that works very well with yours. Contact the owner and discuss a promotion partnership. Work together to advertise and promote each other. Not only is it beneficial to the business owners but it helps the customers as well.
8. Free Webinars and Presentations – Periodically offer a free webinar and or presentation on your products and or services and how to benefit by them. Offer free instructional videos as well if appropriate.
9. Comment on Blogs – Share your expertise on blogs and get your name noticed. Help people, give advice, share ideas and strategies. This will establish you as an expert in your field which in turn will earn you more trust and credibility.
10. Social Media Relationships – Use your social media sites to connect with people and build relationships. Social media is for networking and bonding with people, not just making the sale.
Although the internet provides us with unlimited possibilities for our business, it is not easy to achieve a solid customer base. You must go outside of the box with your advertising campaign and make yourself and your business more memorable.
Show people that becoming your customer will indeed be in their best interest. Prove to them that you are anxious to help find a solution and assist them in any way possible.
About the Author:
Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business. Terri Seymour can help you make money online. Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at: ==> http://www.SeymourProducts.com
Visual marketing is the use of images, colors, video, signs and symbols to get potential customers to become attracted to your products and/or services. Studies by the 3M Corporation have shown that we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Thus, using visual marketing will communicate your message to your potential customers much faster and far more efficiently than using plain text.
You see visual marketing all around. T-Shirts, billboards, delivery trucks, buildings, etc., are all examples of visual marketing. But the internet has opened up a whole new world of visual marketing and we need to realize the importance of utilizing all it has to offer.
Reading the facts below will help you conclude that visual marketing is a necessary part of your marketing campaign.
1. Emotions – We make purchases based on our emotions and visuals appeal to our emotions. Think about a picture of the American flag. What emotions does that bring out? How about a picture of a soldier returning home from war holding his baby? The actual image of this brings out much more emotion than if we read the text describing it. Marketers know this and use it to their advantage.
2. Visitors who view product videos are 85% more likely to buy than visitors who do not. (Internet Retailer)
3. Blog posts with a visual can attract up to 3x more traffic than a plain text post. (SEOmoz)
4. Having visuals on your website can increase your monthly unique visitors by 200% – 300%. (Attivio)
5. Branding – Would you be more likely to notice the golden arches or a sign that said MacDonald’s? I know for me and many others it would be the visual rather than the text. Visual branding is one of the most important aspects of visual marketing. What do you think of when you see an apple with a bite taken out of it? How about a red and yellow seashell or a curved checkmark? These images have programmed our brain to think of one thing and it works!
6. Pinterest is a social site which uses mainly images. With that in mind, according to comScore, Pinterest buyers spend more money, more often, and on more items than any of the other top 5 social media sites. Studies also show that when it comes to revenue on a per click basis, Pinterest beats both Facebook and Twitter.
7. Articles with images get viewed 94% more times than plain text.
8. Social Media – Using photos and images on your social sites will dramatically increase interest in your posts and response to your posts.
9. By using images on your website, it is possible to more than double your conversion rate.
10. In effect, visual marketing will get you more traffic, boost your conversion rates and make your business more successful.
*Note: Always make sure you are using images legally. You cannot just copy and use any image you find on a website. Always check for license terms and usage specifics. Some terms only allow for non-commercial use and other such limitations.
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” I don’t know if the person who said this was referring to marketing but in the marketing world it is 100% accurate.
So, if you are not yet using visual marketing, get started now and “see” for yourself the difference it can make for your business and your success!
About the Author:
Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business. Terri Seymour can help you make money online. Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at: ==> http://www.SeymourProducts.com
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