Internet Marketing Case Study Series: Part 5
Posted on April 29, 2008 | Filed Under Case Studies | Leave a Comment
Wow! It’s been a while since I wrote another installment of this series. But that’s a function of my coaching student’s busy life schedule. He was finishing up a masters in education and then had a bit of a career path crisis. But, he’s back on track now and chugging along on his first website.
I am a little behind, though, even so in reporting Jim’s progress. When I last left you, he was brainstorming the structure/outline of his site. It’s an important step, so you need to take your time. You want your site to be organized in a logical fashion that is user-friendly. At the same time, you need to organize it so that it maximizes the search engine potential. Jim chose to do it by getting a large piece of poster board and laying out his structure in an organizational chart fashion.
He used post it notes to label each page and the associated keywords, so that he can make changes if he needs to. He’s a visual person, and this seems to work for him.
After that, Jim got started on building his site. Every site needs to start with a design, or template. In SBI, this is fairly easy. You just go to the Look & Feel Selector, and you can choose from over 100 different designs. And among those, you can do further customization, even if you have no graphic skills. Jim has me, though, and I took one of the SBI designs & overlaid a photograph and logo text on it to make it uniquely his.
So, once he had a design, it was time to build the home page. Here are some essential points about a home page on a content site like Jim’s:
- It needs to have a strong “voice”, meaning basically… personality, your personality. Don’t be impersonal or standoffish… people won’t connect with you that way.
- It needs to communicate what your site is about and what’s in it for the reader… why should they click through to the rest of your site?
- It needs to not have advertising. People don’t want to be hit with ads as soon as they enter a content site. They want information. Nor do you want to give them an opportunity to click off your site before you’ve fully drawn them in.
- It doesn’t need to be more than 350 to 500 words… just enough to get your Most Wanted Response (MWR), which should be to click through, or maybe to subscribe to your ezine or mailing list.
Your home page should set the tone for the whole rest of your site, and you DO want to connect with your readers. Revealing at least a bit of your personal background helps, especially if you can show that you truly understand where the reader is coming from. Talk from your heart, and write like you talk. This is not Wikipedia and you are not lecturing.
After you build your home page, it’s a good idea to get the Contact page up fairly soon, so that if you DO happen to get any visitors (it doesn’t usually happen right away, but you never know), they can communicate with you if they want. NOTE: Don’t ever post your actual email address on a page, or you WILL get spammed. Trust me; I know. Put a form up on the page. Again, SBI makes this easy as pie with their FormBuildIt module.
Another great page to start out with is your About Me page. Here’s your chance to reveal a bit more about yourself. Really allow your readers to get to know you. This is a powerful technique that will contribute to your eventual success with your site. The Web is an impersonal place. Make yourself real.
And once you lay that foundation for your site, then get busy writing your actual content! This is where Jim is now. He’s so in love with his site, he’s having trouble actually buckling down and writing the meat. But he’ll get there…
To your success,
The Value of Focus
Posted on March 4, 2008 | Filed Under General Biz Tips | Leave a Comment
When you start to get interested in starting an online home business, it is tremendously easy to lose focus. There are so many ways to go about it, so many models, a ton of “gurus” hawking this or that method “guaranteed” to bring you fame and fortune… it’s hard to know which way to turn.
And, in fact, this distraction and overwhelm is probably THE main reason why people fail at home business. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You CAN succeed. But focus… laser focus… is the key to success.
One of the best ways I know to stay focused is with a free program called Simpleology. It’s from one of the original internet marketing gurus, Mark Joyner. Mark’s a great visionary on the Internet, but he’s also just an all-around great guy who truly seems to have a mission to help people succeed.
What is Simpleology? Well, it’s kind of a goal-setting program, but that’s not really an adequate explanation. The best way to understand it is to sign up for a free account and just experience it:
Get your free Simpleology account here
But, in a nutshell, it’s a 15-minute daily program for focusing on what’s most important to you and then marching in a straight line towards those goals. There’s a manual to help you, but there are also animated videos that are quick to watch (most are under 3 or 4 minutes long), but that really bring the messages home. It’s also a learning program, I guess you’d say, that teaches you how to succeed.
As I said, it doesn’t cost anything to become a basic Simpleology member. You get full access from the get go to everything Simpleology 101 has to offer, and it’s a lot. Once you graduate from that course (which does take a while), you have the option of buying into the more advanced courses, but if you don’t want to do that, you don’t have to. You can continue to use the free Simpleology tools and system forever.
The system comes with downloadable software. I have to say, I haven’t really found that to be particularly useful and I don’t like it cluttering up my task bar. But you might feel differently. It’s optional and the system still works well even if you just stick with the web-based tools as I have.
So, if you’ve ever felt frustrated by your inability to get things done, whether in a home business or in any other area of your life, I really encourage you to check out Simpleology. It offers huge value for a free program, trust me. You’d be foolish to pass up such a valuable learning and focusing system.
Check out Simpleology NOW - For Free!
To your success,
Secrets Of The Adsense High Earners
Posted on February 26, 2008 | Filed Under AdSense | Leave a Comment
Today, I thought I would talk about one of the easiest and most likely to succeed ways of making money online. Know what it is? It’s a “little” strategy called Google Adsense… Have you heard of it?
It seems every time I turn around, there’s a new Adsense product out that is supposed to be the one thing that makes you zillions of dollars tomorrow. Come on! We know that stuff isn’t true, but day after day, people get suckered in!
That’s why when Liz Tomey came out with her new Adsense videos site, I got all excited because I know Liz is the real deal. I’ve bought a number of her products, because she’s down to earth and truly seems to have a desire to help others succeed like she has. And her stuff is just great quality, bottom line. Liz has taught hundreds of people to make money online, and that’s where her true passion is, and her new site proves that to me once again!
Liz has put together an entire site, where she offers an entire step-by-step video course on how to start making money with Google Adsense. I’m talking about doing it the RIGHT way. Liz doesn’t advocate throwing up some ugly site meant only to get AdSense clicks. That’s not the way to make money, because sooner or later, the search engines WILL dump you. The sites Liz teaches you how to make are real sites, and she takes you by the hand and walks you through setting them up, getting the right content on them, and here’s the real kicker…
Most of her course is on getting traffic to your Adsense sites. So many people leave this vital step out, but Liz has dedicated a lot of time to showing you how to get traffic to your Adsense sites. I mean, if no one sees your sites, then how do you expect to get any clicks or make any money?
She’s even gone a step further, and is offering personal coaching videos for those that need extra help, continually updates where she’s giving you more videos all the time, critiqueing your sites, and more. I just couldn’t believe all that was being offered from this site at an amazingly low price.
If you’re not familiar with Liz Tomey, this is a wonderful chance to get hold of one of her best “learning products”. Liz doesn’t just talk the talk… she truly walks the walk. In fact, she also runs an Adsense coaching program that sells for $497.00 for 6 to 8 weeks and she sells out every time she opens the door. This is your chance not to have to pay that great big price to learn from one of the masters of Adsense, but you better act fast…
Liz will be raising the price very soon. This is not a marketing technique, she really is going to raise the price to double what it is now, so grab a spot right now at the insane price she has it at before it’s too late…Take me to Liz’s Adsense Videos site NOW!
To your success!
Internet Marketing Case Study Series: Part 4
Posted on February 19, 2008 | Filed Under Case Studies | Leave a Comment
Well, it’s been a while since I posted here, but that’s because this next step has been taking Jim quite a while to do. But it’s such an important one, I don’t want to rush him. Developing your keyword-supported site plan is essential to the future success of your site.
Here’s an overview of the steps involved:
- Brainstorm the topics and subtopics you want to cover in relation to your niche concept
- Organize these ideas into logical “chapters” and “subchapters”
- Find profitable in demand keywords (I recommend 3 per page) to match your planned content on each of the topic and subtopic pages
Sounds easy, doesn’t it? It’s not, though. So take your time with it.
When Jim’s finally ready to move on, I’ll post another installment here…
To you success,
Internet Marketing Case Study Series: Part 3
Posted on February 8, 2008 | Filed Under Case Studies | Leave a Comment
Today, we’ll examine finalizing your niche and choosing a domain name. It’s important not to do this too quickly. In Jim’s initial keyword research, he proved his niche concept. In other words, he validated that there is sufficient demand in his topic. He also confirmed that, though there IS competition, it’s not so great that he has no chance of making his own mark in the niche. Those are important factors.
Next, we need to make sure the niche is robust enough to support the development of at least 50 pages of content on our website. I asked Jim to look at this in a couple of ways…
- First, do a rough site plan to map out what topics and subtopics you want to cover.
- Second, look at your keyword list. Can you pick out enough different keywords to support all your topics? If not, do some more research, using lateral searches, etc. to see if you can find enough potentially profitable keywords.
If, like Jim, your site plan and keyword analysis supports the viability of your chosen niche for a content website, you’re good to go. If not, you may need to either widen your focus a bit, or consider an altogether different niche. Conversely, you want to make sure your niche isn’t so broad that it will be hard to truly capture one target audience. You can’t be all things to all people. A tightly focused niche is always going to be your best bet.
So, once Jim had finally chosen a niche, confirmed it is a valid choice for him, and proved it’s robust enough to keep him occupied for some time writing content, I asked him to step back one last time before he leaps and ask himself… “Is this a niche I am excited enough about to stay motivated for a good long time in writing and developing the content?”
Be brutally honest with yourself. If you’re at all lukewarm about your niche topic, then I guarantee you… sooner or later, it’s going to feel like torture to have to keep writing page after page. On the other hand, if you’re especially knowledgeable on the topic and/or filled with passion about it, it’s almost like a labor of love, as the words come flowing out, one page after another.
OK, so Jim assured me that he is indeed passionate about his topic. He has tons of ideas for the site and sees it as an opportunity to launch a sort of grass roots movement. Good for him! I feel excited just listening to him. 
So now, we’re ready to start thinking about a domain name for his content site. The first step is to go back to the keyword list and choose a keyword that has great demand and solid profitability potential PLUS is general enough to represent the niche content theme. Once you have that, you’re ready to start thinking of a domain name. A domain should:
- contain your main keyword phrase (maybe even a couple for added strength)
- also say something about what your site offers
- not infringe on any trademarks or copyrighted names
The debate continues to rage over whether to separate words with dashes or underscores or to run them all together. I happen to prefer dashes, as I believe it makes it easier for search engines to pick out the individual words.
When you have some ideas in mind, then go to a domain registrar (GoDaddy.com is my all time favorite!) and find out if your domain name of choice is available. If not, amend it as needed and try again. Just be sure you keep your main keyword!
Jim was successful with his first choice, so he got it registered and was on to the next step… planning a detailed, keyword-supported site plan.
Written by Kathi MacNaughtonkeep looking »
My name is Kathi, and I created this website to share my expertise and knowledge about starting an online home business. Thank you for visiting. I hope you'll take the time to explore not only this blog, but also the rest of my site. There's lots of info here! You can 