Guide to make money online!

The benefits of finding the best free keyword research tools online today are plentiful for you. With so many popping up online you often ask yourself which one is worth using for my basic keyword research needs.

Well in this article I'm going to give you some great links to what I think are the best free keyword research tools on the web to help you with your keyword analysis. They'll give you some great stats to work with and hopefully do the job you were hoping for.

There's just one thing I want to mention about these free keyword research tools below and that is they only give you the amount of searches for that given keyword phrase. What they don't give you is your competition for those given keyword phrases.

But what we're really trying to do here is find out if there's a market for your interests and passions before you start building and marketing your website.

So with that said here are the free keyword research tools I think are the best for you to get started with and are very easy to use.

Lets start with the first one.

1) Wordtracker

With this free keyword research tool all you need to do is enter a starting keyword to generate up to 100 related keywords and an estimate of their daily search volume.

Go to: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

2) Google Adwords

This keyword research tool I think is by far the best because it allows you to enter keywords for analysis or a website URL(Hint: Great for analysising your competitors sites).

Go to: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

3) SEO Book

SEO Books keyword research tool is powered by Wordtracker's API, plus it cross references Google and Yahoo search results to give you a detailed view of your keyword analysis.

Go to: http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

4) NicheBot Classic

With NicheBot Classic which also uses Wordtracker's API allows you to insert your keyword and will give you the TOP 50 keywords and there daily search count and competing pages in Google, MSN and Yahoo.

Go to: http://www.nichebotclassic.com

5) Good Keywords

Good Keywords is a free Windows software for finding the perfect set of keywords for your web pages. Good Keywords is completely free. No registration, no payments and no nag screens.

Go to: http://www.goodkeywords.com

So there you have it, 5 of the TOP free keyword research tools available to you on the web for free to get you started with your keyword research.

There are of course paid services and software that give you more detailed keyword analysis but if you don't have the money to spend these are a great starting point for you.

It all starts here with your keyword research because what's the point of starting a website or paid advertising campaign without this valuable information in your hands.

Many will tell you that affiliate marketing programs sold by Internet marketers are scams meant to make you part with your all-too-precious money in vain. In some instances, this can be true. However, there are affiliate marketing programs that are the real deal and make you earn money now.

You will know if this is so when the affiliate marketing program-cum-Internet marketing coach offers the following benefits.

Step-by-Step Tutorials

You will not be left to figure out the intricacies of affiliate marketing on your own. This is an important feature because doing it on your own can be the kiss of death for your fledging online business. After all, there are just too many information and knowledge to be digested that can take you away from the focus of your membership in the affiliate program in the first place - earn money now!

Full Access to Online Training

Again, it is important to have an Internet marketing coach to guide you through the maze of affiliate marketing. You will be able to avoid the common mistakes committed by new affiliate marketers such as cramming their websites with unrelated products.

With the online training, practical tips to help you make more and more money over the Internet will be presented to you. Contrast this with groping in the wide space of the World Wide Web and you are better off with an affiliate marketing program! In fact, you will even be able to earn extra money from a part-time job within two weeks, which will top the income you earned from your regular job.

And with a flexible training program, you can sleep in and forget about the alarm clocks that were the bane of your life before affiliate marketing came in. And you don't have any working obligations to follow either because the work hours are also flexible.

Full Online Support

Let's face it. There are many questions in your mind that needs to be answered. With an affiliate marketing program, your questions, concerns, and complaints can be easily and quickly answered by the support desk whenever and wherever you might be.

If you do affiliate marketing on your own, you are likely to remain confused and, hence, hindered from your final goal - earn money now and earn it for good.

Of course, there is also the added benefit of the online forums and community area offered by affiliate marketing programs. There, you can exchange ideas, learn new trends, and solicit opinions on your various concerns. You never know when you can earn money now from their ideas.

Customized Personal Account

In addition to the benefits of learning affiliate marketing from the experts, exchanging ideas with fellow Internet marketers and becoming skilled in your own time and pace, affiliate marketing programs provide personalized accounts. You can log in everyday and see how much you have earned.

Organic Search results appear in the non-advertising areas of the search engine results page. This is the equivalent of FREE advertising, so search engine optimization (SEO) is a very important strategy for creating a successful web site. So, it is imperative that you create an effective SEO strategy to help your web site bring you new customers. Here are 10 ways to improve your search engine optimization strategy.

1. Keywords: Develop unique keywords and relevant titles for each of your web site pages and each article or blog you publish.

2. Content: The depth of research and development applied to your content strategy will be directly proportional to the quality and quantity of traffic you receive in organic search. “Content” includes the written word, applications, widgets, tools and other digital assets.

3. Copy writing: Adding one word or phrase in the right place can increase visibility for a particular keyword. Be careful in your approach, and consider the human element, no matter how tempting it is to over-tweak.

4. Permanent Links: Start the process of cataloging multiple redirects and campaign URL’s and set up permanent redirects to make it easier for the engines to find the “real” URL.

5. Interlinking: Link to others web sites, have others link to yours. Writing useful articles that link back to your web site and getting others to use the articles on their home pages is one of the best strategies for improving your rankings in the search engines.

6. Feed submission: Determine which feeds are most relevant to your business (products, maps, etc.) and take steps to provide data to the engines. With placements like Google Maps, a feed could be a quick ticket to a No. 1, No. 2, or No. 3 natural ranking.

7. Title and Description: Create a succinct title and description, which along with your Keywords, is an important part of your meta strategy for SEO.

8. Linking Architecture: Search engines need a unique URL for each page to actually index each page separately. Using parameters like /ShowArticle.cfm?article_id=14 doesn’t work. You could have a million articles linked like this, but the search engines wouldn’t know it. But search engines do like /ShowArticle.cfm/14 - if your information architect designs your system in this way, you can be assured that every article or web page will be reviewed by the search engines - making sure each has a different title, keyword list and description will guarantee that the search engines actually index the articles and pages. This is the best strategy for getting search engines to crawl your site and index content.

9. Clean up broken links: Find and remove permanently broken internal links or set up properly configured 404 error page to improve crawling performance that lets engines know that the old link is history.

10. Make your pages smaller by removing common JavaScript and CSS code to external files. The files are then cached by the browser and your page loads quicker and the search engines can crawl your pages quicker and easier.

These are only a few of the many things you can do to help your SEO. They are free and if you can coordinate all of these things into your web site, they are also very effective.

Bonus Information!

For coders, these are some of the areas that must be taken into consideration:

*Meta Tags - though your title, keywords and description in your site’s meta-tags may have been effective when you launched your site, this can change. Your meta-tags must be tested regularly - it is important to test and re-test your meta data.

*Content - like meta tags, your site content must be updated regularly and must reflect the meta data you are using. When it comes to search engine indexing, the continuity of your meta data and content are checked. Event the order in which your keywords are set and HTML like bold text can make your information easier for the search engine spiders to crawl.

*Links - building links on your site allows you to become more friendly on-line. By making friends virtually, you are increasing your popularity and reputation on-line. This interlinking is an effective strategy to promote your site - the more relevant your links are, the more powerful your web site becomes.

For marketers, this is the most powerful way to build traffic.

*In-Bound Links - Article marketing is one of the key ways to build in-bound links. Every site that posts one of your articles becomes a billboard pointing back to your web site. Imagine having an article on 1,000 web sites - that’s 1,000 billboards pointing to your web site. Now imaging 100 articles on 1,000 web site pointing back to your web site - that is 100,000 billboards that make your site one of the highest ranked sites on the Internet.

When you implement these Strategies, you’ll find two long-term benefits for your website:

1) This will boost your web site search engine rankings. 2) This will attract quality traffic to your site.

Teo Graca works with Social Media, Social Networking, Podcasting, Blogging and other technologies, has an extensive background in video and music production, and has spent the last dozen years designing and implementing information systems.

After the first dot-com bust, "content is king" was the rallying cry of any competent Web worker. Back then this revelation was novel online. Soon after, this mantra became a cliché. As it often goes with clichés, they start out as something true and meaningful. Eventually, the words become common, outlive their value, and are so overused that they're easily ignored.

Saying content is king is the equivalent of saying money is valuable; it's true but obvious. Tell that to the even the most mentally challenged Web marketer today, and you'll likely get a, "Duh, where have you been?" in return.

Nobody needs to be told content is of value. But how valuable is it?

Because there isn't a $1, $5, or $10 denomination stamped on the front of Web content, it's often difficult to know exactly how valuable content is to your company. Also, knowing content's valueisn't the same as knowing how to create it, or even how to use it.

What Is Content?

This is a critical question that often goes underexplored. If you ask most marketers, they'll answer that it's the copy on a Web site. While this answer is certainly true, it's inadequate. Content is more than copy.

We can debate the nuance of the possible answers to this question. But a good starting place is to think of Web content as the public conversation that happens between you and the visitor, whether the conversation is one-way (from you to the visitor), two-way (between the visitor and you), or conversation among visitors.

Content includes but is not limited to:

• The copy on your Web site
  
  
• Blogs and reader comments
  
  
• Content widgets (check out recently released ContentWidgets.com
  
  
• Product/service reviews
  
  
• Forums
  
  
• Videos, demos, and animations
  
  
• Tweets
  
  
• Facebook/MySpace fan pages and groups
• E-mail newsletters
  
  
• Articles and other intellectual property or knowledge sharing
  
  
• Whitepapers, case studies, Webinars

The more this content causes, persuades, or woos visitors to take a profitable action on our behalf, the more valuable it is. If it doesn't do this, it's more like bad entertainment.

Content Now Worth More Than Ever

The economic forecast remains rough for at least the near future. It's easy to make a case for leveraging existing content for all it's worth. I would also encourage you to determine the costs of content creation strategies (if you have in the past, revisit them now). You'll likely find that content creation is becoming more affordable. Many of our clients are easily making room in their budgets to try at least a few content-centered marketing tactics.

Using content as a marketing tool is obvious for those with compelling intellectual property, but it isn't just for those types any more. Almost any company or service can find a content-marketing strategy that will work for it.

An employee of mine has been looking for a home in a new area, and was impressed to find a few Realtors tweeting. He followed them. He was able to meet with one, walk through a property, and find he was from the same area as the real estate agent. Since he didn't yet have a Realtor, whom do you think he is going to choose?

Getting Started With Content Marketing

• You don't have to start from scratch. If you have content already, look to your analytics to identify popular content and find other uses for it. Rewrite it, update it, and send it as a newsletter. Even tweet it as an oldie but a goodie. Or have it formatted for mobile browsers.
  
  
• Crowdsource. Sometimes your customers will create better content than you can buy from a content creation firm. Why not use specific reviews or forum posts as landing places for campaigns or even as ads?
  
  
• Find the passion. Somebody in the company interested or fluent in a particular social media, or has been itching to write a company blog? Now is the time to let him loose. Let his passion be a lighthouse for potential customers. While it may not be polished or on message, it is likely not going to be sterile and flat like most polished, on-message marketing efforts. To get a sense of what this evangelist might do for you, check out my interview with Betsy Weber, chief evangelist of TechSmith:part one and part two.
  
  
• Let content come from your company's strength. We have a client where almost everybody in the company participates in the forum. Every employee is knowledgeable about the service offered, and they all become part of the marketing vehicle, giving tips and comments and escalating customer issues. Not only is it transparent, it's content marketing at its most organic.
  
  
• Content marketing should ultimately be a two-way conversation between you and your customers. While an e-mail newsletter or a static Web page with persuasive copy is technically one-way, it shouldn't sound like it is. Talk more about them and what they get than talking about yourself. Those who do nothing but talk about themselves just end up "wewe-ing" all over themselves. Try our online calculator that tells businesses how much they talk about themselves in their copy; it is one of our oldest content marketing vehicles and has remained popular for years.
  
  
• Don't be pressured to reinvent the wheel. If you don't already have one, start a simple e-mail newsletter. Don't feel forced to pick something new and shiny like Twitter or the latest social media frenzy.
  
  
• Content that isn't relevant to at least one profitable segment of potential customers isn't content, it's spam. Spam is boring. Creating relevant content often requires planning.

Final Say

Ultimately, content marketing is about optimizing the dialogue between a company and it customers. The better, more interesting the conversation is, the more attention it attracts and the more your customers are compelled to talk and buy.

Yesterday, via a tweet by @craigmcginty I was directed to a blog post by @jedhallam recommending that public relations experts should start making use of SEO for their clients. My issue with the blog post was that Jed suggested that SEO is a "technique" to be applied to help public relations efforts, and that he didn't seem to have a full understanding of what search engine optimisation consultants really do for their clients.

The main issues on the table as I see them are:

1. Are SEO agencies giving clients the right advice about marketing and PR and do they have the expertise to offer this advice?
2. Should public relations agencies be creating an SEO offering and do they have the right expertise to offer this service?

A bit of discussion in the comments and an article by Stuart Bruce weighing in with his thoughts later and I wanted to properly express my sentiments on the subject.

SEO and Public Relations are 2 sides of the same coin

I understand that many offline marketers and PR experts are wary of SEO agencies like I-COM claiming to offer a full range of (internet) marketing services. Certainly, SEO in its original incarnation was less about marketing and more about simply tricking search engines into sending you whatever traffic you could get. It was often practiced by internet entrepreneurs selling porn, viagra and trying to get you to their arbitrage site so you would click on a few PPC ads on your way to your final destination. Those who did it well made a lot of money.

As search engines have gotten better, the internet has become a thriving marketplace and most businesses have gotten online, however, SEO too has matured and is no longer just about traffic, it is, much like Public Relations, about reputation - although in the case of straightforward SEO, it's mainly about delivering a good user experience to build reputation. SEO in 2009 is both a marketing and a PR role.

The thing is, SEO is hardly ever straightforward and any good SEO consultant needs to know more than just how to optimise a site. He needs to know about good copywriting (whether writing it himself or comissioning it from others), he needs to understand usability, web design and development and public relations. He needs to know how to deliver a marketing message, the importance of branding to a business and he needs to be able to understand every business with which he works well enough to understand what its customers want and need.

I understand thoroughly why traditional Public Relations firms are beginning to enter the online arena. In fact, it is vital that they make sure that their clients engage in online PR and marketing because even if they don't have a website, people are likely to be talking about them online or looking for them online.

I also understand why traditional public relations experts are wary of SEO firms claiming to offer PR services - SEO has a bad reputation as an industry and there's a lot of SEO agencies promising the moon when they can't even deliver a handful of earth.

I certainly understand @jedhallam's idea that SEO copywriting is about keyword stuffing because a lot of not-very-reputable SEO agencies (and even some decent ones) focus more on getting a page ranked than they do on converting the visitor into a customer when they land on the page (Jed, feel your pain - I have the same issue with a lot of SEO copywriters - these guys give me a bad reputation and my anger over it keeps me up at night!)

Traditional PR agencies will come to love SEO consultants if they just get to know us better!

For all these reasons, I believe that it is vital that traditional marketers and PR specialists get to understand the role of SEO and SEM in an overall business strategy for their clients and they need to understand not only what a good internet marketing agency, such as I-COM, will do for their clients and how much we can help them, but also why we believe that it's no easier for traditional PR and marketing agencies to jump into the online arena than they feel it is for us to offer advice about offline activities.

Simply put, what we do works on the same principles as what they do, but putting it into practice is very different. Designing a website to which people respond is very different from designing for print. Writing web copy which users find interesting and informative but which ranks well in search engines too is very different from writing advertising copy or media releases. And what a brand needs to do to manage its reputation online is very different from what businesses do offline - it's a lot harder to deliver a personal experience online than off, for one.

At I-COM we offer a full service online package, but we also work closely with the marketing, advertising and PR agencies employed by our clients. One of the first things we ask every client for is a copy of all their marketing materials, copies of their offline press releases and any guidelines about their brand and their marketing message because we understand how vital it is to integrate the offline message with the online campaign. We can even track what offline marketing and PR is doing for online businesses using analytics.

In fact, good offline marketing and PR (in answer to @timhoang) can help SEO a great deal because it can get people looking at websites, writing about businesses and linking to their websites - offering very targeted traffic.

We also understand that many agencies specialise in one thing for a reason - to be really great at your job you need to specialise in one thing. It's why we have teams of people here for our clients made up of a web designer, a web developer, an SEO consultant and a SEM/PPC expert and we can draw upon copywriters and social media marketing experts as well.

This is also why we have developed our i-Wise program. Through i-Wise we work with other agencies to help them offer a wider variety of services to their clients and it enables us to partner with other agencies when our clients are in need of offline marketing, advertising and PR services that we do not yet offer.

Ultimately, I don't disagree in principle with anything either Jed or Stuart have said in their blogs, but I do feel that perhaps they both need a clearer understanding of what good SEO consultants can do and how much expertise we bring to the table.

Unless they are prepared to expand their businesses and take on dedicated internet marketers, PPC specialists, SEO consultants and social media marketers, working with a dedicated internet marketing agency, far from damaging their efforts, could help them provide far more for their clients than if they were to learn a little about SEO in order to do a bit more online for their clients.

Internet marketing should be easy. You just cobble together a website and wait for the sales to roll in, right? Well, if it was that simple we’d all be internet millionaires by now, smugly sipping cocktails on a beach somewhere.

But unfortunately for us, there are a few barriers to remove before you can expect the enquiries to come flooding in. Firstly, people have to be able to find you. Otherwise your investment in a website is waste of pixels.

To get noticed, you have two main options: pay per click advertising or search engine optimisation.

Pay per click (PPC)

Launched in 2000, pay per click (PPC) is the system of sponsored ads that have amassed Google its fortune. PPC is a quick, easy method of generating traffic. You simply choose which keywords to target, work out a budget and wait for the visitors to arrive.

What makes PPC attractive is its measurability and ability to show its ROI in clear numerals. Campaigns are also simple to manage, with clear data on conversions and how your money has been spent.

What’s less appealing is the high cost of popular keywords (although a way around this is to target the less obvious but cheaper ‘long tail’ phrases).

Another problem is that PPC is only a short term solution. If you decide to cut spending then your website will simply disappear into the depths of the search listings, never to be seen again.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO, on the other hand, is the long term alternative to PPC for getting to the top of the natural listings (and attracts 72% of clicks).

Working how to optimise websites to appear in response to certain queries is a complex process, and has given birth to an entire industry. Legions of SEO bloggers and consultants diligently work away trying to guess what line of code will magically push their clients’ sites to the top of the rankings. The problem for them is that nobody really knows for sure (and Google isn’t telling).

What we do know is that SEO involves having the correct page structure, tags and back links that tell Google what your website is all about. But SEO isn’t just a job for the technically minded or IT department. It’s also the quality of your content that impacts your ranking, making SEO the responsibility of marketers as well.

Good quality content improves your ranking due to the nature of Google’s business. Their success relies on providing the most relevant results. Consequently, it’s the websites regularly updated, with articles, blog posts and other keyword rich content, that receive the thumbs up and get pulled to the front.

Useful, well written articles can also attract links from other relevant websites (aka blogs), which is another key figure in the mysterious equation for getting onto page one.

Content marketing

Being able to drive traffic to your website is one hurdle, working out how to convert that traffic into sales is another. Your website needs to be able to change how people think and feel about your company if it’s going to convert them into customers. You can achieve this through your content.
Well written articles that offer to solve a problem, provide useful info or valuable insight can build trust and confidence in your expertise. They can also make your website ‘sticky’, keeping visitors glued to your content and engaged with your website for longer. This gives you more time to encourage them to take action and leave their email address before they leave.

PPC or SEO?

Investing in a content driven SEO strategy offers long term benefits compared to PPC. Once your website starts ranking highly for your key terms it’s likely to stay there. The drawback is that reaching such lofty positions can take weeks, months or even a year for competitive search terms. This makes SEO difficult to justify if you want quick, quantifiable results.

Ultimately, deciding whether to rely on PPC or SEO to generate traffic depends on the nature of your business and structure of your website. A sensible approach is to treat PPC as a quick, easy way of attracting customers, and SEO your long term objective.

Either way, internet marketing is a complex, evolving puzzle. You can endlessly spend your time making tweaks and word changes to improve your website’s conversion rate. So any images of sipping cocktails on a beach will have to stay on your desktop’s background for now.

There’s been a fair amount of buzz going around today about the ‘2 New Improvements at Google’, one of which (as noted by the Author ‘Ori Allon’ and Search Engine Land), if not both, are related to the ‘Orion’ acquisition back in 2006. It seems an interesting implementation of the technology given the hub-bub at the time.

Essentially, the algorithm detects related concepts to a query and then it “returns a section of those pages, and lists other topics related to the key word so users can pick the most relevant.” – Which is interesting as ‘sections’ really does start ringing bells for page segmentation for me. Anyway, that’s for another day.

Part one, the search refinements, are more of a categorization and concept targeting system. Now, the refinements are fine really, something we can deal with… the second part, longer snippets, is slightly more concerning.

Longer Snippet? How much is too much?

The second improvement is longer snippets (text shown in the SERPs). Now, I do understand more complex queries can call for more complex snippets, but what happens if this grows deeper? Google starts actually answering queries with the text it retrieves? That is essentially answering the questions with your content. Thanks there Google gang, nothing I like better than paying the hosting for you to serve up (and monetize) my content.

In the post they mention,

“When you enter a longer query, with more than three words, regular-length snippets may not give you enough information and context. In these situations, we now increase the number of lines in the snippet to provide more information and show more of the words you typed in the context of the page.”

Essentially as query lengths are increasing, so thus are the snippets. This means that your targeting and meta data creation could be more defined in the long tail than the short. This means providing for such cases within the content becomes more important. What I advise is creating lists of not only target terms, but related concepts and phrasings to the core targets of a page.

What is more troubling are some of Ori’s comments in an interview back in 2005, where he described it as;

“The results to the query are displayed immediately in the form of expanded text extracts, giving you the relevant information without having to go to the website – although you still have that option if you wish,”

I find it troubling that Google starts to actually serve up the sought after information, although NOT created by Google. Yes, it’s wonderful to help the end user, but this also keeps them on Google more, thus increasing monetization opportunities. Time to break out the tin foil hats kids.

How long does a 'snippet' become until it's serving sections of your page... containing the information?

And so the searcher never leaves Google and you are creating content for them ... at your own expense?

Creating concepts and themes

OK, so enough of the tin foil accessories, back to business. What does any of this mean to our data to day optimization? From an SEO standpoint, what is important is that this further highlights the need to create themes and concepts clearly (as mentioned in last week’s newsletter). I would also suggest revisiting the concepts relating to page segmentation as well.

Much like the phrase based IR, which a new patent was recently awarded to Google, themes and concepts are something to consider more and more of late.

We’re also keenly aware that they have 2 major areas of interest at Google (search wise) – behavioural targeting and context/concepts. This is in the paid search sector as well as the (cough cough) organic search. All of this means broader targeting processes which we’ll try and get into more soon.

Everybody thinks pagerank is important but almost no one admits how important it is. The importance of pagerank can be scored by the point that Google considers the pagerank as one of the main point while ranking a site in its search results. If you have a good pagerank then you have high chance to be ranked above any other lower ranked page.

Pagerank is the general algorithm of Google which ranks a site on the basis of its back links. In fact the main element of allocating a Pagerank to any webpage is the number of sites linking to the webpage and their own Pagerank value. This can also be taken as a popularly contest between high interest sites.

Pagerank is measure with a scale from 0 to 10.

Pagerank 0-2: Any websites between a Pagerank of 0 to 2 are considered as new websites just starting out in the industry. Any sites that is cached by Google in its initial days are given Pagerank of 0 and later in the first Pagerank update they can be qualified for the Pagerank 2. Most new sites which gain a sustainable amount of backlinks within its preliminary stage can also receive a higher pagerank from Google.

Pagerank 3-6: Any established sites which has proven its performance and already have some good back links falls into this category. Most websites that are about 10-12 months old and with back links can get a Pagerank of 3-6

Pagerank 7-10: Any websites that has a Pagerank 7 or above can be considered as the industry leader of that niche. You can find very few sites gaining a Pagerank of 7 and above as it takes good amount of time and some established technique to get a Pagerank above 7.

So, how to increase Pagerank?

Increase the site: If you increase the amount of pages in your websites and link it with each other then you have high chance to get a better Pagerank. A good amount of back link is very important to get a pagerank but in the process don’t get fooled by creating to many pages with useless content because Google’s spider crawls your website and may penalize you for wrong content.

Create a network: Pagerank comes from back links so its much better for webmaster to get engaged in networking to build relevant and high quality back links for their website. Sometimes simple exchange of back links can also work but it’s good to get one way link from high quality website which will then give better link juice for your future pagerank.

Why is it so important?

Pagerank can be vital for any website that depends on traffic from Search Engine. You will be ranked higher than another sites if you have a good pagerank. So, think today and start working on building pagerank to get better exposure on Search Engine rankings.

When it comes to making money online you find a giant amount of information, all this information can be a daunting task if you don’t know where to start.

You can find tons of opinion and views on one single product and can even get brainwashed by the sheer volume of assumption made from different factors. It is very important to know what is right and what is wrong and be able to differentiate between the information that is required to you.

The most amazing factor of online business is that you can give your expert advice on anything even if you don’t have any idea about it. You can research, analyze and come up with your own viewpoint.

Similarly there are many people online who are trying to scam people by giving false advice and false information. It is very important to keep these people on bay while you search for genuine information.

Moreover sometimes you can even get stuck in the information highway that will be thrust upon you by the whole process of searching information. There are few points you should always consider to find out who is expert and who is simply faking to be one:

1. Identify and follow the leaders

2. Check the background and history of the expert

3. Search multiples sources

4. Follow a community

Following above four points you can make sure that you get only the most genuine and reliable information to move your business forward. You should always go with masses and see what they are offering.

Never believe in claims and easy ways, you need the PROOF that these things work. There are tons of people online trying to rake in instant cash by scamming newbies.

It is very important that you research and plan your information retrieval process or else you will simply be stuck in the information highway and get caught by information overload which can be more dangerous that other disturbing factor.

Many beginners try many different programs when they first try to earn an income online. Here we talk about how you can narrow down your choice of programs so you choose the best online income opportunity for you.

The most important step you can take as a beginner to internet marketing is to identify why you want to earn an income online. Here we are just talking about one very strong reason why, not a wish list.

When you have discovered the reason why you want to earn an income online then it will be much easier for you to focus on finding the best way to achieve it. With there being so many ways to earn an income online you do not want to waste time and money trying different things that you may not be successful at.

As a beginner to internet marketing you are probably not aware of the different ways to earn online income. As an example if you want to earn say $150 to $300 extra on a monthly basis rather than starting an online business consider taking online surveys or doing data entry. With these types of extra income opportunities you will be investing your time in return for dollars.

However, if your goal is to create a long-term income and quit your job you might want to consider starting a blog of your own in a niche that you have a passion for. There are many people who are earning a full time income online as bloggers even though for the first few months blogging they never made a dollar.

They were not that concerned because they really enjoyed writing about their passion and posting on their blog on a regular basis. Due to the fact that the search engines love unique content these blogs started to appear high up in the search engine rankings which attracted free targeted traffic.

To capitalize on this high quality targeted traffic they developed an income stream by selling advertising space on their blogs. If they had not identified why they wanted to earn online income initially, this never would have been possible.

You will find that the reasons why people want to earn an income online are numerous. The most common reason today for many is just being able to pay their monthly bills and feed their family, others need to make an income having just lost their job and many want to save to send a child to university or to have a holiday.

As a beginner, once you have taken the most important step of identifying why you want to earn online income then you can decide on how you are going to achieve it.

What exactly is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is the single fastest growth industry on the Internet. It’s also true that affiliate marketing is one of the fastest and most creative ways to make money and have a career on the Internet.

Simply put, affiliate marketing is selling products on a commission basis. You own a business that advertises and sells products for other companies. You may have a product of your own to begin with or not. The things that a successful affiliate marketer must have are:

1. Your website is the jumping off point of all your marketing efforts. So the first step in any successful affiliate marketing business is building a good, credible and professional looking website. You must build a user-friendly website, which will attract your prospects and motivate them to click on the links to the products and services you are promoting and make a purchase. There are companies whose business is building websites that you can hire to build one for you.

2. You must find products to sell, you must be able to determine whether there is a demand for those products and if people will actually buy them. You may either have your own original product or products that are made by others. Which ever way you go, you must believe in the products.

3. It will be necessary for you to become an adept advertiser and be able to tell whether the advertising you are paying for is producing more income for you than the advertising is costing you.

4. It is necessary that you have good mathematical skills. You will need to be able to track your sales and determine profit, as well as, see to it that your suppliers are paid in full and on time.

The most often asked question is this. How do I get immediate traffic to my website right now? The best way to get instant traffic is to pay for it. Yes I know paying really sucks…but if you are somewhat impatient and need traffic to your online opportunity then paying for it is your best option. Here are some excellent ways to explode your traffic and visitor count.

Before you go out looking for website traffic paying services I must stress that you must stay away from dishonest websites that claim 25,000 visitors for only 30 bucks. Most of these online businesses will give you untargeted, unresponsive visitors. You will waste your money.

Below are legitimate pay for traffic ideas. I used all of them and they do work. But you must take action and do your own research before paying anyone any money for traffic!

Start a Google AdWords campaign for immediate traffic. This is by far the best way to pay for highly targeted traffic. Google’s AdWords PPC or pay per click if done correctly can make you a small fortune in a short time. However there are some things you need to know before starting an AdWords campaign.

A highly relevant campaign can bring a substantial amount of targeted traffic to your website, opportunity or blog. Researching your market and keywords are the first thing you should do before starting. Another important aspect of AdWords is to keep your ads as relevant as possible. In other words if you are selling red top tennis shoes then your ad better be about “red top tennis shoes”. The traffic comes from those ads that are on the right side of your own search results. They are called “Sponsored Links”

Paying to get the traffic you need.Another instant way to get instant traffic gratification is by submitting your advertisement to classifieds. Yes I know some people hate submitting to classifieds. They find it somewhat cheesy and unprofessional. But it really does work if done correctly. Again be very selective on how you chose to do business with. Remember to do research before submitting your classified ad. Your copywriting has to be top notch. It might be wise to search and invest for good copywriting services.