After a while, building links on an ongoing basis is very tedious work and some times the feeling of incentive is lost when working on your own websites. My main purpose for writing this article is to show options that are available for improving your websites authority while obtaining high quality links that really make a positive impact for your website. Website marketing needs to be fun, and you need to think of new ideas to lower the amount of time spent to earn a dollar. Working smarter than harder should be on everyones mind.
First off, I recommend that people consider becoming an author for About.com. Did you guys know that many authors on About can make anywhere from $650 per month and up in to the thousands, simply by being an expert in your industry and providing valuable information that increases About’s website traffic and page views?
The big benefit to working on About’s website as an author is that you are also building up your main websites authority, because they are more than happy to link to your website from pages that you create. About is one of the leading web power houses when it comes to information pertaining to thousands of topics. About is more of a basic version of Wikipedia that is compiled by thousands of authors. Ultimately, to become an authority on their website you need to have some industry recognition and great writing abilities, but if you need an extra few links to monopolize your niche online - this would be a great place to start!
Next, we need to talk about Squidoo. Squidoo is a beautiful place to really make some money, and it can be relatively easy if you are a talented writer that creates compelling information about your specialty online. The biggest part to succeeding on Squidoo is creating compelling information, interacting in the community with other Squi Doers and more. You can promote your product within Squidoo, you can make money from Adsense and Amazon as well as a few other affiliates and best of all; Build your authority!
Another great option is to create a compelling Ebook to offer from your website, and if it is extremely high in quality and well researched - you will be able to make some money from selling your Ebook and also generate some link bait because of the valuable information that others will likely link to. In order to increase link bait or authority, consider giving away the Ebook for 2-3 months for free, and tell people to act fast since the price will increase soon. Many websites such as John Chow have really seen link building success with giving away free Ebooks, that is something to think about.
Fourth, why not create external blogs and link to them from your main website so that they gain some trust from the search engines. Then constantly create posts that offer value to website users, and then either promote your product or implement affiliates like Commission Junction, Adsense or pull from one of the many advertisement firms that will allow you to serve ads on your website for a profit.
Fifth, you can always allow guests to post on your own blog and websites that are high in authority to improve your website traffic. As long as the article provided by guest posts is unique in nature and high in quality, you will drum up extra traffic for your website and encourage inbound links to the new content on your website. Some people get very conservative when it comes to allowing others to utilize their own website because people often times don’t want to help others, but if you open up this opportunity you will succeed. How do you think that WebProNews succeeded? They allowed quality publishers to really provide value on their own website.
When building links to your website, don’t always think about this moment. Think about opportunities to create a website that invites inbound links easily, because that is where the true search engine optimization experts succeed in the long term. The sites that perform the best in the search engines are often times not the ones that actively link build, they are the ones that add value to their website visitors and create an environment that obtains a plethora of inbound links.
I am sure there are a lot of additional ways to monetize while building up your websites popularity, and these are just a few. I am excited to hear from others about more ideas to build up website popularity while making a little “ching ching” at the same time.
The single biggest, non-renewable asset you have is your time. There are only three things you can do with it: waste it, sell it, or invest it. As an entrepreneur or a service professional, what you do with your time acutely impacts how much money you can make.
If this year you want to make clients come to you, earn a six-figure or beyond income, become the expert in your chosen field, positively impact lives of many people, gain fame and earn respect of your peers — you have to invest your time into creating marketing assets!
Just like the wealthy invest in assets that continuously appreciate and generate more money — like real estate, the savvy entrepreneurs invest in creating marketing assets that grow your business with no additional expense. What are those assets? Here is just a short list:
- Content
- Info products
- Referral partners
- Ezine subscribers list
- Customers list
- Incoming links to your website
- Testimonials
- Education
So if you want to become the ‘top dog’ in your industry, you’ve got to start doing what the ‘big dogs’ do.
To begin investing your time into creating high leverage marketing assets, use this short checklist:
DON’T design expensive logos. While establishing your uniqueness is important, people will not do business with you because you spent money on a cute graphic!
DO survey your ideal clients. Learning and understanding their needs allow you to offer them solutions they want — and that makes you incredibly attractive to them.
DON’T place ads that feature little more but your logo, phone number and address. Stop kidding yourself thinking you are the next IBM or Coca-Cola and that merely mentioning your name will get people pounding on your door!
DO create content that addresses the most pressing needs your prospects and clients are desperately trying to solve! Write articles, create special reports, publish an e-zine or e-book (or regular book), and record audio/video products. If you advertise — advertise those products not your services.
DO take time to learn and leverage free publicity. Research media contacts, take time to understand what type of information appeals to them, and become good at presenting your information in the format they like best.
DON’T attend every networking meeting you can find. Your time is much too valuable to try to attract business in one-on-one fashion. Contrary to the popular belief — networking isn’t cheap!
If you sum up the cost of your time, the price you pay to eat all that rubber chicken, and the energy to follow-up with people who will likely never do business with you — it’s a very expensive (and ineffective) way to find only a handful of qualified prospects!
DO develop informative presentations. Find large gatherings of your ideal prospects and become good at getting yourself invited as a speaker.
DON’T fiddle around adjusting the shades of colors on your website!
DO look for online communities that already attract your ideal clients and find a way to make them link to you. Ask them to post your articles. Make your site content rich so they will want to list it as a resource. Or sell an info product and invite them to become an affiliate.
DON’T beg for referrals!
DO create ways your current clients can easily ‘give you away’ (like an article or an audio CD)
DO build relationships with referral partners. Create ways in which they can introduce you to hundreds or even thousands of prospects at once!
DON’T try to figure everything out on your own — that’s a very expensive way to learn marketing and build your business.
DO invest in knowledge products and access to experts. An hour or two with a knowledgeable advisor can save you thousands of dollars in time and money wasted on wrong strategies and improperly implemented tactics.
Providing people with easily accessible information about solutions will position you as a valuable resource and an expert. These tools will not only attract all the new business you want, but they will allow you to charge the money you deserve and create the lifestyle you desire.
So stop wasting time eating all that rubber chicken and chasing people who will likely never do business with you nor refer a single client. Instead, start creating high-leverage marketing tools that over time will generate an avalanche of new business!
