Guide to make money online!

When most entrepreneurs approach an SEO consultant, the first question they ask is how they can attract more SEO Traffic to come and visit their websites. Many people and especially the smaller or new business owners do not realise a very important fact. It is not the amount of web traffic that is important; it is the quality of the web traffic that is crucial.

At first glance it looks logical that the more website visitors you get, the better it is for your business. But what good are all those visitors to you if they do not become paying customers? Statistically, having thousands of web visitors does look impressive. What you should look at is the actual percentage that converted into clients. Only then do you see the real picture. It is not the amount of traffic you attract; it is the right kind of traffic you should attract.
Less is best

Where many entrepreneurs go wrong is that they target the high-traffic search phrases. You should not be dong that, you should be targeting the search phrases that will bring you the lowest competition. You cannot waste time with generic phrases; you need to use key phrases that searchers use when they are looking specifically for what you have to offer. One-size-fits-all is a myth.

It does not work for clothes and it surely does not work for your business website. Unless you are the only person on the planet offering your specific product it will simply not work. Business is simply too cut-throat to try to appeal to a huge spectrum of SEO traffic. You can only focus on those people who specifically want your products and services. Those people who want to buy what you have, not the countless thousands surfing aimlessly.
Tight focus

Analyse exactly who the people are that buy your products and build a profile. That profile is what you use when you optimise your website. It is their needs you must cater for; their interests you must appeal to and whose questions your web content must answer. Make sure that your website does not annoy your prospective customers into leaving. People are impatient; they do not want to waste time trying to navigate a website that is obstacle strewn.
Make it easy

Compact, easy and fast navigation is critical and the checking out process must be simplistic. Leave the flashing wheels and cutie-pie trailing cursors for hobbyists, you are running a business. The way to get your desired Website Traffic to convert to paying customers is to give them a clear call to action.

Do not hide your intentions; be very clear on showing them that you want them to add products to their cart, sign up for weekly newsletters or opt in for special promotional emails. You want them to do this and being very clear and specific in your intentions is not being obnoxious. Put your call to action buttons where people see them clearly as the next step to take.

When it comes to promoting business online, Google AdWords is the most effective tool to consider. It is also a very effective way of inexpensive successful Internet marketing. There are numerous ways via which Google AdWords assist in saving money in online advertising that include:

Use the keywords in the ad text
Show the seeker that your advertisement is relevant. Search engine like Google will showcase all the searched keywords or key phrases in bold within your advertisement if they are present. This will assist your ad to be noticeable in the crowd.

Keep the advertisement group key phrase or keyword list short
In place of having a solo ad group with large keywords list, make many advertisement groups each with short list.

Initially bid high
Google’s advertisement system determines positioning through CTR-click through rate and bid. To get high CTR, you initially require generating few clicks. Initially bid high initially so your advertisement will be noticed early within the search results. On getting high click through rate, lower down your bids.

Keep away from bidding wars
Do not waste your money in bidding wars for many high-volume keywords. As an alternative, enlarge your keyword list including specific keywords with lower search volume. Together, these keywords soon will reach the search volume of the expensive keywords. Your normal CPC-cost per click will dramatically fall via applying this tactic. Use the keyword search tool for expanding the keyword phrases list.

Use relevant landing page
For majority of the searches, never point the advertisement at your homepage. Select a landing webpage at your website, which includes keywords or key phrases from the search and in few cases, it is worth making a customized page that is not within the usual navigation of your website.

Separate content campaigns and search

Many individuals lose cash using AdWords while their website is swamped with successes from the content ads. Majority of the individuals do not realize that highlighting ads on the content network of Google is turned on through default. Either switch off content network or make separate campaigns for the content ads and search.

Set your daily budget more than Google advice
If you place your everyday budget too low then your advertisement will be showcased intermittently. You certainly do not want this. You want your advertisement to be displayed when someone looks for your key phrases or keywords. Control over your ad spend via other means like employing negative key phrases, keywords, targeting through region, using the exact matches pr adjusting the keyword bids.

Undoubtedly, Google is the most used search engine over the Internet, and everyday over 300 million people use Google for different purposes. Because of its vast popularity and huge usability, it does not serve as a mere search engine but has also become a huge advertising platform for the businesses. In fact, any person who is looking for a product or service of any kind uses Google advertising tools to find out the best offers in the market. With the technology of using Google adwords, any Internet professional or website owner can get all the required facilities to manage and handle the overall website and thus increase its revenues to a large extent. With proper Internet marketing training, you will be able to know how to make the best use of the online marketing tools. With practical sessions, you will go much beyond a bookish knowledge and a verbatim heard over the net.

The entire procedure of Google advertising is quite simple and you are given the authority of making your own advertisement and building on the key phrases and adwords as per your own capacities, requirements and preferences. You can also get your ads customized so that you can decide where they should be placed. With pay per click advertising, you will need to pay only for the clicks on your ads and not for placing the advertisements which may or may not be clicked by your potential customers. It is a fact that if a visitor clicks on your online advertisement, he or she is really interested in the product or service you are providing and thus has more probabilities of turning into a customer from a mere visitor.

Under marketing education, you will learn about refining the whole process of targeting the adwords and how they should be related with the optimized content of your website. You will also come to know about the steps that should be taken for increasing your ROI and decreasing the rate of CPC of your website. If you are a business owner who believes in purchasing expensive advertisements over the Internet and ends up with a failed advertising campaign for most of the times, these Internet marketing training sessions will tell you how to advertise in the most effective manner with least budget possible. This will not only save you a lot of money on unnecessary advertisements but will also increase your revenues and sales manifolds.

For years, article marketing has been an effective tool for affiliates to generate visits and sales from interested consumers.

Here is a brief overview of how article marketing works and how it can benefit your efforts as an affiliate.

First, you should identify a product niche that you’re knowledgeable about, and then write an article related to that topic. At the end of the article, you can add a ‘resource box.’ Typically, this is a couple of sentences about you and what you have to offer, followed by a link to your website, where you can then direct people to useful products in that niche.

The trick here is to use those sentences to entice people to click on your link. An easy way to accomplish this is to offer a free report or other freebie related to your niche market.

Next, you’ll submit that article (for free) to various article directories on the web.

The two main directories to start with are:

www.ezinearticles.com and www.goarticles.com

To find more, just do a Google search for ‘article directory’ or ‘article directories.’

Please note that one of the conditions of publishing your article in these directories is that you allow other people to republish your articles as long as they don’t change the content and leave your name and the resource box at the end of the article intact.

Don’t worry; this is a good thing, as it will lead to more traffic for you! There are two main ways this practice will get you additional traffic.

1) Getting Published

Website owners in the niche market you are writing about will come to these directories looking for suitable articles they can use as content on their websites or ezines.

If they pick your article to publish on their site, their visitors will see your website link in the resource box at the end of your article, which could generate extra traffic for you with no additional effort or expense on your part.

2) Search Engine Rankings

Article directories can rank highly in the search engine results, so your article may get a good search engine listing by being on some of these sites. This is especially the case if other websites link to your article.

To try to get a good search engine ranking, you should target specific keyword phrases you want to rank for and make sure to include them in your article. The less competitive the keyword, the better the chance your article will rank well in the search engines.

A note of caution-don’t overdo your keyword targeting by stuffing loads of keywords into the article. If you do this, many people won’t want to read your article or click on your link, and the search engines may punish you for writing “spammy” content. This completely defeats the purpose of article marketing, which is to provide useful information that gets people to take the action you want them to take.

Instead of repeating your keyword dozens of times, just get your main keyword in there a few times, and start the article title with your keyword if you can. Your best bet is to strike a balance between having your keyword in your article enough to get noticed by search engines and keeping it readable, informative, and enjoyable for actual humans. After all, it doesn’t matter how many visitors see your article if it doesn’t convince anyone to click on your link!

In addition to getting your articles ranked in the search engines, you can also increase your own website’s search engine rankings by linking to it from your articles. With each article you submit, the more links you’ll have to your site, and the better your rankings will be.

That’s article marketing in a nutshell. Give it a try, and be aware that it may take some time and effort before you start seeing results. The best article marketers put a lot of time and effort into improving their work, just like any author, but since it’s a free and simple way to generate traffic and sales, it’s well worth the time you invest!

In the world of business and marketing, the most powerful form of advertisement is the word of mouth. And since business today can be done through the web, online advertisement now becomes very powerful as well. With a glowing fact that most of the people use the computer and get connected to the internet everyday, marketing the products and services of a certain business will be that easy. Given this, most businesses utilize online marketing approach to effectively target their potential market segment and save on marketing expenses. How can a business operation or any form of e-commerce capture the potential online market?

To start with, a company or a business retailer should have a website that contains information a customer would need such as company or business profile, products and services offered, benefits and disadvantages, availability, etc. To have a website that appeals to the customers, consult a trusted website designer who can provide you with different options and knows how to come up with a creative website appearance. Usually, how the website looks and its attractiveness is a big factor in getting big chances of being noticed.

Now that you have a website, another important step you need to do is place your website or link to directory listings like Yahoo and Google. The primary site should be on the list so that customers can still search for your link even after it has long been launched. In order to generate traffic in your marketing pages, an effective approach would be affiliate marketing. This means that you tie up with or partner with other websites that have the same potential market you’re targeting by adding your website as a link to their site. Make sure though, that the affiliate marketer does a good job in advertising your services.

Customers consider the values and benefits offered by a certain product or service before they decide to purchase. Where the product has more positive feedback or comments, customers would go for that particular product. So, in your online marketing campaign, it is very helpful to include testimonials from customers who have tested and proven the effectiveness of the product. In fact, testimonies are the most powerful technique to sell a product or service. This builds a certain level of trust among potential purchasers on what you are selling leading to product purchase. Testimonials should be convincing and persuading to make it even more effective.

There are customers who tend to question the truth in online marketing and so they become uncertain in their buying decisions. A good way to get them rid of this hesitancy is through guarantees. It could be a 100% satisfaction guarantee or a money back guarantee which is the more common way of making customers feel at ease with what they’re purchasing.

Online or internet marketing is indeed a modern means of advertising your product or services. Apart from easily targeting your preferred market segment, it doesn’t need so much effort on your part when it comes to dissemination of information about your product.

If you are considering joining a multi level network marketing opportunity there are some things you should know first. It can be easy to be enticed by the idea of easy money that people who promote network marketing opportunities often give us in hope that we will join them and send them our money. But there are a few things these multi level network marketing companies don't want you to know.

I think most people who have been involved with network marketing know what this is but most don't want to face it. It's like the elephant in the room, nobody wants to mention it or think about it but everybody knows it's there.

Multi level network marketing companies often have thousands of people who are hoping and expecting to either get rich or to at least make a nice living. But nobody wants to face the fact that in all of these companies most people are not making much if any money at all. There are a few who do make money and these are the people everybody focuses on and talks about. But we ignore the 95% or more who are not doing well at all with these businesses.

So does this mean you should forget about multi level network marketing? For most people yes. But if you are one of the few who are willing to get the skills and the personality that it takes to succeed in that business then it can be a good opportunity. But even if that is what you want most people just won't do what it takes to succeed. Most of the people who are successful in that industry didn't become that way over night. Most of them took years of learning and failing before they got the skills and developed the personality that it takes to succeed.

You will have to become good at selling. No matter how many times they tell you that you won't have to do any selling, it's all about selling. You will have to become a leader and a trainer and for most people it will require a personality change.

Network marketing often promises to be an easy and quick way to make money. But for most people it isn't easy or quick at all. There are much easier ways to make money. What I do is trade the forex currency markets with an automated program. To do that you don't even have to know how the forex works because the program will do it all for you.

If you want to become good at network marketing then go ahead and join a multi level network marketing program and go through the process. Just be aware that it might be a long and difficult one. If you are more interested in making money now then you are probably going to be better off with a different opportunity like automated forex trading.

If you are thinking about joining a network marketing MLM home business you should know that these types of businesses are not for everybody. It can be easy to get caught up in the excitement and the idea of the success that it promises. Most of us have been pitched at some point to join one of these opportunities. Usually by someone who is very excited at the thought that they are soon going to be rich.

But how many people do you know who actually got rich or is even making a decent living from joining a network marketing MLM home business? We have all heard about the successful people that are in every company and the few industry gurus, but if you are like most people you probably don't know of anyone in your own personal life who has.

The reality is most people never make any significant money with these programs and most actually lose money. It's an industry that has more than a 95% failure rate. Part of the reason for this high failure rate is most people have no business getting involved in this kind of business. Regardless of what they may have told you in order to get you to join, you will have to be highly skilled at being a network marketer in order to succeed.

Most of them offer to train you but most of the training but most of the industry training is not effective. Most of it is just geared toward keeping you excited so you will stick around a while before you quit. What they don't tell you is most of the successful people took years of training and failing before they ever experienced success.

You must become good at sales and marketing and develop an almost celebrity like personality before you can succeed in this industry. For most people this will involve changing who you are. For most people this is just not going to happen.

So if you don't have the skills of being a network marketer and are not willing to transform into the type of person who is good at network marketing MLM home businesses then you might want to save your time and money and avoid joining them. There are other opportunities to make money that are not nearly as difficult.

Since other opportunities don't depend on selling the opportunity you don't hear about them as much. One of the easiest ways to make money is by using an automated program to trade the foreign currency markets. Using very little of your own money you can make money the same way a lot of banks and other wealthy institutions do. There are now automated computer programs that will do all of this for you even if you don't know anything about the foreign exchange or forex. This is what I do and if you want to make money on autopilot and make the kind of money that most people in network marketing MLM home businesses only dream about then you might want to take a look at automated forex trading.

It's hard to go anywhere especially on the internet without someone eventually trying to pitch you into some multilevel network marketing opportunity. You probably know people who have been involved in these programs and maybe you have too. One thing that most of these programs have in common is the people who get involved become very excited and believe that they are about to get rich. Pretty soon that excitement wears off and then the excuses start to come out about why they didn't get rich.

So is multilevel network marketing a legitimate way to make money or just a bunch of empty promises designed by someone to get your money. The answer is it can be both. Many network marketing companies are all about selling their opportunity to people who will then sell the opportunity. They may have a product but it's mostly there to make people feel better about the opportunity and to make the program legal or semi legal. These are not much different than chain letters and are just gimmicks that usually only last until the next one comes along or until they are shut down by the government.

There are network marketing companies that are focused on distributing legitimate products and services and these are legitimate companies and opportunities. The driving force behind these opportunities is people using their products and services because they find value in them.

With both of these types of multilevel network marketing some people do make money but but the fact is the vast majority don't. These programs are usually promoted as an easy way to make money but they don't always give you the whole story.

In order to make money with these programs you have to become good at sales and marketing. No matter how many times they tell you there is no selling, it's all about selling. Most people don't like to sell and most are not good at selling. You will also need to learn to become a good leader who can teach others to be good at selling.

In order for most people to become good at multilevel network marketing they have to change their life habits and practically become a different person. This is more than most people are willing to learn and for most these opportunities end up costing them a lot of time and money. It doesn't matter how revolutionary your program is or what technology is involved or who promises to make your sales for you, it always works out the same.

If you don't have the skills to be good at multilevel network marketing but would like to make the kind of money that they promise you will probably be better off with automated forex trading. This is the way a lot of major banks and other big institutions make a lot of their money trading the world currency markets. With an online forex account using a small amount of money an automated program can trade your account for you pull in consistent profits out of this massive 2 trillion dollar per day market. It's usually costs less and is a lot easier to get started than multilevel network marketing ever was

Net Business Blog was launched on January 7, 2007. The goal of our website is to simplify the complexity of doing Business Online. We specialize in revealing and simplifying search engine strategies and prime our services toward online marketing professionals to give them a competitive edge. I hope to give you information that you can use to start up or enhance your online business. Blogging, Marketing, eCommerce, PPC, SEO/SEM, Web Development, Branding and everything else crucial to your Success Online. If there is a request for a topic that I cannot cover, I will do my best to find another SEO Expert who can to make sure your questions get answered!

The market for blogs has exploded. Many companies do not want to invest the time in developing a blog in their respective niche, which has given rise to a whole new cottage industry, blog flipping.

Blog flipping is done in a few different ways. Some flippers buy an existing blog that has potential, but is not currently producing. They take that blog and build the traffic and sales up to a level productive enough to reap a profit from their investment, and then sell it.

Or, more common in today’s blog flipping market, is to research a specific niche, develop a domain / blog, and then sell it.

But what does “developed” really mean? It depends on the flipper. So buyers really need to do their homework (read due diligence) before investing in an “established” blog or website. Because “established” is in the eyes of the beholder, and means many different things depending upon who you consult.

In my opinion, established means that the site, or blog, is profitable. Now profitable can be defined very differently for different companies. It doesn’t mean that the site has to be making money, though it does help justify the investment when purchasing the blog. It can mean to a prospective company only that the site has traffic that company believes it can convert into sales. Not everyone can convert website traffic in the same way. So there are companies out there looking to buy blogs that have a certain, specific reader demographic that fits their market. However, these types of sales are few and far between. Companies that are buying blogs normally want to see one thing.

Profit.

Not just income, because a blog’s gross monthly income and it’s actual profit margin can be two very different things as well. We’ve all seen the advertisements screaming that you can make ten thousand dollars a month blogging, or with Adsense, or whatever. But the part usually left out is the investment it takes to get that income. Sometimes the cost is far greater than the income, making the blog or website a LOSER.

So what steps should you take to sell your blog if you are a would be website flipper? Here are a few factors your blog or website should have in order to get top dollar:

1. Real Web Property

Your blog needs to be a real web property. What I mean by this is that it needs to be a real domain, on hosting you are paying for. Free hosted blogs are not a viable investment for most companies and corporations. There are exceptions to every rule and I’m sure that there have been a few sales of extremely popular Blogspot blogs, but unless you have a million visitors a month, you’re probably not going to sell a free hosted blog anytime soon. Buy a domain, pay for some hosting, build something that has value.

2. Professional Appearance

Your blog or website needs to have a professional appearance. Custom design is always better, but at the very least, it needs to have a template or layout that fits that blog’s readership or market. If you have poor graphics, even if your blog has monster traffic, you’ll sell it for much less than you could have if you had professional web design. It’s sort of like house flipping or selling a used car. If you can afford it, a fresh coat of paint usually brings the resell value up substantially.

3. Developed Traffic Sources

Potential buyers want to see traffic. Not just any traffic will do for most serious investors. They want to see solid, search engine traffic and a solid bookmarked reader base. StumbleUpon and other social bookmarking websites are awesome traffic sources, no doubt. But when it comes to someone buying your blog, they want to see more than just a few traffic spikes from a front page listing on Digg. They want to see that the traffic is going to keep coming for months and years to come. Without a lot of work if they can get it.

4. Documented Traffic Statistics

It is going to take more than just the summary of “hits” screen capture from your webalizer stats to make the sale. You are going to need at least three months history of actual traffic statistics. Unique visitors, tracking cookie info if you have it, Google Analytics, etc. Numbers, numbers, numbers. Corporations want numbers in order to convince their board of directors that your blog would be a sound investment. Private investors are no different for the most part and they want to know exactly what they are buying when it comes down the actual traffic your blog has.

5. Profit and Loss

Lots of income statistics. If you are looking to sell your blog or website for real money (read more than a few bucks nabbed on EBAY) then you are going to need to show your buyer some stats about money. P&L statements (Profit and Loss) for as far back as you can go will help your buyer make his or her decision. It is one thing to tell a potential buyer what the gross income per month is, it’s a completely different thing to show them exactly what the net income is and how it is obtained each month. Keep good records of your website expenditures and what the income received from those investments are. Include every cost. Website hosting, design, redesign, employee or outsourcing costs, whatever. Include everything and show them the real bottom line.

6. Set a Fair Price

I know you love your site, I love all of mine too. So it’s easy to attach an emotional value to your blog and inflate the price. It’s also really easy to confuse a blog’s actual value with your vision of it’s potential value. What you think the site will make someday and what it’s making now are two very different things. Sorry, but what you think it will make someday has zero value to a would be investor. They only want to know what the net profit is, right now. Yes, you can take some long term income growth statistics and make profit projections, but unless you have these statistics going back a year or more, most buyers are going to dismiss them entirely.

Set a real price. In the bricks and mortar world most companies sell for 2 to 3 years of the total net income. Online, this number is usually cut down to one year. So if your website is netting $300 per month, the actual value of your blog is probably somewhere around $3600. Once again, it’s easy to add an emotional price tag for all the hard work you’ve done to get that blog making $300 clams a month, but your sweat equity doesn’t mean much to a buyer.

Neither do website values created with online calculators. These sites are traffic magnets and are built totally to obtain webmaster traffic. If you search long enough and hard enough, you’ll find a website value calculator that comes up with a number you like. It still means nothing to a buyer. It’s not what your site is really worth and should have no bearing whatsoever on your sale price.

7. Where to Sell your Website

Where and how you sell your website is super important. The profit you make will be directly related. Try to stay away from auction type formats if at all possible. If your site has some real value, use a website broker. A broker will help you determine the real value of your blog or website and then help you find a qualified and interested buyer. You would call a real estate agent (read professional) if you were selling your house, right? So why would you rely on your “for sale by owner” plan when it comes to your web property? Call a professional.

Sadly, one of the main reasons most flippers don’t call in a pro is because deep down they don’t really want to know what the site is worth. They want to live in their imaginary world where their holdings are worth millions. They can put a site up for sale on Sitepoint or Ebay for whatever price they want. Creating the illusion that they are worth substantially more than they really are.

8. Pie in the Sky Promises (magic beans)

Stay away from “Pie in the Sky” promises to potential buyers. When it comes to buying a website or blog, 99% of the buyers out there are from Missouri (the “Show Me” state) and only want to see the cold hard facts. Offering to take them to some new level of income at a later date is only going to make you look unprofessional and like an amateur.

There are sales contracts that require you to assist the new buyer for a set period of time. But these are normally for sites that are currently making money and allow time for you to teach the new owner just how that income is made. These clauses in sales contracts are not designed for you to hatch your half baked plans or for time to realize “what you think” the site’s potential might be someday.

9. Accessible Communication

You need to be extremely accessible to both your broker and potential buyers. They are going to have questions. So you need to have a cell phone number and an office number where they can reach you. You need to check your email often and respond quickly. Slow response can be a red flag signaling uncertainty, and that’s something an investor just does not want to see when they are thinking about laying some cash on you. Be available to talk to them.

10. Know the Details

Communication is only effective if you have answers. If you have to stumble and stutter with your answers, it’s going to have impact on the sale. You need to have done your homework and you need to know the answers to the questions in advance.

There you have the basics for flipping your blog or website. Of course there are many more points that can increase the actual dollar amount realized when you sell your blog, this only covers some of them.

But if you follow these guidelines and are realistic with yourself and your buyer, you can sell your website for a profit. So take the time to prepare your web property for a real sale. Writing a good sales pitch is fine, but it’s not going to be sufficient for most investors. You’re going to need to have these bases covered.

Good luck. I hope you sell your blog for what it’s worth.

When email marketing was in its infancy, it provided instant gratification to marketers. Shortly after you pushed the send button, orders started appearing in shopping carts. It was too cool. The cost was significantly less than mailing a catalog or postcard and the response was much higher.

Things have changed. Sending emails designed to entice the most discerning consumers doesn’t guarantee a marketing bonanza. The abuse of this economical marketing tool has created a backlash from consumers tired of inboxes full of unwanted messages. Internet service providers and email servers have become the chosen gatekeepers.

The good news is that your customers and prospects still want to receive marketing emails if they are relevant. If your response rates are steady or declining (or if you want to make a good program better), you need to find out why your recipients aren’t clicking. The top reasons subscribers don’t respond to your emails are:

1. They didn’t receive it.

Spaminators are continuously watching for triggers that identify your email as spam. Ironically, the phrases that increase your response rate like “100% Money Back Guarantee” or “Free Shipping” reduce your deliverability. Avoid spam triggers when possible to insure that your email actually arrives in the inbox.

2. Your subject didn’t interest them at the time.

Target marketing is the right message to the right person at the right time via the right medium. If all of the other factors are correct but your timing is off, your recipients will not buy. Review your historical email response data to see if you have a long tail. Poor timing may cause it. Test resending the same email at different times to non-responders to see if it affects the response rate.

3. They got lost in cyberspace.

Insure that the landing page for every link in the email is the correct one. If you offer a particular product or service and send your customers to your homepage instead, a high percentage will bounce. Make the journey from their inbox to your shopping cart as direct as possible. You don’t want them making wrong turns along the way.

4. The value was missing in action.

People buy products or services for their benefits. While price is always a consideration, it is not the driving force. (Would you buy the jeans that are 20% off or the ones that make you look skinny?) Failure to communicate the value to your recipients in their language reduces response. Tap into the emotional purchase stream and watch your sales soar.

5. Email fatigue has set in.

Sale emails are simple to create and generate a predictable response. Many marketers create a template and update it several times a week to drive revenue. Unfortunately, their recipients get tired of repetitive content and too frequent delivery. To see if your customers and prospects are suffering from email fatigue, review the history for several segments. (Make sure the same people are in the segments.) If the response is trending down, you’re in trouble.

6. Their last order had challenging issues.
There is a difference between issues and challenging issues. Issues are quickly resolved to the customer’s satisfaction. Challenging issues require an investment of the customer’s time to reach a resolution that may or may not be satisfactory. The faster any problem is resolved, the more likely the customer will buy again. Work with your fulfillment team to insure quality service.

7. They don’t remember you.

Your prospects and customers are busy people. If you don’t respond quickly to their new subscription or send emails on a regular basis, they forget you. Consistent marketing with relevant (and entertaining) messages keeps your brand fresh in their mind. Create and follow an engaging marketing strategy.

If the 20th century was the age of the car, the aeroplane and the television, then it’s probably fair to say that the 21st century - so far, at least - is the age of the Internet.

The World Wide Web was well underway by the turn of this century, but in recent times the Internet has really started to achieve true ubiquity. Whether it’s at work, at home, in coffee shops or even on the move, people are now able to surf the cyber highway wherever they may be. And for businesses, this means they can no longer afford to marginalise their online operations; given that so many people’s first port of call when shopping for anything these days is to open up Google on their laptops, desktops or Internet-enabled mobile phones and search for the best deal they can find.

However, with such a varied range of websites now on the World Wide Web, it can be easy to get lost in the deluge of information in cyberspace. But with an intelligent approach it is possible for an organisation to stand out from the crowd and ensure that their success is long-lasting.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has been a key strategy for many businesses in the age of the Internet and essentially is the art of helping a company’s website rank highly for certain pre-defined keyword searches.

First of all, there is the paid approach, which involves paying money to the search engine provider for a ‘sponsored link’ in the search results page. Normally, a set fee is charged each time a potential customer clicks on the link, which is why it’s come to be known as ‘pay-per-click’ (PPC). However, this isn’t necessarily the most cost-effective technique to optimise online operations.

An organic approach is another effective way of ranking highly in search engine results pages. Essentially, this involves carefully crafting the text that appears on the website, so that it includes as many permutations as possible of the keywords that online consumers use when shopping for a product or service.

Part of the SEO process also involves gaining link-backs from relevant external websites. This may involve generating content for blog owners in return for them providing a link back to the company’s website. Or better still, it would be ideal to receive a link back from a well respected local or national newspaper as part of a broader PR drive that includes a full feature on the business in question.

But before all this, it’s important to choose a good domain name for the website, one that is relevant to the products and services on offer. The domain name registration often comes as part of an overall web hosting package and can cost as little as a few pounds a month; and considering the potential benefits a website can bring to a business, it really will be money well-spent.

When you have decided to start a blog it is going to take some effort to launch it successfully. In this way blogs work exactly like launching a new website; no-one will know that it exists. So to make people aware of your blog you will treat it exactly like you treat your official business website. To kick start getting traffic to come and read your blog means you will have to put some marketing effort into it. This is where external link building is a powerful marketing tool for your blog. The clever use of link building creates pathways that will make your blog highly visible.

Start off smart

To start your new blog off on the right foot, it is wise to learn from what veteran bloggers have learned the hard way. You must announce the launch of your new blog with some positive online PR by writing a few press releases and make sure they are distributed. Some people scoff at directory submissions as old hat, but they do add value. This works especially with the well established older directories. Very important for your new blog are the blog directories. Blog directories are extremely important so research which of them will suit you best. This is the best way to get yourself visible to people who are searching for what your blog has to offer.

Never underestimate the power of social media

A social profile for your blog is a great way to build traffic and loyalty. A social profile is a meeting place for your readers where they can chat and this then becomes a business directory that is being created around your company. Social bookmarking has gained huge popularity. To give your blog a longer reach you should tag your most popular and best posts through websites like Digg, Twitter and Mixx. This means your link comes to the attention of the search engines often before your actual blog posting is picked up by the search engines.

Blog SEO marketing

Marketing your blog correctly through SEO efforts is a given. Keywords are just as important in your blog as on your official website. Make good use of industry related keywords and phrases in your blog posts as this will show up in search results. Search engines read text and your URL structure is therefore important. Customize your URLs with clean, short keywords; don’t waste URL text with numbers.

Your blog posts are vitally important. The actual content must be worthwhile and give readers interesting information to read. The length of your blog posts should always be watched. People will get bored if you write sagas. The optimum word count for blogs is between 250 to 350 words. Long enough to be give good information and short enough to hold the attention of readers.

Remember that there are many different ways to blog but content is king, exactly as with your website. Optimisation is just as indispensable for your blog, for without visibility your blog fails before it lifts off.

Marketing rules for Internet business differs slightly from that of any business of bricks and mortar. Your clients cannot see you; you cannot interact with them on a personal and face to face level. Your website is your one shot at getting them interested in what you have to offer. To do this you have to enter into a relationship with each of your website visitors. If you are unable to do business face to face then you must gain knowledge. You have to get to know exactly who ad what your potential customers are. It is not impossible to do this in a virtual medium. You just have to work clever.

Give them what they want

You have to engage your visitors; this means that once you have their attention, you have to build on from this. Profile who your web visitors are, what exactly are they looking for and why they come look for it on your website. These are the crucial aspects that go into enabling you to build a relationship with them. This is needed to lead to conversions that turn them into paying customers.

From the first second your web visitors land on your website you must grab their attention. This means that each and every page of your entire website is a landing page in reality. This involves arranging your website content in a visually pleasing and friendly manner that is both convincing and persuasive. On each of your web pages your visitors must be able to see at first glance that they are exactly where they want to be. They also need to see that you offer them the information that they are looking for.

Don’t waste their time

If you make it difficult for your visitors to understand what they can get out of your website, they will not stay long. Today people expect instant solutions and have no patience with obscure hinting. They want their questions answered and they want to know why they should buy form you and not a competitor. Make sure you spell out the benefits to them clearly.

Have clear and strong links to the pages of product information and point the way visually and sharply. People are not stupid; if your web content is aimed solely at pleasing and attracting the search engines, it will be noticed. If your web content is seen as being keyword focussed, readers will distance themselves. Once this happens, you have lost the chance to engage your web visitor. No engagement means you will lose this sale.

Visitors become customers

Search engines are not the only important thing. A competent SEO writer will know how to write content for readers as well as search engines. Visitors want to feel as if you have developed your website with them specifically as the focus. Your website must address the needs of customers; their needs, wants and questions.

Your web content and SEO practices should be focussed on making them feel like special customers whom you value. It is fatal to make them feel as if you have white-washed your website to be a generic place for casual browsers.

While we all work to beat the competitors for targeted search terms, hoping to land that top ten ranking; Google’s Universal search provides additional opportunities to increase your website’s exposure by mixing in universal search results.

Most companies are not taking full advantage of universal search and are really missing the opportunity to increase their exposure and interact with their visitors in a new exciting way. We’ll show you how you can utilize Universal Search to push your website to the top of the search results and drive more traffic to your website with this exciting addition to Google Search.

Introduction to Google’s Universal Search

While Google offers up the paid search results via Google Adwords and organic search results within the center of their search results page; they are now mixing in other types of results in attempt to give visitors a taste of everything that is related to their search. This includes:

• Products (Google Product Search)
• News (Google News)
• Images (Google Image Search)
• Blogs (Google Blogs)
• Geo-targeted Business Listings (Google Maps)
• Video (Google Video)

Benefits of Universal Search

For visitors, the benefits of universal search are that they can see various types of results without having to leave the organic search results page. Another benefit is that it breaks up the page adding images, video still shots and information in a way that is appealing.

For site owners, there are quite a few benefits. First, there are now multiple ways to have your products and services listed on the 1st or 2nd page of Google.

Second, if visitors did not select your organic listing, they may select your image, blog or business listing; offering more opportunities to obtain targeted visitors to your website.

And finally, some Universal Search results are bumped ahead of the organic listings. If your website is listed in the #12 spot on page two and you just can’t get your site to the 1st page, you may be able to have your images, videos or products listed above the organic results for specific search terms.

Users Intent

If you searched for the word “Apple” using Google in 1999, you were presented with various types of informational websites; discussing the various types of apples, how to use them in recipes and other great apple related information. But over time, people who typed in “Apple” would complete their search and then run another search for “Apple computers“. As this trend continued to happen, Google’s Algorithm learned that a trend was emerging. Most visitors who typed in the word Apple were looking for computers, not fruit.

Now when you type in “Apple” into Google, you are presented with the Macintosh Apple website, websites that review Apple computers and e-commerce stores where you can purchase an Apple computer. Google’s focus is to not only provide searchers with relevant search queries based on their search term, but to emulate the thought process that is derived from the search term itself.

When a searcher enters a query, Google’s artificial intelligence attempts to understand what the visitor may want to see before returning the search results. They have come to learn that when a visitor types in a brand name or a product, that searchers may want to:

• See Photos of the Product
• Read Product Reviews
• Purchase The Product
• Research The Product

In an attempt to give the visitor what they want they try to return the types of results related to the users intent.

To use Universal Search to your advantage, you must understand the user’s intent when they type in the search terms related to your website. The best way to see which universal search products are being used for your search terms is to search them within Google. Once you enter the search query, above the search results in the top left area of the screen you will see a listing for the products pulled into the results. For example, if I enter the search query “red scarf” I see the following Google Products listed at the top left area of the screen:

1. Web

2. Shopping

3. Images

Essentially this means that Google attempted to pull in (web) organic search results, Google Product Search and Google Images.

The Strategy

Creating a strategy to increase your rankings through Universal Search can allow you to locate opportunities that your competitors missed; giving you more exposure and targeted traffic.

In the example of the “red scarf”, you will notice that although Google attempted to pull in images, there aren’t any images displayed within the results. This essentially means that you could possibly receive a listing on the 1st page of Google via Google Images if you optimize your images and submit an Image Map through Google Webmaster Central. Additionally, you can upload your red scarves to Google Base to get them listed within the Google Shopping results.

Now if you visit the second page of results, you’ll see that they are now showing different universal search results.

• Web
• Video
• Images

Towards the top of the results you will see 1 video; however in most searches where videos are in the results, you will usually see two. This indicates that you could potentially have a video listed towards the top of the second page. As you continue to view the remaining results on page two you will again notice that you don’t see any photos on page two; another opportunity to gain exposure over your competitors.

Once you have completed this type of research and analysis for the keywords important to your website, begin creating and optimizing your shopping feeds, videos, images, blog posts and other universal search products to gain the competitive advantage before your competitors do.

Optimizing Images

You can increase the chances of your images showing up for relevant search queries by optimizing your images. There are a few key areas that will help improve your ability to increase rankings for your images in Google Image Search, as well as where images are shown in Google Search.

Although these tips are for Google Images, these examples can be used throughout various areas of your website; to improve all of your universal search results.

File Names - Give your images accurate names rather than defaulting to what your camera or image editor provides. If the image is of a cashmere red scarf, then consider naming our image cashmere-red-scarf.jpg. This help to further classify the image and show relevancy to the search terms you are targeting.

Image Alt Attribute - Ensure that you have provided a quality description for your images using the image alt attribute. Try using product colors, sizes, materials, brand names, textures, manufacturer names etc. Remember not to overdo it, but provide an accurate description of the product to assist with increasing relevancy for desired search terms.

Captions - Include a caption for your image that describes or relates to the product. The text that surrounds the image helps Google to understand the subject matter of the image.

Anchor Text - The text you use when linking to the image helps to describe and classify the image. Try using descriptive anchor text rather than words such as “click here”, “larger image” or “more photos” when describing the link.

Google Image Labeler - While you can do your part in helping to optimize your images, you can also increase your chances of having your images appear in Google Image Search by allowing others to help classify your images through Google’s Image Labeler. By simply enabling the Google Image Labeler from the Google Webmaster Console, you allow Image Labeler users to provide words and phrases they believe accurately describe your images in a fun online game. As users are shown images from your website, they type in a few words they feel accurately describe the photo, which is later used to further classify the subject matter of your image.

Summary

Google has provided many new opportunities for you to reach searchers in the ways they want to be reached. Search engine optimization has been taken to another level; it’s no longer about who has the most number of pages, the best density; or who has the most inbound links. It is about who is utilizing the all their available opportunities.

Almost every aspect of your website is being analyzed and classified; use it to your advantage. Now is the time to take advantage of these opportunities and increase your visibility in every area of universal search; allowing you to increase your traffic and exposure in new and exciting ways.

Are you tired of searching the web for the best wordpress plugins for your wordpress blog? If so then today is your lucky day because what I have you here is what I think to be the best wordpress plugins every wordpress blogger should be using for there blog or blogs period.

I’m sure once you go through the list I have put together below and read through what each of these wordpress plugins can do for your blog you’ll soon agree that these are the best wordpress plugins you’ve been searching for.

I’ve spent countless hours searching the web for the best wordpress plugins for my blogs because with them they can simplify a lot of tedious work giving you more time to do what you need to do with your blogs.

My suggestion to you is if you want to reduce the time involved with searching the web for the best wordpress plugins then make a plan now to read through the rest of this article.

Okay, that is enough talking, let’s get to the heart of the best wordpress plugins every wordpress blogger should be using.

Below is the list I have put together with some brief descriptions and hyperlinks to where you can download these wordpress plugins.

#1. Akismet -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/

Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blogs “Comments” admin screen.

#2. All In One SEO -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

Optimizes your Wordpress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).

#3. Broken Link Checker -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/broken-link-checker/

This plugin is will monitor your blog looking for broken links and let you know if any are found.

#4. Wordpress Database Back Up -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/

WP-DB-Backup allows you easily to backup your core WordPress database tables. You may also backup other tables in the same database.

#5. Exec-Php -

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exec-php/

The Exec-PHP plugin executes PHP code in posts, pages and text widgets.

#6. Google XML Sitemaps -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/

This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog.

#7. MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/maxblogpress-ping-optimizer/

Save your blog from getting tagged as ping spammer by installing this plugin.

#8. MaxBlogPress Favicon

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/maxblogpress-favicon/

Help create brand awareness by displaying a little favourite icon (favicon) in the title of our blog next to the URL.

#9. WP-Cache

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-cache/

WP-Cache is an extremely efficient WordPress page caching system to make you site much faster and responsive.

#10. Auto Hyperlink URLs

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/auto-hyperlink-urls/

Auto-hyperlink text URLs in post content and comment text to the URL they reference.

#11. No Ping Wait

- http://onemansblog.com/2007/04/15/no-ping-wait-wordpress-plugin/

The purpose of the No Ping Wait plugin is to prevent Wordpress authors from having to wait for all of the update services to respond to new post pings.

#12. FD Feedburner Plugin

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/feedburner-plugin/

Redirects the main feed and optionally the comments feed to Feedburner.com.

#13. WordPress.com Stats

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/

Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks.

#14. What Would Seth Godin Do

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/what-would-seth-godin-do/

Displays a custom welcome message to new visitors and much more.

#15. Popularity Contest

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/popularity-contest/

This will enable ranking of your posts by popularity; using the behavior of your visitors to determine each post’s popularity

That’s quite the list isn’t it? But they each serve a purpose as you’ll see when you look into each further.

If you wish to search for more wordpress plugins you can at - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

Now if you want to get the very best out of Wordpress then you need the best wordpress plugins, so keep these ones handy.

As a small or medium business owner, you may want to advertise and promote your website as economically as possible. In recent years,Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has emerged as one of the surest and cheapest way for long-term business promotion.

A typical business owner is not expected to be knowledgeable about SEO and its benefits. Even if the owner knows SEO, he/she may not be surehow to choose an ethical SEO who can get the job done at the best rates and within timeline. Choosing a SEO consultant or company for your website can be a tiring and overwhelming experience. Many SEOspecialists will boast about adopting the latest path-breaking SEO techniques, use testimonials from clients and guarantees of #1placements on Google. But how can you, as a non expert, select agenuine SEO consultant? Listed below, are a few of the main pointers used to detect 'fake' SEO consultants.

#1 Google ranking for Website:

If any company guarantees you that they can place your website in the number one position on Google, then take my advice - RUN in the opposite direction. It's obvious this company is desperate to get business and is willing misleading you to get your hard earned cash. No company can make such claims. Google's algorithms are one of the best kept secrets. What SEO companies can do is optimize and promote the website according to widely known principles, intelligent guess work,best practices and lots of hard work. At most a company can claim that they can acquire good rankings such as top 10 results. But even then,verify their past track record to measure how they fared with other clients.

Very Low Prices:

Many companies charge ridiculously low amount of money for a lot ofservices. As an astute business person, you can intelligently deduce that any work that requires hours and hours of hard work, research and analysis by a team of experts cannot come cheap. Most of the times,specialists from various fields such as programmers, content writers,SEO analyst, link builders etc. pool their resources to make a site successful on Google. Therefore quality services cannot come as cheap as many companies charge.

Secret and Proprietary Technique That Cannot be Revealed:

I don't think we even need to elaborate on this. As the owner of the website, you should be aware of what's happening to your site and what steps are been taken to optimize and promote it.

Recommending Black Hat Techniques:

Lot of companies recommends shady tactics known as black hat practices to get your site up in search engines. Not only do these practices have very short term benefits, but they can also be very counter productive since the search engines can eventually catch website following these practices. Many websites big and small have been heavily penalized for using such techniques. So play safe and avoid these SEO companies like the plague.

Using Outdated Techniques:
window.google_render_ad();

Once upon a time, techniques like reciprocal link exchange, keyword stuffing etc. were used to get good rankings. Google and other search engines have wisened up and rank a site for its worthiness and not just back links and keyword stuffing. Choose a company that will recommends steps to make your site useful & relevant and not take short cuts.

For a website to generate a regular flow of traffic and climb up the traffic engine rankings, it needs to be well linked into a network of related websites. In simple terms, that means that other websites will have links on them that point to your website.

Until recently, one of the most popular ways for Internet marketers to build website backlinks was to exchange links with other website owners. This is considered especially valuable if the website where the link was to be placed was highly ranked and in a similar niche. However, a lot of people focused more on quantity than quality of links, causing Google to downgrade the importance they associate to reciprocal links when calculating website ranking.

Bear in mind, however, that Google's chief, Matt Cutts, has suggested on his blog (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/2007/05/page/2/) that reciprocal links are not automatically bad in themselves. If you find a good quality website in a niche market related to your own, by all means link out to it from your website and contact the Webmaster to explain what you have done and request a reciprocal link.

One good way of linking out to other websites is to set up the resources page on your site with links to a range of sites that may be of use or interest to your visitors. Do not worry that this may cause you to lose traffic, because by adopting a policy of freely giving out information, including links to other sites, you are promoting yourself as an expert in your field and building a sense of goodwill with your website visitors. A useful resource page is something that will attract traffic to your website, which is exactly what you want.

Another bonus of this type of page is that it gives you plenty of scope for link baiting. Link baiting is simply a process of adding content to your website or blog that people will be likely to want to link to. So if you add a mini review or a few sentences of commentary with each link on your resource page, you will find that some of the people who visit your page will be more likely link to it on their own website.

Link baiting is a great method for building one-way website backlinks or blog backlinks, so it makes sense to approach all of your content writing with Link baiting in mind. Your articles should be full of content that is original, useful, and also entertaining. This building is just one way of making a link baiting page. Finding an unusual angle, writing with wit and humor, taking a contrary position are other great link baiting tactics.

You can also build one-way website backlinks by posting comments on forums and blogs. For this to add anything to your website ranking, find relevant blogs and forums that allow "do follow" comments. You can quickly find a whole bunch of do-follow blogs and forums by doing a search on Google.

If you follow these tips consistently, you will have no difficulty building website backlinks and improving your ranking on Google and other search engines.

I wish you the best of success,
John Baril
Copyright © John Baril

At some point, any online business owner needs to make changes to his business model in order to continue to make money online. This is because the market as well as the online business environment continuously evolves. If an online business owner is not able to adapt his business model to those changes, he will ultimately fail to make money online.

There are a number of indicators that you need to rethink your online business model and most of them are actually quite obvious. However, many online business owners choose to ignore them and refuse to act on those signs. To be successful, look out for the three most commonly ignored warning signs listed below. Once you notice them, reflect on how you can tweak your online business model to avoid failure.

1. Your Profit Margins are Decreasing

More often than not, online business owners choose to have a constant profit margin and only increase expenditure when revenues increase. If you find that your profit margins are slowly decreasing, try to find out why. It may be because your sales are decreasing or you are spending more than you should.

2. Your Sales Growth is Slowing Down

Continuous growth is the only thing that will allow an online business to thrive. If your sales growth is slowing down, it may be because you have saturated your market or your potential customers are turning to your competitors. It may also be because your old customers are no longer buying from you. Determine what it is that is causing your sales growth to slow down and act on it right away.

3. Your Response Rates are Dropping

If your online business model involves direct marketing or depends heavily on your email marketing campaign, be sure you track your open rate and your response rate. Once you notice that these are dropping, you should realize that you are doing something wrong. You may want to improve your copy or make your offer more enticing.

These are just the three most commonly ignored warning signs that an online business owner should rethink his business model. Once you observe them, act on them quickly so you can avoid online business failure and continuously make money online.

From Make Money Online Blog!

A friend who manages a store for a large retail chain recently told me that headquarters announced a companywide conference call for all store managers. Never a good sign.

The chain apparently had decided to increase its e-mail marketing efforts during this economic downturn. It implemented a quota system for store managers, requiring each store to capture 25 percent of its customers' e-mail addresses.

You might be able to guess what happened next. Unable to reach their quota by normal means, some stores started making up e-mail addresses. As a result, the chain's e-mail service provider detected a large number of bogus e-mail addresses and refused to send the e-mails.

Naturally the ESP is working with the retailer to correct the problem. But in the interim, my friend complained, they're unable to send out any e-mail marketing. The moral: Don't poison the well by using bad marketing practices.

This type of well poisoning now happens with social media channels like Facebook. As marketing on these channels becomes more tempting, it's important to begin a discussion on exactly how we safely and effectively market to these channels.

Hopefully we can at least begin the dialogue and raise awareness of the issues, if not necessarily come up with answers.

From my viewpoint, shared by many marketing professionals with whom I've had this discussion, each social network has its own role in our working lives. For many, LinkedIn and Twitter are the de facto B2B (define) networking networks, while Facebook is for personal contacts and, at best, B2C (define) marketing efforts. The vast majority of my Facebook "friends" are also industry colleagues, which adds an interesting conundrum: how much do you want your industry contacts to know about what you're doing and your personal life?

Add to this that many people use Twitter to automatically update their Facebook and you have a scenario where, as George Costanza would say, "Worlds are colliding."

I recently unfriended some people I'm otherwise perfectly friendly with. Why? These folks never provide personal information in their updates and use the channel to promote themselves, their products, and their companies. On LinkedIn, I wouldn't mind it. But on Facebook, it's as if I invited someone into my house and they tried to sell me blue-green algae.

On the other hand, some of my Facebook "friends" provide references to interesting articles they've read. I find this valuable, even though it's business related.

Some people keep two Facebook accounts: one for friends and the other for business associates. I'm beginning to lean toward the idea that this is the wrong approach.

Facebook requires a personal touch. As an example, my Facebook friends include jazz musicians I admire. Most of these musicians use the channel strictly to promote their personal appearances and CDs.

However, one jazz musician, Sean Jones, uses the Facebook channel effectively. One of the best jazz trumpeters on scene today, he announces his concerts and albums on Facebook, and also lets you know what he's thinking -- how he feels that day, that he's stuck in traffic, his thoughts on race. He's not just updating his fans -- he's turning them into friends.

I'm reminded of the late comedian Red Skelton. When Red Skelton traveled from town to town doing his act, he would collect the postal addresses of anyone who came to see him. Each time he played a town, he would personally write to everyone who had shared their mailing address to let them know he was coming to town again. Instead of playing to an audience of strangers, he played to an audience of friends.

Isn't that what social media is all about?

Commenting on other people’s blogs is a great way to have interesting discussions, learn from others - and publicize yourself and your own site.

The content of your comments is crucial to achieving all of these, but there’s one aspect that is often over-looked: having a good profile on blog commenting systems. Suppose, for example, that you comment on a site that requires you to login with a Blogger (Google) account. That means your comment will appear with your name - and a link through to your Blogger profile. What you have, or haven’t, done to refine that profile can have a big impact on what people think of you. Doing a nice comment but neglecting the profile is a bit like remembering to wear a smart suit to a business meeting, but then handing out a tacky business
card.

Commenting options vary greatly across different blogs: some require you to login with a particular account (e.g. Blogger or WordPress), some give this as an option but allow other comments and some don’t offer any account login options. What will suit you best depends on which blogs you frequent, but it is likely you will quite often be wanting to comment on sites that offer Blogger or WordPress account options.

Even if they offer freeform commenting too, using your account helps save you against the occasional typo in your name or web address, along with the convenience (if you remain logged in) of not having to type in
name and other information each time.

Some people prefer to type in their name and site URL to using their Blogger or other account to comment on the basis that this lets you link direct to your site and may bring some search engine benefits to your
site.

In my experience the boost is very little, whilst consistently using your account profile helps build a more consistent and credible online persona, particularly as it helps you avoid having to mix and match between sites that require an account to be used and those which allow open commenting. In addition, having an account profile page that appears in search results is itself helpful. As with most advice, experiment a bit and see what suits your own circumstances.

So what can you do to improve the appearance of your profile? Let’s take Blogger first.

Note that I’ve given my full, real name. If you consistently use, and are known by, a nickname it would make sense for that to be on display. But otherwise you want to make clear that this is really you. Hence too the photo. I do a lot of training and talks, so a simple head and shoulders photo makes it easy for people to associate the person they have met with this online commenter.

The profile page also shows those blogs I am following via Blogger. The impact of these is a bit like the choice of books on your shelves or magazines on your desk. They help give people an impression of who you are and what you know about - though if you try to fake it by putting a whole load of items on display about an area you don’t really know about, you’ll soon be found out once you start communicating with
people.

Other information about me is fairly sparse as Blogger’s options are generally for fun stuff, whilst I am going online in a professional capacity.

You can set all of these settings by logging in at www.blogger.com, which uses your Google account (free to create if you do not yet have one). Once logged in, you can use the ‘Edit profile’ and ‘Edit photo’ links to set your profile’s contents. From that initial ‘Dashboard’ page, you can also control the blogs that appear on your profile, using the ‘Add’ and ‘Manage’ buttons at the bottom.

You can also control what information appears if you comment on a site that uses Google Friend Connect, although the settings are buried a little. Once you have added at least one blog to follow, click on ‘Manage’ and then on ‘Settings’ next to the name of one blog. Although there is a ‘Settings’ link next to all the blogs listed, they all take you to the same core settings for photo and links. So click on any and you will see that you can add a photo and set of links which will appear via Google Friend Connect. I just use the same photo again. Unlike the main Blogger profile, you can easily display links to more than one of your online presences, so I have created a set for Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter and the group blog I contribute to.

There are some legitimate privacy concerns around services such as Google Friend Connect, but if you want to publicise your thoughts and presence, the sharing of data about what you are doing is an opportunity
to be exploited.

WordPress accounts are another popular option for blog comments. People often only think about creating accounts at www.wordpress.com if they want to use its blogging services, but it is worth creating an account
and refining your profile for the commenting benefits you get. You can create an account for free if you don’t yet have one.

When you are logged in, clicking on ‘Edit Profile’ in the ‘My Account’ menu at the top lets you set information that appears linked to your comments, such as your photo. WordPress.com uses the Gravatar system,
which is also used by some other blogs, so there’s a useful bonus from setting your picture through here. You can also give other useful information such as your name and website (which is where your name will
link to from comments you post).

‘My Comments’ in the ‘My Account’ menu gives you a handy list of all your recent comments made logged in with your WordPress account, along with any responses from other people. Blogs often give you other ways of keeping up with responses, but this is a handy one-stop-shop for all your WordPress account comments.

If a lot of the other people and sites you hang around are WordPress.com powered, there are quite a few other features in the ‘My Account’ menu you may find useful, such as the tag search tool which can help you find interesting stories you would have otherwise missed.

Armed with Blogger, WordPress and Gravatar settings, you can comment away with added impact. I’ve picked these three based on my experiences and market share (in the UK). You may of course find that another system is used where you comment often, in which case the same general advice applies - make full use of the options available to refine how you appear.