Guide to make money online!

You can earn great money with Google adsense program. I write for a few websites that use google adsense and I do make some money
each month. It’s much faster than a pay per view website. You can earn $5 dollars with a few clicks but you have to have 5000 views in order to earn $5 at a pay per view website. You should stick with both kinds of websites so you can spread out your earnings. You shouldn’t drop any of them. The more you can earn the better.

You have to create a lot of articles in order to generate revenue on a website that pays per click and the same goes with a pay per view website. You won’t earn a lot if you only have around 10 articles. You will start to earn once you have thousands of articles. The more articles you have the more you can earn. The topic that you write nowadays doesn’t matter anymore since Google switch their ads to reader’s interests instead of content related ads. This means you can write about anything that you like and you don’t have to gear it toward Google adsense ads.

You can earn anywhere from a few pennies to several dollars per day. One really good website for pay per click is Xomba. Xomba is much faster than any other website. Ehow is really good too but Ehow is harder to write for than Xomba. You can blog on Xomba if you like. Hubpages is another website that has the google adsense program. Hubpages revenue can be slower than Xomba. I have hubpages but it’s slower than Xomba. You can earn with Google adsense if you have a lot of articles. You won’t be able to earn with a few articles.

Blogging has been around for quite awhile now, but I am still very new to it. I started my first blog mainly because I thought it would be a great way to make a bit of extra money. Right away the money started coming in, so I decided to make a second blog, and then a third.

Things were going great until one day I was contacted by Google who told me that "my AdSense account had posed a significant risk to their Adwords advertisers". WHAT??!!?? What could I possibly have done, I thought to myself. I checked all my blogs (remember, I have three) to see what they could possibly be talking about. I could not find anything wrong whatsoever! I only posted my own content, I never copied anything from any other site. How could I, it was all about my own life. I hardly think that anyone out there could possibly have written the exact same things that I had if it was only about me, my family, and our experiences.

I appealed their decision and tried desperately to find out what it was that I could have done. Why was my AdSense account disabled? My husband said that he knew blogging was going to be a waste of my time. I really don't think that it is, but I still don't know what I did to upset Google. The only reply I got back from them was yet another computer generated response telling me to check their FAQ. How could that possible help? I've checked it at least ten times and found nothing!

If I had stolen content, or placed other ads on my sight at the same time as the Google ones, or broken any other of their rules, I would know exactly what it was that I had done wrong, because it would have been done on purpose. But I am a very honest person. I do not take advantage of people, lie, cheat, or steal, because I would never want anyone to do that to me. I was and still am very upset that Google could not take the time to contact me to tell me what I did wrong. I know they are a huge company and very busy, so please don't write to tell me that.

AdSense is a great program and it was really starting to bring in some money for me. I was up to $22.00 when they cancelled my account. That's not a lot of money but I only had my blogs going for a little over a month. I thought about starting a brand new blog and applying for AdSense again. But there were two things that I could think of right away that stopped me from doing that.

1. Seeing as Google would not tell me what it was specifically that I had done wrong, what was to stop me from doing the exact same thing again. I mean, I really DO NOT have any idea what the problem was.
2. Google said that I could not reapply. Once your account has been cancelled they will not let you back in to the program.

Has anyone else out there had this sort of difficulty? I'm really curious because I have seen MANY, MANY blogs and websites that are breaking Google's rules every day. I can't even tell you how many people have Google ads running right along side other companies' ads when that is a definite No-No according to Google. I have also seen ads that are not exactly "family-friendly" if you know what I mean, when Google said that you absolutely could not have any of that type of content on your blog at all. Why is it when someone like me tries to get ahead, they get shot down right away, while others who break every rule in sight, get away with it. It makes you wonder if being honest is the right path after all.

Since that time I have been scouring the internet trying desperately to find a way to make some honest, legal extra money. I came across Triond and thought that it sounded legitimate and decided to give it a try. I have only been with Triond since June 1st so I cannot really judge whether this will be worth my time and effort. (And I do mean "effort". My health is not great and it takes a lot out of me to do what I am doing. I can't afford to waste my time. So far I have only made 18 cents. Not exactly enough to help out my husband with the finances. He is the only one who goes out to work (because of my health) and we have four growing children. It puts a lot of strain on him and sometimes our relationship, and that is why I spend most of my day trying to find a "real" job that I can do from the comfort of my home.

Internet marketing is getting very competitive these days. Pretty well everyone knows a little bit about social marketing and how it works. However, if you’re one of those innocent ones and would want to know more about this revolutionary online advertising style, take a look at this.

Social marketing is one of the most used online marketing strategies by Internet marketers. It utilizes social networking and social bookmarking sites in order to communicate with online visitors and, as a result, one is able to achieve overwhelming traffic leads. The basic concept of this is that you need to bookmark articles and websites that you really like and tie it to your own marketing scheme. Although it would seem like you are endorsing other peoples’ websites, at the end of the rainbow, you’ll realize that it’s you who would receive a huge pot of gold.

What you’re doing is, trying to connect with real people as this is the main purpose of social marketing. This allows you to create your very own profile and be a real person. You can add friends and meet people from every corner of the world who share the same interests with you.

Through this, you would be able to endorse your products. You need to find people who are interested in the products that you are selling.

As an online marketer, it would be great if you would join several social networking sites in order for you to expand you market niche. This is actually a fun activity, and what’s more appealing is that you can make money in no time.

You should avoid this scam.
There’re scams on-line and some can be a disaster. You should avoid scams. Some scam can get you in trouble with the law like money laundering scam that is going around the Internet.

Money laundering
This is a common one. There’re money laundering emails going around the Internet nowadyas. You open your email and there’re tons of those. It could be someone from Africa that needs you to cash out a check and ask you to send them a portion of it. They said they have a part time job for you. They have an inheritance that needs you to cash it out. You can get a felony if a bank catches you with those bad checks. They are empty checks and you end up with a debt in your bank account.

Make Money Overnight
Any program that has a front page of confession that guarantee you to make money overnight is a scam. If it works then all of us will be doing it and no one would work anymore. They would ask you to pay and then they will send you a program that contains information that leads you to no where. You should not fall for these programs.

Pay to Write
You should not pay any website that asks you to pay in order to write. There’re plenty of websites that let you write for free. You shouldn’t have to pay for it. These are scams unless it’s one of those sites that let you bid on projects. If the price is too high you should not pay them either.

Pay to Register
You shouldn’t have to pay for any legitimate work opportunity. If you go and seek a job, you don’t have to pay for it so why do you need to pay for it online. It’s a scam if they ask you to pay.

Work at Home Data Entry
There’re some legitimate online data entry programs but some programs are scams. You shouldn’t have to pay for data entry work and there’re not that many legitimate companies online.

Envelopes
Mailing envelopes are a scam. They ask you to pay money to join and then they ask you to pay for your own stamps and envelopes. They mail you a chain letter and ask you to mail the same letter to other people. You should talk to your children about scams online because kids can sign up if they don't know.

There are many websites that promise to make you lots of money but does anyone know of any good ones?

There are different kinds of money making schemes such as Blogging, surveys, selling items and cash back sites, they all sound very good but they never make you as rich as they claim, Some people say these are just scams but it is possible to make money but it tends to a little rather than a lot, Most Internet sites require you to earn a specific amount before you can cash out and this may take a very long time,

* On-line surveys: By giving your opinion you can gain points or money but the percentage of completed surveys can sometimes be low as they may be looking for specific targets, The best one i have found to date is LIGHTSPEED PANEL as after a few completed surveys you can exchange points for pay-pal vouchers, but there are many others such as Toluna, Globaltestmarket, and Opinion People,
* On-line Auction:There are a few with the most popular being EBay, this in my opinion is the best way of making money on-line, you can sell most unwanted items and is a safe and reliable method,
* Blogging: There are several different types, some offer points (Pointblog) others offer you a cut of the income that is made through advertisement revenue, (Triond) I have found these generally slow progress but it is possible to make money but yet again some require a minimum amount before you cash out,

Some other Internet sites that i have yet to try are My ALAMY and Picture Nation who are both sites that allow you to sell your photos, but they need to be of a certain standard to be submitted, one little gem is Slicethepie which is a Internet site for music fans that pays you a small amount for listening to new music, You can also trade contracts of bands if you decide to invest in any of them, However as like most sites the money does not come pouring in and they all take a lot of time before a reasonable amount of money comes in.

Don’t get discouraged when you have very little traffic for your blog. You have created a blog for yourself and started writing and posting pictures, but you don’t get much traffic. Don’t get discouraged – remember that if people don’t find your blog, how can they value your contribution.

1. The first step is then to help other people find your blog.
2. Get an account at Blogcatalog Post your blog entry there and surf around, make friends, visit their blogs and leave supportive intelligent comments.
3. Get a RSS feed from feedburner so that you have an RSS feed URL that people can subscribe to. RSS means Rich Site Summary. It lists updates of websites or blogs available for syndication as headlines and summaries.
4. Join Bloglog service and invite everyone in your network to subscribe: family, friends, colleagues, clients, and associates.
5. Join MyYahoo.com Choose “Add Content” and add your blog RSS feed.
6. Read and comment on other blogs that are in your subject area. Rather than writing comments like "cool" or "great post." leave intelligent, useful comments with a link to your blog.
7. Use Ping-0-matic to ping blog directories
   
   . Do this every time you publish content on your blog. But don’t do this every five minutes.
8. Submit your blog to blog directories. A comprehensive list of blog directories is here
9. Add a link to your blog in your email signature file.
10. Put a link to your blog on every page of your website or ask other bloggers to exchange links.
11. Get your personal page at http://wiGoogle and add your blog details there.
12. Print your blog URL on your business cards, brochures, and flyers. Tell everyone you know about your blog.
13. Use sites like Faves.com or Delicious to favourite your blog entries, find interesting favourites from others and make friends.
14. Join StumbleUpon and start stumbling your blog entries and those of others.
15. Post your blog entries to your Facebook contacts. If you contribute to writing communities like Triond.com make friends there and mention your blog.

Great Online business ideas are all very well, but you won’t make money online using them if you don’t know how to. To make money you have to formulate a business plan, and for that you must set targets, and targets need a goal. Without a goal to strive towards you will not succeed, so it is important that in addition to the idea, you also know how to use it.

It has often been said that a failure to plan is a plan to failure, and nothing could be truer. A simple goal to set, though perhaps not easy to achieve, is to decide how much money you want earn this year. Don’t be unrealistic and decide on a million dollars in the first 6 monhts, but be realistic: say $75,000 in your first year.

You can then break that down into monthly amounts, starting small and increasing each month, which will give you the basis of your targets. You should then plan how to meet these monthly targets. That is a good sound basis of a strong business.

However, you now have the problem of how you are going to make that money online from your great online business ideas. There is a large number of ways in which you can make money online, some of the most popular being|:

1. Creating your own product or service.

Maybe you know about something or can do something that others will pay for. You might be a children’s entertainer or a hypnotherapist. Perhaps you can write en eBook about breeding dogs, or make a video series on maintaining your own car.

I know of one person that made a fortune by making series of short videos of how to carry out simple household maintenance tasks, such as changing an electrical plug, changing a tap or faucet washer, and even putting in a new sink and laying a carpet.

A simple idea, yet it is one that has a massive customer base. Just think about all these guys that don’t know one end of a screwdriver from another, or all those women that live alone and need some help. That’s one of the best online business ideas I have come across, and he makes a fortune from it.

Think of what you are good at, or what you have knowledge of, and work out a way of packaging that knowledge or these skills in a way that would sell. I am a professional article ghostwriter, and make money online by writing articles for others to use to promote their products and their websites.

2. Sell somebody else’s product

If you are unable to produce a product of your own, then make money online by selling somebody else’s product. Everybody involved in internet marketing is familiar with the term ‘affiliate marketring’ even if they haven’t been involved in it. Affiliate marketing is selling a product for somebody else in return for a commission.

If that product is able to be delivered online or by email - by email or downloaded - then that commission could be 50% or higher, since there is no replacement cost. Unlike a tub of vitamins, an eBook or software application doesn’t have to be produced again once it has been sold, so the vast majority of the selling price is profit. You can therefore be paid more for selling it. 50% is about minimum for such items, and some go as high as 75% or even 80%.

3. Others

Among other ways of making money online are multi-level marketing (MLM), where you recruit others to sell products for you, you receiving a commission on their sales, buying on eBay, and selling the same items for more than you paid for them, buying items in bulk when they are in high supply, and selling at a high price when they are scarce (e.g. certain toys at Christmas time), and many others.

Each of these money-making techniques has one thing in common: you must learn how to achieve your goals and how to market what you are doing online. Even your eBay business has to be promoted by means of your ‘product description’. If you have any great online business ideas that you believe could make you money, it is important that you learn how to use internet marketing properly, and how to take advantage of all the tools that there are out there to help you to succeed.

Most businesses need a web presence, either as a traditional website or some other presence on the web such as a Squidoo lens or participation in social networking. They will also likely require software, and have to learn how to use it, and also learn how to drive traffic to their wesbite and what to do with it once it gets there - potential customers. Your business cannot succeed without customers.

This is where most people begin to fail. In fact 99 people out of every 100 that try to earn a living online fail. They fail for one of 4 reasons:

1. Lack of Planning

They did not have a clear objective in mind and did not plan properly. The started their business on shaky ground and looked on it as a hobby. They fell into one of the main traps of working at home: worked part-time, and took time off whenever they felt like it rather than set out the daily tasks needed to meet their targets and work until they were completed.

2. Lack of focus: Information Overload

They did not focus, and jumped from one program to another. They had too much information, and were unable to give any one method of making money online the time to work for them. They tried too much at one time and so failed in everything.

3. Lack of Perseverance

They gave up to soon. It takes time to build up a successful online business. Unless you are extremely lucky, there is no such thing as ‘get rich quick’. It is not easy work, making money online, but the succesful are those that persevere during and after failure. Most don’t!

4. Lack of Knowledge

This is the least reason for failure. In this internet age nobody need fail through a lack of knowledge - everything you need to know is out there, yet many people try to do it themselves without getting the information they need. Learn from the work of others: do not reinvent the wheel. It may be trite, but it is certainly true.

Use whatever training courses are available out there. I know that it could cost a lot of money, but it is possible to learn everything you have to know without spending any more than twenty or so dollars each month.

You mjust not fail for any of these avoidable reasons. It is a shame that so many dreams are shattered for a lack of planning, focus, commitment and perseverance, and a lack of knowledge. All are avoidable. Put your unique online business ideas into practice by finding out how to do it the most effective way, and learning how to use the tools that are available to you.

You have created your own blog, optimised each aspect of your blog and diligently do regular blog postings. You feel that you are doing a fairly good job and then someone mentions guest blogging. Many people will immediately ask why on earth they should spend extra time doing guest blog posts on the blogs of others. The answer in a nutshell is that by guest blogging you throw out your net far wider to attract visitors to your own blog. Guest blogging expose your own blog to a far bigger audience than would otherwise be possible. The goal of having your own blog is to attract as many visitors as possible and guest blogging forms an important part.

New and fresh

Guest blogging brings you a whole new audience that probably have not read your work before. If your guest blog post is interesting enough they will click through to your own blog to see what else you have of interest. When you have been accepted as a guest blogger on another blog it shows readers that you are an authority in your industry. You have something valuable to say, that’s why you were accepted. Accepting guest bloggers on your own blog brings a new perspective to your own blog as guest bloggers will compliment your own blog topic.

Create a win-win situation for both bloggers

Both bloggers benefit from guest blogging. You as the guest blogger gets a much wider exposure with a new audience. The blog you guest blog for gets exclusive content that is free and fresh. There are many different social networks and guest blogging benefits you greatly here as well. Your own presence for instance on Facebook may not be high, but when you guest blog for a blog that has high exposure there, your own exposure shoots up.

In this way the combined efforts of both blogs bring huge benefits to both blogs. This is an excellent to boost the ratings of both blogs. If you keep an eye on your analytics you will see how well this works within days after you have done a guest blog posting.

Great links and new subscribers

An interesting guest blog post that grabs the attention of readers will have them come to your own blog. If they like what they find, this can lead to many new people subscribing to your own RSS feed as they want to be kept up to date with your new offerings. Guest blogging is a brilliant SEO tool as far as creating back links are concerned. When you guest blog you can include a short informational blurb about yourself.

This allows you to add one or more extra links to your own blog and good back links are highly sought after. Link building with guest blog postings are too valuable to neglect in your own SEO efforts. It is all about throwing your net out as wide as possible and wooing potential web traffic by capturing their interest. Guest blogging simply holds too many benefits for your own blog and website to ignore.

Blogs have taken the Internet by storm; it is now officially called the Blogosphere and it has a huge impact of not only the lives of people, but on business as well. The latest statistics show that approximately 346 million people read blogs; that is a lot of people and an unbelievable number of potential customers that your business could have access to. Therefore it is really not surprising that the business blog was born to make use of this great new tool. The problem could be if you jump onto this band wagon and you have not a single clue as to what you are doing.

Then your brand new business blog could easily turn into a big business flop. Creating and maintaining a successful business blog is not difficult to do, it simply takes planning and knowing what your focus is with your business blog and once you have your motivation firmly in mind you can start creating your business blog as an excellent marketing strategy.

The aims for your blog

A blog is the way for you to connect on a personal level with your customers. The problem with the Internet is that it is a huge market place, a global bazaar and people love to shop all over this giant bazaar. This means you don’t know your customers and they don’t know you. Blogging changes that and makes things personal. With a blog you have the ability to help your clients, by answering their questions, replying to their comments.

Your official website informs them about your products and services; your blog address topics that can give them a better understanding of your business and your products and services. Good SEO can use your business blog as a tool to increase traffic to your official website. Your blog is an excellent form of low-cost marketing and let’s face it, any form of cost effective marketing in these tough economic times should be used.

Blogs have incredible appeal to readers as this in an informal way of interaction between clients, prospective clients and you as the businessman. People can have their say, no matter if it is good or bad and you have a chance to have your say back as well. Readers find blogs far more believable than the official feedback and testimonial sections on any official website.

Content is always king

The same rules about content that apply to your official website also apply to your blog. Content must be excellent, there must be a lot of it and it must have a sharp focus on the chosen subject. Adhere to these rules for content and you will soon get the reputation for being an expert in that field. Keep adding fresh and exceptional contents to your blog will pay off great dividends.

You will attract good incoming links this way from sources that tie in with your blog and this means and increase in your search engine search results listing. The Blogosphere is influential and it is a fast growing part of social networking and a great opportunity for marketing.

Due to its growing popularity, there are many companies and individuals who now offer Search Engine Optimisation services for other websites and businesses. When choosing someone, it is important to select someone suitable to do your SEO as you must make sure it will be as effective as possible for you and your website. Many people do not look past the second or third page of the search engine results so it therefore very important for your business to rank as highly as possible. Search Engine Optimisation helps to set your website apart from the competition as unique and useful for the searcher.

First you should pick someone who has an extensive knowledge about Search Engine Optimisation and the different methods that can be used as there are so many. Knowledge about SEO is essential because they must be aware of what the search engines look for when ranking the websites in the search results and also the rules and regulations which must be followed to prevent your website being banned by the search engine. They must also be aware of the particular methods that would best suit your company and its needs. Organic SEO works best as it complies with the rules set by the search engines and works with them to propel your website up the rankings.

Whether you choose a company or an individual to do your Search Engine Optimisation for you, you must ensure that they have adequate writing and language skills because a big part of Search Engine Optimisation is copywriting. The search engines look for newly-uploaded content that contains many of the keywords relating to possible search terms which could be used to look for the website or services relating to the site. This is important as the content uploaded to the website must not only be new, but also grammatically correct and relevant to the website. It must also read well for people who are reading it…as well as the search engines. They must also be able to conduct research into your website in order to maximise the SEO success.

You must choose someone who is realistic in their targets and doesn’t promise to get you the top ranking in the search engine, as this can never be guaranteed. They must also be aware of what you as a company want to achieve. This good relationship is important because they can then tailor the Search Engine Optimisation project to your individual needs.

It is always good when hiring a company or individual for a specific task that you take a look at their previous work and testimonials. This is extremely useful as you are able to profile them as a business and decide whether their services will be successful in achieving your goals. Good testimonials and feedback are usually the sign of a professional and well-established company and they are therefore more likely to be of use to your business or website.

So you’ve put together a spectacular website, and you’re ready to go live on the Internet for the whole world to see. Not so fast there Bucky. In case you didn’t know, there are a few essential requirements that every site needs to include in order to be successful.

Let’s review, shall we:

1. Privacy Policy/Disclaimer:

Now, I’m not a Lawyer and don’t claim to be one, but these two documents should be standard issue for every site you have. People want to know how you’re going to use their personal information, and a “privacy policy” does just that.

In today’s litigious society you’ll also need to include a disclaimer/terms of use page. This protects you and spells out to your visitors what they’re agreeing to by using your website. If you don’t know where to start in generating these documents, you’ll find plenty of help online.

• DMA Privacy Policy Generator http://www.dmaresponsibility.org/PPG/
• OECD Privacy Statement Generator http://tinyurl.com/5plgpc
• Google Adsense & other Ad Networks Privacy Policy Generator http://www.serprank.com/privacy-policy-generator/index.php
• Privacy Policy Generator http://www.freeprivacypolicy.com/
• Free Site Disclaimer http://www.easyriver.com/free_disclaimer.htm

This is not legal advice, and if you need help in this department, consult with a local attorney.

2. Contact Us Information:

I can’t tell you how many sites I’ve been to that fail to include a way to contact the owner. If you can’t include a phone number, at the very least have an email address or a “contact us” form. By providing this information, you’ll make your visitors feel more comfortable knowing there’s a way to reach you should the need arise.

If you need a form and don’t know how to create your own, try one of these free form services.

• Bravenet: http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/emailfwd/
• Freedback: http://freedback.com/
• Email Me: http://www.emailmeform.com/

3. Search Box/Site Map:

If your site is rather large, you’ll also want to include a way to search, or have what is called a “site map”. There are many ways to add a search function to your site, the easiest being to use Google’s free service at- http://www.google.com/sitesearch/

or try PicoSearch: http://www.picosearch.com/

A site map sounds technical, but it’s just one web page that contains links to every page of your site, usually broken down by category. Another resource - FreeFind: http://www.freefind.com/

4. Google Analytics/Tracking System:

Once your site is up and running you’ll want to keep your eye on traffic. Who’s visiting your website, what pages are the most popular, where is the traffic coming from. All of these questions and more can be answered by using a good analytics program.

There are several ways to add a thorough tracking system to your site, but the easiest and one that won’t cost you a dime is Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/ Once registered, you can add as many sites as you like all under one user ID and password. You’ll be given some code to copy and paste on your pages. Simple, easy, and you’re done.

5. Newsletter Sign Up/RSS Feed:

There’s an old saying that people won’t buy from you the very first time they come to your website, so you need a way to stay in touch with them to bring them back again and again. By offering a newsletter, also known as an ezine, you’ll be building a list of possible prospects which is invaluable to any site owner.

You’ll find a multitude of free and low cost newsletter services online. It’s up to you, depending on your needs and what you can afford. If you don’t want to pay anything, my favorite free services are:

FreeAutoBot: http://www.FreeAutoBot.com Yahoo Groups: http://www.yahoo.com/groups

You can also offer an RSS feed for your newsletter, or updates to your blog or site. This makes it easy for others to keep up with your most recent posts. The best service for this is… FeedBurner: http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home

6. Consistent Navigation:

This might sound like a no brainer, but many folks get it wrong. No matter what type of menu system you decide upon, make sure it stays the same across the board on all pages of your site.

Your job is to guide your visitors through your website, making sure they always know where they are and how to get to where they need to go.

For more see:

• Eye on Web: http://tinyurl.com/dyh9fm
• Web Page Mistakes: http://www.webpagemistakes.ca/website-navigation/

7. Search Engine Optimized Copy:

At first glance you might not think this is so important, but trust me it is. You want your pages to rank well with the search engines and there are a few steps you can take to ensure this happens.

Each page of your website should be optimized for 2, or at the most 3 keywords/phrases. Weave the keywords into your titles and into the body of each page. You can also include them in your image titles, alt tags, even in the names you give your pages. Look at each page individually and decide what it’s about, then optimize accordingly.

For help see:

• MarketLeap: http://tinyurl.com/ce8ffd
• CopyBlogger: http://www.copyblogger.com/seo-copywriting/

8. Social Media Share Button:

With the popularity of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, you’d be foolish not to include an easy way for your content to be shared with others.

You’ll find many free services that will give you the code you need to instantly add a “share button” to your web pages so that visitors can instantly share them with their friends.

To generate your own buttons see:

• AddThis: http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php
• TwitThis: http://www.TwitThis.com

9. Meta Tags:

Some may tell you that meta tags are dead. Don’t listen. Meta tags should be included in your HTML code at the top of every page. Many search engines will read them to pull a description to include in their search results.

Again, each page should be optimized separately and have a unique title, keywords, and description tags.

For help see:

• Submit Express: http://www.submitexpress.com/metatag.html
• Submit Corner: http://www.submitcorner.com/Tools/Meta/

10. Copyright Notice:

Sounds simple but forgotten by many. All pages should include a copyright notice. If you don’t want to have to update it manually every year, find a simple Javascript that will automatically do it for you. You’ll find one such script at:

• Uncle Jims: http://jdstiles.com/java/copyright.html

11. Trust Seals/Testimonials:

I grouped these two items together as they both instil trust and confidence in your visitors. Remember, when someone comes to your website, they don’t know who you are and if you’re selling something, they may not feel comfortable giving out their credit card information. To help them feel more “warm and fuzzy”, include trust seals for any organizations you belong to:

For example:

• iCop: http://i-cop.org/
• BBB: http://www.bbb.org/us/Business-Accreditation/
• Honest E Online: http://www.honesteonline.com/index.html

Also, if you have testimonials from happy customers, or ezine subscribers, weave them into your site copy. People always love to hear that others have had a happy experience with your products/services. Make sure you get permission first from the testimonial writers before placing them on your website.

So there you have it -my short list of what every site needs to succeed online. Now that you’re armed with this information, get out the magnifying glasses and take a close look at your own website to see what may be missing.

The rage to milk money from Adsense continues into 2009. While there are many different ways to do this, it’s no secret Google is keeping a watchful eye on spam sites which automatically generate pages consistently on a daily basis.

Every now and then, Adsense ‘experts’ would introduce a ‘fresh’ new way of generating pages which Google “has not caught on yet”, be it article, directory or backlink generators.

While these software are very good at what they do, you can’t solely depend on them for long-term success. It’s a natural tendency that automatically generated content just doesn’t look like quality pages with highly informative, up-to-date content, but it’s my personal observation.

Most run-of-the-mill, ads-on-topfold Adsense sites lack substantial sections and deeper structures to be interesting enough to make visitors think they should come back to check them out more often. While generating as many pages as possible is crucial to get them indexed and thereby build substantial presence in search results, these types of pages should only complement principal content that reflects what your site stands for and the selling point it serves to maximize its overall value. There used to be a question that goes, “Is building Adsense sites a business?” My answer is: Adsense is secondary.

Of course, like you I do want Adsense to be my primary source of income. The secret is in emphasizing content and value, not Adsense ads. You may have felt resigned to say, “Does that mean more work?” Not really. Here’s another secret inspired by a quote from Albert Einstein: You can’t solve your Adsense income challenge at the same level of thinking.

Truth is: I have build a good number of Adsense sites, but my main Internet Marketing site which I treat as my core business earns more than some of them despite my intention not to make it Adsense-focused, all the more so when it has absolutely nothing to do with high-paying keywords and the tremendous amount of time that goes into keyword research…which leads to the next secret: create a site with a subject or niche you know you can continually express and expand on instead of getting stuck with a ‘lucrative’ keyword you may run out of ideas on in the long term.

This is as good as saying Adsense is not just a keyword value game; it is still the classic “How do I get and retain traffic” game, and traffic is not some scoreline, but real people with genuine interest.

eHow.com is an incredible example. It’s a free site that shows people how to do a lot of different things. The best way to explain the site is just for you to go have a quick look now. They have hundreds, possibly thousands of pages of content on all sorts of subjects and the way they get traffic to their site is through the search engines.

Every page on the site has an Adsense box on it and that’s how it makes money. They also have a Alexa traffic ranking of around 2000 which is great.

Of course, it doesn’t make sense to write or purchase that much content by yourself. eHow.com succeeds in getting its visitors involved in content contribution. There’s also a wikiHow to get contributors involved in constant update of a common topic or article.

For a start, here are suggestions on the type of sections you can integrate into a site:

1. Lead capture page with freebies or incentives
2. Article directory
3. A ‘Contact Us’ page
4. An ‘About Us’ page
5. Forum: The challenge lies in the time and effort needed to build up momentum to encourage forum participants to write in
6. An archive section of some kind, for selected articles for example
7. Blog/podcast pages
8. Reciprocal link directory
9. Sitemap

It doesn’t take much to think of these standard sections. Even a products section makes your site look good besides providing another source of income, and then you replicate these sections site after site, niche after niche.

4th secret: Only sites with a general theme can afford to be massive-looking. Examples: Entrepreneur.com and Dogomania.com. Then you break the theme down into specifics like gathering them under an umbrella: dog training, dog hygiene, dog naming, dog psychology, doggy habits etc. Accurate targeting of Adsense ads depends on specific subjects as reflected on page. One thing to note is it is better that specific sections are inter-linked in some ways. If you run a site on everything about cancer, because “colon cancer” and “breast cancer” are not intrinsically related, visitors interested in one section may not want to take a first glance at another.

5th secret about content: write from a ‘consumer’ perspective instead of the ‘opportunist’ or “how to make money” perspective. What is it your visitors are looking to buy? Ads normally target and appeal directly to consumers. It’s pointless to put up content about how to make money with car accessories when there are hardly ads on “how to make money”. Stick to introducing car accessories and let the ads do the selling. If an accessory or equipment catch visitors’ attention and they click on the ads, you got Adsense dollars.

That’s about all the ideas I have at this moment. You should be confident now and maybe have some more new ideas I haven’t thought of. For sure, Adsense is a major income source you should seriously explore and make it big if you haven’t done so. This is one of those money machines that will make you money-on-demand pretty much for the life of Google.

Can any new search engine beat Google, probably not, mainly because Google isn’t going anywhere but up. It is the dominant search engine with around 72 percent of U.S. online searches and its percentages are much higher in other parts of the world. (Source: Hitwise) However, there are some serious new competitors that may just take a bite out of Google’s rosy search numbers. Never know, one or several of them, may just give Google a run for those all important search engine dollars.

Recently, there has been a whole army of new search engines debuting on the web. If you’re a full-time online marketer like me, you really have to keep your eyes open to what is happening on the web, especially relating to search engines which deliver most of your quality traffic. Also keep in mind, this piece may be fairly biased since Google is directly or indirectly responsible for around 80% of my online revenue, so any opinions may be slanted in Google’s favor, not that they need any favors from me or anyone.

But as an online marketer you have to try to remain objective and examine all angles in regards to these new search engines. Despite this, in marketing and webmaster circles, everyone will know even if you have the number one ranking for a certain keyword in all three major engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN - Google supplies the most traffic, hands down.

Despite its obvious dominance, Google is still basically the new kid on the block. We have to remember, there have been many search engines before Google and there will be many more search engines after Google. Every entity has its day and then hands the torch along to whatever comes next. It’s one of those subtle facts of life we all learn eventually.

Everybody has their day - empires, countries, leaders, companies… or even search engines. Are Google’s days as top dog really numbered? Probably not in the immediate future, but there are some new kids on the block that could definitely kick some sand in the face of Google and stir things up, we might even see a few serious squabbles here and there.

In a recent article on CNN, by John D. Sutter, entitled “New Search Engines Aspire To Supplement Google” the author examines some recent new search engines. The author discusses: Twine, Hakia, Searchme, Cuil, Kosmix, Wolfram Alpha, Topsy, TweetMeme and OneRiot. Each of these are different, making your web search more personal, more visual, or connecting your search to new social networks like FaceBook and Twitter.

Some experts say Wolfram Alpha is the most likely candidate to give Google some serious competition because Wolfram can do something Google can’t; it can create information rather than just reading/presenting content already on the web. Will it present a solid threat to Google’s dominance?

Perhaps, a more fitting sparring partner will come from an old rival with very deep, deep pockets. We are talking about the new search engine from Microsoft called Bing, which is very similar to Google in many ways, yet different. Bing’s results are very similar to Google in a lot of ways, yet Bing serves up the results in a very pleasing arrangement, with a nice preview button for each listing and giving you related searches and your search history on the left hand side. Only time will tell if everyone would rather be binging instead of googling. To Bing or not to Bing, that is the question? There’s a very informative article on Bing by Farhad Manjoo on Slate entitled: “Beware Google: Microsoft’s New Search Engine Isn’t Half-bad.” Just Bing or Google to find it!

I personally like this search engine much better than MSN mainly because the home page of Bing is very appealing and only has the search box on it so you’re not distracted with other news listings like on MSN and Yahoo! One of the main reasons for Google’s success, besides the superior search results, has been its simplicity. Keep it simple and you may just be able to compete.

Then again, this is a bit of a biased judgment, since many of my own keywords and sites rank high in Bing; some even higher than they are listed in Google. I routinely monitor countless keyword phrases in all the search engines and lately Google has been favoring big Brand Name listings on their first page results. We are also seeing more Product Listings (Old Froogle), more video and more news listings… competition for Google’s first page has become multi-layered and extremely competitive. What’s a poor small online marketer to do when Google goes corporate?

Actually, Bing is not my favorite search engine of the new ones forcing their way into the spotlight.

For me, the one that shows the most promise and may give Google some competition is Searchme, which is a visual search (much like the iTunes interface) where you can shuffle through screenshots of webpages instead of a list of links. Searchme, which touts itself as the first multimedia search engine, has been around for a few years but is not widely known to web users. Performing a search on Searchme with a 24 inch monitor and 64-bit Windows is a hundred times more enjoyable than using Google Search or Bing for that matter. It is a hundred times faster than Google mainly because you can generally find your information without clicking through to the sites displayed.

Searchme is truly an eye opener but can it give Google some serious competition. The jury is still out, but I believe over time as web users upgrade their computers, operating systems, and their graphics… Searchme will be more accessible to more web users. Never know, with the right backing and marketing, any of these search engines, especially Searchme and Bing could blossom into a formidable opponent even for the mighty Google.

Here’s why: Human Nature!

Whether we admit it or not, most of us (Humans) are lazy, we want the fastest and easiest route to solving any question or problem. Searchme gives us the answer much quicker than Google and in a much nicer way. Mainly because we are also visual creatures, given the choice between receiving pages of text and viewing images of sites/answers, most of us will take the visual route - we will choose TV over radio, music videos over records… video enhanced content over just plain static HTML. As the web turns into more of an interactive multimedia operation; visual search will always win out over text search any day of the year.

Most humans also have a need for speed, in our fast paced life styles, we all want a speedy solution to our problems. Search is no different, we want quick answers now, we want instant solutions and immediate gratification. Nature of the beast. If Searchme, Bing or any of the other search engines becomes faster than Google at giving the right answer, then it’s a whole new ballgame.

Google must obviously know there are challenges to its search engine dominance. Otherwise, why would they be offering many new features in their SERPs; we are seeing more images and videos. Plus, Google has just introduced the “show options” link at the top of their SERPs, which presents their search results in many different ways. They even have introduced the “Wonder Wheel” as another viewing option, which gives a whole new way of using Google’s search results.

Google’s Achilles’ Heel may just be the thing that gives it all its revenue: text ads. There may be a backlash on all those Google ads littered across the web, especially among the younger computer savvy crowd using such sites like the Google owned YouTube, where Google has nearly obliterated the videos with its ads. Everyone dislikes advertising, no matter what form it takes.

However, any news of Google’s demise will be greatly exaggerated, because Google, like any smart company with tons of resources, has kept morphing and changing with the times, quickly adapting to new features as our usage of the web keeps changing. Google has perfected the art of staying one step ahead of the competition. This is one champion that won’t go down without a fight to the finish. Top dogs rarely do.

If they ever present a serious challenge to Google, Searchme, Bing or any of the above search engines, will have a formidable opponent in the opposing corner, one that has gained almost insurmountable prestige and brand recognition around the world. Any major battle will instantly have a “David vs Goliath” scenario attached to it. And we all know how that one played out!

Obviously the obsession for most is off page SEO (building or getting links from other websites)…Well, I have a little secret for you, authority trumps it all. An authority site can rank using less backlinks, pages or keywords that any other type of website; so, doesn’t this indicate where you should apply your focus?

With so many ranking factors that can impact your position, who you link to (forward-linking or up-linking from your website) is often overlooked as a viable way to expedite the authority process.

By definition an authority site is a popular website frequented often by the virtue of the content/information or experience it provides. Considering the potential to create real value by providing a product, unique angle, news, cool tools, widgets or a service that is phenomenal, that website can be deemed an authority.

One way that they make the initial impact is (a) to do something worthy of being linked to or (b) by linking to enough authority sites that it tips the scales of relevance in the site providing the forward links. In essence, linking to authority sites can expedite the process for your website developing authority. What you do with it after that is up to you.

The reason why linking out is important is, authority sites often link to other authority sites and they is how they preserve the purity of the link graph online. The mark or seal of approval a site gets when it gets a heavy link from a real player can do one of two things immediately.

First, it can toggle a barrage of traffic, which also indicates that your website is a target from a referrer (with authority). Can you see how Google and other search engines might measure this in tandem with popularity?

The second thing it provides is a solid backlink to your website if they provided a do follow link. If you were to appear in a local newspaper, a national story or anything syndicated (even if it is an RSS feed) you can expect for someone, somewhere to latch on to the content and (1) reference it (2) scrape or reproduce it or (3) hopefully just provide a link back (as their way of saying thanks)…

Even if it is scraped, Google and other search engines are smart enough to know who the original source was, so eventually, your site will get credit for starting the ripple effect across the web.

Just like a grappling hook, if you link to the #1 website that ranks for that keyword you are targeting, have relevant titles, strong internal links and additional backlinks pointing at your page, the synergy can provide search engines with a robust array of information to feed their algorithm.

Considering that most would never uplink (since they feel that is supporting the competition) which is what keeps most websites stuck in a certain plateau. Authority sites are generous (if the quality is present), yet other sites that greedily horde the link flow within their own website, only isolates themselves from the rest of the web.

If you are isolated and emanating another signal entirely than what search engines have identified as the prime cluster of websites returning relevant hits for the main keywords for any given root phrase, can you see how this would leave your pages out in the cold.

Shameless self promotion can only catapult your rankings so far, and if your website is always a destination and never a path to another more relevant or equally relevant source for additional information, then you will never attract the type or quality of editorial links that other authority sites get by default (as a result of providing visitors with a range of options).

Linking out by providing in-depth mash ups, top 10 or top 20 lists and consolidating an array of resources on your pages for others is (a) the right thing to do from time to time as well as (b) that value of hub status can come back and reward your site with the ability to rank for the keywords you intend on with a fraction of the effort.

Wikipedia is in my summation, the grandest authority site to date. It has user generated content, is self moderated and constantly provides information and traffic to all of the links it assumes, devours and emulates.

As a result, there is hardly a search phrase you can enter without cross-referencing some shingle in Wikipedia. The reason is (a) the depth of content on multiple topics (b) tons of deep links to each page from a variety of IP addresses and types of sites and (3) the fact that they link out (even though its nofollowed) to so many other types of websites.

Take some time and start looking at the backlinks from some authority sites in Yahoo to get an idea of what really strong links really look like (link:google.com link:Wikipedia.org, link:cnn.com), you will note that there are similarities of co-occurrence; and that a like links to a like (authority sites to other authority sites). Also, take a look at where they link to using MSN’s linkfromdomain:google.com | linkfromdomain:Wikipedia.org | linkfromdomain:cnn.com

SEO is full of minute details with a multidimensional array of granular layers to explore, fine-tune and create, so, instead of thinking of attacking a ranking of an authority site, look behind the site and see who is propping it up. Perhaps you can either get a link from an editorial sponsoring “authority site” of scale the tipping point needed to push past that page by concentrating your websites ranking factor.

Even though the “nofollow” attribute was intended to stop the flow of link juice “something always gets through”. Trust is a ranking factor as well…and that is something that can wear down a nofolllow tag over time and seep into all of the sites embedded into its link graph (the sum total of all the internal and external links that site connects).

The takeaway here is (a) don’t be greedy (b) be careful where you point your links (better and more trusted neighborhoods are better than questionable ones) and (c) realize the long term value of building authority for your website, instead of just building links and you are one step closer to ranking for more keywords with less effort as your website scales the ladder of relevance on its way to the top of thousands of relevant and competitive keywords.

It is no real secret that a well written topical blog can significantly help out your website - so why aren’t you doing it?

The most common reasons I hear for not starting a blog involve a lack of time to write posts, and limited ideas to write about, but taking that extra time to get some useful content out there can do wonders for your search rankings among other things.

An established blog that is updated regularly gets spidered by Google often, and increases the chances of new search rankings considerably. I have seen multiple situations where regularly updated blogs wind up ranking #1 in Google for relevant phrases literally within a couple hours of posting. It usually takes a well established website and blog to make this happen, but there is big potential if you do things the right way.

While blogs work best if updated multiple times per week, even those with a new post every week or two have advantages. Blogs don’t have to be a major undertaking, spending only an hour or so a week on posting can have you seeing results in no time.

There are many advantages to adding a blog to your website. Here are a few.

Increased Rankings
By boosting your topical content, you increase the value and relevance of your site. The more new stuff you add, the more of an authority you make your site, and this helps to improve your overall search rankings. It can also help you obtain rankings for “long tailed search phrases”.

Long tailed search phrases are those that are less commonly searched, and usually exceed 3 or 4 words in length - they are also very targeted to your product or service. Blogs are great for getting rankings on long tailed search phrases. If you see a long tailed search phrase you want to rank for, use the phrase as the post title (if it makes sense to do so) and write a good, content rich post about it and your ranking potential for this phrase will rise.

By writing blog posts with your target phrases in mind, you can often help improve your overall rankings by increasing the relevance of the site to that search phrase. Consider also linking to other relevant pages within your site from the post.

Increased Traffic
Blogs are great for increasing traffic. Aside from the added traffic you may see from search ranking improvements, if your blog is interesting and topical, you will get some repeat visitors to your site as readers check back for new posts. If people really like your blog, they will spread the word, resulting in even more visitors. Just think, have you ever emailed or instant messaged a friend with a link to an article you have read? Don’t you want your link to be the one passed around?

Credibility
By blogging regularly about your industry you will help to establish yourself as an expert. Many of your potential customers will see your blog and notice that you know what you’re talking about and be more likely to utilize your services. By sharing your knowledge it can help to instill trust onto your visitors which can actually result in increased conversions. There are a lot of faceless, anonymous websites out there - an active blog can help people relate to you and trust you.

Links
A good, well written blog can result in free one way links to your site. Sometimes it is as simple as a fan adding your link to their blog roll, and other times it may be RSS working its magic. Try to squeeze in a link or two into your posts and direct them to other internal pages on your website. If anyone then republishes or syndicates your posts on their sites, you will also end up with a relevant back link. (If you would like some other ideas on link building be sure to check out Ways to Increase Link Density & Building Links with Directory Submissions)

A blog is not a magic bullet used to skyrocket your inbound link counts, but it can certainly help.

What Platform To Use
I am a firm believer in the power of WordPress and the seemingly unlimited plug-ins available to help you. That said, just about any blog platform will work. It is probably best to stick with the main stream providers as they tend to have more options available and better support forums in case you get stuck with customization issues. In the end however, any search friendly blog platform will ultimately do the trick.

Blog Post Ideas
If after reading this you are sitting there thinking, “What should I write about?” here are some ideas to help you get going:

• New product launches
• Press releases
• Industry relevant news
• How to’s related to your product or service
• Answers to reader comments
• Posts revolving around relevant long tailed phrases
• In depth product descriptions or tutorials
• Company history or interesting stories
• Reviews of related products, services or online tools

Blogs are relevant for pretty much all industries, and they don’t have to take a lot of your time. A little creativity can help you come up with ideas for posts, just try to think outside the proverbial box.

If you’ve been putting off the blogging idea for some time, consider getting started now. There is much to gain and very little to lose.