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Keywords are at the heart of Internet Marketing. Whether you’re trying to make search engine friendly pages, websites that rely on advertising, or sites that focus on a particular niche you’ve no doubt be told to list your keywords.

Keywords are everything. Essential for getting targeted traffic, ad marketing, optimised pages, and so much more.

A keyword is simply the word or term that people will use to find your site. For example, if you wanted to look up a review about the Dark Knight movie, you’d type “Dark Knight Review” into Google. Or if you wanted advice on cooking a stir fry, you’d type “Stir Fry Recipe” or “Stir Fry Cooking”.

It’s the way people think and interact with the Internet that makes a keyword. You rarely see natural language here, even though search engines such as Ask attempt to serve that market. So you wouldn’t type “How Do I Cook A Stir Fry?”. People are accustomed to using simple, short keywords to look for information.

There are two important statistics about keywords: Search Volume (how many times that keyword is used) and Competition (how many sites are listed for that keyword). And a high rank for a popular keyword is what you seek.

Take another example. Your site could rank #1 for a very specific search term - such as “Watering Can Installation” (or any such random term). But what use would that be? It’s unlikely people would actually be searching for that information.

However, if you ranked #1 for “Garden Furniture” then all sorts of possibilities are open to you - not least becoming the #1 Garden Furniture store on the net

So… how do you find these important keywords, should you target them, and what to do once you have them.

Let’s answer the second question first. It’s unlikely that you can sneak into the top rankings for a very competitive keyword. And it’s unlikely you could be a success focusing on just one keyword. You’d be better off seeking to rank high for a larger volume of lesser searched terms. That way, the cumulative effect is the same - or better - than that single keyword, but it is easier to get higher rankings for each term individually.

This is the so-called Long Tail approach to keyword research. A great number of specific niche terms and/or products as opposed to a smaller number of broad, popular ones.

You need to make a list of the keywords you wish to target right from the start. These will then be the focus of your site content.

Luckily, Google has it’s own tool that will help you here. And there are also many third-party tools you could use. These rely on data from millions of searches on the web, so they are pretty accurate!

It’s https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Another way to find useful keywords is to spy on your competitors. You can see what keywords they use, then use those keywords to see what the ranked sites for those keywords use, and so on.

An excellent online tool is: http://www.spyfu.com

There are a few points you should keep in mind. First, are these keywords going to be profitable? A good indication is run a few searches on Google and see how many ads there are. More advertisers usually mean there’s a good chance the search term is profitable. You should also think about whether or not the keywords relate to a niche where the searcher is likely to spend money. Sometimes it is obvious, sometimes not.

It depends on your goal. If you are simply driving traffic to perhaps build a list or an audience, perhaps the monetary value isn’t so important (yet).

Secondly, what are these keywords for? You should really think about keywords before you build your site, but if you have an existing site then perhaps you want to reach out to a wider audience. Keywords are then useful for creating targeted, secondary pages - or perhaps blog posts.

If you aim to build an affiliate or sales site of some kind, then keywords are essential to reach your potential customers. And if you aim to build an advertising supported site of some kind, then keywords are needed to target the kinds of ads that pay well. But that’s another story.

Finally, if you want to purchase ads, perhaps from Google Adwords, then the right kind of keywords are essential here too. You want/need enough views to to keep your ads live and showing in the listings, but you don’t want the wrong people clicking those ads and costing you money. Again, the cheapest way are the long-tail search terms. The ad itself can also be used to discourage idle clickers. A price or a buy notice will dissuade people from clicking, unless they’re willing to purchase.

Keywords used for ad placement are to be used sparingly. You don’t want your credit card site showing up for people who want credit card debt tips, but you do want it showing for people who are searching for a new card. The right keywords can work wonders.

Keyword research and use is an ongoing task, and tweaking is essential. But if you do stumble on a profitable, lesser competed term then milk it for all it’s worth.

Important:

Don’t forget short-use keywords. Is there a big launch for the new Mike Filsaime product? Start generating keywords and ads around that. Is it Christmas? do the same. Are anglepoise lamps suddenly in vogue? Get searching. Jumping on bandwagons and hot trends can also be highly profitable - here’s one final link that can help:

http://www.google.com/trends

Technorati Tags: adwords, blogging, google, keyword research, keywords, Traffic, Web Design

Tags: adwords, blogging, google, keyword research, keywords, Traffic, Web Design

I’ve written a lot about Blogging in this, er… Blog, but now that the latest Wacky Wednesday offering from Kathe and Denise has hit my desk it’s all so much simpler. It’s a package of Blogging videos and tools, with an emphasis on how to profit from new trends.

I’ve long been an advocate of Blogging. They are the easiest sites to setup, maintain, and customise. Google loves them, people love to read them. You get an RSS feed of your own, a simple way to update content, and the ability to create sites for any and every niche under the sun.

I did this the hard way. You don’t have to, since you get:

1. Twelve “How To” Videos on setting up your own personal or marketing Blog.

2. Ten “Blogging Made Easy” Videos

3. 250 Plugins, Web 2.0 based, to help you make the most of your new blog.

4. Twelve Pro Wordpress Themes

5. Profiting From Daily Trends (7 Videos)

(It’s this last one I actually find most interesting, because blogging about what’s hot right now is a good way to jump on the Internet Buzz)

You can see more about what’s in these videos at the main page.

The all-important price part:

How does $11.95 grab you?

And you’ll even get the chance to earn commissions on this, if you wish.

Blogging can be a real cash cow, and if you’re serious about it you can target potentially hot niches and make a real killing. Of course, your results will vary - but this package is a painless way to learn the technical aspects (not difficult - I promise).

If you already have a Blog, this package is probably not for you, unless you want the Trend videos. For those who are technically savvy setting up Wordpress is pretty simple, as these things go, and templates and plugins are available all over the web - but nothing beats having it all given to you in one, easy to download package.

Technorati Tags: blog video, blogging, install wordpress, internet marketing, marketing blog, ]wordpress video

Tags: blog video, blogging, install wordpress, internet marketing, marketing blog, ]wordpress video

As you are probably aware, wordpress is massively customisable through themes, widgets and plugins.

Themes are the overall look and feel of your blog, created using graphics and CSS templates. While I don’t personally have the artistic or technicall skills to create my own theme I thank those who do. There are thousands of themes available - this blog currently uses Mandrivo.

Widgets are another great feature, standard in current versions of wordpress, and via a plugin in older versions. They let you add content to your sidebars and other areas of your theme.

And plugins… these are extensions to the core functionality of wordpress. Whatever you want to do with your blog, chances are there is a plugin that will help. Here’s the ones I use at present:

Add This Social Bookmarking Widget

This is a neat popup-on-rollover button that appears at the end of every post. With this a visitor (or yourself!) can easily add posts to popular services like Delicious, Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit and more.

Add To Any Subscribe Button

This service again provides a rollover button but this time allows your visitors to subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed, using Google, MSN, Bloglines, etc. Ideal for placing at the top of your sidebar, and saves the space used by listing many seperate services.

Akismet

This is a must have for wordpress installations because it helps solve the sad problem of blog spam. Of course, you can manually moderate all comments, if you so wish, but you’ll soon find yourself deluged with ads and trackbacks for anything from viagra to porn to gambling

Feedburner Feedsmith

This allows you to redirect your feed URL - which is usually yourblog.com/feed to use the version held by Feedburner. In practice it enables you to track subscribers, provide compatible feeds, and even use Google’s adsense for feeds service.

Simple Tags

This might be superceded by wordpress’s inbuilt tag support, but I still like to use it. All you have to do is use list the tags you want to use at the end of your post, surrounded by [tag] brackets, and the post will automatically include technorati compatible tags. Ultimate Tag Warrior may be better, if I switch to it

Subscribe 2

This is a simple subscribe option that allows users to receive an e-mail everytime a new post is posted.

Wordpress Automatic Upgrade

As the name implies, this will automaticaly download and install the latest version of wordpress. Please, backup everything before use, including your database!

Wordpress Database Backup

And if you do need to backup your database, use this. After all, your blog *is* a database, and it would be a shame to lose all your posts, wouldn’t it?

Wordpress Super Cache

Helps speed up your blog, and protect you from spikes in traffic, e.g. from Digg. You can also enable a lockdown mode if it’s a big spike!

All In One SEO Plugin

This is one of the most popular plugins around. It helps you make sure your wordpress blog is search engine friendly, and can help you increase your rankings. It’s main functionality is to edit the META keywords, such as blog title and description, but it also has extensive functions to change the way post titles etc are created in the URL’s.

Other popular plugins, that I’m not personally using:

Ultimate Tag Warrior
(tags, tag clouds, etc)

Sitemaps Generator
(google sitemap generator)

Related Posts
(Helps you link older, deeper content as related posts to the current one)

Bad Behaviour
(another spam blocker, works well with Akismet)

Lightbox
(show images as an overlay with a lightbox effect)

Gravatars
(enable gravatars - open avatars - on your comments etc)

Contact Form
(simple contact form, perhaps for your about or contact page)

Exec PHP
(enables PHP code execution everywhere)

Do you know of any more useful plugins?

Technorati Tags: best wordpress plugins, blog plugins, blogging, blogs, plugins, top wordpress plugins, widgets, wordpress, wordpress plugins

Tags: best wordpress plugins, blog plugins, blogging, blogs, plugins, top wordpress plugins, widgets, wordpress, wordpress plugins

Here’s a very good article from the site wordsinarow.com called “Marketing 101″. If you’re just starting out or looking for some inspiration, give it a read for some useful advice and a good overview about creating a money-making website.

This one-page guide also links out to many other more in depth articles, making it a paricuarly good starting point. It covers everything from finding what sells through to promoting your finished site.

There are some commercial links and plugs for wordsinarow.com’s writing services, but overall this is an excellent, uncluttered and tip-tastic read!

http://www.wordsinarow.com/marketing.html 

Technorati Tags: blog marketing, blogging, how to make money, internet marketing, internet marketing guide, internet marketing tips, marketing 101, marketing guide, marketing tips, promotion, Traffic, website promotion

Tags: blog marketing, blogging, how to make money, internet marketing, internet marketing guide, internet marketing tips, marketing 101, marketing guide, marketing tips, promotion, Traffic, website promotion

I’d like to show you Jo Han Mok’s “Millionaire Traffic System”, now half-price!

http://www.productpacks.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3-t.pl?l=125

This is a fully online video product. With your membership you’ll get access to 14 powerful videos that share 21 awesome traffic tips.

. How to legally and ethically spy on your competiton
. How to avoid the #1 blogging mistake
. 4 niche traffic generators most marketers know nothing about
. Secret Blog hacks, and the true way to “affiliate blog”
, forum marketing, ebay marketing, traffic magnets…
. and much much more!

Technorati Tags: advertising, blog marketing, blogging, forum marketing, hits, internet marketing, jo han mok, List Building, millionaire traffic, niche traffic, promotion, search engines, seo, signups, site traffic, Traffic, visitors, web traffic

Tags: advertising, blog marketing, blogging, forum marketing, hits, internet marketing, jo han mok, List Building, millionaire traffic, niche traffic, promotion, search engines, seo, signups, site traffic, Traffic, visitors, web traffic

Here’s a massive online course valued at $97 you can pick up for just FIVE bucks from Sharlene Raven:

http://www.productpacks.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3-t.pl?l=108

This is the Cash For Content course.

This is a different kind of business model you might not have tried. It’s all about how to research and write content, that can be sold.

This content can reviews, blog posts, articles, ebooks - whatever you want to or feel able to write — people want to buy it.

There’s not many products that focus on this kind cash spinning idea.

http://www.productpacks.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3-t.pl?l=108

You’ll even get full Master Resell Rights, an awesome sales page, or just promote for 100% comms…

Your choice - but grab this course. It’s not often you get unique information like this…

Technorati Tags: affiliate program, blogging, cash for content, ebook, ecourse, get paid to blog, get paid to write, internet marketing, make money, marketing course, marketing help, marketing resources, marketing tips, master resale rights, Resell Rights

Tags: affiliate program, blogging, cash for content, ebook, ecourse, get paid to blog, get paid to write, internet marketing, make money, marketing course, marketing help, marketing resources, marketing tips, master resale rights, Resell Rights

This is a new free membership site that aims to have you up and running with your own profitable blog in no time at all.

The site includes software to help you with your posts, as well as a full guide to creating and using blogs the right way.

It won’t cost you a cent to join, so take a look at this link.

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Technorati Tags: blog cash, blog income, blog marketing, blogger, blogging, internet marketing, make money, super blogging, wordpress

Tags: blog cash, blog income, blog marketing, blogger, blogging, internet marketing, make money, super blogging, wordpress

A popular type of site is the humble Blog… After all, you’re reading one right here.

But if you have one, are you making the most of it?
And if you don’t have one - why not start off with the right approach.

“Pimp The Blog” covers things like Social Tagging, Video Content, Adsense, Affiliate Programs, “Pinging” and more.

http://www.productpacks.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3-t.pl?l=39
I’ve written a report here on this Blog (search for “How I Run My Blog”) discussing some of these tactics, but this low-priced book covers much more in a convenient and informative way. 

Just $7 with full 100% Commissions on offer.
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Technorati Tags: adsense, blog advice, blog cash, blog help, blog marketing, blog money, blog tags, blog techniques, blog tips, blog traffic, blogging, blogs, pimp your blog, pinging, pings, social bookmarking, tagging

Tags: adsense, blog advice, blog cash, blog help, blog marketing, blog money, blog tags, blog techniques, blog tips, blog traffic, blogging, blogs, pimp your blog, pinging, pings, social bookmarking, tagging