Multiply Your Email List Size Using An Offline List Broker

One of the big Internet marketing breakthroughs you may hear people talking about is using direct mail.

In other words, getting the postal addresses of your email list and sending them offline offers. Many of the top Internet marketers in the world do this and swear they double, triple even quadruple their sales.

And I believe this to be true from my own tests and observations as well.

But what's even more exciting is that many of these experts are renting lists of offline people and driving them to their websites to capture their email addresses. In other words, expanding their email lists using offline lists.

However, if you decide to do this, you must be careful of who you get your lists from. There is an art to finding a good mailing list and most Internet marketers haven't really had a chance to learn about it.

Which brings me to a recent interview I did with legendary copywriter Bob Bly. Bob gave me a great tip on making the whole list renting issue painless and easy.

What he said was to never, ever rent a list from a list owner. Reason why is because you are obviously not going to be getting an unbiased answer when you inquire as to the quality of the list. A list owner can (and probably will in many cases) tell you whatever you want to hear.

And so Bob said to always go to a good list broker. A list broker being someone who finds lists for you, does all the work and then delivers you the exact list you are looking for.

The way Bob explained it to me was it costs you nothing to use a list broker since he gets paid by the list owner, not you. Plus, it is in the broker's best interest to please you and give you what you want since he wants your repeat business. If he messes around and gives you a non-responsive list, or doesn't actually go the extra mile to make sure you are happy and successful and make money from your mailing, then he knows you probably won't be back.

This may sound like simple advice. But the fact is most Internet marketers have never dealt with offline lists before and it can be a totally different animal than online lists and joint ventures.

And so, if you are going to be expanding your Internet marketing business by going to offline lists and trying to drive them to your online list, make sure you consider the advice Bob gave in the interview.

It could save you a lot of time, money and frustration.

Michael Senoff is a sought-after Internet marketer, interviewer and business coach with more than 50,000 students on four continents. For a limited time he is giving away free over 120 hours of in-depth audio interviews with some of the richest and most successful marketers, copywriters and business experts in the world at his famous website http://hardtofindseminars.com

Internet Marketing Plan - A Step By Step Guide To Creating Your Highly Profitable Business! Part III

Let's recap what we learned in the two previous articles.

1. Find a niche
2. Find what they want
3. Find your competitors
4. Create a landing page

This should take you from twenty four hours to a week if you are just starting in Internet marketing. Don't over complicate the process.

Let's continue.

5. Ask people who subscribe to your list what they want

Obviously, you already know what they want because you did this research in step 2. However, you really want to be sure that you are not making any mistake.

Plus you want them to participate in the product creation, like this, when they are ready, they will be more likely to buy it. This is known as the law of reciprocity.

6. Create your product

With the Internet, creating a product is easy. You can write an ebook and start selling it in less than one week, or you can create an audio and start selling it today if you are already an experienced Internet marketer.

7. Create your sales page

Once you gathered many answers from people on your list, you need to create your sales letter. It's easy to do as well. In fact, if you chose your target market right, people will buy from you.

You need to use the 14 steps copywriting technique. I give tips and tools to my members to create their money making sales page.

8. Get targeted traffic to your sales page

Since you started to build your list prior to creating the product, you should make some sales from day one.

9. Fine tune

Now you have the plan, all you need is to test and track your results until you become more profitable.

To learn more, download my Free Guide: "How To Earn $100K Per Year With Article Marketing".

Franck Silvestre makes thousands of dollars a year from affiliate and article marketing. Wonder what the secret to his success is? Discover how he does it at: http://www.mynetmarketingland.com/article-marketing/

How to Use Social Networks to Increase Backlinks to Your Site Part I

Before we start everything, it is important that you know what a backlink is and how important it is when it comes to improving the rankings of your website. Backlinks, in reality, come in more common terms such as inward link, inbound link, incoming link, or inlinks. By the names alone, you can deduce that it is merely a link pointing to your website. Such link, however, can be located in someone elses websites.

For those who still believe that link popularity still has weight when it comes to search engine optimization, you should know how to not only acquire inbound links but quality ones as well. It will provide you the steady stream of web traffic in the future and allows you to get indexed in search engines faster than you though. It will not be hard, though, for any individual who basically understands the concept about it.

Of Link Popularity and Backlinks

There seems to be a direct relationship between your backlinks and link popularity. Before, the competition was based on how many inward links you can acquire for your website. Today search engine algorithms have changed, making sure that your inbound links are of excellent quality.

Its Not Only Myspace

Oftentimes, when you hear the words social networking, your mind is just limited to Myspace, Facebook, and the like. Actually, its any website that established connections. For example, forums are social networking sites too as members can exchange links. Blogging, on the other hand, are effective when it comes to affiliate marketing as you allow them to actually subscribe on your feeds.

Think Social Bookmarking

A more complicated type of social networking is social bookmarking. It may not be as popular as forums, discussion groups, chat rooms, social networking websites, and blogs, its already gaining its own momentum. It can actually increase your page rank and increase the backlinks going into your website.

Common types of social bookmarking websites include StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, and Digg. Users of these websites can basically submit URLs of articles or articles themselves. Other members can then rate or give a vote of the submission. The challenge is to get as much reviews or votes as possible.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to link popularity success, Secrets of Link Popularity for Online Income

Download it free here: Link Popularity

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 1574 articles in print and 11 published ebooks.

Linking to Sites

Outbound links connect your site to others in a one way fashion. After reviewing your content, visitors will appreciate the benefit of being recommended to other sites with relevant content. Using outbound links can help your web pages obtain better page rank in the search engines. When creating outbound links, you should include your keywords and give some form of description. Using a click here phrase is not going to help gain a higher rank with your web pages and will not help people know where you are attempting to direct them. To get the most benefit from outbound links, you should be linking pages that contain content you have written or created.

Reciprocal links

Reciprocal links are when you exchange your website link with someone else who has a website. The exchange of links will help to drive traffic to each other's site. Using reciprocal links is an extremely effective way to promote your website. Reciprocal links help to drive traffic to your site and improve your search engine ranking. It is imperative to accept only quality links that will potentially benefit your visitors. Look for sites that have similar interests and content with yours and that you would like to trade with. Your main focus is to try and exchange links with other popular and quality web sites. When contacting another site's webmaster, inform them that your site has a similar topic and you would like to exchange links. You should also give them a description about your site so when they provide a link, this description can be included with the link. Do your homework when looking for reciprocal links. Find the right site to do a reciprocal link exchange with. There is an abundance websites available on the internet that you can potentially get links to and from. Potential sites have content that appeals to the same visitors as your site does. Your goal should be to exchange as many quality links, without going overboard, as you can. While you are looking for links, be sure to see how much traffic the reciprocal site gets and what their page rank is. After agreeing to exchange links, check the sites that say they contain links to you. If your link is not on the site, then contact them and ask why. If there is no response, delete their link and carry on. Search engines are more receptive to text links as opposed to graphics, but you have the choice to use either one or both. Another good idea is to look at the links on the reciprocal partner's site. There is a good chance that you can link with them as well.

Pat L. started out creating a few niche sites and during that process gained huge amounts of knowledge in the website development process. You can visit http://www.abundantarticles.com for more information about developing and creating a website.

Increase Link Popularity, Get Traffic, Link Building

To increase link popularity, you need solid link building techniques. Link building allows you to establish relevant inbound links to your website, which in turn increases search engine rankings and helps you get traffic.

If you aren't familiar with the different methods people use to increase link popularity and get traffic, the first thing you need to know is that not every link building method is considered acceptable. In fact, some of the methods used to increase link popularity are considered so unethical that they can actually get you in trouble with the various search engines.

To help you differentiate between what is ethical and what is not, here is a list of the most common link building methods used to get traffic:

Social Bookmarking

There has been a lot of discussion lately in regards to using social bookmarking as a way to get traffic and increase link popularity. Some people think that this link building technique borders on unethical.

The truth is that it depends on how you utilize social bookmarking sites. If you are an active member of a social bookmarking community who posts links to a personal website and other relevant sites to increase link popularity for everyone, you are doing nothing wrong. If, on the other hand, you create an account and repeatedly submit your own links and nothing else to get traffic, you are participating in spam-like behavior.

Spamming

Spamming can sometimes get traffic to your website, but it is not the best way to increase link popularity. Most of the search engines frown upon spamming and have the ability to catch inexperienced spammers within a month or two.

The following link building techniques are considered unethical spamming by the major search engines: participation in unrelated and centralized link farms, automatically generated doorway pages, and false redirects.

Article Submission

Manual and automated article submission is another link building technique that has garnered proven results over the years. Article submission is widely thought to be an ethical way to increase link popularity and get traffic. Nevertheless, there are exceptions to the rule.

For example, article submission that is fully automated but not targeted is usually considered spam. It is also a huge waste of time when compared to other link building strategies. If you want to get traffic and increase link popularity, you must submit articles to the right directories.

CBuying Links

Search engines often advise against buying backlinks as a way to increase link popularity and get traffic. The reason is because it cheats their ranking system and is therefore considered unethical. Even so, there are plenty of website owners who employ this link building technique and reap great rewards.

If you want to give this link building strategy a try, the key is to start slowly by buying only a few backlinks. Buying 1,000 links in one day looks suspicious. You will also want to be careful as to where you buy your links from. Ten quality backlinks will help you increase link popularity and get traffic; 100 poorly regarded backlinks will not. Keep in mind you backlinks need to come from what search engines will consider good neighborhoods.

http://freesubmissionblog.blogspot.com/

Profitable Article Marketing - 4 Nifty Steps to Excel at Article Marketing

If you would like to succeed in internet marketing and be able to make a mark quickly, you should use article marketing as your product and website promotional tool. This marketing technique is cost-effective and hassle-free but it is proven to drive quality traffic to your website and help you position yourself as an expert on your chosen niche.

Here are the 4 nifty steps to excel at article marketing:

1. To obtain more quality inbound links for your website and to strengthen your online presence, you must be willing to augment the number of your articles. If you are just starting out and do not have the money to spare on ghostwriters, you can just extend your writing hours or stay focused so you can be more productive.

2. To easily grab the attention of online users and convince them to open and read your articles, I suggest that you use compelling and striking titles. It would also greatly help if you can communicate the readers' benefits so people will instantly know what's in it for them and why should they invest their time on reading your content.

3. Give your potential clients great reading experience by making your articles interesting to read and engaging. This can easily be done by writing in a conversational tone and connecting your readers to your content by asking them relevant questions once in a while or writing about personal stories that they can relate to.

4. Write to inform. To easily earn the trust of your readers, fill your articles with valuable information that they will find useful and relevant to their areas of interest. Make them feel that you are an expert on your chosen niche who has the answers to their questions and solutions to their problems.

To learn more, download my free guide, "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online" here: "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online"

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

Targeted List Building - Uncover 3 Practical Steps to Excel With List Building

If you are an ebusiness owner, you must never discount the power of having a targeted e-mail list. This can be one of your most powerful tools in marketing your product and building personal relationship with your clients so you can improve your sales potential and of course, your profits. A lot of webmasters are actually using this technique not only because it is efficient, but it is also very cost-effective.

Here are the 3 practical steps to excel with list building:

1. Create your squeeze page and drive traffic to it. Make your squeeze page enticing and promising by communicating to your readers the benefits they can get once they subscribe to your list. It can be free information, discounts, or freebies. Then, drive your potential clients to this page through article writing, forum posting, ezine publishing, or article marketing.

2. Bank on your website content and design. Most online users are very wary when they are giving their contact information because they do not want to be spammed. That is why, they carefully scrutinize the credibility and professionalism of an ebusiness owner before they send their e-mail address. You can make these online users trust you by projecting a professional image through your own website. Make sure that it offers no nonsense information and that it is designed very well.

3. Advertise. With millions of webmasters aggressively building their e-mail list, you have to make sure you get ahead of the pack so you can get quality, targeted e-mail list. You can do this by posting your banner ads to websites that are frequented by your target market. You can also throw away freebies to entice more potential clients to sign up. In addition, you can combine all proven methods (article marketing, ezine publishing, forum posting, banners ads, etc.) to build your list quicker.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 1574 articles in print and 11 published ebooks.

Internet Marketing - 5 Reasons Why It Is for You

Why internet marketing is for you? Check out five reasons why:

1. Growing Market Base. As of December 30, 2007 data, Internet World Statistics reported that around 1,319 billion people use the Internet. Since worldwide population is more than 6 billion, that's only around 20% who is using the internet at the moment. This is a pioneering field-half the crowd has not yet discovered it. As the saying goes, "Early bird catches the worm."

2. Worldwide Reach. That goes without saying. After all, it's called the worldwide web. Do you wonder why some repressive governments jack up the price of having internet connection? Or why some companies sack their employees if they share about whatever secrets they feel is classified? It's because this is the information superhighway - and this is the only superhighway that has no end.

3. Freedom and Flexibility. From flexible hours, to flexible place of residence, to flexible wear while working, this reason has attracted many people from various persuasions-from parents who want to stay closer to their family, to outdoorsy types who wish to surf as often as they want, to adventurous people who are constantly on the move. With internet marketing, your lifestyle need not be tied up because of job commitments.

4. Spending Possibilities. As a marketer, your question probably goes to the meat of the matter: How much is my possible return if I get into it? Besides that the market is growing, Emarketer.com showed that online ad spending in the US totaled $19.5 billion in 2007. And that's just the US. The site predicted that by 2011, US marketers will spend $36.5 billion on online advertising. In 2007, a total of $123 billion was spent online and the growth is said to be 21% per year. And advertisers are spending more on the internet than on the radio. If that's not a good reason why internet marketing is for you, I don't know what else.

5. Relatively Cheap. You start a business and it will cost you money to stock up on the product(s), rent space for it, advertise, hire staff, etc. With the internet, the most basic cost you will incur is your internet connection. The costs can really be pared down depending on your budget. And if you see those testimonies of great income opportunities by an internet marketer, they're usually just an individual who outsource other services they need, if they can afford it.

Internet marketing is for you...and for me...and for everyone who would be willing to take up the time to learn this new way of getting into business, of putting up the effort to work towards profit, of making a living out of it as many are already doing. In spite the loud cacophony of voices around, internet marketing takes time and effort properly invested for one to show long term and consistent profit. If you have all these, there is no reason why internet marketing is not for you.

JSosoban is a writer, editor and internet marketer. Her blogsite is at http://onmywaytoriches.blogspot.com

The author allows for reprinting of this article as long as the resource box is included.

List Building - Who Cares About SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) has been more prominent since last year when Stomper Net opened its doors. There's no doubt that if you make a page search engine friendly, you're going to get lots of free search engine traffic. But to keep an SEO system working well, you really need specialized knowledge. Does that mean it's not for you? Absolutely not! You can use some simple SEO strategies to get your list building pages seen.

It's incredibly important that you put your opt-in box anywhere you can--the homepage of your website, your blog, your profile at MySpace, and so on. Do that today, if you haven't already. It's that important to list building. You're wasting some prime space there.

But to increase the list building potential of any site or blog, you'll need to drive traffic to those sites. The first thing you need to figure out is a huge list of keywords that are part of your niche. Write all the words you think of down on a piece of paper.

Let's say you're selling jewelry online. You'll come up with words like pearls, gemstones, diamonds, earrings, rings, and so on. Then, hop over to http://inventory.overture.com and see how many people searched on each term in the previous month. Then, disregard the words with the highest number of searches because it will be too hard to rank in the search engine results for those. They're just uber-competitive. Also disregard any terms with 3,000 searches or less. Nobody's looking for them. They won't help you.

Then, from the words that are remaining, choose three to five and those will be the words you want to rank for. Use them in every blog post you make, but not all at once. Use the first word in a post, then the second, and so on. You'll need to use them at a keyword density of around 2%. That means, if you write 500 words, about 10 of them should be your keyword. It's not that easy, and it's very difficult to get 2% for all of them in one post. It will look and "sound" funny to the reader's ear. Plus, search engine spiders will think you're trying to spam them. Not good.

OK, so we're list building. Right? How does this apply? Hang on, you'll see...

When your post is done and the keyword density for one of your terms is at 2%. Find one of the words you used, let's say it's "bracelets," and make it italic, bold, or underline it---once. Link another "bracelets" to the page on your web site where you sell bracelets, too. That way when search engine spiders read your blog post, they'll see that the word "bracelets" is important in the post and that it links to a page all about bracelets. So, it will realize that your blog post is probably about bracelets, too. Your page will rank somewhere in the results for that term, though it could be on page 50. You won't be surprised when I say that it won't be on the front page at first, but keep using your keywords in your posts, and you'll soon see your site rise on the results pages. When you get into the first three pages, BANG! You've just improved your list building efforts exponentially, and it can happen if you consistently use the keywords or keyword phrases you've chosen.

You can do the same thing with your website and your blog at MySpace or wherever you hang out and be improving your list building efforts, too. You don't have to be an SEO genius to use these tricks, and you'll be amazed at the results. So, go sit down and start listing all the keywords you can imagine. Watch them work for you.

Tellman Knudson, CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc., is a master list builder and well-known for his first project, List Crusade. Tellman teaches you his system for explosive list building at MyFirstList.com.

Keyword Density And The Role It Plays - SEO

Keyword density is a calculation of the number of times the selected keyword appears on the web page. Keyword density is always expressed as a percentage of the total word content on a given web page. Generally speaking, keyword density is the ratio of the word that is being searched for (the keyword) against the total number of words appearing on your web page.

Suppose you have 100 words on your webpage (not including HMTL code used for writing the web page), and you use a certain keyword five times in the content. The keyword density on that page is got by simply dividing the total number of keywords, by the total number of words that appear on your web page.

If a particular keyword has a higher density on your web page, then the likelihood of your page obtaining better search engine ranking increases. For example, a visitor who is looking for information on "Search Engine Ranking" may search for things like "search engine positioning, search engine ranking", "search engine placement", "keyword density", "top ranking", and the like. After you have collected your list of keywords, do NOT simply dump those keywords into a senseless list on your web page.

Simple steps to check the density:

Copy and paste the content from an individual web page into a word-processing software program like Word or Word Perfect. In addition to keyword density calculations, it verifies that your site is not overloaded and that it has the correct distribution of profitable keywords in the most critical locations. Using the total word count for the page and the total number of keywords you can now calculate the keyword density. Once your page closely matches the keyword density in all categories/tags you have likely designed a page that will most probably score in the top of the search engines.

Some search engine marketers weights deemed as "negative". I found many of these documents belonging to search engine marketing and optimization (SEM, SEO) specialists. There is also a different level of tolerance between the different search engines as to the degree of density permitted before a penalty is imposed.

Keep in mind that the search engines are constantly changing their relevancy criteria when scoring pages for keyword relevancy. This information can sometimes be found

in information bases pertaining to each search engine.

Every Search Engine has its own techniques for scoring pages and you must first learn what analysis options are important for your selected Search Engine before designing your page and get a successful scoring.

The various search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search consider keyword density as part of their search algorithm. Search engines today are measuring keyword density as a factor in assigning relevancy ratings to web pages. On the other hand, if your keyword density is too high then the search engine may penalize you for "keyword stuffing".

LSI is changing many of the the search engines ranking factors these days, so in reality

there is not much knowledge on how long a ranking factor like keyword density will be an issue.

Davin Ogden has various websites on the internet. Davinatorbiz.com provides you with all the tools and proper learning information on LSI, serious seo strategies, and improving your search engine ranking to give you the results your after in the search engines.

For information on keyword density and other quick tips please visit Davinatorbiz.com If you would like to download FREE rebrandable ebook from the website to help with your SEO needs please visit Davinatorbiz.com

Article Marketing Tips 101 - The Importance of Good Keyword Selection

If you are using article marketing to generate traffic for your site, it's important to use the right keyword selection to get the most out of it. It's also crucial that the article be structured with search engine optimization in mind.

To find the right keyword selection to use when writing your articles, you should use a keyword tool.

There are three tool that I recommend:

1. Google Sanbox Tool: Google offers a free tool and this can be a great place to start. The one drawback about using Google's free tool is that it doesn't give exact numbers. You'll get search volumes and competition for a particular keyword as a ratio based on the other keywords in that category.

2. Wordtracker: Wordtracker is a great keyword tool because not only does it quickly generate key term lists, but it also gives you the amount of searches performed for each term and the amount of competition you will have. They use the "KEI" index which stand for Keyword Effectiveness Index so you can easily know which keywords are worth it and which aren't. You can actually try it for free by using the link at the end of this article.

3. Keyword Elite: This tool is not only a valuable keyword finding tool, it's also a versatile tool for finding hidden niches and google adsense campaigns. When you use it to find search terms, it gives you much more information that the other tools. You will know how many people search for that term, how many results are found on the web, how many ad campaigns exist for google, miva (yahoo) and enhance (msn), and how much advertisers are paying for each keyword with google adwords. Not only that, but you also get to see exactly what each ads look like which is great if you are running PPC campaigns.

In order to properly optimize your articles for search engines, be sure to include the selected key term numerous times in the text. Using special text such as bold, underline and italics on the keyword also makes it stand out. Be careful not to overdo it because if you do, your article may be discounted by the search engines as spam. If you keep the density at or below 3%, you will be fine.

Using the appropriate keyword selection will ensure that your article marketing efforts are not wasted on highly competitive niches. It will also give a chance for your articles to rank high on the search engines which will result in more natural traffic to your site.

To get more great tips about article marketing and to try wordtracker for free, visit us today: Article Marketing Tips 101: Keyword Selection

SEO Primer - Keywords And The Long Tail

Search Engine Optimization is an essential component of any online business. Understanding some SEO basics will improve how your online storefront shows up in the search rankings.

This article covers the SEO tactic of keyword saturation. "Keyword saturation" is the process of focusing your website content around a number of predetermined words and phrases that relate directly to your site content. As an online seller, you should sit down and think about the words that relate directly to your store's content. Think about the products you're selling and how visitors would search for those products - think about which words and phrases they would type into a search engine.

As on online seller, these words and phrases will often be the product categories and specific products your store carries. That's where the notion of The Long Tail comes in.

The idea of "The Long Tail" is attributed to Chris Anderson (former editor of "Wired" magazine). The premise is that the future of sales is in "selling less of more". For keywords, this means putting a focus on generating highly targeted traffic. "Targeted traffic" refers to visitors you bring to your store who are looking for something very specific.

The three basic tiers of keywords are:
1. High-level: These are generals terms that identify a basic idea or category. For example, "hockey" is a high-level keyword. In terms of sales, high-level keywords can generate significant volumes of traffic. But, that traffic is not highly targeted and will convert at a low rate.
2. Mid-level: These are specific terms that narrow the high-level keywords. For example, "hockey jersey" is a mid-level keyword. It is more specific than a high-level keyword. In terms of sales, mid-level keywords generate lower volume than high-level keywords. But, that traffic is more targeted and will convert at a slightly better rate.
3. Long Tail: These are very specific terms. For example, "vintage 1976 Hartford Whalers jersey" is a Long Tail keyword. It is much more specific than either the high- or mid-level keywords. It describes a particular item. In terms of sales, Long Tail keywords generate relatively low volumes of traffic. However, the traffic generated is highly targeted and will convert at a much higher rate.

In order to generate traffic, you need to put attention to all three tiers. You should put more focus on Long Tail keywords than high-level and mid-level. However, you do need each. By averaging out your keyword saturation along each tier, you help ensure consistent traffic volumes while not sacrificing your targeted traffic.

So, when you are creating your meta content (description and keywords), be sure to include your Long Tail keywords along with your high- and mid-level ones. When you're writing your site copy, be sure to saturate it with each of your carefully selected keywords.

Thomas Altamont is a Communications Analyst for Shopster.com.

Shopster.com is an industry leader in eCommerce. Shopster provides online storefront, dropshipping, and product source solutions for professional online sellers, as well as those just getting started in online retail.

Visit Shopster at http://Shopster.com/

Over Optimization and the OOP - Does a Penalty Exist?

If you have questions about whether or not the Over-Optimization Penalty (OOP) exists or not, then you obviously haven't pushed the limits enough with your own website optimization or organic SEO efforts to have experienced the joys of running into the OOP (Over-Optimization Penalty).

I'm sure you're probably thinking: "prove it". If that's what you're thinking, let me tell you about a specific example of what I call the Over-Optimization Penalty, or OOP:

Over-Optimization penalty because of too much anchor text. You decide that your site is not ranking well. So, you change the navigation on your site so that all the home page links say "keyword keyword home" instead of "home". A few days later you lose your rankings, which is a serious blow to your traffic. Since that was the only thing you changed on your site you change those links to your home page back so it says, "home" instead of "keyword keyword home". BINGO! All of your lost rankings and your lost traffic comes back a few days later.

If that's not proof of an over-optimization penalty then I don't know what is--I would call that an OOP: you do something to try to boost your rankings by over optimizing some element of your website, something that backfires and causes a loss of rankings.

I personally can name tons of other examples just like this that prove that there's an OOP.

One more thing--I think that you can over-optimize a web page or site without going as far as actually spamming. In the example above, I truly believe that having too much of the same anchor text isn't spamming, it's just over-optimization. Spamming, in my book, would be something like keyword stuffing or something like repeating a keyword over and over again. Over optimization is different than spamming.

White Hat, Gray Hat, and Black Hat Whether or not you think the OOP (an over-optimization penalty) exists depends on what type of "hat" you wear.

If you're a true "white hat" SEO that won't dare test the limits then you're going to believe that the OOP doesn't exist. After all, you'll never experience any over-optimization penalties because you won't dare do anything that would possibly have a negative effect on search engine rankings.

If you're a true "grey hat" SEO then you've definitely experienced the OOP, just like I've described in a previous post. For example, you've gone a little too heavy on your anchor text so you have to "back off" on using your keywords in the anchor text. Or, you realize that your keyword density on a page is too high--OOPS! you've just experienced the over-optimization penalty (OOP).

If you're a true "black hat" SEO then you definitely know that there's a difference between an over-optimization penalty and being a spammer. If you've never had a site banned in a search engine then you're not a true "black hat" SEO. And if you've experienced rankings that have suddenly vanished because of too much over-optimization then yes, you probably believe in the OOP, just like I do.

There is a very big difference between over-optimization and spamming. Spamming will get your site banned. Over-optimization will not. The "penalty", if you will, is a loss of search engine rankings due to over-optimization. Thus, that's what gray hat and black hat Search Engine Optimization Specialists call the OOP.

Bill Hartzer is a successful writer and search engine marketing expert who has personally created hundreds of websites over the years. Bill created his first website back in 1996 to help promote his former database software business. It was then when he learned about the power of the search engines and web search, which helped potential customers find his business online.

Bill Hartzer has over 15 years of professional writing experience. He has survived stints as a writer for television, as well as a technical writer for several computer software companies in Florida and in Texas. Mr. Hartzer combines his writing and online skills to create compelling and useful websites for corporations worldwide. Mr. Hartzer focuses on the optimization in the business to business arena, but applies these optimization skills to business to consumer websites, as well. He currently is the one of the Administrators at the Search Engine Forums website.

Targeted Article Marketing - 4 Explosive Secrets Towards Effective Article Marketing

Article marketing no matter how old and classic it may seem to be remains to be an effective and well-trusted instrument by many businessmen and marketing specialists. The dependability and reliability that it possesses makes it still well-loved and trusted. For this reason, article marketing continues to evolve and rejuvenate. Below are some of the explosive secrets of effective article marketing:

1. Know your targeted market and focus with them. The articles that you are going to market will be most effectively written when you know as the writer for whom the article is going to be. By knowing who your potential market is going to be you can immediately think about what is best to be written for them.

2. Prepare the article with the intention to inform and educate your potential market first and then market and advertise successively. By driving these forces to be your core reasons why you are creating these articles, you can make sure that you will be very effective in attaining your core objective - that is to market and advertise.

3. Allow for your articles to be relayed and conveyed. Now that the article has been made, make sure that these are properly published, exposed, and able to generate notice from your potential market. You can have these articles published on some of the leading article directories and sites or you can have these published on your own site. What is important here is that you are able to get the message properly relayed.

4. Monitor and track the progress of your article marketing strategy. This is just like any other marketing schemes should be properly tracked and monitored. By determining the progress rate of your mechanism, you can take appropriate actions whenever necessary. This will help you combat any possible loopholes on your plan and thereby preventing massive failure on your plan.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 1574 articles in print and 11 published ebooks.

Easy Search Engine Optimization

When people search for something online, they type the keyword or key phrase in the popular search engines, which give them an extensive list of sites relevant to that search. Now to make your website visible in the first set of search results, it needs to have a good page rank. Search engine optimization is the means to this end, the branch of activity which aims at enhancing this rank of a website with some structured strategies. Most owners of sites invest a fortune and valuable time in creating a web presence, but sadly, they fail to consider the more important aspect that is, how the website will come to the notice of web-users.

Long back it was just a matter of some time to launch a site design it, fill it up with nice content and submit it into some directories it was as simple as that! And search engines would also give good ranking to that website for the keywords featuring in the body-text of the web page.

And since the number of websites present then were not even half as much of what is there now and since the techniques of optimizing a site in search engines were not as improved, keywords could be repeated along with other otherwise refutable maneuvers like creating many domains with the same content. And this too ensured those sites a good position in the popular search engines.

But things have come a long way from that now. There has been a dramatic change in the search engine marketing scenario. Today, just ordinary designing, content and submission wont help; the website owner needs to do his homework study the various types of relevant keywords typed in search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN and then fashion his/her website accordingly so that the website ranks well enough to be viewed by the majority of people. And because today people tend to look for everything online and keep searching for the right goods and services till they find it, the search engine optimization is a big challenge, although with some amount of risk involved.

Now web presence is something very important here. If you are stepping into the online scene, your website needs to have a web presence. If not, you have a disfavor. The search engines, particularly Google, do not prefer giving high ranks to new domains. Position improves with time, as the website becomes old.

So obviously, websites which are older in time and already have a secured web presence, stand a better chance of getting higher ranks in the search engine. Listed below are some of the key factors for achieving the top positions in search engines.

Clean Codes: All search engines prefer a neatly coded website. When a webpage is designed in MS Word, it generates untidy html code. This is not a good thing. Also, website owners need to be careful about the WYSIWYG editors. Some use proprietary tags in the html and thus become uncongenial to the search engines.

Content: No saying would suffice for the stupendous importance of proper content that helps a website to score high in the search engines. Content is the backbone for any site. Search engines often look for relevant keywords or phrases in the body text of a webpage to identify those with the searched words/phrases. If found, your website is considered relevant for those keywords and you can expect a pretty good rank.

Tags: Yet another very vital aspect in html coding is the title tags and meta-description tags. To give your website a decent search engine position, these tags must contain the relevant keywords which you think users will look for.

Linking: Simply put, linking means other websites linking to your website. Now how would that help, you ask? This is good for your website precisely because the search engines consider each related link on your site as a given vote. The logic is easy if site X links to site Y, it obviously follows that site Y is of some value or worthy of it. These links can either come from important directories like Yahoo! or Dmoz, or from other related websites. For instance, if your website promotes clothes, a link from a fashion houses website would be relevant and count as a good vote in search engine parameters. However, exchanging links with questionable sites like link farms is not appreciated. Link farms are considered worthless in the sense that these are directories that just collect links without any valuable content in them. So whenever you add links to your website, ensure that those links have your targeted keywords in their anchor text.

Learn all about SEO from SeoMadeEasy, the FREE, easy, step-by-step 90 page illustrated SEO guide. Download it NOW at SeoMadeEasy.net

Profitable Article Marketing - 5 Signs and Symptoms of a Lousy Article Marketing

If you are utilizing articles as your fundamental marketing tool, then you need to make sure that you are able to come up with a highly commendable and exemplary article contents. When the article material is not good, there will be lesser chances of you achieving good results. Below are some signs and symptoms of a lousy article and how you can repair them:

1. Lack of preparation in creating the article. Frequently, your ideas will not flow well because you have not decided what you want to put on your paper. In trying to figure out what to say while trying to say it may seem to be efficient, but this approach is counter-productive. You will end up not thinking coherently and not communicating clearly.

2. Misconceptions about writing. You might think that once prepared, you should be able to produce a nearly perfect product easily and swiftly. Writing is hard work. Although preparation will help you, it will not eliminate the tedious job of putting your thoughts into words.

3. Being too self-critical. You may have this kind of a thinking that your writing will be criticized by other people, then you become obsessed by what others will think of you as a writer. Careful preparation will help you decide what to say and will give you confidence that what you put on paper will not make you look foolish.

4. Confusing writing with editing. You may become bogged down because you edit excessively as you compose. Switching back and forth between creative and censoring modes interferes with the flow of ideas, words, and sentences. You will need to separate the writing phase from the editing phase.

5. Boredom on what you are doing. Working on an article to be used for marketing requires hours of intensive reading, researching, and discussion. It is not uncommon to feel bored with a topic before you even begin writing. That is why it is crucial that you love what you do, so you will be able to deliver great results.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 1574 articles in print and 11 published ebooks.

Keyword Research - How to Create a Highly Effective Keyword List

Part 1

Recently I was asked to optimize a site selling Spanish T-Shirts to attract lots of traffic from the search engines. Without traffic your site won't make any sales. Of the other hand getting lots of traffic does not guarantee sales if your web copy is lousy. There are many factors that should be considered when you optimize your web site. For my example site to optimize I chose Wild Lily Designs, a site that specializes in selling Spanish Shirts.

Here are the steps I took to optimize the site:

1. Create a keyword list

Write down all the keywords related to the topic of your site. Try to also include keyword phrases. ie T-Shirts, Spanish Shirts, Spanish Apparel, Spanish Clothing.

There are probably millions of web sites selling T-Shirts; therefore you need to narrow your focus. This is why Spanish Shirts or Spanish T-Shirts would a better niche because it wouldn't be as competitive. If your niche is too competitive you will have a difficult time getting high rankings. Ideally you want your site to appear on the first page for one of the major search engines...Google, MSN or Yahoo.

2. Find related keywords

These are words that are similar to the main keyword list you created above. You may be able to incorporate them into the content of your site as it grows. Keywords that have a very narrow focus ie Spanish T-Shirts, may not be a popular search term. If I broaden my search to include "Spanish" or "T-Shirt" I will find hundreds of words that relate to these topics.

Use a theosaurus dictionary or thesaurus.com to find similar words besides your main keywords. Another great free tool to brainstorm related keywords is the Google AdWords Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal).

Here is the list of similar keywords generated when I inserted "spanish shirts" in the Google AdWords Keyword Tool:

madrid shirts language tee shirts spain shirt spanish shirt shirts in spanish spanish shirts spanish t shirts real madrid shirt spanish english dictionary spanish apparel sign language shirt language shirts madrid t shirts shirt in spanish hispanic t shirt spain t shirt language apparel hispanic shirts sign language t shirt madrid t shirt real madrid t shirts language t shirts sign language shirts language shirt shirts spanish sign language t shirts spanish t shirt real madrid merchandise i love shirts hispanic t shirts long sleeve shirts spain t shirts t shirts in spanish madrid shirt

From this list you get both the singular and plural forms of the keywords. You may also want to include madrid shirts, madrid t-shirt, spanish shirts.

To find out how often people are searching on these keywords you need to use keyword tools. I use a combination of both free and paid tools.

Part 2 of this article will discuss how I used Wordtracker, one of the most effective keyword tools on the Net, to decide if I should use spanish shirts as the main keyword phrase for Wild Lily Designs (http://www.wildlilydesigns.com) the example site I am optimizing.

To receive more of the author's in-depth articles subscribe to his Marketing Tips newsletter at: http://www.isitebuild.com/

Herman Drost is a Professional Web Designer, SEO Specialist, Writer and Publisher. http://www.drostdesigns.com/

The Article Marketing Guideline

Many internet marketers try to fight just to get onto the first page of Google to totally dominate their keyword. There is a marketing strategy that can get you onto the first page. That is article marketing.

How do you do it? It's simple. Just start writing articles about whatever it is you want to market. But you have to write many articles. You have to completely flood the market with your articles if you want to get onto the first page of Google. So to help you out on your article marketing success, here is a simple guideline that you should follow.

1. Your articles must contain quality information! Your articles need to have valuable information for the reader. When you give away valuable information, that is where people are going to be linking your articles, and that is how your going to get onto Google's first page.

2. Use your resource box to your advantage. Don't waste this valuable tool. Use your resource box is the gateway where people are going to go to to find out more about your product or your website. Your resource should have a catch and a link. Get your readers hooked by your resource by giving them a call to action. Have your resource box look professional. Don't fill it with a bunch of links. This looks childish and no one will go to any of them.

3. DO NOT make your articles too long. Long articles are boring and no one will want to read them. Give them information fast. That's what people want. They want information fast and to the point. Get in, and get out. Don't beat around the bush. If your article HAS to be long, than put in bullets and paragraphs so people can have access to the main points of the article.

4. You must write a lot of articles if you wish to get onto the first page of Google. This is the best way to get onto the first page of Google and stay there. Flood the marketing with your articles and just keep writing. You have to write more than 100 articles. Don't worry, it'll be easy.

5. Follow the guidelines. Don't break the rules. You don't want to get your valuable article marketing account deleted. You'll get taken off of Google!

Use this guide to article marketing, and soon you'll be getting the traffic that you've always wanted.

SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

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