People Buy People When It Come To Business

The phrase ‘people buy people’ is one that I often quote and can honestly say it’s true.

If you are a business owner you will likely fit one of the following categories

1.You offer a service or product that sells itself 2.You offer a service or product that requires input from yourself personally

Regardless of whether you deal directly with clients or not, your business must adapt good people skills if you want to succeed in business. The truth is, unless you are selling a much loved product like an Apple Ipad that requires little selling, you will have to convince people to use your services or buy your products.

It doesn’t matter if you are a massive multi premises empire or a one man band working from home, the same principals apply! Your potential clients must feel special and you need to show them that you are dedicated.

A great example of good customer skills is typically small businesses. I am privileged to know some great small business owners that offer a wide range of services from 3D Photo Gifts to fancy dress costumes. The fact is, no business should take customer service lightly, it has to be given priority.

For those in business or considering starting up, you must consider the level of customer service you would expect as a consumer. Do you offer your customers this same service?

How To Get To The Top Of Google

You are asking a question that every website owner wants an answer to. Some webmasters will probably never grasp it and some will give up trying. Internet marketing companies are spilt, some companies will tell you how it is and give you a straight forward answer, others will sugar coat pay per click otherwise known as Google ads.

How to get to the top of Google

There are three services that will get you to the top of Google. 1.SEO – Search engine optimisation, otherwise known as the natural listings on Google

2.Google pay per click which is the sponsored results on Google

3.Google maps or Google placements

The only one of the above that is guaranteed to get you to the first page of Google is pay per click. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, Google does not give preference to some marketing companies and nobody should ever guarantee you top positions unless they are using pay per click. You can get clarification of this by visiting googles webmaster central and help pages.

Which internet marketing method is best?

Your internet marketing plan needs to be done properly, before you decide which or all of the three main tasks to perform, ppc, SEO, or Google maps, you need to first get an expert to review your budget, analyse your site and most of all be completely honest with you. A good marketing company will tell you straight even if it means them losing a sale.

Keyword choice is important

If you target the wrong keywords from the start you might as well throw money away for example, if you're targeting iphone repair keywords you need to carefully research your keywords such as iphone 4 repair, iphone 4s repair etc. Of course it’s easy to get to the first page of Google for some keywords, especially localised keywords, but will these keywords convert for you? You need to make sure that the keywords you target will get you the visitors you want. Being on the first page of google isn’t important unless you are there for the right keywords.

Internet Marketing Methods

Internet marketing is the procedure of getting your web site noticed. The term can be quite broad and may consist of a multitude of tasks.

To have your site discovered you can either place your site in front of site visitors or you can be there when they search for you.

Marketing methods to get your site in front of visitors

Pay Per Click - This is the Google sponsored results of Search engines. Many people mistake this with the organic listings of Search engines. There are also marketing companies who attempt to promote pay-per-click as Search engine optimization but it is completely different. To setup pay per click you need to open up a Google adwords account, you then set up a campaign and select keywords linked to your web site. You can decide just how much to spend whenever someone clicks on your advert. Facebook also provide ads which are charged on a click basis. The facebook ads are very helpful to internet sites that need to reach certain clients such as according to age group, gender or location.

SEO - This is the abbreviated phrase to describe search engine optimisation. To show on page one of Search engines in a natural way you need to ensure that your website is optimised both onsite and offsite! There are many SEO Experts that will help you fully grasp SEO and what it involves, you have to make certain you don't fall for any company that promises to accomplish ethical SEO when in reality they use automatic tools and software which could harm your ranking.

Social Marketing - Through the use of social tools for example Facebook, Twitter, Message boards and blogs, you can actually take your web site to visitors.

Email Marketing - This can be very intrusive so you must ensure that any kind of e-mail marketing you do is to email addresses which have opted to receive emails from you!

There are many means of marketing your site, the most important thing to think about prior to choosing your technique is to research who your website visitors are, this should help you select which option to select.

Is SEO difficult?

A big good evening to you all, hope you are enjoying the summer months and keeping busy earning lots of money.

Did you get a chance to look at the money saving voucher codes site i recommended in my last post?

I have been asked the question whether SEO is easy?

If you are looking for ways to promote your website then you would of heard the term 'SEO'. It stands for search engine optimisation and consists of various on site and off site tasks that improves your position with search engines.

Many companies portray SEO to be some kind of mystical art that only the clever folk can grasp, this is very wrong. Once you understand the right and wrong way to perform SEO on your website it is fairly straight forward, the only difficult bit it is:

1. Avoiding the bad SEO techniques

2. Finding the time

Search engine optimisation is very time consuming and for this reason people choose to outsource it to an SEO expert.

If you do choose to get an expert to do it for you make sure they know what they are doing. Bad SEO will damage your ranking.

If you have the time to take on your own SEO campaign that get some training. Finding SEO training that holds nothing back and tells you in simple form will enable you to competently run your own search engine optimisation campaign.

How to save money off your online shopping

I often publish about how to earn money on-line but I figured I'd provide you with this brief post that will help you save cash. If you're looking for a bargain this summer then let me tell you how to save money off your summer clothes besides other shopping on the web.

It is rather effortless use voucher code sites.

Money saving sites offer reductions off numerous products. The top sites allow you to personally choose from a list of retailers which range from DIY and holidays, to fashion and food merchants. This can be great, it means you are able to decide what you would like and then you are able to go and acquire it for less!

Doing your shopping on the web through discount voucher code sites is no secret. I personally generally go looking for voucher codes before I purchase anything. The discounts can range from free shipping and delivery to a big portion of money off your shopping cart.

I'm particularly enjoying the clothes offers right now. There are some great bargains up for grabs. As always as the sun out of the blue makes an appearance, I've nothing to wear. I managed to get a massive reduction off my clothes at Littlewoods this week, the children also benefitted with a whole new summer closet.

Believe me, when you use voucher codes...you will never look back.

How to get to the top of Google

It has been a long time since i posted to this blog, but i am pleased to say that i have learnt so much and i can come back to you armed with a much deeper understanding.

I started this blog many years ago and i have written articles on Internet marketing and how to get your website noticed whilst i myself have been learning how to master the art of Internet Marketing. What i do has now become i deep passion of mine and the hours i have put in to my own projects as well as my clients has been well worth it. I look back at some of the posts in this blog and compare it to what i do now..... i laugh to myself, but i Will not remove old posts, i like to read them and really see how much i have learnt. Believe me if you enjoy what you do you will never stop learning!

Today i want to answer one of the questions i get asked more than ten times a day “how to get to the top of Google”? My simple answer is “nobody should ever guarantee that they can get you on the first page of Google unless they are using pay per click”. Google makes this very clear in its help centre pages.

If someone contacts you and says they have a ‘special’ relationship with Google, or some secret that guarantees you first position, close your ears. Basically without waffling on there are two ways of improving your Google positioning.

1. SEO - Search Engine Optimisation - The main Google search results

This involves a series of regular tasks being performed on your website, both online and offline. There is no secret to this. How long it takes will depend purely on your website and your niche. With SEO it WILL take time and it can be costly, but the benefits are long lasting if you do it properly.

2. Google Ads - Sponsored results of Google

This is Google adwords (Pay Per Click) you can get on the front page of google very quickly using Google ads. How much you pay will depend on your optimized site and quality score as well as the competitiveness as your keywords.

I wanted to make this clear because the amount of emails i receive from people that have been stung is unbelievable. If something seems too good to be true then it probably is. I have built my reputation on offering straight forward advice, i don’t sell pipe dreams and i never insist on contracts. I am more than happy to just offer advice and help you on your way to achieving your goals.

Don't fall for false promises. If you need help with your online marketing then make sure you ask all the right questions before you part with any money, and more importantly make sure you are able to see what you are getting for your money.

10 common SEO mistakes that will kill your ranking

An apology to those of you who have been following this blog for sometime, i am about to go over some old ground but no harm in a refresh i guess.

I have had lots of emails this past month, thank you so much for those. I am always happy to help and offer any advice that will help you. If i can thank you for following me by giving you some advice then please get in touch.

The bulk of the emails this week has been about sluggish results in the search engines. Below are a few of the basic things that will effect your ranking. The reason why i have stuck to the basics is because most of my readers are new to search engine marketing. For those of you who are more advanced please drop me a note and i would be happy to get all techie with you.

When your website has high search engine ranking, you will see many benefits. Although seo can be a little hard to get the hang of, there are simple mistakes you should avoid.

1. Using the wrong keywords

The first thing you should do is keyword research. If you get this wrong your off to a non starter. Make sure you target the best keywords for your niche, ones that searchers actually are using.

2. Forgetting to use title tags

Many beginners often forget to use title tags. They are important and tell search engines and visitors what your pages are about. Make sure you use different title tags for each page.

3. Over doing flash

Flash cannot be read by googles bots. If you are going to use flash, it is essential that you also use the html mark-up for it.

4. Back link spamming

This is something even the best webmasters are failing to grasp. Link farms are not a good thing with Google. You will get much further by getting high quality one way links from website with high pr.

5. Keyword stuffing

The content you write on your website must make sense. Do not stuff your content full of keywords that have no relevance to your sentences. This will get you penalized by Google quickly.

6. Keyword density must stay below 5%

7. Duplicate content. Google loves fresh, unique content. Google bots are very clever at spotting content that is used elsewhere.

8. Poor website navigation

Your website must have clean navigation and no broken links. It is essential that both visitors and search engine bots can access all your pages. Here is a great recommendation for clean low cost website design.

9. Using images for headers

Headers are the first thing Google bots see. Take advantage of this and use your keywords in the h1 and h2 headers.

10. Using unreliable hosting. Cheap may be good for your bank but having servers going down and pages not loading will lose you visitors and stop Google being able to properly access your site and give it high ranking.

Quality websites for £99

Hello just a quick one today. I have been in meetings all day and for once i can safely say i am sick of my own voice and have given myself a lovely migraine.

I wanted to add a quick post tonight to share with you a gem of a site.

If you are looking for a quality website with all extras included then head on over to 99site.co.uk.

Here is what you get for £99

•Free .co.uk or .com domain name

•1 year hosting

•3 page website (not ecommerce, see extras, add pages anytime)

•Custom website design

•1 email address associated with your domain name

•1 free contact form

•Website Statistics reporting - you can check visitors to your site

•Free SEO (search engine optimization) for 1 keyword on all pages

•Unlimited email advice for life.

This is an absolute cracking deal. Even if you already have a website, grab one to use for marketing. At £99 your onto a winner.

Make money with the help of Affiliate Programs

If you have a website up and running already and you'd like to make money from it, you may want to consider joining an affiliate program.

If you've yet to start up your own website then you should contact a web designer with affiliate marketing experience.

An affiliate means that via your website you'll be earning from advertising other sellers' products, by the placing of banners or text links on your site.

If someone who is visiting your site clicks on one of the banners, then go to the merchants' website and make a purchase from which you make a commission from the sale.

But you won't be making much by simply putting a banner on your site, unless you're one of the lucky ones who receive thousands of visitors on a daily basis.

But with a few simple techniques you could make even a small site earn you a useful income.

A first priority would be to link yourself to a merchant whose goods would be bought by the type of visitors you get to your site, there isn't much sense in having a banner for a cat food merchant when your website is solely concerned with PC maintenance.

To begin try taking a look at one of the best affiliate network directories, the 'Commission Junction', it costs nothing to join and you won't even be charged if you link up with a merchant that's listed there.

From that point it's very straightforward, you don't need to be a programming expert to get going.

Promoting anothers' goods on your site is a great way of earning an income all you're doing is pointing someone in the right direction and your responsibility ends there.

How to make money doing surveys

Firstly find out which company you want to work for there are a couple of ways you can do this.

Most, but not all, survey companies have a feature in which members can invite their friends, therefore if you receive such an invitation from a person you know you can trust then by all means go for it.

Also you could give the old-fashioned Google search a try for making money doing surveys but as is well known, Google searching usually leads to more confusion, simply typing in "Online Surveys" in the search box is only going to get you millions upon millions of hits.

A more straightforward beginning would be with www.surveypolice.com they have a list of all the legitimate survey companies, with a ratings section and a place to leave your comments.

The following is a couple of the better online survey companies:

Inbox Dollars - www.inboxdollars.com. You're paid $1 per survey and you're allowed one survey per day, you also receive paid emails which although it may not be much you're still going to read your emails aren't you?

My Survey - www.mysurvey.com - look like one of the best with points being awarded for each survey completed.

At $10 for every 1000 points it sounds drawn out but they are forever awarding bonus points, so it doesn't take as long as you think.

Finally you must remember you will not get rich doing online surveys and there a lot of companies who want to get their hands on your money instead of vice versa.

How your blog can make money

You may have quite strong feelings about trying to make money from your blog, if you think it may be immoral, unethical or even uncool or anything that falls into those categories then don't commercialise it.

But if you think that the whole idea is fine, then go for it, or if you think it's evil on the other hand then that's OK as well.

But you must seriously make up your mind before you start, because trying to generate income from blogging is difficult enough without second thoughts kicking in and making your attempt half-hearted.

You should feel good about earning income from your blog, there really is nothing wrong with having an urge to succeed.

If you honestly think that your blog has real value, then you should be earning income from it.

But you can't be shy about the whole thing, if you're going to put up ads, really put up those ads it's the same with requesting donations, you can't be too obvious with these things.

There are always some who will complain when you commercialise a free site, they always do.

But is it possible to make a proper living online? Undoubtedly, although if you have a day job it could take a little longer but the opportunity exists.

The ins and outs of Niche Devil

As far as the development team are concerned it is for, "Making cash whilst feeding the Google Monster it's favourite food while you barely lift a finger".

A snappy, if overlong statement, but it's not about the tag line, it's whether or not it's worth the money?

The initial setup goes something like this, firstly you purchase MANY domains, hosting and Niche Devil onto your hosting account you install Niche Devil, run the script and insert your affiliate links and keywords for the store you're creating and abracadabra, Niche Devil spits out a site with content and products in about 37 seconds. Got to be witchcraft, now all you need is a few spend-happy customers, and Niche Devil can even promise that with the aid of pinging but let's take a step back and look at what makes the whole thing tick.

Your server/hosting account must meet certain minimum requirements before uploading the script via ftp.

It is also nothing less than a glorified niche store builder, very much in the same vein as the old BANS stores, look what happened to them, The Niche Devil has made a lot of noise about it's "ever refreshing" content, scraping/pulling various media from the Internet relating to your keywords, it works well and looks pretty good but what about the legality of using what maybe copyrighted material?.

There are statements from Niche Devil such as, "Hurry up, only available for 14 days" which raises some issues.

They are restricting the window for it's purchase, why? To make you buy now, or before experience of the product kicks in and reality takes hold and why would you even contemplate selling a product that earns £££ and not just use it yourself.

Make money Affiliate Marketing

What does affiliate mean?

It is a term that often is used to describe a relationship between a company and individual. The individual often refers products and services that the company offers.

The merchant is the company supplying the goods or providing the service.

The affiliate is basically the salesperson. The one who is the direct link between the company and the customer.

How to start

If you want to get into affiliate marketing there are many programs that will make it very easy for you.

You may of heard of programs like commission junction. It is where merchants register, and affiliates join to promote the merchants goods.

The first thing to do before choosing and products is to decide how and where you are going to sell them.

Here is what I advise

Get yourself a website. Plan it with the products or services you will be selling in mind.

You must spend time planning your marketing campaign. Making sure you are able to generate quality traffic.

Your marketing campaign will involve:

Lots of research into your chosen niche as well as keywords.

SEO - search engine optimization. Both on site and off site.

How much can you make?

You will get paid commission. So if you don't sell, you don't get paid.

the importance of your marketing campaign is huge, it will impact the amount of money you will make.

When your site and marketing campaign is launched. All you need to do next is paste your affiliate code on your site. Then you are all set to go.

How to get Your site noticed on the internet

It does not matter what your website is for, be it business or pleasure, a definite must have is traffic.

With the Internet being as big as it is, you will be just a small fish in a gigantic sea.

Ways to increase your existence online.

You can increase the traffic to your website in many ways. You will first need an Internet marketing campaign.

Know your visitors

There are certain programs that can generate you masses amount of traffic. Wonderful you may think, but they are no good to you unless they are targeted visitors.

If for instance, you had a antiques website, what are the chances someone who found your site through a teenage social site link are going to buy your products? Not very high.

You get my point? You need to target your potential customers and make sure they know your there.

Search engine optimization

If you are beginner to the world of seo, you may have heard about it and it has had your head spinning.

Seo consists of a series of on site and off site optimization. Do not let anyone tell you its easy, it is not. It takes time, lots of it.

For all those who want to start learning seo here is a simple seo guide. For those who would rather leave it to an seo expert, it will leave your time free to do what you do best.

Pay per click - PPC

If you want a fast way of getting your site noticed you can try pay per click. It is exactly what it says. You pay for each visitor that clicks on an ad that links to your site. Make sure you learn about this prior to starting.

Get traffic from social networking

Links to your site from blogs, forums and message boards, will bring you traffic.

Whichever route you take for your marketing campaign, one thing you must do is lots and lots of research. A poor campaign will lead to poor traffic.

I hope this has given you a short insight to ways you can get more visitors to your website.

Search Engine Optimization is important

I have written lots lately on seo for beginners and what search engine optimization can do for you.

Some of my recent posts include:

10 simple seo tips for beginners Explaining in simple terms basic optimization that will get your website ranking higher on search engines.

Mistakes that will kill your ranking Around 80% of websites are beging penalized by google without even realizing. You might want to read this post and do your own check list.

Seo v Adwords A look at organic traffic benefits against pay per click marketing.

The reason why i have been concentrating on SEO allot lately is because it is important, plain and simple. Whatever website you have, whichever niche you target, search engine optimization will bring you targeted traffic and we all know what targeted traffic means....more conversions.

SEO is not rocket science but it can take time to grasp. If you have not got time and want to concentrate more on what YOU do then contact me, i specialize in Internet marketing and seo. I can help get you more targeted leads.

Since my last post i have created some more resources for all you beginners needing a helping hand:

Simple Seo Guide Does what it says in the title.

Seo for Beginners Similar to the simple seo guide but laid out in simple lessons to follow.

SEO forum This one is brand spanking new, today in fact. Membership is free so why not join. You can ask anything seo related or simply offer some help to others.

This post is just a quick catch up to keep you updated with my campaign to help beginners in the vast world of seo.

Any questions please feel free to comment.

10 common seo mistakes that will kill your ranking

When your website has high search engine ranking, you will see many benefits. Although seo can be a little hard to get the hang of, there are simple seo mistakes you should avoid.

1. Using the wrong keywords

The first thing you should do is keyword research. If you get this wrong your off to a non starter. Make sure you target the best keywords for your niche, ones that searchers actually are using. For example, if you have a site that helps people save money, think about keywords searchers will type in such as voucher codes, or money off.

2. Forgetting to use title tags

This is a common one often overlooked by beginners. Title tags are important and must be different on every page of your website.

3. Over doing flash

Flash cannot be read by googles bots. If you are going to use flash, it is essential that you also use the html mark-up for it.

4. Back link spamming

This is something even the best webmasters are failing to grasp. Link farms are not a good thing with Google. You will get much further by getting high quality one way links from website with high pr.

5. Keyword stuffing

Your content must make sense. If you try and over do the keywords you will get penalized by Google quickly. What you write must flow.

6. Keyword density must stay below 5%

7. Duplicate content. Google loves fresh, unique content. Google bots are very clever at spotting content that is used elsewhere.

8. Inadequate navigation

Your website must contain no broken links and have good navigation. Both visitors and search engine bots need to get around your website.

9. Missing the value of headers

No harm in using images for headers but headers are important and you need to make use of them. Search engine bots don't read images and headers are the first thing they read, surely it makes sense to include your keywords in your headers?

10. Unreliable web hosting. Cheap may please your wallet but it will annoy your visitors and stop you getting high search engine ranking. Google will think your website is not there if it happens to crawl your site during an outage!

10 simple seo tips for beginners

1. Your keywords

You need to decide which keywords you want to achieve high search engine ranking with.

Research is vital, you must make sure the keywords you want to rank high with, pr actually used by searchers.

2. Who are your competitors?

You are going to beat your competitors to the top spot. You need to first find out who they are and analyze them. Type in your keyword in the search bar...bingo, there are all your competitors.

3. Title

Two tips i can give you for optimizing page titles. The first is to make sure each page has its own unique title.

Second tip is to make sure you include your main keyword in the title. Don't keyword spam though, your titles must make sense and flow.

4. Meta

Only use meta tags if you understand them. They are not that important. The keyword density has to be spot on.

5. use headings

When googles crawlers scour your website. They look at h1 and h2 headers. If you have your keywords in these headers, google will see that they are important.

6. Content must always be fresh. Duplicate content is a big no no.

7. One way links are a big seo boost. Try and get a link from a high pr website. Remember to have your keyword included in the link.

8. Site maps tell search engine about your website pages. Having a site map will help to get more of your pages indexed.

9. Alt tags should always have a description and should not be left blank.

10. You need to update your website often, even if it is just a little tweak. Google loves sites that are maintained often.

Having your website search engine optimized is very beneficial. I have built a site for all you beginners. Start with seo basics and take it from there.

What is search engine optimization?

This is for all you newbies who have heard the phrase seo and wondering what on earth it is all about.

Seo stands for search engine optimization.

It is a process that is done to make sure website pages are optimized for google and other search engines.

Why use seo?

Whatever your website is about, one thing you will need is traffic. No point having a website if nobody can find it.

It is true that many methods for traffic building exist, all are effective, but one you should always consider is search engine traffic.

Organic search engine traffic is where you naturally rank high on search engines for your chosen keywords.

This is a biggy you want to be concentrating on.

When google search is used, the searcher is only likely to click on the results that appear on the first page, so you need to be aiming to have your listing in top position on search engines.

Where does a beginner start?

I will write just for you beginners. I wont baffle you with big terms. I will take it slow.

At first glance, seo may seem like rocket science, but it is not. It just takes some hard work and dedication.

My advice as you take this journey is to persevere.

What you will need.

A website to play with

Patience

Lots of coffee lol

OK that's the low down on seo and what it means. I will get preparing your first lessons on how to get high search engine ranking.

Seo or Adwords?

In my last post we looked at search engine optimization or seo for short.

Which is best for your Internet marketing campaign? Seo or AdWords?

The answer is a simple one........ Both!

What is AdWords?

It is a pay per click advertising program.

1. Open a free AdWords account.

2. Set your daily budget. This can be as little as £1 per day.

3. Build your keywords list

4. Create your adverts and your ready to go.

Why you should use both google AdWords and seo

Search engine optimization will bring you free organic traffic.

Google AdWords will bring you fast targeted traffic.

By using both seo and AdWords you get the best of both worlds.

But isn't Google AdWords expensive?

AdWords has a reputation of being an expensive learning curve. But if it is done correctly the ROI can be substantial.

I am not going to waffle about the right way of setting up AdWords in this post, you need to digest a bit at a time. But what i will say is that search engine optimization and AdWords can compliment each other and actually lower the price you pay for a click on your ad.

For all those newbies to Internet marketing, my advice for you is to learn both seo and google AdWords.

In my next post, i will dedicate it to all those beginners baffled by google AdWords.

Seo and your business

search engine optimization or seo for short, is the process used to optimize your website for the search engines.

If you have an online business then you will benefit greatly from having a seo friendly website.

Even if you already have a good system that brings in traffic, organic search engine traffic is a bonus.

If your website ranks high for certain keywords then you will get FREE quality targeted traffic.

How to search engine optimize your website

1. Keyword research

Decide the keywords you want to gain high search engine ranking with. Don't forget to include some long tail ones.

2. URL

There is debate as to whether this matters with seo. It does and it doesn't. It is not vital but in my opinion it is better to include keywords in your URL if you are not going for a branding approach.

3. Content

You have probably heard the saying "content is king". It is important but there are too many factors to consider with search engine optimization for it to be as clear cut as that.

You need to make sure your content is liked by search engines and your readers.

Keyword density in your content needs to be below 5% ideally. Too much or too little will kill your ranking.

4. Links

The best links are the ones that are one way and keyword anchored.

If you can get an anchored one way link to your website from a high pr website, .......BRILLIANT.

They are the main seo tasks you need to implement on your website.

If you would like me to do a free seo report on your website, get in touch.