Jen Asked Sam How To Get Others To Link To Her

Jenny called Sam, her high school friend.
Jenny :”Hi Sam, Jenny, remember me?”
Sam :”Hi Jen, long time no see, how are you?”

Jenny :”Good, Sam, I saw your website about Car Insurance. You have link exchanges on the side bar. I wonder if we can exchange link? My site is about Diabetes Treatment Care. They may not be related, but we can still cross promote, can’t we?”
Sam :”Sure, of course. If you have other websites, please feel free to exchange links with me. I hope you don’t mind doing the same with my other coming websites.”

Jenny :”Sure, why not? Sam, any tips I can use to get people to link to me like crazy?”
Sam :”Offer something free on your site, like ebook or article with your link on it. People love free stuff, I certainly do LOL. They will do anything to get it, including linking to you. Make sure your link is live, so people can simply click on it to visit your site. If you have your own ezine, you can put your link in each issue you publish. You can then allow your visitors to publish it on their sites as long as your link remains intact.”

Jenny :”Cool, that way not only do I get 1 way link to my site, it can also increase my ezine subscription.”
Sam :”Right. You may have seen blogs on the web. They are like web books with a title page, table of contents, chapters etc. You could design your site as a web book, or just use blog for that matter. Fill it with interesting topics, stories etc. Market your site as a free web book. Those interested in your free web book will then have to link to your site to get it.”

Jenny :”I have seen a website offering an article directory. I guess similar things are done here. People who want to add a free article directory to their sites will have to link to it.”
Sam :”Exactly. Nothing stops you from creating any site at all really. If you have created your own discussion board, open it free for your site visitors to use. You may also have seen lots of websites offering free memberships or free affiliate sign ups. They all are good ways to get people to link to you.”

Jenny :”Sam, my friends say that giving comments on other people’s blogs can also give a 1 way link to your site. Do you do that too?”
Sam :”You bet I do. When you comment on other’s blog, you can usually include your site link. You can also give testimonials about the products you bought online and felt satisfied using. Include the link to your site at the end of your testimonial. The product owner will usually be more than happy to display your testimonial on his site along with your link. He or she gets your free endorsement, you get your link advertised in return. It’s a win win.”

Jenny :”I have a friend. He creates a directory of niche websites with his business ad at the top of the page. People that find it useful will link to his directory homepage. Those who do visit his page will get exposed to his business ad. Very neat indeed.”
Sam :”You can also do article exchange with other sites. Both parties could include a resource box at the end of the article. This is just like the usual link exchange, but here you can show people a bit of your expertise. This way you can also build your reputation online over time.”

Jenny :”It seems that the site that offers some kind of free stuff be it product or service will attract people to link to it better than the non-free-stuff site.”
Sam :”You are right. The simple rule to get people to link to you is to offer free stuff on your site, be it ebook, article, report, software or whatever. Another thing you can also do is networking as widely as you can. It is easier to exchange links with friends, like what we are doing, than with strangers. Having lots of friends can also make joint ventures very easy to establish in the future.”

Jenny :”Thanks for your tips, Sam. I really appreciate it. I guess I need to start working on it bit by bit.”
Sam :”Take your time and keep going, Jen. If you need my help, I am only a call away. Bye now.”

Autoresponders Susy Used Creatively To Increase Profit

Long time ago Susy was browsing a handycraft website. She was about to buy when her phone rang. She went to answer the phone. It was her mother asking if she wanted anything from the supermarket. She had already bought enough ice cream, so she said no. When she came back, her cute little cat was sitting on the keyboard. Instead of the handycraft site, it was another site showing on the screen. If only the handycraft site had an email capturing autoresponder installed, the webmaster would be able to follow up with her and make a sale.

Susy never forgot the lesson above. She was into her own net biz. She made sure she could follow up with her potential customers by using email capturing autoresponders on all her sites. She used autoresponders to automatically answer her email and do other creative and profitable things that could turn a casual visitor into a profitable customer. She dialed Jane's number.

Jane :"Hello?"
Susy :"Hi Jane, I am relaxing now. What was that you wanted to ask last time?"

Jane :"Hi Susy, I was about to ask you about autoresponder. I am already using it to answer my email, but you mentioned that it could be used for other purposes. That's what I want to know more about."
Susy :"Okey, you could use it to publish newsletter for your site visitors. You inform them about your products and services and build your reputation as an expert in your business at the same time."

Jane :"That's right. I see lots of people also publish a newsletter for their affiliates. They keep their affiliates informed about their sales, promotional materials, tips, advice, techniques, new products etc."
Susy :"Some people write reviews on books, movies, music, software, their affiliate programs and put them in autoresponder with a link to their affiliate's pages. Neat eh?"

Jane :"Maybe we can also use it to distribute our articles eh, Sue? I just don't know how to make use of autoresponder here."
Susy :"Sure, writing targeted articles and distributing them can build your credibility and bring targeted traffic your way. If you submit your articles to article directories, they usually provide you with a resource box. This resource box is where you put a brief description of your bio. You are usually allowed to include a link to your site there. In this case you put your autoresponder address instead. That's how you do it."

Jane :"Can you elaborate further?"
Susy :"Say you have 100 articles. Put each one on a separate autoresponder account. Create a master list containing the titles of each article, the autoresponder address and a brief abstract if you like. You promote this master list. This master list is the one you include in the resource box. You still have to submit the article to article directories yourself to start with."

Jane :"Right, I suppose we can include publishing guidelines so our affiliates or other writers can add their articles to the master list which will enrich the content even more."
Susy :"Yes. You can use autoresponder to inform your subscribers whenever you have new articles. They may want to publish them in their website or newsletter with your resource box intact."

Jane :"I remember my net friend said something about automating her sales process using autoresponder. She used an ad to expose her messages repeatedly. In her ad, she put her autoresponder address that contains her numerous marketing materials. That's what she did."
Susy :"That's something I can use too, thanks Jane. I think I will put testimonials and a detailed enticing description about my product on my autoresponder. That would multipy the chances of converting visitors into customers."

Jane :"Another net friend of mine sells advertising on her site. She sets her autoresponder to send information about how to place an ad automatically and the rates to her list. She then has her autoresponder follow up."
Susy :"Many people use autoresponder to distribute a how-to email course. They provide quality content and include useful tips, illustrating how their product can benefit their readers. This way they build their credibility and promote their products and services at the same time too."

Jane :"I have seen some sites have trivia quiz on them. The visitors should submit their email addresses to an autoresponder address to get the answers. Some have a contest offering quality ebooks or softwares. Participants should submit their email addresses to an autoresponder address to officially get registered."
Susy :"Woow what a brainstorm we are having here. You may also have seen people offering a trial version on their product. See how they set up their autoresponder to give instructions on how to obtain the free trial, then follow up to try and close the sale."

Jane :"So the use of autoresponder is only limited by our creativity and imagination, eh Sue?"
Susy :"I agree, and we should brainstorm more often on other topics too."

Ben Heard About Search Engine Marketing

Ben had been in net marketing for sometime. He had his own websites created. He was promoting both affiliate programs and his own ebooks. He wasn't getting the result he had expected. He was kind of walking on the spot.

Ben :"Hello Max, my websites can use a lot of traffic. I often hear people say search engine marketing. Can you tell me more about it?"
Max :"Hi Ben, I am fine thank you (smile), you should learn to relax when talking, bud. Ok, you can see search engine as a shopping directory. If you wanna buy shoes, you simply look for shoes-related words like sports-shoes, leather-shoes etc. Those are called keywords. You can optimise usage of keywords in your sites. Submit your sites to search engines. People do use search engines to find something. They type certain keywords. Say their keyword is "shoes". Say also the sites you submitted to search engines are about shoes. The search engine will then show your sites together with other "shoes" sites they have. It is then up to the people to pick which site(s) to visit. That is your seach engine marketing, bud."

Ben :"Optimising usage of keywords in my sites so I can rank high in the search engines, thus increasing the likelihood to get visited....how do I do that?"
Max :"I am no search engine expert, but I tell you what I know. Get a good domain name is a good start. Make sure it logically pertains to the subject matter of your site, isn't too long to remember, and isn't easily misspelled. Try to avoid numerals or abbreviations... Search engines weight TITLE elements heavily when determining the relevance of a page to a user's search. Try to make your titles easy to understand and rich in the keywords that your customers will be searching for."

Ben :"Gee.. I never paid attention to my page's TITLE..Ok, I got that, please continue."
Max :"Now you are more relaxed (laugh). You will also benefit from providing rich content on your site. It is important that you include at least a few paragraphs of copy full of keywords, which will enable search engines to better classify your pages. Use the keywords you included in your META elements, and don't be afraid to use them many times within your copy. But, of course, what you write should make sense and be easy to digest, as readability is vital. You should also display text on your site as text, not as images, which search engine crawlers cannot read. Use ALT tags for pictures you do use, so that crawlers can get some information out of them, and incorporate HTML navigation wherever it is possible, even if this means adding redundant navigation at the bottom of your pages."

Ben :"Wait a minute now, bud. Search engine crawlers...what exactly is that?"
Max :" Search engines use automated programs called "crawlers" or "spiders" to create an index of the Web, to determine what sites are most relevant to users' queries. These programs essentially visit Web sites, read the pages' content, and follow any links to other pages, repeating the process on the sites where they end up. By also retrieving information on link destinations and frequency, among other things, the search engines are able to better "understand" Web sites than if they only took site text into account. Therefore, the key to better placement in search results is making sure it is easy for crawlers to gather useful information about your site. Search engines particularly take into account the location and frequency of keywords on your pages in determining your site's relevance. There you go."

Ben :"All right, now I know. Please continue, bud."
Max :"Do leverage links. Web sites that are linked to from lots of other sites are usually more popular and get a higher ranking in search results. However, more important than the number of links is the quality of those links. Contact owners of other Web sites that score highly for key phrases related to your content, and ask them if they will provide a link back to your site. Make sure, too, that the content on your own site is properly linked together. Crawlers will often start with your home page and then follow links from there to other areas of your site. Thus, if you fail to provide working links to all your pages, some of your content may end up unindexed."

Ben :"(hearing certain sound at the background) Is that your baby crying, Max?"
Max :"Your ears are sharp as always (laugh), yes that's my baby. You need to be patient with this search engine thing, bud. If you've spent a lot of time optimizing your sites and you still aren't seeing results, it may not make sense spending more time tweaking it so it will surface higher. There are still other ways for you to drive traffic to your sites on which your time would be better spent."

Ben :"I see what you mean. Go to your baby now (the cry got a lot louder). Thanks Max."
Max :"Bye now."

When And How Ben Should Start Internet Business

Traffic is essential for any business to succeed. Your business maybe the best of its kind, but it won't produce any money if nobody knows about it. Without money coming in, what business have you got? You need to market your biz to attract huge traffic to come your way. You simply can get no satisfaction with traffic. You just want more and more. That's the way it was, is and will always be. You know what? That's just how you grow your business.

Ben : “Hi Max, long time no see! You are looking good as always man! I heard you are in internet biz?”
Max : “You look cool yourself Ben! Your long ears are also sharp as always, yeah you heard that right, man.”


Ben : "I have surfed for sometime now. I looked at those big names earning big bucks, living their dream lives. I wanna do that. How do I start, man?"
Max : "Ben my straight-talker friend, start from where you are now...(Ben looked blank)...there are lots of ways, but...let me see...you gotta have a product, your very own website for selling your product and get as many visitors as possible to your website."

Ben : "All I know about net is surfing and reading emails. I got no product, no website....getting visitors...they call it traffic on the net, right?...I don't have a clue how to do that. I somehow knew this net biz was never meant for people like me. sigh."
Max : "You knew wrong this time amigo. You can find other people's product to sell by becoming an affiliate. You are normally provided a website and training on how to get visitors...traffic. All your problems solved. That's not bad for a start, don't you think?"

Ben : "You must be talking about affiliate marketing. I read it before, but didn't quite understand what it meant. Now that you brought it up, I guess I had better start from there and learn my way up eh?"
Max : "You guess right. One thing about internet biz is that you have to DO it and learn your way up, as you put it my friend. You will learn more as you go, do more things and just keep growing."

Ben : "When and how do you suggest I should start, bud?
Max : "Start NOW. You could start by clicking the link "I Want My Free Huge Traffic Monster" below. It is just one way of many for you to get started. Follow the instructions there and keep going. I need to tell you that internet is a fast changing world where business come and go. What you see today may or may not still be there tomorrow. What you don't see today may just appear tomorrow."

Ben : "That happens offline too, business come and go...O right, I think I know what you mean. You are saying to grab every opportunity that comes your way today coz it may be gone tomorrow, and always be prepared for whatever opportunity tomorrow will bring you. Correct?"
Max : "Yes. When you surf, always wait till the page fully uploads. This way you won't miss anything it has to offer. If you see something interesting, stop to see or click to check out to satisfy your curiosity. Do it without losing your main focus at what you are doing of course. New ideas often come this way."

Ben : "The stories that I read about average Joe and Jill ending up earning full time doing internet business, making big money, living a dream house, driving a dream car and lots of wonderful stuff...are they for real? Not that I aim that high, I would be happy if I could just cover all my expenses from net income and safe a bit extra perhaps."
Max : "When you read the stories, you probably notice the "earnings disclaimer" somewhere at the bottom usually...(Ben looked blank)...basically it says there's no guarantee that you can do as good...(Ben's mouth shaped an O). You can aim as high as you want, but you must be willing to pay the price to get there. You will get the reward you deserve from the effort that you make. Just do it, man. You can never tell how far you can go."

Ben : "Ok buddy, I got it. I will take my 1st step of action now. Internet marketing, here I come! I will call you when I am in trouble. You don't mind, right bud?"
Max : "You do that. I may not have all the answers, but I will tell you what I know."

"I Want My Free Huge Traffic Monster" link is :
http://www.free-webspace.biz/lsjap/freetm.htm
Just copy and paste it to your browser and press enter :-)