Killer SEO

Search Engine Optimization

Anyone who owns a website has probably spent a lot of time and perhaps money at trying to rank high on search engines. They have probably heard a lot of ideas from search engine experts all claiming to know the secret ingredient to favorable SERP, or perhaps even to secret to getting onto page one of Google.

The thing is that it is no big secret, the methods to achieving good search engine placement have been laid out in plain english. Still some choose to believe that there is some magic formula that will allow you to out rank websites that have been around for years, providing quality content and building solid relationships with relevant companies. If you really believe that you can spend $100 for a million inbound links and end up on page one of Google then I have some fairy dust that I can sell you for $50 that will turn every visitor to your website into a potential customer.

The Secret To Good Search Engine Placement

The secret to good search engine placement is that there is no secret. If you want great placement you need to conduct extensive research.

You need to do the following:

• Write relevant content and a lot of it
  
• Forge relationships (inbound links) with relevant websites
• Place the appropriate keywords and descriptions on each page of your website
• Make your website 511 compliant
• Validate your website through an HTML/CSS validator
• Submit a sitemap to Google
  
• Submit your website to all available search engines, especially Google
• Submit your website to as many free directories as you can
• Verify that all links on your website are working

What NOT to do:

• Sign up for any linking schemes, link rings or just share links with anyone
  
• Place a lot of spam or affiliate links on all your web pages (reserve for only a few pages)
• Use any black hat SEO tactics (hidden text, false links)
• Provide false information of any kind to trick visitors or insult any groups or individuals

In summary the best way to insure that you can eventually rank high and not get banned is to play fair. It might take a while to rank high but in the end you will have a solid place in the search engine ranking placements.

You can always hire professionals to handle your search engine optimization but make sure that you hire the right company. If they promise too much then odds are they are up to no good. I have seen websites go from a page rank of 0 to 4 in one month and then back to 0 the next month after Google discovered the black hat techniques that were used, and believe me they will find out eventually and then you will get banned, not cool.

When you search for a company to provide search engine optimization they should take a day or so to look over your website (or content if the website is not yet built). Based on your content the company should be able to tell you what they can do for you, including which keywords you have a good chance of ranking highly with. Then they will "optimize" your website for those particular keywords.

General rule is that if a keyword is very common or "hot" then the odds that you can make the first page are very slim, however if you can identify a particular niche and isolate the terms that may be used to search for such a niche then you may possibly have a shot of competing effectively. Let's look at an example to elaborate on what we have just covered.

Let's say that you have a custom wedding bouquet shop. You want to be found online in generic searches rather than throw money at costly pay per click campaigns. You may find it almost impossible to rank on the first page using the keyword wedding. It may be a bit easier to rank well with the keyword (phrase) custom wedding bouquet. However you may stand a very good chance at ranking page 1 with custom wedding bouquets in Richmond Hill New York. This is what web gurus refer to as the long tail. It basically refers to the variations of major keywords that are utilized in order to corner a particular niche.

You should have carefully considered much of this before you even began building your website. In some cases you may not even need to focus on general keywords. Take for instance if you are building an ecommerce website. You may find that you will have hundred of keywords to optimize your website for. In ecommerce website the goal is to be found in a number of ways. You would hope to place well when someone searches for a particular name brand, a particular product using a model number or name and for the type of product line. An example would be Kohler, Kohler Faucet K-123B or plumbing supplies.

If you are going to be selling products online it would be very difficult to rank high by product model number but here are some methods that you may use to gain ranking. Try starting a blog or a forum on the particular industry that you are serving. For instance if you sell the Kohler K-123B faucet then write about it, maybe start a forum or wiki on all of your products. Provide installation instructions, talk about famous people who own them or provide a history or deatailed information in the process and ingredients used in production, basically anything that you offer your customer in order to set your website apart for the scores of other website that are all offering the same products.

If you can apply the same thought process to your particular product, service and website then you should be able to come up with your own methods. Don't be afraid to think outside the box and definately try different things, if one thing doesn't work you can always make adjustments and try again. The entire process of marketing is ever evolving. What works one day may not work the next. You will find that ecommerce is similar in some ways but it is an entirely different machine in a lot of ways.

Good luck and happy webbing!!

What is Ecommerce?

Do you want to join millions of others and start generating an income online?

If so what seems to be preventing you from getting involved?

Perhaps some of the following reasons:

• You think you lack the technical knowledge necessary.
• Perhaps don't know if you have a good idea or not.
• Don't have the capital to get started.
• Simply don't know how to get involved.

Well you are not alone while millions of individuals and companies are all making money online millions of others are sitting by the sidelines, interested in getting involved but either intimidated, confused or simply not motivated enough.

The first step to getting involved would certainly be to get motivated. Here are some motivational points:

• Billions of dollars are exchanged online each year.
• Ecommerce is still in it's infancy, relatively speaking.
• The online market accommodates small business in the same way that it does for larger ones, meaning you can compete successfully with mega corporations.
• There are many free ways to make money online.

What is ecommerce?

In literal terms "ecommerce" means electronic commerce. Is it basically the process of transferring funds electronically. That being said when you actually consider the broadness of this definition then you come to realize that it is very easy to take part in the internet economy.

It is not necessary to have a website designed for selling tangible products in order to participate in the ecommerce arena. You can practically sell anything, once you can initiate the electronic transfer of funds. By now you might be asking yourself what in tarnations am I referring to.

Well the answer is simple. Sell anything that someone is willing to pay for whether directly or indirectly. For instance you can sell information for free and make a profit. How? well let's examine this.

Lets use an example to illustrate this point. Say you work for an investment firm. You have a ton of knowledge that you can share with others. You may already be doing it, at parties, family reunions, in the car with friends or even at work with clients, right?

You can put that information to use for yourself and do a world of good for those out there looking for some quality information, and you can do it for free. Start a blog. A simple blog talking about what you do, trends in the market, offer some advice or tips, whatever (as long as it is legal, and of course ethical). If the information you post is valuable to the public then you might soon enjoy some traffic sent to you from various search engines. If you find that this begins to happen then you can start selling advertising on your website based on the traffic you are generating.

There you are, one simple way to make money online, without spending a penny, just some time, spare time if you will.

The key to having a successful blog is to provide content that is interesting to you, something you are passionate about, something that you don't mind writing about on a daily basis. Otherwise you might find yourself starting a project and then backing out soon after.

Another way you can make money online without spending any money is by taking advantage of all the free advertising that is available. Many individuals and companies focus on marketing online businesses online, but what about offline businesses? Let's use another example.

Let's say that you have a small printing press & stationary store. Business is slow because you don't really have the luxury of much foot traffic well why not advertise online. You can list your company online on all of the search engines and free directories. Most will also allow you to include a brief description of your services along with contact information. You can also list with free directories and with free classifieds such as craigslist.org. Now even though you don't get much foot traffic you may begin to receive exposure online and this may lead to an increase in business.

Many freelancers advertise their services online whether they are computer repair technicians, hair stylist, photographers or musicians, there is a wealth of online resources that are available for free to increase your exposure.

By now you are probably saying to yourself, "that's not ecommerce, where is the electronic transfer of funds" and you are correct, what I just described is e marketing, this is different from ecommerce. While ecommerce is the act of selling "something" online e marketing is the act of using the internet domain to advertise services and create customers.

On the flip side of this comparison is the fact that you can perform the act of "ecommerce", that is transfer funds electronically online for goods or services that were exchanged completely offline. Let me introduce another example.

Let's say that the wedding band you hired through a referral from the tuxedo guys needed a deposit 1 week before the wedding and they send you an email invoice. You click on it and it takes you to Google Checkout. You pay the deposit, get married to some great pop goth music and all is well. You have just entered into and ecommerce situation and did not receive any goods online what-so-ever.

It truly is amazing the amount of resources that the average individual has available to them these days. You can now send someone a message online and accept their credit card payment, all practically for free (some transaction fees apply).

Whether or not we know it all of us have been involved in some manner or another in electronic commerce. The focus of this blog however would be to provide the information necessary for you to make a conscious effort to take part in the internet economy an generate an income in some way shape or form. Hopefully you can start to understand the broadness and the potential of doing business online.

While it is possible to make some money online with minimal investment of time and no capital it may not be easy, however if you have more time and a substantial budget you may be able to get involved in a much bigger way.

Before we even begin our discussion you should first browse the internet for some products that you may have access to on a reseller level or at least some interest in selling. Perhaps you don't intend to sell any products but rather a service. First thing to do is to research your competition, who is selling your products or services? Are they successful? How can you compete? Why would someone purchase from you rather than them? What sets you apart from the others selling the same products or services?

Once you have been able to answer those questions then you would be in great shape to begin setting up your own ecommerce operation.

Finding Dropshippers

Drop Shipping 101

Finding a company to drop ship products to your customers is pretty easy these days, simply do a Google search and you will find a ton of companies advertising thousands of products that you can sell on your website. The only problem is that you will be competing with a lot of others that are doing the exact same thing. And if you really analyze the situation the party that is really making all the money is the drop shipper. And in reality you will probably not be getting the best deal on your products either.

So why is this the case? Well it is not very efficient for a company to drop ship 1 item at a time. Especially if they are only making a few bucks off of each product. It is certainly more profitable for a wholesaler to sell in bulk, hence the term wholesaler. Therefore when you find a drop shipper that is willing to ship one item at a time you will most likely not be getting the "best" deal for that particular product.

Now that I have just made this statement, let me take it back, somewhat. There are companies out there that will drop ship one item at a time and still offer a fair deal to their resellers. But they would usually require a lot more from their resellers before setting up an account. Some may even be reluctant to deal with companies that operate exclusively online. Additionally, you may be required to place an initial order or have a showroom for some products. If you can find wholesalers such as these then you can be assured that the stringent weeding out process has left you with less competition and you stand a better chance of succeeding with your online store.

The best places to find quality wholesalers and manufacturers would be at trade shows and business to business listings. You may be able to find decent listings online but you will have to weed through all of the scam lists and typical lists you find online where only a portion of the companies listed are actually legitimate. Also think about it, why would you have to pay for a list of companies that need to find resellers? If a company is real and legitimate then you should be able to find them without paying for a listing. That said you may find a list or two that is fairly legitimate and although you could research on your own and find these companies, it does save a lot of time if someone has already made a list.

The best way to find drop shippers, again, would be to carefully research various companies and speak with them. Also contact some of their resellers and see if they are willing to share information with you. The general rule is that if it's very easy to become a reseller then you probably aren't getting such a great deal.

If you are searching for products first then building a website based on what you find then you would certainly want to research the market first. You may find that it is completely saturated or that you cannot compete with others selling the same products.

You will certainly have to spend time researching the market place, but it is very worthwhile to do so. This is the only way to find your niche and enjoy success selling online.

Starting An Online Store

Below are some questions you should be able to answer before you can start selling online.

1. What are you going to sell online?
2. Who are you hoping to sell to?
3. How much can you spend on advertising?
4. How will you ship and what will it cost?
5. How will you accept payment?

Of course there are many more questions you would have to ask yourself but we will begin with these because they will help move you along to the next step in getting your store online.

1. What are you going to sell?

Do you already have products to sell or will you be looking for wholesalers / drop shippers?

If your online store is going to be an extension of your bricks and mortars store then perhaps you are already on your way to a good start. The most successful online stores happen to be the ones that we are already familiar with and can walk into on any given day, such as Home Depot, Best Buy, etc. Of course stores of this caliber are already hugely popular and enjoy the benefits of generic hits (visitor traffic that is not paid for by PPC campaigns) but you can still compete effectively online.

What you have in common is the fact that you are already generating revenue (hopefully) and may have funds available for marketing online. Additionally, you may already have inventory to offload, essential product knowledge and established a reputation for your business.

If you are starting from scratch you will most likely need to find wholesalers and/or drop shippers. You will also need to establish credit, open reseller accounts, gain product knowledge and develop procedures for processing orders, managing your online catalog and providing customer service.

In most cases you will need to attend trade shows and conduct extensive research in order to find suppliers and then go through the process of setting up reseller accounts which may not be so easy if you are new to selling.

If you research drop shippers online you will find many companies offering thousands even millions of items at "wholesale" prices. Some ask for fees up front and some charge monthly. You will also find many companies offering lists of wholesalers and drop shippers, you will have to pay for these.

Be careful with companies of this sort, remember the old saying, "if it seems too good to be true then that's probably because it ain't."

You may find that some drop shippers don't really offer competitive pricing, especially if you are asking them to ship one item at a time, every now and then, it simply is not profitable for any warehouse to conduct business in this manner, remember wholesale pricing was designed for selling wholesale. Therefore you will most likely pay drop ship pricing. In most cases you will need to sell in higher volumes per month in order to enjoy better pricing.

With the drop shippers / wholesalers lists you may find that many of the companies on the list do not exist or may not want to deal with individuals or those who have not already established an online business. Though some list may in fact save you some time by providing you with some decent leads, you will find that most legitimate companies are listed all you have to do is pick up a business to business directory and search for the companies you are interested in doing business with.

You may also find that some companies will only open accounts with resellers that already have a functioning website or sometimes even require that you have a showroom. Also some companies prefer not to drop ship or even deal with internet based businesses.

2. Who are you hoping to sell to?

While sourcing your products you have probably asked yourself few times, who will buy this?

Hopefully the answer included those in the demographics of the typical online shopper, otherwise you may be in trouble. Online sales have been steadily rising since the birth of ecommerce, but so has competition. The online economy has grown substantially but market share has been spreading thin due to the growing number of internet retailers.

Still, however, it is possible to compete effective online, even with some of the giant retailers. Online marketing is composed of various campaigns all designed to drive traffic to the website and convert visitors into paying customers. Popular strategies include, pay per click/action campaigns, affiliate marketing and the standard pay for placement ads. While any of these may prove successful by itself, a successful campaign may include all or any combination of the three.

There are other methods of advertising your website, such as directory listing, social networking, blogging and through forums but these may not directly target your particular market audience. It is certainly more effective to pay for an ad for a particular video camera and target those looking for that item than it is to simply put a reference to you website in an article about home videos.

Let's investigate the two most direct methods of advertising, ppc campaigns & affiliate marketing.

Pay Per Click Campaigns

Pay per click campaigns include those available through search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN or campaigns available through comparison shopping websites such as Shopzilla, Shopping, Pronto, etc. Both can directly target parties interested in your products and services. Let us examine the similarities and differences.

PPC campaigns for search engines and comparison display relevant ads based on the keywords that the searchers use. For instance if someone enters the keyword "digital cameras" in a search box both the search engine and the comparison website will display the ads of the clients paying for (bidding) on the keywords "digital camera".

A search engine will also display ads by non paying parties simply based on the relevance of the keywords based on the content of the website and any other data the particular search engine uses to rank listings. The paid client's ads will normally be displayed in designated areas and labeled as sponsored links. Clients will not pay if the ad is displayed, they only pay when the ad is clicked on. The amount that is charged is based on what the client bids for the keyword. Better placement, such as first page and first position goes to the highest bidder and therefore prices are based on the competitiveness of the keyword and the price that the client is willing to pay.

A comparison shopping website only displays ads from paying clients. The ads are displayed in order of highest bidder to lowest. When placing an ad in a comparison shopping website the advertiser actually uploads information about particular products, including a brief description, pricing and a hot link to an image on their website. Usually clicking on an item from a comparison shopping website will take the customer to the item on the actual website of the advertiser, it is upon this click through that the advertiser is billed. This allows potential customers to look at items, perhaps the same item, from various resellers and then be redirected to the website of thier choosing for further information and hopefully a purchase.

In both scenarios pay per click is exactly that, you pay when someone clicks on your ad. Affiliate marketing works a little differently. While you can set up an affiliate program and pay per click as well, it is normal practice to pay for actions instead. Actions can be simply filling out a form for a quote for service, to dowloading a trial version of software to completing a purchase, or any other determined action.

Affiliate programs can basically be thought of as referral programs or commission based sales initiatives. You can easily set one up on your own and find yourself affiliates. You could then ask customers how they heard about your service or product and then compensate your sources however this may not be a very efficient way of managing an online affiliate program. Normally affiliate programs require coding to track visitor source and also keep records of visitor information in case a customer referred by an affiliate returns to make a purchase within a few days or weeks. If you do not have the technology to support such a program you can sign up with an affiliate managment company. Commission Junction and Double Click are two of the more popular affiliate managment companies. You will be able to setup and manage your programs and find affiliates willing to sign up through their large databases of users.

There will most likely be a fee for setting up an affiliate program on top of commissions you will be paying out. If you have purchased a website through sell from the web then you may already have a built in affiliate program setup with your shopping cart. This option may be more friendly to your budget as you will not incur monthly charges for the program but you will have to find your own affiliates. How you handle your marketing will greatly depend on your alloted budget.

How Much Can You Spend On Advertising?

Advertising is crucial to the survival and prosperity of most e businesses. In order for you to conduct business online your website must receive convertable traffic. Depending on the size of your operation your advertising can amount to thousands, even ten of thousands of dollars per day. This may seem astronomical to someone with a simple bricks and mortars store selling handbags that wants to expand business online. The difference is that a website will never attract a passerby because there will never be someone "walking by" your website. Unless your website can rank well in a generic search, based solely on your content or domain name, you will simply never be found online.

But never fear, you can always start small, you can always set your pay pay click bids to the maximum amount you are willing to pay, perhaps the minimum allowable bid, and while you may have less traffic to start with, you may build your operation slowly but surely, of course, only if you can successfully convert visitors to customers.

Additionally, you can always find ways to advertise offline. The most successful and popular retail websites are those that are extensions of bricks and mortars operations, such as Home Depot and Best Buy. This is because customers are already familiar with the brand. One major opstacle facing most online ecommerce companies is developing a "presence" online. Naturally the only "tools" you have as an online business is the experience you provide your visitors and the attractiveness of your website.

If you are planning on starting small then you should focus your attention on your niche, or creating one, if you don't already have one. For instance, if you decided you wanted to sell digital cameras online you will find that you have plenty of competition, you could muscle in on the Ebay market, or spend tons on competing with large websites such as Best Buy or B and H camera and video, or you can find a niche. Perhaps there is a market for digital SLR cameras and you can develop a website dedicated to the SLR camera. You can post information on the history of the SLR, stories from photographers that prefer to use SLR and maybe even famous images produced by the very cameras you are selling. Basically when someone interested in digital SLR cameras visits your website they should be convinced that you are the authority on digital SLR cameras. You would also focus you attention exclusively on marketing one or two cameras, these should be the ones you can offer a good deal on, of course you should beat most of your competitors prices on those particular products or else your visitors may get all their information and inspiration from your website and then go elsewhere to purchase because of a few bucks, who knows. But basically this will significantly reduce your overhead. Instead of advertising your website in general and mainly serving as an online catalog and information center for SLR cameras, advertise a specific product or two, perhaps the newest or even the oldest but still popular and favored brand or model. Once you have been able to capitalize on your niche market you can expand or simply be a specialist and stick to your niche, sometimes simple is better, but if you are trying to build an enterprise then handle your business.

What will you ship and what will it cost?

When you are selling online you will need to be able to track orders. Unless you use a drop shipper or fulfilment center you will need to handle shipping and returns as well. If you are a small operation you will need to have an account setup with a courier company such as FedEx, UPS or USPS. You will also need to determine what it costs you to ship your products, also make certain that you have the necessary insurance in case of loss or damage, or at least some type of disclosure on your website in regards to your policies.

If you are selling a single product or products that are similar in weight or size then you may be able to calculate a fair price for shipping throughout the United States or your market area. Otherwise you may need to have a shipping calculator built in to your website. Most often shipping costs are calculated based on destination, size and weight. You may also need to consider custom shipping for item that are overweight or require additional service such as liftgates. Be careful to disclose all information regarding the shipping rates and policies, including returns.

In most cases shipping companies will not assume responsibility once an item has been signed for. If the customer discovers a damaged item in a box that they signed for they will expect a refund or replacement. You may not be compensated for this damage and may be responsible unless you have informed your customer to inspect before signing and that once they have signed neither you nor the shipping company are no longer liable.

You should also include in your return policy any restocking fees that may apply in case the customer is simply not satisfied with the product. Remeber that even if you allow customers to return a product for any reason, you will still incur the fee for shipping and return shipping. Most online retailers will charge a restocking fee that at least partially offsets the cost of shipping and returning to their suppliers products returned from customers.

How Will You Accept Payment?

If you are going to accept payment online you will certainly need to have a way to accept payment. Of course you can always take payment information over the phone but most online shoppers expect to pay online so you will need to setup a payment gateway. Two common payment gateways are Authorize.net and Eprocessing Networks, both work well with most shopping carts and may have modules built in.

If you are starting small or just selling online part-time you may not want to pay expensive fees to setup a merchant account and you may not want to pay monthly fees. You can start with a standard Paypal account. There are no monthly fees and you will only pay a fee once a customer has made a purchase. Once you have started building your business you can always upgrade.

We hope this general information has helped you learn about selling online check back soon for more valuable information and feel free to share your ecommerce stories, good or bad.

Visit our website for more articles on the internet economy.

Making Money Online

Anyone that has investigated making money online has come across tons of ads that claim to provide information on how to make hundreds of dollars in minutes or thousands of dollars a day or week, etc. Upon futher investigation one will find that achieving such a goal is not easy and in most cases will actually cost you hundreds, even thousands of dollars.

Because there are so many ways to make money online and equally as many risks involved, I will not be providing specific step by step guidelines on which "product" to sell and how to do it. I will, however, provide you (the reader and contributor) with a general overview of the internet economy, the tools available for research and analysis and insight on what it takes to join the online marketplace.

I hope that as each of you develop your online business you will have the time to share your experiences here with us, good or bad, so that we can all learn and benefit from one another.