There are a few secrets that I’d like to share with you.  You may have been privy to a few of them before.  Actually you may have heard of all 4, but I can promise that you will finish each article with a fresh perspective.  I will show you how 4 simple secrets can create a powerhouse web business.  This is the first part of the 4 article series.

Before I divulge the vault of successful web business secrets I must warn you of one thing.  All the information in the world will not take the place of determination and persistence.  A web business is just like an offline business.  It takes hard work and resolve to succeed.  However working smart is heads and tails better than plain old working.  These 4 secrets will turn any smart working, dedicated average Joe or Jane into a successful web business owner.

Web Success Secret #1) Content is king.

Heard that before?  I know I have.  The thing I never knew was how to use content to my advantage.  Content is useless unless it is optimized for the search engines.  It must also be optimized for your reader.  You have two customers- readers and search engines.  You must satisfy both with the same exact content.

Content is king only if you have exact and highly specific keywords placed in correct locations.  Unfortunately the hard part is determining what keywords to use.  A keyword can be a single word or a phrase.  It is the term that web surfers use to search for information.  Place yourself in their shoes and try to discover what search terms they use.  You must then evaluate the search term.  How many people search using that term?  How many sites already deliver information on that search term?  Simple demand and supply rules.  The more demand with the less supply equals more profitability.

You have several options for determining keywords and their profit potential.  Search yourself, pay a company to search for you or have your hosting company do a complete keyword search for your niche or web business topic.  If your hosting company does not offer this service I recommend you switch to a plan that does.  This feature alone can make or break your business’ future.  If you would like my recommended hosting plan, please contact me.

Without a proper keyword search and analysis you may as well forget about becoming successful with an Internet business.  Investing in this one secret is literally the start of planning your website.

Your next action step is to plan your site layout based on the 50-175 high-demand and low-supply keywords. Your site should be structured in three tiers.  Tier one is your home page.  Tier two is made of all of your main topics and also constitutes your navigation bar buttons.  Tier three keywords are sub-topics of tier two pages.  Organize your 50-175 keywords into three tiers.  Doing this makes it easier for visitors to navigate through your site and it makes it easier for search engine spiders to find all of your pages.

Search engine spiders do not like to fish around for all of your pages and links.  This is why many sites offer a “site map””.  A site map is one page that contains links to all of the content pages.  This is a fine route to take; however most people agree that pages with a lot of links on it are valued less than content pages that casually link to other content pages.

Using three tiers allows you to go from topic to sub-topic to sub-sub-topic all by natural in-content links.  For example, tier 1 is the homepage on a fitness site.  Tier 2 is a page all about cardio activity and its benefits.  A tier three page off of that tier 2 page is about different treadmill routines.  Do you see how the site visitor would like this structure?  They click on “Cardio” and are given links to more specific pages about cardio topics.  Search engine spiders like the three tier structure too.  It means they do not have to dig through layers and levels of useless links.

There is even more to content than finding profitable keywords and structuring your site into easy-to-navigate tiers.  You must optimize each and every page on your website to perform well and rank high at search engines.  Many people devote their working life to optimization secrets.  A full length article just on optimizing is possible.  Heck, a full length book is possible.  My recommendation is to use a hosting company that automatically teaches you how to optimize web pages for the engines.  Doing that will cause less headache and frustration and it will keep you focused on building content.

A quick education in optimization: place your specific keyword in the file name, title, description and keyword section of your page.  Then sprinkle the keyword throughout the content.  Also provide a link using your specific keyword in the link text.  If all of this has you spinning your head, I recommend going the hosting company I use.  They literally teach you to build a website using blocks.  It’s all simple and easier than you think.

There is one last piece to content.  It must effectively pre-sell your product or service and position you as the expert in your field.  When your website has 50-175 optimized pages for your visitors to read through it will start to position you as the expert.  Your site will become known as the place for information about (insert your niche).

When visitors find your site through search engines they are seeking information about a problem or question they have.  If they land on your site and you try to sell them something right away one thing is sure- they click the back button and find another site that will give them information.  This is why pre-selling your product or service is paramount.  Give your visitors what they want.  Answer their question and in the process let them know about your services and products.

All of the information develops rapport and trust with your site visitor.  It positions you as an expert.  It keeps your visitor on your site longer since they are actually reading content.  Search engines notice this and rank you better.  How well your site can keep visitors is known as “stickiness.”  Your site must attract and keep visitors for as long as possible.

Provide content that pre-sells your products, positions you as the expert and focuses on highly profitable keywords.  You cannot go wrong with your web business if you do those things.  The secret to content is to satisfy both your visitor and search engines.  Lose one or both and you are doomed.  As I mentioned earlier, it is best to work smarter and not harder.  Your hosting company should be providing most of these services to you free of charge.  There are a small few that do this, but it is well worth the investigation.  Having a successful web business starts with effective content.

Download Here The FREE eBook “Make Your Content PreSell” (139 pages!)… and learn all about how to optimize the content of your web site…

Google Adwords is an incredibly powerful marketing tool with an instant global reach that can take your business from nowhere to an overnight success. Why wouldn’t a new marketer take advantage of such a powerful tool? I can answer that question with another question. Why wouldn’t you let someone with a new driver’s license behind the wheel of a race car? Because, unless they are extremely lucky, they are going to crash and burn. Google Adwords is the Formula One of online marketing and it is not for beginners.

As advertising goes, the reasons to avoid Google Adwords early on in your education is overwhelming.

1. First, it can be very expensive and most new marketers will exhaust their ad budget before they can successfully bring in revenue. This is mainly because Google Adwords can be deceptively difficult to master. The basic formula is to identify keywords, write an ad that uses the keywords and have a landing page that completely delivers on what your ad promises.
2. Next, Google rewards advertisers who solve the problem their searchers are trying to solve. If you fail to do this you can expect high cost per click and low traffic.
3. Further, Google purposefully keeps the exact formula for success under wraps. If you are not getting the results you are seeking, the support you receive from Google will be general at best. Expect Google to suggest “improve your landing page” or “tips for writing ads.” On top of that, Google periodically change their rules requiring you to change your campaign or face the prospect of high cost per click or low traffic.
4. Finally, the instant global reach of your Google Adwords campaign is accompanied by global competition with a wide variety of skill levels and budgets.

Keep your chin up though. There are many options that exist for the new marketer.

Initially most new marketers have more time than money and that can be a good thing (more on that later). There are many low-tech approaches that have worked for decades and still do. These alternatives allow you to learn how to market affordably which will allow for some trial and error without spending your whole ad budget.

Using some of the methods below will allow you to use several forms of marketing which is a more balanced and stable long-term approach. Here is the big bonus: your competitors are still online spending themselves out of business with Adwords!

Here are just a few options when thinking about an offline marketing campaign. They may not be sexy, but they are time-tested, and still very effective marketing tools.

1. Newspaper Advertising – requires only a computer and 800 number. Information about newspapers from around the country is easily researched online and ads can cost as little as $10 per week.
2. Flyers – this is a big one for those who have time but little money. Getting flyers or business cards made is cheap and easy using a site like vistaprint.com. Spend a couple of hours a day papering parking lots. The key with this plan is to put out a lot of flyers (hundreds daily).
3. Bandit Signs – Simple three line signs that reside at intersections and other high traffic areas which direct prospects to an 800 number with a message. Signs cost between $2-$5 dollars each and work wherever your prospects pass by or congregate.
4. Warm market – You have an immediate advantage approaching people you know because a level of trust exists between you. Many marketers can get off to a quick start by starting here.
5. Article campaigns – this is absolutely free to do. Establish yourself online as a respected and knowledgeable marketer in your niche. You may still be learning the ropes about marketing but you definitely know more than most people about your business.
6. Blogging – Similar to article marketing in that you share information about your area of expertise. Once people see you as a helpful resource they will begin to seek you out. The key here is to provide new content on a consistent basis. You can start today with a free site from WordPress or Blogger

If you have the budget, make Google Adwords a part of your overall marketing plan AFTER you have established other forms of marketing. Whenever you are new at something you need to be allowed to make mistakes, learn from them and apply what you have learned in the future. Hard won knowledge is the best way to learn. By starting with basic (and still viable) forms of advertising you can develop into a well-rounded, knowledgeable and, ultimately, more successful marketer in the long term, which is everyone’s goal.

Learn More About Google Adwords…

Figuring out what to tweet about on Twitter requires considering your overall Internet marketing plan.

For example, if you are trying to increase the traffic to your blog about books, you may decide to focus on tweeting links to news items related to book publishing and book marketing along with the links to your own blog posts. In this way you are establishing yourself as an expert in the book field by both the links you share and the original content you write.

Now let’s take this example a little further. You may decide to sell an ebook on publishing off your website on which your blog also resides. You may begin to add into your tweet mix occasional announcements about this ebook.

There’s a range of opinions as to how many of your tweets should be what’s called “self-serving” – promoting your own products or services – and how many should be informational or conversational or whatever.

Let’s say, though, that you do not yet have a blog or a website or a business of any kind that you want to promote.

What to tweet about in this case? Do you have any hobbies or interests?

Perhaps you are a green environment advocate. Then you could tweet information that you want to share about going green, such as links to books, news articles, and blog posts. You can add your opinions about the articles you are linking to in order to personalize your tweets.

You are establishing a brand for yourself even though you made never use that brand in connection with business. Still, you have a starting point from which to morph into a new brand if that’s what you decide to do.

Even before you get on Twitter you should decide what to tweet about. Will you be emphasizing your business views or your gardening interests?

Once you have made this decision, you can use Twitter’s own search capabilities or a third-party application such as tweetbeep.com to alert you when there are tweets connected to the topics on which you tweet. Then you can jump into the conversation and reply to people who are tweeting about these topics.

You can also follow Twitter lists that are on subjects of interest to you in order to easily track tweets connected to your topics.

As you participate more and more on Twitter, you will begin to follow people whose tweets you find especially valuable. You can study their tweets in order to decide which tweets you think are most effective in attracting followers. Then you can emulate the patterns you uncover.

Warning: Whatever you do, do NOT tweet in anger or use swear words or viciously attack someone. This is not proper etiquette and can quickly lose many of the followers you worked so hard to get – if not getting you kicked off Twitter.

Learn Here More About Twitter And How To Make Money With Twitter

I can’t think of one single thing that has become more prevalent in internet marketing than the use of video and audio as a tool to increase conversions and stick rate.

What is “Flair”? Simply put… it’s that added touch of professionalism to your media that separates your websites and products apart from the amateurish competition.

We’ve learned that you don’t need to have a “Guru” budget to achieve professional media flair. As a matter of fact, it’s typically the simple things that most people miss which have a devastating effect in the quality of video and audio production.

We are going to sum it up with a walk through of the resources that you can use to make your flair come together. I’ve seen so many people in forums and blogs make excuses about the poor quality of their recordings. Some of them are justified but ALL of them are easily solvable with some effort and creativity. Do any of these apply to you?

1. “I don’t have a Mac so all my videos suck”
2. “I don’t own any fancy video production or capturing software”
3. “I can’t sound good cause my computer microphone is crap!”
4. “Good camera’s are just way too expensive”
5. “The “Guru’s” have recording studios and I don’t”
6. “I have a terrible accent so people don’t understand me.”
7. “I have a face for radio so my videos look terrible!” <– LOL (My favorite)

Generally speaking, these 7 excuses appeared to recur in one form or another throughout the forums and blogs I researched so, I’m going to address them for you with the solution and tools that I personally use to overcome these challenges.

1- First things first – it’s no secret that I’m in fact a “Mac man” (like they say… once you go Mac you don’t ever go back) HOWEVER, the notion that one can’t create amazing looking videos on a Windows based PC or laptop is just not true. As a matter of fact, Vista and Win7 both come with “Windows Movie Maker” built in. WMM, is a very simple to use software and you may not even know that you already have it on your computer! WMM allows you to create a movie file out of assorted clips, images and text that you can easily edit together in the time-line. It even enables you to add music and audio narration to your video. You can work on your file, add/delete segments, insert transitions and images etc. Once your happy with the production you can render and export the project as a movie file and upload it to your website for people to see.

The Mac alternative for WMM would be I-Movie, and yes it does have a few extra bells and whistles on it than WMM. For example, it has a pretty exhaustive library of audio clips, music and sound effects. It also has a few extra layering and text overlay features. For the most part, it works the same… you import your video clips,images, crop, clip, copy, paste and stream together your production until your heart’s content. Then export it on a website. I-Movie even has a feature that lets you publish directly to YouTube. Now that’s cool!

2- As far as needing additional software, well depending on what you are trying to do you may need several applications to arrive at your final masterpiece. Most of what you will need is readily available online for free (or practically free.) For example, did you know that Tech-smith has a product called “Jing” that enables you to create 5 minute screen capture recordings for free? Jing is a pretty cool alternative to the elaborate “Camtasia Studio Suite” and Jing allows you to save the screen capture to your desk top which you can then import into WMM or I-Movie for further editing and splicing. An open source alternative is Camstudio.org and you can download it free at Camstudio.org

Additionally, you’ll find that a Google search for the term “Free Video Editing Software” will turn up thousands upon thousands of results for you to try. Most of these will offer 30 day trials of their software so you can check it out before you actually buy the product. You’ll also find some “open source” video editors out there that will put a watermark advertisement on your final production. This may take away from the overall video quality so I would advise you to stay away from those.

3- Audio quality is very important whether it’s narration of a video or a straight up MP3 that you are delivering. Computer microphones typically leave a lot to be desired on playback because they are inherently over-sensitive. I would advise you to invest in a lavaliere microphone for the audio portion of your recording. Lavaliere mics are specifically designed for live narration applications and will cancel out most unwanted noise. You don’t particularly need an expensive wireless lavy… you can get a wired, battery powered lavaliere on eBay for as low as twenty bucks and the sound quality will be better than a computer mic by leaps and bounds. Regardless of the mic you choose, always remember to keep it in a fixed location during recording so that it doesn’t pick up motion noises that take away from your production quality. Also, if you are unhappy with the sound, you may consider importing your recorded audio into Audacity (another free program that you can download) and use the Equalization features to tweak the sound quality and edit out unwanted noises.

4- It’s no secret that a professional camera can be expensive, and the lower priced ones will typically call on you to compromise one thing or another in your production quality. If you’re really trying to get that “Pro Flair” I would advise against built in computer cameras and webcams. You’re better off going with a USB Flip by Mino or a Vado by Creative. These are very fairly priced on Amazon and Ebay as you can get one for under a hundred bucks. Unfortunately, the compromise is that they have no mic input for your lavaliere so you will have to be very conscious of ambient environment noises. Regardless of which camera you use, always – ALWAYS remember to put the camera on a tripod.

The next step up from a USB camera would be a digital camcorder WITH a microphone input. These tend to cost a bit more money but the overall production quality of the video AND audio is well worth it in my opinion. Whether it’s a small desktop tripod or a full stand this is a VERY important part of the video quality.

5- You don’t need a studio to produce a quality video or audio recording and that’s a fact. It all comes down to planning and preparation. Being mindful of lighting and using multiple house lamps to cancel out shadows will help dramatically. Also using household items like throw rugs, comforters and cushions as sound dampeners will remove unwanted reverb from your audio. Ultimately, practice preparation, research, creativity and your calculated effort will make up for the lack of a “pro” studio environment.

6- Ok, now lets address the whole accent thing. This is a tough one so I won’t beat around the bush about it and I’m just going to come at it head on for you. The general rule in all types of sales and marketing presentations is to “Appeal To The Masses”. In order to accomplish that, you will want to sound as clear and comprehensible for your viewers as you possibly can. If you feel that your accent is precluding you from making sales then I would have you consider these options. First, you can try outsourcing the narration to a professional by using pre-recorded clips from VoxFlair.com or ordering a custom audio. Another option would be to use sub-captions in your video or text slides. This way the viewer can follow along by reading what you are saying.

7- So you have a face for radio! Ok, if for any reason you’d prefer not to be on camera yourself the quick and easy alternative would be to create a powerpoint presentation or slideshow and just narrate it. Many marketers do this and they add a photograph of themselves to the slideshow so that the viewer can at least see a picture of who they are listening to. You can also outsource this “on screen” work to a trained actor/actress through various live presenter services that you can find through a Google query.

In conclusion I’ll stress the importance of planning and preparing before recording a video or audio project. Put it ALL down on paper first, not just the script… but rather the entire process. You may consider drawing out a flow chart or process map for yourself first. This will keep you focused and give rise to potential challenges on paper first.

Click Here To Read More About Audio & Video Tools To Promote Your Products

One of the most frustrating aspects to business is when you have all the marketing tools your business needs, perhaps even some your business does not need and yet you still see no results. You may even be spending time and effort marketing your business and yet conversion ratios and traffic remain constant or even drop. The reasons why marketing plans fail are numerous however; one of the primary reasons is that it was not the right marketing plan.

Every business is different and that includes businesses that sell the same products and services. Every business has something that is unique, the group of people they are targeting, the area they are working in, the options they have available to them. These different aspects mean that the same marketing plan is not going to work on every business.

When a marketing plan fails, it is important to find out exactly why it failed first. The reason or reasons are is essential. It may be that there is only one aspect of a marketing plan that failed, it may be multiple items or it may be the entire plan.

Research

Research is an essential aspect of marketing and inadequate research is one of the biggest pitfalls that can affect a marketing plan. Research provides a wealth of information that is vital to the success of a marketing plan. Generally, research is done on the target market. If a target market is not known, research is done to determine what market is going to be the most likely to benefit from the product or service provided by your business.

This is the group of individuals you will want to target and in some areas there may be multiple groups. While it may be possible to market to all these groups it is, in most situations better to market to a single group or groups which contain a large percentage of similar traits. This makes it easier to consolidate a marketing plan as well as eliminates a significant amount of research, time and effort.

The second aspect which needs to be researched for a marketing plan to be successful and is also one of the reasons why marketing fails to produce appropriate results involves research competition. Researching competition is not just about researching the prices of a competitor. It includes noting things such as lay out, finding out what marketing techniques the competitor is using and how often these tools are used for example.

Many business owners and beginning internet marketers fail to note anything more than price and perhaps general layout. As a result, they are missing vital information that can save time, money and effort when it comes to setting up their own marketing plans. It is also important to keep in mind that you want your business to be unique from your competition.

Get a good idea of the types of deals, offers, discounts and promotions that your competition uses and offer something different to help your business stand out. Many people simply do what their competition does. In doing so, they often lower their marketability and their marketing plan can ultimately fail in this area.

Marketing Tools

Having enough research to create your marketing plan is only the first step in solving the problems that often cause marketing plans to fail. The next step is to take the time to pick out the right tools. Having the right tools for the job is essential to ensuring you get the most out of your marketing strategies.

Marketing tools have diversified over the years. Tools are not limited strictly to email and promotional options. Video, social networking, SMS texting, in addition to email and promotional marketing tools are also available. The increase in available options means that there is a greater spectrum to work with. It also means that picking the right tools is more important than ever.

Pick tools that are going to be easy for you to use, require minimal maintenance but provide you with maximum potential results. This will help to prevent your marketing plan from joining the ranks of those that have failed. Knowing the right tools to use can often be a trial and error process. The important thing is to avoid one of the reasons why marketing plans fail. In this case the reason involves putting too much into a single marketing tool.

Action, Action, Action

One of the biggest reasons why marketing plans end up failing is the lack of action. Marketing is an active part of your business, it is not a set and forget aspect of you business. In order to ensure that a marketing plan succeeds you must be actively engaged in working that plan. This means that email marketing messages should be updated and redesigned regularly.

SMS messages should be rewritten after very send. These messages should be short, contain only the minimum necessary information. It is important to remember that SMS marketing is relatively new and involves sending messages to mobile devices that often indicate repeat messages.

Videos should be produced, edited and updated to as high a level as possible. Computers and technology can turn just about any computer into a production studio with the right software. Keep videos interesting, engaging and relevant. The videos should be related to the company, the products or the services offered.

It is important to set up a marketing schedule and find out how much time, generally through trial and error that you need each day, week or month to handle all your marketing tasks and keep everything up to date.

The reasons why a marketing plan might fail are numerous. Some of these reasons include, failing to do the proper research into the market, the competition as well as the tools available. Other reasons can be failing to have enough tools, having too many tools or not using the tools you have effectively. Taking the time to make sure that you have the information you need as well as putting in the effort to ensure your success can go a long way to eliminating these reasons.

Next, Discover here how to outsmart your competitor, ethically dominate the search engines,and legally siphon off tons of cash in hand buyers from your website!