Welcome to Michael's Article Collection

Reach Your Web Site Goals By Attracting the Right Visitor...

An important question to answer when creating or revising a Web site is "What are the goals of this site?" because the answer will drive your site design and marketing decisions. In Part 1 (http://www.webmarketingarticles.com/CustomerDecision.htm), I took a look at understanding your site visitors' decision making process and providing them with the right information, thus converting more visit. . .

Revising Your Site - What Happened To My Search Engine Pl...

As of September, Smartads went through what so many have done before. I changed the entire site. I knew what it meant. It means that your search engine placements your probably so proud of are probably going to be lost in the process.Sad but true. See, search engines are getting smarter, not only are they getting smarter but they do what you do. When you change a design, typically you change it. . .

Ten Free Ways to Promote Your Site

1. Free Publicity.You can create a dynamic, free press release at the following sites: http://www.openpress.com http://www.prweb.com http://www.prfree.com2. Free Tools to Make Your Website Sticky.Want to keep your visitors interested? A sticky website is a site that gets visitors to stay longer. http://www.freesticky.com http://www.findsticky.com/index.html http://www.hotplugins.com http://jan. . .

Easy And Simple Steps To Get Listed In Search Engines

Search engines are one of THE best resource for free advertising. Better your web site's search engine position better be the traffic generation. 85% of internet users go to search engines and find the information they want. So you better huury to follow these simple tips to get guaranteed listing and good positioning in search engines. 1. Put a link to your new web site from already indexed . . .

Seven 'Must Follow' Rules While Participating In Message ...

Participating in message boards (forums) discussions is a great way of self promotion. It costs you nothing. Not even a penny. All you have to do is allot sometime for this type of promotion. Before you getting started you need to know some must follow principles. You want your time to be profitable for you. Right? So what ever time you are gonna spend should bring you some profits. What are t. . .

Google Bring Deskbar Search To Windows Desktop. Now Any W...

Google's premier of desktop search proves that the desktop is an extremely valuable marketing real estate. Google, which holds about 75% of the Internet search market, just introduced "Deskbar" – a small desktop application that allows users to search Google directly from their desktops. Google currently rules the Internet, but positioning themselves on the desktop gives them the power to rule. . .

Google Loosing Fan Base?

"Nothing last forever but the Earth and sky." - from Dust in the Wind by Kansas.Google has spent the last year evolving from a search engine to a giant media corporation. At birth Google was worried about only one thing, search - and that focus is why it became so successful. As Google spreads out many are wondering, are they doing it too fast? Are they letting quality slip? As any company evol. . .

The Fatal Attraction of Online Marketers

Suppose you were offered 263 links coming into your website from 263 other websites all in one fell swoop. Everybody knows that the more inbound links you have, the higher you will rise in the search engine rankings.Suppose further that these were real links from real websites that actually sold real products and services – no cheap FFAs throwing come-ons on a street corner on the bad side of . . .

Search Engine Optimization - A Must

As you surf the web take a look around at many of the sites you see. Do you notice anything that seems strange? Well, let me point it out to you. There are hundreds of thousands of web sites that just don’t get much traffic. Some of these sites house hundreds of articles, reviews, tutorials, tools, products, forums to mention a few things, yet still they do not receive large amounts of traffic.. . .

Build Link Popularity The Smart Way

A Brief Introduction To Link PopularityAs webmasters research various ways to get more traffic to their site one method that is gaining more and more publicity is Link Popularity. Link Popularity is the number of links that point to your website as measured by the search engines. In theory if your site has many sites linking to it then it is considered to be a valuable resource on the particula. . .

How to use keywords to improve your ranking in search eng...

The importance of keywordsKeywords or key phrases you choose will determine how your site is positioned in the search engines. It is always better to have lots of pages each focusing on a small group of keywords. This will give them more relevance to each individual page. For example if your site is about shoes you may have lots of different types of shoes.Your index page should have a menu lea. . .

Team Up With Your Competitors

Pay per click search engines are a great way to get targeted traffic quickly. The only problem is that as the search terms get more popular, the price of each click through rises. It is very sad to watch your top ranking fall off the first page into obscurity as the cost per click rises out of your budget. One way to get around this is to team up with a few of the "competitors" you find bidding. . .

A Novel Free-For All Idea

Almost anyone who has tried submitting to free-for-all sites will say that they are no longer worth the effort as a traffic generating tool. Automated FFA submissions to "millions" of sites are also not that useful as most of these sites are only ever "visited" by automated submission scripts and not by human eyes. The only thing these auto submission tools achieve is to get your e-mail address. . .

The Testimonial Trick

One of the most popular methods of traffic generation is the link exchange. Not only can they generate fairly targeted traffic from other related web sites, the number of quality links to your site is also a major factor determining your web site's ranking in major search engines like Google. The problem with link exchanges is that they require you to give a reciprocal link in exchange for link. . .

Steal Traffic From Your Competitors

This interesting idea is likely to drive your competitors nuts. It is published purely for its entertainment value. Some might consider it unethical and even illegal so USE AT YOUR OWN RISK ( We take no responsibility for any conflict, legal or otherwise, that you may get into.) Basically, the approach is to choose your most successful competing web sites, especially those that get top 10 listi. . .

TEN answers that turn Your visitor in to Your Customer.

You know... Before purchasing your product a person comes to your order page minimum of 7 times? Nodody buys a product or service in their first visit. People search, compare, estimate, test... They look for affordable and good product that fulfil their needs.Before buying they get so many questions in their mind.If you answer these questions, sure they will become your potential customers.****. . .

FIVE ADVANCED and Essential features of Your Follow up Au...

If you are not using a follow up autoresponder until now, just buy it. Follow up autoresponders are very valuable tool for online business. You can offer free email courses Send ezines, ezine articles Follow up your customer Conduct polls and quizzes*****Your personal Follow up autoresponder software:These software should be installed on your web site. You are completely in control of your soft. . .

High Google Rankings: Frequency vs. Positioning

There's an assumption that the higher a ranking or positioning you have with major search engines; the more people will beat a path to your web doorstep. But based on my experience, that's simply not true! There's another factor that is just as important and may actually drive more traffic to your site. This big secret is frequency: The number of times your name appears when someone enters a ke. . .

Guide To Free Advertising

When I first started my internet home business, I realized that in order to make money I would have to bring visitors to my website. I didn't have a lot of extra cash laying around, and my mentality at the time was "Why would I pay for it, when I can get it for free"? So, I starting searching the internet for places that would accept an ad for my product for free. I was very happy to find li. . .

Writing Articles to Improve Link Popularity

There are many different ways to improve link popularity for your Website. One of the most effective ways to improve your site's link popularity is by writing articles for publication on other related Web sites and in other related newsletters or Ezines.In this article, I will be sharing 10 techniques I use when I am writing articles to improve link popularity for one of my Websites.Let's use t. . .

Link Popularity and Your Add URL Page

With all the buzz going on about the importance of a site's link popularity, the "look and feel" of your Add URL page (or whatever you have named your add URL page) has taken on an increased importance as well.On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the look and feel of your site's Add URL page?During the research phase of creating my "Link Popularity IQ" Web site, I encountered Add URL pages. . .

Marketing Articles: Getting A Better Search Engine Rank F...

In one of my articles, I discussed how to market your web site link twice. It detailed out how to promote not only www.yoursite.com but how you should also promote your site without the www., like this: http://yoursite.com.This article is to talk about promoting ALL of your pages within your marketing campaign. See, most of us typically only promote the main page on our sites. Ex. www.yoursite.. . .

10 Great Search Engine Optimization Tools for Your Online...

The Internet promotion of every company is related to the search engine positioning of the site. The positioning is important for your books, products and services to be easily found online. Search engine position is the place which a site takes in the search results for every search engine after performing search. The searches often are results of one or more words entered in the search bar. I. . .

You Have More Web Sites Than You Think You Have: The Imp...

If I ask you how many web sites do you have? You may say “One, yes it is www.mycompany.com “ or “two” in case you have a second organization or company. When I first began promoting my web sites I was, like most people, only thinking in terms of one web address, the url of my main page. And I thought that this main page was a difficult one to promote because it was the . . .

Awards Program Debate

Daily article: One of the most debated subject among webmasters is the whole concept of web site awards. I'm sure you've seen the little graphics on many different sites, announcing it is the "best", "coolest" or "most wonderful" or whatever. Sometimes you'll see terms like "bronze", "gold" and "silver" to describe the award. What's th. . .

Promoting Your Site One Web Page At a Time

Why One Web Page At a Time? Your website probably represents a number of sections, or pages, not just one page. You just never know which page will be a success, or a heavy hitter. For this simple reason, you should promote every web page of your site individually. Which Pages Should I Promote First? Your main pages should be first in promotions. Some of your main pages may be your: homepage na. . .

Write It and They Will Come

Write it, offer it for free on your site and they will come. Yeah right and then you woke up. Or stay in your happy little daze, constantly check your counter 80 times a day and be the only unique visitor your site gets. Either way you are deluding yourself if you don't think marketing is the key to your success on the Internet. So easy to say -- market your site -- but so hard to do. Especiall. . .

Organizing Your Mailing Lists For Your Email Promotions

With all the safelists and different methods for using them, it can get hectic trying to come up with a good way to post to them. Most of all, it is important to remember if you did post to them. With a little forethought, you can set up a mailing system that will mail out your daily mailing in no time at all. Aureate Group Mailer is a very common tool used today for mailing. All references wil. . .

Feed Those Hungry WIIFM Monsters, Get Them To Multiply

Everyone packs their website with keywords in order to feed those keyword-hungry search engines spiders.Just do not starve your potential customers by forgetting to have the food they like:ample helpings of benefitstips rich in protein (practical)automatic weekly feedings (like a newsletter)If you (affectionately) look upon your potential customers as if they are WIIFM monsters, and understand . . .

10 Shocking Ways To Energize Your Sales

1. Start your own internet radio station. It could be related to the theme of your web site and you could advertise your products over the station.2. Turn your banner ad into a trivia question. Post the question on the banner and tell readers they can win a prize if they answer the question at your site.3. Motivate people to buy your product. Tell them a lot of positive things like "You ca. . .

Create An Ezine To Get People Back To Your Site

I know you've worked hard on your website. I know it looks pretty good - in fact, it's fantastic. However, you are facing one huge problem - getting people to come back. Look at it this way: if you are serious, you should be updating your web site on a regular basis. While not everyone can update their site several times a day like I do, you should at least add something relatively significant . . .

Get Over $100 Worth Of FREE Traffic - No Strings Attached!

You've probably heard a lot of talk about pay-per-click search engines lately. The principle is pretty simple. Firstly, you open an account with the search engine. Once you have an account you can bid on relevant keywords to get a high ranking in the results when someone searches for those keywords. You only pay when your listing in the results is clicked. The advantages of pay-per-click search. . .

Get Free Radio Advertisement

Here's a neat trick to get lots of radio advertisement time, TOTALLY FREE! Imagine...absolutely free access to millions of listeners of offline and online radio!What you need to do is to locate the radio stations (do a simple online search or call your favourite local station) and by calling in, faxing, letters, or e-mail, request songs on the pretext that your web site is celebrating some "eve. . .

Free Publicity With Dogs, Cats, and Rats

Here's a fascinating idea.. Having noticed that there always seemed to be many stray cats and dogs in his neighborhood, it occurred to a clever pet shop owner that he could use cheap animal collars and attach an advertising message to those potential 24 hour, walking "billboards". He also dressed them up with animal "shirts" that had his web site address printed all over them.After unleashing a. . .

New Service To Capture "Recycled Traffic"

Find Expired Domain Names with Built-in Traffic and Search Engine ListingsThe most valuble commodity on the internet today is search engine traffic. Unfortunately, most of the traditional options for developing search engine traffic are expensive and time-consuming: You can pay large fees to a search engine optimization firm, bid for high placement on the major engines, or pay $299 to Yahoo (an. . .

Novel Free-For-All Idea

Almost anyone who has tried submitting to free-for-all sites will say that they are no longer worth the effort as a traffic generating tool. Automated FFA submissions to "millions" of sites are also not that useful as most of these sites are only ever "visited" by automated submission scripts and not by human eyes. The only thing these auto submission tools achieve is to get your e-mail addres. . .

7 Key Items To Include in your Email Signature File

One of the most important and often overlooked methods of promoting your on line business or service is your email signature file (sometimes called a "sig"). There are two types of signature files, one is the more simple one at the close of each email, the other might be attached to writing or discussion group posts, etc. and is sometimes called a byline. Regardless of the usage, havi. . .

Google Adwords: Higher Traffic and Sales in 2 Hours or Less!

There are various ways to purchase highly targeted advertising at very low prices. Google AdWords is one simple and quick way to to do this. Regardless of your budget, you can actually get your text ads appearing on search result pages within minutes! You can also target your ad to a specific language or country. Pricing is based on the position in which your ad is shown but there is no minimu. . .

Companies Cash In on Your Search Engine Ignorance

This article will cause many companies to stir, but it's about time someone started speaking against these services. It really angers me when I see the numerous services that boast they will increase your traffic by submitting your web site to umpteen different search engines. When I first started promoting my site, I used to buy into these claims and purchase such services only to be disappoi. . .

Congratulations! You’ve Gotten Visitors to your Site! Now...

As search engine marketers, we spend an enormous amount of time trying to get targeted traffic to our site. But, once those visitors get to our site, can they find what they're looking for? If not, guess what? We've lost a customer. Think about it this way. How many times have you found a site through a major search engine or directory, only to visit the site and not be able to find what you're. . .

How To Get Listed in Yahoo!

Getting listed in Yahoo! (The Very Top Search Engine/Index) is a lot like getting a date with the most beautiful girl in high school - often all you have to do is ask PROPERLY. I can make that statement because I have NEVER submitted a site to Yahoo! that wasn't listed. I've read a lot about how difficult it is getting listed, and how frustrating it is - so maybe I am just very lucky. Then. . .

Using Mirror Pages Effectively

Thought I would share with you a very effective technique for adding new customers to your mailing list. These are individuals who would not otherwise discover your products or services - because they did not come to the internet specifically looking for your products or services. This is through using what some call a mirror site or mirror pages. To construct a mirror site, chose a topic of i. . .

21 Reasons Why The Next Site I Visit Could Be Yours (Part 1)

You spend so much time promoting YOUR site, but why, exactly, do YOU VISIT someone else's?The other day, I re-visited all of the sites I had been to that week (using Internet Explorer's History option). I asked myself the simple question: "Why did I visit that site?" I came up with 21, yes 21!, reasons why I visited a particular web site. Now if they are reasons why *I* visited a site. . .

Traffic Equal Sales???

Everything being equal, more traffic to your website translates into more sales. Hence you read a lot lately about ways to generate more traffic to your website. I'd like to begin by saying that more traffic does not necessarily equal more sales. Your website can attract tons of traffic for the freebies and if it is not conducive to making sales, you will probably not make more sales. Being co. . .

10 Persuasive Triggers To Plug Into Your Ad

1. Most people want to win over others. Tell your prospects how their family or friends will admire them if they buy your product.2. Most people want to associate with others that have the same interests. Give your prospects a free membership in a private chat room just for them.3. Most people want a clean environment. Tell your prospects that you'll donate a percentage of your profits to help . . .

10 Psychological Desires To Insert Into Your Ad

1. Most people like surprises because it's a change of pace from their routine. Tell your prospects that they'll get a surprise free bonus for ordering.2. Most people want life to be easier. Give your prospects easy ordering instructions, easy product instructions, etc.3. Most people want to feel secure and safe. Tell your prospects that you have secure ordering and a privacy policy.4. Most peo. . .

24 Killer Press Release Secrets

1. Your press release should sound like news, not an ad.2. You should only send your press release to the media related to the topic of your press release.3. Keep your press release one page in length.4. Your header, contact information and release date should be at the top of your press release.5. Use short sentences and double space your lines.6. Your header and first few sentences should gra. . .

How To Get Guaranteed Traffic With Overlooked And Little ...

Traffic. We all know that without it our sites will sit there lost in cyberspace. Gathering nothing more than the occasional spider crawling across lonely electronic cobwebs.If you've been around the e-business scene, for at least a few months, you're familiar with the typical and common methods of site promotion.You've taken the right steps. Submitted your site by hand to the *oh-so-powerful* . . .

What is Your Website's Most Wanted Response?

You spend time and money promoting your website; but what do you want to achieve (apart from more page views)? Is it more sales of Blue Widgets? Is it more subscribers on your mailing list? To be exact, what is your site's Most Wanted Response?I ask this question because in the excitement of creating your very own website, it is easy to forget (or not even consider) the main purpose of your sit. . .

Submit All Of Your Pages And Watch Your Traffic Grow

Everyone is looking for "secrets" about how to get more qualified traffic to their web sites. What I'm going to share with you is no secret, however it is not practiced by very many companies or individuals. Many companies and individuals only submit their home page to search engines and directories. You can easily quadruple your traffic in 90 - 120 days by implementing the following . . .