Arrghh!! Run away… it’s a monster!
No it’s not… it’s just SEO. That’s all.
(Although it does LOOK a bit like a monster, I’ll grant you that!)
SEO (which stands for Search Engine Optimization) is such a ‘hot topic’ today that every Internet Marketer wants a piece of what it can do. So many people have tried to use SEO techniques and a lot have succeeded…
…but many more have failed.
So, why is SEO such an essential concept?
SEO is so important for any Internet Marketer. The whole concept is about improving the volume of traffic to your site or blog from search engines.
The purpose is this: the higher the volume of your traffic, the higher your rank will be in the search engine results and listings. The higher your rank is, the more visitors you will have on your site. That would then fuel your site’s success, whatever your site or niche is. So basically, SEO can take your site (and your business!) to a whole new level.
However, SEO implementation is NOT that simple. SEO involves serious internet marketing and technical skills. You should have HTML coding knowledge, basic at least. More than that, SEO requires time and money. If you just spend money and then don’t know what to do next, you will probably have to face the sickly melody of failure.
To be successful in SEO, as an Internet Marketer, you should be hardworking, attentive to details, and patient. None of this is going to happen overnight. You have to plant the seeds today, tomorrow and every day after that and then reap the rewards over time.
Please note: I’m NOT an SEO expert by any means. I, just like many Internet Marketers, pay someone who IS an expert to tackle all of that for me. But I have gathered quite a chunky base of knowledge over the past 12 months so I’ve put together ‘10 Tips For SEO Success’!
Marc Milburn’s ‘10 Tips For SEO Success’
1. Content – Content is a very important aspect of SEO. Visitors go to your site for its content, that is why search engines crawl your content and tell people what it is all about. So the more sense, value and meaning your content brings, the more visitors will browse through it – and the higher rank it will become.
2. Web Design – Before you can post content and perform SEO, you should be able to know the basics of web design. Website design plays a big role in your sites ranking chances. You need to be able to decide what to show visitors and what to hide.
3. Free Tools – Try a Google search for the phrase ‘SEO tools’ and you have millions of search results. Yes, there are a lot of tools for SEO out there, most of them for sale. This is one tricky part of SEO. As a businessman, you should be able to know the uses of a certain tool with respect to your needs. You may not know it, but most of the time the benefits that an expensive tool can give you may also be available in a free tool. Be wise.
4. Slow but Sure Link Building – A number of Internet marketers have been penalized by search engines due to excessive link building. To be successful, you shouldn’t rush. Google, for instance, would become suspicious and drawn to your site if a ton of links point to your site right after you build it. Do it slow, but constant. No one wants to be banned!
5. Keyword Research – Keyword research is the one step in SEO that could make or break your campaign. You should be very careful doing the research for target keywords. Know the basics, like search volumes, CPA, competitors, etc. Use Google’s keyword tool.
6. Site Speed – This might be a new aspect of SEO, but it strikes me as important due to the fact that Google has introduced site speed as a new criteria in determining page ranks. So before you start, be sure you can invest for your site speed. No slow loading websites please! 
7. Submissions – Submitting your site to site directories may require a lot of work but it is effective. People search those directories, so why not try submitting your site, it is definitely worth the work.
8. Advertisements – If possible, put advertisements to your site. This will greatly help your site to rank in search engines. Learn the best ways to put ads to your site.
9. Keyword Rich Content – Before you start your SEO campaign, the first thing you should do is research for keywords. But the process does not end there, you should be able to use your keywords the right way to optimize your content. Be sure to put some keywords on your pages, posts, and articles. Another thing is you must know how to make links out of your keywords and tags. However, there is a constant battle… you need to ensure that your writing makes sense to humans, whilst using as many keywords as possible. Remember your work must be comprehendible to humans too… they will be buying your stuff, after all!
10. Constantly Update – Like the Internet itself, SEO concepts change with respect to time. The key here is to constantly study and update yourself of the latest about SEO. Be sure to know what is working and what is not. Don’t be left behind. Even the tips in this blog post could be here today, gone tomorrow. Who knows>!
So remember, SEO is NOT a monster, but it can be difficult and complicated. Read everything you can on the subject, and ask the experts. Seek advice, and be willing to pay for it to be done properly. SEO has its ways of making you look good in the Internet Marketing world, but with that come ‘traps’ that could ‘catch you out’ and cost you a lot of wasted time and investment.
The solution is pretty plain and simple: Study, Try, Test and Update.
Hope that all helps you out. If you have any additional hints or tips then please leave a comment. I’d love your feedback! 
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June 25th, 2010 
Marc 
Guess what! It’s FRIDAY!! My favourite day of the week I reckon… especially because in about half an hour I’ll be off out with my girlfriend Rachel and my appointed sister, Fran for a night out “on the tiles” in Sheffield City Centre. Always a cracking good night with plenty of alcohol, drink and… booze. Or as the french call it… ‘Le Booze’. 
Driving Traffic (While You Snore…)
Okay, okay, so maybe you don’t snore. Most people think they don’t. But you’ll see what I’m talking about…
Welcome back to my blog.. I’m excited to be writing this blog post today. I’m going to talk about something that has truly revolutionised my business and it can for you too. In fact, the information I’m going to share with you could actually transform your marketing success.
I’m aware of how “hypey” that sounds, and I admit that its a bold claim. But I know you’re going to love what I have to share with you today, if you put it into practise.
I want to talk about traffic (which you probably guessed from the blog title). In talking to friends, colleagues and students, the one thing that I hear again and again is that driving consistent, regular traffic is the major stumbling block that people face in their online business. And it used to be in mine.. and then I learnt how to be “smart” around traffic. In this blog post, I wanna teach you to be smartaround traffic too.around traffic too
Let’s assume that you have yourself a selected niche… a topic, subject or group of customers that you’re going to market to. They’re hungry and ready to buy. They have a need for information and you’re going to give it to them. After-all that’s probably the number 1 requirement in any online business. They are the folks who are going to be handing you shed-loads of dosh in exchange for your products.
Next you create a product and a fancy looking sales page with graphics, bells and whistles. It looks great and its bound to sell. Now you just have the biggest hurdle of all. Getting traffic to that website. After all.. no matter how INCREDIBLE your product and sales funnel is, without traffic you’re going to struggle to make sales.
But that shouldn’t be a problem. I mean, there are SO many ways to drive traffic, right?
I mean just think about:
- JV Partners and Affiliates:
- Article Marketing:
- Forum Marketing:
- Blog Commenting:
- Twitter:
- Ad Swaps:
- PPC
- Social Bookmarking
- Search Engine Optimisation
And the list goes on (and on and on and on and on…). In fact there are FAR to many traffic generation techniques for me to list here. But there is one HUGE problem, which makes all of this so damned hard…
WHO has the time to master ALL of these different traffic methods – and get them to work smoothly together as one engine? Certainly not me, I’m too busy doing other important things within my business.
So, here I plan to offer you an alternative. The chance to put all of your traffic struggles behind you and automate the processes described above.
Well, perhaps “automate” is the wrong word. What I really mean is to “delegate”. I began doing this recently and it’s really paid off within my business. If you have any form of product up and running, and you want to try running traffic then you should seriously try this out.
I am, of course, referring to outsourcing. I’m aware that outsourcing is a scary word, especially when you’re still pretty new. It’s really easy to think that its unaffordable and difficult. But honestly, in this context, it isn’t.
So here’s the plan. First of all, familiarise yourself with the process of outsourcing. Essentially you go to an outsourcing side like Odesk.com, Guru.com or Elance.com and post a “job”. It’s just a job description, explaining exactly what you’re looking for people to do for you.
After that, people can begin “bidding” for the job.. they place official quotes, through the sites’ system and you can send e-mail correspondance to make sure that everyone is “on the same page” as far as the job is concerned. Once you’ve selected a bid you can then begin working with that person.
Now normally, these would be for one-off jobs like web design, writing a sales letter, designing an eCover, etc. But no one is stopping you from recruiting someone for on-going services like traffic driving. So here’s the plan:
Go onto one of the aforementioned sites (I prefer elance.com or Guru.com best), register (FREE!) and post a job. Explain what will be required, in as much detail as possible and then offer (for example) an 8 hour contract (with the possibility of a 40 hour rolling contract afterwards). Again, fit the timings of it all to suit you and your budget.
You’ll be amazed as you watch the quotes roll in. I have found good workers who are happy to work for as little as $5 per hour, doing solid work such as article writing/submission, forum posting, blog commenting and much more…
Once you have selected an appropriate candidate then give them explicit instructions explaining exactly what they should do, how long they should spend doing it and give them a worksheet to fill in and e-mail to you afterwards with links to everything they have done. If you’re impressed with their work after 8 hours, then give them a 40 hour contract (or whateer you can afford) to do the same thing.
Seriously.. once I started outsourcing my traffic, I’ve never looked back.
Enjoy and prosper….
Marc
P.S. If you want to see a video which explains how to go about this in a slightly more organised fashion… click here.