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!

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.

Wow.. what a couple of months I’ve had. No sooner am I back from attending the Alex Jeffrey’s workshop in Las Vegas, Lee McIntyre hosts his third ever workshop – and in my hometown too!

As soon as Lee announced the workshop, I booked my place. The event was called “Continuity Live” and, as the name suggests, focussed ENTIRELY on continuity income and setting up membership sites. As I have a membership site of my own, and I’m working towards launching another two I decided this was a “must-see”.

Fortunately I wasn’t disappointed and Lee further convinced me that membership sites are definately the way to go.

Are they easy? NO

Are they problem-free? NO

But the possibilities are literally endless!

Lee touched on everything that we could possibly need to know as far as membership sites are concerned and even talked about the hassles, problems and annoyances that would drive some people to the edge!!

One thing which particularly struck me from this workshop was the difficulties of doing a Free Plus Shipping offer now. In case you’re unsure, this is an offer where you give away a valuable free gift for the cost of the postage, and then roll into a monthly billing or membership unless they contact you to cancel. Visa and Mastercard seemingly don’t like this activity due to an increase in chargebacks and refunded payments.

As a result, I’ve had to change the format of one of my upcoming membership site launches in the self-improvement niche. But at least I can now understand why it’s definately a good thing!

So.. if you get the chance to see Lee’s Continuity Live workshop, or catch the DVD recordings when they are released then I HIGHLY recommend that you do so!

Before I go.. I was watching T.V. the other day and I found this advert. It’s for a company who call themselves: “The London Mint”. It sounds very official and as if thats the folks who strike our money here in the UK. But it isn’t. It’s a private company and their advert operates a free plus shipping offer with a cleverly hidden continuity program/re-billing.

Here’s the advert. It’s worth watching. Shows how easy it could be to catch someone out who is unaware of the formula and would be re-billed unexpectedly:

That’s all for now.. don’t forget to comment
Marc!

WARNING – This Blog Post Contains An INSANELY Valuable Free Gift
(With No Opt-In)!!

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’.

The Yorkshire lot know how to have a good night, it seems, even if they talk damn funny. Still, nobody is perfect, eh.

Anyway, before I toddle off and stick my gladrags on (I mean ’stick’ in a purely metaphorical sense, don’t go calling no fire brigade to free me), I wanted to call by and give you a present.

“Ooh that Marc Milburn’s a generous chap, isn’t he Harold?”

I know I am, its a curse!

(Moving on…) One of the brightest young British talents in Internet Marketing is Manchester’s very own shining star, Lee McIntyre (mines a Budweiser, Lee! :-p). I’ve followed Lee’s career closely over the last couple of years and been astonished to see his rapid rise to remarkable success. (I love alliteration). His office is based up near me now, in Newcastle, in fact.

Well… Lee has given me back-door access to a very special report called “Profit 13 Ways”. Although the title may not give it away (:-|) it teaches 13 ways to increase your profits faster than David Hasselhoff’s hands wrap themselves around a brandy.

Sounds useful?  Course it does. Even if you just employ ONE of the “bakers-dozen” of techniques then you’ll see your profits soar! They are all simple but outrageously effective and will transform your business.

Let’s face it, we’re all on the hunt for ways to increase our revenue and I’m gonna slap you across the face with 13 of them in the form of this handy PDF report!

Here’s the best bit… you don’t even have to mess about “opting in” or giving me any of your details.. just hit the slightly download link below and its yours!!

>>>DOWNLOAD NOW<<<

(Right Click And Select “Save Link As” or “Save As”)

Don’t forget to leave me a little comment to stroke my little red ego a bit

That’s all for now…
Marc!!

P.S. Check out the new “header image” at the top of my blog too, what d’ya think?

There’s a common saying in Internet Marketing.. you’ll have heard it regularly. It says that “the money is in the list”. Unfortunately that isn’t strictly true. In truth, the money is in our customers pockets until they decide to part with it. So technically, customers are the most important part of our online business. Buying, money-ready customers are the only cog in our business which CANNOT be removed!

So, it’s really important that we take care of them as best as we possibly can. We need to keep them satisfied, whatever this takes! One disgruntled customer will be able to ruin your internet reputation faster than you can imagine, and you’ll need 1,000 raving fans to begin reversing the damage. The nature of the internet (and media outlets in general) is such that bad news travels FAST and praise takes time.

How do we keep customers happy? Well here’s a few ways to get you started:

1. Underpromise and Overdeliver

Make sure that your products/services, whether they are free or paid, provide much more value that you promised. It’s a great way to get people on your side and raving about you. There’s a couple of aspects to this:

- Firstly make sure that your products are actually of a high quality. I know it sounds ridiculous but I’ve heard many marketers say “Oh, it’s OK.. they’ll like it. And nobody asks for their money back anyway!”. PLEASE don’t take this attitude. You should never release ANYTHING that you wouldn’t be delighted to buy yourself!

- There’s a great way to increase your “over-delivery”. I like to write a sales letter for my products and then take a few things out of the copy. This way the product is sure to contain more than they expect, giving them a really nice surprise upon purchasing the product! It’s simple, takes a few minutes to implement.

2. Refund With A SMILE

If you’ve been selling online for any length of time, then chances are you’ll have sold something and had someone ask for a refund. It’s inevitable and impossible to avoid. None of us are perfect enough to give everyone exactly what they want. Our products won’t be for everyone and there will always be those who simply wanted to nosey at what you are offering.

Unfortunately there’s no way that we can know who is just out for a free ride and who is genuinely disgruntled with our products. But, assuming that the refund rate is LOW, we can guess that its the person, not the product. So, refunds are the nature of the internet marketing beast. Please don’t argue it out, just refund. It isn’t worth your time, hassle or reputation to cause problems. You never know who the person on the other side of the battle is, or how powerful they could be. Information products don’t cost you anything so refunding is definately the most painless option. Simple as that.

3. Keeping On Top Of It…

As your customer base grows, so does your potential for problems. The more people that you have buying from you, the more problems, refund requests and queries you’re going to get. So it’s important that you keep on top of it. Nothing annoys customers more than having their “cries for help” ignored. And this is hard.

I’ve found this recently as my business has grown to the next level. I always vowed that I would always run my “support” by myself. There wouldn’t be a support team, it seemed impersonal. I wanted to handle all support queries myself, by personal e-mail. I’ve quickly realised that this simply isn’t possible. No inbox solution in the world is powerful enough to keep you on top of your support queries, however many you get!

So.. I’ve had to go back on my word and employ the services of a help desk solution. And guess what? I should have done it in the first place! Because now its harder than ever. I’ve given myself a lot of extra work because I have to move over to the support desk and make sure that everyone knows that e-mailing me personally for support issues won’t get a reply. Instead, they have to go direct to my help desk. It isn’t fully set up yet, but is mostly functional at: www.MarcMilburn.com/Support.

I STRONGLY suggest that you get your support desks up and running FAST. If you expect/desire your business to grow, then it will be necessary. So you might as well get off on the right foot, start as you mean to go on and set it up now. Even if you can’t afford support staff yet, at least handle help queries through a formal system.

But which helpdesk? Well I’ve played with a few as I was getting myself up and running. Most marketers, including my mentor Alex Jeffreys, use Kayako. It’s a smart solution which allows user registration for submitting tickets plus a knowledgebase of FAQ answers.

But then I discovered the FREE solution Hesk (that’s NOT an affiliate link by the way.. I’m NOT on commission – just giving you my personal recommendation!). Hesk is a simple piece of software. Just upload it to your server, configure it to a simple database and you’re ready to go. It’s fully customisable with a bit of playing around. Your customers can submit a support ticket which can be accessed and answered by multiple staff members. You can create unlimited staff member accounts with different levels of access and different permissions. You can even programme canned responses to answer questions that you are asked frequently. Oh and it has a knowledgebase function too. Users can’t register to become a member of the support desk, they have to enter their name and e-mail everytime they submit a new support ticket, but I prefer it that way.

Oh and the best bit about Hesk? It’s FREE! As long as you don’t mind having the (very small) credit displayed at the bottom with a link to the Hesk website. Or you can pay the very reasonable $39.95 if you wish to remove the credit. I think it’s a bargain though! I’m going to do so as soon as I’ve finished setting it up. I like to support good work like this.

That’s all for today.. a simple recommendation. Keep your customers happy and they’ll keep your bank account happy for a very long time. I’ve discussed the top 3 ways to do it in this blog post. I suggest you get started today!

Don’t forget to comment with your thoughts/ideas……

Hey!

It’s been a few days since I’ve been able to make a post here because I’ve recently arrived in LAS VEGAS!! Whoop!

That’s right.. I’m out here for Alex Jeffreys’ workshop which is taking place in a couple of days. Real excited for that, I can tell you! I’ve decided to make a week of it though and get to see some shows and stuff while I’m here. It’s my first time in Vegas and damn, is this place cool!

Anyway… on Monday I’ll get you some video updates from Alex’s workshop but BEFORE we do that I have some VERY important video training for you. It’s totally free – no opt-in required or anything. It’s just to thank you for following my blog, and I’m convinced that it’ll change the way you see your business.

Don’t forget to leave me a comment and tell me what you think………..

Enjoy!

Marc

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

I’m delighted to be posting this blog from my brand new Blackberry Storm II. It’s a fantastic mobile solution for calls, e-mails and browsing. I now have the Wordpress application for the Blackberry (also available for the iPhone!). If you have a Blackberry/iPhone and want this FREE application, then the links are at the bottom of this post! I highly recommend it for browsing, commenting and posting on your blogs!

BUT.. before you get started with your mobile-blogging, I have something VERY important for ya. (A special gifty! Whoop!)

Because, as I’m sure you know, traffic to your websites = cash.

You see, without traffic and visitors, even the best product in the world will never sell! The more traffic you get, the more sales you CAN make. It’s a simple numbers game, really.

And with all of the different ways of driving traffic there really are never-ending streams available. There is:

*blog commenting;
*article submission;
*forum posting;
*video marketing;
*PPC;
*affiliate/joint venture traffic;
*social bookmarking;
*Twitter/Facebook & Myspace;
*Many, many more.

…The list is endless!

But what if I told you that there is another way…

I’ve recently released a very special report (value $37.00) teaching an incredible FREE traffic generation technique (NONE of the above). It’s easy, powerful, under-used… and it won’t cost you anything to implement!

I’ve decided to give you a special copy as my very important blog-readers! Aren’t you lucky!? :-p

Download Your Free Copy Today =====> http://www.websitetrafficanswers.com/Special/

I’ve broken everything down into simple steps to guide you to success. Just follow this system and you could begin driving unlimited and targeted buyers to your website within minutes!!

I just know you’re going love it. The reports coming in from this report are fantastic. People just wish that they had uncovered it years ago!

Don’t forget to call back to the blog and leave me a comment. I always love to hear from you!

Regards,
Marc!

P.S. I’ve been selling this report for between $7 and $37 so I’m not sure how long I’ll be leaving this “freebie” page up. Grab yours before I come to my senses and rip it away from you:

=====> http://www.websitetrafficanswers.com/Special/

P.P.S. If you want the Wordpress application for Blackberry or iPhone then you can grab them on the links below (they are free!)

Blackberry App –> http://blackberry.wordpress.org/
iPhone App –> http://iphone.wordpress.org/

Welcome to the third official blog post of the new-look blog!! I wouldn’t normally work on a Sunday evening BUT something has really wound me up and I had to write this post.

You see, unfortunately I’m writing today with a rant! (Dramatic roll of thunder, please!). That’s right, I’m going to jump up onto my soapbox and complain about something which seems to be happening more and more often in this industry. It’s really cringeworthy… and I’m quite passionate about it.

So what am I talking about? Well, we all know that “the money is in the list” but that assumes that “the list” is being used correctly.

You see, just a couple of days ago I received an e-mail which began thus:

“Hi {firstname},”

**MAJOR CRINGING**

That’s right.. instead of the e-mail including my name it simply included an (incorrect) personalisation code. Now don’t get me wrong, if the personalisation had worked, I wouldn’t be under ANY illusion that this e-mail was intended directly to me. As I use the same e-mail software that this marketer was using myself (Aweber), I understand that I was simply a a tiny cog in a huge list of other subscribers.. but I cringe as I think of them receiving this same e-mail.

In truth, I closed the e-mail and didn’t bother to read it. I suspect other people could be doing the same thing. Making this mistake could be damaging your marketing dramatically! It’s especially disturbing when you realise that all this marketer had done was to miss out the ! from the code.

BUT it gets worse…

Another e-mail that I received recently was seemingly part of an ad-swap so the e-mail copy was probably standard to the marketer who was being promoted. Now I am all for ad swaps and I think they are a fantastic way to expand your list and your customer/fan base BUT you have to be careful. You see this second e-mail finished with the words:

“Kind regards,
YOUR NAME HERE”

**MAJOR CRINGING**

It’s just simple carelessness. Just by making TWO minor changes to your e-mails, you can DRAMATICALLY increase your chances of success with your list.

So how can you fix this and make sure it never happens (again)?

Here’s my three-step personalisation plan:

1. Revise your personalisation codes for your specific autoresponder software (Aweber, GetResponse, 1ShoppingCart, etc) and make a note of them somewhere handy.

2. Use the “test” feature of the autoresponder. Send at least 1 test e-mail to yourself and make sure that the personalisation works!

3. Make sure to read through each and every e-mail that you send out before you send it.

There are many “schools of thought” which think that personalisation probably isn’t that necessary anyway. Some marketers say that most intelligent people realise that they are being “broadcast to” rather than being sent an e-mail personally. However, I still think it’s a nice idea. I get e-mails pretty regularly where people have “replied” to one of my autoresponder e-mails to say “Thanks”. Some people really appreciate the personalisation.. as long as its done correctly.

I know, I know, it probably is a fairly easy mistake to make BUT it’s also SO easy to fix.

That’s bringing me to the end of this rant so I’ll jump back down of my soapbox.

But PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE… if you’re going to personalise your e-mails, do it correctly.