Internet Marketing - Web Page Design and Promotion - Search Engine Optimization

1. Your own websites: Now, this may ruffle a few feathers, but we know what works and what doesn't. To develop a website that will become your little automatic recruiter, you need to address several factors:

• Web Page Design: Put yourself in your potential customer's shoes. When you come across a site that looks like a paperboy put it together, how do you react? You click away right? Take the time to learn some decent web page design techniques, and it will pay off BIG TIME in the long run. The biggest mistakes people new to web design make is going for more "flash" than substance. They bog down their site with a bunch of fancy coloured backgrounds, 3-D text, flash presentations, etc. Our biggest site has NO banners, NO 3-D text, no Flash animations, and no fancy coloured background. It simply has a very effective sales letter on a plain white background-and has a 12% conversion rate. What's more... it loads in under 6 seconds on a 56k connection. If your site takes more than 8 seconds to load (which sites heavy with graphics tend to), you will lose 1/3 of your visitors, period.
  
  
• Domain Name: Another mistake people make is to buy a "vanity" domain name (i.e. tomSmith.com, etc.). Your domain name should describe exactly what your site is about. Doing so will also help you rank better in the search engines.
  
  
• Search engine optimazation strategy: One of the best things going for Internet marketers is search engine traffic. With a decent listing, your site is virtually on autopilot. Now, while volumes have been written and re-written on the subject, the single most important thing is an aggressive reciprocal linking strategy. Many search engines use link popularity HEAVILY when ranking websites. Seek out sites to trade links with, and be relentless about it (finding the sites that is). Set a goal to add 2-3 reciprocal links per day up to about 250-300 links. After that, the sites usually get to the point in the engines where webmasters start pursuing you for links, allowing you to simply approve or deny the link.

2. Paid Classified Ads: Another inexpensive traffic generator (when done correctly). The key to paid classified ads is finding the sites that get the kind of traffic you NEED to build your business, i.e. sites that focus on the home business genre. The easiest method to do this is simply to go to a major engine and type in the key phrases those looking for a home biz would use (home business, work at home, etc.) Check out the top 10 sites or so, and if they offer paid classifieds-that's where you want to be. (Many offer 30-day ads for $20 or less!)

3. Pay Per Click Search engines: These can be excellent (and inexpensive) recruiters for you when used correctly. Although the bigger PPC's (overture, findwhat, etc.) are getting more expensive, by utilizing several hundred (or even thousands) of keywords, you can generate a fair amount of traffic relatively cheaply.

4. Writing articles: Writing articles is a great way to bring free traffic to your with only a little work each month. Spending the time to sit down and write useful content can be hard work but it should pay off in the free promotion you get as a result. Website and newsletter publishers are in constant need of fresh, new content, and you can be the one to provide it! It is surprising how few authors there are out there considering most people know enough to write articles on subjects they know. It just requires a little planning and work You can dramatically increase your visibility when you write articles in your area of expertise and distribute them to editors as free content. Write articles about a subject that is related with your home business, and then distribute these articles for free publication on other websites and in e-zines, with the stipulation that your brief bio and a link to your site remain intact. If your articles are helpful, they'll be picked up by lots of websites and e-mail newsletter publishers. Not only will your article bring lots of immediate traffic to your website from e-zine readers, it's likely that your article will be permanently archived among newsletter back issues, so this will begin to multiply permanent links to your site. Search engines, which evaluate incoming links to your site, will observe a boost in your site's "popularity," and are likely to rank you higher because you are popular.