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This is the final post in our series on Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and the conclusion of our discussion of content distribution.

Over the last two posts we’ve discussed the importance of content and content distribution to traffic generation from your website. From this discussion, I hope we’ve begun to understand a few basic facts:

1) Traffic is easy … quality traffic is a bit harder.

2) Quality traffic can be generated by good content creation and distribution.

3) Wide-ranging and and extensive content distribution to “highly ranked authority sites” creating a web, or link-wheel of quality back-links to your site, if done correctly, will result in quality traffic sent from search engines to your website.

4) Content distribution is therefore a critical part of our job as Internet marketers … but it is time-consuming and can be mind-numbing and tedious.

Finally, we discussed the automation question, and the pro’s and con’s of full or partial automation of content distribution. We also touched on the outsourcing solution a bit as well.

In my experience, the Partially Automated method is the way to go here, if content distribution is going to be something we’re going to do ourselves, and Ross Goldberg has created a program I think stands above the rest as far as this method is concerned. It’s called TRAFFIC MAGNET, and it partially automates your content distribution for articles, videos, podcasts, feeds … in fact a whole range of content.

Now, something you have to understand about partially automated distribution is the fact that … you still have a lot of work to do. Actually, that’s the point. You want to retain the “fingerprints” of an actual human being doing the distribution. It’s that fingerprint that guarantees the acceptance of your content. So, your expectations should include this concept from the start. TRAFFIC MAGNET is a great program, but if you’re expecting it to reduce your distribution labors to ten minutes or so … you’ll be disappointed.

That said, let’s discuss the “partial” part: what does TRAFFIC MAGNET actually do?

Basically, when you use TRAFFIC MAGNET, you create a “Profile” within the software. That Profile retains the information for your accounts at all of the many distribution sites … along with the item being distributed, such as an article, and the description, author’s box, title, etc. It saves all of this information in Fields that you can access at any time.

When distributing content using a Profile in TRAFFIC MAGNET, you proceed from site to site going through a lit of sites within the software. TRAFFIC MAGNET automatically inserts your access information for each site and speeds up the login. Once inside, you use the profile information to quickly insert the article, description, etc. … whatever it is you’re distributing … submit it … and them move on to the next site.

The result is that you are physically and personally submitting the content … so it’s not dinged as submitted by a “bot” of some kind … but TRAFFIC MAGNET is storing all the information for the sites … locations, logins, articles, descriptions, etc … and making it much faster for you to jump from one to the next. Basically, TRAFFIC MAGNET simply creates a framework within which is stored all your distribution sites and the content you want to distribute. By doing this it cuts out an amazing amount of time to your distribution chores.

Now, there are some problems that I’ve found. It’s been my experience that sometimes the software can become kind of clunky and quirky. This kind of program must, I suppose, build up a lot of temporary files as it works. I’ve had the experience of working within TRAFFIC MAGNET for a couple of hours and then just experiencing a sudden software shut down with no explanation. My experience is that if something like this happens, a quick re-boot seems to solve the problem.

Additionally, I should say that I have had occasion to contact Ross for help once or twice and he’s always been there with useful information. He replies quickly and clearly to any support problems you may have, and that’s really important. I’ve also noticed … the replies have come directly from him … not from some anonymous “help desk”. That tells you something right there. I like it a lot when someone makes themselves personally available to users of their products.

You should be aware, as well, there is setup time involved here. The first time you use TRAFFIC MAGNET, you must go through and join all the distribution sites. This will be time-consuming and frustrating. I recommend you set up a separate email address for all the confirmation emails … you’ll get tons. When you’re going through this process you’ll begin to wonder, “How is this going to save me any time? It’s taking HOURS!” (and it will … many).

BUT … once you have it set up and begin the actual distribution process, you’ll discover in no time how much time and effort you’re saving.

The other thing I should mention here is spinning.

If you want to do massive distribution and not be “dinged” for duplicate content, you’ll need to become good at what’s known as spinning your content. I’m not going into a lot of detail here … spinning can be the subject of future posts and lessons … but let’s just say that spinning content is using software programs to vary the wording of an article, description, title, etc., so that it’s not picked up by Google or a site owner as “duplicate content”. Yes, I know that some distribution sites will say specifically, “No posting of spun content” … well, too bad. Get over it. I distribute spun content to most sites daily … and have no problems.

However, I have no problems because I’m now good at the techniques of spinning … and I “spin deep”. Without going into too much detail here, I’ll just say this:

TRAFFIC MAGNET includes what is probably the best content spinning software I’ve ever seen. I use it all the time and love it. If you join TRAFFIC MAGNET and need help with the spinning software … or TRAFFIC MAGNET itself … just shout. I’m glad to help if I can.

Notice something here: I just said, “If you join TRAFFIC MAGNET …”. That’s the case. Because the sites where we distribute our content are always changing the procedure (we discussed this in previous posts … it’s one reason why we need a software system like this and not something static), TRAFFIC MAGNET is not a piece of software you buy and then it doesn’t change. TRAFFIC MAGNET operates the same way as a membership site. There is a monthly charge … which is less than $40 a month … for access. Operating this way, Ross can constantly update the way the software works with all of the various content sites involved, and you don’t have to constantly be buying or upgrading your software.

TRAFFIC MAGNET is my choice as the best of the best as far as online content distribution for search engine marketing is concerned. It’s efficient, well laid out, easy to learn and understand, not expensive, and very effective. That’s about the list, I believe, when looking for a good online tool.

So … bottom line: TRAFFIC MAGNET is the tool to use if you want massive, organized, effective online content distribution … and you want to handle it yourself.

To find out more about TM … and to set up your own account … CLICK HERE

Now, I’m not going into a lot of detail here either … at least not right now. But, if handling your own content distribution is not something you have the time for … or the desire to do … you might want to consider outsourcing. This is not as cost prohibitive a technique as many people believe, and if it results in good, quality traffic directed to a well-designed site, that cost should be making you money, not losing it for you.

We’re going to be having an official “rollout” here soon, but my new company, “ONLINE TECHNIQUES” is just coming together to provide exactly this type of service. You’ll be hearing more about it in future posts and mailings, but let’s just say that we’re available to provide all sorts of web marketing services you might not want or be able to do for yourself. We can build a good branding website for you (like this one), provide hosting services, autoresponders, online conference rooms … you name it, we’ll get it done for you … and that includes content distribution and/or creation and complete traffic generation programs.

So … if you’d like to find out more about that … simply visit our Online Techniques website by CLICKING HERE

Well … that’s it for now. I hope you’ve enjoyed this series on Search Engine Marketing and Content Distribution. I hope you’ll consider giving Traffic Magnet and/or Online Techniques a visit and perhaps a try. With either one, I guarantee you’ll be satisfied.

If you haven’t done so yet … please use the form to the right to subscribe to my mailing list so we can keep in touch. As always, if I can be of help in any way … don’t hesitate to contact me.

Have A GREAT Day!

Steve Gaghagen
Internet Marketing Expert and Trainer

Online Techniques

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In our last post in this series, we discussed Content Distribution as it relates to Traffic Generation to your Website. It’s obvious that if we want people to be visiting our sites … and we want them finding our sites through Google and Yahoo search engines … then we need to be doing consistant content creation and distribution.

In that last post, I provided a partial list of sites where you can submit your content and create backlinks to your own website. That list of sites included social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, article directories, podcast and feed directories, Micro Blogging sites, press released sites, video sharing sites, document sharing sites … the list went on and on. In fact, I received several comments on the blog and several emails from folks kind of shocked at how many of these things there were and how many places there actually are for you to mount content on the web … and build links to your site increasing your site’s ranking.

Well, if you weren’t aware of the facts before, yes, it could be shocking, I suppose.

There’s the cold, unvarnished truth. If you want targeted, quality, and massive traffic coming to your website through search engines like Google and Yahoo … and yes, that is the exact kind of traffic you want … you will need to be doing what most people consider to be the most tedious, time-consuming job of the Internet marketer.

Content distribution for the purpose of creating backlinks and traffic can sometimes be the straw that broke the camel’s back … or the back of the fledgling online entrepreneur. When someone who is a relative “Newbie” to the industry begins to come to grips with just how much time and effort they will be spending on this … that’s when you discover whether or not someone really has what it takes to succeed online.

Why is the job so huge? Well, there are several reasons. The sheer number of sites to submit content to is one (as you’ve seen). The other is that it’s very difficult to keep it organized.

Have you ever seen a Link Wheel?

Well, here is where content distribution can get dicey, and where we lose some folks talking about traffic generation and related subjects. The truth is that your Content Distribution MUST be organized. You don’t want to just go out there and throw content around willy-nilly. Oh sure, you’ll get traffic that way, and it will be good traffic. However, if your distribution is highly organized you will get exponentially greater results from the same amount of effort! Why settle for less with the same amount of work involved?

Organizing your content distribution is what we refer to as Building a Link Wheel. There are many different kinds and styles of link wheels … some simple and some complex. The diagram below is of a fairly complex link wheel.

Now, that particular diagram is not a link wheel I necessarily recommend, but it is one that will demonstrate how organized you can be, and how complicated it can all get when creating a good link wheel to generate traffic to your site.

So … one more point to all this: you not only need to be doing massive content creation and distribution, but you need to be doing it in an organized, purposeful manner that will guarantee you the maximum amount of return for the hard work you’re doing.

So … now we come to this very basic question. Sure, I can hear it in the air, “This is the Internet. These are computers we’re using. Surely there must be some method or software that will help alleviate this time consuming, complicated, and tedious task for us?”

Well, yes, there is. However, not all methods of Content Distribution are equal. Essentially they fall into three categories: Fully Automated Methods, Partially Automated Methods, and Outsourcing. There are pro’s and con’s to all three, and we’ll discuss those here. One category I don’t advise at all … in fact I strongly recommend you stay completely clear of it. The other two I do recommend and we’ll get into why with each of them.

Well, that subheading just about says it all, doesn’t it? This is the category of “assistance” I recommend you avoid. We’ll get to that, but first let’s talk a bit about what exactly fully automated content distribution looks like.

The fully automated method usually takes the place of software that you buy outright. These doo-hickies can range in price from $25 up to a $250 or more. You purchase the software, set it up, and from then on you let the software do your submissions.

That’s the ideal … too bad it doesn’t work that way. In actual practice there are a few problems:

1: Usually this type of software covers only one type of submission, so you end up needing multiple “thingys”. One program for article submissions, one for bookmarking sites, etc. That means you’re purchasing more “thingys’ than just the one that “does everything for you”.

2: The folks who run the websites where we want to submit content are not dummies. They
want to weed out “bots” so they vary the submission process on their sites on a regular basis. That means that a software submitter that works well with a certain site in January, will probably stop being successful by March or so. THAT means … you’ve got to buy some updated version of the software if you want to keep the fully automated thing going. These things just don’t have a very long shelf-life.

3: Submission site owners also look for content that can be considered “dulicate”, and they look for other signs that content is being distributed by a bot of some kind. When you submit content completely automatically, you have no chance to vary that content by “spinning”, so you’re very likely to get “dinged” for duplicate content distribution and have your submission refused.

All in all … considering the lack of ability to vary and “spin” your content, along with the probability that your software will only be good for a couple of months … the fully automated method of content distribution is one you should avoid. It’s the perfect example of the old saying about “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing”. People with a little knowledge know they CAN automate this process. However, just because you CAN do something … doesn’t mean you SHOULD.

Here we come to the first of the two methods I DO recommend. Partially Automated content distribution.

With this method we are again dealing with software solutions, only there is less automation to the process. The software’s main job is to bring all the many distribution sites into one interface so they are easy to reach one after the other … to store usernames and access codes to the various accounts and enter that information … and to also store the descriptions, keywords, articles, etc., that you’re distributing.

What this type of software does NOT do is remove or skip over the necessary Human Element demanded by the distribution sites. You still have to go from site to site and submit your content. You have to fill out the “captchas” and jump through the “are you a human?” hoops the sites put up and move around all the time.

There are several advantages here:

1) You are actually following the submission process on each site, so your software does not grow obsolete within a few weeks.

2) You are actually doing the process yourself, so you can “spin” your content from site to site. Now, bad content spinners are a waste of time and some are actually counterproductive. However, a good content spinning program … combined with someone with the knowledge to use it and a partially automated content distribution program can create HUGE link wheels that don’t annoy the site owners or the search engine spiders with tons of duplicate content.

3) Google and Yahoo have now written code into the heads of those little spiders that has them looking for what they term a “footprint”. Yes, folks, those Big Brothery people at Goo and Yah can now tell from your “footprint” whether you content distribution is fully automated. Contrary to some popular fear-mongering rumours, they don’t “blacklist” your site or some nonsense like that. However, they simply stop indexing your submitted content and you end up wasting your time. A good, partially automated distribution software program will satisfy the spidery gods, and you won’t have this problem.

4) The software brings all the sites together in one linear process. The original set up of all these hundreds of accounts at hundreds of sites can be horribly time consuming … BUT … once that’s done, you will save lots and lots of time as you simply jump from one site to the next within your distribution program.

There is one partially automated software program I recommend. It’s called Traffic Magnet. I’m not going to go into too much deatil right now as I will be discussing it in more depth in the next post. BUT … if you want to jump to the fron of the queue and see what I’m talking about … CLICK HERE

Outsourcing your content prescription cialis generic distribution is, of course, the complete solution. I don’t need to go through a list format in this section to point out the advantages with this method. They’re simple! The entire headache becomes someone elses!

Now, many of you are sitting there saying something like, “Hey! I can’t afford that!” … and you might be right.

BUT … you might also be wrong.

There are many firms and freelance individuals who do work like this at very reasonable rates. Let’s discuss a couple of alternatives here, and then I have one very strong recommendation for you.

1) Freelancers – There are many websites you can go to where people offer their services on a job by job basis. Here is a partial list of some sites where you can find Freelancers open to doing content distribution:

www.elance.com
www.guru.com
www.ebay.com
www.gumtree.com
www.craigslist.com

Of the sites listed above you probably recognize eBay and Craigslist, but you might be surprised to find them here. eBay actually does have a “Services” section where you will find people offering services that might fit your outsourcing needs. Craigslist, of course, offers just about everything and you’ll also find good freelancers there.

If you look at Freelancers you’ll need to make your own decisions about who to hire and who to avoid. Most of the sites like guru.com are set up kind of like a FaceBook. You have a profile and you can locate others by keywords indicating what kind of job they;re prepared to so. So … let’s say you want a series of 6 articles written and want to outsource. You can go to the freelance page, enter “article writing” or “authors”, or “ghost writing” in the search terms, and you get all the profiles of folks willing to do that kind of work. They will range from novices to very experienced and costs running the gamut as well.

My advice, when looking for freelancers, is to stick to someone who can show you some sample of work and has at least a couple of good testimonials. I’d also stay away from the very experienced and expensive folks … why break your budget?

2) Internet Marketing Consulting and Services Firms

Now this is where most folks think that we’re talking out of their financial reach, but you might be surprised. A Good Internet marketing consultation and services company will provide most if not all of the services you need to create websites, generate traffic, and some will even provide in-depth training and mentoring so you can learn to take on many of the jobs yourself in a structured and maximized way.

Now, I’m not going to pussy-foot around this subject. I’m going to get right to the meat of things here. As far as these kinds of companies go, there is only one I recommend … MINE!

OK … cheap joke time is over … cheap plug time is just beginning.

ONLINE TECHNIQUES is a company I’ve just formed with a few associates, and we are providing website design and setup services, traffic generation services, complete content creation services … as well as hosting and autoresponder solutions, web conferencing solutions … and Personal, one-on-one mentoring programs … all designed specifically to fit your particular business and your particular budget.

If you’ve been studying traffic generation and are coming to grips with the fact that you might not have the time to do content distribution in the way it should be done … if you’re ok with distribution, but you think you’re a flop at writing articles that are keyword rich and niche targeted … or you’re simply tired of holding house parties or hotel meeting for your business and would rather hold some in an online conference room … Online Techniques can help!

Now, I’m inviting you to have a look at our new website. You’ll find a fun and informative movie over there that will explain what we do and our philosophy.

CLICK HERE for ONLINE TECHNIQUES

What you WON’T find there are “traffic packages” or “cookie cutter” programs of any kind. At Online Techniques we don’t believe you can cram every business into a few programs you’ve designed. What we offer is a simple consultation where we will speak with you personally, assess your online situation and what might be lacking … and then we will submit a Proposal to you if we feel our services might help. AND … we do that much for FREE.

So … there’s no charge … and no risk at all … in contacting us to at least discuss your situation. Why not visit the website, watch the move, and fill in the form requesting personal contact. Let’s put our heads together, and see if there isn’t some way we might be able to help you grow and expand your presence online.

CLICK HERE for ONLINE TECHNIQUES

OK! Now the self-serving plug time is over as well.

There are the three ways you can approach your content distribution to generate traffic to your website. One I recommend you AVOID, and two I heartily recommend. I hope you’ve found this post useful.

The next post in this series will appear in a couple of days here. In that post I’ll actually review my favorite content distribution software, TRAFFIC MAGNET.

Until then … Have A GREAT Day!

Steve Gaghagen
Internet Marketing Expert and Trainer

Online Techniques

Big Bear Lake, California
mailto:steve@stevegaghagen.com

Search Engine Marketing: Traffic Generation & Content Distribution

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Search Engine Marketing: Traffic Generation & Content Distribution

 Welcome to the first in a series of posts about Search Engine Marketing and content distribution. There will be three posts in this series, and over the course of those posts, you’ll discover what Search Engine Marketing is, why you need to do it, what it entails, and what your different options are for handling it. There’s a lot involved here, but I’m going to try to make this as simple as possible so that we can all share some really good information … and we can all have a lot of fun.

So … let’s get to it right at the very beginning …

Traffic Generation vs. Worthwhile Traffic Generation

So here we are at the very beginning. You’ve got your own domain name and your first web site is all set up. You’ve got a form on your site to start collecting names and building a really good online mailing list. Now … let’s get going and do …

What? What do we need to do now? This is really where most people get into trouble.

Obviously, we need to encourage and invite visitors to our website! We need TRAFFIC! And … there are many different ways to get visitors to your site.

However, I’m here to tell you that not all visitors are the same. There’s traffic … and then there’s targeted traffic … and then there’s highly targeted traffic.

What’s the difference? The difference is that simple traffic … untargeted but easy to obtain … is useless and a waste of time. There are TONS of sources of untargeted or barely targeted traffic. If you’ve been around online for any length of time you’ve probably used many of them. Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of un-targeted traffic. I believe it’s a total waste of time!

Look, simple traffic is easy. I could go to a “traffic company” right now and buy a “package” of “traffic” made up of “guaranteed visitors” to my website. In fact, I could go order 1,000,000 visitors to my site right now, and do it for somewhere under $200. I could also take that money and flush it down the toilet … and I wouldn’t have to fill out any forms to get rid of the cash that way.

I think I’ll take the toilet choice there, because I know just how useless that type of un-targeted traffic is. It’s completely pointless and a waste of your time, money and resources. If you opt in for something like that … sure … you’ll get a million visitors to your site. They’ll pop on … and pop off within 30 seconds. Why? Because they have no interest in what you have to offer … they were incentivized somehow by the “traffic company” to visit your site for some kind of credit. They are absolutely worthless to you.

So what else can I do here? Well, I could also buy a ton of “Leads” and dump them into my autoresponders! WHEEEE!

Well, again we have problems. First off you run the very great danger of being labeled a “spammer” and having your business shut down. Secondly, you’ve got just about the same quality prospect as with the buying traffic strategy. Leads you purchase have not expressed ANY interest in YOU or what YOU have to offer. They’ve simply responded … somewhere and sometime … that yes, they might like to look at something somewhat similar to what you offer. They also might have been incentivized somehow to make that response.

In both cases you’re simply not dealing with YOUR true buyers or prospects. You’re dealing with massive amounts of people that might contain one or two that are right for you, but that’s all. This kind of strategy to develop traffic and build your list is a useless waste of time, money, and resources.

Dont’ do it.

Remember this: It’s much better to have a very active list of 500 contacts than to have a list of 500,000 people who couldn’t care less.

Search Engine Marketing

So … how do we make contact with the folks online who are actually looking for what WE have to offer?

Search Engine Marketing. This is a simple concept and a simple process that most people never really master. It involves strategies designed to make something like this happen:

Joe is in need of a podsnap. Now don’t worry about what a podsnap is … all that matters is that Joe needs one.

So … Joe goes to Google and does some research. First he asks Google, “What is a podsnap?”. And he finds his answer.

Then he asks Google, “Where can I find the best podsnap?”

Now this is where it gets interesting … because if you’re a podsnap dealer, and you have a really good podsnap available … it’s fairly simple for YOUR website to pop up right on the first page when Joe asks Google his final, BUYING question.

Now what happens? What kind of visitor is Joe when he reaches your website? Joe is a highly targeted prospect … one who is ready to buy, or join, and who has his credit card sitting next to him while he’s on your site.

This is the type of visitor … and the type of traffic … we want to create. And make no mistakes, you don’t have to generate tens of thousands of hits to your site … if the hits you DO generate are highly targeted and the result of someone searching specifically for what YOU have. Twenty or thirty visits daily from really qualified people coming from search engines is GREAT Traffic!

So, let’s say we agree we want to do search engine marketing. How do we make that happen? How do we get our site to pop up on Google’s first page?

Content Distribution

Search engine marketing and search engine ranking all depend on content distribution. If you want to get your site highly ranked on Google or Yahoo … and dominating the search pages for your chosen keywords (the words that tie Joe’s Google search to your particular product or opportunity) … you need to do two simple things:

1- Create content in the form of articles, videos, blog posts, podcasts, etc., and do it in massive amounts on a regular basis.

2- Distribute that content to as many highly ranked authority sites as you can all over the Internet.

Now, that process is called “backlinking”, and it is the most effective way of creating traffic to your site … and having it be the kind of traffic you want.

There are many different areas of this process we could discuss. We could get into the creation of your content, different ways to maximize your output of content, the pros and cons of various types of content, and … a really important one here … the ins and outs of keyword research. However, that is not going to be the focus of this particular series of posts. We’ll get into all of those eventually, but right now I want to focus on one thing: content distribution.

There’s something you need to understand about content distribution: It’s tedious, mind-numbing, and BOOOOORRRRRING!

That’s it. That’s the truth, and there’s nothing more to say about it. BUT … and this is one of those BIG BUTS … it has to be done.

Over the course of this series of posts, we will discuss various means of maximizing your content distribution efforts and minimizing the boredom and time involved. But, for today we’re going to conclude here by handling the most basic of questions: Just where do I distribute my stuff?

Content Distribution Sites

All right. Without going into too find a detail here, this is a list of sites that I recommend you should use as content distribution points for your various types of content. The list is long, and I could have made it a downloadable file, I suppose, but I think it’s better this way although it makes the post rather long.

At any rate … here ya go. If you take every piece of content … every article, video, blog post, podcast, etc. … and post them at their respective sites … all of their respective sites … and then CROSS-post those sites to other sites on the list … you’ll be building a huge web of links and backlinks … and you’ll see your Alexsa rankings increase while you jump onto the first page of Google for your chosen keywords.
==============================================================

Content Submission Sites

 Article Marketing

Ezine Articles: http://ezinearticles.com/

iSnare: http://www.isnare.com/

Articles Base: http://www.articlesbase.com/

Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/

Search Warp: http://searchwarp.com/

ArticleAlley.com: http://articlealley.com/

GoArticles.com: http://goarticles.com/

Web-Source.net: http://web-source.net/

Article Set.com: http://www.articleset.com/

WebProNews.com: http://www.webpronews.com/

Articles Dashboard: http://www.articledashboard.com/

Knol: http://knol.google.com/

eHow: http://eHow.com

Micro Blogging

Twitter: http://twitter.com

Plurk: http://www.plurk.com/

Jaiku: http://www.jaiku.com/

Plinky: http://www.plinky.com/

Yonkly: http://yonkly.com

Koornk: http://koornk.com/

Social Bookmarking

Digg: http://digg.com

StumbleUpon: http://StumbleUpon.com

Mixx.com: http://Mixx.com

Yahoo Buzz: http://buzz.yahoo.com/

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/

Technorati: http://www.technorati.com/

Delicious: http://delicious.com/

Kaboodle: http://www.kaboodle.com/

Propeller: http://www.propeller.com/

NewsVine: http://www.newsvine.com/

2collab.2collab.com: http://www.2collab.com/

A1-Webmarks.com: http://www.a1-webmarks.com/

Ambedo.com: http://ambedo.com/

Bibsonomy.org: http://www.bibsonomy.org/

Blinklist.com: http://blinklist.com/

Bookmarks.yahoo.com: http://bookmarks.yahoo.com

Chipmark.com: http://chipmark.com

Cloudytags.com: http://cloudytags.com

Connotea.org: http://connotea.org

Diigo.com: http://Diigo.com

Dzone.com: http://Dzone.com

Fark.com: http://fark.com

Faves.com: http://faves.com

Google Bookmarks: http://www.google.com/bookmarks/

Mylinkvault.com: http://mylinkvault.com

Netvouz.com: http://netvouz.com

Searchles.com: http://searchles.com

Simpy.com: http://simpy.com

Folkd.com: http://www.folkd.com/

Clipmarks.com: http://www.clipmarks.com/

Buddymarks.com: http://buddymarks.com/

Spurl.net: http://www.spurl.net/

Bookmark Tracker.com: http://www.bookmarktracker.com/

Bookmarksync: http://www.bookmarksync.com/

Fleck.com: http://fleck.com/

Sphinn.com: http://sphinn.com/

Linkagogo.com: http://www.linkagogo.com/go/Home

BookKit.com: http://bookkit.com/

JumpTags.com: http://www.jumptags.com/

BookMax.net: http://www.bookmax.net/

MyPip.co : http://www.mypip.com/index.html

Bookmarking tools

Only Wire: http://onlywire.com

Social Marker: http://socialmarker.com

Social Networking

Facebook: http://facebook.com

MySpace: http://myspace.com

Hi5: http://hi5.com/

43Things.com: http://www.43things.com/

Xanga: http://xanga.com

Classmates.com: http://classmates.com

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/home

Plaxo: http://plaxo.com

CafeMom: http://cafemom.com

Friendster: http://friendster.com

Reunion.com: http://reunion.com

Bebo: http://bebo.com

Orkut: http://orkut.com

Ryze: http://www.ryze.com/

Snapvine: http://www.snapvine.com/

Social Content

HubPages: http://hubpages.com

Ning: http://ning.com

Gather: http://gather.com

Squidoo: http://squidoo.com

Tumblr: http://tumblr.com

Scribd: http://scribd.com

Zimbio: http://zimbio.com

9Rules: http://9rules.com

eHow: http://www.ehow.com/

Yahoo answers: http://answers.yahoo.com/

AnswerBag: http://www.answerbag.com/

MyEbook.com: http://myebook.com

Press Releases

PRLog: http://prlog.com

1888 Press Release.com: http://www.1888pressrelease.com/

24/7 Press Release: http://www.24]7pressrelease.com/index.php

BizEurope.com : http://www.bizeurope.com/pressrelease.htm

eCommWire.com : http://ecommwire.com/

Express Press Release.com: http://express-press-release.net

Free News Release.com: http://www.free-news-release.com/

Free Press Release.com: http://www.free-press-release.com/

Free Press Release Center: http://www.free-press-release-center.info/

FreePressIndex.com : http://freepressindex.com/

FreePressRelease.co.cc : No prescription cialis target=”_blank”>http://www.freepressrelease.com.au/index.asp

FreePressReleases.co.uk : http://www.freepressreleases.co.uk/

Newswire.com: http://www.newswire.com

IndiaPRWire.com : http://www.indiaprwire.com/

MediaSyndicate.com : http://www.newswiretoday.com/index.php

MyFreePR.com : http://www.myfreepr.com/

NewswireToday.com : http://www.newswiretoday.com/index.php

PageRelease.com : http://www.pagerelease.com/

PR.com : http://www.pr.com/

PR9.net : http://www.pr9.net/

PRCompass.com : http://www.prcompass.com/

PRlog.com : http://www.prlog.org/

PRurgent.com : http://prurgent.com/

PRzoom.com : http://www.przoom.com/index.php

PressAbout.com : http://www.pressabout.com/

PressBox.co.uk: http://www.pressbox.co.uk/

PressFlow.co.uk : http://www.pressflow.co.uk./

PressReleasePoint.com : http://www.pressreleasepoint.com/prpage

TechPRSpider.com : http://www.techprspider.com/AddFeed.aspx

TheOpenPress.com : http://theopenpress.com/index.php?a=index

Podcast Directories

http://video.search.yahoo.com/mrss/submit

http://blogdigger.com/add.jsp

http://everypodcast.com/add.php

http://getapodcast.com/AddFeed.aspx

http://www.mirpod.com/rubrique.php?id_rubrique=2&lang=en

http://www.podblaze.com/directory_submit.php

http://www.thepodlounge.com/add_podcast

http://www.allpodcasts.com/PingAll/Default.aspx

http://www.plazoo.com/en/addrss.asp

http://podcastpup.com/addpodcastform.asp

http://www.2rss.com/index.php

http://podcastlikethat.com/ping

http://podcast.com/

http://www.podcastblaster.com/directory/add-podcast/

http://www.podcastfusion.com/fs/addPodcast.asp

http://www.podcasting-station.com/submitrss.php

http://www.podfeed.net/add_podcast.asp

http://www.rss-network.com/submitrss.php

Video Hosting/Sharing

YouTube: http://youtube.com

Google Video: http://www.google.com/video/

VidLife: http://www.vidilife.com/

510Video: http://www.510video.com/

BoFunk: http://www.bofunk.com/

Clipser: http://www.clipser.com/

DailyMotion: http://www.dailymotion.com/

Esnips: http://www.esnips.com/

Kewego: http://www.kewego.com/

LiveVideo: http://www.livevideo.com/

MegaVideo: http://megavideo.com/

Metacafe: http://www.metacafe.com/

MotionBox: http://www.motionbox.com/

Revver: http://revver.com/

Veoh: http://www.veoh.com/

Yahoo video: http://video.yahoo.com/

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/

SeverLoad.com: http://en.sevenload.com/

(Uploading) Tube Mogul: http://tubemogul.com

 

Photo Sharing

Flickr: http://flickr.com

PhotoBucket: http://photobucket.com/

My Photo Album: http://myphotoalbum.com

Picassa: http://picassa.google.com

PhotoApe: http://photoape.com

WebShots: http://webshots.com

Document Hosting/Sharing

Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/

Docstoc: http://www.docstoc.com/

Classified Ads

USFreeAds: http://www.usfreeads.com/

Free Advertising Forum: http://www.freeadvertisingforum.com/

===============================================================

Well, there you have it.

Content Distribution Software and Outsourcing

Now, there’s lots of ways you can mitigate what, I do realize, is a huge list of places to go and mount content … and then turn around and interconnect that content. I know that lots of you reading this now have your eyes crossed and are saying to yourselves, “OMG! I can’t see myself doing all that!”.

Well, that’s fine. In future posts in this series we’ll talk about what your options are. We’ll go into great depths about the do’s and don’ts of automation and the pro’s and con’s of outsourcing. However, we’ve covered enough for one day and one post. This is supposed to be simple, friendly information … not War and Peace … LOL.

So … inclosing for today … I invite you to do two things:

1: If you’re interested in just how I automate my distribution process and want to cut right to the chase … CLICK HERE FOR TRAFFIC MAGNET.

2: If you’re interested in finding out about Outsourcing your website creation, content creation, content distribution, or keyword research needs, please use the Contact Me page on this website. Provide me with your email and phone number or SKYPE id, and I’ll contact you. I’m just in the process … along with a couple of other folks … of establishing a company devoted to providing just those services. Our company will be called Online Techniques, and I’d be glad to talk with you about it.

So … that’s it for now. This brings to a close the first in this Series. In Part 2 we’ll discuss the pro’s and con’s of automation: how much is too much? So please, stay tuned and re-visit us in a couple of days when that post is up. If you haven’t yet subscribed to my mailing list, please do so. That way you’re always informed of a new post.

Hope this has been useful and helpful. As always, if you have any questions, contact me at any time. I’m here to help if I can!

Have a GREAT Day!

Steve Gaghagen
Internet Marketing Expert and Trainer

Big Bear Lake, California
steve@stevegaghagen.com

Well … do I need to say any more than that? There’s the power of video, and there’s the power of Instant Video Articles explained.

This great bit of software can serve many purposes. When you create an article for your Article Marketing Traffic Strategies, you can copy and paste from that article to create three or four short videos to mount on YouTube, Easy video Producer, etc. You can use it to create videos for sale pages in GVO eResponder templates … the list goes on and on.

The video you just saw above was made using the software and the Audacity Audio Studio Software, which is free and a great tool as well. IVA will merge in any audio files, but to time them to fit with your video you need to edit the music or track. Audacity is a great and simple free tool that will do that for you. It will even let you record a voice track if you want to include narration … and you can do that over music if you like!

One Note (If you’ll pardon the pun): Be careful what music you use or what audio track. Make sure you don’t have any problems with rights. Search on Google for “Free Bumper Music” … you’ll find tons of things you can use.

So … what can I say? My video said it all.

Seriously, take my advice and grab this little sucker before it gets so popular they come to their senses and raise the price. I mean … for Levitra Professional $17 it doesn’t get any better than this.

Get your hands on those two little but powerful tools, and you’ll be churning out video content like an ANIMAL!

Once you’ve got them … be sure to watch the tutorial … and then contact me if you need any help. I’d be glad to help get you going the first time. After that … it’s EASY!

Have a GREAT Day!

Steve Gaghagen
Internet Marketing Expert
==================================

Yesterday we discussed the #1 tool in you I-Marketer’s toolkit. That was web hosting and we went into a lot of detail about it.

Today we’re going to discuss something that’s just as important: your Video Marketing System.

First I want to dispense right away with the thing I know that most “newbie” online marketers are thinking: “Video? Do I really have to do video? But I don’t wanna … I don’t like the way I look … I don’t like the way I sound … I’m not good at it like those guys you see on the net all the time … my hair SUCKS … my videos will stink and no one will like me …”

Blah … Blah … Blah …

Get over it … and get over yourself.

Now, I’m not trying to be mean or nasty (I usually don’t have to try … it comes naturally). I’m simply fulfilling my obligations here by telling you the TRUTH. Which would you rather I do? Sugar-coat things so they make you comfortable but you fall on your face later on? Or, tell you the truth flat out and then give you the tools and skills to not only handle it … but PROFIT from it?

That’s what I thought you’d say … so that’s what I’m doing.

The fact is that video is an ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY part of creating income from home on the Internet these days. It’s not necessary to be the next Martin Scorsese or to look like Cameron Diaz. What’s necessary is for the videos to BE THERE. This is a matter of search engines, Google Algorithms, and the fact that you need something to put on You Tube … and they only take VIDEOS!

To condense all the why’s and wherefore’s into one easy to understand concept: It’s not about SALES … it’s about WEB TRAFFIC. What people are looking for on the Internet … is VIDEOS. Therefore, what Search Engines are looking for on the Internet … is VIDEOS. If you’re ever going to have respectable, targeted traffic to your web sites … they’re going to have to contain lots of videos.

So … now that we understand all that, we’ve gotten over ourselves, and we’re ready to discuss the HOW of this … let’s move on to discuss your Video Marketing System.

Now, You Tube is not a Video Marketing SYSTEM. It’s a video HOSTING site. You’ll want to mount your videos on You Tube because of the traffic it can bring you. However, you also want someplace else to store your videos online. I mean … this is the Internet! Stuff happens! I know it’s not likely, but what if all the videos in your You Tube channel were lost?

Another thing about You Tube is their limits. You cannot upload a video of more than 10 minutes duration into You Tube. They don’t allow it. So, what do you do with a training video you made for your business group that’s 55 minutes long? Well, you can split it up into 10 minute segments … part one … part two … etc. But you can see how cumbersome that can get. Then, if you want to mount it on a website of your own you have to have a long page with several videos mounted there. Not attractive!

No, you need a video hosting spot where you can upload videos of any duration. Most video hosting account will limit the file size AND duration of allowable videos … just as You Tube does. But, there are some that limit only the file size and NOT the duration. If you look you can find them out there. Most of them tend to be very expensive, but there are some that are surprisingly reasonable. In fact, if you look, you can find hosting companies that INCLUDE unlimited video hosting with their standard hosting accounts! That’s the kind of thing you want to find.

What else is provided by a good Video Hosting Account?

Well, quick and easy production is on thing. A good Video Marketing System will give you the ability to create a quick video easily and right online. For simple, straightforward videos of the kind most usually found in I-Marketing, recording a video DIRECTLY onto your video hosting account saves time and confusion. Turn on your camera … push the button on the screen … make you’re video. Simple as that. There’s no video format conversion, no uploading. Now, the quality of a video that’s created in a camera and is then uploaded is usually better, but for the simple stuff this online creation ability can really save a lot of time and is quite adequate, so you’ll want to make sure you can do that with your video system.

As usual with this type of thing, you’ll want to make sure that your personal Video Hosting Account and Marketing System is provided by a reputable company with years of experience. You don’t want to wake up one morning and find all your videos gone along with the web site. Make sure your provider has years of experience and folks heading it up who are well known and have reputations to uphold.

Also make sure that there is easily available and high quality training and support Levitra provided. You should be able to get Live support 24 hours a day, seven days a week either in a chat room or an online conference room.

Lastly, as with hosting, most of these programs are affiliate programs as well. Look into the pay plan and see if your video hosting company will be profitable to you when you bring in new people.

So … there you have it. As part of your I-Marketer’s Toolkit you really do need your own, personal, Video Marketing System and hosting provider. Go to Google and do a search. Find out what’s out there and sign up with the one that provides the most value and highest quality for you and your new business. Remember … this is your Toolkit you’re putting together. You don’t want to allow any shoddy work and at the same time you don’t want to go broke paying too much for the things you need … so be careful, prudent, and look into all the possibilities in detail.

Once again, I hope this helps! If you have questions, I’m available if you need me. Add me to Skype and let’s connect! My Skype id is steve.gaghagen and I’d love to meet you online.

If you haven’t signed in to my mailing list, please do so through the form at the top of this page. when
you do you’ll receive my free 6-day eCourse on Personal Branding online, plus my email updates of
training sessions and what works and doesn’t work in online business.

Have a GREAT Day!

Steve Gaghagen
Internet Marketing Expert & Trainer

==============================
For The Best Selection Of Tools I’ve Found For Your “I-Marketer’s Toolkit” … CLICK HERE

DOWNLOAD OR LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:

So you’re just starting out trying to create income from home by working online. How do you get started? What do you do first?

Well, most people make a bunch of mistakes right off the bat. They go out and find some program that attracts them, get signed up, and then start promoting it willy-nilly in online advertising sources that are usually (you should pardon the expression) half-assed. They start flailing around blindly throwing some affiliate sale page in front of people who don’t have any interest in seeing it.

That’s not the kind of behavior I teach around here, and it’s certainly not going to get you profitable online. Trying to get started like this is doomed to failure from the start for lack of planning and lack of the proper tools.

This week I’m going to be posting about your “I-Marketer’s Toolkit”. We’re going to be going through a list of things that are indispensable for you to have all lined up BEFORE you begin. You wouldn’t start to build a house with just a hammer but no nails, saws, screwdrivers, or lumber. No … you’d make sure your toolkit was stocked with everything you needed to complete the job.

Likewise, if you want to work online, whether it be in affiliate sales, network marketing … whatever the specific field … you need to get your toolkit together. That’s what we’ll be discussing over the coming days.

To start off the series, I want to discuss web hosting.

OK, OK … I know what you’re thinking: “Web hosting! What the heck is he talking about? I’m just starting out here! What’s this web hosting all about? Honest! I don’t know nothin’ ’bout web hosting Miss Scarlet!”

(Or something like that).

Well … never mind. You may not know anything about web hosting right now, and you may not think you NEED it right now … but you will.

The average “newbie” … as discussed in the paragraphs that began this article … has found themselves an affiliate page of some sort. It may be for a company, a business opportunity, or even just a product. The Newbie way of thinking goes something like this: “What do I need hosting for? The company already supplied me with a site and they’re hosting it! In fact, that’s one of the things they said that convinced me to do this! They were gonna give me a website and host it for me so I didn’t have to worry about that kind of stuff!”

If that’s what you’re thinking right now … get over it. You got had with that one. The company (or whatever) told you all you’d have to do was get that site in front of people and you could retire.

They lied.

You bought it.

The fact is that probably about 95% of folks who attempt to work online will fail. That’s an ugly fact, but it’s the truth. The question is: Why?

The answer is simple:

Because all they’re doing online is … SELLING STUFF. They’re not BRANDING themselves.

Now, I could go into a long discussion about Branding … what it is, how to do it, and WHY you need to do it to succeed online … but that’s not the purpose of this session today. Today’s purpose is to discuss web hosting and why you need it.

A good web hosting account is the basis of everything you need to BRAND YOURSELF online. Having a hosting account where you can mount as many websites as you may need … sites created by or for yourself, that are designed to contribute to the creation of YOUR BRAND online … is the very foundation of what you need to do to succeed. You need to get this together BEFORE you begin, and you need to make sure you’re selecting the right hosting provider for you. You don’t want to get very far down the line and then discover you have greater needs than your provider supplies … or that you’re paying way too much money … and then have to switch providers in mid-stream and go through the hassles of moving your sites.

So … do it now.

There are several things to look for in a web hosting provider. We’ll cover the really important ones right here:

1) RELIABILITY

You don’t want to go with “Frank and Pearl’s Mom & Dad Hosting Shop”. Even though they’ll probably give you a huge discount (read the small print), you’ll probably end up dealing with problems you don’t need, like tons of downtime and lousy support. You want a company that’s been around for a while, where the management and ownership are in the hands of well known folks who have a reputation to uphold. We need to keep a sharp eye on budget, but we also want high quality tools in our tool box. It’s possible to get both.

2) UNLIMITED HOSTING

As your business grows, so will the number of web sites you’ll need and want. Right now you may be thinking, “What the heck do I need with more than one website?” Well, if you’re thinking that … just realize you’ll learn differently as you progress. There will be a million times in your online life when you will want to create a new web page. They can range from fairly complicated sites that serve as a center point of business for their owners … much like the site you’re on right now … to simple, one-page “capture” pages used as an entry point to an affiliate page of some kind. The point is, you’re going to need the ability to host A LOT of sites.

AND … you want to shop around to make sure you find a place to do that for ONE PRICE. Many hosting providers can rope you in by telling you, “It’s only $10 a month!” That’s great! Until you have fourteen websites being hosted there. Now you’re at $140 a month just to make these things appear online … and that sucking sound you hear is the sound of profits going out of your pocket!

To recap here: you need to find a hosting source that will allow you to host an UNLIMITED NUMBER OF DOMAINS AT A FIXED MONTHLY FEE that never changes.

3) RESELLER RIGHTS

One of the ways you can make good money online is to be able to sell hosting yourself! Now, being able to do that effectively requires that you have a hosting account that is unlimited as we just discussed. If you have that, you can go to your brother, your friends … to whoever you want … and offer to host THEIR website for them at less per month than they’re paying now. Then you can move their website to YOUR hosting account. Because you have unlimited hosting, adding that new domain costs you nothing, and your new hosting client is now paying you per month to host their site … and they’re happy to do it because you’re saving them money.

(Additionally … and this is an aside … you can also increase your income by offering to do maintenance on the site you’re hosting as you learn and expand and are able. Do you see where this is going? with unlimited hosting you can become, if you like, your own web host company, hosting, creating, maintaining websites for people you know or businesses in your town).

BUT … here’s the Big But (no pun intended) … your hosting provider must give you the RIGHT to do that. It’s called “reseller rights” and you need to find a hosting account that allows this. There are MANY that simply don’t allow it. Make sure your hosting provider does.

4) INCOME OPPORTUNITY

Most hosting companies have affiliate programs and provide the opportunity for you to create income by offering their services to others. However, not all hosting companies pay plans are created equal. As you expand and grow your business, your hosting company can become a good secondary or primary income stream. You need to take a good look at their compensation plan, because some of them SUCK! I know many people who promote a certain hosting company … as a PRIMARY business … that pays them $1 a month for each active member they recruit! ONE DOLLAR A MONTH! If you want that company to pay you $5K a month … you’ve got to have 5,000 active people in your group! NO THANKS! If I’m going to
recruit people to a company somewhere … I want them to pay me well. Make sure your hosting company has a very good pay plan for recruitment.

5) SUPPORT

This is vitally important. You can have a great hosting company, but if you can’t get help when you have a problem it becomes practically worthless. You need to be able to access good, quality support whenever you need it. I’ll go even further: if you can’t get LIVE support online 24 hours a day 7 days a week … find someone else to host your websites. I mean … come on! This is the Internet! Somewhere in the world people are awake … somewhere in the world someone needs help. If your web hosting company can’t provide you with a conference room or chat where you can get help 24 hours a day from a live support tech … go somewhere else!

6) TRAINING

Quality training from your web host company is crucial. You’ll need to learn how to use your web host account, how to access and use your cPanel, your domain file system, Fantastico, and eventually how to use an FTP program to upload files to your websites. Now, at this point, this probably sounds very intimidating, but that’s the point of good training! A web hosting company that provides quality training, easily available in both live and recorded formats, and done by knowledgeable, experienced trainers is a really cool thing … AND … they are out there folks. All you have to do is look a bit.
So … Web Hosting and YOU all in one post!

There are all the why’s, what’s, and how’s. The first and most basic part of your I-Marketer’s Toolkit is your hosting account. As you prepare to do business online, do your “due diligence”. Look around and shop around. Make sure you align yourself with a company that provides all of the aspects we’ve just discussed so you’ll have the quality of service you need, combined with everything required to allow your business to grow and you to learn, without breaking your bank account.

Hope this helps! As always, if you have questions, concerns, or just want to talk about working online, I’m available if you need me. Add me to Skype and let’s connect! My Skype id is steve.gaghagen and I’d love to meet you online.

If you haven’t signed in to my mailing list, please do so through the form at the top of this page. when you do you’ll receive my free 6-day eCourse on Personal Branding online, plus my email updates of training sessions and what works and doesn’t work in online business.

Have a GREAT Day!
Steve Gaghagen
Internet Marketing Expert & Trainer

==============================
For Cialis The Best Selection Of Tools I’ve Found For Your “I-Marketer’s Toolkit” … at a price that won’t break your budget … CLICK HERE

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-a8db4800c47d1f35f7babbe4b2e171ce}

Steve Gaghagen

GVO TRAINING AND OPPORTUNITY VIDEOS

YOU’VE ASKED FOR THESE TO BE IN ONE PLACE …

… WELL, HERE THEY ARE!

Most of you who follow these pages are members of GVO (Global Virtual Opportunity). As you’ll know, I think that GVO is the BEST available and most comprehensive source of tools we all No prescription cialis need to become successful at making money on the Internet. You’ve all heard me speak of the amount of money I began saving … instantly … when I joined GVO and began using their tools to build my business. I’ve also spoken at length about how well GVO is paying me to use those tools! What a great situation!

(NOTE: If you’re not a member of GVO and you’re trying to learn to create income from home on the Internet, you’re making things more difficult for yourself. I call GVO the “I-Marketer’s Toolkit” because it contains everything you need to work online for one low monthly charge that never goes up as your business grows. If you haven’t seriously taken a look at GVO, you should do that before you do anything else. You can sign up for the $1, 14-Day Trial, at http://stevemax.gogvo.com. During that 14 day period, you and I can work together to get your systems all set up and operating, and in the course of that you’ll come to know and understand the true value of GVO as your primary online business resource … and as a great online business opportunity.)

Recently I’ve been getting calls from many of you about the GVO training videos. If you hang around the GVO academy at all (you can access the Academy through your GVO back office), you’ve heard about the videos. They are available through your back office, but still I receive calls from folks who seem to have trouble locating them all.

Well … I decided to take care of that problem once and for all.

If you look over in the right sidebar of this page, you’ll see something new added there! For your easy reference, I’ve taken all the links to the GVO training recordings and videos and installed them right here so that you can find them anytime you like.

Take a few minutes and go through them. You’ll find videos about the eResponder, the Prospecting systems, using your Conference Room, your Easy Video Producer account, Competition Witness, and all the rest. You’ll find recorded training calls, and TONS of information to help you that Joel Therien and the guys have set up for you. You’ll also find a link to the Online GVO Presentation that you can send your prospects to anytime of the day or night!

So … no more complaints about “Where are these videos I keep hearing about …” … OK? LOL.

Seriously … take a quick look through these new links. Bookmark the pages for yourself and they can be your “reference library” for all things GVO.

Also … those of you who are GVO members should seriously be taking advantage of all the training available at GVO academy. You can access that through your back office … and, for a while longer, simply by visiting: http://gvoacademy.com/. As of this moment, classes are still totally open to everyone. That will change soon, and the classes (with the exception of the Opportunity Presentations) will be available to members only. If you’re not yet a GVO member, this is another great reason to become one ASAP. There is no better training available on the net to help you make money from home than the training you’ll receive through GVO. I’ve been a member of programs that cost more than GVO each month … that provided TRAINING ONLY … no marketing tools or hosting at all … and where the training was actually far inferior. The training alone at GVO is well worth the price of admission, and if you’re serious about your education, you should be attending. You can find the training schedule right on the GVO Academy webpage.

So … that’s it for now. Please feel free to leave your comments or questions. As always, I hope you find this helpful and I look forward to being of assistance in the future whenever you need me!

Steve Gaghagen
Internet Marketing Expert & Trainer

^^^ CLICK TO PLAY THE VIDEO!

HERE’S YOUR I-MARKETING CHRISTMAS PRESENT!

We’ve Been Talking About Getting More Traffic To Your WordPress Blog …

… Here’s a WordPress Plugin You MUST Have …
… And The Submission Tool You Need To Really Ramp Things Up!

Last week I posted a bit on adding ping services to your WordPress blog to increase traffic. The reaction was swift … large … and completely positive, and I’m very grateful for everyone who commented and left such nice remarks here.

At the time of that post I was actively looking for ways to increase the SEO friendliness of my WP blog/website. For those of my readers who are relative “newbies” at all of this, SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization. What that means is constructing your website to be friendly, welcoming, and inviting to the “spiders” sent out by search engines. These “spiders” roam the web and “crawl” websites to index them by keywords and phrases. If your website is constructed in ways that are more easily read and understood by the spiders … it will be more highly indexed than a site that is not. Now, exactly what the spiders are looking for and are comfortable with … and just where in a webpage certain information needs to be and how it needs to be there … can turn into a very arcane type of pursuit. It’s certainly not the kind of thing most of us are comfortable dealing with right off the bat as we begin learning about making money on the Internet and working with web pages and blogs.

I was looking to find ways to optimize a WordPress blog for SEO that would be a good method for anyone … including our delicate newbies … and could be easily implemented by anyone without having to get into the areas of messing around with theme editors and such. Lo and behold, in one of Janet Legere’s online training sessions, my good friend Don Legere commented that there were WP Plugins designed to do just that … so I started looking for them.

What I found was that there are actually quite a few of these little goodies available. That meant I’d have to do some research and some “pokin’ around”. I don’t like to say, “Here’s something you should do and here are thirteen different ways to do it … you decide”. If I’m going to recommend something, I want to be specific and have specific instructions on how to get it done … instructions that are simple enough so even the person who has just gotten started blogging can pull it off with a minimum of hair loss and cussing. So I started collecting these little goodies … going through the process of installing and testing out each one to see just what it took to get them loaded, configured, and how easy they were to work with.

The fruit of all that is the point of this article today. I’m going to recommend a WordPress plugin to you that you can download for free, activate in your WP blog, and begin using in just a matter of minutes. It’s called “The All-In-One SEO Pack”, and it’s from Semper Fi Designs. It’s a great plugin and beat out all the others for ease of use, installation, and scope of effectiveness … that’s why it’s the one I’m recommending to you.

I do want to take a moment to give a shout out to Silvia Rod. Silvia is one of our readers here and pointed this one out in a comment left on the “Ping” post. Way to go, Silvia! You nailed it! Click on Silvia’s name and visit her blog. It’s well worth it!

Obtaining and configuring your WP SEO Plugin is a simple, 4-Step process. However, I’m adding a fifth step here. The fifth step involves website Submission. SEO optimization is all well and good. However, it really reaches its highest possible level of effectiveness only when your website is submitted to search engines and Free For All ad sites, regularly and properly. Think of it this way: your WP SEO plugin cleans the house and makes it presentable and inviting to your guests (the spiders). Website Submission is the invitation you send to invite your spidery guests to drop buy … and index your house (site).

So … I’ve included Step #5, which will give you access to the BEST, most effective, easiest, and least expensive way there is to have your website submitted properly, professionally, and regularly. 

So … now we get to the good stuff: How to get the All-In-One SEO Pack … how to install it in your WP blog … and how to configure it … and how to set up continuing submission of your site to optimize search engine traffic. The following instructions are simple as far as I can see. The actual process for the first 4 steps took me about 5 minutes, and I’ve detailed each step below. The submission setup should take you about ten.

1) DOWNLOAD THE ALL-IN-ONE SEO PACK

The first step is to download the plugin to your own computer. Use the following link to do that:

CLICK HERE FOR THE SEO ALL-IN-ONE PACK DOWNLOAD SITE

Once there, right-click on the “Download” tab, select “Save Target As” … and save the .zip file to your desktop, or anywhere else you might like to store it. You won’t have to unzip this file, you’ll be loading the complete .zip file into WordPress and it will all be done automatically.

2) UPLOAD THE ALL-IN-ONE SEO PACK TO WORDPRESS

After saving the .zip file of the plugin to your computer, login to your WordPress Dashboard.

In the left side menu, under “Plugins” … Select “Add New”.

This will take you to the “Install Plugins” page. Just under the page title … Select “Upload”.

On that page, use the “Browse” function to locate the plugin .zip file you just saved on your computer. Select it and click “Install Now”.

3) ACTIVATE YOUR NEW PLUGIN

Once the system has completed installing the plugin … and it will tell you when it’s complete … takes just a few seconds … Select “Installed” from the “Plugins” category in the left hand menu.

This will take you to the “Manage Plugins” page, and you will see your new All-In-One SEO Pack plugin listed there. Below the title of the plugin, Select “Activate” to activate the new plugin.

4) CONFIGURE YOUR NEW PLUGIN

To Configure your new plugin, you’ll simply click on “Options Configuration Panel” at the plugin listing on the Manage Plugins page. There’s actually not much to do to configure this thing. It’s designed to do most everything for you. When you open the Configuration page, you’ll want to make sure the plugin is “Enabled”, you’ll need to compose a Home Title, a Home Description, and come up with some Home Keywords. Those are probably the only things you’re going to want to do in the configuration section.

How you do these things … what exactly should be your Home Title, Description, and Keywords … is up to you. This is where creative thinking, and personal taste and objectives come into play. The guys at Semper Fi Designs have put up a good video that will help you. You can watch it here:

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE SEO PACK CONFIGURATION VIDEO

That’s about it! There are lots of things you can do with the All-In-One SEO Pack … but that’s the general and basic setup. As always, if you have questions or problems, you can always contact me and I’ll be glad to help if I can, but there is also a Forum at Semper Fi where you can go for help and answers. There’s a lot of good information there. You can find the Forum at:

SEMPER FI DESIGNS FORUM

>>> Now … we’re not done just yet! Now we have our house all cleaned and presentable for our spidery guests so they will be comfortable and happy to visit us. NOW … we need to send out invitations … in a way the search engines will like … and regularly.

To do this we go on to Step #5:

5) SETUP MY EASY SUBMITTING

My Easy Submitting is the brainchild of Jason Lemure, partnering with my mentors Janet and Don Legere. This great service is EXTREMELY effective, easy to use and very inexpensive. There are other things you should be doing to increase traffic to your blog. One of those things is Website Submission. Some of you are already doing this … BUT … it will be MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE now that you have your new SEO plugin installed and optimizing your blog.

Why use My Easy Submitting? Well, there are lots of reasons. First of all, it’s completely automated. Once you set it up … you forget about it. For website submission to be effective it must be done correctly AND REGULARLY. Submitting once does next to nothing. Submitting by hand to individual search engines is extremely time consuming. Those Submitter software thingys are horrible. They do a “one size fits all” type of submission, and search engines don’t really like that. MES submits regularly, automatically, and does it in the proper way, while consuming none of your time.

When I say it’s inexpensive, I mean it. If all you want to do is submit one site … the service is $14.95 a month. If you do this right … setting up MES with the same keywords you just chose for your SEO plugin … the results can be amazing. Now … this is not an overnight tactic. The combination of SEO optimization Tadalis SX and Submission doesn’t mean that 400,000 people will visit your blog tomorrow. That’s where the REGULARLY part comes in. If your blog is SEO optimized … AND submitted regularly … over time you will see traffic growing as your search engine rankings increase.

So … Step 5 begins with getting your My Easy Submitting Account.

OH … By The Way … MES is running a Special until December 31, 2009 … When you register … USE THE PROMO CODE: HALF. You’ll save 50% on the first months fee. That’s a savings from $7.50 to $39.95 … depending on which account you choose.

Also … you should know there are a LOT more goodies in MES that will help with your WP Blog optimization. You’ll get to know and use these over time.

So …First Part of Step 5: GET YOUR MY EASY SUBMITTING ACCOUNT HERE

Now that you’ve got your My Easy Submitting Account … we can go on and set it up to submit your blog. In my example below, I am setting up my GVO (Global Virtual Opportunities) website for submissions.

(You need to login to your MyEasySubmitting account to access the Submission services)

Login to MES here

http://myeasysubmitting.com/index.fpl?action=login

Click on Search Engine Submission

Go to Create New Campaign

1. Campaign Name

GVO

2. Site URL

http://stevemax1.gogvo.com (Use your blog domain or whatever website you want to submit)

3. Site Title (NOTE: Choose what fits your site … and tie it to the Title you used in your SEO plugin)

The WebHost That Helps You Make Money And Live Better

4. Key words (NOTE: Choose what fits your site … and tie it to the Title you used in your SEO plugin)

webhosting, money, autoresponders, list building,

5. Description (NOTE: Choose what fits your site … and tie it to the Title you used in your SEO plugin)

Web hosting, Domain hosting, Professional Auto-responders, Video Hosting all unlimited and all for one low price

6. dmoz (NOTE: Choose what fits your site … and tie it to the Title you used in your SEO plugin)

Select Business – Business Opportunities, then under subcategories, Business, Opportunities Online Opportunities, Affiliate Programs

Click NEXT

7. Select Options

* Choose Fast Mode
* Choose the default auto submit option, I recommend weekly
* DO not choose to submit Doorway pages .. leave this blank

You will have the ability to edit your campaign at any time.

If you chose an upgraded membership with more than one campaign, you can setup a campaign for other lead pages that you have ready. If you do not have other websites ready, you can leave your setup with just one campaign for your website.

Your site will be submitted regularly and over time, you too will see a co-relation between your site being submitted and activity happening.

SO THAT’S IT!

If you’ve completed Steps 1-5 above, you now have your WordPress blog optimized for SEO … and you’re all set up for automated website submission to invite those creepy crawly little spidery guys to come over for a visit!

Congratulations!

I hope you found this little excursion into Search Engine Optimization and Submission informative and helpful. I want to thank Janet Legere for the instructions in Step 5 … I swiped those right off of her blog at http://janetlegere.blogspot.com. I visit there often and recommend it to anyone seriously wanting to learn to build their lists and work online.

Please leave your comments if you like. As always, I invite you to contact me with any questions or problems. I really am here to help if I can.

Have a GREAT Day!

Steve Gaghagen
Internet Marketing Expert & Trainer

WANT MORE TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG?

Here’s Something Anyone With A WordPress Blog Should Do …
It’s Easy, Free, and Brings More Web Traffic To Your Blog!

Have you heard of “Pinging”?

If you’ve been blogging for a while you probably have. Pinging is one of the ways we can all get more web traffic to our blogs … and web traffic is what it’s all about, right?

Are you aware of just how many Ping Services there are? There are TONS of them, and you should be using them all.

Now I can hear what you’re thinking … “Oh here’s another thing Steve’s gonna want me to do that’s going to take HOURS to set up!”

Nope … if you’ve got your WordPress blog set up and hosted on your own domain in your GVO account (See the “Getting Started” page of this site) … this little web traffic enhancement is going to take you 5 minutes.

So OK … here we go:

First … What is a “Ping”?

Every time you update your blog with a new post, WordPress can send out a signal to Search Engines and Blog Directories that there’s been a change on your blog. That signal is called a “Ping”. When a Search Engine or Blog Directory receives a Ping, it will send out its “Spiders” to “crawl” your blog. Spiders are like the electronic tentacles of the search engine that “crawl” through your blog gathering words and phrases to be “indexed” and associated with keywords used in searches by other folks online.

By default, WordPress is set up to ping each time you update with a new post or page. However, it only pings ONE source! What we’re going to do here is a simple step that will configure your blog to ping 112 online sources! This is going to be easy for you since I’ve already done the research, found the ping sources, and codified them into a list that you can simply copy and paste into your WordPress Dashboard following these directions. The more your blog Pings to more different sources of Spiders, the higher you’ll rank in the various search engine indexes. The higher you are in those indexes, the more search engine generated web traffic you’ll receive.

Make sense?

So … here are some very simple instructions you can follow to get your WordPress blog set up to maximize your pinging … and generate more traffic to your blog:

(NOTE: If your blog privacy settings are set to block spiders, you’ll have to change that setting first. You shouldn’t have it set this way anyway, it really puts a crimp on getting people to your blog … but some themes may default to that position. To make sure you’re set up there, go to SETTINGS>PRIVACY in the left hand menu of your dashboard. You’ll only see two choices there. Make sure “I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers” is the one that’s checked. If it’s not, check it and click on “Save Changes”. Then you can proceed with the following instructions.)

1) Login to your WordPress Dashboard.

2)  At the bottom of the menu on the Left Hand Side, under the heading “Settings” … Select “Writing”.

3) In the “Update Services” window you’ll find there, copy and paste the following list of Ping Services:

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogbot.dk/io/xml-rpc.php
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://mod-pubsub.org/knapps/blogchatt
http://ping.amagle.com
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://thingamablog.sourceforge.net/ping.php
Silagra />http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping
http://www.blogoon.net/ping
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogroots.com/tbpopuli.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/knapps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://rpc.qwikping.com
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.britblog.com
http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://ping.fakapster.com/rpc
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/

4) Click “Save Changes”.

THAT’S IT! You’re done!

From now on you blog will ping ALL of these services each time you post. This will invite the spiders to crawl your site and will aid greatly in generating traffic to your site.

That’s today’s Blogging Tip … Hope you find it useful.

Steve Gaghagen
Internet Marketing Expert & Trainer