Email Marketing Successfully - A Program that Works

If you work online whether you have an internet business, freelance or provide niche related content that is dependent on followers, customers or the likes then you should already be familiar with email marketing and what it entails.

For those of you who are not familiar with it - email marketing can be as simple as  providing a contact form on your site or an auto response to emails sent in from customers, consumers or subscribers. It can also be as extensive as regular newsletters sent out online via email,  building a subscription platform for your site or information, obtaining and managing subscriber sign ups right on through to tracking how well your email marketing strategies are preforming. These can all be  important aspects to increasing your online and offline success.

What successful email marketing is not: spamming a bunch of people information that they are uninterested in; sending emails to random people in hopes you find someone who is interested.

Successful email marketing is: allowing people to choose to receive information from you that interests them, sharing products/info related to niches of interest, building a relationship and trust with subscribers while providing them requested information, making sure inquiries are acknowledged immediately, building revenue opportunities, expanding your follower base and much more.

Email Marketing Programs - Be Warned!

There are a lot of programs, software and services out there claiming to maximize your email marketing strategies and potential. What you need to watch for are the ones that utilize unethical practices to build a following i.e. spamming, list buying, false advertising etc. Online these services are a dime a dozen.

Succeed with What Helps Others be Successful

Instead of flying blind a good plan of action to take full advantage of the possibilities that email marketing can bring you need to - go with an email marketing program or service that is trusted by people out there doing exactly what you are and succeeding at it.

One of the top companies - and you've probably unknowingly seen them if you've subscribed to a site/blog or receive a regular newsletter via email - is AWeber. Currently they are running a $1 trial for those who are interested but not willing to commit without test driving the service.

AWeber provides: Auto-responder emails to internet inquiries placed to you via: email contact forms etc; as a client you get templates, advanced scheduling settings. customer support and are able to track preformace.

Website Sign up and subscribe forms features: Templates, form designed, animated effects and graphics and split test sign up forms.

Collect and Manage Subscribers (amazing time saver): Sign up forms, subscriber tracking (how many people unsubscribed, opened your email etc), Subscriber segmentation and 3rd party integration.

Newletters & Emails: Over 100 easy to use email templates, sign up forms, great selection of color schemes, RSS to email, works with all major blogs ability to send weekly digests, blog to email, performance tracking, Facebook and Twitter integration and the ability to publish emails online. 



.

Read More ->>

How to Get Quality Backlinks - What to look for

Quality backlinks are not just random links to your website or content on some random website. Though not everything is known as far as what the search engines deem valuable one thing is for certain - link quality COUNTS!

Here we will go over some of the basics you need to consider before taking part in link exchanges or signing up with some backlink building service (more on these services below).

Quality backlinks to your website, content or blog should consist of the following:

>Placement on a well ranked site
>Linking site should contain quality information
>Linking website should contain information relevant to your sites niche/topic
>Website where your backlink is placed should contain original content and not content that is plagiarized, infringing copyrights or illegal in any other manner
>Your quality backlinks should never be placed on spam sites. Sites which contain more links and/or self promotion than actual content. *Rule of thumb is approximately 3 quality non-duped links per page of content.
> Keyword optimized anchor text used for links (optimal but not mandatory)
> Ideally for quality backlinks your back links should be placed on sites such as the .edu, .gov which hold high trust with search engines


A word of caution if you are debating trying to get quality backlinks through a link building service. There has been a lot of speculation online as to whether or not the search engines frown upon a large quantity of links going up in a short time or not. However, even if they do not "frown" upon it your chances of getting your site marked as "spam" increase.

If search engines such as Google see a good quantity of links to your site pop up in a day or even a week red flags will possibly be raised. To search engines the chances of those being quality backlinks based on informative information or simply a great website is highly unlikely and they are likely to view it as a scam or spam site.

So, do your homework. Know where your sites backlinks will be listed and make sure the service is designed to slowly build links to your site over a longer period of time rather that all at once.

My recommendation would be to do this job yourself or pay some to find sites that follow the criteria above that are willing to give you quality backlinks. This can be time consuming but in the long run quality can pay off big time.

Related Articles and Sites you May find Useful
Best Do Follow & No Follow Social Bookmarking Sites List For SEO, Internet Marketing, and Dofollow Backlinks
Free Backlinks: Quick, easy traffic builders that get results!
Understanding web page linking - links, backlinks, nofollow and all that




.

Read More ->>

A New Project with Old Content

After following the steps in The Niche Blogger program that I signed up with and the advice of other professional bloggers and site owners I am undertaking a fairly time consuming task in hopes of increasing my passive income revenue.

This project consists of interlinking related articles on the sites where I publish content. One of the my currently active writing sites that holds my largest quantity of content is Infobarrel. So what I will be doing is going through the topics and articles that I've written and adding contextual anchor links to related content.

So basically my articles on working from home (only one of many topics I write on) will now contain links to my other articles on the same site that are relevant to any online opportunity that stands to create a steady income stream whether that be a passive residual income or actual employee based jobs that offer at home positions.

What I am hoping to see from this is both increased acknowledgement to "often overlooked articles" from both reader traffic and search engines. This is not an overnight success as with anything that deals with search engines it may be weeks or months before I notice any significant increases in traffic and/or revenue.

Had I been doing this all along then the time would be rather minimal but since I am starting so late with so much content already published I've added a bit to my workload. So a suggestion I would like to pass on to those of you who create content for passive or residual income is to do this process as you publish content to limit both; the amount of work and the time it will take for search engines to find your content.

Read More ->>

A Better Understanding of the Google Adwords Keyword Tool

Here is a video I ran across that may be of help to those of you out there who use Adwords for advertising or merely use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool for your keyword research for your online websites or articles.

As many of you know keywords are an important part of SEO which is crucial for many of those whose livelihood is based on their online income. If you work at home writing, run your own online business or anything related getting noticed by the search engines = traffic which = a bigger revenue opportunity.

Read More ->>

Best-Reviewer Review

WOW~ Not happy at the moment with SheToldMe.com or Best-Reviewer. Though they both may still be beneficial for adding additional backlinks for your content, and I haven't decided if I will continue with them or not, the contributor appreciation is lacking - to say the least.

I wandered over to the Best-Reviewer site and clicked on the "forum" link (found at the top of the page). Boy, I wish I hadn't done that.

What I found was interactions from the creator of both sites blatantly saying that they don't care if their contributors are happy or not , pretty much they could care less. For a site that I am sure earns far more than the average contributor (judging off the way the site is monetized 1 ad for you 3 to 4 for them on each page of content) that is simply poor behavior.

I can't say at this point in time that I could recommend either one of these sites. I definitely think that it needs a complete makeover from the site design and layout right down to the owners attitude.

Read More ->>

Building Backlinks: Examples

There has been much ado about whether or not you can or should use the introduction to your pages and/or articles when linking them on other sites. Though there does not appear to be any answer that Google is coming out and backing up the facts are that there are tons of well ranking sites who's intro's can be found in search on other sites linking to them. This does not appear to get you penalized as long as you are just using a sentence or two.


One thing you want to remember though is you are looking primarily for "do follow sites for backlinks". This means the site allows Google and other search engines to "crawl" their sites and sections where your backlinks are found.



Recommendations for better Backlinks:


1) Change the intro/first paragraph by about 30% but make sure to keep it on topic- think S.E.O (search engine optimization). This eliminates the worry of duplicate content and provides backlinks that Google and other search engines can use to verify that your site is about a specific topic.


2) Don't always use intro's or cut and pasted snippets from your site or articles. Instead try linking keywords as backlinks. If you are commenting or creating content on another site and the topic is related to other work/sites that you have then hyperlink the keywords.


Example can be seen in the second paragraph of this article (do follow sites for backlinks). Though the link won't take you to an article that I've written you should get an idea of what is meant by back linking keywords or relevant and related words. What I did there was create backlinks using keywords that are found in the linked article. You should notice that both the chosen article and keywords were all related to this post - therefore making it "relevant".

3) Never spam your links. Posting your url's on forums, comment sections or anywhere else is considered spam if: the subjects are unrelated, there is no helpful information accompanying your link, it is done in a rude manner (such as posted repeatedly or with negative commentary) or it specifically states that outside links etc are not allowed.

4) Link exchanges. A lot of people use link exchanges to try and build a reputation and ranking in the search engines. If you do this it can be beneficial but be careful. Relevance and content makes a big difference. Your automotive site is not going to gain positive recognition with backlinks from a site for recipes or holiday decorations. On the same line - if the site that links to you is spammy or looked down on from search engines this also will not help your ranking. So be careful and ensure you check out any site before you offer to do a link exchange. 

5) Building backlinks through additional content. Backlinks to your sites can be put in your profile on most writing sites and/or are allowed (based on content and quality) within the content of articles, reviews etc. 

So, consider throwing up some related articles on other sites that you can link back to your content. Some such sites include: Squidoo, Infobarrel, Hubpages, Xomba, RedGage, Best Reviewer, ListMyFive.com, Ezine, and Associated Content. 

The added bonus to doing this is that you can also get paid for the content that you write on nearly every one of the above sites. 

Don't hesitate to ask questions if this doesn't give you the answers that you were looking for. I am here to help in any way that I can. 

Read More ->>

New Site for Building Backlinks

There is a new website online (see banner above) that looks to have some potential for site owners and content developers who are interested in building backlinks which in turn can boost their rankings in the search engines and help drive traffic to their websites.

The site is driven by user content on a broad range of topics. Outside of its 100% Adsense revenue share, one of the features that has peaked my interest is the fact that it allows you as a content creator to write up reviews or comparisons in a top 3 to 20 format and link each section to a relevant site.

This basically means that if you can write on topics that are relevant to your online sites or articles you can provide a backlink to help boost your sites importance in the search rankings. Granted rarely will one site alone take you to the top but if the content on the site remains primarily that of quality then it can help and while you wait for the benefits of a backlink to kick in you can find comfort knowing that you are also opening the possibility to bring is some additional ad revenue.

Though I am not 100% happy with the Best-Reviewer layout as it appears quite large and a bit cluttered with the ad sizes and placements - I'll definitely be giving it a try. I can't think of a reason not to!! Best of Luck and if you have any luck with the site or your own opinion to offer please stop in and let me know!

Read More ->>

What is Blogging? Getting Started Making Money Online

If you have ever wondered "what is blogging" then chances are you've heard about it from a friend or perhaps seen it mentioned on an internet forum. Which is extremely likely if you've ever looked into ways to start making money online or work at home opportunities. (Something that we will discuss towards the end of this article)


A blog is actually a way to pass along stories, opinions, share information and even more importantly make money.

When blogging first came about it was more of a personal platform for individuals to share what they had read or learned online and eventually what you could compare to someone's own personal (yet these are obviously public) diary. They would share stories from their lives, work, kids relationship issues and so on and before you knew it people started dedicating blogs to information on very specific topics (a.k.a. niches).

That ingenious move (niche blogs) is probably what brought you to this blog as it introduced us to something so simple yet so appealing, It gave us the opportunity to share information that we are passionate about and  actually make money and for some of us that money actually pays the bills and then some.

Blogs give you the opportunity to cater your knowledge to individuals out there looking for that information and if you provide what they are looking for you in turn are creating a loyal following.

The more followers you get the more pumped you are about sharing content and the more kindly the search engines will look upon your site. And if you are actually asking yourself "what is blogging" then this is exactly what you want. Once you are recognized by the search engines you are now accessible to a far bigger base of individuals who are interested in your niche topics. Therefore, creating more opportunities to generate a healthy passive income.

If after reading this your interest is still peaked and you know a little more about what is blogging then lets talk about how to get to the point that it pays you to do it.

Merely creating a blog and throwing some content on the pages is not going to bring you a steady passive income stream. Though with some monetization you may see a few pennies here and there it takes more than that. It is not a difficult or extremely time consuming process but it is one that takes know how and requires certain things to be implemented to be successful and start bringing in real money.

Some of the things you will need to know are:

• what pays (topics, keywords etc)
• how to promote
• Search engine optimization (S.E.O) 
• how to keep a readers attention
• how to make your blog stand out
• how to monetize
• the different ways to monetize properly
• ad placement for optimal performance
• and so on and so on

Luckily instead of spending the next year and a half reading through a bunch of half truths and mumbo jumbo searching for the real tricks to making money as a blogger you can do what I did and get it all in one place - courtesy of someone who was just like you and I and is now extremely successful.

What I am talking about is a site I stumbled upon not too long ago and that has already taught me more in less than a month than I learned in nearly two years of trying to figure it out on my own.

That would be The Niche Blogger site. It is a membership site that was created by Amy Bass. She started out like us, learned like us, now brings in thousands of dollars a month because of the tricks she's found to be successful and she shares that with you in a very clear step by step way. 


I'm not talking pages and pages of stuff to read through - I am talking about step by step video tutorials, screen shots, forums, articles, that walk you through everything from what is blogging, ad placement, niches that pay right down to creating and promoting your content. Where else can you find that? I can tell you in two years I never found that anywhere else.

If you are truly interested in staying home, working and making money online then I highly recommend the site. You won't be financially set over night but if you follow the steps, heed the advice and just do it you could find yourself in a position to eliminate your 9-5 job .

Read More ->>

List My Five's User Support

If you read any of the previous postings on ListMyFive.com then you know I had a concern regarding their Google Advertising. Well, finally I emailed the sites support team and am delighted to tell you that I had a response back in less than 24hours.

The reply was clear, timely and very informative. Definitely another positive being laid on the side of this new and unique online revenue building site. I was very satisfied with the way that they handled what could have easily been considered a "harsh" inquiry.

If you are just now coming into things then I'll explain what ListMyFive (LM5) is. LM5 is a Top 5 site - meaning their content consists of  Top 5 lists for everything. The content is created by users - mostly a compilation of some serious freelance writer's, SAHM's and WAHM&D's. Once created and published the lists, like articles you may have written in the past, have the potential to bring in readers and in turn give the contributors a source of residual income.

Suggestion: The LM5 site is new - so if you choose to sign up and start creating lists then you will want to promote them. Submit them to your favorite social networks and social bookmarking sites!

Read More ->>