I’m embarrassed to start this post like this, but I’m going to tell you my first “failure” online.. I bought Site Build It. I started all hot and heavy, printed out the all the information, read the action guides every night instead of my bookclub books, tinkered with all the tools then it just fizzled out and I went on to the next thing. I let it shrival into the virtual black hole before I ever let it start to glow.

Like I said above, I was new to the world of online marketing and business, I didn’t know fully what to expect or what it takes to make an online business. Then suddenly I went from excitement of the idea of making money while I sleep to cringing at the fact that I am….

A Site Build It Drop Out!

Fast forward, a year and half later and after intently studying everything I can get my hands on, I highly regret not realizing the power of this one stop solution when I had it! That is my honest statement- I regret being a Site Build It Drop Out!

When I am browsing the internet, wading through the search engine results or visiting forums, I can pick out a SBI owner with one glance, I don’t even need to click into their website for proof they are using SBI. It’s because they, unlike me, just followed the steps, instructions, training that is provided and didn’t get distracted or lose focus like I did. Ken Evoy, founder of SBI, gives you the perfect recipe of education, tools, forum support and so much more that anyone can use this all in one solution for their first website or their 40th. Just like baking the perfect pie, you must follow a recipe from start to finish, SBI gives you the recipe for a high ranking, profitable, online business if you just follow their recipe.

On a side note: I have to say that I have also been very impressed with how active and helpful Ken is with all his SBI owners. You can also check him out on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/KenEvoy and see for yourself he’s authentic to his business.

Site Build It Action Guide; Principles For Any Website Owner

If you don’t believe me when I say they have a recipe for you check out their Site Build It Action Guide- you don’t have to be a SBI owner to put this information to use on your own website.

Site Build It Tools

I’m being totally honest here, buying Site Build It today will cost you just under $300.00 so why would I suggest you invest that much money on one website? Yes, you can go with some of the cheap monthly web hosts, but then you will need to add on all your tools and programs. Site Build It contains everything you need from simple point and click web creation, to blogs, video, keyword tools, content tools and they are all in one place, supported by one company and paid for once. Just look at the long list of Site Build It Tools that you will have at your finger tips!

Why I Failed With Site Build It

I thought about why I didn’t have any success with Site Build It because anyone that knows me, knows that I will not promote any product that I don’t think is worth it- and this is a serious investment of both time and money, it’s not a $5.00 report that you read once and put it away.

So, when I go back in and look at it now with more experienced eyes I realize I had all the tools I needed for success at my fingertips the problem was me. I have to take full responsibility for my lack of action. However with that said, here are a few more mistakes I made:

1. I bought SBI before I had a clear goal and understanding of what my topic would be. You must have your market/niche clearly defined or else you will get lost in the journey and do what I did and wade from one topic to another.

2. I continued to try to look at other methods of making money online and I should have only focused on the information and plan that was right in front of me- it’s all there.

3. I didn’t leverage the forums and knowledge of those that have successful SBI sites. Only recently have I come to realize how “Modeling” is imperative for online businesses.

What Learned From Site Build It

I learned one of the most important online marketing lessons that I still always refer to:

Content + Traffic + Presell + Monetize

I highly suggest you check out that link with the full explanation because it is the best foundation I have found for understanding how to make money online.

So, there you have my review and honest feedback on why I like Site Build It and if you are looking for a new online business, adding to your online business or just looking for a way to earn a little part time cash on autopilot- save your time and money and start HERE.

If you are still unsure about this all in one system check out the Site Build It Demo.

Keys to Site Build It Success

Here is my last thoughts on your success with Site Build It…

• Have an “idea” of what markets/niches you enjoy and use the forum to help refine your ideas if needed
• Enjoy the topic- it’s much easier to write on the topics that come easily
• Print out the Action Guides and follow them. Period
• Set a schedule- hold yourself accountable for new content and don’t slack
• Don’t think this a get rich quick process- this takes your time/dedication
• Don’t think your not technical enough because that’s just a cop out

Now, again, check out all the FREEBIES HERE and realize if you have step by step PROVEN recipes here for free, think what’s on the other side…your SUCCESS!

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

Site Sell Review by SBI Drop Out

The problem lies, in knowing how to effectively leverage this technique since time in forums, social networks and various other types of online communities can literally “suck the life” out of your day and your productivity.

Secret 1:
Put thought into how you want to be perceived.

Do you want your name and business to be associated with your broken appliance stories, or as a valuable business to remember?

Secret 2:
Have clear goals.

Having a clear idea of how you want to be perceived will help you set your goals for the forum. Instead of answering 25 posts with “yeah, me too” pick out what posts you can add value to and craft an intellegent helpful and detailed reply.

If your end goal is to have people come back to your website post enough information so that other readers will see you know what you are talking about and want to read more.

Secret 3:
Know your call to action.

Like your newsletters, websites, blog postings, articles, forum marketing is no different. Have a call to action at the end of your post.

Do you want them to return to your blog to read part 2 of your answer post? Try an ending like “If you find this information helpful, I have a post listed here that covers more details http://url”

Secret 4:Make your signature line work for you.

When you create a profile in the forum you will be given the opportunity to add a profile signature that will be posted with each of your replies.

Enter a little bit of link bait there, an affiliate link, a link to a free report or a banner image.

Remember that forums are indexed by search engines, use a “keyword” that anchors your text which sends people to the website or a special landing page.

Your anchor text links, depending on the forum rules, will act as backlinks pointing to your site from various other sites, the more likely it is your site will rank higher for that search phrase.

The more anchor text links pointing to your site from various other sites, the more likely it is your site will rank higher for that search phrase. Do not try to add them all at once, 30-40 per week are fine, you start adding 100 a week and you will most likely get flagged by the search engines.

The html code (that’s what all the <> marks are) for your links is very simple but if you have problems come back and post a question and we are more then happy to help out.

I suggest you copy and paste the code into notepad and save on your desktop for easy reference. Do not use code pasted from a word editor like Microsoft Word. These type of editors will add characters that throw off your code.

Add Image To Your Forum Signature

[*url=http://www.yourlandingpageURL.com][img] http://www.whereyourimageis.com[*/img][*/url] – without the *s

If you host your own images, don’t forget to use the right directory path for your image. It may look something like http://yourwebsite.com/images/bannerxyz.jpg

If you use free webhosting most do not host images, you will need to use a third party image host.

If you don’t have an image, you can create your own image using photoshop, paint, or a free banner maker site.

Add Text Link To Your Forum Signature

[*url]http://www.yourwebsite.com[*/url] …..but take out the *

Warning: Do not use execessive BOLD or big/gaudy signatures most people are actually turned off by big signatures. Keep it simple and professional and let your call to action take front and center attention.

One of my favorite signature links for forums is promoting your blog with your feedburner feed signature. This will promote your blog, showing the latest and greatest information.

Secret 5:

Be Your Authentic Self

People have very good instincts and if you are only at the forum pushing and promoting yourself you will throw all your forum marketing efforts in the toilet and ruin your reputation before you start.

Be authentic to your personality, be genuine in your efforts to help others and be honest- if you are going to recommend a product- tell them it’s your affiliate link. I am much more likely to believe and USE someones affiliate link when they are open and most of the time I’ll even ASK for their affiliate link if I believe their recommendation is honest.

More Traffic Tactics

There are businesses that make thousands of dollars from their forum presence, if you spend time in forums and still are not having an increase website traffic or earning money from your time then I highly suggest you check out the MBC Beginners Guide To Traffic Tactics ebook. This ebook will go into more details of forum marketing plus many more website traffic generation strategies that can work for you!

http://moms-business-coach.com/recommends/forumtraffic

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

5 Secret Tips To Make Forum Marketing Work For You

Many small business owners focus on search engine optimization and paid advertising for their website traffic tactics. However, they forget that even Press Releases can bring a surge of new visitors, media opportunities and back links to their websites.

Today I created a Press Release following the Patrick Pretty PDF Press Release strategy. Check out the MBC Work At Home Tips Press Release and tell me what you think!

If you struggle with your Press Releases, I highly recommend the following resources:

Patrick Pretty
http://moms-business-coach.com/recommends/patrickpretty

Publicity Hound
http://moms-business-coach.com/recommends/publicityhound

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

How Many Website Traffic Tactics Are You Using?

Here is a list of 10 Action Steps you can use for your own online business marketing today, post this list near your desk, and check off the items when you do them and at the end of the week, take a moment to reflect on your accomplishments.

1. Blog, plain and simple, it has been shown case study after case study, the more you blog, the more the search engines & visitors love your fresh content. You don’t need to be 100% perfect on all the right plugins, and strategies, just take action and make a point to schedule at least 3 posts per week.

2. Join Twitter, start tweeting and building those relationships. Even if you only have it open for an hour a day while you’re checking email. Visit Summize, also known as Twitter Search, and search for your keyword or niche and start following others with the same interest.

3. Join Facebook and spend a few hours a week networking, joining groups, posting interesting information. Add the Twitter App to pull your feeds into your Facebook profile and add your blog RSS feed into your notes section so all your new friends know what you are up too. I personally have “Share This” installed in my browser to make it fast and easy to share direct to Twitter and Facebook.

4. Add value. Forums, blog posts, free reports, social networking give information to those around you.

5. Participate in Forums. Visit Google and in the search box enter your niche + forum and find the active forums, create an account and make a point to visit an hour or two every week.

6. Be creative and smart but don’t be detrimental. Meaning, we all want to be savvy and smart business owners, but there are very few “new” ideas and for those that are already mult-tasking and it can waste your time and money trying to be creative. Find a model that works, find a mentor that’s been there, and copy the system – I’m not saying rip off someones work, I’m saying copy what is already proven to work just modify to be “you”.

7. Find your target market and get in front of them. They are where the money is, spending hours at your desk trying to understand your html code to change a word for SEO will not bring in sales. Find where your target market hangs out, what they are already buying, where are they shopping, what else are they interested in? Your odds are better to go to the herd then try to slowly drag the herd to you one at a time.

8. Track and Test. Never stop tracking and testing. Each advertisement should be coded so you can track results, drop the low performing ones – create more of the high performers. Link your banner ads to different pages so you can tell from a glace what ones are giving you targeted visitors.

9. Prioritize and outsource what you can. A good Virtual Assistant can improve not only your productivity but also make you money by allowing you to focus on strategy and business builders instead of time eating busy work.

10. Content, Content, Content. Never stop creating your content for your site or blog. If you struggle with content, outsource it or learn how to use PLR – Private Label Rights-you can’t go wrong with good content.

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

10 Action Steps To Your Online Success Today

The must have tool of your weekend, the “Website Grader”. Quick, do it now, before you run out the door to start your weekend go visit the useful HubSpot site. This is a site that was recommended to me during last weekends Tweet Up in Boston, and now I’m spreading the word to you.

It’s super easy and fast and will do all your analyzing for you!

When you get to the front page at the top of the screen you will see the Website Grader button. All you need to do is click that, enter your URL AND any of your competitors URLs and you will get back some incredible data.

As they state on their site about the grade your website gets, “A website grade of 99/100 for www.hubspot.com means that of the hundreds of thousands of websites that have previously been evaluated, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 99% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others.

The software is constantly being upgraded and the algorithm enhanced. The number of potential recommendations provided by the tool is also increasing frequently. Please check back often.”

The report you get on your URL will include,

• Meta Tag
• Heading Summary
• Image Summary
• Interior Page Analysis
• Readability

Even better you will see more details about your Blog, off page SEO, Social Web 2.0 sites and Competition.

When you are done, they will email you a report of your data. Download their free Internet Marketing kit and you will get ideas and tips for any area that you may be weak in.

It’s all free so please take advantage of this great resource. Oh, I did I mention they have a Press Release Grader too? Check them out- HubSpot.

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

What Did You Get for a Grade?

People often overlook the classic use of images for search engine optimization strategies. How are your images labeled? Do you see that the spider bots are hitting your images in your website stats?

I know it’s important to label your images, but did you know that Google has a spot that you can go and feel like you are playing a game while you help them provide the most accurate labels for the images in their index?

Check out the Google Image Label page and you will be given a page, paired up with another user and given one image at a time while the clock ticks away.

Why? They have you and the partner “compete” against eachother to come up with as many names and labels as you can for the image you they are showing you. If you both choose the same image, you win points! A virtual video game that does Google’s work for them!

While it sounds easy, I have to say, it really is not but it did have an addictive feature to it and I was ashamed that I hit “PASS” more then once. However, it’s a good page to check out and I bet you won’t upload or use another image the same way after you play for 2 minutes!

Now, go check out your site, check your image names and alternate text and titles, be practical please and don’t keyword stuff- be accurate and complete and don’t have images that say image1 that doesn’t say anything.

Do a Google search in Google Images and see if your image even shows up… hmmm is that a watermark with your URL I see on that image?????? Why, isn’t that a clever way to send someone directly to your URL when they are shown a picture of something they were looking for…..

Especially if you go to the Google home page and see the number of images that show up in the actual search results.

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

Do You Use Google Images?

Image by confusedvision via Flickr

Tip of The Day

Anchor Text Code can be used in your blog posts, web pages, forum posts, social networking sites, basically anywhere that a little basic html code is allowed. If you don’t have this code in your notepad on your desktop yet, quick, copy and paste it there now so you have it ready the next time you need it.

<a href=”http://www.yoururl.com” target=”_blank”><b>your keyword</b></a>

Don’t forget about the deep links and make sure you link to other key pages in your website and not only your home page.

For example: I could use

<a href=”http://www.tubbybundle.com/catalog.htm?item=3&ret=catalog.htm” target=”_blank”><b>Sports Baby Towels</b></a>

When I copy and paste the above into html tab of my WordPress blog it looks like this:

Sports Baby Towels make excellent new dad baby gifts that help dad bond with baby during one on one bath time while giving mom a break.

I added some text around the keyword since you don’t want to it to look like a pure keyword stuff but have some meaning.

Why use Anchor Text Code?

If you look at the example above, the Anchor Text actually stands out from the rest of the text showing that it is hyperlinked, or that if you click on it you will go to another page. Anchor text has great SEO (search engine optimization) properties by telling the search spiders exactly what the content is of the page your linking to what tells more to a person and/or search spider “Click Here” or “Sports Baby Towel” I’m telling you where you are going and what the content of that page is with “Sports Baby Towel”. It’s like I’m holding your hand and I’m going to show you a page with sports baby towels…

So, copy and paste the code, do your keyword research and establish a core list of keywords with their appropriate webpages to link to and then use those in your forum postings, web 2.0 proporties and so forth.

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

Anchor Text Code

“..part of SEO is to attract the spiders.  I know that making changes on your site attracts them to come back and check out the changes.  To what extent do changes need to be made?  In other words, does that mean that full paragraphs of text need to be changed frequently on each page of your site, or is it more behind the scenes, like with titles, keywords, etc?  Common sense is telling me it is the visible text that ‘customers’ may see, but I can’t understand how to continually change all the text on my site.
To sum up…my question is really how much needs to be continually changed in order to attract the google-bots and other spiders?”

Answer:

As with any SEO question you can get as technical as you want, but I like to keep it short and practical, so in a nutshell;  It’s more then just changing text it’s adding content.

Go back to your keyword list and pull out your long tail keywords and add a page of information, like an article, for each of your keywords. Just think of how your site will grow if you add one article a week to your site focused on your keyword or topic. That’s an extra 52 pages that you can have “floating” around the internet and showing up in search engines that people can use as a front door to find you.

Of course, I’m not saying never change your base content, you should always keep testing and tracking and tweaking the content on your base pages for conversion purposes.

However, writing an article that is 400-600 words long should only take you 1/2 hour of work and less then that once you get used to the format.

Add linking to your other pages within the article to help the spiders effectively move around all your pages. An easy swipe line for doing is adding a line such as “As I stated in my earlier article, 5 Tips for SEO, print out your list of keywords and use those for your content base”

Let’s pause for a moment and look at this tactic:

1. I referenced you to an earlier article I wrote- keeping you on my site longer
2. I created an anchor text link that spiders will be attracted to with my keyword in it
3. I created a gateway for spiders to move from one page to another since they will follow the url
4. I added more value to you as a reader by giving you more information you were looking for, understanding SEO.

Blogging As A Free Marketing Tool

Installing a WordPress blog (remember that’s free too) on your host account, attracts spiders to your site because it’s always giving fresh content. Spiders don’t see free WordPress.com or Blogger blogs as adding to YOUR site, but to WORDPRESS.com. Even if you have a link to the free blog site from your website, they live on different IP addresses so the most it will do is follow the URL. For more information on free blogs vs self-hosted blogs you can check out, 5 Reasons You Should Host Your Blog.

The extra benefit of using a self-hosted blog, is the fact you can schedule your post. This cuts your time by allowing you to spend a few hours with your keyword list, create your articles and load them and have them scheduled to go out on certain days automatically. You can do it once a month and not think about it again.

Back to the nutshell, there is your 2 choices, add an article page to your site every week or install the free WordPress.org on your host and post every week and use this tool for passive income in addition to fresh content made easy.

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

Quick Question Tuesday- SEO, Spiders, Content

The last option is my personal preference and I created a list of 5 of my top reason why.

The Big 5

* If you have a blog hosted on your domain, you have control over everything about your blog. You can have your own layout and design for your blog, which means you can have a blog that matches your website logo. You can make your blog as unique as you want. This gives you an edge against other competing blogs in the same niche which may have similar layouts. You also have complete freedom to do anything you want with your blog. By hosting your blog on your domain, you can control your blog in many ways you want and you can add any features you want.

* By hosting your blog on your domain name, you make it easier for people to remember your blog.

* Hosting your blog on your domain means that you can develop and promote your own brand using your blog. You can make your blog headings similar to your website. In terms of search engine optimization (SEO) and advertising, this is very important because you will be advertising and optimizing your own domain and your own brand. SEO is also effective to do with your own domain name that includes your keywords. This will increase your blog’s visibility on search engines.

* By hosting your blog on your website, you have added security. This means that you don’t have to worry about losing your information or getting locked out of your account.

* You present a professional image by having your online business logo on your blog. This gives you ad edge against other competing website or blogs.

Based on the advantages outlined above, if you are serious about your online business, you must consider hosting your blog on your own domain.
Don’t Make Excuses

I know you are yelling at the computer right now that you don’t php from css to ftp so you can’t possibly create your own blog. Yes, it is easier to head over to Blogger and enter your email and your name and be blogging away within 10 minutes. But think of all the opportunities you are missing… and risking….

If you order a hosting package from some of the bigger hosting companies you can easily re-coup the small hosting fee you are paying with all the different ways you can monetize a blog with good traffic.

Good traffic that you can build using all the super cool tricks and plugins that only a self hosted blog will produce.

If you are still afraid of not being technical enough to load a blog you can pay someone a small fee to install and optimize your blog for you (like Moms Business Coach), a small investment in your automatic monthly income or follow a very short, step by step process that most hosting companies make so easy!

I recommend my host provider, I had my blog installed in under 10 minutes!

http://moms-business-coach.com/recommends/bluehost

Go Ahead, take a leap and if you have questions just let me know- we’ll help you out!

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

5 Reasons You Should Host Your Own Blog

The search engines now, highly favor, websites that have a large number of quality, one way links pointing to them. Because of this, it’s absolutely critical that we consistently try to get other websites to link to us, WITHOUT us linking back to them.

Yes, reciprocal linking is becoming less and less valuable. Submitting your website to website directories is an excellent way to get, quality, 1 way links pointing to your websites. You see, many of the website directories online have a high amount of page rank and have been online for several years.

These are 2 of the most important criteria for determining what a good link is, vs what a bad link is. These two criteria are:

1. The age of the website linking to you
2. The Page Rank of the website linking to you

With that said, many of these directories have both a high Page Rank AND are old websites, giving them more authority and power in the search engines.

Not only that, but there are literally thousands of website directories on the internet that are absolutely free for you to submit your website to! While it does take time to find these directories and then manually fill out all of the required criteria to submit your website, it is an excellent way to help increase your search engine rankings.

There are some good website directory submission software products on the market. The best of which is a product called Directory Submitter created by Brad Callen. You can see the details of the program here http://moms-business-coach.com/directorysubmitter

I decided to try it out after it was recommended to me, after all…

1. Its Free

2. It simplifies a process

3. It will help build traffic to my site that will ultimately help grow my business

So really, why wouldn’t you at least TRY it?

Step by Step Here Is What I Did To Start Building Backlinks

I visited the site above website

I clicked on the big DOWNLOAD FREE Button (by the way they also have an free Article Submitter)

I downloaded the zipped folder to my desktop

I then opened the program and followed the on-screen directions and chose to have a desktop short cut

I then launched the program and filled in the “new project” fields that include the basic information like your url, the catagory, sub-catagory, titles, description and keywords.

**This is where it is very important to have done your keyword research to know what keywords to use as your anchor text links!

Once you have your information entered you simply click from one site to the next off the list they provide with over 350 free directory sites. (Each site is listed and includes the PR rank)

The information is populated automatically for you all you need to do is verify the information and click submit.

Note: Some of the sites do require a reciprocal link so I kept another tab open and created a page in my blog for “links” then as each site that required a link I cut and paste, saved and moved on to the next site. By the way, I unchecked the box that says “Ping” in my blog post dashboard so I didn’t get accused of ping spamming every time I re-publish each minute. OR you can install the MaxPress Blog Ping Optimizer plug-in that automatically keeps you from over pinging the sites.

Summary

Esentially you simply enter your website details into the software program 1 time, and then click on any of the 1600+ website directories in the software and it will automatically fill in all of the submission criteria for you. Click the submit button and then your site has been instantly added to the website directory.

So, not only does it save you time in finding all of these directories, BUT it saves you an incredible amount of time filling out each and every website’s submission criteria. To learn more about this free program, visit the link below:

http://moms-business-coach.com/directorysubmitter

Still sounds like too much work? Try out the lost cost directory submission services below

Enjoy!

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

Step 1 In Building Your Backlinks