If you run one or more web sites, you’ve probably heard it said many times: “Content is king!” The thinking goes something like this: if you provide lots of high quality content on your web pages, it will attract lots of visitors who will buy from you and spread the word to others. You’ll end up ‘king of the hill’ in your particular niche.

Let’s examine that notion a little more closely. For existing sites that already have listings in search engines, links on related sites, directory listings, etc., content is the thing that brings visitors back for more. If, however, you have a brand new web site, using a domain name that has not been previously used, what’s wrong with this picture? Simply put, it’s this: the best content in the world won’t get you visitors if people don’t know your site exists.

The Power of Link Popularity

That’s where the equally important power of links comes into the picture. The web’s foundation is the interlinking of web sites. Without links, every site would be a tiny island in a huge ocean that isn’t on any map. At no time is this fact more starkly evident than when you unveil a new site on a new domain. We’ve all been there. Not only does your new site get zero traffic, you can’t even hear crickets chirping - even they don’t know it’s there!

The solution, of course, is to let people know you’re out there by building link popularity. What’s ‘link popularity,’ you ask? It is the sum total of external web pages with links pointing to your site. This includes all the sites most webmasters target: search engines, directories, related sites, and unrelated sites.

As your site’s link popularity grows, two great things happen. First, all those links on other sites begin to drive visitors to your site. If most of those links are on sites in the same niche as your own, most of those visitors will be pre-screened. In other words, they will be people with an interest in your niche’s subject matter - not random visitors.

Second, link popularity plays a significant role in determining where your site will rank at the major search engines for searches related to your site’s theme. As you amass more inbound links, and depending on the words used in those links, your site will move up the rankings and you’ll see more and more traffic. Just as with links on related sites, this ‘organic’ (i.e., free) search engine traffic will consist of people who are actively seeking out your site’s information. Those are the visitors you must have to succeed! Best of all, you get those visitors without having to pay one penny for them!

The Power of Great Content

Once you have a steady flow of visitors surfing in to your site, the focus changes to the quality of the content they find there. Why? Because you want as many of those first-time visitors as possible to be impressed enough by what they find on your web site to bookmark it and spread the word to family, friends, and co-workers. You can’t buy better advertising than word-of-mouth from trusted sources like that!

Of course, great content will also encourage a higher percentage of your visitors to buy from you - your products, services, paid memberships, etc. Put it all together and it’s clear that excellent content will both make you more money and get your site more link popularity. It’s like an endless feedback loop that builds and builds as your site ages.

Why Successful Site Owners Concentrate on Both

But, the key in the beginning, when you’ve got a brand new site on your hands, is growing link popularity. Get that trickle of traffic started with those links; then let your great content do the lion’s share of the work to close the deal.

The growth of your site will constantly revolve around its dependence on content and links. Those who have made the comment, “Content is king!” a widely known catch phrase have really done a disservice to new site owners. A much more accurate (but less catchy) phrase is this one: “Content and links share the kingdom.”

© John Schwartz http://www.web-article-writer.com (all rights reserved)

John Schwartz - of Web-Article-Writer.com - offers professionally written web site content and articles, as well as article distribution services to increase web site traffic and build link popularity. Visit us today for more information.

There is one last step needed to move your website into high gear. This step is both easy and hard to implement. How is that for ambiguity? This technique is called linking.

In this case, linking is when one website connects via a hyperlink to another website.

Search engines such as Google use the number of links coming into your website to judge how important it may be to searchers. Links from websites that have a higher page rank than your website will benefit you the most.

When linking, you need to find links that compliment your content. On our Arabian horse website, we may get links from a website that sells saddles or veterinary services.

You could get a link from an online gambling service, but does that really develop your website’s theme and credibility?

Everything the customer sees should further your goal. It does not matter if your site is a sales site or a public service site.

You have spent a lot of time and effort establishing the quality of your website and the level of your expertise. It would be a shame to compromise it. Presenting a consistent professional message is essential to the success of your website.

The various search engines reason that if you have many inbound hyperlinks, then you must be a resource for other websites.

This will increase your ranking on the search engines.

If you post articles to the submission sites we talked about in part 3, you will start to get the benefit of inbound links as they are picked up and posted to other websites and ezines.

You will have to be patient though; it is not a rapid process.

The mechanics of implementing the processes we have talked about are beyond the scope of an article. Many good books are available to show you how to change the technical aspects of your website or you can hire a consultant to handle everything for you.

If you do hire someone, understand a pretty website does not necessarily make an effective website. Keep it simple, keep it effective and close the sale. Let the big corporations keep the showy flash presentations and watch your website become a profit center for you and your family.

For the do-it-yourselfer, try “Electronic Marketing for Small Business” by Tom Antion. It is a great book on how to market your small business.

Until next time, optimize!

Parrott Writing Services, a San Antonio Texas company specializing in web content, ghostwriting, website optimization, online/offline ad copy and technical writing to small businesses.

http://www.rickparrott.com

Send an email to EBOOK@sasecure.net for a free copy of the eBook Computer Security for SOHO Networks

Server Stats - Analyzing Traffic To Your Site

Analyzing traffic to a site is a key factor in tweaking search engine optimization and marketing campaigns. Determining how people get to your site is critical. Surprisingly, few sites take advantage of the data available on their servers.

Server Logs

Typically, there are two server tools available to you. Server logs are on your server and analyze site activity. The log keeps track of the files created on the server, the number of times there is a request for the file, where the hit came from and the exact phrase typed in by the person accessing the page of the site. Every system is different, but these basic elements should be included.

The second tool, a traffic analysis program, is pretty standard for most hosting companies, but you may have to ask them to turn it on. The programs analyze the raw data from your server and convert it into fascinating charts, diagrams and statistics. Most of the information is overkill. You have to be careful not to get overwhelmed by numerous ways to look at the data. Try to focus on the following information:

What sites are sending you visitors? What search engines are sending you traffic? What keyword phrases are people using to find your site? How often are major search engine indexing robots visiting your site?

As you access the data, you are going to find some very surprising things. Actually, you are probably going to be stunned.

Initially, you are going to be amazed when you see which keyword phrases that are sending traffic to your site. Many of the keywords will not match your meta tags. Instead, they will be a combination of various keywords on a particular page. This is reflection of the fact that search engines mix and match your keywords as they see fit. So, should you change your meta tags to reflect the phrases shown in the data? No. The data you are seeing typically reflects keywords with little competition. Since you are already getting traffic from them, keep focusing on your original goals.

In looking at your data, the second key piece of data is identifying where the traffic is coming from. This data often falls under the “referrer” heading. By reviewing the data, you can see what search engines are producing data for you. If you are running advertising on a site, you should also be able to track the campaign.

The final area to analyze is the robot visit information. Depending on the program, the robot information may appear under “robots” or “user agents” headings. Robots are programs used by search engines to index web sites on the net. In reviewing your data, you should be able to determine how often the robots are coming to your site. If at all possible, make sure you add new content to your site before the next visit. The robots for the top search engines are Yahoo - Slurp, Google - Googlebot, and MSN - MSNbot.

In Closing

Analyzing the traffic to your site is a key element to marketing your site. The more you know about your customers, the more you can cater to their needs.

Sometimes you need a kick start to get of the ground when promoting your new business website. Use these 11 tips to get started. A combination of several tips will most likely guarantee return visitors on your website. Return visitors most likely mean more sales.

1. Build a solid business foundation before starting. Create a business plan (this should be document revisited every quarter), marketing plan, client profile, and a site map for your web site.

2. Be very consistent. Brand your company and stick to it.

3. Create acceptable and easy to understand policies the build trust: Customer Service, Code of Ethics and a Privacy Policy.

4. Network locally to bring people to your site. Start with the local chamber of commerce as an example.

5. Place your website’s URL address on all your printed business literature — business cards, brochures, newsletters, letterhead, invoices, ads, etc.!

6. Offer added values that are related to your business and the ideal client (target group). A solid resource database helping clients getting most out of your services could be a good start. Maybe offer products. A FTP software for a web hosting client makes perfect sense as they can use it to conveniently upload their files to the hosting web server.

7. Add a “Recommend This Site to a friend” script on your site. If someone visits your site and knows someone else who may appreciate it, this feature will email the page’s link to the recipient. Easy access to a tool like this could increase ‘word of mouth’ advertising.

8. Setup monthly chats about related topics or install bulletin boards (forums) to build a relationships and community. This will attach customers to your business. Invite industry specific folks to a chat so that they can answer customer questions. This is a perk nobody can resist.

9. Teach classes in colleges or schools or speak to groups about subjects relating to your products and services. Students suddenly turn into customers and/or spread the word ….

10. Conduct periodic contests and announce the winners on your site. As a web host you could have contest for who has the best web design on your servers. People like to show off. Use this behavior to attract new clients.

11. Participate in online forums as an expert. Do not SPAM the forums with your advertising messages. Use the signature to quietly promote your services. Once people see you as a valuable member with lots of information and start trusting you, they will start trusting you their business.

This article can be published by anyone as long as a live back link to http://www.webhostingresourcekit.com is provided. (this note can be removed as long as a link from the author’s resource box is provided)

Christoph Puetz is a successful small business owner (Net Services USA LLC) and international author.

Guides, Tutorials, and Articles for small businesses - http://www.webhostingresourcekit.com

Viral Marketing Defined

It is allowing others to giveaway and use your free product or service in order to multiply your marketing quickly over the internet. The idea behind viral marketing is that you include your ad with the freebie people giveaway or use.

But to become successful, you must totally understand the concept in order to get the most out of it.

Brand your web site, business and yourself by submitting articles to e-zines. You could include your name, business name, your credentials, web site address and e-mail address in
your resource box. An example of a resource box is -

jerry durham lonestar enterprises - opportunity to succeed
http://www.freewebs.com/opportunity_to_succeed/
5705 marvin loving dr suite 202
garland, tx 75043

You could include something like the above at the end of each of your articles, specifing, that the resource box, as it is known, would stay with the article in the event it was used
as copy in a ezine, ebook, etc.

Understand and know, or better yet, become known as an expert on the topics you write about. This will give you and your business extra credibility which will help you compete against
your competition. Face it, if you don’t know what you’re talking about. it will become very well known around the net, spreading like a “VIRUS”. You’ll gain people’s trust. If they
read your article, like it, and they believe you, they won’t be as hesitant to buy your product or service. You will then be able to increase your profits.

Having your article placed on a publishers home page or archives will give you extra exposure. Future subscribers might want to read the back copies before they subscribe. I have several articles in archive, one of which is -

http://www.archives.zinester.com/5997/17517.html

Submiting your article to a publisher that has a free content directory on their web site, allows visitors to republish your article. Some sites are below -

http://www.cashflowseller.com/ArticleSubmit.html
http://article-emporium.com/submit-article.cfm
http://www.allfreelancework.com/submitarticles.php
http://articlefinders.com/submit.html
http://www.articlecity.com/article_submission.shtml
http://www.articlewarehouse.com/SubmitArticle.aspx
http://www.awomaninbusiness.com/writers.html
http://www.boconline.com/sub-art.shtml
http://www.business-opportunity.biz/addarticle.php
http://www.businesstoolchest.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.ebooksnbytes.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.family-content.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.howtoadvice.com/Submit/
http://www.netterweb.com/articles/
http://ebusinesshelpsite.com/Articles/submit-article.htm
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/termsofuse/articlesubmission.htm
http://www.selfgrowth.com/artman/exec/admin.cgi
http://www.businessknowhow.com/newsletter/articleguidelines.htm
http://www.uniterra.com/submit-article.htm
http://www.vectorcentral.com/articles-form.html
http://www.webmasterslibrary.com/submit.jsp
http://www.web-source.net/article_submissions.htm
http://www.webpronews.com/submit.html
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.articlecentral.com
http://www.readycontent.com
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.advertisingknowhow.com
http://www.marketing-seek.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php
http://www.1st-in-articles.com
http://www.ezinetrendz.com
http://www.submityourarticle.com
http://www.thephantomwriters.com
http://www.articletrades.com
http://www.articlehub.com
http://www.holisticjunction.com
http://www.kickstartyourlife.com/ezinesresources/articles.htm
http://freezinesite.com/articles.cgi?action=add
http://www.searchwarp.com/Register.asp
http://www.ideamarketers.com/writers.cfm
http://www.netterweb.com/articles
http://www.certificate.net/wwio
http://www.dime-co.com
http://businessknowhow.com
http://www.selfgrowth.com/submit-article.html
http://www.ezine-writer.com.au
http://www.boazepublishing.biz/articledir
http://amazines.com
http://www.authorconnection.com
http://www.herassistant.com/1articles/subarticle.shtml
http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com
http://powerhomebiz.com
http://smbtn.com/smallbusinesstown
http://www.homebiztools.com/index.htm
http://www.ezinearticles.com/submit
http://www.theezine.net/
http://www.stickysauce.com/articles/webarticles_index.htm
http://annamarketing.com
http://www.mag-a-zine.com/mag-a-zine/articles/
http://www.clickforcontent.com
http://www.marketing-seek.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.ebooksnbytes.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.ultimateprofits.com/index_author.htm
http://www.webbers.com/newcontent
http://www.allnetarticles.com
http://www.connectionteam.com/art.html
http://www.family-content.com
http://www.mailbiz.com/mailbiz/magcat
http://www.articlefinders.com
http://www.articlesubmissions.com
http://www.certificate.net/wwio
http://www.freesticky.com
http://www.stickysauce.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.marketing-seek.com
http://www.web-source.net/
http://www.addme.com/nlsubmit.htm
http://www.amazines.com
http://www.articlecentral.com
http://www.articlecity.com
http://www.articles911.com
http://www.articlewarehouse.com
http://www.authorconnection.com
http://www.boconline.com
http://www.business-dynamics.com/resource_library/index.html
http://www.businesstoolchest.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.bytesworth.com/articles
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/ideas.shtml
http://www.clickforcontent.com/cgi-bin/epro/print.pl
http://www.clickz.com
http://www.connectionteam.com
http://www.digital-women.com/submitarticle.htm
http://www.dime-co.com/articlesub.html
http://www.ezine-writer.com.au
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.ezinepublisher.org/members/cgi-bin/content/add.cgi
http://www.submityourarticle.com
http://www.top7business.com
http://www.upromote.com/newsletter/submit.html
http://www.vectorcentral.com
http://www.web-source.net/articlesub.htm
http://www.web-http://www.womans-net.com
http://www.zineadz.com
http://www.zinos.com
http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php
http://www.1st-in-articles.com
http://www.maxebook.com

Other publishers might want to publish your articles in their free e-books. These ebooks are given away, and your advertising could multiply all over the web. Agree to run someone
else’s article in your ezine, if they’ll run your article in theirs. It’s a win/win situation.

This is all free advertising that allows you to spend your money elsewhere on other forms of advertising. Such as, buying ad space in other ezines that don’t publish your articles.

And speaking of money, if your good enough, you could write other peoples articles, ebooks, speak at seminars, etc. This is a great way to multiply your income.

All the Best…

About the Author:

Jerry durham has been in business as “OPPORTUNTIY TO SUCCEED” since the fall of 2003. We offer ideas you need to start, manage & grow your online business! We also offer strategies,
downloads, & articles written by professionals.

Jerry Durham Lonestar Enterprises - Opportunity To Succeed
http://www.freewebs.com/opportunity_to_succeed/
5705 Marvin Loving Dr Suite 202
Garland, TX 75043

“OPPORTUNITY TO SUCCEED NEWSLETTER”
mail to: InfoEzineOptnRequest@sendfree.com

Your Business Story In Leading Blogs And Article Directories Will Yield High Traffic in Hundreds of Thousands of Visitors

The whole world loves a good story well told. That’s the real secret behind that best seller novel and that box-office smash hit movie. This deep human hunger for a good story has remained unchanged despite unprecedented technological advances.

If anything recent technological advances like the World Wide Web have only served to greatly increase the world’s appetite for a good story.

Now imagine for a moment the story of your online business being spun into a best-selling yarn? There is little doubt that such a story would change your life. Yet that rags to riches Cinderella story of your online business is extremely easy to get published and get told with the objective of breaking all high traffic records to your site or blog. Thanks mainly to the World Wide Web and the doors it has opened wide.

This article that you are reading is an amazing rags-to-riches Cinderella story of how people’s lives have been changed and how yours too can be transformed when you grasp the simple truth or secret about the power behind telling the story of your business in an article.

In other words merging content with an advertising message in such a way that the article does not look like an advertisement or promotion in any way is the most powerful marketing weapon any online business can use.

Remember the offline days when a brief article in the newspaper about a small business had such an impact that the business would no longer handle the clients that came their way? Remember the impact that a very brief mention of a business in the prime time news bulletin can have? The response that a mention in the editorial columns of a newspaper or magazine yields, has always been much higher and much bigger than the impact or response from an advertisement in the very same publication. This is the power of merging content with a marketing message which is what PR professionals and spin doctors get paid thousands of dollars to do.

The net makes it very easy for anybody to creatively merge captivating content with their ad message and get their useful article published on a high traffic site somewhere.

Where To Tell Your Story For Huge Profit

What does a best-selling book or box-office smash hit movie have in common? Answer; a huge audience. Publishing anything online is the easiest thing in the world, but what you really need is a huge audience for your story. Getting this huge audience is actually much easier than you think. All you really need to do is use other people’s high traffic sites and suddenly, you have your huge audience.

For the purposes of this article, we will show you how to use two high traffic types of sites that will guarantee your article or story a huge potential audience. Namely a couple of high-traffic blogs and 10 high traffic article directories.

What Your Story/Article Must Do

Before we go into great detail about the specific sites where you should publish your story and the possible impact each of the top 10 sites will have on your business, we need to understand one very important truth in all this. Publishing your story at a high traffic site will not automatically give your story a huge audience. Just like publishing your novel is no guarantee that it will be a best seller.

So in order to get a huge audience for your published article, it must have the ingredients of a best seller. Then it must tell the story of your business so convincingly that most readers will be eager to visit your site or to get their hands on anything else that you have to say.

One recent article at a popular article directory had hits nearing 100,000 within a very short time. There is no doubt that that article was a best-seller. So what we need to seriously examine here, is what the ingredients of that article were or what makes a best-seller.

Once you know what makes a best-seller and are able to creatively merge useful content and your ad message into an article, the sky is the limit as to what sort of response or traffic that you can generate to your site.

What makes this best-seller game even more exciting online is that you can try to create a “best seller” every day or several times a day until you hit pay dirt. Most new writers or movie makers have only one chance.

Christopher Kyalo is a successful online writer and entrepreneur who has mastered the art of merging valuable content and ad messages like he has done here. Read the second and final part of this story in his free ezine. You can get it by sending a blank email now to articlesrgold-subscribe@yahoogroups.com