Starting an online business is very similar to building a brick and mortar business. They both require market research, a business plan, and a marketing plan to provide a solid foundation for building a successful enterprise. The only difference is that there is one more element that is essential to the success of your online business and that is the keywords you choose.

Why are keywords so important? You don’t need them for a brick and mortar business so why do you need them for an online business? Well, keywords are a substantial part of the foundation on which you will build your online business. Without the right keywords it is like trying to build your business on a faulty foundation. If the foundation is weak the business will crumble when you try to place it on the foundation.

Why are keywords such an important part of the foundation? Well…for one thing, keywords are what your customers use to find your product or services. On the other hand keywords are also the center of your marketing efforts and the key to driving highly targeted traffic to your website. Here is what we mean………

Keywords and Your Website

The search engines place great emphasis on the quality of the content of your site as well as the relevancy of the content to the keywords that you have chosen for the title and page description. The keywords that you use in conjunction with the site content will help to determine your site’s ranking with the search engines. If your keywords are highly targeted you will also receive highly targeted traffic that will be interested in what you have to offer and receive high rankings with the search engines.

Keywords and Advertising

The keywords you choose will also be used in all of the advertisements that you create for your online business. By including keywords in your advertisements it helps your targeted audience to find your advertisement and eventually your website. If you are paying for the advertising such as pay per click advertising the keywords you use will have an effect on the response to your ad as well as your return on investment.

Keywords and Content Writing

The keywords that you use in all of the content that you produce for the Internet will determine whether or not your targeted audience can find your content which will lead them to your website. For example, if you are writing content for article marketing sites you will find that there is lots of content on those sites. Regardless, if you write high quality keyword rich content you will be assured that your visitors will find your article and then click on the link for your website if you are using the words that they are using in their organic searches.

The same rule applies to any videos that you produce for sites like YouTube. The topics of your video should relate to the keywords that your prospects are using to search for your product or service. Once they locate your video it leads them to your website and eventually the sale of your product.

Social Networking

Social networking has been growing in popularity both for personal and business use. The search engines are starting to recognize and index posts from social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well as video sites such as YouTube and Viddler. As a result, many business people are including keywords in their posts and tweets for indexing with the search engines. People who find the posts in the search engines are eventually led to your site when they read your social networking profile.

So as you can see keyword planning and research must be included in your business and marketing plan as an essential part of building a solid foundation for your business. Although it may seem like a daunting task there are many keyword tools available to help you with your research as well as tools for getting to know your target market. If you dedicate enough time to this task you will reap the rewards for a long time once your business is up and running.

Respectfully Dedicated To Your Success!!

Derek Bayer

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I have recorded a training presentation here for you on “Mastering The Follow Up” with the use of your autoresponders.

You may have heard that the “Money Is In The List” and the “Fortune Is In The Follow Up”. An effective follow up strategy is a critical component of your Online Business Plan!

Respectfully Dedicated To Your Success!!

Derek Bayer

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Internet Marketing 101:
Establishing An Effective Online Presence
Monday, August 2, 2010 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT

Join me Monday and you will receive the steps on how to have an online business presence through SEO, Social Media, Keyword Optimization, Articles and Press Release to share a few here.

I am a passionate and dedicated Internet Marketer, Father and Husband. I recently won the first everG10 award from Wealth Masters International and wrote the e-book “The Power Of Online Business”.

Join me as we map out your future success online, invite your friends and business associates. Register below and you will receive the link to join the webinar scheduled for Monday, August 2nd at 8pm EDT.

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There is no doubt that there are a lot of cool tools for increasing the productivity of your online business. The problem is that many online business owners can caught up in understanding and using all the cool little widgets and other free tools that are available online and they forget about offering quality to the end user which is the customer.

So, if you are starting a new business what does it mean to offer quality to your customers and how do you go about doing this online?

Tips on Delivering Value to Your Customers

The main method for keeping your customers happy and getting referrals is to offer more value than you are charging for your product. Your prospects like to feel that they are getting their money’s worth so you have to make the offer bigger than the amount you are charging. Okay, so exactly how do you do this?

* Understand Why People Search the Internet: If you are going to be starting an online business it is very important to understand why people are searching the Internet and more specifically, why they are searching for your product or service. First of all, the majority of people search the Internet because they are looking to solve a problem. As an online business owner it is your job to figure out what problem your target market is trying to solve and then come up with a way to offer them the solution.

* Sell the Process and Not the Product: Once you identify your market and the problem they are trying to solve you must sell through the process and not the product. By this we mean you must lead the prospect through the process of solving the problem. Only then will they think about purchasing your product. The process involves offering quality information that is useful to the customer without initially asking for anything in return. If you successfully help them to solve the problem you have offered a tremendous value and benefit to their life.

* Provide Quality: Once you have provided your prospect with quality information they will naturally see why they need your product however, quality does not end there. You must present your product in a way that adds tremendous benefits to your prospect’s life. To do this you must ask yourself, “What are are some of the benefits that can be offered along with my products?” These could be offered in the form of fringe benefits such as a free report, a free ebook, a set of instructional CDs, or anything else you can think of to create a package deal.

* Backend Products: Once you have established a relationship with the customer you must continue to offer quality in the form of continued free information and in any backend products that you offer. Backend products are products that you can offer to your prospect once you have established a trusting relationship and they have made a purchase. If your prospect trusts the quality associated with your brand name they will be more likely to listen to your recommendations for backend products that are related to their purchase.

* Ongoing Customer Service: Customer service will be the one factor in your business that will make you or break you. Although you may succeed in offering quality, if you do not follow through by listening to the customer’s concerns and needs you will end up losing all of the long term benefits you have worked so hard to achieve in the previous steps we have described here. In addition to offering quality, good customer service is the icing on the cake and one of the main components that will keep your customers returning time and again.

So….yes…tools are cool and they are necessary for saving you time with your business as it grows however, you must make sure not to get caught up in all of the cool gadgets that are available to the point where you neglect to offer quality to your customers.

Respectfully Dedicated To Your Success!!

Derek Bayer

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If you are looking for an easy and quick way to get started with blogging you may want to take a look at using the Blogger platform which is a product of Google. When you use Blogger you can be literally up and running with a blog in a matter of 10 or 15 minutes. Blogger is easy to use and best of all it is free. You can easily get started with establishing your expertise in your chosen subject area and start attracting clients for your future business.

How Blogger Works

If you already have a Gmail account you can easily begin creating a blog with Blogger. If you have never used Google you can sign up for a free account at www.google.com. Once you obtain an account you simply click on “Settings” in the upper right hand corner of the Google home page and then choose “Blogger.”

Once you click on “Blogger” the wizard will walk you through setting up your blog in a matter of minutes and you are up and running. The interface is easy to use and involves a three step process which is setting up your account, creating a name for the blog, and then choosing from one of the ready made templates.

Blogger also provides you with the choice of setting up your blog on their free hosting service at Blogspot or you can make the blog a part of your website by placing it on the server with your Web host provider. You are not required to know any HTML code and the easy interface allows you to choose your own fonts, colors, and text formats.

Blogger Pros

There are many advantages to using the Blogger platform the main one being that Google tends to favor it for search engine rankings since it is their product. Other advantages include:

* It’s Easy and It’s Free: If you are completely new to blogging and do not have the slightest idea on how to use online applications you can still set up a blog with blogger and it’s free.

* Earn Money: You can earn money through advertising on Blogger and you can promote affiliate products that are related to the topic of your blog. There are no unrelated advertisements that are usually present with a free service.

* Upload Videos: You can keep up with the surge in video marketing and upload videos to Blogger.

* Mobile Blogging: You can create content for you blog through email or your mobile device and upload it to your blog on Blogger.

Blogger Cons

There are a few disadvantages to using the Blogger platform the main one being its lack of flexibility when compared to paid blogging platforms or WordPress. For example you are limited to a specific number of templates and you cannot customize the blog to give it a unique look and feel. Other disadvantages include:

* Domain Name: If you choose to go with the completely free service you will be unable to use your own domain name such as www.yourdomain.com and instead you will have to go with Google’s domain with your name added as a page such as http://blogspot.com/yourblogname/.

* Tags: The tag indexing is limited with the search engines especially with the different categories.

* Widgets: The customization of widgets can be a little complex for a beginning user.

* Blogger Comments: The editing feature in the commenting area is limited and you cannot simply eliminate rude words in the comment. Instead you have to eliminate the comment entirely.

In conclusion if you want to be up and running fairly quickly the Blogger platform is not a bad way to go. As your business grows and you gain more experience you can always change your mind later to accommodate the growth of your online business.

Respectfully Dedicated To Your Success!!

Derek Bayer

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When you publish content on the Internet you can spend hours trying to share your content on all of the social networking sites and other sites that offer content in a variety of subject areas. As a new business owner you will be creating lots and lots of content and the only way to get the word out about your brand and your business is to share the content on sites throughout the Internet. This can be time consuming so there are many tools available that help you to automate the task of distributing content on the Internet.

One of the tools that is offered online is called OnlyWire which can easily be added to your blog, website, or as a toolbar on your browser for distributing content. You will find mixed reviews on this product and others that help to automate tasks but what we will do here is provide you with an overview of what OnlyWire does and how you can use it to save time with your online business tasks.

Syndicating Content with OnlyWire

OnlyWire helps you automate the tasks of submitting your content to social networking sites. Instead of having to submit each piece of content separately you can submit all of your content to multiple sites with the click of your mouse button. This provides you with a way to auto-syndicate your content to increase readership and increase the amount of backlinks that you have pointing to your website or blog.

OnlyWire is fairly easy to use and you can access it by logging onto www.onlywire.com and clicking on “Start Using It Now.” From there you simply fill in your information and then create the account. OnlyWire will walk you through the process of setting up and submitting your content to multiple social networking sites.

OnlyWire contains four different distribution tools which include Browser Tools that allow you to auto-submit content to multiple social networking sites, Bookmark and Share buttons which provide your visitors with the tools that they need to share your content with others, a Developer API which automates content submission, and Account Management that allows you to track submission and manage your account.

Cost of OnlyWire

You can choose from different plans to use the OnlyWire service which include a paid plan and a promote plan. The paid plan is low cost at $2.99 per month or $24.99 for the year or you can choose the promote plan which is free and ad sponsored. All you have to do is ad the bookmark or share button to your website or blog.

A Word of Caution

If you decide to give OnlyWire a test run it is important to note that you must be careful not to spam the social networking sites with your links which can easily happen with this type of program. Make sure you strategically mix the sites that you are submitting to and limit the number of submissions that you are making in one session.

Although the software has the ability to do dozens of submissions and bookmarking, it is a good idea to do only a half dozen at a time so you do not get nailed for spamming the social networking sites. If you use the software wisely it can save you tons of time when syndicating your content and submitting to social networking sites.

Respectfully Dedicated To Your Success!!

Derek Bayer

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Bing is one of the most recent search engines created by Microsoft and represents another attempt by Microsoft to compete in the search engine market. Bing contains a lot of different features and Microsoft refers to Bing as a decision engine rather than a search engine. To do this Microsoft creates a Unique Selling Proposition by offering features in a different way than other search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

Microsoft refers to Bing as a decision engine instead of a search engine by using different features such as simplifying searches and reducing the amount of non-relevant material that shows up in your searches. If you are using Bing as one of your online business promotion tools the decision engine focuses on the areas of shopping, travel, local information, and health related information and sets different criteria for getting indexed with the Bing engine.

Searches are simplified by an autosuggest and best match feature that recommends keywords that are related to the ones you are using in your search and then Bing filters the information and pulls up the best results. Bing also saves you time in your searches through the deep link feature that allows you to get a glimpse of the website before you click on the link. Bing also provides a feature that displays quick tidbits of information that are based on your query to help you quickly locate what you are looking for.

So How Can You Use Decision Engine Optimization?

Since Bing algorithms operate differently than other search engines such as Google and Yahoo there are a few things you can do to get your online business listed in the best results in Bing during organic searches.

For most search engines you should have at least 300 words of content on the page for the search engine spiders to recognize it as noteworthy for indexing. Bing places a higher emphasis on the amount of text you have on your page, as well as the quality so you should create text that has at least 500 or more words on the page. In addition to text, Bing also likes to see a title that is directly related to the content on the page. This is also generally the case with search engine optimization for other search engines.

If you are using decision search engine optimization for your blog this can be tricky with Bing since it does not place as much emphasis on blogs as Google. This can be a little frustrating when you want to get the latest blog posts listed with best results on Bing.

Also, when in comes to high quality incoming links Bing also favors outgoing links which is a technique that will usually hurt your rankings with other search engines such as Google. In addition to linking, Bing also seems to emphasize the length of time your domain name has been registered. The longer a domain name has been registered the better your rankings will be with Bing.

Bing Webmaster Center

Like the other search engines Bing offers webmaster tools to help you with your online business. You simply can set up an account with Bing and list all of the websites that you own and then register them with Webmaster Center. Once you are registered you can proceed to use the tools that are offered by Bing for tracking your ranking results, website scores, and identifying any problems that Bing encountered while crawling your website. There are also tools that help you to manage your sitemaps and confirm that the robots.txt files are working properly.

The backlinks tool will tell you exactly what websites are linking to yours as well as how many outgoing links that you have to other websites. If there is a website that you are linking to that is infected Bing will also let you now so you can take care of the problem.

The keyword tool will help you to monitor what keywords and keyword phrases people are using to find your website. It also provides a way for you analyze how your website is performing with these keywords.

Although Google is still considered the main search engine most website owners are interested in taking different measures to get their site listed with the other search engines as well. The hard part is achieving the balance between Google criteria and the standards that are set by some of the other search engines such as Bing.

Respectfully Dedicated To Your Success!!

Derek Bayer

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Landing Page Cash Machine: A Way to Increase Sales Conversions?

There are a lot of programs out there that will show you how to increase traffic to your website by increasing your click through rate, improving your search engine ranking, creating high quality backlinks and using effective SEO. But then what do you do once your traffic reaches your website? This is what the Landing Page Cash Machine has set out to do which is to convert the visitors to sales after they arrive on your landing page.

What’s Inside Landing Page Cash Machine?

In addition to driving traffic to your website the landing page where your visitors arrive is the single most important factor that will determine the amount of sales that you make and your return on investment. The Landing Page Cash Machine shows you how to retain your visitors on your website so they will take the time to review your offer and purchase your product.

If you are getting a lot of visitors to your website and are failing to make enough sales to produce a profit, Landing Page Cash Machine may be worth your time to read. It emphasizes the point that a lot of people think the battle has been won once the visitors begin to arrive at their website and they forget that the job is not over yet. You still have to construct your landing page in way that captures the visitor’s attention and then leads them to the sale.

Without an effective landing page your visitors will be costing you money instead of making you money. Instead of focusing on increasing traffic the Landing Page Cash Machine will show you how to convert your visitors into sales by showing you how to put your visitors in the right frame of mind to buy your product instead of simply moving on. Instead of paying out more money for advertising the Landing Page Cash Machine shows you how to make good use of the resources you have and the visitors that are already coming to your website.

What Exactly Do You Learn?

Some of things you will learn by reading the Landing Page Cash Machine include how to make it easier for your visitors to become customers by coordinating the content on your landing page with your Google AdWords campaign, how to make it easier for your visitors to remember your website so they will return in the future, and how to leverage code snippets to increase sales conversions.

Also, the majority of landing pages fail to communicate to the visitor what they want them to do after arriving on the landing page. You have to keep in mind that most Internet surfers want to be told what they should do next. The Landing Page Cash Machine teaches you how to lead your customer by the hand to the sale and how to make money from the people who do not end up purchasing your product. It shows you how to make your landing page match your intentions through proven strategies and methods.

Okay….Is There a Guarantee? And…What Does It Cost?

The Landing Page Cash Machine offers a 100% money back guarantee and you have 90 days to give it a test drive. Once you purchase the product for $49.95 it is available for immediate download. As far as what you get out of it, this will depend upon how closely you follow and implement the methods that are discussed in the publication however, if you are having trouble with converting visitors to sales this may be the information that you have been looking for.

The Landing Page Cash Machine comes packed with a lot of bonuses and tidbits of information that will help you to easily convert visitors to buyers on a consistent basis. With the money back guarantee you really have nothing to lose by at least checking it out.

Respectfully Dedicated To Your Success!!

Derek Bayer

Want to learn more about optimizing your landing page? View my presentation on “Landing Page Psychology” Here

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When you look at all of the tools that are currently available for online business owners the selection can be overwhelming. There are tools for this and tools for that, widgets for this and wazzits for something else!

May it help to know that among the sea of online business tools lie a few principle tools that online business owners use to become successful and two of the main tools are WordPress and Blogger. The nice part is that both of these tools are free and offer a host of widgets and wazzits that simplify your online business tasks while helping to increase traffic to your website.

If you are starting an online business these tools can be rather scary so let’s provide you with an overview of both tools so you can see how easy they are to use as well as how useful they can be to your online business.

WordPress

WordPress is a free online open source blogging platform that allows you to easily build a professional looking and functional blog within a short period of time. The application is very user-friendly by novices to advanced programmers and contains a feature-rich interface. WordPress is also open source which means it is free to install simply by logging onto the WordPress website and downloading it onto your PC within a matter of minutes.

It is not necessary for you to have to know a lot of technical jargon to use WordPress and you can easily customize the platform to create a professional looking blog that suits the needs of your business. WordPress is also user-friendly to your blog readers and provides features that allow your readers to easily post comments and interact with the blog. What’s more is if you need to perform updates WordPress contains a simple content editor that allows you to focus on creating and uploading new blog posts and articles.

WordPress also offers a wide variety of widgets and wazzits to help you effectively manage your blog and social networking tasks and you can easily integrate RSS Feeds as well. The tutorials are step-by-step tutorials which allow you to easily integrate the widgets within a matter of minutes.

The only thing you will need to do with WordPress is find a hosting service that is capable of handling the WordPress blogging platform if you choose not to host your blog with WordPress hosting. When you host your WordPress blog you will have the convenience of having your own blog domain name such as www.yourblog.com which creates a more professional image.

Blogger

Blogger is a free blogging service that is offered by Google and all you have to do is open a free account with Google, log onto www.blogger.com and you will be walked through the process of setting up your blog.

When you use the Blogger platform you can be literally up and running within a matter of 10 minutes due to its easy template system and instructions for creating your blog.

Although Blogger is very useful for driving traffic to your website, keep in mind that it does not have as many options as WordPress. The limitations lie in the choice of templates and other things that you are unable to do with the blog however, if you are just getting started it is a great way to be up and running rather quickly and the platform will be recognized by the Google search engine when it comes to rankings.

Also keep in mind that if you use Blogger you will also have their domain name in front of yours such as www.blogspot.com/yourblog/. While this is not a bad thing some die hard bloggers see it as inferior if you do not have your own domain name. Regardless, a lot of bloggers use Google Blogger and generate a nice income if they stay consistent with their efforts and use it properly for driving traffic to their website.

You can also easily add widgets, wazzits, and RSS feeds to Blogger without a lot of hassles and generate income from advertisements that are carefully placed and are relative to the topic of your blog.

So if you are thinking you have to be a technical wiz to establish a blog, hopefully this will change your mind and make running your online business easier and less time consuming than you originally thought.

Respectfully Dedicated To Your Massive Success,

Derek Bayer

**Be Sure To View Our Business Overview: Click Here!

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WordPress is relatively new content management software that a lot of website owners are using to build their websites and blogs. Although it is used mostly for blogs there are website owners that use it for a general overall content management system. WordPress has gained popularity due to its many capabilities and the fact that you can download it for free since it is open source software.

If you are trying to choose a platform for your blog or website and your start-up budget is limited, WordPress is a viable option and will provide you with the professional image you need to succeed with your online business. Let’s take a look at some of the features of WordPress as well as some of the pros and cons to help you make an informed decision about the type of platform that is right for you.

Downloading WordPress

Downloading and installing WordPress is very easy and you can do this from the WordPress site at www.Wordpress.org. Once you install WordPress you simply change the configuration file as desired and then FTP the files so you can run the wizard under your domain name with your Web hosting service. When you are finished simply log in and begin creating a template and adding content.

Creating Themes

WordPress is quite versatile and allows you to create customized themes. It is a good idea to take the time to create your own theme to provide a unique look and feel for your website or blog. If you go with the default theme chances are your website will look like everyone else’s and you will not stand out from the crowd. WordPress also contains literally hundreds of plugins to use with your theme which can help to improve SEO and security.

Creating Content

Creating content in WordPress is a breeze with the easy text editor that allows you to simply type in the text, choose a category, and instantly add it to your website. The text editor also includes a spell checker and makes recommendations for grammatical errors.

Interactive Interface

WordPress is very user friendly for the visitors who want to interact with your blog by leaving comments and if you want to use multiple authors for your content. The commenting feature can also be configured to your preferences and additional authors can be added through the management dashboard.

WordPress Pros and Cons

WordPress is a great tool for quickly establishing your blog or website. However, to give you a complete overview let’s look at some of the pros and cons of using WordPress as your content management system.

* Pros: The main advantages of using WordPress are that it is free and easy to install and allows you to choose from literally thousands of templates to provide a unique and customized appearance. WordPress has an easy to use interface, offers a wide variety of plugins that are easy to install, and provides security from spam and hackers.

* Cons: The SEO leaves much to be desired however you can improve this by using some of the plugins. The software is more geared toward blogging than a website and requires frequent patches and updates. The comment feature for blogging tends to attract spambots however; there are plugins available and a moderation option you can use to control spam.

In conclusion, WordPress is an ideal platform to use and many online business owners both new and seasoned to the profession are opting to use the WordPress platform for establishing a professional presence online.

Respectfully Dedicated To Your Success!

Derek Bayer

**Be Sure To View Our Business Overview: Click Here!

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