I pride myself in being a bit of a contrarian.
When the ‘masses’ start taking to an idea in large numbers, I start to get suspicious. More and more people are accepting search engine optimization (SEO) as a way of life in business. The phrase is thrown around with reckless abandon amongst business people and there are literally thousands of new articles about the topic emerging on the market every single day (this article being one of them).
But, what difference is SEO really going to make to your business? What kind of results has SEO produced for other businesses? How well does it work for small to medium-sized business?
Well, I decided to find out.
The Biggest Market Ever
The Internet is the biggest market of consumers there ever was.
There are currently two billion Internet users around the world and that number is projected to jump to 2.7 billion by 2015. That’s more people than any other media source and makes up 40% of the world’s population.
That’s a figure that could make even the most self-restrained marketer salivate. All you need is to get the attention 0.000001% of this market and you’re on a major gravy train, right? Well, not exactly. The perils of working in market that big far outweigh the benefits.
There are approximately 634 million websites on the Internet – 51 million of which were added in 2012 alone. How do you stand out with so much competition?
That’s where SEO comes in…
Don’t operate in a vacuum
If your business doesn’t have a website, it doesn’t exist. In 2013, if your business website isn’t search engine optimized, it doesn’t matter either way.
The first thing most people do before they buy anything, even if it’s offline, is search the Internet. Approximately 89% of consumers look to websites like Google, Bing and Yahoo before making a buying decision. Search engines are the number one source of traffic, beating social media by 300%. For these reasons businesses work very hard to make friends with the likes of Google.
But, it’s not enough to be ranked on Google, if you want to have any kind of impact you’ll need to be on the first page because, and although as much as 61% of people look for products online, only 25% ever go beyond the first page of results.
Give The People What They Want
There are two main reasons people use the internet: To check their emails and to get information.
Although email marketing and search engine optimization is linked, the former is a huge field of study in its own right. SEO is more concerned with the second reason – giving people the information that they’re looking for.
Most of your customers go on the Internet to search for information on a certain topic, which is related to your product or service. They aren’t looking for your business, they aren’t even necessarily looking for products and services like the one you offer. However, if you can be the one to give them the information they’re looking for you’ve instantly proven yourself knowledgeable and reliable, which can be a doorway to a very profitable long-term relationship.
To answer the original question I posed in this article – yes, it really is that important. A good SEO marketing plan can mean the difference between a massive business success and operating with a vacuum.
Need help with your SEO marketing plan? Try a few SEO services on Doublelinx.
Android is an operating system for mobile phones based on Linux. Android provides an open platform for developers to create their own applications on mobile devices. Initially, Google Inc. bought Android Inc., newcomers who make software for mobile phones. Android is a mobile phone that uses the Android Operating System (OS). Android OS is a choice for smart phone vendors because it has a lower licensing fee and it is open source. Android would certainly support the various services of Google.
Because of the relatively low cost of the license and open source, many electronics manufacturers create mobile phone android based with cheap price. In terms of applications, these cheap Android mobile phones are no less superior to the well-known branded android phone, as well as in terms of design. In terms of market share, it is clear that these cheap straight talk phones has a large market share. The price offered is so low so can reach middle and lower class people.
This is a business opportunity, especially in developing countries with their income per capita of the population is relatively low. Their need for such a technology is important, but they are constrained by cost. And this cheap straight talk phones is an alternative. There are two projects in running businesses to sell cheap android phones, which are sell groceries, or open a specialty retail store for cheap android phone. For those of you who are interested to do business with a mobile phone and not having too big of capital, selling cheap android phone can be tried. Even with the advancement of Internet technology today, you do not need to have a store; you can build a website and sell these cheap mobile phones online. http://dlvr.it/3LJrcb
Make Money with Writing, Blogging, and eBay
I’m going to show you three quick and dirty ways to make income online, by working as much or as little as you want, from anywhere in the world, whenever you choose. Freelance Writing Online freelance writing jobs are plentiful, if you know where to look and can distinguish the legitimate opportunities from the potential scams. Most people don’t have a clue about the wide variety of writing opportunities available to them all over the Internet. These include writing simple articles, press releases, and even complete e-books.
Some clients pay upfront for your material, offering a certain amount per word or per assignment. Others will pay you per the hour for other writing and publishing related tasks such as proof-reading and editing web content. Freelance writing networks such as “The Freelance Writing Jobs Network” are a great place to start looking for writing jobs and advice. And then there are what I call “freelance matchmaking” sites or “job boards” like Elance.com and Freelancer.com. On these sites, almost every day, thousands of businesses post various types of writing projects, gigs and requests. If you get aggressive in applying for these open spots, then there’s a virtually unlimited supply of writing opportunities that can make you money relatively quickly.
When starting, reply to as many project requests as possible, offer to work at a reasonable rate (but not dirt cheap), and be quick and responsive. Landing that first gig is always the hardest step, but once you’ve built up a portfolio and some clientèle, you’ll get more and more consistent work. The key to making money with freelance writing is to quickly produce as many quality pieces as you can for your portfolio, and then use job boards and social networking strategies to promote your writing. The more traffic you get to your online work, the more companies you’ll have approaching you to write for them. Here are some additional tips when setting up your portfolio:Making Money with eBay If writing is not your thing, then hop on over to ebay.com and you can start selling almost anything you can imagine within just minutes. Imagine having access to 100 million cash-spending buyers. That’s exactly the kind of gold mine that’s waiting for you on eBay. It has over 100 million registered users, all of whom are out there shopping for great deals. To become a successful eBay seller, first you must first figure out what to sell. You can sell your own items, check out trade shows in your local area, or search online directories like Doba.com and Alibaba.com to find hot products. Here’s how to get the most out of your ebay listings and auctions:
- Set up a professional web page with your resume, contact information, and some writing samples.
- Establish yourself as a reputable, talented freelance writer by submitting only your best quality work to potential clients.
- Network with other busy writers who may be able to send extra work your way. Participate in writers forums by writing useful comments and including links to your website and online work.
Once you find a hot product, keep selling it, and then gradually find more and more products you can promote. Over time, your income will grow exponentially. How to Make Money with Your Own Blog Blogging is another easy way to make money online. The secret to profitable blogging is to focus on a particular that is, your area of expertise or a very specific subject that is popular in the search engines. Here’s how to get started blogging:
- Create good titles and descriptions, and include quality photos of the items. Write descriptions that stand out, but do not make them obnoxious by using all capital letters or excessive punctuation. Also, be honest about any defects in the items you have for sale.
- Consider starting your own eBay store for selling large quantities, since they have a longer run time than typical auctions. Participate in the eBay community and read the forums to stay involved.
- Other ways to get traffic to your auctions and items for sale include creating an page on eBay and linking to your auctions from other sites. You also could register a domain name dedicated solely to promoting your own auctions.
If you’re creative, then you’ll find endless opportunities to promote your blog throughout these social communities. Freelance writing, selling on eBay, and blogging are only three of the many ways to make money online. They might require an initial investment of time and effort, but you are likely to see some quick income and even huge profits in the long run if you follow these hints.
- Like freelance writing, you should approach blogging with the intent to write unique, quality content. Offering useful information and establishing yourself as a trustworthy resource to your readers will quickly lead to lots of word-of-mouth traffic to your blog. Readers can tell if you do not know what you are talking about, so do your research and focus on producing quality content.
- Starting a blog is as simple as getting a free account at Wordpress.com, Blogger.com, or another blog hosting site. You can also pay for a domain name and hosting services if you want to personalize your blog even more. I suggest you start with the free options.
- Once you have established your blog, then you can focus on monetizing it by incorporating relevant ads through advertising networks like Google AdSense or Chitika. Affiliate programs such as Amazon also are becoming increasingly popular ways to earn extra revenue. In addition, you could sell private ads or review products on your blog.
- Promote your blog by utilizing social networking opportunities such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and blogging forums.
CoffeeShopMillionaire.com is the new, Internet revolution that’s helping people like you to start their own dream business, create absolute financial freedom, and escape the rat race for good, faster than they ever thought possible. Click the link below right now to learn how you can join the new class of “lifestyle entrepreneurs” and make a full-time Internet income, or even generate millions of dollars working online from any coffee shop, anywhere in the world
http://bit.ly/156p8dq
Related Links
Internet Marketing Global
TubeLaunch Review
Online Entrepreneurial Attack: Vital Traits to Possess
Google Sniper pulls in passive profits, with zero traffic generation…
How To Create An Iphone Or Ipad Apps And Games Succeed In App Store!
The best smartphone camera, part II | DPReview Connect
DP Review tests the cameras of Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, Apple iPhone 5 and Nokia Lumia 920:
None of the devices in this shootout are good at everything. So, if you’re planning to take a lot of pictures with your smartphone, you should be clear about where your priorities are.
The last shootout I linked to gave Nokia the nod of approval. In this, arguably more serious test, it’s however apparent that the Nokia produces pictures with quite unnatural colors and not so pleasant noise reduction and sharpening. So be sure that you agree with Nokia’s processing decisions before choosing the Lumia.
In this test, I prefer the Galaxy S4 or the HTC One images in most cases. Even though neither of them are blowing away the competition in every condition. I like the direction HTC has taken with only 4, slightly larger, megapixels, but the lower pixel count shows in some cases. Maybe we can hope for 6 mega-“ultrapixels” in the next iteration?
So what about the iPhone 5? From one who chose the iPhone 5 over the Nexus 4 due to a superior camera, it is clear that it’s not superior when compared to the other devices in this shootout. The iPhone underperforms and Apple needs to improve their camera significantly to catch up and get ahead in the next iPhone.
It’s Tumblr Tuesday! Here’s a few of our favorite Tumblr blogs of the moment.
Same Ocean, Different Day
A collaborative travel-art-photo project about the largest body of anything in our world, the Pacific Ocean. Submit your own!One Boston
Supporters of all ages and origins have left notes, cards, and letters in honor of those lost or healing by the tragic attacks of April 2013. The City of Boston is preserving these important messages as a tribute to our collective strength.TraceLoops
Graphic designer using the tracing paper that graphic designers no longer use to rotoscope and animate short loops.Cook Your Cupboard from NPR
Confounded in the kitchen? Your strange and surplus food could be dinner! Submit your stumpers, and we’ll ask chefs about our favorites on NPR’s Morning Edition.Daily Dishonesty
Lovely little lies from a hungry graphic designer.
Video marketing can be intimidating for even the most hardened entrepreneur.
But for all the potential headaches it may present, the results can be phenomenal. Like in the case of the Dollar Shave Club.
The Dollar Shave Club is a business that delivers good quality affordable razor blades to its customers via the post– nothing spectacular right?
And yet one hour after they posted a particular video, the website crashed. In just 48 hours, they were recruiting family, friends and anyone they could pay to help them package 12,000 orders.
The video in question showed the company’s founder, Michael Dublin, making a few jokes and telling a few people to buy his razors. The video, launched in March 2012, has now been watched over 10 million times and launched the Dollar Shave Club into massive success virtually overnight.
I’m not telling you this for the sake of it. There are certain lessons hidden in the Dollar Shave Club story that can help anyone thinking about launching into video marketing.
Lesson One – “That’s showbiz, baby!”
The Dollar Shave Club video that went viral was, in essence, a comedy skit.
The people who watched and shared the now infamous video weren’t searching for affordable shaving solutions. They weren’t interested in how good the service was. They didn’t crave the convenience of having their shaving equipment sent in the mail.
They simply wanted to be entertained.
In the 21st century everyone’s an entertainment junkie and that’s something you should always consider when making any form of video marketing you do for your business. Whether it’s a simple message from the executive, a how-to video or an elaborate online commercial – your customers want to be entertained. In fact, they demand it.
Of course, there are many different ways of being entertaining (comedy-skit versus documentary-style) but the point here is that if you want to get more bank for video marketing efforts, always give your customers some ‘pizzazz.’
Lesson Two – It’s a social, social world…
Your customers love to share information about their lives and their experiences that they think their friends will enjoy. Think about any email message you forwarded or any page that you’ve liked on Facebook. What you’re essentially doing there is saying “I think this awesome and I think you’ll enjoy it too.” What’s my Point?
The Dollar Shave Club video spread as fast as it did because of this same principle. When you make videos for your website (thinking of the potential of going viral) you need to keep in mind if the video is giving anything of value to your customer. It could be, like the Dollar Shave Club, entertainment value, or it could be valuable information they didn’t know (like in how-to videos), or it could even be a sense of becoming part of a community (like the Apple versus PC ads).
For most people it’s become virtually second nature to share everything they think is really great. Make your videos great too!
Lesson Three – The Power of video
There are certain things that are just expressed better in the form of video. Pictures, articles, social media simply can’t communicate a brand as succinctly and clearly as video can. When people watched the Dollar Shave Club video they didn’t just see what the product (razors) could do for them, they saw the businesses personality and identity which made it easier to buy into their brand.
When making videos for marketing purposes always remember to consistently represent your brand in how you choose to communicate with your customer and what you choose to say.
Get started today
Dollar Shave Club is an excellent example of the power of video marketing. This one video helped a little company with a weird business model become a household name. Imagine what it could do for your business.
Need help with your Video marketing? I’m sure one of our vendors can help you with that.
ROSEMARY OREGANO BAKED POTATOES
Last night, we had a big art party called the “Cuenca Art Project.” A bunch of our friends hung up their work, others sang and played music, there was improv, and lastly, I made food for 45 people. Everyone paid $3, which was probably too little, but I didn’t want to ask for much on our tiny teacher salaries. Because of the financial limits, planning the menu was pretty difficult and required a lot of creativity. I was looking for recipes that were cheap but delicious, and most importantly, were unlike the traditional food we eat here that we are all somewhat sick of after 8 months. So I came up with these potatoes, which cost less than $2. All you need is a pound of potatoes and whatever yummy fresh herbs you have around.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. of small potatoes (the smaller the better, you want them to be bite size)
- 2 tablespoons of EVOO
- 1 tablespoon of salt
- Handful of minced herbs of your choosing
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400°F
- In a large bowl, mix potatoes and rest of ingredients so that all sides of the potatoes are coated with mixture.
- Place on baking sheet and cook until golden brown, around 30 minutes or more.
- Add more salt if needed. Serve with your favorite dip. I used blue cheese dressing.
before we begin with this quick financial analysis, please keep in mind that I’m just a regular SWA customer like you. I’m not part of SWA Management, and I do not have info regarding their financial plans.
People are asking about safety nets and how SWA Ultimate will make money. They are looking for reassurance that the company will have enough cashflow to sustain its operations. Here are some suggested computations…
The following computations are based on publicly-available information…
Access to the SWA Online Library is $55 per customer.
For each customer who pays $55, a maximum of $20 is set aside for the Pay Plan 2 commission, while $5 is set
aside for Admin Fees (e.g., the programmers maintaining the website)
The Pay Plan 1 commissions are set aside for payout for each group of 6 customers. Therefore, a Pay Plan 1
commission of $70 is set aside for payout for every 6 customers.
This means that by the time 6 customers have come in:
Total Sales is 7 x $55 = $385 (The first SWA member + 6 customers)
Less: $5 SWA Admin Fee = ($35)
Less: Pay Plan 2 Commissions of 7 x $20 = ($140)
Amount left for Pay Plan 1 = $210
Amount actually set aside for Pay Plan 1 Commission = $70
In the above example, SWA Ultimate will still have a Net Cash Available For Operations (NCAFO) of $140
(that’s $210 minus $70). That comes out to $140 divided by 7, or an average of $20 NCAFO per customer.
What about cases where a SWA Member qualifies for a Pay Plan 1 commission, and then is given another
SWA Account, which causes that SWA Member’s Upline to earn a $70 commission?
For that to happen, that means 10 people became SWA Customers:
Total Sales is 10 x $55 = $550
Less: $5 SWA Admin Fee per customer = ($50)
Less: Pay Plan 2 Commissions of 10 x $20 = ($200)
Amount left for Pay Plan 1 = $300
Amount set aside for Pay Plan 1 commission of SWA Member and that Member’s Upline = $140
In this second example, SWA Ultimate will still have a Net Cash Available For Operations (NCAFO) of $160
(that’s $300 minus $140). That comes out to $160 divided by 10, or an average of $16 NCAFO per SWA
customer.
In other words, based on the commission structure of Pay Plan 1 and Pay Plan 2 combined, the SWA Ultimate mother company will still have cash, which can be used to cover operational expenses.What will help sustain the operations of SWA Ultimate is a steady stream of SWA customers each month.
At 300 new SWA Customers per month (or only 10 new customers a day), and based on the above
computation’s estimate of $16 average net cash available for operations per SWA Customer, that’s $4,800 per month (or P201,600 monthly assuming a forex rate of P42:US$1).
Please take note that we are regular SWA customers like you, and we do not have information regarding the staffing requirements of SWA Ultimate, the Management’s financial targets, or even their cost of doing business (e.g., webhosting costs, salaries).
Neither do we have information regarding the actual number of new SWA customers each month. And please remember that this website you are reading is for informational purposes only. We do not offer any professional nor legal advice, so please be guided accordingly and do get in touch with your accountant or lawyer for professional advice.
Beachbody Coach Military Offer
The men and women who serve our country to help preserve our rights deserve respect for the sacrifices they give and the Beachbody Coach Military discount is Team Beachbody’s way of giving back to those men and women. Being a Beachbody Coach is all about helping people to learn how to get fit and healthy through the Team Beachbody program and its products, and with the military discount earning money as a coach can benefit active service members in a variety of ways.
The Beachbody Coach Military discount pretty simple: all active members of the US military get the chance to waive the starter kit cost ($39) and monthly fees ($16) as a Beachbody Coach for however long they are on active duty. Team Beachbody goes even farther and offers the Beachbody Coach Military discount to spouses of active service members in place of them if they so chose. For those who have already started the journey as a Team Beachbody Coach and are an active US Military member, they can fill out the Beachbody Coach Military Application to have the monthly fees as a coach waived. It is just one way that active military members can take part in the Team Beachbody revolution and maybe help to earn a little extra money while helping people all over to get fit and healthy the Beachbody way.
Hint: Even if you don’t plan to work the business, using the Beachbody Coach Military Offer will save you 25% on all future orders!
Through the Beachbody Coach Military Application active service members can apply for the discount and start their journey as a Team Beachbody Coach without the hassle of startup costs or monthly fees. It makes the chance to be a Coach easier than it ever has been before. Whether you’re an active service member or the spouse of an active service member, you can take advantage of the amazing Beachbody Coach Military discount and start earning money while helping people to truly get healthy today!
To join as a coach on my team for free, simply download the Beachbody Military Coach Application below and follow the directions on the form. Once completed you can fax or email the form to Beachbody using the information provided on the application. If you need help or would like me to mail a copy of the form to you, please contact me. Note: Unless you will be purchasing a challenge pack, there is no need to enter a credit card number. On the last pages of the PDF you will see the Team Beachbody price list. There you will able to see the new wholesale prices for Beachbody products that you can take advantage of as a coach.
Download the Beachbody Military Application
Your Friend in Fitness!
James Halterman
Lets Connect on Facebook: GetFitWithJames
Sign up for a FREE Beachbody Club Account!
Join my Fitness & Nutrition Support Group on Facebook
PS: If you found this article helpful I invite you to share it with the buttons below!
“Somewhere someone is looking for exactly what you have to offer.” ~Louise Hay
This quote by Louise Hay is applicable to many areas of life. However, it is particularly meaningful for the entrepreneurs who run an online business - a daily deal website or an online store. There are billions of people who have access to the Internet in the world. All these people have their needs and desires and they go online daily. No doubt some of them are looking for exactly what you can offer and you just need to find way to connect with the clients who need your product or service.