Friday, 9 May 2008

Blog First for an Internet Presence

- By: Paul M. Jerard Jr., 2008-05-08

Remember when advertising was limited to expensive ads in print. I came from that field and clients paid thousands of dollars to claim their market share. Printers worked overtime to keep up with impossible deadlines and increasing demand.

A few years ago, I was looking for a service in the Yellow Pages. My son found the service faster than I did, by using the Internet. At the time, I was spending some serious cash on the Yellow Pages for local advertising. I was sold into the idea that "break even" advertising was fine because of repeat business.

Business owners from my generation, and the generations before, had accepted the idea of investing in failure. We even had a formula of "cost per information call," to justify investing, in advertising, that would not show a profit for months or years.

However, how many ads can you write in print and afford to break even on your expenses? Most "mom an pop" businesses invest their hard earned money and look forward to, a much needed, immediate "return on investment." Why else would they advertise in the first place? Small businesses are looking for instant results.

My son had enlightened me about the accessibility of Internet advertising, but I was really new to the idea. Shortly afterward, I sought out an Internet advertising guru. By luck and fate, I found Corey Rudl and IMC. Later, I was coached by Corey's mentoring program.

For the first time ever, you can advertise for, very little or, no money at all. A web site can cost $100 to $200 per year depending upon the host and what kind of package you need to get started.

If you do it all yourself, you won't spend anything else. You must still work to optimize your site, for the search engines, and if you hire "outside" it won't be cheap. A "top notch" search engine optimization (SEO) expert won't come cheap either, and some of the inexpensive (SEO) services will get you "black listed."

With a website full of unique "keyword content," it should take you about five months to see big changes in your rankings with the major search engines. This is a conservative estimate, but getting top 10 rankings with Google, Yahoo, MSN, or AOL requires skill, content, and time.

However, Blogs can get you ranked very fast. Due to the constant changes and adding of copy that is keyword rich you can establish an Internet presence in much less time. On top of that, you don't have to know HTML or be an SEO expert.

Some Blog services like Blogger are free, and since Blogger owned by Google, it is well worth your while to open an account. All you have to do is make entries a few days per week. If you have a lot to say - more keyword content is better.

If you are a small business, refer to your services, products, changes, and your geographic location, in your Blog entries. This will point prospects toward your Blog. When people are searching for your niche market in your area, you will be listed within your niche.

Blogs work in harmony with a web site, so you should still get a web site and have your Blog link to your company website and have your website link back to your Blog. This is a great way to let potential customers see the changes that happen in your business and feel your passion for it. When your new customers meet you, they will be much more informed and comfortable, with you.

A powerful Blog, with unique and keyword rich content, serves as a "magnet," and may draw more customers than your web site does. The bottom line is you don't have to spend a penny on advertising with your Blog.

© Copyright 2005 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard is the director of Yoga teacher training at Aura in RI. He's a master instructor of martial arts and Yoga. He teaches Yoga, martial arts, and fitness. He wrote: Is Running a Yoga Business Right for You? For Yoga students wanting to be a Yoga teacher. http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org

You can source many more Articles like this one in our :
Article Directory
Novice Affiliate Marketing For home based business ideas with opportunities.
FREE training and website setup provided here.
Triple your yearly salary visit here.

Recommended: Plug-In Profit Site - Complete Money Making Site Setup FREE!

We have added Articles of the Day to our Novice Affiliate Marketing Blog.

We source the Articles from the vast amounts of Articles submitted to our Article Directory each day,

We then pick the Articles we feel could benefit our customers the most in there Home based business ventures.

Please feel welcome to visit our Article Directory to copy or research any of the FREE Articles here or even Submit your own.

We also have the Article of the Week in which we give the Author of the most viewed Article in our Article Directory a FREE Ebook worth $47.

There will also be a link placed on our home page pointing back to there Article for a minimum of seven days and then on until another Article has been viewed more.

With Thanks

COLIN SMITH

Webmaster at Novice Affiliate Marketing Download this FREE Viral Report One Into A Million now.

Novice Affiliate Marketing

Feature Article: Make the Leap to Home Based Business Success
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy
http://www.MakeMoneyOnlinePlus.com/pips

Before you can have a successful home based business, you must first possess 3 "intangibles." These are things that must come from WITHIN you.

 ===> Intangible 1 <===

First, you must have a strong WHY.

Why MUST you have a successful home business? What is driving you? What is it that you CAN'T have in your life anymore and/or what is it that you absolutely MUST HAVE now?

For me, I couldn't stand working 12+ hours a day anymore and missing the experience of my children growing up. I also absolutely HAD TO HAVE the freedom of being able to control my life and finances through a little box (laptop computer) that I could carry with me anywhere in the world and not be tied to anyone's time pressures or demands but my own. That was my carrot and my stick. I felt a great pain deep in my gut of missing out on my children's lives and the incredible freedom that succeeding in a home based business would provide for me. I found my why. You MUST find yours.

===> Intangible 2 <===

You must BELIEVE that it is possible.

If you don't believe that it's POSSIBLE for you to have a successful home based business or make your living from home, you won't. It's that simple.

For me, figuring out that it was possible was just a matter of realizing that many other people were ALREADY making great money working from home. If they could do it, I could too. It would just be a matter of figuring out what those people were doing and then adapting it to my situation.

There is no shortage of undeniable PROOF that people (millions of them) are making money working from home. Just get online and do some research and you'll find countless testimonials and stories of REAL PEOPLE making real money on the Internet. Or head to your local bookstore and you'll find the same documented evidence of this fact. Truth is, it's getting easier and easier to make money with your own home based business.

I've always said that "affiliate marketing" (a simple way to make money from home) is the job of the future. In the "old" days, you had to go to a potential employer, apply for the position and hope for the best. Now you can simply go to any company you want, fill out their affiliate application and start work immediately. Affiliates are the new working class. In fact, making money with affiliate programs or making your living on the Internet is WAY MORE than possible. It is pretty much (or will be soon enough) unavoidable now. Affiliate marketing is the "job" of the future that's already here TODAY.

===> Intangible 3 <===

You must be willing to MAKE THE LEAP.

Ready, FIRE, then aim... This is the operating philosophy you MUST adopt to succeed with a home based business.

That's backwards for most people who like to aim before they fire. The fact is that home based business success is a moving target... The only thing constant about it is change. You need to stop analyzing the game and simply jump into it. You can't learn from the outside... You have to be IN THE RING to truly understand it.

The lesson here is that you will never really be READY to start a home based business. You simply have to start one. It's like having children... You're never really ready, but when it happens you adapt and grow. This is what I call "Making the Leap."

The good news is that the cost of failure with having your own home based business is very small. In the "brick and mortar" world you need to evaluate things very carefully before you decide to open up a business. It's almost always necessary to invest thousands of dollars to get an offline business off the ground. However, on the Internet you can often start a successful business for less than $100. The Plug-In Profit Site is a great example of this: http://www.MakeMoneyOnlinePlus.com/pips

You simply need get IN THE GAME... Each moment that you stay "out there," you're wasting valuable time that you could be learning and skills necessary to build a successful home based business. In fact, if you're not in the game yet, you're ALREADY behind the times. Make the leap to creating a successful home based business today!

About the Author:

Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy has helped thousands of people in over 200 countries around the world start and run a successful home business. Discover 3 easy steps to start your own home business and subscribe to The Home Biz Guy's FREE Home Business Secrets Mini-Course at: http://www.MakeMoneyOnlinePlus.com/pips

Ewen Chia's Working from Home
" What if there is a fool-proof surefire way to stay at home and make instant income fast, There IS such a business and this secret report reveals how you can start immediately:" [visit site!]

OTO Gold Mine
" I've got some killer news that will have you jumping for joy... I'll tell you all about it in just a minute. You Don't Know It Yet, But in the Next 5 Minutes You can get your hands a revolutionary system that could earn you an extra $50, 100 or even $200 a day just by placing a small piece of code on your website. And the best part is that it's F.REE. Plus if you don't have a website yet, you can still use this system and skyrocket your affiliate earnings. ..." [visit site!]

Empowerism
"It's time to put your NetMarketing business on FAST FORWARD with ALL of the tools and training you need to become a SUCCESS on the Internet! All this in a nice, tidy package that's affordable to the masses and pays out a five-figure income! Others have tried it. Empowerism has perfected it..." [visit site!]

Host4Profit
"Sooner or later everyone realizes that they must have their own domain name. However, who you get to host that domain makes all the difference in the world. Most hosts simply provide you with space and that's that. You're on your own when it comes to making your new site profitable. Host4Profit.com has changed all that. We turn a necessity into a profit machine." [visit site!]

Subscribe to our FREE Novice Affiliate Marketing Newsletter and get hundreds of money making tips and tricks delivered to your inbox. A $147 value, yours FREE when you sign up TODAY! Enter your first name and email address in the form below and click "FREE Signup!"