Top 10 Best Reliable website hosting Services for small businesses

What is the best website hosting service for small business owners? Do you want to put your product and services on the web? Are you looking for reliable web hosting package for your business? Then read on as I share with you the best web hosting, free web hosting and dedicated server providers.

The internet has become a great market place. With literally millions of users who log in everyday, the net can be a good place to find prospective customers. If you are a small business and you want to expand, having your own website is a good way to start.

Owning a website is easy. With tools such as drag and drop, WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), etc, you can get your website done in less than 30minutes. Or better still, you can hire a professional website designer. But before you this, you need to register a domain name and find a company that will host it. This company will host and publish your website so that your website will be available to users worldwide. Now for those who are ready to own their own website, below are the top 10 best website hosting for small businesses. These web hosts are the most popular among internet entrepreneurs and marketers. You can never go wrong with any of these web hosts.

Top 10 best Reliable website hosting Services for small businesses

Domain Name Registration

NameCheap.com

I personally use NameCheap to register my domains and the reason is because the registration is processed very fast without much upsell. Secondly, the interface is easy to use and self explanatory. NameCheap also offer web hosting services but I haven’t tried it out yet but they are a giant when it comes to domain names.

GoDaddy.com

Most users find the GoDaddy easy to navigate and changing your website is as easy as 1-2-3. You need very little web design experience when using GoDaddy as they have their own built-in free website builder. Another advantage of using GoDaddy is that most people host their domains there, so domain transfers are usually free and easy. They also have an auction section where people bid for expired domains and high PR domain names. They have focused on making the website appeal to people with very little tech background. If you are building your website yourself, GoDaddy can be a great option for you.

Core Web Hosting

BlueHost.com

BlueHost is a great web host for both beginners and experienced web professionals. This webhost is used and recommended by a lot of internet marketers and entrepreneurs. It offers tons of features like e-mail exchange servers, template-based site builders, 24/7 customer support through phone and email, very simple pricing plans, no hidden charges, and they claim that their uptime is 99.9%.

HostGator.com

HostGator made it to the list of top 10 webhosting for small businesses because they offer a 90 day money-back guarantee. They also have all the features that most web host offers but in case you need to back out of your plan because you’ve found a better one, HostGator will give you a full refund.

DreamHost.com

Dedicated Server Management and Hosting Providers

HostGator.com
ServInt
LiquidWeb.com
MediaTemple.net
SoftLayer Technologies

Free Webhosting Service Providers

Blogger.com
WordPress.com

How to Set Up Your Facebook Fan Page for Optimum Marketing Success

With the increase of social media awareness and usage, it is important that you as a startup immediately take advantage of the different social networking websites that are available. One of the first you should set up is a Facebook fan page, also known as a brand page. Of all the different social networking websites, Facebook is definitely one of the most popular, with tens of millions of people from around the world logging onto the social networking website each and every day.

Because so many people use Facebook to stay connected, business owners have the opportunity to create pages on Facebook to connect with and update their consumers. It is easy to start interacting with consumers via Facebook without having to spend a single cent out of your own pocket, which is another excellent advantage for startups. Just make sure that you set up your Facebook fan page for optimum marketing success by tending to the elements discussed below.

How to Make the Most of Your Facebook Fan Page

When you create your Facebook business page, there are certain elements that you will need to add to make your page look more appealing and increase productivity. These include the following:

Profile picture
Timeline cover
Relevant posts
Useful apps
“Like” relevant brands
Encourage word-of-mouth sharing

Well, I will advice you keep reading to find out what each element will require from you.

Profile Pic

Currently Facebook allows two images at the top of your profile page: profile and cover photos. The profile pic should be your logo as it shows up on every post you send and any time your page is shared somewhere with someone else. This profile pic should only change if your logo design changes, which hopefully will not occur for years to come.

Timeline Cover

This is the large image that spans the top of your profile. Make sure it’s relevant and high-quality. Keep it specific to your brand and consider rotating a new image in on several occasions. Just make sure to always make this image match your brand. The message may change, especially if you are running a special and want to use this space to keep the announcement front and center. But customers should still be able to recognize your brand in the design.

Relevant Posts

It’s critical that your posts on your fan page are relevant to your customers. This goes beyond just communicating an upcoming sale to your Facebook fans. Remember that Facebook users are a specific group of people with a unique set of expectations for how they want to interact with you. So put posts that are very relevant to them.

Useful Apps

Apps are small tools that you can use to accomplish specific tasks. For example, you may want to import your blog feed from your website or automatically post your Twitter feed to your Facebook fan page. There’s an app for those tasks! Just don’t overload your page with too many apps and features as this can create a very busy looking fan page.

“Like” Relevant Brands

There are several different opportunities available to you, all of which will help you to make the most of your Facebook fan page. You can start by setting up the fan page and also searching for other pages that relate to what you have to offer. For example, your business may sell beauty products. In that case, you would want to “like” and interact with people on other fan pages for different beauty products because that is how you are able to target a specific audience. You want to target your audience, people who regularly use beauty products, so that you can get them interested in what you have to offer as well.

The pages that you like can even be listed as featured pages on your own Facebook fan page. All you would need to do is go to the Edit section on your Facebook page and then click on the Featured section so that you can choose the featured pages you want displayed on your Facebook page. Often times, if you are willing to feature certain pages, they will be willing to feature your page on their Facebook page as well.

Encourage Word-of-Mouth Sharing

Once you have a Facebook fan page set up, it is important that you encourage word of mouth from the consumers in hopes of getting them to spread the word to their friends, family members and even associates. You can encourage word of mouth by logging onto your Facebook fan page regularly, interacting with consumers by making posts and answering any questions or concerns, by asking your own questions to increase engagement, or even creating contests.

The key to a successful Facebook fan page is to be consistently engaging your customers. Keep your content relevant and encourage customers to comment and share with their friends. Facebook fan pages can help you build relationships with current customers, but the word-of-mouth discussions can win new customers as well.

About the Author: Tara Hornor has a degree in English and has found her niche writing about marketing, advertising, branding, web and graphic design, and desktop publishing. She writes for PrintPlace.com, an online printing company that offers services for brochures, business cards, marketing flyers, posters, postcards, custom booklets, and more printed marketing media. In addition to her writing career, Tara also enjoys spending time with her husband and two children. Connect with @TaraHornor on Twitter.

How to Define Your Internet Marketing Advertising Priorities

Every company knows that they need to devote some of their advertising resources to Internet marketing and advertising. The question is not whether you need to be utilizing online advertising; it’s how.

The fact is that you can spend a lot of money on Internet advertising techniques that produce little to nothing in the way of results. Moreover, what works for one business won’t necessarily work for another business.
So If you’re going to make effective use of your advertising dollars, you need to properly define your Internet advertising priorities. Those priorities need to examine several factors listed below.

How to Define Your Internet Marketing Advertising Priorities

What do you want to accomplish?

Internet advertising usually falls into one of three categories:

Actual sales. You might want to drive Internet users to a website where they can make an actual purchase.
Lead generation. You might be simply gathering leads for your sales team at this point.
Brand awareness. Some Internet advertising serves simply to put your business’ name in front of those potential movers and shakers in your industry.

The purpose of a given Internet marketing and advertising campaign will, to a large degree; determine the methods you use to make it happen.
For example, if you’re interested in making direct sales or gathering leads, you might consider a Google AdWords campaign. These campaigns drive traffic directly to your landing page, where you can then work to bring about a specific response.

If you’re more interested in brand awareness, a social media marketing campaign might be more appropriate. You can connect with customers, provide new product information, and promote your brand without expecting a specific and narrow response.

What’s your primary Internet presence?

Some businesses today are treating Facebook as their primary Internet presence, for example. Some companies whose websites are fairly static and don’t need to be updated on any kind of regular basis will instead engage customers and potential customers via social media.
On the other hand, your existing website might be the primary hub for information about your company and interaction with your company on the Internet. If so, your marketing efforts will be more about gathering customers and potential customers and the funneling them into your website.

How will your customers prefer to interact with you?

This one can be a little more difficult to identify, but in the end; it can mean a huge payoff for your Internet advertising campaigns. For example, if your company primarily serves other businesses, a Facebook advertising campaign might not be terribly effective. You might consider developing a strong LinkedIn profile and advertising strategy, instead. If you’re trying to reach out to consumers in the over-40 demographic, social media might not be right for you at all. You’ll probably want to look more into ranking high in search engine results, or using Google search advertising.

Understanding your target demographic and identifying their Internet use patters insures that you can more effectively get your message in front of those users, and increases the likelihood that they’ll respond.

What’s your other marketing efforts

Internet advertising doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Effective Internet advertising is driven by, and complements, your overall marketing strategy. For example, if your marketing efforts are designed to bring customers into a retail site, you’ll have a very different approach to your Internet marketing efforts than if you’re trying to get customers to visit your website. In the latter case, for example, your print media campaigns will prominently feature your website, and encourage readers to visit it. In the former case, your Internet presence will be geared toward encouraging customers to visit the physical location. Your Internet advertising should happen in concert with your other advertising efforts, not work against them.

What resources are at your disposal?

If you have the ability to bring an SEO expert on staff, your Internet advertising priorities are going to be a lot different than if you just have one PR person working 10 hours a week on Internet advertising. The same holds true for your Internet advertising budget; if you have little in the way of money to spend on Internet advertising, you need to find inexpensive media and methods to use.

Internet advertising can be a tremendous boon to your business, if done correctly. The days of the Yellow Pages are long gone, and tomorrow’s business leaders are those that can master their online presence. When you set out to define your Internet advertising priorities, start with these five areas and work outward from there; and I will see you at the top.

Dominick Frasso is SEO/SEM Specialist at Vistage International, a membership organization that helps CEOs build successful companies through business coaching groups, executive coaching and executive development opportunities.

Small Business Web Marketing: SEO Basics for Entrepreneurs

So your business has a website where you point all your clients that walk in your door. Great. You may even email or market your website through social media. Even better. All these are great ways to keep your client base strong and help attract more attention. Now there’s only one thing left (well, that’s a lie, there are tons of things you can do to improve your site, but this one is extremely important): Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

This topic can easily become confusing for small business websites because a lot of the discussion for SEO involves bloggers trying to reach thousands of hits per post to gain revenue from online ads and AdSense. While these guides can be useful, they aren’t the most relevant for small business, and, more often then not, they have a lot of superfluous information that small business websites don’t need.

Research

This is probably the most important step in SEO. There are a variety of methods and levels of thoroughness to go about SEO research, but I’ll cover the essentials here.

· Brainstorm search queries –

Think about what words people would type into search engines to find your company or your company’s service. Write them down. No list is too long. This list will form your keywords.

· Research your keywords – Sign up for Google AdWords and use the “keyword tool” and “ad text ideas” generator. This generally shows you how much competition your keyword has and gives suggestions for other related keywords with less competition (like long-tail keywords).

· Based on your keyword research, analyze Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for each keyword – Look at who is ranking, what they are doing effectively, and how you can trump their website and SEO. Create a list. Compare content. Compare links. Look for similarities.

· Search for your own site – Simply type your url into a search engine to see if it is indexed. If it isn’t, you may have to do a bit of trouble shooting to find out why.

Onsite

Now that you’ve done research, it’s time to make tweaks and changes to your website.

· Sign up and verify with Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, and Bing Webmaster Center – let Analytics run for a couple weeks before doing SEO. This way you can compare whether or not your SEO is making a difference.

· Evaluate visual design of the website – No amount of SEO can help a site with a design that drives people away.

· Check browser compatibility – Again, not SEO; just good web trafficking principles.

· Edit HTML code and optimize SEO related tags – Most important step here for SEO. Important tags are as follows:

o Keywords in title tag (different for each page)

o Keywords in H1 on each page

o Keywords in p text

o Optimize URL architecture (www.website.com/stuff/morestuff instead of www.website.com/allstuff/?category=stuff&othercategory=morestuff)

o For images, include keywords in alt tags and filenames

o Nofollow appropriate links

· Create a meta description – This is the snippet under your link that users see in search queries

· Add company address and phone number – Be sure that this is in text and on every page. Format it like a mailing address with the phone number at the bottom.

· Add a robots.txt – This specifies what pages search engines can crawl. This also makes tracking search engines easier.

Offsite

Remember to continue marketing your website through other websites. Ask relevant sites and directories to link you and use social media if its relevant to your business or customers.

Author’s By-line:

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online college. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.

How to Build Customer Relationship When Building Your Website

E-commerce or doing business through the Internet is certainly picking up. This may primarily be because of the ease and convenience of shopping online, not to mention the savings from a significantly lower overhead compared to brick-and-mortar stores.

However, regardless of the benefits of e-commerce, why is it that traditional brick-and-mortar stores are still around and seem to grow instead of decline?

One major reason could be because these kinds of stores still represent and hold a significantly higher degree of security to the consumer as compared to a website. The sense of permanence, familiarity and reliability that a physical location holds is what brings customers back to the store.

While online businesses cannot compete with the physical assurance brick-and-mortars have, web-based enterprises can still develop a degree of familiarity with their customers that fosters a relationship of trust and reliability. And majority of this is built around the design of a website. Now how do you build customer relationship with your website? You are going to find out below.

How to Build Customer Relationship When Building Your Website

1. The One Unchanging Principle: Think like Your Customer

Whether your business has a physical or virtual location, one principle in building relationships with your customers is to think like them.

The more successful businesses have prospered because they have made their customers’ mindset their own. For traditional businesses, it meant everything from conveniently locating goods to offering ready and credible assistance.

Successful websites should follow suit. With the lack of tangible contact, a potential customer could have little basis for forming a relationship with an online store. And if building customer loyalty is your goal, then suitable substitutes must be found.

2. Make an impression

First impressions last. As soon as a visitor clicks on a link to your site, he expects to see something that he will like and therefore trust.

Take an online garden supply store for an example. A cut and dry layout of columns and rows, with little to no pictures won’t give the visitor the impression he has accessed a gardening store. Not a lot of hits would result much less in sales.

However, if that same site was built to look like a garden shed, for example; the customer might feel more at home with shopping there because the look of the site used a familiar concept with the customer and incorporated it into the over-all look and feel of the website.

Being able to capture and retain your visitor’s attention is the first step in converting a visit into a sale and eventually working towards a strong business relationship.

3. Provide Ready Assistance and Assurance

A customer appreciates a ready source of help and information when he or she is shopping. So again, think like a customer and find ways where a visitor can access answers to common questions about your products. This could be in the form of a prominent FAQ page or a concise product description alongside a picture.

It helps to strategically locate short but strong testimonials from satisfied customers among your products so visitors can see right away the reliability of the service and goods you provide.

4. Provide a Safe and Secured Online store

While familiarity and assurances of reliable service is great in building customer relationship and loyalty, the bedrock of any relationship is trust. So place a good deal of emphasis on this.

Almost all business and financial transactions over the Internet are now performed over a 128-bit encryption system. So settle for nothing less than this. It will also help to prominently display this information on your payment and sales confirmation page to assure your customers this measure of security.

5. Build on the Relationship

The beginnings of a lasting relationship start from a good first impression. Hopefully, the look of the website has drawn your visitor in comfortably enough to make them want to purchase something from you for the first time. Once they have done so, it is still well within your control to assure that that first transaction will lead to many more.

You can do this through a number of ways; the most common of which is to thank the customer for purchasing from you and to assure them of your products’ warranties (if any apply).

Offer your customers useful tips and information on a resource page so they can visit you again, even if to purchase is not the primary intention. Most online transactions require an email address to be submitted so invite the customer to subscribe to your e-newsletter (if you have one). You may offer perks and / or discounts if they do subscribe. However, to avoid being labeled as spam, make sure the material is clearly solicited for and is sent in timely manner.

About the best indicator of loyalty is when your customer sees you as an expert in your line of business. Aim to be this through your website and your customers will begin to see you as more than just a supplier but a trusted consultant.

By taking the necessary steps listed above on your website with the aim of cultivating familiarity and trust with your customers; the results will be reflected not only in your sales but with your customer relationships as well.

A Guide to Viral Marketing Techniques

Viral marketing has garnered much attention today. The way it spreads a marketing message can be very effective. Internet viral marketing behaves like a virus, as the name implies. The marketing message has a tendency to be spread through virus-like activity.

There are many well-known ways of creating fuzz through Internet viral marketing. You can utilize site links, referral programs and other viral marketing techniques to be able to reach his target audience. A bright idea is the start of the viral marketing venture and this is made operational through the right techniques.

This article tries to explain some of the other viral marketing techniques that are out there on the Internet. These are tools which can sometimes be overseen by the marketer because his vision of viral marketing is limited. Without wasting your time, here are some of the viral marketing techniques which can be effective in spreading a marketing message.

A Guide to Viral Marketing Techniques

1. Create an award

Awards catch attention. When someone or something is given an award, it creates fuzz in the target audience. You can look into award creation to be able to attract people and be successful in spreading the marketing message.

2. Distributing a free software

Everybody loves freebies! If you are competent in creating software programs for different applications, you can actually use them to as marketing tools. You must make sure though, that the software contains some kind of advertisement containing the marketing message.

3. Providing free email account

This is the technique that was employed by hotmail when it initially started. Every person who signed up for their free email account carried the marketing message. This simple idea turned hotmail into a craze and its owners into millionaires. Although doing the same thing today may not emulate the results which were generated by hotmail, but it still is an effective way of marketing.

4. Providing free web space

Again, freebies are loved by everyone. If one has the option to give free web space to enthusiasts, he can do so. This is a way of effectively marketing a message since people will be intrigued and enticed by the free web space offer. You can make a deal with the people who would want to get some free web space. One can demand to put up his logo, or the marketing mechanism in the website that will be developed by the one who availed the free web space.

5. Creating a top 100 site

Viral marketing can be seen as a game of getting hits from the Internet users. A “top 100” website is very popular for people who are researching for something or engaged in plain web surfing. They would like to get quick information about the best websites that are out there. The problem of too much information on the Internet can be used as an effective tool for viral marketing.

6. Offering free e-cards

The keyword here is, again- Free!

7. Offering free graphics, banners, templates

If you are involved in doing artworks, you can publicize his works and offer them to different people who might want to use them for their own purposes. Again, you must be creative in using these media in marketing.

8. Offering free consultation

If you are a specialist in a certain area, you can offer free services for a certain period of time or for a certain topic and use this opportunity to relay his marketing message.

9. Offering specialized link directory

People are always looking for specialized link directories. This is connected to the problem of having too much information in the Internet. Sometimes, people just want to get information faster.

10. Free newsletter with bonuses

Newsletters can directly contain the marketing message that one would want to convey, but of course, people should have some incentive to look at the newsletters.

11. Free redirect service

Linking with other websites can be used as a viral marketing tool. There are many people who are doing this right now.

12. Free screensavers

In using screensavers, you should have a general theme so that people can identify with them.

13. Free autoresponder service

An autoresponder service is a program which automatically responds to emails that are sent to the responder.

14. Free email course

A free email course can be used by marketers since it is a good way to learn and get information about the basics of getting connected through the net.

15. Writing articles and distributing them for reprint

If you are a good writer, you can write articles and use them to be able to convey his message. The articles may not necessarily contain the message itself but arrangements should made by the marketer with the other party.

16. Using forums and discussion boards (using signatures)

If you have a discussion board on your website, you might as well let people use it for free. An advertisement at the top of the discussion board will definitely be an effective way to market the website.

17. Start your own affiliate program (one of the best method to generating traffic and sales!)

Affiliate programs give incentives to webmasters to put up your banners into their websites. This is one of the most popular viral marketing techniques today.

18. Joint Ventures

Special arrangements can be made with the webmasters so as to maximize the potentials of the banners and minimize the cost of putting them up.

19. Provide free guestbook

Providing a free guestbook will attract people because it is an avenue where they can share their ideas and these ideas will eventually be read by others.

20. Provide free forum

Forums are quite popular. People love to have conversations and forums are one of the main reasons why people visit a certain website.

These are just some of the ways on you can spread your marketing message through the Internet.

Internet Marketing Promotion and Advertising: How to Build a Successful Online Business

Internet marketing is surrounded by facts that every aspiring online entrepreneur should know. Although you have heard several success stories about individuals who succeeded and earned thousands to millions of dollars through Internet marketing, they are also bounded by these facts existing around the industry.

First, just like the typical business investment, you cannot make a fortune overnight on Internet marketing. Successful Internet marketers and entrepreneurs have spent several years to perfect their marketing strategies. They have started from studying the “ins and outs” of the business opportunity, applied existing strategies, formulated their own marketing strategies and test their new strategies to their marketing business.

Although Internet marketing offers a lucrative business opportunity for everyone, it takes some time before you could earn millions of dollars through Internet marketing. You will start from several hundreds and after several months or years, you will be able to earn thousands of dollars on Internet marketing revenues.

Secondly, your competitors will always be your competitors. There are instances wherein they will use you for their advantage. Of course, we do not want to ruin friendships here, but it is a fact that you must be careful of. You can work hand in hand with other Internet marketers, but you must ensure that you are not working with “hungry predators” or those who will not use your generosity for their advantage of earning more money.

Lastly, getting potential clients is the hardest part of running an Internet marketing business. Remember that the success of your Internet marketing business will depend on how you will attract potential clients coming from the majority of traffic source around the Internet. Even if you have a well-designed website with useful facilities such as information catalogs and shopping cart services, once you failed to attract large web traffic towards your site, your Internet marketing business will be of total failure.

Among the aforementioned facts, the last one is what you need think of most. As previously mentioned, the success of your Internet marketing campaign depends on how you build your clientele base. Such clientele base will serve as your “bloodline” that will keep your marketing business alive. Without them, the Internet marketing industry will remain to be a dream for individuals who want to earn more money.

If you want to attract potential clients and convert them into loyal product evangelizers, you must learn the whereabouts of Internet marketing promotion and advertising. Promoting and advertising your Internet marketing business is crucial to your website and to your business as well. Through these strategies, you will be able to attract motivated people who are willing to purchase whatever you are offering. Taking time to create some buzz about your website will keep them coming back and create an intriguing impression to those individuals who haven’t got a try of your products or services.

Promotion and advertising will help you get the targeted traffic that you want in the early run of your Internet marketing campaign. In fact, the cost of promoting and advertising your site on the Internet is not as expensive as advertising your products and services through conventional methods such as billboards and classified ads of different newspapers. Even if you do not have that large marketing budget, you can still promote and advertise your site using various alternative and low-cost promotional methods.

So what are the characteristics of a good Internet marketing promotion and advertising campaign? Take a look on the following items and make sure that your promotion and advertising tools possess these characteristics:

1. It must have a long-lasting effect

Do not just use an advertising medium once and discard it. Find ways on how you will be able to use it for several times. You may use a similar approach on each advertising tool and create customer familiarity with the advertising tool as well as the product or service you are advertising. Think of several successful promotions and advertisement such as for Energizer batteries and others.

2. An effective Internet marketing promotion and advertising have variations. Do not just stick with a single ad format. Change the color, text, and the message of your advertisements but do not alter its feature character. The alterations must be done in the consideration of a long-lasting ad effect.

Do not be afraid to explore new options. If you think these new ideas will help you promote and advertise your Internet marketing business effectively, then do it. The more you broaden your promotion and advertising efforts, you will be able to succeed in your Internet marketing business.

How I used Article Marketing as a Strategy to Increase traffic to my blog

In this article, I will be explaining in detail how I used article marketing to promote and increase traffic to my blog. There are many published articles out there that shares tips on how to promote your blog and increase traffic but I don’t want this article to be another trash in the pack.

This article is not about how to use article marketing to promote your blog and increase traffic. This article is all about how I used article marketing as a strategy to kick start and increase traffic to my blog and how you too can. What’s the difference? The big difference is that this article is based on personal experience; this article is all about what works and what doesn’t with respect to article marketing.

I will be as down to earth as possible with the aim of showing you how to use article marketing to increase your blog traffic. This article is going to explain in detail everything you need to know with respect to article marketing so it will definitely be lengthy. To make it easier to for you, I will suggest you bookmark or print it.

As a side note, please feel free to share this article with your friends on Digg, Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon. You will be doing a lot of good by sharing this article. Having said this; let’s get down to business.

How I used Article Marketing to Kick start and Increase traffic to my blog

When StrategicBusinessTeam.com was in the planning phase, I made up my mind not to spend a dime on buying ads until I knew what I was doing. My business team advocated we invest in advertising to gain accelerated growth but I insisted we grow fundamentally from the root. I insisted the blog be run on bootstrap financing until it starts generating enough cash flow to pay its bills.

“Patience; it’s the most important attribute to creating wealth, it’s the greatest business asset. Wait for the right time to make your moves. Let your business grow naturally, not by pressing your luck.” – J. Paul Getty

So when this business blog was finally launched this blog on Oct 7^th 2009, we had no adverting budget; all we had was a well laid out marketing plan to be carried out on zero budget. Call it blogging on steroids and you won’t be wrong. When we hit the World Wide Web with this business blog, we had less than 10 articles published on it with zero visitors.

The first step I took towards marketing this blog was to submit all the articles initially published on my blog to some selected article directory. Article marketing is a very powerful blog marketing strategy that can yield instant result. The trick here is to submit quality content to these article submission sites and once the articles get approved, you will start getting some trickles of traffic.

Most webmasters and blog marketing experts often advocate the importance of writing quality content and submitting the content to as many articles directory websites as possible. Well, they definitely have a point there but I would just tell you how I went about mine.

With utmost sincerity, the initial 10 articles written and published on this blog weren’t the best of content; and it was these same articles I submitted to the article directories. I told you earlier that I was practically blogging on steroids; I had other business engagements offline and it was my plan to grow this blog part time.

So writing the best of content back then was definitely out of the way because I had less time to write. But instead of waiting for all lights to go green; instead of waiting for the right time to write the very best of content, I kick started with what I had. I believe that singular act makes me an entrepreneur.

“You’ve got to stick it out. You’ve just got to.” – Steve Case

“Most people are waiting for the perfect time to start a business; they are waiting for all stars to line up and all lights to go green. Unfortunately, that perfect time will never come. To be an entrepreneur, you must start with what you have on ground and pick up the rest along the way.” – Robert Kiyosaki

I am not recommending you tow the same path with me; I did what I had to do because I had less time. Please it’s advisable you take your time to produce quality content because the web is full of great content. To find an audience and increase your blog traffic, you have to write exceptional content. I will discuss more on this later on.

How I used Article Marketing to Kick start and Increase traffic to my blog

Before I launched this blog, I aggressively surf the web in search of information with respect to building a blog. I voraciously read every piece of information I came across; I stored a few relevant information and discarded the rest. This is the reason why I advocate you write an article worth reading and sharing; so that your article won’t get trashed. I read voraciously because I have had several business failures; I failed several times in my venture to build an online business.

"To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all that is possible to know about that business." – J. Paul Getty

It was in the process of seeking information that I stumbled upon the blogs of some successful bloggers. I mean bloggers such as John Chow, Darren Rowse, Tim Ferriss, Steve Pavlina, Brian Clark and Leo Babauta. These men forged my path to building an online business; they were the sign posts on my entrepreneurial journey to building a successful business online. I really owe my online success to these men. Having deviated a little, let go back to the business of the day.

I have always been an advocate of the doing more with less principle. I think I picked up the “more with less” bug from Leo Babauta of ZenHabits. Robert Kiyosaki prefers to call it the “power of leverage.”

"People without leverage work for those with leverage." – Rich Dad

"Leverage is the reason some people become rich and others do not become rich." – Rich Dad

When I commenced blogging, I had less time but wanted to do more and I think I stuck it through. Just like I said earlier, most internet blog marketing expert advice their protégés to submit content to hundreds of websites to achieve maximum result with article marketing but I think otherwise.

“Study conventional wisdom; then shun it.” – The Mafia Manager

To succeed in any field of life, you must adhere to the laws of success and the laid down principles of successful individuals. So instead of hitting hundreds of article directory sites with the aid of automatic article submission software; I decided to heed to Pareto’s principle of 80/20.

N.B: “There are a lot of black hat article marketing tactics out there but I don’t think it’s the way to go if your utmost priority is to build an online business that will stand the test of time. I have read success stories of those that made it with black hat article marketing tools such as Article spinner, automated article submission software and the rest. While I am not condemning the black hat marketers; I believe it’s not the way to go for me. However, if you feel like giving the black hat marketing technique a trial, then feel free to visit BlackHatWorld, it’s the number one black hat forum on the web.

With respect to article marketing, Pareto’s principle states that 80 percent of traffic will generated by 20 percent of article directory sites and of the total articles you published in these 20 percent article directory sites; 80 percent of the traffic will be produced by 20 percent of your articles. Quite complicated you might say but it’s the truth.

“Defy convention where it’s appropriate. Only a few people dare to step outside; and people take notice of that.” – Johnny B. Truant

So instead of going through the stress of submitting your articles to over 100 article directory sites, why don’t you stick the top twenty percent top traffic generators. When I started applying the article marketing strategy, I submitted articles to a lot of sites but in the long run, I had to prune down the sites I submitted to and concentrated my efforts.

"Concentrate your energy, your thoughts and your capital.” – Andrew Carnegie

So if you are going to achieve maximum result with article marketing, then you have to shun conventional wisdom and concentrate your efforts. Below are the websites I submit my articles to.

a) EzineArticles: My articles received a lot of views on Ezinearticles but the clickthrough rate or traffic generated to my blog was poor compared to the article views.

b) Articlesbase: My articles also received a lot of views on articlesbase but could not match ezinearticles in terms of view performance. However, articlesbase generated more traffic to my blog than ezinearticles.

Other article submission websites I occasionally drop articles on are IdeaMarketers, GoArticles and SearchWarp but none of these can be compared with the two listed above. So having shared with you how I kick started my blog traffic flow with article marketing, I believe you are highly motivated to jump in and do the same.

However, I want to drop a word of caution with respect to marketing your blog using article marketing. Never spam the article submission websites with worthless content; In fact, spamming the article directory with worthless content is the fastest way to ruin your online reputation. Make sure that every single article is worth your effort.

Now how do you make sure your article hits the bull’s eye and yield the expected result? What tricks and tips did I use to increase my view performance rate? How did I achieve maximum result with article marketing? How did I increase the clickthrough rate of my articles? These may be the questions on your mind. Well, the following tips will provide the needed answers.

How I used Article Marketing to Kick start and Increase traffic to my blog

Seven tips to increasing your articles view performance, clickthrough rate and blog traffic

1. Write a Hard Hitting Headline for your article

With respect to article marketing, your headline is probably the most important factor that can make or break your article marketing campaign. Your reader’s attention is either gained or lost in the headline section of the entire article. Without a captivating headline, how will your potential visitors read your entire article?

Your article’s success lies in the headline. If you really want to know important a headline is; grab a daily newspaper and observe how they captivate readers with the headline. In retrospect, I think you are reading this article now because my headline captivated you and you clicked on it to see what I have to say.

Writing captivating headlines is a skill that can be learned; only if you are willing to. You can head over to Copyblogger and FourHourWorkWeek to get free expert advice that will help you improve your headline writing skill rapidly or better still, you can take a copywriting course.

2. Make sure your headline contains your most important keyword

I don’t think I need to blow much smoke on this because the point is clear. Never write an article on assumption. Your article must address a problem or issue and that issue should be your keyword; your pointer or tracker that will help potential visitors find your article or blog.

How I used Article Marketing to Kick start and Increase traffic to my blog

Take a look at the headline above and you will see how I strategically incorporated two significant keywords into it; “article marketing” and “increase traffic.” Without these two keywords in the headline; my entire article will be worthless.

Now how do you find ideas for articles related to your niche? How do you come up with the best keywords? I will suggest you do a little keyword research and Google keyword tool is probably is the best place to start. It’s the tool I used and still use to carry out my keyword research; I don’t use a paid tool.

3. Be personal; don’t talk or refer to the crowd

One thing about me is that I don’t preach what I don’t do. Whenever I write an article, I write as if I am talking to someone close. Take a look at this article; I wrote this article for you and you alone, not them. I am not shouting out to the crowd, I am talking quietly to you. The same goes for my referrals; I don’t refer you to the crowd. I refer you to personalities; personalities such as Tim Ferriss and Steve Pavlina.

So I expect you to do the same when writing an article. Write as if you are writing to a friend; write as if you are having a one on one conversation with your reader. Connect to readers one on one.

“People either identify and connect with your story or they don’t. Have a story that’s worth telling.” – Michael Margolis

4. Be specific; eliminate irrelevant points from your article

When writing an article with the aim of using it in an article marketing campaign; you must be specific and straight to the point. If you are writing about “parental care,” stick with parental care and don’t deviate unless your deviation has significance. Try as much as possible to eliminate the irrelevant points from the article but don’t drain the juice.

“Get very good at filtering and aggregating content. Deliver it to people at the right time, the right size and the right amount.” – John Jantsch

5. Your content must flow logically

Don’t start your article from the end except you know how to do it creatively. Your article must flow logically that even a novice will be able to comprehend your message without much ado. Your article must flow from the headline and introduction to the body and conclusion in an easy to understand format.

I emphasize the need to make your content flow logically because there are some readers online who are always on the fast lane. I call this group the “super surfers.” They hardly stay on a website for more than a minute; they are always in haste. Their patience is measured in milliseconds. Once your blog take a little longer than normal to load; these super surfers are gone.

It’s advisable you write your article bearing these super surfers in mind. Your headline must be good enough to attract the attention of the super surfers. And even if the super surfers get attracted to your headline and click on it; there’s still a problem. Super surfers don’t read articles; they scan.

So when employing the article marketing strategy in promoting your blog; make sure your content flows logically. Make sure key points are bulleted; this will help make the article easier to scan.

6. Your content must be emotional

“It’s not about being digital; it’s about people. It’s about passion conversations; not product conversations.” – Robbin Phillips

Do you know why John Chow hits digg first page on a regular basis? The reason is because he writes emotional content; same goes with Brian Clark, Steve Pavlina and Tim Ferriss. These successful bloggers write content that pierces you emotionally; they don’t speak to your ears, they speak to your heart. You should aim to achieve the same with your written content.

“Learn to be a storyteller. Narrative – it’s what makes us human. Big media does it great; you have to as well.” – Brian Clark

7. Make every word in your resource box count

You may write a powerful article that attracts tons of visitors and connects with them emotionally but if your resource box is not well crafted, those tons of visitors will only end up as viewers; they will never visit your blog. I think I will share my own personal experience with article marketing resource boxes.

I have been tweaking my article marketing resource boxes to find out which one performs best but I think a lot of factors affect your article clickthrough rate and one of such factors is the resource box positioning and visibility. If ads are displayed before your resource or your resource box is displayed in an obscure position, it will affect your clickthrough rate negatively.

I have written a resource box in this format (please note that these examples are only illustrations and should not in any way be linked with the author of this article).

“If you find this article informative and you want more in depth information on how to build your own successful business from scratch; please visit the Strategic Business Blog.”

I think this article resource bio worked for sometime until I made an observation that readers wanted to know the personality behind the article so I rewrote my resource bio to look like this:

“Ajaero Tony Martins is an entrepreneur, investor and prolific blogger. If you find this article informative and you want to learn more, feel free to visit his business blog to pick his brains for free.”

Now I can’t tell you which resource bio style will work best for you because different resource bio work differently in different niches so that’s left for you to find out. But with respect to my own experience, the second resource bio outperformed the first one.

So these are my exact step by step tactics to promoting and increasing traffic to my blog using the article marketing strategy. As a final advice, I want to state clearly that it is better to write submit a single well crafted, resourceful or valuable article than submitting hundreds of worthless, irrelevant articles. Enough said.

Blog Marketing Strategy: 8 Practical Ways to Promote your Blog and Increase Traffic

Today, I would like us to look at some blog marketing techniques and practical ways of promoting a blog. If you are landing here for the first time, please be aware that I seldom write on subjects pertaining to internet marketing except I have something new to add or want to discuss in-depth on the subject.

Since you are reading this article now, I want to assume you already have a blog for your business; if you don’t, it is better you get one now. The number of blogs in the blogosphere is rapidly on the increase and with this increase comes stiffer competition. So I will be using this medium to teach you practical ways to promote your blog and increase traffic. I know this subject have been covered deeply by other internet marketing experts but I will be adding my voice to the sphere with a different tact.

Do you have a blog marketing strategy? I don’t know what your answer might be but what I do know is that most bloggers run their blogs without an operational strategy. When I started this business blog, I had no in-depth experience on how to market a blog and I wasn’t willing to throw away some cash buying ads when I haven’t honed my skills. I have learned from experience offline that running ads is a waste of resources when you don’t know what you are doing.

“Luck is not a factor. Hope is not a strategy and failure is not an option.” – Anonymous

So instead of throwing around some bucks, I rolled up my sleeves, learned the ropes and did the dirty work of marketing this business blog you are reading now. I had an option to delegate the entire operations of my blog because I know I can foot the bill but I didn’t. I am an entrepreneur for Christ sake; I want to learn how things work and to do that, I have to be part of the process. That’s why I am part of the team working on this blog and I can say that the learning experience has been worthwhile. Everything I have achieved was a result of hard work; luck has nothing to do with it.

“Just like gardening, building something beautiful takes much toil and patience. You cannot rush gardening. You must plant well, understand what you are doing and pull all the weeds up by their root. Unfortunately, many people want to quickly identify problems in their life and then cut them up quickly. The problem is that like a weed, they never dig up the root; so later, the same problem comes up. In life and in money, you must understand the root of your problems.” – Rich Dad

The experience I have gained over time is what I intend sharing with you now using this blog as case study. If you are a regular reader on this blog, you come to acknowledge that I love building businesses from scratch because that’s where the greatest profits and leverage lies. Building a business from scratch is a great learning process and I cannot trade that experience for anything else. I practically built this blog from scratch, with no pre-launch marketing campaign and no marketing budget. So what you are about to learn now is a first hand experience of how I built and promoted this blog on bootstrap.

Without wasting much of your time, below are eight blog marketing strategies you can apply to promote your blog and increase traffic. Please I don’t expect you to apply all the strategies at once; I expect to pick one blog marketing strategy and focus on it until you have mastered it and produced results with it. Pareto’s principle of 80/20states that 80 percent of results will be generated by 20 percent of your effort; so I expect you to use this article as a guideline to find the blog marketing strategy that works well in your niche. If you are new to blogging, then you will find this article very practical. So let’s get the ball rolling

Blog Marketing Strategy: 8 Practical Ways to Promote your Blog and Increase Traffic

I initially wrote this article to be published as a single post but after editing and proofreading, I found out that I had written a very lengthy article (over 9,000 words). So instead of boring you with a 9,000 word article, I decided to split it into series and publish it over time. Please I will suggest you bookmark this article because this is where I will be listing my blog marketing strategies and experiments.

1. Guest Blogging: How I Smartly Network with Successful Bloggers

2. How I used Article Marketing to Kick start and Increase traffic to my blog

Guest Blogging: How I Network with other Successful Bloggers

Today, I will be discussing guest blogging and how it relates to building a business. Networking is an effective way to expand your business. I will be specifically focusing on guest blogging as a network building strategy. In the business world it's called forming strategic alliances but it still boils down to networking.

“Align yourself with outstanding strategic partners.” – Carol Roth

Networking can be an effective way to start a business and outperform competition. In all businesses I have built, I always make sure I connect with other businesses and together; we will form a business network.

"The richest people in the world build networks; everyone else is trained to look for work." – Rich Dad

StrategicBusinessTeam.com is a business blog with a mission to help entrepreneurs develop the required entrepreneurial skills and grow their business respectively. Since this blog is a business blog, I made up my mind to find a way to connect it with other business blog networks. I did this because I came to realize that in order to achieve our mission, our blog has to connect with other blogs that has our target audience; and the strategy we adopted to make the connection a reality is guest blogging.

“Create content that stands for something, what I call higher purpose marketing.” – Joe Pulizzi

“The only way to build influence is to go out and get it yourself, and to overcome that fear of doing so.” – Terry Starbucker

Guest Blogging: How I Network with other Successful Bloggers

Why Do I Engage in Guest Blogging or Networking?

This was the exact outburst of a friend when I told him that my best articles are to be published on other business blogs and not on mine. He asked if I received a pay for my effort and I said no. What! He screamed. Why should anyone give away his best articles for free? This was the question he threw at me.

"Action is greater than writing. A good man is a nobler object of contemplation than a great author. There are two things worth living for: to do what is worthy of being written and to write what is worthy of being read." – Henry Ross Perot

“Share good content consistently. That’s how I have done it.” – Jason Falls

I never did reply him because he was an employee and working for free was out of his ideology; he believes in getting paid for everything you do. But I will tell you why guest blogging and networking has been an effective business growth strategy for me; I am telling you because I believe you are either an entrepreneur or in the making.

“I did 30 Minute Meals for five years on local television, and I earned nothing the first two years. Then I earned $50 a segment. I spent more than that on gas and groceries, but I really enjoyed making the show and I loved going to a viewer’s house each week. I knew I enjoyed it, so I stuck with it even though it cost me.” – Rachael Ray

My team adopted guest blogging (business networking) as a targeted marketing strategy because it links us directly with our target audience. In online business, it's called niche content marketing but in the offline business world, it's called strategic targeted marketing or value marketing.

“Get good at filtering and aggregating content. Deliver it to people at the right time, the right size and the right amount.” – John Jantsch

Looking back over time, I will say the guest blogging strategy has proved effective for us. Instead of waiting for our target audience to come to us, we take our information to them. Just like taking our products to the doorstep of potential customers and asking them to buy instead of waiting for the customers to go to the retail store to buy our products. We are ultimately eliminating stress and making it easier for people to find our content right on their own chosen platform.

“Find out from your customers which social networks they are using and be there for them at the moment they need you.” – Shashi Bellamkonda

Now take a critical look at this; if I implement this guest blogging/networking strategy on my blog or business respectively or I take my content/product/services to the doorstep of my targeted customers while my competitor waits patiently for the audience or customer to come to their selling point. Which business do you think will sell more and grow faster? It should be my business of course. So when next you see an article elsewhere with a link pointing back to StrategicBusinessTeam.com, don't fret; we are only implementing our business growth plan.

"Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationship." – Henry Ross Perot

To balance our act and make the guest blogging strategy an effective two way affair, we are now opening up our blog to accept guest articles. This will solidify the network and give other successful bloggers the chance to leverage our own network. You can submit your business related articles here.

"The most meaningful way to differentiate your company from your competitors, the best way to put distance between you and the crowd is to do an outstanding job with information. How you gather, manage and use information will determine whether you win or lose." – Bill Gates

I am not writing this to brag or tell you how we are faring. Rather, I am writing to encourage you to leave your comfort zone and take your product or services to the doorstep of your targeted customers. If your business is strictly offline, then do everything within your power to network with other businesses in your vicinity. For instance, if you retail male shoes, you can form strategic alliance with a male clothes retailer in your vicinity. It's all about forming a two way mutual relationship.

“Get active in other people’s communities. Get out of your own head and get into other people’s spaces.” – Mitch Joe

But if you are strictly into doing business online, blogging for instance; you can use guest blogging as an avenue to increase your traffic or expand your business network. To even sweeten the deal, some business blogs are going to encourage guest blogging by allowing you to earn some revenue from their blog alongside traffic and popularity. ShoutMeLoud is an example of a blog that offers advertising revenue (Google Adsense) to you for submitting an article.

So the reward with networking as a guest blogger is now in four folds: backlink + traffic + revenue + fame. Aside guest blogging, you can also try blog commenting, cross recommendation or promotion, link trading and product swapping.

As a final note, I encourage you to go all out and network with other entrepreneurs in your industry or niche. If you are a blogger and you haven't been taking advantage of the guest blogging opportunity, I encourage you to start guest blogging today and the best way to start is to submit your business related article to be published here on this blog. You can click here to submit an article. To further prove that we practice what we preach, below are some guest articles I wrote that are published on other business blogs.

Guest Blogging: How I Network with other Successful Bloggers

My Articles Published on other Business Blogs

1. 7 Undisputable Reasons Why You Will Never Make Money Blogging

2. 12 Traits of Highly Successful Bloggers

3. Building a Blog: What is your Primary Motive?

4. How Reading Can Help You Become a Successful Blogger

5. 15 Characteristics of Highly Successful Investors

6. How to Write a Simple Business Plan for Your Blog in Nine Easy Steps

7. What is your primary aim for building a business?

8. What’s your primary aim for building a business (part 2)

9. 7 Traits of Highly Successful Sales People

10. How to build a strong brand image for your blog