Friday, September 24, 2010

Tips to Raise Your Google Ranking

Here are a few tips to get your website to move up Google's ranks:

1. A lot of people get hung up on posting their links on sites that have high PR. High PR is important but keep in mind that there are quite a few sites at the top of Google's search engine rankings that don't have high PR. This indicates that content and backlinks are every bit as important as having a high PageRank.

2. Get links on sites that have content similar to your site. Related links will move you up the ranks faster. If you have a bass fishing site, getting a link on a gangster rap site isn't going to help you much.

3. Include title tags on each page. Search engines love title tags. Make sure your title tags include the keywords for your page.

4. Make sure terms people are likely to search for appear within the text on your page. Having keyword rich content on your pages helps a lot with rankings.

5. Do your research. Moving up the ranks for a term with a million exact matches is going to be a difficult undertaking. Instead of picking a broad keyword, target a string of keywords that is likely to be searched for and doesn't have a lot of Google exact matches. To see how many exact matches there are for a keyword search for the term in Google with " " around the phrase or term.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Great list of Social Bookmarking Sites

Social bookmarking is a great way to create backlinks to your site. In the long run, this will help generate traffic. The more links to your site from high PR sites the better. I found this list the other day and it seems pretty complete. I am not affiliated with this site in any way but I think this is a great resource for the aspiring internet marketer. Here is the link:

http://www.seomanualsubmission.com/do-follow-social-bookmarking-sites.php

You can thank me later...

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Crash Landing: 5 Tips For Creating a Better Landing Page

Traffic is sent to a landing page for one reason...to attempt to elicit a response from a customer. This response can be anything from getting customers to make a purchase to building a mailing list of customers interested in a particular niche market. If your landing page isn't eliciting the response you are shooting for and helping create wealth online, you may want to take these 5 helpful tips into consideration:

1. Keep it simple - A confusing landing page will confuse potential customers and cause them to become frustrated and leave. Keep the paragraphs short and the message concise. Showing off your vocabulary may not be the best option.

2. One-up the competition - Don't be afraid to check out competitor sites and see what they are doing well. Pay close attention to what seems to work and what doesn't. Try to be impartial and pay close attention to what your 1st impression is. Retool your site to take advantage of the good and make sure you aren't copying any of bad.

3. Speed is critical - Your site needs to load fast, even on a 56K connection. If you have a splash page full of high-res pictures and video, you may be eliminating a good portion of potential customers befoe they even get a chance to see what you're offering.

4. Tell your visitor what to do - Let them know what they need to do and why they should do it. Deliver a clear message and make them believe that they need what you are offering.

5. Speak directly to your customer - Directly engaging a visitor helps them feel that you are speaking directly to them. Speak in 2nd person to further engage a prospective customer.

I know I said 5 tips in the title but I'm feeling generous today so here's a bonus tip that may drive more people away from your landing page than the other 5 tips combined. Don't ask for nore information than you need. If you are trying to build a list or make a sell, don't ask for more information than you need. People are wary of giving out their personal information online and a sure way to drive them off is asking for information not critical to the process.

Hope these tips help you on your way to creating wealth online...

Friday, September 17, 2010

Creating a Mailing List

Creating a mailing list is a must for any budding Internet entrepreneur. With a targeted mailing list, you can be sure that you are advertising to an audience that is interested in your products or services. I just updated the main site with an article that should help new Internet marketers with the process of building a mailing list:

Building a Mailing List

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Don't Give Up...

People are struggling to make it right now and many are turning to online sources to try to make extra cash. There are good ways of creating wealth online but none of them are easy. Many of them require perseverance and a lot of effort before any returns are seen. It can be tough to put out such effort with seemingly no results but, as with most things in life, if you keep at it things will get better.

Take affiliate marketing for example...There is a lot of money to be made in this arena but it isn't something you can do overnight. You have to put in the work and figure out what works for you and it can take months before any real results are seen. None of the the methods of making money online I discuss here in this blog or on my website will make you a millionaire overnight. However, it you stick at it and figure the system out, you will start to see some returns.

It might not be a lot at first but, believe me, that first check feels pretty good. It gives you something to build on and shows that all the hard work isn't for nothing. After the money starts trickling in, keep at it and the turn the small stream into a waterfall. It will take a lot of hard work and probably more than a little disappointment but stick at it and eventually things will fall into place.

Keep an eye on this blog as well as on my web site for informative tips that will help you streamline the process. Everything I write about is stuff I wish I would have known about early on in the learning process. It would have saved me a lot of wasted time...

Get Paid To Fill Out Surveys

There are a number of sites out there that will pay you to fill out surveys or online forms. The money paid per survey isn't going to make you rich or be a great source of creating wealth but if you fill out a survey or special offer here and there, it can provide some extra spending money. Some of the surveys and special offers are worth up to 5 dollars each, just for providing some personal information.

I would advise being cautious with the special offers as many of them want you to sign up for a service. If you forget to cancel the service within the trial period, your credit card is billed for the monthly fee. Be sure to keep track of the special offers you sign up for and when they expire. If you aren't interested in the special offer, cancel it before the trial period is up so you won't get billed. For anyone that's interested, here's a link to a site that I've used in the past:

CashCrate.com

If nothing on Cash Crate excites you, Fusion Cash also has a lot of opportunities to make money online for doing next to nothing. They even pay you $5 just for signing up. Click on the link below to go to Fusion Cash:

FusionCash.net

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Make Money as a Juror

This is definitely one of the oddest ways I've come across to create wealth online. You can get paid to be an eJuror and participate in mock trials online. These pretend trials and focus groups apparently help lawyers learn better methods of choosing and working with a jury. The Ejury website states that each case pays between 5-10 dollars and the average time it takes to review a case is 35 minutes. It sounds like this sort of case study is just getting off the ground as there are currently only one to two cases available a week. This definitely isnt going to make you rich but a case or two a week could give you a little more spending cash.

Just for the record, I am not affiliated with this site in any way, shape or form. I just stumbled across it and thought some of you may find it of interest...Here is the link to the site:

http://www.ejury.com/

If anyone decides to check it out, leave me a comment as to how your experience went with the site.

For more information on working at home and creating wealth online check out Methodical Life.

15 Niche Market Ideas for Making Money Online

People often tell me that they have trouble figuring out which niche markets to explore. Here is a list of 25 niche markets to get you started. Remember that it's typically easier to break a niche market into segments and target one of the segments. For example, instead of targeting yuour advertising campaing towards "acne", instead shoot for "teenage acne" or "back acne". Here are 25 of the top niches I'd explore if I was just getting started. These are in no particular order:

1. Acne medication - People with acne typically want to get rid of it so the conversion rate (rate of sales per visitor to your site) can be high. If they are searching for it on the Internet they are probably desperate to get rid of it. There are a lot of sub-niches to explore in this segment. There will aso be a lot of competition.

2. Weight loss - Another segment with a high conversion rate. People that are overweight and are searching for weight loss techniques can and will pay for methods they think will help them lose weight. There are a ton of sub-niches in this niche.

3. Web Design/Promotion - What better place to advertise web design service and web site promotion than on the web?

4. Travel - People love to go on vacation and typically research their vacation destinations online. Sub-niches include destinations people may be researching (Hawaii, Florida Keys, Mexico, etc.) or types of vacation (river rafting, fishing, beach, etc.).

5. Adult - Not for everyone but it is a multibillion dollar industry. There is likely more money made in this market than most of the other markets combined. This market is completely saturated but there are a ton of niches to explore if you so desire.

6. Students - Students are often looking for loans, cheap textbooks and inexpensive housing. You can also target individual colleges and campus areas.

7. Gambling - Another vice. Gamblers are compulsive and are looking for ways to beat the system.

8. Music - Sub-niches include everything from finding hard to get tickets to concerts to individual genres like classical or country rock.

9. Phone service - Everyone these days has a cell phone and a lot of people are looking for cheap service. People are also looking for review on the newest and hottest phones on the market. Offer these review with affiliate links to site where the phones can be purchased.

10. Real Estate - Can include everything from finding foreclosures and short sales to helping people source loans.

11. Pet friendly places - People love their pets and are unwilling to leave them behind when moving or going on vacation.

12. Sex-related items - Sex sells. There is a huge market for pills and creams that claim they enhance sexual performance or increase size.

13. Advertising/Marketing - Offer people a tool or service that they can't live without. You don't have to be a programmer to take advantage of this market..Once you decide what you want to offer, you can pay someone to design the website or write the script for you. From there, it's simply a matter of getting it in front of the right market.

 14. Gamers - Gamers are typically tech-savvy and everyone is an expert-or thinks they are experts- in their game or genre of choice. Gamers typically turn to review sites to help them make purchase decisions on games and peripherals.

15. Health and Medical - Everyone wants to stay healthy. Low-cost health care and home remedies are popular niches with a lot of sub-niches to explore.

Keep in mind that these are only a few of the literally hundreds of thousands of markets that can be explored. I just wanted to provide a few examples to get you started on your way to profitability. For further information, check out Methodical Life.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Making Honest Money Online

I've agonized for a whole 10 minutes over what my second post to this blog was going to be about and after much deliberation decided to just break down the many ways I've found to make honest money online.

Searching the web for an honest way to make money is like trying to find a girl you'd want to marry at a strip club. It can happen but the odds are stacked heavily against you. It seems that most of the websites are looking to cash in and get you to pay them to tell you how to make money online. Finding a good, honest source of online income is possible but it's not an easy task.

The first, and probably easiest, method of making money online is getting paid to fill out surveys and special offers. There are quite a few sites that will pay you to do things like fill out questionnaires and view advertising from sponsors. One such site is Cashcrate.com. Be forewarned that most of the surveys and offers only pay small amounts of money and it will take a while to build up a respectable amount of cash. It is doubtful that you'll be able to quit your day job and make enough money to live comfortably, however it can be a good source of extra spending money.

There is a lot more money to be made via the next source of honest wealth online. There are quite a few companies that are willing to pay you to write or ghostwrite articles. If you are a good writer and can write about any topic, there is halfway decent money to be made. Elance.com is a popular site where online writing jobs can be sourced. There are also sites that will pay bloggers to review products or sites on their blog.

If you aren't a good writer but are able to create good graphic designs or take pictures, you can sell them online as well. 99designs.com is a source that I've used to sell graphic designs. Companies post projects to the site and you compete to create the winning project. If your project is chosen, the money can be good. Stock photos can be sold at Shutterpoint or any one of a number of similar sites.

The next method is going to take a lot more work but the upside is that the potential to make money is limitless. It all hinges on how hard you are willing to work to find your niche and promote it. Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make good money on the Internet. There are literally thousands of sites out there that are willing to pay you to promote their product. You can do this promotion however you'd like but many of the top paying programs require that you have your own website. You can purchase a domain name and get the site hosted for a year for under a hundred dollars if you shop around. Many of the biggest hosting companies also have templates or even wizards through which you can easily build a site.

After the site is built, choose an affiliate program- or two or ten-and sign up. Most of these programs will give you links and banner ads to add to your site. When visitors to your site make purchases via these ads, you receive a portion of the profits. Placing the ads on your site is only half the battle. After you place the ads, you have to generate traffic to your site. This can be done through a combination of search engine optimization, linking and social networking.

If selling other people's products doesn't really excite you, you can sell your own products. Quite a few artisans are making a living on E-bay and Etsy and many more are making a little extra spending money by selling arts and crafts. If the thought of making bead earrings makes you want to puke, search your garage and closets for used items that you no longer want and sell them on E-bay. Graduate from selling your own items to helping other people sell theirs. Soon you'll be scouring garage sales and thrift stores for forgotten treasures that you can turn around and sell for a profit.

As you can see, there aren't really any sure-fire easy ways to make a lot of money online. If you're willing to work hard and are one of the rare people that can stay motivated without a boss hanging over your shoulder, there is some money to be made. Don't fall for the get rich quick schemes out there. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

There is a lot more information available at MethodicalLife.com. Sign up for my mailing list so as not to miss any critical information.

Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Hello new readers,

My name is Michael T. Anderson and I am a Work From Home and Affiliate Marketing Professional. Yes, I know that isn't a real job title but that's the beauty of working for yourself. You can give yourself whatever title you feel like at the moment. Yesterday, I was Supreme Ruler of All Things Internet Related. It sounded great at 1st but by the end of the day I started thinking it sounded a little pretentious.

So, why am I here and what do I want? I was part of the managment team at an automotive plant before the economy tanked. The automotive plant shut it's doors and I decided I enjoyed being at home with my family and wasn't really all that keen on returning to a 9 to 5 (actually it was more like 3PM to 3AM but that's a topic for another post).

I started researching the many ways to make money at home and soon realized that, while there are literally thousands of sites out there, most of them are thinly veiled ads for pay services or sites that are stuffed full of keywords but don't contain much by way of content. I decided to start my own website and then happened to stumble across a few good blogging articles and decided I should add a blog to my blossoming Internet kingdom.

I decided early on that I would give only honest information and see what happened. I got tired of being lied to and even more tired of paying money for information that was the same thing rehashed over and over again. I managed to glean some useful information out of the many worthless sites out there and I've learned quite a bit experimenting on my own.

I started my own website, Methodical Life, to try and help people find honest ways to create wealth online. Through this site, I hope to steer people in the right direction. Everything on the site right now is completely free. At some point, I will be adding paid content to the site but rest assured it will be stuff of substance that will truly help you on your way to making money online. I am in the process of obtaining resellers rights and am working with some of the creators of the programs and scripts I use daily to bring them to you at a price point lower than they can be found elsewere on the web.

There are currently sections on the site for Affiliate Marketing, Selling Your Products, Selling Merchandise, Selling Websites and Graphic Designs, Selling eBooks and even a section on how to Monetize your Blog. I have also added a section discussing many of the other strange and unusual ways people are making money
online.

I meant to keep this intro. simple but it's now getting a little long-winded. Let me end by stating that I am looking forward to helping you on your way to creating wealth online.

Sincerely,
Michael T. Anderson