By putting a link or an advert to another service from your site using your special affiliate link – you  can earn a commission if a person who visits from your link makes a purchase. That’s how affiliate programs work and it’s a great way to make money.

There are loads of WordPress Theme developers and theme shops that have affiliate programs so they’re a good place to get started if you want to start making money. WordPress 3.2 has been downloaded more than 12 million times – that’s a whole lot of sites running on WordPress, and a whole lot of people looking for WordPress themes. Here’s a run down of the main players, with a bit of info about their program and how much lovely cash-money you can earn.

Of course this list is not finished and I’ll be keeping it updated as time goes on. If you know of a WordPress theme developer not on this list then leave a comment below.

The results reveal that:

• 46% of B2B participants said their most important objective is to generate leads.
• 53% of all participants say SEO makes the biggest impact on lead generation, followed by 28% for PPC and 19% for social media.
• 75% of B2C companies are the most active on Facebook, followed by 8% on Twitter and 6% on LinkedIn.
• B2B companies are active more evenly across all three leading networks: 34% Facebook, 26% Twitter, and 25% LinkedIn.

The 2011 Webmarketing123 State of Digital Marketing survey was conducted online in September. Over 500 marketing professionals completed the survey.  You can download the entire report here.

Overall, 60 percent of respondents said they plan to increase their budget for social media marketing in 2012; 53 percent plan to increase their budget for SEO and 40 percent will increase their PPC budget.

Source: Search Engine Land

Growing a client base with Facebook takes a little more effort than posting witty status updates a few times each day. Keep the company’s web presence professional and current. No company makes an impact by reaching out to customers once or twice a week. Since Facebook is live 24/7, use the free marketing tool often.  If you’re looking for some creative tips on keeping your social marketing efforts going in the right direction then keep reading!

Create a Buzz

Use Facebook like a news-alert system. Create posts about developments, progress and milestones reached. Sure, it’s a bit egotistical, but anyone who searches for the company online will see that it’s doing something. It’s a start-up making progress. Go ahead and post a link to the company’s new website or Twitter profile. Moving forward is the goal. Use online auto-posting services to streamline the Facebook updating process.

Have Contests

Encourage Facebook visitors to interact with the page. Contests directly call for participation. Use a service or product from the company as the prize. Once in the hands of a consumer, word of mouth marketing begins. Plus, contest winners will click on the “Share” button to spread the winning news, which in turn shares the company name on many more Facebook walls.

Share the Love

Get in the habit of sharing links to articles, photos and blog posts that relate to the business. These public posts are searchable by Google, and bring traffic to back to the business Facebook page. For example, a start-up bakery might post an article from the Blueberry Grower’s Association website about the nutritional value of blueberries — the newest pie flavor offered by the bakery. If the Growers find the article posted on the bakery’s Facebook page, they may create a link from the company’s website, to the bakery. On the Internet, related businesses scratch each other’s backs.

Be Human

The company is a start-up, not a multinational corporation. Talk about the local weather, economy or issues facing the area. It adds personality and locality to the venture. Just keep the talk professional. If the business offers bicycle rentals along the coastline, let customers know about the beautiful weekend weather forecast. This quick post might just plant a seed and encourage customers to stop by the shop and rent a bike. After all, everyone wants to take advantage of nice weather.

Post Pictures

When a new product debuts, snap a few pictures. Seeing a product is more appealing than a cleverly crafted paragraph of advertorial prose. Posting pictures of your employees working, creating new products, speaking at conferences or working with customers makes the business real. Take the process a step further and tag employees in the photos. Make sure the links go to a professional Facebook profile, not a personal account littered with weekend party pictures or political rants.

Using Facebook stretches the meager marketing budget of most new businesses. The free marketing tool gives the company a public identity, allows for interaction between potential customers and employees, and over time helps the company establish credibility.

This article will explain six effective ways that you can create killer content that captures the attention of the web, launches your online brand and creates a never-ending flow of targeted web traffic.

#1: Write a definitive tutorial on a single subject

The web is jam-packed with powerful, informational pieces of content that teaches nearly any type of subject you wish to learn. You could become the source of information rather than being on the receiving end by compiling your knowledge, about a subject, into an incredibly detailed tutorial style blog post or website article.

The secret to creating killer content through tutorial style posts are the ideas, imagination and information you accurately deliver in a timely manner. Information you use for tutorial posts can be compiled through web research or through your own experiences; the later is the best choice.

You are the expert in topics you thoroughly understand; there will always be individuals that are still fresh to your niche and topics. Your task is to pour your best information into a piece of content which takes an individual from the very basics to becoming a master in the topic.

Tutorial posts can be done for any number of topics, such as:

• Web design tutorials
• Diet and exercise routines
• How to repair a car

The list, quite literally, can go into the infinite. Taking the information you already retain and reinforcing it with additional information you’ve learned from the web is the secret formula for creating a tutorial post that entire communities will recognize and use as a definitive source when need be; that, is killer content.

#2: Design an infographic

Infographics have caught on like wildfire; they are easy to digest, passed around rapidly on social media and have an additional level of entertainment when people wish to learn something on the web. Infographics are the true body of killer content if you find topics people are interested in learning; the information is presented through design but still has the same amount of written content as one would pour into a blog post or website article.

Infographics are relatively easy to create; once one completes research, in a topic, the heavy design work can be passed off to those that have experience in design programs such as Photoshop. The inclusion of graphs, charts, design characters, typography and overall style of print layout should be tended with care as it ultimately captures the reader’s attention. However, the information, at its core, is the most important element and will need to combine entertainment with knowledge in a fun and easy format.

Added benefits of infographics are how easy they are shared on the web which can lead to viral traffic explosions. Infographics can be embedded with a few lines of code, uploaded to picture sharing websites, used in other content pieces and be quickly saved to hard drives. The design aspect, of infographics, will capture people more readily than trying to ‘convince’ them to read thousands of words.

#3: Shoot, edit and produce a video

People, in some ways, have taken a relaxed approach to content consumption ever since the invention of the television. It wasn’t too long after that web video was possible on the web which lead to wildly popular websites like Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and many more.

Your content does not need to stick to a single medium such as text. Content can come in many different formats; one which has the potential to create lasting impact is video. Video lets you include additional methods to share information through visual and audible mediums; it creates a higher level of engagement in the viewer.

Video, remarkably, is extremely simple to create because of the falling price of technology. You can now purchase HD video cameras for less than $100 which come pre bundled with video editing software; this allows you to create engaging video from the comfort of your home or office without the high overhead that you would have faced just ten years ago.

Likewise, screen capture tools such as Camtasia can be used to record your actions, on-screen, and later edited to create a full featured video for your audience. Such uses of screen capture tools have started an entire vehicle to content delivery called ‘screencasts’.

Each video you create gives you an opportunity to reach multiple channels within your community. Video can be embedded within your website or blog, uploaded to video sharing websites like Youtube and readily shared in social media circles. An engaging, informative video is one of the best pieces of killer content you should aim to create for your website.

#4: Record and launch a podcast

Ever since the invention of the radio, people have been enthralled by audio recordings. Audio gives you the freedom to be entertained and taught without taking away from your current activities which, depending on your niche, can be phenomenal if your community is readily busy with their own projects.

Podcasts couldn’t be any easier than it is today; a $20 microphone headset and a free audio recording program, such as Audacity, are all that you need to get started with Podcasting. Your audio can cover any topic that you would in written or video form; your content is what matters though which is why you should take special attention to how well you are able to convey coherent thoughts and ideas through the medium.

There are dozens of ways to create podcasts, such as:

• Reading, aloud, your previous content from your website
• Interviewing key players in your market, niche or community
• Having a free-for-all, roundtable discussion with current events

Think of your podcast as an additional channel for producing killer content. Your website can be the source for written content, video websites for the motion picture medium and Podcasting for audio; a strong command, and presence, in each medium further places you as a main player in your niche.

Once created, you may upload your podcasts to services like iTunes, embedded into your website or even placed on compact discs to be handed out to people when you meet in person. Your content is only limited by your creativity and willingness to record audio; once you gain a firm grasp on the format you will have yet another channel to reach people.

#5: Develop an ebook and share it for free

Ebooks, electronic books, are a fantastic method for content delivery because of their perceived value and overall free form on how content is shared. An ebook can cover any subject which fits your community, infuse print design elements and have the added advantage of hyper linking which can be used to point people to additional information. In essence, an ebook can be used as a killer piece of content because it automatically takes on the form of ‘higher end’ content.

The best kept knowledge has no value if it isn’t shared with others. A sure-fire way to build authority, within your niche, is by giving away your best secrets as this sets you on a new level in comparison to your competition. Although it may seem like you’re giving away the honey pot you are actually cementing your expertise on the subjects you know best; this makes people take notice and builds a greater level of trust which leads to a strong following online.

Ebook creation is easier than ever. A simple word processing program is all that you need to begin creating an ebook; it’s the time and resources to devote to writing that is the real pain.

An ebook can be formed through multiple methods, such as:

• Compiling the best content from your website
• Creating a long-form tutorial style piece of work
• A compilation of quotes, suggestions and bits of knowledge from industry leaders
• A white paper on the current trends, events and future of your industry

The ebook should take in all accounts of great copywriting which is why the title and cover design play important roles. Your ebook can begin to be shared in social networks, on your website, sold, given away to your email list, uploaded to sites like Scribd and many more once you’ve completed your work. The viral natures of ebooks are immensely powerful; they cement your placement as an authority within your niche and continually drive interested parties to you through content marketing.

#6: Compile information to create a case study

Case studies provide people with an introspective look into topics which may otherwise go unnoticed. Case studies can become a powerful form of content as they pull together your own knowledge, something interesting in the topic and information which your readers could use in their own projects.

A case study is a long-term engagement in order to produce sizable results but this investment on time and resources can become a definitive piece of work that is later referenced by many people in your industry. Compiling information about a topic, business or individual will drive attention to the subject and come full circle when the favor is returned through backlinking, social media shares and reciprocal attention from the topic’s community.

Case studies can come in many forms and cover any number of topics, including:

• An introspective look at business practices of major market leaders
• How an individual is changing ‘the game’ in the industry
• Different methods how something was accomplished by an individual or business

The main draws of case studies are their detail to information and story telling style of content delivery. People read case studies because they place themselves into the same scenario; it’s much like interactive learning but with a story to hold on to. If you are able to find a topic which people wish to learn, discover someone doing it right and include your own take on how you believe it was accomplished you are fulfilling multiple channels of content creation; you’ve captured your reader.

Conclusion:

The time and resources you pour into creating killer content has a reciprocal effect; spending time to create a definitive piece of work, rather than a dozen smaller ones, will create a greater impact in your community than those which were compiled and published in a single afternoon.

Your content can be seen as a product. Product development is a time-consuming process but they produce a greater return on investment than simple one-off pieces of work. Think of your website as your business, content your product and your online presence will be met with enthusiasm; the item that sets your website above anyone else.

Here’s a list of 16 SEO plugins for WordPress.

1. All in one SEO pack

(Visit Site) Automatically optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines and gives you many options for customizing things such as Meta data like page titles.

2. WordPress SEO

(Visit Site) WordPress SEO is an all in one solution to search engine optimize your WordPress blog, featuring titles, meta descriptions, optimized breadcrumbs, XML.

3. ScribeSEO

(Visit Site) ScribeSEO takes all the guesswork out of SEO for your wordpress site.  It basically does the majority of the SEO work for you and helps you:

4. SEO smart links

(Visit Site) SEO Smart Links provides automatic SEO benefits for your site in addition to custom keyword lists, nofollow and much more.

5. Google XML sitemaps

(Visit Site) This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines to better index your blog.

6. Platinum SEO pack

(Visit Site) Platinum SEO Plugin offers Complete onsite SEO solution for your WordPress blog.

7. SEO friendly images

(Visit Site) SEO Friendly Images is a WordPress optimization plugin which automatically updates all images with proper ALT and TITLE attributes.

8. Redirection

(Visit Site) Redirection is a WordPress plugin to manage 301 redirections, keep track of 404 errors, and generally tidy up any loose ends your site may have.

9. SEO No Duplicate

(Visit Site) This plugin helps you manage your search engine duplicate content, by setting your post page’s canonical to the permalink.

10. Headspace 2

(Visit Site) HeadSpace is a powerful all-in-one plugin to manage meta-data and handle a wide range of SEO tasks.

11. I Love Social Bookmarking

(Visit Site) I Love Social Bookmarking is a simple WordPress plugin that allows your readers to submit your content to social media services via a clutter-free drop-down list. SEO optimised by using the “nofollow” tag.

12. Robots meta

(Visit Site) This plugin makes it easy to add the appropriate meta robots tags to your pages, disable unused archives, nofollow unnecessary links and more.

13. WP super cache

(Visit Site) This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog.  After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.  This plugin makes your site faster and faster loading sites rank better in SERPS.

14. WP-Paginate

(Visit Site) A simple paging navigation plugin for users and search engines. Instead of next and previous page it shows numbers and arrows.  In addition to increasing the user experience for your visitors, it has also been widely reported that pagination increases the SEO of your site by providing more links to your content.

15. Nofollow Blogroll SEO

(Visit Site) A simple plugin that adds rel=”nofollow” attribute to non-homepage Blogroll Links. Improves SEO while still providing some link love to your favorite sites.

16. WP SEO Tags

(Visit Site) This Plugin logs incoming queries from searchengines like Bing, Google and Yahoo. The last requests can be displayed via a sidebar widget.

What does an article spinner do?

An article spinner allows you to take any content be it an article, PLR content, etc. and unique-ify it… ie. it replaces synonyms in your copy with words that virtually mean the same thing allowing you to easily reword your content.

What can an article spinner be used for?

• Generating unique content that doesn’t get penalized for being duplicate content by search engines.
• Generating multiple copies of the same content for use in different online marketing campaigns or on different websites.
• Rewriting product descriptions for affiliate marketing promotions
• Helping writing students find synonyms to build their vocabulary and rewrite reports.

Is it an Article rewriter?

Yes and no. Yes it replaces words and phrases but your articles will still sound the same. So, you can increase your chances of getting by duplicate content filters but overall for a real article rewrite it is suggested you do further manual edits. ie. make additions and subtractions and maybe use a different perspective.

How can an article spinner help to generate traffic?

Face it creating content takes time and money. For the best ROI you can duplicate your existing content and syndicate it across the web without fear that it will be seen as duplicate content and be de-indexed. Doing this helps you generate more traffic by allowing you to target many new keyword phrases you might not have otherwise thought of. WHat it comes down to is multiplying your content.

This article spinner software works fast replacing all identified synonyms in an article.. or you can go through one by one if you want. So the downside of software like is that it has the potential to be abused by people creating spammy content for the web. I definitely advice against using this software for that. I can tell you it pays to create valuable because it has a longer shelf life. That means it must be legible and not be some gibberish pumped out by a piece of software.

So in saying that although The Best Spinner is very powerful and time saving you still should spend some time proofreading your spun articles. But yes, it does work fast and save you a lot of time which is why I purchased a copy of it.

If you’re looking for a great article spinner to save you some time and help you create original and unique content then check out The Best Spinner. You can get a copy of it until Feb. 5th for half off.

Article Spinner Features:

Hands-down the BEST built-in thesaurus with hundreds of thousands of entries added by Actual users writing real-world articles!

The fastest, easiest interface for spinning articles and creating unique content with lightening speed.

Unlimited nested spinning — go as a many levels deep as you want. Various color coding for up to four nested levels.

Fast individual article rewrites with the built in “word replacement” functionality.

Full-sentence and paragraph spinning.

Enables saving “Favorite” synonym lists for terms you commonly use in your articles — and replaces them ALL with one click of a button.

Permits using all users’ “Favorite” synonym lists to actually kick-start your article spinning!

Generates up to 100 spun versions of your article at a time into a ZIP file or automatically generates one spun version on screen that you can copy to the Windows clipboard.

Export to virtually any other spin format for compatibility with other systems.

Display article word count and uniqueness percentage.

The thesaurus updates constantly as the thousands of users work in the system.

Supports thesauri in English, Spanish, French and German.

View more info about The Best Spinner around.. and remember you can get a discount until Feb. 5th of 50% off.

Just released is a new template that streams all your feeds from twitter, youtube, facebook, vimeo etc onto one page.  This template is perfect for anyone who has an extra domain laying around that you want to use as a promotional tool.  Or you can install it on your current site.

Frank is a template for displaying a stream of social activity online. Frank can read, cache, and display all the items and updates in your WordPress, Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo, YouTube, and/or any other RSS or Atom feed you throw at it.

Some of Frank’s Features:

• Digest mutliple feeds and display them all in one place.
• Includes eight color schemes to choose from.
• Create a lifestream for yourself, a marketing page, an affiliate page, or collection of content from your favorite sites.
• Broadcast a high visibility Newsflash at the top of your page.
• Custom fonts powered by Cufon.
• Frank is flexible, display one feed or twenty.
• Pagination of items with the ability to set # of items per page.

So how much does Frank cost?  An unbelievable $12.  Go check it out.

Download my free report below.

Updated: This report is no longer free and only comes with this current update.

So I was one of the 5 winners of the Envato referral competition, came in 2nd place.  Many people wondered how many referrals it took and I’m sure some were wondering how the winners did it.  Then a new competition was launched where you can win $3,500 if you create the most popular bookmark collection (by votes).  So that got me thinking…

It’s pretty easy to create a collection of bookmarks but I wanted to go one step further and create something I think is of real value.  And that is a collection of files you can use to earn money with along with a How-to guide.  So I went about writing a 23 page report on how to make money from the Envato marketplace that I’m offering as a free download.

Inside I show you one of the methods I use to generate over a thousand dollars a month in commissions.

You can download it by clicking the link below.  It’s in PDF format.  So check it out and let me know what you think.

In the report I show screenshots of my earnings from last month (June 2009) which I think you might find interesting.

**This Report Has Been Downloaded Over 1,079 Times Since June 2009**

To access this report please visit the link below.

How to Make Money With WordPress Affiliate Programs

Why am I asking for your name and email?.. Simply to keep you up-to-date on free updates to the report.  Don’t worry your info won’t be shared with anyone.  I hate spam as much or more than you do.

Please feel free to leave a comment below if you found this report useful.

It explains keyword research a bit and what is needed to dominate Google for competitive keywords.  So here it is…

Google’s Keyword Tool – Understanding The Numbers

Here are examples of the two keywords you suggested you wanted to rank for “muscle pain” and “back pain”. As you can see below there are different numbers of searches performed for each which pertain to the way in which people search. The match types are “broad”, “exact” and “phrase”.

Broad Match means those keywords appear anywhere in the search parameter ex. “lower back pain” counts in that given search volume just as “back pain relief” or even “relieve my back pain”. It basicaly means those keywords “back” or “pain” appear anywhere and in any order when someone does a search. This is why it has the largest search volume.

Exact Match means that the person searching searched for exactly that phrase with no other keywords. This is why the search volume is lower than both Broad and Phrase matches.

Phrase Match means that the keyword was included in a search in that exact order. People searching might still include other keywords in their search but the order inwhich the keywords appear is always in the same order. So these keyword phrases would count towards that monthly search volume: “back pain relief”, “back pain medication”, but not “pain in lower back”.

The reason I am pointing this out is because you noted you want to rank for “muscle pain” and “back pain” which from a Broad Match perspective has a very high monthly search volume. That might lead you to believe you’ll receive 2+ million unique visitors a month if you rank #1 for the term “back pain” but this is not the case.

These Broad Match search volume numbers come from hundreds in not thousands of different keyword phrases. You’d have to rank #1 for every single one to receive that many visitors a month.

A large portion of searches performed each month come from what are called “long tail keywords”. That basically means keyword phrases that have atleast 4 words in them. An example would be “How to cure back pain”.

To rank on the first page of Google or any other search engine you need to focus on several very competitive keywords but also have a large number of pages focused on smaller related “long tail” keywords.

So if you do a search on Google for “back pain” you’ll notice that the sites that are on the first page are very large sites containing hundreds of pages. Sites like webmd.com and wikipedia.org are very hard, if not impossible to beat when it comes to SEO. They are considered authoritative sites and will most likely never fall off the first page under such competitive keywords.

But you’ll notice a website ranked #9 on that page cure-back-pain.org that is operated by an individual who spent a lot of time writing articles about back pain and doing SEO so he ranks on the first page. He actually started the site in 2006 so it has been online for 2 years now. The age of a website also plays a role in SEO but I’ll explain more about that later.

The reason I am pointing out his website is because he has hundreds of pages of content on his website and that is one of the main reasons why he is ranking so well.

To rank as well as his website you’re going to need hundreds of pages of content all related to back pain. You’re going to have to create a portal of information related to the symptoms people have and then explain how your products can help relieve these symptoms.

I am focusing on the keyword “back pain” because that is one of the keywords you mentioned but I noticed you have other products that you’ll be selling from your site as well. Your product line contains items such as herbal tea, safron capsules, Tibetan rhodiola capsules etc. that are all considered natural medicines.

My thoughts are that you could focus on the natural aspect of your products. Or the fact that your products are Tibetan medicines.

One option you have is developing a portal about Tibetan medicine and the benefits of natural remedies for instance. This is possibly what you were trying to accomplish with your site *url deleted*.

SEO is a long term strategy and one that has a greater return on investment than say PPC advertising because once you do the work and build up a resourceful site you can reap the rewards of organic search traffic for years to come. And since 70% of people click on sites listed in the organic search results over the ads that appear alongside them you’ll fair far better in terms of converting traffic to buyers.

How to Rank on The First Page of Google For Your Keywords

I’m going to now advise you of what is required for your company to dominate the U.S. market using internet marketing tactics such as SEO, affiliate marketing and social networking.

The main goal is to achieve maximum visibility wherever people are active online whether it be from an internet search or an online community. You want to be the first thing people see when they go online to look for help with their ailments.

To accomplish this you must apply a comprehensive online marketing strategy that will ensure your brand is at the forefront of major search terms, related websites, communities and social networks.

1. An ecommerce website with these features:

• SEO friendly meaning URLs are static and meta titles and descriptions can be controlled for every product page.
• Affiliate tracking so an affiliate program can be operated and run successfuly.
• Built in CMS so content can be added easily.
• W3C-standards compatible meaning everyone can see your store in the same way, regardless of which web browser they use.
• Ability to accept all major forms of payment including Paypal, Google Checkout etc.
• Ability to detect the geographical location of a customer and shows prices in their local currency.
• Integration with UPS, UPS online tools, USPS, FedEx, Canada Post, Australia Post and Royal Mail for live shipping quotes.
• Single page checkout system as well as guest checkout which make it easy to order.
• Complete backend for customers so they can view orders, track their shipments and order easily in the future.

Along with your products you should have at least 100 other content pages explaining the benefits of each product. In depth articles about how your products help customers as well as news and company info should be provided.

This ecommerce website should be hosted on a dedicated server which would have dedicated resources for it including a dedicated IP address. This adds a level of security that you cannot receive when dealing with shared hosting. Of course the site would be protected by 128 bit industry-standard SSL security.

2. An information portal with these features:

• SEO optimized including static URLs. This includes optimized Meta titles, descriptions, content and site structure.
• Ability to easily add content by multiple authors online via browser.
• Between 300-500 articles related to your products. These articles would be optimized for search engines but also humans so they are of high quality.
• A complete user forum (bulletin board) where people can join in discussions. This forum would be optimized for search engines so the pages and content get indexed on search engines.

3. Social Networking

Because a majority of people online are spending their time on social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook it is essential to add this to your online marketing strategy. It is fundamental to be proactive on such sites and be engaged in conversations related to your products.

• Myspace page optimized with your search terms and product info.
• Facebook business page

4. Press Release Distribution

Press releases are an excellent method for not only announcing news to the public but also for SEO.

5. Article Distribution

Articles written around keywords you are targeting should be written, optimized and submitted to the major article repositories online. Many of these articles are redistributed on news and personal websites that further help build your link popularity.

6. Social Media Optimization

Just like article repository websites there are websites that focus on user generated content such as hubpages.com and squidoo.com where you can create and distribute your own content. These sites are an essential part of creating buzz and interest around your product as well as driving traffic to your main website.

7. Satellite Websites

Because of the vast majority of keywords you’ll be optimizing for it is suggested you create a number of satellite websites. Satellite websites are smaller informational websites optimized around alternative keywords. These sites would be focused on one main keyword such as “arthritis pain relief” and would contain unique information related solely to arthritis and relieving pain.

These Satellite websites would collect and drive traffic to your main ecommerce website to increase sales and also help boost the ranking of your main site.

8. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is another essential component of online marketing that I suggest you implement. Affiliate marketing gives incentives to website owners and online marketers to promote your products online.

Affiliates drive traffic to your ecommerce store via their own websites, PPC ads with banners and text links you provide them so that they receive a commission when someone purchases your products. You pay out commissions only after an order is made.

A complete affiliate program can be implemented along with program management and ad creation.

9. Aquiring Websites

One method to fasttrack brand visibility online is to purhase existing websites that already rank for keywords that we want to rank for.

After doing some initial research I’ve found atleast one person who is willing to sell their website. I can aquire more info and negotiate a deal with them or others to see if it is worthwhile to pursue.

////

So that is where I am stopping.  It gives you an overview of what I propose needed to be done to not only enter but dominate major keywords on Google.  This is a pretty big project and by no means do you need to do all of these things if you are a small business.  Of course the more marketing you do that is focused the better.

I hope someone finds this info useful.  I figured I’d post it instead of letting it sit in a folder on my hard drive.

(The things I list in this post aren’t solely for photographers btw, they’re for anyone who has a business.)

This is the time when strong businesses thrive and the weak fail. This is the time when it’s essential to hone your marketing skills to bring in new business.

If you’re a photographer and you want to boost your business in these trying times then there are things you can do when you’re not shooting to increase your revenues. I’m going to focus on the web because it’s the cheapest method of marketing and the easiest way to bring in new clients.

To a lot of people search engines are their main means of bringing in new sales (it is for me). That is because they rank on Google, Yahoo or even MSN for keywords people are using to find what they offer. If you’re the first business people find when they go online to look for information or services this means increased sales. That is why SEO has gotten so popular over the years.

If you build your site in accordance to SEO guidelines then you’ll be on your way to the top of the search engines. There are many rules to SEO but if you follow just a few you’ll be doing better than 90% of other photographers in your market. So the first of the 3 ways is making sure your site is as SEO optimized as possible.

Pay Attention to SEO

1. Make sure your site is SEO friendly. If you’re using a service where your site is easy to update and contains flash then most likely your site is not SEO friendly. If you’re paying a monthly fee to host and maintain your photography site then there is a good chance your site is really being hurt by this. When you skimp on your site you pay in the long run.
2. Make sure you blog every day. If you don’t currently blog then you’re missing out period. The more you blog the more Google and other search engines will spider your site and this will increase your traffic and rankings. And when you blog from a blog that is SEO optimized you can really see the difference.
3. Make sure you do at least some basic keyword research to figure out what people are actually searching for. There are free tools online that you can use to find this info out. Search Google for the word Keywords and you’ll find the most popular one. Type in your location and photographer and see how many numbers come up.
4. Make sure you use H tags in your web pages. H tags are basic heading tags in HTML that specify a title and specify to search engines what a page is about. So if the topic of your page is Photography Services be sure to include that title in between H tags, specifically H1 tags. There are many basic HTML guides out there you can learn how to do this from.
5. Make sure you use very specific title tags for your pages. Title tags specify what shows up in the browsers title. You know the very top of the browser. Search engines take the title tag very seriously and you should too. The more focused the better.
6. Make sure you network with other photographers. If you have friends who are photographers then exchange links with them. The more links you have to your site from related sites then the better your site will rank. Be sure your link partners use the main keyword you’re optimizing for in the link text they use to link to you.
7. Make sure you do not use a splash page on your site. A splash page is usually a flash animation that is an intro to the main part of your site. It usually contains flash and sometimes music. Splash pages are outdated and should never be used on a site. And I mean never if you ever want to rank well on any search engine.
8. Make sure your site isn’t solely in flash. If it is you’re sacrificing rankings. You need real textual content on your site search engines can read. If you can’t get away from flash make sure you include pages on your site that are linked to from the footer or non flash section that include keywords you want to rank for.
9. Make sure you’re getting new incoming links each month. Incoming links are links from other related websites. You can get new links to your site by writing and distributing articles like this one, distributing press releases, writing killer blog posts that people willingly want to link to or exchanging links. There are many ways to get links and that is just a few ideas.

Being Found via Local Search

Are you on Google Local?

The second method has to do with local search. You can rank on Google very quickly by listing your site as a business in your local area. All you have to do is search Google for “Google Local Business” and the first listing that shows up is Google’s where you can add your business.

What this does is allow you to list your business details including your URL to Google Local and also Google Maps. People searching for your service or business can then find you more easily in their location. Local business listings show up before organic listings in most cases. This depends on what keywords people are using to search of course, but being listed in Google Local is an easy way to get a front page listing in a matter of days.

Another way to get attention is giving away coupons. Google printable coupons are a free and easy way to bring in more business. You decide what your coupons should say, then customers print them out and bring them to your store.

Social Networking is a Must

The third method is social networking. Networking is crucial to any business and has become a lot easier due to the many social networks online now. If you’re a true marketer you can’t ignore the fact that Myspace, Facebook, Linkedin and even Youtube have millions of users who are all interested in certain things, have certain connections and all have needs.

If you’re not taking advantage of social networking right now then you are missing out on a huge audience. Youtube alone has already surpassed Yahoo as the second largest searched site on the web. That means more people search Youtube then they do Yahoo.

People might be on Youtube for different reasons but you can take advantage of this by educating, entertaining or even showing off your work. You already have digital media in the form of photographs. Put those photos into a slideshow video and upload it to Youtube, Googe Video, Yahoo Video, Vimeo, Revver, Viddler, Metacafe or even AOL.   To simplify things you can upload to multiple sites in one fell swoop using a service called Tubemogul.

Don’t forget to brand your videos with a URL back to your site. You can use free video editing software from Microsoft called Movie Maker, Videospin from Pinnacle or even Jumpcut. Brand your videos with your logo, URL and even by giving a quick presentation at the end which includes yourself talking. People love to see other people talking. They should be seeing you next! If you haven’t capitalized on social networking yet then shame on you. The world is out there waiting for you.

If you want to take all your marketing efforts to a new level then give something of value away for free. Give away a PDF ebook on how to take the best photographs, how to save money on their next photo shoot or how to make their photos last a lifetime. If you can put together an informing ebook on a topic people will enjoy and value you’ve just gone a step further than the majority of photographers out there. And this will set you apart big time.

The economy is bad. Everyone knows it. But it’s not the end. If you have some free time right now be sure you are making every effort to market yourself. Marketing online is the cheapest and easiest method available. And don’t forget the offline world where the majority of people reside. That’s very important too.  I’ll talk more about marketing offline in a future post.  Good luck!