But, first…

Before you begin trying to get traffic to your site, you need to do your keyword research first. The reason this is so important is that you are going to be building content and traffic sources for specific keywords. This means it’s critical to select your keywords properly.

A couple things to keep in mind when doing keyword research:

• Are the keywords you’re interested in attainable? Take a look at the “strength” of others websites (and how many) are already targeting these keywords.
• Are these “buying” keywords? Certain keywords are good for generating a lot of visitors who don’t buy anything. You want to generate visitors ready to buy.
• Another thing to think about is affiliates. Generating your own customers is great – having other people do it for you is even better. So, it’s important to also target affiliates in the keywords you go after.

This is critical to your business, but it takes a lot of time and effort. Experts are expensive and don’t guarantee results. Which is why practically none of your competitors will do this! The smartest marketers use a website traffic software to automate this and other aspects of their business. This way you get this critical step done fast and done well.

Once you know your keywords…

Once you’ve done your properly keyword research, you’re now ready to start targeting these keywords to draw in visitors.

Powerful Traffic Tactics:

• Something you may not have ever considered is Surveys
• “Traffic Traps”
• Video

Surveys

People love filling in surveys. You can use this fact to provide “sticky” content for other website owners. It’s a win-win. They get a great perk on their site and you get a link back to yours. This allows you to get a free website traffic from other people’s sites! This is a sneaky little idea that most people never even think of. Just make the question interesting enough that people will want to share it with their own visitors.

“Traffic Traps”

Sites like Yahoo! Answers allow users to ask and answer each others’ questions. Once again, the main reason for this site is not the reason you’re interested. You are going to generate traffic, leads and sales from them. Of course, the process of digging through these sites and pulling out the content info of leads for your business is very time consuming. So, if you’re smart, you’ll use website traffic software to do it all for you. This allows you to do the things in your business that can’t be automated and let the software just give you the leads.

Video Websites

No doubt you’re aware of YouTube and other video websites. These sites generate massive traffic and people watch over 2 billion videos a day on YouTube alone . If you’re not taking advantage of this rich source of website traffic, then you are really missing out.

And don’t worry if you don’t have any idea of how to make a video. It’s really easy to just start with an article or something you’ve already written. Then simply record yourself reading the text and you video the screen with a simple screen capture program. I’ve even seen software that will automatically convert an article to a video!

Summary

Getting traffic is not that difficult. Just be a creative and think outside the box a bit. Plus, there’s lots of great software out there to help you.

Get started right away:

• Step 1 is researching your keywords
• Set up some viral surveys
• Take advantage of the “help” sites
• Capitalize on video!

More info on website traffic…

Yep.  At TAO Consultants, we believe that if you aren’t marketing online with all the tools available to you, you’ll be out of business in 5 years.  If you aren’t online at all, your business may be closing in 3 years. This is our prediction.  And in the world of technology, who knows how quickly the future changes will become critical.

In a recent report, 90% of businesses responding to a survey say that social media is both important to their business and that the real payoff is in creating more business exposure. In fact, 58% of the responders state that they spend more than six hours per week in social media activities with 34% “investing” more than 11 hours per week on such activity.

Here’s another interesting fact:  Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 online activity. I remember the early days of the Internet when you could see the spamming of “sex sex sex sex sex…” over and over in text the same color as the background.  I never understood how someone searching for “sex” online was going to be satisfied with the latest product offering by this site.  Google didn’t like it either.

The video in our earlier posting has been banned, so check out this one:

Business insider has several good articles on the impact of social media on today’s business. Just search “social media” and you have a lot of reading to do.

Chesa Keane
www.computergoddess.com
www.ormgoddess.com

One of his most interesting quotes is:  ”A lot of people talk about ‘content is king. content is king,’ says Wheeler. “With ‘mega SEO,’ structure is king because without structure, your content won’t even be discovered.”

Those of us to who SEO for online properties can really understand this statement.  Interestingly enough, structure of the website, blog, or other properties always require a good structure. Without it, how can you manage your website and it’s recognition by the search engines?

While Microsoft doesn’t have to really worry about being “punished” by Google for slow-loading, low or no traffic pages or broken link, the authority status of Microsoft proves what we have always known.  Your job as an SEO specialist is to crete the authority recognition from search engines that will build traffic and good search engine positioning.

Read the article: An Inside Look at How Microsoft Handles SEO Across its Massive Site

Chesa Keane
www.computergoddess.com

The purpose of a website or any other online presence is to deliver the right message to the right audience. Unless you can clearly define that message and choose to deliver that message in a way that can be heard as you feel it in your bones and your heart, you are only one of several billions of other points of presence online.

Lost in the ethers. Fogged by the cloud of every other website or point of presence.

Use this website to understand the process of message delivery, of creating the presence that defines who you are, and you’ll drift up in search engine results pages (SERP) for your keywords.

Let’s rock and roll. Enjoy the ride!

Chesa
www.computergoddess.com

One of the reasons to become a freelancer is one determines his own income. Where in a normal job one more or less has a fixed pay, as a freelancer one can often earn more money for the same work. The disadvantage however is that there are always difficult times (like the holiday season) and when you are not prepared for this you will experience moments you wished you had a fixed salary.

Another nice thing of freelancing is that you can often make your own schedule. If your son has a football match or needs to train, you can join him and catch up work in the evening. The disadvantage is of course that when work needs to be finished, you have to burn the midnight oil.

“No boss” is a dream for many people. No restrictions, no comments, but on the other hand also no compliments and no guidance. It is hard “to know it all”. You have to be able to create the final product in good quality and on time. You need to be really competent or be able to work with other freelancers and delegate things you are not really familiar with.

As a freelancer there is hardly any control from a group. As long as your work has proper quality and is delivered in time, you will see happy faces. However, some experience a lack of social contacts. Even if your colleagues might not be the type of people you’ll invite at home, it is still nice to work in a group where you have fun and get assistance.

So, sometimes it can be tough, working as a freelancer. When things don’t run like you want them to run, or when you’re confronted with setbacks, you have to be able to get yourself through without any push or help from a superior. If you are not the type of person to really demand things from yourself, you shouldn’t choose a freelancer lifestyle.

If your business is seasonal, then you know how competitive your market is. Getting the attention of your target audience will require concentration on your best keywords and linking those keywords on your website, blogs and social media to your money pages — the pages that convert your traffic to $$$$.

We have often talked about our strategy called Multiple Points of Presence and this is a perfect example of how using your Multiple Points of Presence to build your brand and expand your companies online awareness will bring you traffic and affect your bottom line.

Here are some important considerations:

• Think in terms of keywords that will be used by your seeking audience and concentrate on long-tail keywords rather than overly general keywords identified by your industry
• Focus your optimization on your webpages, not your website because there is no way your can build your site’s popularity and authority thinking only in general industry terms
• Monitor the results of any activity you undertake — if your traffic is not converting to sales, rework your content and keyword focus
• Now is the time to consider Pay-per-click either through Google AdWords or Facebook Ads – your popular season is when the seekers are out there, so wave your flag
• Ramp up your social media activity — if you have not embraced the whole social media trend, your business will not be competitive and your chances of surviving as a viable player in your industry is unlikely

While the overall market may be down, you must be aware of the seasonal opportunities and attract as much traffic as you can by outsmarting your competition.  Getting the biggest share of a smaller market will guarantee that you can survive the down cycle and be on top when the cycle turns.

Chesa
www.computergoddess.com

UPDATE: This video has been blocked by one of the companies in the video in this country due to copyright issues.  I alway support copyright, especially because my own trademark, Computer Goddess, is often infringed.  So look at the other video on social media for this information.

Chesa
www.computergoddess.com

First, we created a blog, www.morrisvswestfield.com, with the complaint and the facts of the case presented online. Once everything was in place, a press release was sent out for worldwide release. Within minutes, the story began showing up everywhere. Additional support for the release was offered through Twitter postings and retweets.

If you wish to follow this as a case study, it is the perfect example of how a well-managed reputation management campaign can get your message out to the right audience.

Chesa

Apparently not.  After one month into this one-year project, I billed them for the first month’s work and continued working.  Oh, by the way, I never work this way — billing in arrears.  As any consultant will tell you, you need advance payment to begin your project because work done as a service can’t be recalled for lack of payment.  But I softened on these guys — they have a good product. I know I could build their brand recognition and increase their sales using my strategies.  And after so many conversations, I also thought I was dealing with an honorable company.  Not to mention that I was working with my partner who was doing other work for them when he referred me to them.

Well, I billed mid-November 2009 and here it is the first of February and not a dime has come my way.  I have talked to them, emailed them and offered to accept payments. Nothing.

What is their reason for not paying?  Well, it seems a little false, but they said they didn’t see any results from my work after one month.  Anyone who know anything about SEO, ORM and the Internet knows that immediate results are a pipe dream especially for a start-up company with a relatively new product.  I was in the first month of a 12-month project building the foundation for the year.  Since sales were down from the month of October, they seemed to be looking for any excuse at all to simply not pay.

Two Courts

I have two options:  the Court of Law or the Court of Public Opinion.  Given the cost of a lawsuit, you can imagine that I am pondering the Court of Public Opinion. My dilemma is that it is my job to help my clients manage their online reputation.  I help repair a negative online reputation; I help build a non-existent online reputation (like this client); or I help pave the way for future problem solving by creating a strong online presence in a troublesome industry.

I am simply not interested in damaging anyone’s reputation online.

Likewise, TAO Consultants has been in business for more than 27 years, I am not used to being taken advantage of and my own reputation in my area of expertise is impeccable. I have earned my reputation with successful results for my clients. Ignoring this lack of payment puts me into a frame of reference I am simply not used to.

So let me ask for comments. What would you do? Let it go or go over to the dark side by going public with this client’s name and web address?

I leave it to you.

Chesa Keane

Two companies that have experienced reputation problems in 2009 are Trader Joe’s and Sigg.  Trader Joe’s was ranked 17th out of 20 grocery store chains and the worst among national chains in sustainable seafood practices because of its lack of publicly available purchasing policies.  Around the same time, Sigg, a water bottle brand popular among environmentally-conscious consumers, revealed that its bottle linings contained bispenol-A, a hormone-disrupting chemical.  Worse, the CEO had to admit publicly that he had known about it long before the public revelation.

These two companies had a slight advantage in managing these crises because of their well-established brands and good environmental track records prior to these incidents.  However, without strong branding, a company faced with environmental issues can be in jeopardy of irreparable damage before the problems are corrected.

Authors Stephen Linaweaver and Brad Bate suggest that there are three steps that any company should take to manage crisis:

• Know what you know – and what you need to find out. Environmental issues are often complicated and proactive research to determine a corporation’s vulnerability can shorten the time of response in the face of crisis.
• Acknowledge the event, and put it in context. Responding to an event quickly in a manner that recognizes the big picture rather than focusing too closely on specifics can place the proper emphasis on the issue without dwelling on it.
• Engage in dialogue. Environmental issues create an opportunity to communicate with the accusing organizations because their acknowledged purpose is to bring about change, not simply attack the “bad guys.”  Developing a positive relationship with activist environmental organizations can open the doors to both sides sharing what they know, believe and want, leading to a positive resolution.

For the full articles, read more…

Chesa
www.computergoddess.com