Global Market Run From Your Local SOHO Since 2001:
Hello! Friends,
My name is Ida Mae Boyd and I am from Pleasantville, New Jersey. Pleasantville is located five miles from Atlantic City.
I retired from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after serving thirty-four years as a manager in the Air Traffic Control Data Systems Division.
During my career I was a computer programmer, Computer System Analyst and Branch Manager in the field of Air Traffic Control.
I hold several certifications: Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE), Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
After being retired for about four months, I found that I needed to do something to keep me busy. So I decided to try my hand at learning all I could about making money online. Well! This was more than a notion. I will be talking more about this later.
I also decided to get very involved with my hobby which is billiards for the old timer it is called Pool.
So, I went down to the locate pool hall and signup to become a member of the American Pool player Association (APA).
So, you can see that I was really trying to keep myself busy after retiring.
SPECIAL NOTE:
Over on the right hand side of this blog you will see a Mini Blog that contains Internet Marketing Information Post such as:
Ida Mae Boyd What If You Are A Beginner ... Can You Make Money Online )
Ida Mae Boyd Explains Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Ida Mae Boyd What Is an Autoresponder?
and much more
I am trying to add new Internet Marketing information that I think will be very useful to you weekly.
The Following Are More Of My Internet Marketing Information Posts
Many people will tell you that to get your web site noticed you need to optimize your site
for the search engines. You are then led up a path where you have to keep changing your web
site as the search engines change their ways of listing things. As fast as you optimize your
site, Google and the others have moved the goal posts, meaning you have to keep optimizing
over and over again.
Now consider some facts.
Most people in the world are not users of the Internet. Let's repeat that. The vast majority of
people who you want to reach do not use the Internet. It doesn't matter how well you
optimize your web site, they simply will never find it.
Here is another fact. Some of the best
Internet marketers make most of their sales offline. They sell their books, CD-ROMs and so
on at seminars, workshops and conferences. Indeed, for many Internet marketers these offline
sales represent the bulk of their income.
So what do these facts tell us? They show us that offline promotion is more important than
online promotion. You may be able to optimize your web site to get high rankings in a search
engine. But that does not mean you will reach the vast majority of people who could buy
your product or use your information.
This was confirmed recently by one study that showed most people go to an Internet address
(URL) after having read it in a newspaper or magazine, been given it by a friend or
colleague, or having heard it being mentioned by someone speaking at a meeting or on TV.
In other words, it seems that significant numbers of people who get to your web site will do
so having heard the URL somewhere outside the Internet.
You can get many people visiting your web site, even if you are not ranked highly by the search engines.
You can do this in two main ways:
1. Write articles to be used in regular publications - newspapers, magazines and so on.
Always include your URL in the article and you will get millions of people to notice your
web site address.
2. Speak at every opportunity. Make presentations to business clubs, chambers of commerce,
local societies - you name it, you should speak at it. Every time you speak, announce your
web site address.
Although these are the two principal ways of gaining offline publicity for
your web site, don't neglect your business stationery, posters, car stickers and so on.
The more your web site address is visible outside the web, the more visitors you will get
regardless of how kind the search engines are to you.
Finding A Legitimate Network Marketing Opportunity
Commonly referred to as multi-level marketing, network marketing is a concept where
individuals come together with a parent company and act as independent contractors in the
sales of a product or service. In return for helping to promote and sell the parent companys
product or service, individuals are financially compensated in an amount that has already
been determined. The actual amount of compensation will vary from one network marketing
opportunity to another and will be strictly dependant upon the companys policy.
A legitimate network marketing opportunity will not grant money for recruiting new
members, which are required to pay sign-up fees. Instead, they should be paid based on the
commissions that they earn from the sale of a product or service. One of the main problems
that many network marketing companies face is their comparison to illegal pyramid scams.
However, there are a large number of legitimate network marketing companies that operate
regularly in every state and in dozens of countries. Today, they are commonly referred to as
affiliate marketing or programs.
The best way to distinguish a legitimate network marketing program from a fraudulent
operation is through the companys policy. First and foremost, questionable operations will
require high entrance fees and/or the requirement for members to purchase expensive
products. Typically, these types of companies fail rapidly when the merchandise cannot be
resold for profit, which leaves the members in financial distress and the founders with a
large bank account.
With the increasing popularity of the internet, it is important that entrepreneurs be able to
recognize the differences between a legitimate and fraudulent company. As a general rule,
affiliates should never have to pay a sign-up fee in order to help a company sell its
products. Simply put, it makes no sense to pay money in an effort to help someone else
promote and sell their products. Instead, it is more realistic that the sign-up be free and the
individual be paid based on the sales that they generate for the company.
The majority of large internet retailers offer affiliate programs, which allow members to
track their commissions and log in to their account at any time. One of the best ways to
ensure a network marketing opportunity is legitimate is to know the parent companys
reputation by checking with the Better Business Bureau and through speaking with other
entrepreneurs and gaining feedback on their experiences. Every day, individuals find great
success or simply a way to earn extra cash through a combination of the internet and a
legitimate network marketing opportunity.
If you haven't heard the word 'niche' being batted around by Internet Marketers then you
haven't been listening. Finding a niche has become the antidote to competing in overly
saturated online markets.
First Of All, What is a niche?
According to Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary a niche is described as
"a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted... a
specialized market".
Have you noticed that despite the closing of many businesses in these harsh economic times,
the local hobby train store is still around? That the 'hole-in-the-wall' eatery is thriving? Or
that trends such as scrapbooking can start with a bang and still close within a year when four
similar businesses start up in the same area?
The online business world reflects the same trends as experienced in the offline world -
often with faster turnover and startup rates. Those who promote a product or site that targets
a small, select audience can tap into a market that is otherwise not being served.
Despite the limitations of the client base, the targeted nature of the business creates a
devoted and active market - the aim of any business.
How do I Find A Niche?
Finding a niche requires diligent research. Whether you have access to software that
harvests and sorts information or you take a manual approach you must first start with ideas.
With a pen and paper (or computer, if that's more comfortable) brainstorm a list of
businesses, products and industries. Create a list of keywords and phrases you think would
be used by individuals looking for these items online.
Use a software program such as Wordtracker or a free resource such as the Google Keyword
Selector Tool to find keywords for your niche that have a high amount of traffic.
Although a program like Wordtracker makes it easy to find details such as how many sites
compete for that market, you can also do your own research.
Concentrate your attention on question phrases such as "how do I..." or "where can I...".
These questions will clue you into potential markets that need servicing.
Next, look in Google Answers. Type one of your keywords into the search area. What
questions are being asked and how much are people willing to pay for answers? If you find a
group of keywords with a high number of questions then enter these words in your browser's
search engine.
What sites come up? Do they provide answers or solutions to the problem? How are they
making money? Can you see an opportunity to service these individuals?
Finding a niche can open the door to a profitable online business. Research the market and be
certain that your product or service is valuable to this group.
Find forums or groups that target this audience and pay close attention to their concerns.
If you can help these people you WILL make money. The best of both worlds!
Effective Link Building Strategies by Ida Mae Boyd
Building links pointing back to your website can be a very time consuming task and sometimes you might not know where to start. Let's take a look at some effective link building strategies.
1. Contact other website owners and offer a link exchange. It is a good idea to contact website owners with sites in the same niche as yours. You can create a 'recommended sites' page or list on your site where you can place links to other sites that agree to a link exchange.
2. Create a 'link to us' section on your website. This is to make an offer to your website visitors to link back to your website. Give them all the information that they will need to link to your site such as URL and anchor text. Have a section where they can leave their details for you to link to their site.
3. Make sure that your website contains good quality information (keyword specific) so that other website owners will want to link to your site. Website owners don't want to be linking to a site that is not of good quality so the quality of your website is always important for link building.
4. Search the internet for other websites that may mention your website or your website keyword specific content but do not include a link to your site. Contact those website owners and ask them to include a link to your website.
5. Post comments on blogs and include a link back to your website. Always make appropriate comments that are related to the post topic or your comment will not likely be approved it is looks like spam.
6. Use internal link building from within your own site. For example, when you create a new page or post on your website you can include a link to your main home page or any other page on your site.
7. Article marketing is a very effective way to build backlinks. Write some good quality articles and submit them to article directories and include a link to your site in the resource box.
8. Offer to do a guest post on someone's blog. When you write a guest post for someone else's blog they get the benefit of new content for their blog and you get the benefit of being able to include a link back to your site.
9. Look at your competitors backlinks and see if you can get some of those same sites to link to your website.
10. Use social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. to build backlinks to your site.
These are ten great link building strategies and you can use all of them or some of them. The important thing is to use some methods and put in the effort that is required for effective link building.
Ida Mae Boyd What If You Are A Beginner... Can You Make Money On The Internet? January 05, 2012 - 4:36 pm I will answer that question right up front, I have met many people that have started making money on the Internet in a very short time. So the answer is yes you can make money on the Internet even if you are just starting. I am not saying most people starting an Internet business will make money in their first few months, but there are a few that do.
The biggest reason [...]
Ida Mae Boyd Explains Search Engine Marketing (SEM) November 09, 2011 - 4:53 am
Search Engine Marketing is all about optimizing paid traffic sources.
If you are familiar with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and organic visibility, but just do not have the time to develop that presence on the Web. Then your solution is to consider paying for your traffic to come to your website, or paying for leads, and there are many different ways to get tha [...]
Ida Mae Boyd What Is an Autoresponder? November 02, 2011 - 5:10 am Well! An Auto Responder is a Software or Hardware System that enables you to send
email messages to people automatically.
This does not mean that it writes the email messages for you and it does not involve spam
or sending unsolicited email messages.
What it means is that you set up a sequence of email messages that are sent out to your
prospects/leads that ar [...]
Ida Mae Boyd What is some SEO Techniques Every Internet Marketer Should Know October 31, 2011 - 3:19 am
Every Internet Marketer should know the basic SEO techniques that I will be covering in this post.
You want to achieve Top Rankings for your website and blog in Google, Yahoo and Bing. The more
you know about these Search Engine Optimization techniques; the better your web pages and blog
posts will benefit in the different search engines.
Optimizing your page [...]
Ida Mae Boyd what is a Traffic Exchange? October 27, 2011 - 8:23 am A traffic exchange is a traffic generation system that enables you to drive targeted traffic to your website, blog, affiliate link, business opportunity, etc.
This is How Traffic Exchanges Work
The way traffic exchanges work is very simple.
The system is based on credits.
One credit, generally, is equal to one visitor to your website.
You can earn cr [...]
Email Marketing - How Often Should You Email Your List? October 27, 2011 - 1:16 am
Now this is a very good question I wished that I had thought of it when I started marketing on the Web. Perhaps I would have a larger contact list by now. LOL
I really think it depends on what you said when you got your contacts to sign up and what you said they will get and how often.
If they subscribe for Internet Marketing (tips and tricks) newsletters, you [...]
Ida Mae Boyd Explains What Safelists Are October 24, 2011 - 8:38 am Basically a safelist is a group of people who have agreed to exchanges email.
They agree to receive email messages from all the others members in exchange
for the opportunity to send your own.
This concept has many benefits; the following are two of them.
One very good thing is that it is spam free because people have to double
opt-in to the safelist and t [...]
Ida Mae Boyd Explains the Automated Internet Marketing System That She Uses October 24, 2011 - 8:36 am As you know I am an Internet Marketer and I thought that I should tell you about the Automated Internet Marketing System and Tools that I use daily.
The reason why I am sharing this with you is because this system has enabled me to be able to perform other major Internet Marketing tasks such as writing keyword rich content for my websites and blogs.
I no longer [...]
Ida Mae Boyd Explains the Fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) October 20, 2011 - 12:50 am
Okay! Now Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is another phrase that you hear quite often
in the world of Internet Marketing.
Believe me you really have to understand what this is. I am going to do my best to break
it down so you will understand it.
Here we go; you have a website or blog that you want to get traffic to, so how do you do
it?
You can pay for th [...]
Ida Mae Boyd Talks About Internet Marketing Terms and Acronyms October 14, 2011 - 5:09 am
Now! Learning about Internet Marketing Terms and Acronyms was a major obstacle
that I had to overcome when I started to learn about Internet Marketing. I am sure
you can identify with this too. Right!
Here is an example as to what I mean, Affiliate Marketing, Hosting, and Search Engine
Optimization, SEO, Auto Responders, and the list goes on and on.
