Social SEM – Tips for Succeeding Online with Web 2.0

Posted by admin on 11/30/2009 | 0 Comments

Post written by Dana Prince

Many online businesses do a number of different things to try to get traffic and increase their sales.  Tactics such as SEO (search engine optimization), SEM (search engine marketing) through pay per click campaigns, and working on getting high quality backlinks to your website will help you get found on search engines by potential customers. But web 2.0 is about collaboration and the social aspects of the internet and if you’re not using the free social tools that exist online to help your business, you are leaving potential profit on the table.

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from social SEM (social search engine marketing) and SMO (social media optimization). Large corporations use it, online businesses use it, local pizzerias and barbershops even use it. And guess who else is using it? Your potential customers and your competitor’s customers are using it, too.

If you’re a budding entrepreneur or are looking to enhance your marketing skills so that they’re applicable for the 21^st century, you need to learn about various aspects of SEM and you should also take full advantage of what social media optimization can do for you.

There are many facets of SEM, such as SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click campaigns) and the latest emerging type of marketing is social marketing. Using social marketing to is a great way to learn to unleash the power of the Internet in a viral way. People and search engines read social marketing sites and many will use the information in them to make indexing and buying decisions.   Here are some tips to help you use it to your advantage in internet marketing:

Social Bookmarking

Many sites exist that enable users to sign up and add links to them. Some of these sites are very social in nature and by sharing helpful links and socializing in those communities, you can get people visiting your links, get search engines indexing them for your desired keywords, and they can also go viral and be seen by a lot of people.

Tip:

Be a helpful community member and bookmark for others. They may bookmark for you in return. Write a great profile and be professional at all times.  Social bookmarking site examples include: Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Mixx, and Delicious. Don’t forget to use keyword phrases that relate to your business in your social bookmarking efforts.

Microblogging

Microblogging sites such as Twitter, Friendfeed, and others can be amazing for helping you to: build online popularity, get website traffic, and to help you make money online.  In a short update (usually 140 characters or fewer), you can share a link, share information, and get the attention of potential customers at their desks, at their homes, and while on the go with their handheld devices as well.  

Some internet marketers use Twitter to build a following and for their search engine optimization efforts. Businesses can communicate with their customers and prospects with these tools and they can also find out what’s being said about them, too. One hundred and forty characters isn’t a lot of room so learning to be succinct in your updates will maximize the potential of microblogging for you.

Data Mining

Managing your online reputation is an important part of social SEM or SMO. Just like pay per click campaigns require keyword research, social media optimization requires data mining as well. Luckily, there are many free tools that you can learn to use in order to help you gather business intelligence for your online optimization efforts.

Don’t forget to analyze your competition! Competitive analysis is another area that can help you increase your market share if you’re an established company and help you start to build a business if you’re new to the world of e-commerce.  Mining social sites can help you figure out: what people are talking about (you can use this to appeal to your audience), what people say about you, and what strategies you can use to help you find more potential customers.  

How can you begin using social search engine marketing today?

• Add bookmarking tools to your website or blog. Then, your readers can help you with your marketing efforts.
• Bookmark your best articles.
• Start profiles on sites like Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and Google Wave.  Start getting involved in conversations and watching what experienced internet marketers do and then you can begin to create your own strategy.

Marketing for search engines is an essential way to increase your presence online. And due to the popularity of social media, social search engines are emerging and being used by people to make their buying decisions. Learning about various aspects of SEM and SMO will help you create strategies that can help make you knowledgeable and successful in all areas of internet marketing.

On Page SEO vs. Off Page SEO

Posted by admin on 11/30/2009 | 0 Comments

Post written by Dana Prince

SEO, or search engine optimization, is something that most online entrepreneurs quickly become aware of. One of the first things you need to learn, in order to be successful online, is to optimize your website so search engines will be able to find it.  But what some new internet marketers don’t realize is that there are many aspects of search engine optimization.

SEO consists of on-page optimization tactics, that occur directly on your website and off-page optimization tactics that happen outside of the site. Both are important and both can help you get traffic to the site.

On Page SEO

Search engines index pages. Every page in your website has the ability to be indexed and contributes to the overall popularity and ranking of your website. For this reason, there are various aspects of the web pages that you need to optimize.

Some novice internet marketers believe you can optimize a home page and be done with it but traffic has the ability to enter your site on any public page and because of that, you should optimize each and every page.  Here are some examples of areas of the page to optimize:

The URL:

A domain name can help your ability to be found online. When search engines read your page, they’ll want to categorize it and the domain name is one of the areas they look at. For this reason, it’s a good idea to pick a domain name that relates to the niche you’re in. Beyond that, you should choose a link structure that also utilizes relevant keyword phrases. If you’re selling widgets, your url could get more traffic if the domain is something like: widgets.com/buywidgets.

The Tags:

When you search online for something, the search engine results pages will show you a description of websites it deems to be relevant. The meta tag is the 2-3 line description that tells people what your site is about. From an SEO and SEM perspective this is important.

In terms of SEO, keywords will help. In terms of SEM, or search engine marketing techniques, writing a descriptive and keyword dense meta description can tell search engines and people that your site’s link is worth clicking.  You can also enter keyword tags for each page which gives the search engine a quick answer on what the page is about. Image tags are another area of importance in SEO. Not only do pictures help you from aesthetics and selling perspectives but search engines can read the tags related to the photos so remember to use keywords in image tags so that you increase the relevancy of your page to your topic.

The Title / Header:

A formatted and relevant title will tell search engines what the webpage is about. This can help drive the right traffic to the page. If all pages on your website are labelled the same way, this doesn’t help search engines send people to the page on the site that’s most relevant to the topic so it’s important to label your pages optimally. Keyword optimization of subheadings is also helpful.

Keyword Density and Latent Semantic Indexing:

If your page is about widgets, the word widget should appear on the page. Words related to the sorts of widgets you sell should also appear so that search engines know exactly what the page is about. For example, if you’re selling Apple computers, you’ll want to also list other words related to computers so that the search engine doesn’t think that people looking for information on apple-picking farms should be sent to your page.

Linking and Navigation:

Having an easily navigable site is going to help visitors and search engines find what they’re looking for. People and search engine spiders (software programs that index web pages) can enter on any page and it’s a good idea to help them easily find their way around your site. A site map can be helpful for giving search engines a bird’s eye view of your website and linking within the site while using appropriate keywords as link anchors will also help your site get desired traffic.

Off Page SEO

While what exists on the pages of your site is a very important part of internet marketing, what exists outside of the website can also be quite helpful in bringing you traffic and favorable search engine rankings.

Search engines look at popularity when indexing web pages and various things that you can do outside of the site can impact that popularity and perceived relevancy to your topic:
What’s the best off page SEO strategy? Get backlinks. Links pointing to your site from authority blogs and sites will help you tremendously with your search engine optimization efforts. If other sites link to your site, this is considered a popularity vote.  If that site links with a keyword anchor, this can help you even further to rank for the keyword or keyword phrase in that anchor. Article directories, website directories, press releases, guest posts on blogs, and social bookmarking links can all help. Social bookmarking creates links to your site that can be seen by people and indexed by search engines so the more high quality links that point to your site — the better. If the site linking to you is relevant to your topic and is well optimized, this is the ideal scenario.

There are many facets of SEO that can help a business or an entrepreneur gain online exposure. Learn all you can about how to optimize your site(s) and you’ll increase your chances of online success.

The Fastest Way to Learn the Secrets of SEM Success

Posted by admin on 11/30/2009 | 0 Comments

Post written by Dana Prince

How can you learn the secrets of search engine marketing so that you can drive traffic in droves to your website? It’s easy, take a course. Now you can get your Bachelor of Science or your Master’s Degree in Internet Marketing. Have some objections and think you’d rather just learn on your own? Read on to find out why investing in a course that teaches you SEM, or search engine marketing, is a better idea.

Objection #1:  But there’s a lot of info for free!

Why pay to learn search engine marketing when the internet is filled with articles, blogs, and free e-books that promise to tell you (for free) how to make money on the internet with internet marketing, affiliate marketing, or an online store? 

Many of those so-called ‘free’ resources are actually waiting to up sell you something. Many will obtain your opt-in to receive communication from them with the promise of a free report or e-book. Once your name is on their list, you’ll get inundated with e-mail offers that promise to teach you search engine marketing for a fee.  So much for those ‘free’ articles, huh?  Many only give you enough information to hook you into buying something. Those resources are using internet marketing tactics to their full advantage. They’re using permission marketing to get permission to market to you.  An accredited education course can teach you effective permission marketing techniques as well as search engine marketing: SEO, and Pay-Per-Click.

And, many of the free resources out there only provide information that’s opinion and commentary, that’s outdated, or that tells you something but doesn’t really show you how to do it. Accredited internet marketing courses are broken down into bite-sized bits of information and created by instructors who do more than tell — they also teach.

A lot of people who choose to learn about SEM and other aspects of internet marketing on their own spend a lot of time trying to sift through information to find useable strategies and current advice. While some info can be found for free, and you should take advantage of free resources that are credible, making the investment in learning in a step-by-step fashion is going to make more sense and give you an internet marketing education that you can easily apply to your job or entrepreneurial venture.

Objection #2:  But an internet marketing course costs money

The best investments you’ll ever make are investments in your future.  Investments in your internet marketing and SEM education tend to have the best ROI (return on investment) because of the ability to better your own life and your financial situation after you graduate. Not only can an internet marketing education’s costs be tax deductible but this small investment can also help you create income, financial freedom, and happiness because you’re going to be doing something that you enjoy.

Internet marketing degree programs and courses are often available with tuition assistance programs that enable you to get partial or even full scholarships. Some accredited courses may also be paid for by your employer through an employee education fund, and some programs can be paid for through employment insurance and other government programs as well. It’s worth investigating, don’t you think? Don’t let a little bit of money now prevent you from making a lot of money in the future.

Objection #3:  I don’t have time for school

Those who say that they don’t have time for school probably don’t realize that many courses today are available via flexible schedules and distance education. You can choose between online classes, correspondence classes, and traditional bricks and mortar learning. Many classes are available via self-paced training and no, you’re not going to be struggling on your own with concepts that are foreign to you.

Instructors are typically available for one-on-one training if that’s what you need to help you learn.  Online classes can be filled with interactive-media as well. You don’t have to simply read a text book and be expected to learn.  Today’s student can be any age, be juggling work and / or family, and still be able to succeed.

Whether you want to learn search engine marketing for the purposes of furthering your career or starting your own profitable online business, doing so in a formal setting and earning your Bachelors Degree in Internet Marketing or even your Masters Degree in Internet Marketing can make a dramatic and positive impact on your life.

What is SEM and How do I Learn It?

Posted by admin on 11/30/2009 | 0 Comments

Post written by Dana Prince

SEM stands for search engine marketing and it’s an essential part of internet marketing.  By learning how to do effective search engine marketing with the top search engines, you can market to people that use search engines to find things they want and need. How many people use search engines when they want to buy something?  A lot!

There are a lot of career opportunities for people who know how to market with search engines. You can be an online entrepreneur, you can be a marketing consultant, and you can work for companies who want to improve their online presence. Learning to unleash the power of marketing with search engines could be a very lucrative proposition.

What is SEM?

Search engine marketing encompasses several areas, such as SEO (search engine optimization) and pay per click advertising. Getting a solid SEM education is a smart idea. Not all search engines operate the same and there are things you can learn to help you maximize the potential of achieving success with internet marketing.

What is SEO?

SEO is the act of optimizing a website so that it will rise to the top of search engine results pages for keywords you’d like to rank for. If you sell a particular item, you’d optimize your website so that it would (hopefully) come up high in results for people searching for phrases related to that word. That way the web site would get traffic and the traffic would be people that are actually interested in buying what the site is selling.

When a person searches for a phrase, there can be thousands of results. Google, for instance, will list ten results per page. By being listed on the first page, you could receive traffic for people that search for words your site is ranked for. A big part of SEO is getting on that first page.

PPC

Pay per click is another aspect of search engine marketing. You can pay to be listed in search engines and contextually on websites related to a topic for particular search phrases with an advertisement that can drive qualified traffic to your website.  Learning search engine marketing techniques can help the investment of pay per click pay off. Those who learn the principles behind successful search engine marketing can get a great return on that investment. The goal is to keep the cost per click low and the conversion per click high.

How do you learn effective search engine marketing?

Some people who aspire to be dot com millionaires have learned SEM on their own. The problem with going it alone is that you have to suffer through trial and error before you reach success.  While this can be a valuable way to get an education, it can also be time consuming and cost prohibitive.  With paid inclusion and other paid search engine marketing techniques, a mistake could cost you a lot of money before you realize that it’s not going to pay off. By learning in a formal environment, you can begin to do SEM when you’re knowledgeable and armed with skills and strategies that are proven as successful.

Internet Marketing Careers

Internet marketing skills are increasingly recognized in business and more careers than ever require skills in this area. Even local products and services businesses who don’t sell anything through the web are now looking to internet marketing specialists to work for them or to consult and help them achieve success. Search engine marketing knowledge could help you advance in your current career or seek a new opportunity in an exciting and lucrative field.

Searching for Your SEM Education – Internet Marketing Degree Programs

Because of the demand for knowledge and expertise in the world of internet-based marketing, there are now accredited Bachelors and Masters Degrees related to internet marketing. They can teach various aspects of marketing for internet audiences, which is very different from traditional marketing.  Course areas covered in internet marketing degree programs include: SEM, SEO, PPC (pay per click), communicating online, legal issues surrounding internet marketing (which are increasingly important!), viral marketing, social marketing, and more.  If you’re looking to receive a formal education, finding an accredited learning institution is essential and there are options for those who want to learn via distance learning.

By finding the right courses to help you learn search engine marketing and other aspects of internet commerce, you can shorten your learning curve, minimize the trials and errors, and shorten the journey between being a novice and being a success.