Can You Be Successful Without a Website?
I don’t think there’s any question that you need a web presence to survive in today’s business climate. But do you still need a traditional website, or has the web moved on in that regard?
First off, let me be perfectly clear in that I’m not advising anybody not to have a website. That said, there are a lot of ways to have a web presence without actually having a site, and let’s face it – maintaining a site (let alone a successful one) takes time, money, and resources.
According to data from Compete, Facebook has become a bigger traffic source than Google for some sites, and for many others, it is right up there with Google as a major traffic source. If it can drive the traffic, then that means the people are already at Facebook. You can be on Facebook without having your own website. Businesses can build a Facebook Page, complete with analytics provided by Facebook itself, and they can spend time making that page a good one. Here are some tips on how to do that. Facebook pages are perfectly capable of being found in search engines. In fact, they are often right on the first results page.
You know what else is often right on the first page? A set of local search results from Google Maps, courtesy of Google’s Universal Search integration. Within those results (which are very often right at the top of the SERP) are links to individual businesses’ “Place Pages”. From here, users can find coupons, reviews, store hours, etc. There is a very good chance users will find this before they find your site anyway.
Google is actually going to great lengths to get people using these Place Pages. They are even sending out stickers with barcodes for stores to hang on their windows. When a user scans this barcode with their mobile phone, they will be taken to the business’ Place Page. Social media profiles can also appear on these pages (although so can website links of course).
I probably don’t have to tell you that the web is rapidly becoming more mobile. Smartphone usage and mobile broadband subscriptions continue to accelerate, and people are using a variety of devices, operating systems, browsers, and apps. Making sure you have a site that looks right across all of these is no easy task. This is not so much of a worry when it comes to Facebook pages, Google Place Pages, and other third-party entities.
In many cases, it seems that small business sites are becoming harder to find through organic search. If you look you can find them, but users want convenience, and they are probably not going to look too hard if they can find what they are looking for on the first search results page (or right within Facebook where they’re already spending their time).
Social profiles show in up in search, and often early. The very nature of social media is viral. If one Facebook user becomes a fan of your Facebook page, that user’s friends are going to see it. Then, maybe a couple of them also become fans. Then maybe a couple of their friends become fans, and that trend can continue on and on. The more people who become fans, and the more exposure that page gets, the more chance that page has of acquiring links, which of course can lead to better search engine rankings, not to mention a larger presence on Facebook itself, where a large percentage of Internet users are already spending a great deal of their time. Your reputation and following within the social networks themselves may do your profile well in the eyes of Google too.
If you sell things online, there are obviously many different options out there without having to sell from your own site. In fact, even Facebook and e-commerce are on the road to becoming more and more closely attached. People can buy/sell physical goods through Facebook.
A great deal of focus has been placed on Facebook in this article for the simple fact that it is the world’s most popular social network. That could all change in time. But that doesn’t mean the points would not sill apply to other services. Google is going to be placing a lot of emphasis on Google Buzz this year, and it’s going to become integrated with more and more Google products. Currently, Google profiles are kind of the central place for a Buzz presence. Users can include any links they wish right into that profile (Facebook page, Twitter account, blog, eBay/Amazon listings, etc.)There’s no telling how big Buzz can be, and there’s always the possibility that something else will come along and take the world by storm. And that is one of the reasons…
Why it Still Pays to Have a Site
Can you be successful without a site? I think so. However, having a site gives you a more stable foundation, and still creates more opportunities than if you didn’t have one. When you have a site, you have control. You don’t have to adhere to the policy guidelines of any third-party platform. If Facebook decides to shut its Pages down (as Yahoo did with GeoCities, for example), you still have your own site that they can’t touch. For that matter, having your own site certainly lends credibility to your brand.
Still, social networks continue to work on making data more freely able to flow among one another via a number of open standards like Activity Streams, AtomPub, OAuth, PubSubHubbub, Salmon and WebFinger. “The idea is that someday, any host on the web should be able to implement these open protocols and send messages back and forth in real time with users from any network, without any one company in the middle,” says Google software engineer DeWitt Clinton. “The web contains the social graph, the protocols are standard web protocols, the messages can contain whatever crazy stuff people think to put in them. Google Buzz will be just another node (a very good node, I hope) among many peers. Users of any two systems should be able to send updates back and forth, federate comments, share photos, send @replies, etc., without needing Google in the middle and without using a Google-specific protocol or format.”
Google itself, even has its own site dedicated to making user data for its various products exportable. That’s just Google, but the web in general appears to be moving more in this direction.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have a site, or even that you don’t need one, but I think it’s an interesting discussion. For now, I’m going to say having your own site is still in your best interest, but has a more social Internet with more portable data made a standalone site less critical? Is having a website going to be less important in the future? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the subject.
If you are looking for a quick way to burn money, I have a few methods below for you to follow. Look, regardless of what that quick talking video, slick copywriter sales letter says or promises, you’ll lose it. All your money and most likely get spammed to death in return or worse a very bad name for yourself and your site banned as well.
Please don’t do the ‘Buy Bulk Emails’
Okay so you’ll get a zillion names for ONLY $49.95!! A Zillion email address to send to. Heck all you need is two buyers and you’ve made money!
Think again. Just how old is that list, when was the last time it was scrubbed? And with today’s FTC laws and reg’s you could end up in a violation you really don’t need. Now how many sales do you need?
By the way how long will it take you to email them all or until you get those sales you need? Also, what kind of people are you mailing to? Are they even remotely interested in your product? Are they even alive?
‘Free For All’ is not as free as you think
If you don’t know what FFA’s are it’s probable because they really do not work today. But they are a good way to get yourself spammed to the hilt.
Basically a FFA is where you submit your ad to supposedly 1000’s of site for free. What you have really done is signed up to be on the operator’s spam list.
Highly unlikely there are thousands of sites and most likely they, like you, unwittingly signed up to be spammed. This type of method only benefits the operator of the FFA.
Guaranteed Traffic
Now please read the above line again and again. Guaranteed traffic. That’s all it is. They guarantee you traffic to your site. NOTHING ELSE. Read the above line again. This traffic could be from anywhere,( most likely surfer traffic). But one thing for certain very little will be interested in your product. Let alone a qualified buyer.
So while getting 50,000 visitors for $39.99 (don’t forget that that price is a limited time special) sounds cheap compared to Google, Google would be a better choice. At least with search engine traffic they are at least looking for what you are offering.
Remember that List = Profits. There is a simple step by step method to help you get your list built and built fast. This method can be done in almost any niche. No need to hire anyone, you can do it yourself.
List Building is how the top marketers do it. They email their list of subscribers with a product offer any time they want money. Yes, you can have your own ATM Machine as well just click this link .
Happy List Building
Ways to Get Fresh Links to Old Content for Better Search Rankings
Chris Crum | Staff Writer
Google Doesn’t Care if You USED to Get Links
You may have gotten some good links in the past, but don’t count on them helping you forever. Old links go stale in the eyes of Google.
Google’s Matt Cutts responded to a user-submitted question asking if Google removes PageRank coming from links on pages that no longer exist (for example, GeoCities pages that have been shut down). The answer to this question is unsurprisingly yes, but Cutts makes a statement within his response that may not be so obvious to everybody.
“In order to prevent things from becoming stale, we tend to use the current link graph, rather than a link graph of all of time,” he says. (Emphasis added)
Now, this isn’t exactly news, and to the seasoned search professional, probably not much of a revelation. However, to the average business owner looking to improve search engine performance (and not necessarily adapting to the ever-changing ways of SEO), it could be something that really hasn’t resonated. Businesses have always been told about the power of links, but even if you got a lot of significant links a year or two ago, that doesn’t mean your content will continue to perform well based on that. WebProNews has discussed the value of “link velocity” and Google’s need for freshness in the past:
Link velocity refers to the speed at which new links to a webpage are formed, and by this term we may gain some new and vital insight. Historically, great bursts of new links to a specific page has been considered a red flag, the quickest way to identify a spammer trying to manipulate the results by creating the appearance of user trust. This led to Google’s famous assaults on link farms and paid link directories.
But the Web has changed, become more of a live Web than a static document Web. We have the advent of social bookmarking, embedded videos, links, buttons, and badges, social networks, real-time networks like Twitter and Friendfeed. Certainly the age of a website is still an indication of success and trustworthiness, but in an environment of live, real time updating, the age of a link as well as the slowing velocity of incoming links may be indicators of stale content in a world that values freshness.
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Do you think link freshness should play a role in search engine rankings?
Let us know.
So how do you keep getting “fresh” links?
If you want fresh links, there are a number of things you can do. For one, keep putting out content. Write content that has staying power. You can link to your old content when appropriate. Always promote the sharing of your content. Include buttons to make it easy for people to share your content on their social network of choice. You may want to make sure your old content is presented in the same template as your new content so it has the same sharing features. People still may find their way to that old content, and they may want to share it if encouraged.
Go back over old content, and look for stuff that is still relevant. You can update stories with new posts adding a fresher take, linking to the original. Encourage readers to follow the link and read the original article, which they may then link to themselves.
Leave commenting on for ongoing discussion. This can keep an old post relevant. Just because you wrote an article a year ago, does not mean that people will still not add to it, and sometimes people will link to articles based on comments that are left.
Share old posts through social networks if they are still about relevant topics. You don’t want to just start flooding your Twitter account with tweets to all of your old content, but if you have an older article that is relevant to a current discussion, you may share it, as your take on the subject. A follower who has not seen it before, or perhaps has forgotten about it, may find it worth linking to themselves. Can you think of other ways to get more link value out of old content?
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Do you get fresh links for old content? Why do you think that is?
Share your thoughts.
BY CHRIS CRUM
How Important is the Speed of Your Site?
Late last year, in a conversation about the Caffeine update, Google’s Matt Cutts told WebProNews that page speed could become a factor Google looks at for ranking search results. His comments received a lot of attention, because Google has never taken this into consideration for ranking websites in the past. The notion that they would do so riled a lot of people up, because a lot of site owners out there simply don’t have incredibly fast sites. That could pose a big problem if it suddenly damages their search rankings.
Do you count speed among the priorities for your site? Comment here.
Despite the fact that Cutts never said that page speed would become any more important of a ranking factor than anything else, many around the web and Blogosphere jumped to conclusions. While many more have remained sensible about the concept, not expecting page speed to trump relevant content, Cutts has now provided a video setting the record straight. The video is a response to the following user-submitted question:
Since we’re hearing a lot of talk about the implications of Page Speed, I wonder if Google still cares as much about relevancy? Or are recentness and page load time more important?
Matt’s answer is simply, “No. Relevancy is the most important. If you have two sites that are equally relevant (same backlinks…everything else is the same), you’d probably prefer the one that’s a little bit faster, so page speed can be an interesting theory to try out for a factor in scoring different websites. But absolutely, relevance is the primary component, and we have over 200 signals in our scoring to try to return the most relevant, the most useful, the most accurate search result that we can find. That’s not going to change.” (emphasis added)
“If you can speed your site up, it’s really good for users, as well as potentially down the road, being good for search engines,” he says. “So it’s something that people within Google have thought about.”
It is interesting that anyone would ever assume page speed would become more important than relevance to Google, just because Matt Cutts indicated that page speed may become one of the many factors Google uses. If it were more important than relevance, Google probably would have been placing emphasis on page speed for a long time.
That said, it is worth pondering just how big a factor page speed would play. If there are over 200 factors, where would page speed be placed within the ranking of ranking factors? On a scale of one to two hundred, where would Google rank the importance of page speed? That question might not be quite so easy to answer, particularly since Google isn’t real keen on the idea of giving away its secrets, and frankly, that’s probably in the best interest of the web.
Just as with any other SEO tactic, it is up to individuals and the industry at large to speculate, analyze, and test. It’s no easy feat, but there are plenty of educated guesses out there about just what Google’s “over 200 ranking factors” are. Once you get into how much weight each one carries, it gets even more difficult to speculate.
I think the real takeaway here is simply to make your site as fast and user-friendly as possible, within reason. If it means you have to spend less time producing relevant content that is likely to get you good search engine placement, then maybe it’s not worth it. However, if it means providing a better user experience on top of relevant content, and it’s within your means to do so, it will only have good implications for the future of your site.
Google offers webmasters a lot of different tools to help them make their sites faster. In fact, they have a list of such tools here, and it doesn’t just contain Google tools. They also point to tools from third-party developers. It’s all part of Google’s initiative to “make the web faster.”
Building your list is the most important thing you can do online. Up until now you may not have known how to go about it, but I came a cross a great young marketer from the UK called James Penn who has created an incredible do-this, do-that system to build huge lists in almost any niche.
http://www.acceleratednicheprofits.com/listbuilding/
Just one of his niche lists (not even in I.M.) has made him $3,928.50 (and counting) from 13 minutes of work and just ONE email. (He even reveals the niche!) Plus, that same email is going to continue to generate him around $1,000 per month for the forseeable future. Could you use an extra one grand a month!
Now that would be real nice if you were to be able to make an income like that sending just ONE email? (Imagine how many emails you could send per month that do the exact same thing)
See how he uses this system and you will be REALLY impressed by the detail he goes into, and the way he breaks down everything so that anyone can follow it and do the same. The “5 Day Plan” is probably the best step-by-step action plan for beginners that I’ve seen in a very long time
If you want to start building your own list and using it to literally “print money” like James
does, go and check it out now.
http://www.acceleratednicheprofits.com/listbuilding/
Posted by Mike Young · 20 CommentsGmail
When you go to an Internet marketing event, you don’t run around the room telling all your potential competitors your new business ideas and trade secrets. And if you find spyware on a computer filled with your business documents, you don’t leave it there to harvest your confidential information.
Why not?
Because you want to implement your plans before someone else does.
Yet the odds are good that you’re telling Google your business plans and other confidential information on a daily basis. And if you believe Google’s informal “Don’t be evil” motto, then perhaps your trust is well-placed.
But are you willing to take the risk?
Here’s an example…
I recently sent an e-mail to one of my Gmail accounts from my law firm as a test. The e-mail described a nonexistent “Project X” as being being important, potentially the “next Google,” and the need to get a patent right away to protect intellectual property rights.
Checking the message in the gmail inbox, I was hit with a bunch of sidebar ads by attorneys including patent lawyers.
Think about that for a moment.
If Google is willing to sniff through your e-mail to target advertising, what is it willing to do when it comes to your business ideas that you’re communicating back and forth daily by e-mail?
Note that I”m not picking on Google. The same could be said of Yahoo! and others. Google just happens to be a very good example because major Internet marketers prefer to use it because of ease and functionality. However, this convenience comes at a price…the privacy of your business plans.
If you develop a better widget, understand that your e-mail communications are not private. And when it comes to gmail, know that the content is being actively scanned for keywords…at least for advertising. Perhaps more. Who knows? Maybe your widget plans will become Google Widget 1.0. If so, good luck trying to collect royalties.
On a lighter note, check out this related humor video regarding Google and privacy.
internet legal forms
Gmail Privacy: Are You Giving Away Your Business Plans to Google?
Posted by Mike Young · 20 Comments
When you go to an Internet marketing event, you don’t run around the room telling all your potential competitors your new business ideas and trade secrets. And if you find spyware on a computer filled with your business documents, you don’t leave it there to harvest your confidential information.
Why not?
Because you want to implement your plans before someone else does.
Yet the odds are good that you’re telling Google your business plans and other confidential information on a daily basis. And if you believe Google’s informal “Don’t be evil” motto, then perhaps your trust is well-placed.
But are you willing to take the risk?
Here’s an example…
I recently sent an e-mail to one of my Gmail accounts from my law firm as a test. The e-mail described a nonexistent “Project X” as being being important, potentially the “next Google,” and the need to get a patent right away to protect intellectual property rights.
Checking the message in the gmail inbox, I was hit with a bunch of sidebar ads by attorneys including patent lawyers.
Think about that for a moment.
If Google is willing to sniff through your e-mail to target advertising, what is it willing to do when it comes to your business ideas that you’re communicating back and forth daily by e-mail?
Note that I”m not picking on Google. The same could be said of Yahoo! and others. Google just happens to be a very good example because major Internet marketers prefer to use it because of ease and functionality. However, this convenience comes at a price…the privacy of your business plans.
If you develop a better widget, understand that your e-mail communications are not private. And when it comes to gmail, know that the content is being actively scanned for keywords…at least for advertising. Perhaps more. Who knows? Maybe your widget plans will become Google Widget 1.0. If so, good luck trying to collect royalties.
On a lighter note, check out this related humor video regarding Google and privacy.
Well I am back!! Went on a super long vacation visiting family and trying to avoid the cold weather as much as possible. I just totally dropped the ball on everything and boy do I have a mess to clean up!
I am soooooooooo far behind it’s…not speakable.
Well I’d had better start posting. Found some got stuff, but will probably never get them all up.
Don’t use Squidoo and HubPages!
By Tim & Steve of Commission Blueprint
There is always lots of talk about what “web 2.0″ platform actually ranks better in the SERPS…and of course , it’s constantly changing as Google slaps Squidoo or Hubpages etc.
Everyone has a theory, but not a lot of people have hard data…until right now that is.
We are quietly building a massive research tool that will allow us to do Internet marketing research like no one has ever done before.
It will literally be game changing..and you’ll hear about it sometime after the Holidays. You’ll also be able to get access to the data yourself…to do your own research…but…more about that later.
We have already been doing some initial analysis and we wanted to share some very interesting Web 2.0 stats with you.
We looked at approximately 60,000 “popular” internet marketing keywords (we’ll explain our population samples better in the future…when we’re ready to share more about our research tool, but suffice to say that these are random keywords that have at least some kind of marketing value…i.e. not “chair” or something like that!)…to see what the level of penetration was for web 2.0 platforms in the top 10 Google results.
Interesting fact #1 – 15% of all keywords had an Ezine article in the top 10 listings!
Interesting fact #2 – Excluding Ezine articles, roughly 7% of the keywords had at least 1 web 2.0 platform in the top 10 listings.
Interesting fact #3 – Squidoo, Hubpages, youtube, and facebook all had about the same penetration (roughly 2.5% of the keywords) … Wordpress.com, typepad, dig, and scribed were about 1/2 of those…coming in at about 1-1.25% of the keywords.
Interesting fact #4 – blogspot.com was the big winner. For a keyword that has a web 2.0 platform in the top 10 organic results, it’s almost 3x more likely to be blogspot.com than anything else!
Conclusions ?
Well…I’ve always had a lot of respect for the potential traffic from an Ezine article…but, perhaps not THAT much respect. It’s a pretty amazing statistic…and the first conclusion…is that Ezine should become an even more serious part of your marketing efforts.
In Addition, obviously…if you want to use a web 2.0 platform to enter the SERPS…seems like it’s a no brainer to use blogspot.com … owned by Google of course…but, I’m certain that has nothing to do with it.
Keep in mind, If you’re just looking for backlinks, any of these web 2.0 platforms remain sources…this analysis is only if you want to rank the page you’ve created.
Stay tuned for more fun…and an incredible wealth of research that will help you make money.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to look at even more keywords…and perhaps break down the penetration of Web 2.0 platforms by the number of competing pages…? (evil laugh) Oh..there will be so much more!
UPDATE There’s more. Go to the blog and read all about it.
77 Ways to Get Traffic. Resurfaced by Micheal Roberts, the guy who made Traffic-Bug to help you submit your articles to hundreds of directories. Watch the video then download the ebook. Browse thru it, never know, may pick up some info.
Happy SEO !
Dorothy, you’re NOT in Kansas anymore…
The landscape, it’s different. The way to do business changed unnoticed. Dorothy, where did your traffic go? The Big Bad Witch Google and her minions have been acting really strange lately. A bit uppity. But the Old Witch is not interested in you and if it pleases, she’ll take the rest of your traffic.
Not to mention the other Wicked Witches, FTC and Attorney General, are busy casting ugly spells on marketers who have been busy tricking the good citizens of Oz. The Munchkins and Hobbits say it’s about time someone did something to those tricky marketers. Watch what you do, you might get hit with an massive ugly spell.
Where’s Kansas? You’re conversions have been sucking way too much wind lately and to boot, clicks cost more, profits are down and it’s getting worse. What’s going on?
The people who did search for your keywords are now searching for different words. Leave it to Harry Potter and his friends to start a new search trend. What kind of magic is this? The people are different. They think differently. No more leave it to Beaver. Beaver left and didn’t tell you.
Now instead of being Humpty Dumpty sitting high up on the wall raking in the profits, you’re down picking up the pieces of what use to be profitable campaigns. The market is changing. Things were better last year.
And while you are down there picking up the pieces, you notice how busy and crowded it has become. There are new goblins in the market. Goblins with money that, according to the economy, they aren’t suppose to have. Worse, they are driving prices up and screwing stuff up. Damn Goblins!
You look up the wall and notice that there is an even bigger gap between affiliate marketers. Very few at the top and a huge writhing mass at the bottom where you are now. What happened? It’s down right difficult to make money now. Not like the good ol’ days. The Magic is gone.
Making things even more difficult is the Big Bad Witch. Her minions of monkeys have been threatening you with low Quality Scores, demanding better sites, landing pages and overcharging for clicks. What’s an affiliate to do? Who’s gonna help you Dorothy?
The Fairy Tale Land of Big Profits is about to be over-run. Oz, it’s capital, is in turmoil. Chaos will reign supreme! Or will it? Will you allow yourself to lay down in the poppy field and slip into oblivion?
The Good Witch, just before she left Kansas, left a message: See The Wizard.
The Wizard, the Top CPA Marketer, is in and has plenty of tools, gadgets, strategies and tons of out-of-the box thinking caps to help you. He’s a wise Wizard, been at the CPA game a long, long time. But you must go to him. So follow the instructions below very carefully.
Click your mouse on the link below 1 time, close your eyes and say “I want to be a Top Marketer” 3 times.
Happy Halloween!!!
This video has an message that you should get. It’s the new craze that’s being marketed. Well just starting to be marketed to the masses. Has long been known to those in the know.
I am not promoting this guys’ product, I am not an affiliate, even though it sounds very promising. I want you to listen to his story and how his money is made. And the distinctions about affiliate marketing. The last minute or so is his pitch. You might have to replay it a couple of times to catch the message.
Once you catch it, think about how you can apply it.
Yep and here’s how.
Do What?
Tapping into the viral power of Facebook. Also discover how to get around their 5000 friend limit.
Leave it to Jeff Johnson. Here’s another great and informative video from the Underground Training Labs.
Which came first – the chicken or the egg?
For those marketing on the internet it would be; which came first – the lead or the sale? The traffic or the conversion? Well that seems pretty obvious, huh! The answer is …? Confused? Think about it.
Why do so many of you work on the traffic when your site does not convert? The question is which should come first? Traffic or conversion? The conversion.
If the entire world clicked to your site and you did not get one single sale, did all that traffic make a difference? Did you make money? You spent a lot for sure, but produced none.
Go to your website and check it’s conversion rate. Are you happy with it? Could you be doing better? It is not always the ad that is the problem.
Is your site a:
mess? stuff all over it, unorganized, confusing, full of animation, lots of large bolded headlines that really say nothing, opt-in box way below the fold, a long and boring video, a long and boring sales copy, no reason or benefit for why the consumer should buy from you, no sense of urgency, way too many graphics – looks like Las Vegas, beautiful but lost, paid way too much for the site, too much about you or your product and nothing about the consumers problem being solved, just plain not organized, does not tell the customer what he/she should do next, are you to proud of/in love with your site to change things. And this is just a few out of many things that could be wrong.
Bottom line if your site does not catch the leads attention in 3 seconds or less you’ve lost out. If it does not explain to them how there problem is solved with you in the next 3 – 5 seconds you’ve lost out. If they have got to search for the buy button you’ve lost out.
If you are running analytic software (Google for one, it’s free) on your site you can see where they left, how long they were on each page and what keywords brought them to the page and if they came back.
You must get your site to convert first. Then blow it away with traffic.
I was so busy talking about the free CPA Report I forgot to put the link in for the Pay Per Click Formula 2.0. Sorry. I know the video was long, but the free report is very good and the home study course PPCF2.o is awesome.
I bought the course and am starting to implement it now. I went through the members area and was blown away by all of the stuff he has there. So many excellent strategies. So unless you are already a CPA marketer, you’ll not want for something useful or new…even then I think you’ll see something you had not thought of.
Have a great day!
Okay, all of us need traffic whether you think so or not. Gauher Chaudry, a CPA marketer has written a FREE 89 page report full of information on obtaining traffic.
FREE CPA REPORT
Not into that CPA stuff? Doesn’t matter. CPA is all about TRAFFIC and this is what you need. Besides conversions. And no returns and customers who buy again and again and…
Sorry. Fantasies can be obsessive sometimes.
Check out the video and see what it’s all about.