My Apologies…

It has been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks. In addition to writing the I-Guides for those of you new to the Internet business world I have also been asked to take up teaching a class online for basic SEO and traffic techniques. Due to the fact that these will be taking place fairly soon, the I-Guides won’t be released until sometime in November. However, if you are one of the ones on the newsletter list, you will be the very first ones to know about the SEO & marketing classes in addition to when the I-Guides are released.

It has taken up quite a bit of my time, so my apologies for not posting as often as I do. I will however, give you a great free tip since your patience has been absolutely wonderful!

I don’t really like the word “spying” but essentially that is what you have to do with your compeition if you want to find out what they are doing and figure out how to do it five times better.

That is why the Search Status tool is so great.

You’ll be able to get all kinds of information about your competition including what keywords they use for their website, to historical website data, their PageRank, their Alexa Ranking and so much more.

It’s a free plug-in for Firefox browsers and you can get it at http://www.quirk.biz/download-searchstatus.

We’ll see you on the newsletter list!

Until next time,
Kristine

E-Book Update

Hi Everyone!

If you’re a subscriber to our newsletter, you know that we’ve been working on an e-book specifically for those of you brand new to starting your own Internet business.

We’ve run into a problem though.

It’s getting very large. We have stuck so many details, ideas, videos, audio and the like into this e-book that it will likely be released in an even easier-to-follow format but in volumes.

This way you’ll be able to follow volume-by-volume the exact steps you need to accomplish.

Just some of the areas we’ll be covering are:

• How to pick your websites topic;
• How to research the keywords for that particular theme;
• How to map out your website;
• How to choose a web host;
• How to optimize your pages for the search engines;
• and much, much MUCH more…

Remember, ONLY our newsletter subscribers will receive these volumes for free. If you aren’t subscribed already, please do so at http://www.be-a-wahm.com/newsletter-sign-up.php

Those who are not subscribers will have to purchase these books for a yet-to-be-determined value. As a newsletter subscriber however, you will also be given the option to give this book away for yourself on your own website.

But you must be a newsletter subscriber with Be-a-WAHM.com and you must subscribe by the end of October 2006 to be eligible for this freebie.  Anyone subscribing after this date will have the option to purchase the volumes at a discounted price if they are also newsletter subscribers.

We’ll keep you updated! Keep checking back.

All the best,
Kristine

Se Habla Español?

The United States is a huge market. You could probably solely sell your goods or services or even center your website’s topic strictly around something in the US.

Most of us though know, that there is an entire market of people out there that we are not even touching and thus could be losing some very viable search traffic from, in non-English speaking markets.

This is great you say because you have been wanting to put your product in France or Mexico or wherever but simply don’t know how to go about researching the market to do so.

Yahoo’s Overture search tool is now in French, Spanish, German and Japanese.

You now have the ability to market in any of these languages. But what if you don’t know the language?
The very first thing I would do is head on over to Elance or Rent-a-Coder and find someone who speaks the language you are wanting to target natively.

Let them know the keywords you are looking to target for your particular market and let them do the research. Not only can they help you research your keywords, but being as they are from the country you are marketing to, they will have a better command of the language and which words to use effectively.

All the best,
Kristine

Cost-Effective Website Marketing Tip #2

Write a Press Release for Your Business

As with any business, online or off, it’s important that you submit a press release to announce your business, a new product or just a launch of a brand new website.

Not only does it give you traffic right away, but you’ll attract the attention of other website owners who may link back to you.

A press release has to capture the attention of readers relatively quickly so write it as if you were writing for a newspaper.

If you aren’t sure exactly how to go about doing this, simply look at your local paper and see how they write their headlines and articles.

One thing you should do however is to add your keywords into your press release so that readers know what your website is about.

Keep it descriptive but to the point.

There are various websites that aid in getting your press release out to thousands of people such as:

PRWeb;
URLwire;
Market Wire

There is also a useful tool called Press Equalizer that has you fill in some blanks for and then it goes out and submits your press releases to the most relevant sites.

Another important thing to keep in mind is to be sure that you have lots of relevant content on your website before submitting your press release. You don’t want to send people to a site that is not finished.

Kristine

Quit Writing for the Search Engines

So many people make the mistake of listening to the “guru of the day” when it comes to keyword optimization and your website.

How many times have you visited a website, let’s say, about “Moms” only to see the following:

If you are a Mom then you know how hard it is to be a Mom. Moms have a lot of work to do especially if you are a say at home Mom. A Mom’s work is never done. From hearing your kids say “Mom!” to hearing your husband jokingly say “Hey Mom how about…”. Mom’s, especially stay at home Mom’s are the hardest working people out there. If you’re a Mom you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

C’mon people! Does this really read like people talk? If you visited a website would you find this interesting?

It’s annoying at best. Yet so many people find their particular keyword for their particular page and do just that. They try and find ways to incorporate their keyword into the text as much as possible and it ends up sounding just horrible. They are not writing for their audience, they are writing for the search engines.

This is not the way to gain popularity.

The key to getting high search engine rankings is to simply write for your audience as naturally as possible. However, there are a few other tricks you can use within your writing to be sure that the search engines know exactly what your page is about while still sticking with your overall keyword for the page.

Let’s take the term “Mom” again for simplicity’s sake.

If we head on over to Wordtracker (if you don’t have a subscription, get one! Your competition is using it I guarantee it! And if you don’t have the money now, then at least sign up for the free trial.)

If I enter the word “Mom” into Wordtracker it gives me the following results: (I’m only listing the top 10 here).

• mom
• family
• children
• pregnancy
• parenting
• kids
• mother
• parent
• Mom
• school

As you can see, there are a LOT of other, related keywords relating to “Mom”. Taking this information, we would then rewrite the above absurdity into something that makes a lot more sense and makes your visitors (and hence, the search engines) happy:

If you are a Mom then you know how hard it is running a family. As a mother you have a lot of work to do especially if you are a say at home parent. You never get tired of hearing your children holler for you as they run in the door after school and being there for your kids is what parenting is all about. During pregnancy you never knew how rewarding being a mother could be.

Now we have shortened it up a bit and it still sounds just a little choppy but doesn’t that read so much better than all the “Mom’s” references in the first example?

To be successful in your business you have to keep your visitors in mind. Knowing what terms they are searching for and using them within your content is the absolute best way to get high-quality visitors and equally high search engine rankings.

All the best,
Kristine

You haven’t gone over to Wordtracker yet? What are you waiting for? Your competition to get there first? Jeez!