The Many Faces of Viral Marketing

In the beginning, e-mail was the one way that viral marketing was started. Since that long ago day, viral marketing has gone from a marketing strategy to an art form and there are many ways to accomplish the objective of creating a successful viral marketing campaign. Seven of those ways are:

E-mail: It was first but it is still around and still used. It is, however, getting a little harder to use as more and more government restrictions are placed on it. Still… it does work.

Newsletters: This is an extension of e-mail but it a very effective tool. If you include enough timely and valuable information, a good newsletter can drive up the number of visits to your website.

Blogging: Providing the tools on your website to enable bloggers to interact with one another is a terrific way to get the message about your product of service out there and being talked about. Bloggers have their ears to the ground for new products and services.

Chat Rooms: A chat room on your website can and does encourage interaction among your customers and that can’t be a bad thing. Also, you can use the chat room to schedule special events like having an expert available to answer questions on a given day at a given time.

Tell-a-friend Script: If you add this with a statement saying that e-mail addresses supplied will never be shared with third parties, you can increase your potential customer list greatly.

Video Clips: Including cool video clips on your website will keep the interest up and increase traffic.

Flash Games: Although they are a little costly to start, they are an extremely effective tool to get your viral marketing campaign going. Once they are launched, they require nothing more from you.

Increase Traffic by Leaving Comments

The importance of blog traffic for the growth, monetization, and even search engine ranking of most blog sites is undeniable. Here today our focus will be on gaining links from the comment sections of other blogs for the purpose of building traffic.

Although backlinks created from other sites can influence our search engine ranking, this is more of a long term project. Links we gain from the comment sections of other blogs will bring much quicker results in the form visitors to our site. This is the type of traffic that is best suited for any new blog looking to attract both visitors and awareness. These visitors can be considered highly targeted traffic and could bring immediate benefits to your blog.

Let's quickly review a 5 approach you can take AFTER preparing some keyword of useful quality for readers:

LOCATE BLOGS with SIMILAR KEYWORDS

By simply using 'blog search engines' such as Technorati or Blog Search you can easily find blog sites with similar themes or content to yours. It is important you stay within the same or related niche target your own blog is in. .

VISIT THESE BLOGS

You'll now want to go visit the various blog sites you've located to check out their content, layouts, and see what they're discussing. If there are similarities of content compared to your own site subscribe to their RSS feed to keep up with this particular blog.

ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE

After locating those sites of similar nature to yours you'll want to follow their discussions. See what's on the reader's mind and get a feel of the mood, passion, or enthusiasm that underlines the discussion. When appropriate participate in the discussion but only when you have something useful to contribute.

BE CONSISTENT

Continue to visit these sites regularly and maintain your involvement in their discussions. This will breed familiarity with you and other participants. By positively and knowledgeably contributing to the discussions you'll develop a reputation of somewhat of an authority.

MAINTAIN THE SAME IDENTITY

Avoid the temptation of using multiple identities when visiting other blogs. You want others to come to recognize you from different locations. This will create a sense of curiosity or intrigue motivating many to click on the link in your signature file to see what your blog is all about.

Participating in discussions at other blogs and leaving comments of interest for other readers to see, you can increase your own blog traffic. Your display of knowledge or insight will arouse curiosity enough to compel other participants to follow you back to your own site. By incorporating this technique into your overall marketing strategy you'll gain not only traffic but also expand your network within the blogging community.

4 Ways To Increase Traffic

Are you constantly blogging but the numbers you see in your traffic logs are embarrassingly low? It can be maddening to check your stats and realize that no one is actually stopping by. Don't give up yet, because there are four great ways you can get traffic fast.

Traffic Tip #1: Do Your Keyword Research

Many bloggers make the mistake of thinking they can just throw some posts up there and expect to get traffic. There is a lot more to it than that! You need to make sure you are looking at the keyword data to find terms that are getting a lot of searches. Ideally, you want these terms to have low competition so it's easier for you to rank. Once you start basing your posts around these kinds of keywords you should find that you're getting a lot more traffic.

Traffic Tip #2: Write Enticing Articles Off-Site

Submitting to article directories isn't just a good way to get backlinks to your site, it's also a great way to get readers! Sites like EzineArticles.com have their own readership of people who are looking for the exact topic you're blogging about. If you write a compelling article that leads into your resource box, people will be enticed to visit your blog.

Traffic Tip #3: Give People a Reason to Come Back

Getting traffic in the first place is one thing, but what you want to do as a blogger is have them coming back over and over again. The best way to do this is to create special offers or exciting events. For example, you can give away a prize each week to the new people who subscribed to your list or your feed. You can also run a contest for people who leave answers as comments on your blog posts. Make your blog a happening place to be and people will want to visit often and tell their friends.

Traffic Tip #4: Create Linkbait

Linkbait is when you write a blog post that is so exciting or controversial it gets people to come to your blog, comment, and link to the post. You may share some shocking news or offer an opinion you know is bound to stir people's emotions. You do need to have thick skin when you write linkbait! Don't expect everyone to agree with your opinion.

An example of linkbait is going the opposite way everyone else goes. For instance, imagine you have an electronics blog and you decide to review the iPhone. After reviewing the product you decide you don't like it. You then write to tell your readers why. Since this was a product everyone was gaga over when it first came out the chances are good you would have gotten a strong reaction right off the bat.

There you have it! These are four solid ways you can start to increase the traffic on your blog as soon as possible. When you put these methods to work you'll realize that the secrets to getting great traffic were in front of you the whole time.

By: Turn Blogs To Cash

http://www.turnblogstocash.com/

How To Build Backlinks To Your Blog

Below are some of the top strategies you can use for building backlinks to increase the value of your blog in the eyes of the search engine.

Write Articles and Submit Them

Writing and submitting articles is a great way to build backlinks! There are sites out there like EzineArticles.com and GoArticles.com that allow you to post your content with a link back to your site. That means you get to have your link on authority sites! The more articles you write, the more you can submit them. The beauty of this is that you can often submit the same articles to different sites, or rewrite them quickly to have something that is more unique.

Comment on Other People's Blogs

It's a great thing to remember that a huge part of blogging is getting involved in the community. Commenting on other people's blogs will not only get you some recognition from their readers right away, it also counts as a backlink! Keep in might that some of these links are termed as "nofollow", which means the search engines may not pass along ranking or "juice." That's okay, because the algorithms are always changing, and since these links are so highly targeted they are a great thing.

Write Guest Posts

Writing guest posts for other niche blogs is an amazing strategy. People love to let you do this because it gives them a day off from blogging. Readers love it because they get a fresh perspective on a topic they are interested in. You'll love it because it means you get a link back to your site and all you had to do was write an extra post for the day.

Use Social Bookmarking Sites

Another thing you can do is bookmark your sites. Now, there are some rumblings out there that these won't count as highly in the future as they do now. Still, bookmarking your sites lets the search engines know "you are there" for fast indexing. If you take the time to make sure the sites you bookmark with are high quality, you'll get the benefit of those links as well.

Paying for Links

There are many different ways you can pay for links. It is important to know that Google and other search engines frown on this because it's like you're gaming their algorithm. Whether you choose to do this or not is up to you, but it can be an effective strategy if you don't go overboard and aren't obvious. You can contact people directly or even work through link exchange networks.

Learning how to build backlinks to your blog is extremely important if you want to rank well. Add a few links at a time and they will build up in a massive way over the long run.

By: Turn Brogs To Cash

About the Author:
www.turnblogstocash.com

5 Tips to Improve Your Business Blog

Do you have a business blog that seems to absorb all your efforts and still doesn't perform up to your expectations? Many folks start a blog with the desire to make money online but often are guilty of misdirecting their efforts leading to frustration and a lack of success.If this sounds like you let's consider 5 points you may need to re-focus on to improve your results.

• Learn to give your readers with what it is they want or need. Many bloggers focus primarily making money and neglect the readers. Remember without readers THERE IS NO BLOG. Listen to their comments; in fact encourage them to leave comments. By responding and acting upon their concerns or needs you are creating an environment 'tailor made' for them. It was their input that guided the creation of this environment to begin with

• If you don't have anything to say in a post then don't post. Feeling compelled to post every day or even multiple times daily could lessen the quality of your content. Emphasize QUALITY over QUANTITY when posting to your blog. If you post good quality content your readers will be willing to wait a day for it as oppose to reading shallow and pointless ramblings. If this occurs too often you can kiss your readers good-bye and say hello to a decrease in your blog traffic.

• Be careful to not become 'anchored' to your blogging duties. A blog is born out of the passion the blogger has for the blogging material itself. By investing an over abundance of time to your blog you run the risk of burning out. Push back from time to time to re-energize. Fresh, invigorating, and insightful blog posts are what the readers want and it would be difficult to deliver this if you're overworked.Business blogs are a fine balance between a blogger passionate about the topics they post on and a desire to make money online. It is important to remember you always need to put your reader's FIRST. Introducing any aspect of your marketing strategy should be secondary to this.

• Conduct a blog search for sites that offer content related to yours. By visiting these sites you can pick up new ideas not only for your content but also for the blog layout itself. Also don't be afraid to participate at these blogs by leaving a comment when appropriate. Leaving a comment that is useful, humorous, or insightful will catch the eyes of other participants. With a link back to your site in your signature file you can usually expect an increase in your blog traffic. Once again however your comments should appropriate!

• In addition to a blog search find forums and other online communities that contain niches within related to your blogging theme. Once again your participation and interaction at these sites can help you boost your blog traffic. This should be part of your overall marketing strategy due to the strength of networking. Although a business blog is established for the purpose of making money online it is essential to remember the readers come first. They arrived at your site for the content not the merchandise. Your primary responsibility is to supply good quality content whether it's informative, humorous, or insightful. Always set aside your blog marketing efforts until your readers needs have been met first.

By: Tj Philpott
TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina. For additional online success tips and a free guide that demonstrates how to find both profitable markets and products visit:http://blogbrawn.com/

Google Ad Sense Program – How Google Ad Sense Works on Your Site

This is a free tool made free by Google to webmasters who would wish to make some extra money from their websites or blogs. Google ad sense program is however not known to many as you would think. Am just about to explain to you how to getting the account will work for you.

First you will need to apply for a Google ad sense account. This is usually the hardest part of this process. It comes with tough rules which you should be prepared to adhere else the account will be closed on event you break them. After approval you get an account from which you can create and customize your own advert codes. You are issued with a JavaScript code that you can paste on your pages at the location of choice.

When visitors on your blog or website see the advert and clicks on it, you get paid a few cents per click. The adverts placed on the pages by Google ad sense program are determined by keyword used in the content. Knowing how to use keywords mostly sought after will ensure a great number of visitors who are most likely to click thereby increasing your earnings.

However simple it looks, one of the greatest violations a webmaster can make is clicking on their ads thinking to maximize earnings. This is a dangerous step that could lead to closure of your account and withholding of your cash. The best way to increase earnings from the Google ad sense program is by driving traffic the site and let them naturally do the clicking.

www.syspag.com has more articles that will teach you how to increase your traffic, how to creatively develop most profitable keywords for your content and ways to maximize your Google ad sense earnings. All these tips are free and highly recommended.

By: Sullivan Pau

About the Author:
Sullivan Pau is a web Consultant and Webmaster at Syspag Studios ,A company offering web design,web hosting and SEO Outsourcing services.Rate this article and read more Internet Technology articles at More Ad sense Articles

Finding Content for Your Blog

Blogging can be an incredibly popular activity. Some people start a blog to promote a business. Others start a blog because they simply like the idea of having their own website and a blog is the easiest kind of website to start. Others blog because they have the topics that they want to promote. Still others start blogs because they want to educate people about spacial issues. Whatever your reason for blogging, there is one thing that all bloggers can agree on:How to create your contens.

When you start blogging thinking of blog post topics will be easy. This is largely due to your level of enthusiasm over your new site. Most bloggers will write a few posts a day when they start out. However, finding things to blog about becomes more difficult.

So what do you do?

The first place we go when we need to find blogging content is the news. We look at headlines in our local area first to see if anything match our interest. Sometimes an article or a topic will jump out at us and give us enough ideas that we'll have a few days worth of content for our blogs. Sometimes it is just a passing fancy that we mention only once. If no local news seems fitting for our blog (this will depend largely on your blog's niche), then we move on to national news and then world news.

If we don't find any current events to write about, the next place we look when we need help with blogging is our own entertainment cache. What have we been playing with lately? What books are we reading? Did we just see a movie that we can write about? Remember, blogging is about sharing opinions.

If we still can't think of any blogging material, we call our friends. Sometimes having a conversation with a friend will remind us of a topic we wanted to cover. Sometimes we'll have such a great conversation that the conversation itself will become the topic of our blog post. Sometimes our friends will alert us to something that we think would work well for content.

Sometimes, in lieu of blogging original words, we'll start blogging original visuals. Blogs are a great place to display photos from your recent vacation (you've probably been meaning to post them anyway) or a quick sketch you did. If you draw cartoons, your blog is a great method of distributing those cartoons to the public.

If we still can't think of any blogging material, we call our friends. Sometimes having a conversation with a friend will remind us of a topic we wanted to cover. Sometimes we'll have such a great conversation that the conversation itself will become the topic of our blog post. Sometimes our friends will alert us to something that we think would work well for content.

The Importance of Blog Design

Many people have started to create their personal blogs to express their thoughts and feelings. Internet companies have also started their blogs to inform consumers on the latest product news and reviews.

Many people spend time reading blogs. People read their friend's blogs, their favorite author's blogs, blogs on topics that they are interested in, and blogs on product reviews. With the increasing popularity of blogging, it is even feared that people rely on blogs to get the latest news.

While getting news reports from blogs isn't reliable, some people look for product reviews through blogs. In some cases, this is more dependable. While it is true that some media persons are being paid to write good reviews about a certain product, blog writers write about their actual experiences on products and services from a company.

Blog traffic can be increased by joining affiliate programs and sites, which will submit your blog under a certain search category or name to web catagory sites. You can also have your blog advertised in popular websites.However, this will cost some money and is not advisable if you have just started blogging.

When you have increased traffic on your blog, you should try to keep you visitors coming back and recommending your blog to friends.

A blogger who has just launched his/her blog will want as much traffic as possible to increase advertisements on the site. Also, some advertisers pay every time their link is clicked or the page that has their link is viewed.

This can be done by having informative or amusing content and good blog layout and design. You may develop your blog's content or you can also acquire the services of a web content writer to provide you with the blog articles.

The blog's layout and design also plays a big role. While most of the companies offering free blog hosting offer pre-selected templates, there are also some that allows customization that if you utilize this feature correctly can increase your blog's traffic.

Tips to make your blog stand out from the millions of blog!!!

1. Select the banner

The banner usually has the most generic designs that are common to the blogs from a blogging company or service. You can personalize this banner by having a graphic with the dimensions of the banner. You can also edit the graphic so that it will also include the title of your blog.

2. Personalizing photos

Of course, most of the photos that you will be posting will be your own. However, if you don't customize the photos before posting them, you may miss maximizing the enhancing benefits graphics can add to the page. Adding photo borders can help the photo stand out from the page.
It can also add to the design of your blog. You can choose a standard border or you can also create your own border which can be associated with your blog's templates.

3. Add a favicon

Don't you think sites with icons on the address bar before the website's URL are cool? Many people do. These favicons add a professional look to the URL and make your site look difference. These easy to do using photo or graphic editing programs.

4. Check out blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures, widgets and skins from sites

There are many sites that offer free blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins. You can make use of these so your blog will not look generic like most of the blogs hosted by the blogging service provider.

5. Audio makes your blog more personal

Not only does audio personalizes the blog; it can also keep your visitors coming back. You can try having streaming radio stations, mp3 file or playlists loading with your blog.

6. Advertisements

If you have signed-up with Google Adsense, which I am sure you would like to do, make sure that the ads are conveniently placed that these will not hinder your readers' ease in accessing the information on your blog.

7. RSS feeds

This is a cool way to inform people with newsreaders about your blog headlines. Tutorials on RSS feeds are available on the internet.