Internet marketing is basically very, very simple. Let's look at it logically. We have a gazillion and one prospects, some "killer" products and all we need is something like 0.
00000000001%, (or whatever - I'm no statistician), of these gazillion and one prospects to become clients before we head for the gentle waves swirling around our toes in some tropical paradise - right? It seems to be that the thing to do nowadays is to set up a blog or 3, write articles and wait for the cash. I am willing to bet there are so many well meaning folk who actually believe they are working hard and just can't understand why they are not earning a buck. These same folk have a heap, and I mean a real ton, (or is that tonne nowadays?), of relevant and quite involved technical knowledge about marketing online that they have taught themselves. They have set up websites, blogs, link directories, more websites with stunning graphics, adsense sites, more adsense sites, scripts that build links, scripts that build sites, scripts that update sites, scripts that write articles, scripts that change articles, scripts to submit articles, scripts that, well, do everything I guess.
And still not one dime, penny, yen, baht or renminbi is travelling in the right direction. So why is this? People tend to blame everybody and everything for their failures but the root problem is with themselves. A total denial that perhaps they are wrong. If the whole point is to make money and it's not happening then their strategy has to be wrong. Time for a re-think perhaps? People will generally shirk away from the more difficult things in life.
This is human nature but expanding your comfort zones is essential in a new career. Building quality targeted traffic to your website is all important. In fact targeted traffic is what it's all about but hardly anybody REALLY focuses on this vital aspect. The number of "How Can I Get Traffic To My Website?" questions you see on the forums are incredible.
People spend thousands upon thousands of bucks on software and ebooks and still they don't get any traffic. They are more focused on what Google PR their website has been assigned. People are utterly obsessed with Google.
If you had a PR of zero and were making 20 sales a month at $50 who cares what PR you have. Obviously there is huge room for improvement but an extra grand a month isn't too bad really! People will not spend the money on essential software like trackers for some reason. This is a vital tool in our Webmasters toolbox. They have no real idea how many visitors they are getting apart from the free hit counter placed on one or two of their pages. Wise Up Please.
If we don't know where the traffic is coming from, what search terms and entry / exit pages are being used then we do not have control of our business. Try The Following And Trust Me This Works: (I've done this myself on more than 1 occasion testing different sites) Write 5 articles on keyphrases that are searched for and place them on your website at the top level - don't bury the pages and keep them natural, no keyword stuffing. Use your keyphrases in the title and, well basic SEO stuff OK? Don't submit them to article directories just yet as this is a test. Wait about 3 - 5 days and check the results on your tracker. You may not have a lot of visitors but you will almost certainly have been indexed by minor search engines who are sending you traffic.
What this demonstrates is that your pages are starting to be indexed on the Net and you are actually receiving traffic. Now, take this a step further and set up a blog, apply simple off-page SEO, post to your blog regularly then submit your blog to the blog and RSS directories. Build external links through forum posts, article submissions and so on. Now We Come To The Crunch.
Why is it that people are failing if it's that simple? The above is a fairly simplistic and generalized overview of the methods involved. A more definite structure is obviously needed for an Internet business but how many people will actually complete even the basic, simple tasks outlined above? Now consider how many people will progress this and do the above tasks consistently every day of the week? There are a number of 30, 60 or 90 day guides available for setting up an Internet business but the work is intense and continuous in the beginning. People are just playing at being in business on the Internet. Deep down most folk expect to buy something, press a button and everything is done for them. An Internet business is not an easy option to the day job but in reality requires long hours of mentally hard and continuous work following proven strategies.
Taff Martin runs Taff's Article Directory and publishes TAD NEWS. A newsletter dedicated to giving real information to real people. Visit his Article Marketing Blog for tips, resources and strategies on article marketing you can use right now. http://www.taffs-article-directory.com/blog/
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