By watching the videos you will learn why online marketing is so important today. But briefly, online marketing is important because most people use the Internet for information before making a purchase offline.  Why not start today with a business blog in order to get ahead of the online marketing game?

Having a business blog is not difficult, it’s not rocket science, and you can start one in the next few minutes. Yes, there are a few rules and a few guidelines you can follow that will make your business blogging more successful, but the important thing is to just get started.

Start right now by doing a search on your name or your business name, what do you find? What do you wish you found? How can you improve what you found?

If you want to learn about how to do this yourself get the videos. If you want to hire someone to do it for you, still get the videos but you can hire someone to do it for you. Check out our Directory and hire anyone on that list and you’ll be in business before you know it.

You are a dentist, you are a doctor, you are a yoga instructor, you are a florist…. so why should you engage in article marketing?

Article Marketing is a very inexpensive way to establish yourself as an expert, and to get free publicity for your site, and your site will get people to your door.

What is article Marketing?

Article Marketing consists of writing, or having written, articles from 400 to 600 words each that take in general about your expertise. They cannot advertise you, or promote you in any way other than the link to your site in your bio. So you must write the articles very carefully.

Why does it work?

The reason this helps drive traffic to your site is that you can take one article and place it on many different article marketing sites. You do not use this article on your website, but you place it on as many article marketing sites, and other websites, as possible, and in as many ezines as possible.

Doing this will give you one way, in bound links to your website, as well as provide important information to potential clients, and establish you as an expert.

What kind of articles should I place?

Your articles should be well written and targeted to your specific customer and between 300 and 600 words.  They should be search engine optimized, using relevant keywords in the right ratio to attract your targeted clients.

Do I have to write these articles myself?

You can have these articles written for you by a ghost writer, you can even use PLR (private label rights) and rewrite them, although some places will ask you not to. However, if you rewrite it sufficiently you can use it. The trick is to make sure it is original by checking it with a service such as copy-scape, or others like it. If you can afford it, you can have these articles written for amounts from .02 cents per word and up – depending upon the quality you want.

I highly suggest you do not use automatic article spinners because these articles look horrendous and use the wrong words much of the time. While you may very well get traffic this way, it will not be targeted or relevant traffic. So remember that all traffic is not created equal. You do not just want traffic, you want quality traffic that consists of your target market who wants your product, from you.

For more information about Article Marketing you can order our course, or you can see PLR at Choice PLR, or you can contact the vendors on this site if they specialize in content production or article marketing.

If you have a web-host and then you decide you no longer want to use that web-host what responsibility does the old host have if you mess up your site when you move it?

Essentially none. You are moving your site off their server, they cannot be responsible for doing that. They can only be responsible for how their server works, not what you do to your site. If you put in codes or plug ins that mess up your site, if you’re lucky your host will have a heart and the skill to revert your site back to a previous back up, but you can’t count on that. YOU are the one responsible for your site when you have a “self hosted” site.

A few things to remember before you get a new host and trust someone to move your site.

• Back up your site
• Make sure it works on the new server before you delete it off old server
• Give it a couple of days or even a week or so before you cancel your old account
• Hire people who KNOW what they are doing when they move your site
• Most hosting sites will move the site free just to get you there – but they do not owe it to you to move it
• Hire professionals

Do not always go for the least expensive cost and do not always hire people who tell you what you want to hear. Make sure what they tell you is a fact.

The kind of hosting you should use for your website or blog depends on the type of website or blog you plan to build. Essentially you should see what the requirements are per your system and what they recommend.

Next, you should choose by your level of proficiency.  Some hosts expect you to know how to do everything yourself, some offer extra support for pay, and some just offer great support. Call and talk to the hosts that you are choosing between and determine by talking to them who will be the best choice for you and your skill level.

Sometimes your website or blog builder will offer hosting with their services.  There are good reasons to go with this plan. One is that it puts your builder in full responsibility for the health and security of your website.

Next is that your builder is familiar with the host they choose, so you can be sure it is the best host for the builder they are using. To be sure there are drawbacks. One drawback is that if you refuse to pay your builder they could lock up your site so that it is unusable. But, of course, you’re not going to do something like that. Right?

If you have a typical small blog or website you should be able to get away with the smallest plan that the host offers. The cost of this can be from $4.00 to $10.00 per month. If you have a large website with a lot of functionality, shopping carts, a lot of graphics, or other types of space hogs, then you may have to pay more.

When you consider the cost of most advertising the cost of keeping a website or blog online is miniscule. There is no reason to not do it.

Basic SEO should be included in your website design. Header Tags, Title Tags, Meta Tags, (I know many consider them worthless but for now) Site Description, Site Map – Included!

Helping the client pick a decent URL  along with helping them write good content, will go far in making the website a success.

If the website doesn’t get visitors it is unsuccessful. If the search engines cannot find you, your site can be the most beautiful, high tech site around, it doesn’t matter, NO ONE CAN FIND IT.

There are a lot of companies out there who will build you a pretty site, make sure you find one that will also build a site that can be found, can be maintained and updated by YOU, if you so choose.

Outside of a few technical updates, you should be able to do it yourself if you want to, or teach someone on your staff to do it, or yes, hire the website person to keep it updated. But don’t be held hostage to your Website Designer.

To get a site like this, listen to your expert, if the expert acts like everything is a big secret that you cannot know about, or don’t need to know about, move on.

Every business should market themselves online.

Why?

Because nearly everyone searches for you online before they find you.  Google or other search engines are the way people conduct searches for information prior to driving to your bricks and mortar business.

So, whether you are a florist, a dentist, a BBQ hut, a clothing store, a thrift shop, an ice-cream shop, or what ever type of business you have, you must be marketing yourself online. According to Pew Research 87% of online searches result in offline purchases. You must be part of that to keep up with your competition.

The directory on these pages has people who help you do just that. So take a look around, order the information to learn why and how, and if you want to, find a contractor who can help.