How to Use Website Content , Part 1

Content is still very important to any blog or website.  I am not talking about just any content, however.

When considering your theme, you will need to know your topic.  That means you need to be knowledgeable about your subject.  As a minister with a degree in Christian Ministry and over 15 years of experience, I have added credibility in what I post on this blog.  As a internet marketer of five years, I can even give a few suggestions about how to make money online.  Knowledge is not necessarily enough though.

There are a few other things to think about when creating your blog or website:

How do you keep visitors interested?

Along with offering your knowledge about your theme, you need information that refreshes their memory or is fresh in your topic of choice.  Flashy themes and pop ups and animation are good for looks but people are more concerned with the black and white.  What are you offering of value that should demand their time and respect their time?  If you blindly put content on your website or in your blog, then you risk losing you visitor forever.

Give advice, ask questions, and relate with you readers.  Give your visitors ways to add value to the conversation.  Tackle subjects they bring up and give them credit for it.  If they know you are listening, they will come back.

Besides, Google or Yahoo or other web-crawlers (sites that rank your content) will put you into internet obscurity if your content is baseless and vainly repetitious.  Learn how to say what you have to say in more than one way.  For example I can say Nike or I can say old Nike high tops.  I can say car or I can say 1979 Porsche with leather seats and turbo whatchamacallit.  Become more specific and your reader will want to read more.

How do you bring credibility to your site?

Most of us do not have the power of getting a movie star or athlete to come and recommend our product.  Now there are some marketers who drop names like Michael Jordan and his Nike endorsements.  Fine and dandy if you are talking about Nike products. 

For example, when I talk about blogging, I drop names like Shoemoney, John Chow, and Zac Johnson.  Why?  They are big time marketers who have built up blog readership over 100,000.  When they say something is good or bad, people listen.  When I quote them, I bring more credibility to my post.  If I am doing a blog about a certain biblical topic and I quote Billy Graham or Rick Warren or some other well known theologian like D.L. Moody, I bring more credibility to my topic.

People respond to authority or perceived authority.  Use it wisely, and it will build credibility.  Use your examples to support what you are offering, and you will also build understanding. 

What do I want from my visitors?

As a minister, I want some type of action from what I teach.  You should want the same in what you present.  Ask people to act.  "Buy today and save" - "Enter Your Email And Get This One Time Deal" - "Read This To Better Your Life"

Ask not and you receive not.  Ask for people to make a commitment and they become your future customers - they come back for more.  But you have to give them something to get them to commit - give real value for what you ask them to do or you will strike out!

How do I show others satisfaction with my product?

Build a social market.  Use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and such sites to your advantage.  Build a brand and get people to market for you.  Ask people to connect or share your site with others.  Who would you rather listen to - someone with 10,000 followers on twitter or someone with 50?  Get the point. 

Also, do not be afraid of allowing people to post negative comments - just don't allow the nasty ones.  Negative critique shows you are not afraid to learn from your customers.  eBay's system is not what I mean but it works for them.

Negative feedback is a horror word to most but if you build you social market and actually give people value, they will return and they will tell their friends.  As someone once told me, make a mistake and everyone hears about it - do something good and a few will follow.  That is true for the internet. 

Jim Cockrum, who I respect as an eBay marketer, has been slammed by people who never implemented his techniques.  Jim, however, has built up a huge following with mailing lists and blogging and other social media.  The few dissenters are just a fly in the bucket compared to the thousands that read his newsletters and blog and ebooks...

As you can see - content involves more than information.  I have six more areas to share so keep coming back for more.  Yes, I know the content on my blog has been lacking this week, but even I have to go on vacation.  Hope you enjoy.  Let me know what you think or if you have anything to add.

 

Building a Money Making Blog

I like to write.  That is why I am blogging.  I also want to find out how well certain internet marketing leader's tactics work.  I have been very open about that fact.  I consider this a ministry and a business venture.

The idea that blogs can make money has been proven time and time again with some bloggers building up very profitable businesses - John Chow for instance.  Google has helped many bloggers begin to make a profit through Google Adsense.  I have made 8.00 dollars with that so far as I test various suggestions by Adsense guru Joel Comm.  I have more testing to do....

After adsense, bloggers move on to affiliate sales.  Affiliates are people who place advertising (links and "banners") on their websites and are paid commissions when someone clicks the link and purchases the product.  Affiliate sales can be quite profitable - I made $800 on one sale using affiliate links.  Marketers use various means to embed code in their website that allow them to build profitable sites.  For example, some people, who use Wordpress, turn to sites like this to get help building them a profitable blog theme:  Socrates for Wordpress

I like Google's new blog platform - Blogger.  You do not have to pay someone to create a marketable blog theme if you know what you are doing.  I can plug right into my adsense account, and I can now access my Amazon Associates links - Amazons affiliate links - with a very easy application that puts links at my fingertips.  The new template designs are easy to use and offer a ton of new options!

<-------------See what I mean about Amazon links?

Affiliate links lead to newer and more profitable tactics like building a sales list (you may have seen the "join my list and get a free ebook" modules or pop ups on various sites).  These lists are used to return you to the blog or website, sell you marketing or special interest products, and at times give you perfectly good reading material filled with affiliate links.  There is not anything tricky here.  I have joined a number of sites for the free product or because I wanted to learn from someone about a certain topic.  As you go through the various marketing sites you will begin to identify the internet market leaders like Shoemoney. 

Now I have placed a few affiliate links in this post.  I have also given a few freebies in which I will not make any money.  All I hope you see is that there are various ways of marketing your blog or website that will help you make money.  The affiliate links do lead to perfectly good products (I like Joel Comm's stuff but it may or may not be for you). 

I will not promise you will make big bucks with a blog.  I will not say you will make $800 commissions with affiliate links.  I will say that trying means applying.  Learn everything you can about something before you implement it.  I did well on eBay but only after I really buckled down and studied marketing on eBay.

Look back for more internet marketing posts as I keep you in touch with my journey.  Let me know how you are doing and let's learn from each other and with each other.

Internet Marketing - Finding A Product

The most difficult part of marketing can be finding a product to market.  Did you know some major corporations started without having a product?  They looked for a problem to solve and needs to be met, and developed solutions for those problems and needs.

Researching the net can be difficult because there seems to be so many places selling your product already.  Many internet marketers have turned to making their own products like information booklets (ebooks).  Finding your niche market will take time and patience. 

Do not go to one of those clearinghouses that "have millions of products at your fingertips".  Some are legit but they offer products at high rates so they can profit off their finds.  They entice you with great sales lingo and hook you with "the deal of the century that will not be offered to you again once you leave this page."  Do not fall for it.

I will recommend a website that offers not products but a link to the actual manufacturers.  If you want to do business, then you will need to be able to have direct access to those who generate the products so you can get products at the base rates.  Paying the middle man hurts your ability to make a profit.

If you have a product, then this site may still benefit you because you have the option of searching for products that complement your product.  Sales are made as people are walking towards to door.  Grocery stores put the candy and drinks and other odds and ends by the register because compulsive buyers buy extras because of placement.  Amazon always has links that say, "People who bought this, also preferred this..."  Finding complements to your main product will either get people to return to buy more or get them to buy stuff on the "way out" of your site.

Also, here is a major hint about selling online - perishables (or things that have to be renewed, refreshed, or restored) sell very well.  Why?  People come back for more.  This is why vitamin companies do well (and no I would not recommend selling vitamins).

Another great need for selling on the internet is knowing if a product is worth taking the risk.  Dropshipping helps take the risk out seeling a product.  A dropship product is a product you do not have to handle, purchase or ship until you make a sale.  The manufacturer does the packaging and shipping for you.  Beware - you will pay for this service so calculate this option wisely.  Also, you will not have control of shipments so choose wisely.

The site I am going to recommend offers direct links to manufacturers, helps you develop a relationship with them, teaches you how to research products, and even has a market research tool. I use this site and it works really well.  Read the free ebooks about how to set up a proper internet business - they are worth the read and will save you time and money!

Here you go - enjoy the research.  World Wide Brands

Internet Marketing - Using eBay To Create Website Traffic

Driving Around New York City - 1928



Harold Lloyd is my favorite silent film actor.  This video makes a good point about online traffic.  It is a wild ride if you do not know how to get focused traffic.

Imagine getting thousands and thousands of visits to your website only to find out they are coming to your site via a bad link.  Anyone would love that kind of traffic but not if people are spending less than ten seconds on your site.

eBay is focused traffic.  People come to eBay because they are searching for something to buy.  If you sell on eBay and you want to expand your sells, then Jim Cockrum is the man with the answers.  Jim developed a simple system for driving traffic towards your internet business all with a few tweaks to a couple of pages.

Now, I would be doing Jim a disfavor if I told you his system.  I have used it, and it works.  If I was still on eBay, I would still be using it.  Jim wrote an ebook called the Silent Sales Machine, and it is a must read for those seeking to take full advantage of their eBay business.  Jim is a current marketer on eBay as well as developer of the website My Silent Team a collection of eBay experts who answer any questions about selling online and how to use the internet effectively to maximize your earning potential.

Just a hint, your About Me page on eBay is a true money haven....learn more Click Here!

Internet Marketing - Not Easy and Not Overnight

To be honest, I have been working on internet marketing for about 4 years now.  I have tried various ways to earn money - some successful and some flops.  eBay was one of my first stops and it was successful.  I have tried creating websites but I really need more experience with html and other computer jargon.  I did create a moderately successful online store but I was selling products from various companies and eventually I went crazy trying to get one company or another get the products out on time.

I wanted something that was easier for me to comprehend and manage.  I wasn't looking for a shortcut because there is not any.  To earn money online you have to treat your venture as a legal business.  Every legitimate full time marketer online will tell you the same.  The nice thing about online marketing is these same "gurus", for the lack of a better term, have also blazed a path that makes it easier to find a niche in the online community.

I have chosen to blog.  It is exactly what I was looking for.  If you do not like writing, this may not meet your tastes.  You have to love your work or your work will own you.  Success on the internet is not overnight and if any marketer promises "1000s" overnight - they are liars!  Don't trust them.

I will recommend a good ebook (computer book in a pdf format) that will give you 20 ways to make money online, the difficulty of each, and how much money you will have to have to fund the venture.

Before I send you to the book, however, I just want to tell you that I will be adding to this post series over the next few weeks and a tab at the top will be available for quick reference.  These will all be simple ways to make money - but remember, it is not easy and not overnight.  God bless your endeavors.

Now if you are ready to make additional income and if you want to invest in a quick research guide from a marketer I trust try this book: 20 Ways To Make Money Now On the Internet