Archive for December, 2008

We all know that Alex Jeffreys is running a competition for his coaching students to see who can generate the most traffic to their blog in the two weeks to 1 Jan 2009.  Well the much respected Jack Humphreys has posted Technorati Favorite Blogs Exchange which gives a step by step run through of how to use Technorati to get a major boost to your blog traffic. 

You probably know of Technorati as one of the sites you “ping” your site to when you post.  So it can give your site a major traffic boost because the visitors from it are already interested in your site because they’ve read about it in Technorati.  However, if you visit Technorati and “claim” your blog, rather than just “pinging” to it, Technorati gives more importance to your site in searches, bringing more traffic to your website!  

First go to Technorati and claim your blog (ie prove you are the owner of your blog by putting a bit of HTML on the front page).  Then head over the Jack Humphreys site and wait for the traffic boost!

Many thanks to Eoin O’Leary for the heads up on this.  Please head over to Octisage Technorati Profile and Fav Me!  Post that you have and I will return the favour.  Let’s keep the love flowing!

Online auctions are hot news.  There are thousands of online auctions on the internet with more popping up everyday. People love them. They offer the opportunity to bag great bargains.  But have you ever thought about how they can benefit your business? 

These are my Top 6 Tips for Benefiting From Online Auctions.

1. Eliminate Excess Inventory
   If you run a business with physical products, why not sell your excess or old inventory at discounted prices at an online auction?  After all, your unsold inventory is not doing you any good and anything you get at an online auction will be money in the coffers AND it will INCREASE your online exposure…  and that’s priceless.
    
2. Test Markets For New Products
   Online auctions are the perfect testing ground for new products.  Think about it.  Auction sites such as eBay and Amazon have millions of visitors every day, all eager to find a bargain.  With the traffic these sites pull in daily, you could easily complete a market test of new products in a fraction of the “offline” time and quickly determine which of your new products will be the “hottest”!
    
3. Test Pricing For New Products
   And testing the best price level is simple too.  Just sell your test product at three different online auctions at different prices (one per auction site). Then simply the weighted average selling bid from all three auctions and use that as your new product selling price. 
    
4. Sell Your Products
   Online auctions are fantastic at getting your product in front of a large audience.  Some of the bigger auction sites draw millions and millions of hits a year.  But to maximise your success, you need to list your product at lots of online auctions at the same time.  For example, if you sell one product a day from one particular auction site, listing your product at one hundred online auction sites could raise your sales to a hundred sales a day!  (This needs sensitivity analysis to take into account different listing fees at the different auction sites to maximise profits to YOU!)
    
5. Start Your Own Online Auction
   Online auctions are great for driving traffic to your web site.  You could capitalise on this by starting your own online auction. People will visit your web site to find bargains and to sell their own products. You will get plenty of repeat visitors from people ebidding on products and adding new products to sell.  And don’t forget the advertising revenues from other businesses you will attract!
    
6. Lower Your Business Costs
   Improve your profit margins by cutting costs wherever possible.  Online auctions are great places to find lower prices on business supplies and equipment, especially if the supplier is selling off excess inventory (see my first point above!). 
    

So there you have it.  Online auctions are not just for personal and sole traders.  There are many ways they can benefit larger businesses too, even those without a traditional “online” presence.

Alex Jeffreys Coaching Program is now in full swing.  After the fourth webinar I am feeling very motivated, if a little awed by the avalanche storm that I know will break loose!  I am excited I know that!  First off, I just want to comment on the quality of people on this coaching program.  There are a LOT of people who have been online for a while, a few years etc and also some lucky ones who have found Alex’s coaching program within their first six months online.  But wherever they are, everyone is friendly and helpful and there is a real sense of community already.  This is invaluable.

Alex has set us a challenge of making a mailing list of 1500.

Every time I set up a new web-business, I focus on the end game while putting one foot in-front of the other. I don’t get distracted, I press ahead tirelessly until the mission is accomplished.

The secret of success is to find your path and never waiver, just keep putting one foot in front of the other until you reach your goal. If you treat failure negatively, you will never succeed.  However, if you treat failure as a necessary part of success, LEARN from it, adapt and move on, success WILL follow.

So far in my list building mission I have achieved 2 sign-ups.  This is new territory.  I have been online for a couple of years but in the ebooks marketing area and have a small ebooks list.  However, I have NEVER tackled the intensively competitive “internet marketing” niche head on.  And listbuilding has always been on the back burner.  Now it is centre stage. 

So, over the next two weeks I will:-

• “warm up” my list built from ebook activities;
• place and comment on the success of classified ads;
• figure out Twitter, which Alex says is a good source of relationship building;
• embed the best YouTube videos I can find relating to the topic of traffic generation
• “oil rig” hop (Alex’s term, more later)

Alex has set up a competition of who can get the most traffic (absolute not percentage increase) to their blog by 1/1/09.  Obviously those who are already achieving several hundred hits a day start with an advantage.  I don’t expect to be in even the top 50 competitors -  but the best thing about this competition is that I can visit the sites of people I know stand a good chance of winning and see what they’re doing to drive traffic.  The beauty of the Alex Jeffreys program is NOT that we are competitors of each other – we are but we’re not – for sure a lot of us will have skills in niches other than the one Alex is teaching (I know I do!) – rather it’s learning how to build RELATIONSHIPS for JVs later on….  and THAT is invaluable!

Stay tuned for the next Traffic update!

If you want to get serious traffic to your website, you’ll want to do is rank well in the search engines, like Google, MSN and Yahoo, for keyword phrases related to your site, that people are actually searching on.  Students of Alex Jeffries, like me, have the fun of trying to rank for highly competitive phrases such as “internet marketing”, “listbuilding tactics”, “making money online” etc.  Ranking for these keyword phrases takes more than just on-page SEO tactics. It takes backlinks, and lots and LOTS of them.

 ”Don’t Wish It Was Easier – Wish That You were Tougher” – Jim Rohn

A backlink is an inbound link to your website - from the owner of another website or blog linking to your site (BTW – my BLOGROLL page live backlinks to all the Alex Jeffries coaching students I know of, so if you’re not on, leave me a comment!). 

When someone links to your site, it’s like a positive vote for your site.  The more “votes” a site has, the more important the search engines think it is and the higher they rank your site … generally speaking.  Arguably, fewer high-quality backlinks can be far more significant to your page rank than anything you do ON your own website to draw traffic.

What do I mean by “quality backlink”?  Well, search engines also consider anchor text, ie the visible clickable text for the link. For example, the anchor text, Hot Niche eBooks is the anchor text for the website, octisageebooks.com (hover over the link). Search engines use anchor text as a way of determining what your site is.  Make sure your anchor text for your backlinks includes your main keywords and keyword phrases whenever possible.

Quality backlinks can also be obtained from “authority” sites, such as sites with a high Page Rank, anything by the US Government, major charities etc.  Very difficult to get… unless you know different!

So, if one certain way to get traffic to your website or blog is to get hundreds of backlinks coming in to your site, HOW do you do it?

One method I’ve come across recently is Jon Ledger’s 1 Way Links network.  If you set up a “donor” wordpress blog to accept general blog posts (and Alex’s students should all be able to do that!) , you are given a monthly quota of 250 blog posts (at present), each of which can contain up to three links of your choice.  That’s 750 UNIQUE Backlinks each month!  You choose the anchor text too.  The posts, once approved, are submitted into the network to give GENUINE 1 Way Links to your sites.  (1 Way Links are arguably the most revered by the GoogleBot when deciding on Page Rank and traffic!)

This is a paid option, which you may not be able to afford right now.  He also runs a 3WaysLinks programme which gets you 250 unique backlinks.  But there are lots of FREE strategies too.  However, rather than the “set and forget” options above, be prepared for these to be (REALLY) time consuming, sometimes unproductive and unltimately “long term” in traffic generation, rather than generating “immediate results” (ie traffic). 

1. Make it as easy as possible for other websites to link to you.  Set up a “Link to Us” page that contains snippets of html code (containing keywords anchor text!) that can simply be cut and pasted onto their site;
2. Write some articles and submit them to article directories with your (unobtrusive) link in the Resource Box.  A single article could bring you dozens of backlinks.  This will be the subject of future blogs
3. The Direct Approach – Try contacting a few sites within your niche and ask if they will link to you.  You could offer to write a regular column for them as a sweetener.
4. Submit your site to free directories that are related to your niche.
5. Find blogs or Forums in your niche and post comments to some of their posts. DO NOT SPAM.  Make sure your post is interesting, relevant and actually ADDS something to the discussion.  

All of these work, although they are time consuming.  There is however, one major FREE traffic driving strategy which I’ve not mentioned here.  I’ve tried it for the first time today, so let’s see how it goes.  I’ll blog about it later, and let you know how it’s gone so watch this space!

Listbuilding may be the way to build an online business, but the major issue remains, “How do you get TRAFFIC to come?”  I’ve build several websites but, to be honest, I’ve never found the teacher who can actually tell me HOW to get traffic “in droves” to come the my website.  I have never found how to bring in significant traffic let alone “hungry customers with cash burning their pockets”.  In my dreams!

But Alex Jeffreys CAN drive traffic.  He can prove it, so I’m really looking forward to Module 4 of his coaching program tonight which deals with traffic generation methods.  Some of my fellow students have been receiving a couple of hundred hits a day to their blogs for a few weeks now – (I wish!) – and others have had dozens of sign ups to their lists and even some sales – but not me.

Actually, I did sympathise with one guy on Alex’s first brainstorming session who said he already felt like he was being left behind as everyone seemed to have very advanced blogs up and running.  I felt for him.  Alex had recommended we visit each other’s blogs and make comments.  However, this was a double edged sword as it was easy to get demoralised by how advanced everyone else seemed to be – OR else so caught up visiting everyone else’s blog that we did not focus on our own blogs.

Big mistake!  By not focusing on my own blog and being intimidated by just how well eveyone else is doing, I forgot a fundamental truth.  I am building my online business for my boys, for my future, and theirs.  So that they will have the time to spend doing vocational pursuits, or anything else they want and not worrying about the money or having to do a job they despise.  I want more for them.  I think everyone wants that for their kids.

Reality check.  There will ALWAYS be someone online more advanced than you.  It’s true that to make the really big bucks you need to be FIRST out the stable door – and YES, the early adopters ALWAYS make the most money.

But so what?  Building an online business is NOT a competition.  There’s a lot of money to be made online.  And the internet business is growing day on day.  Even if you’re LAST out the stable door, you will STILL make money online – I really believe that – but you DO HAVE TO GET OUT the stable at some point.

Alex has set us a challenge of 1500 subscribers to our list.  At this moment, I do not know what would be a realistic timeframe for me to get these subscribers.  But one thing I do know – I will move heaven and earth to get them by Christmas 2009.  Hopefully a lot sooner.

Listbuilding is the key and it will be my primary focus for growing my business next year and automating it is an important linked objective.  After all I want to work ON my business, not IN it!

If you’ve got any great traffic strategies you want to share, feel free to comment!

As you may know, I have been following Alex Jeffreys coaching program to build a profitable business online.  Alex focuses on the importance of planning and on listbuilding.  He continually stresses the importance of being able to see the big picture before you start and planning where you want to go in order to stand a chance of getting there.

Not ground breaking stuff… but as important to an online business as oxygen is to life.

Start small think big.  Build a list one step at a time.  Understand that everyone joining your list is a REAL PERSON.  They are joining for the BENEFITS you sold them.  Not the product features.  The benefits.  They want to know how soon they will be able to leave their dead end jobs and live their dream lives (not how wonderful the listbuilding PHP script is).

But listbuilding is only the start.  Your list must be responsive, or “warm”.  The secret is to building a warm list is to give them value at the very first time they join your mailing list.   I think Alex’s ebook is the perfect tool to help with online listbuilding, stuffed full as it is with useful facts and tips. 

I can’t wait until the traffic generating modules!

I have been following the Alex Jeffreys coaching program on listbuilding and building a profitable online business.  I have today finished setting up my initial squeeze page and back-end product.  Apart from Aweber having a particularly slow day (although it may have been my machine), it did not take me very long.  Alex has made sure the videos are comprehensive and now the Octisage listbuilding tool, MakeListBuildingSimple.com is online!

I must say, I was very impressed with the quality of the tuition.  It is a straightforward step-by-step approach to building a list online and I have no problems recommending it.  I am just curious to see how soon my page gets indexed in Google (I guess that giving it a mention in this blog will get it indexed).

Listbuilding is essential to making the big bucks online.  I have other ventures online but they require a lot of time input to get the money and it’s clear that I am never going to make the big bucks doing them because there are only so many hours in the day and I cannot leverage my earnings using affiliates. 

To make serious money online, the amount you earn has to be INDEPENDENT of the time you spend online.  That is, the amount you earn should be not be affected by the number of hours you spend online, whether you spend a few hours or 24 hours a day in your online business.  And that means two things. 

1. An AUTOMATED business; and
2. A RESPONSIVE (ie profitable) list  

So far, I’ve put listbuilding on the backburner whilst I followed other online ventures because I could see the money coming in.  However, whilst I am making money online, it is NOT automated and I can’t honestly see it expanding to good profitability without me suffering a nervous breakdown, or worse, marital breakdown as I take on an assistant!

Alex has convinced me to “go forward to basics” and revisit what I started.  Listbuilding has always been slow though, hampered by the poor conversion rates of my squeeze pages (which I created myself initially, although there are some good products out there which I subsequently used).

FACT:  You NEED a sweetener – an ebook or some product to tempt your prospects into becoming subscribers.

FACT:  Your own product is one of the biggest hurdles to listbuilding.  After all, when you’re starting out and know nothing, just WHAT do you give away?

Well Alex has some great ideas there too.  Watch this space!

A piece of gemset jewellery is a must in every fine jewellery collection.  And not too long ago the gemstone would typically be one of the classic precious gemstones, namely diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds and to a lesser extent, garnets and opals.  But no more!  Although these traditionally precious gemstones are still highly prized, women are increasingly seeking to add the more unusual gemstones to their fine jewellery collections.  

One such gemstone is peridot.

Pronounced “pair-ee-doh”, peridot was popular in early Greek and Roman jewellery.  In fact Cleopatra’s renowned “emerald” collection is now thought to have been mostly comprised of peridot gemset jewellery! 

Peridots are surrounded by myth!  They are thought to have the power to cure asthma, reduce fever and increase the potency of medicines.  Such fabled powers probably come from the more unusal sources of peridots.  Although peridot is a mined gemstone on Earth, coming from Tanzania, Kenya , South Africa and elsewhere, the most unusual peridot comes from extraterrestrial meteorites!  Known as pallasites, some meteor peridot is reputed to have been facetted and set into jewellery!  

Peridot is August’s gemstone.  It ranges in colour from golden lime greens to rich grass greens and from light yellow-green to deep olive.  It is widely admired for its sunlit citrus glows and has come to symolise warmth and charity.   

Go on, check out hand made peridot jewellery and make your fine jewellery collection truly out of this world!