Internet Marketing Made Simple

People are always asking us how to start making money online. The answer surprises most people: pick anything and take action.

I created an 18 minute audio to help you get started today. I talk about how to get started, what to promote and how to get traffic. It’s the perfect overview and I highly recommend you listen to it.

What to know what I talk about? Here’s the simple formula…

You start by doing some niche research, looking at trends, following smart people or just taking a complete guess.

Next, you need to decide what you’re going to sell or promote. You can be an affiliate marketer, you can sell your own products or you can start your own membership. Almost anything will work.

And lastly, you need to drive traffic using pay per click (PPC), writing blog entries, and writing articles. There’s a lot more you can do as well.

This formula is so simple but … IT WORKS. Of course, there is more to learn. There is a “secret” in the audio I created. When you hear me say it — and clearly explain it — you’ll see why the process I’ve outlined above is so powerful.

I’m not trying to scare you but you will FAIL if you don’t take my advice. You can pick the perfect niche, create the perfect product to sell or promote, and drive tons of traffic — but still fail. It’s important you listen to the audio succeed: How to Start Making Money Online (FREE).

By the way, if you like that audio, then you will love this stuff…

• Traffic Drill
• The Free Business Model
• The Really Simple Method

And, if you’re looking for other fantastic (very popular) blog entries, read these…

• Generate Traffic With Articles
• Make Money Online
• How to Use Twitter

Cheers,

~ John

p.s. Please share this article with other people. Pass it along and link to it. And, if you have about 10 extra seconds, please Stumble or Digg or bookmark this blog entry.

p.p.s. Subscribe to Rhodes Brothers RSS feed.

I consistently find that I get the most traffic from blog postings that are not keyword optimized. Instead, I generate traffic with articles that are human optimized.

The greatest traffic flows into my niche blogs when I just pound the keys and tell a story. If you give me a minute, I’ll explain what I’m talking about in detail.

In the internet marketing niche, I often try to dominate certain keywords. It’s worked well. But, when I work hard to optimize blog entries in “boring” niches, the opposite seems to be true. It’s better to write stories and pretty much ignore the keywords, except for 1-2 things I always do.

First, I always make sure my keyword is in the title. It doesn’t matter if I’m writing something for internet marketers or if it’s some “dull” niche. No matter how you slice it, the title is important. You really want to use your keyword there no matter what.

Second, I usually use the main keyword or a similar keyword in the first 2-3 sentences. I don’t stress over this. I just try to fit the keyword in the first 100 words or so, which is usually in one of those first few sentences.

That’s pretty much it. I know it doesn’t sound very sexy. And, it doesn’t seem secret.

I think this works in my “simple” niches because Google has figured out that my content is legitimate and sincere. The less I try to get Google to pay attention, the better off I am. Or, to swing that around, the more I focus on my readers and my customers, the more Google rewards me for helping them. If you think about it, that’s a mighty good theory.

For what it’s worth, I ask my writers to write naturally. I often ask them to write stories and to be human. I am against any keyword stuffing and even when I target specific keywords, I avoid trying to game the system or beat Google. If you focus on your customers and your readers, they will reward you — and so will Google, apparently.

This is good news because it is easier to write this way. You know what I mean. It’s more natural to write to someone in a human voice than it is to write with the intention of plugging in certain keywords. It’s faster. It’s easier. And, again, it works better for everyone.

This is why I usually laugh at keyword density. I admit that I look at that metric from time to time but it doesn’t have nearly the importance as raw traffic pouring in from Google. I watch that closer and I’ve found that my pure and natural content pulls the most traffic. It’s almost like this — the less I think about what I’m writing, the more traffic I pull.

I will say this. One “secret” is that longer content works better when I write like this. When I write longer stories and create longer blog entries, everyone is happier. I think that’s because people link to me which Google loves, of course. Backlinks rock. Writing good material is just so smart — you create linkbait and you’re rewarded in so many ways. (Example of linkbait: How to Generate Web Site Traffic.)

So, that’s my article marketing advice for the day. It’s what I’ve done to dominate many niches — I pull insane traffic using this method alone, without PPC or anything else. I love it.

I’m going to tell you how to use Twitter. This is primarily meant for people who want to use Twitter to drive web site traffic. So, it’s mostly about marketing but it is useful for anyone.

I encourage you to start with this: 10 Simple Twitter Secrets. It’s a blog posting I wrote back in August 2007, well before all the “Twitter Gurus” started popping up. It’s a amusing to find these “secrets” in $27 reports.

Next, take a look a this blog posting: How to Search Twitter. If you think you know everything about finding people and good stuff on Twitter, you need to reconsider. There are many tools outside Twitter that give you incredible power. (Twitter search will become more powerful than Google?) There is incredible value inside Twitter that you can extract, if you know what you’re doing.

At this point you should have a solid foundation. You know the basics of Twitter and you know how to tap the hidden value through search. Now it’s time to look at how to use Twitter to drive traffic. Furthermore, I’ll explain how to boost the power of your social network using simple tactics and tools.

You need to take an inventory of your business assets. For example:

• Do you have a blog?
• Do you have any products for sale?
• Do you have an affiliate program?
• Do you have any special skills?

Once you’ve compiled the answers to these questions you have created a pile of business assets. This step is crucial. So, please pause a moment to reflect on those questions even if you don’t write down answers (highly recommended).

What you’re going to do now is search for people who talk about you, your blog, your products, and so on. Use Twitter search tools to find “links” with other people. If you’re not Following them, start now. Also, start to use the @username functionality to connect with these people. If you’re lucky, these people will start Following you. Once that happens, direct message (DM) them and start real conversations. Interact with these folks. They are the backbone of your Twitter social network. I can’t stress this enough: be sincere, honest and 100% legitimate. Avoid spam and automated tools. They’ll work against you.

Now that you have built a Twitter network, start finding ways to help these folks. For example, run a survey or poll. Be sure to @username and direct message them. Find out what they want and what they need. For example, you might DM me (http://twitter.com/webword) about a new usability quiz or online marketing survey you’re running. Interact!

This activity will give you business intelligence. You’ll also find that people will re-tweet your messages without asking. They will help you because you’re helping them. Because you care, they care. Before long, a small (but loyal) group of these Followers will become friends. They can also become affiliates and joint venture partners. Knowing what you have — business assets — and what they want will be critical. You’ll be using Twitter to build your business and conduct business. This activity will naturally drive traffic without any special magic.

The process I described above sounds so simple. It’s almost childish. It might feel too manual or it might seem like a brute force tactic. But the truth is that this is so legitimate and since, that it’s got more traffic power than a tidal wave. You will see a constant stream of traffic with an occasional flood when some of your Tweets go viral — trust me, this happens. The interactions with my trusted network suck people in. There is excitement and buzz; traffic MUST flow.

As I write this blog posting I have well over 2,000 loyal Followers. Make no mistake: This 2K+ group of Followers is 10x better than an ill-be-gotten or manufactured group of 20K Followers. My Followers are legitimate and they are powerful. We work together to drive traffic, share ideas and make great things happen for each other. That is the “secret” of Twitter.

I’m going to leave you with one final bit of advice on how to use Twitter. This is what many readers — probably you! — care about. You can dramatically increase traffic with Twitter just by asking for it. Here’s what I do:

• Post a tweet which includes a link
• At the end, I say “Please Stumble” or “Please Digg” or “Please RT” or “Please share”
• I direct message 3-4 people who care about the topic and ask for help

That’s it. Because my Twitter Followers actually care about what I write and have to say, they help me. Likewise, when they ask for Stumbles, Re-Tweets, Digg’s and so on, I help them. We don’t promote junk and they don’t promote junk. (When they do, I tell them bluntly and we move on.)

This is all possible because I’ve developed such a strong, loyal and LEGITIMATE (read: no trash!) group of Followers. We actually care about each other. As a result, we all benefit.

I’ll end by saying that using Twitter is a social exercise. It’s not about code. It’s not about using tools. It’s not about anything but … people. If you want to use Twitter for traffic you have to rethink how you interact and socialize with other people. Most of the lessons above are basic and eternal. It’s too bad that so many people forget that it comes down to humans talking to humans.

If you liked this blog posting, I’m glad! I’ve got plenty more to say: Follow Me on Twitter!

~ John

p.s. Show me some love please? Please Stumble, Digg, Tweet and share this blog posting if you want other people to know how to properly use Twitter. Thank you for your time and for helping.

My brother wrote a very clear step-by-step guide about how to make money online. When I first saw it, I thought it was awesome. However, I’m thinking that it needs some love.

My brother’s step-by-step plan to make money is powerful but it’s scary because it is long. I want to remove any fear, right here and right now.

If you want to make extra money online you do not need to build an entire empire. You do not need a big system, you do not need special software and you don’t even need seed money. In fact, you should start small. Start by making some extra cash online.

I’m going to show you how simple his plan really is…

1. Pick a topic.
2. Set up a blog.
3. Post great content.
4. Set up backlinks.
5. Get traffic, make money.

That’s really all there is to it. It’s very straightforward. What matters is that you execute each step with effort and passion.

You also need to have a clear vision. Don’t just try to make extra money online. Instead, plan to make money and pay off your credit card debt. Or, invest the extra cash in a small business, or grow your little online business into a bigger business. They key is that you have a plan for the money.

Let’s look at each piece of the plan quickly. Again, I want to keep this simple.

1. Pick a topic. You just need some place to start. Most people get stuck right at this step. They simply don’t take action. They just keep reading and thinking. Stop researching and start taking action right now.

2. Set up a blog. This is very, very simple. Don’t let the technology scare you. Simply head over to Blogger or WordPress and set up your blog for free. It’s very, very easy. If you get stuck, experiment a little. Or, do some research and fix the problem. You CAN do it. Millions of people have done this so you’re not alone.

3. Post great content. Some folks will pick a topic and set up a blog, but they will never post ANY content to it. This is silly. You’re so close to success at this point. You just need to start posting content to build up your blog. That valuable content will attract attention and links. That means traffic to your web site. Making extra money isn’t far off.

4. Set up backlinks. You can build backlinks in a million ways. Personally, I think investing a few bucks in Easy Backlink Builder is the way to go. If you’re not ready to invest any money you can simply find blogs in your niche and start posting great content, with a link back to your site. Or, you can post in forums in your niche. This is easy, fast, and fun. It grows your business too.

5. Get traffic, make money. The traffic will start to flow. If you do the work, people will start to find you. It does happen. You’ll want to slap some Adsense on your site or visit Clickbank and get some affiliate links on your blog. There are better ways to make money online but this will get your started.

Two more tips…

First, be sure that you install some sort of web traffic analysis tool such as Google Analytics. You want to measure and test what you’re doing. The only way is with data.

Second, be sure to grow and evolve. You will make mistakes and you will get down from time to time. But, if you stick to it, you’ll start making money. Before long you can make a lot of money online just following the simple tips above.

If you’re looking for more great advice like this you might want to take a look at the Really Simple Method. I promise to give you something more advanced than what I’ve explained above. It’ll move you to the next level.

~ John