Every internet marketer who has their own website or blog has done a lot of promotion to get their website ranked high in the search engines. Some marketers use many forms of promotion and others only use one form of promotion. The more promotional techniques you apply the more visitors you will receive and the more money you can make. I will show some small but different ways to bring more traffic to your website.

Promotion method #1 - Create a blog and use it to link back to your site. Creating a blog can be a very powerful way of generating lots of traffic to your websites. What you write on your blog is up to you, but it must at least be relevant to your website content. One thing about having a blog promoting your website you must also promote your blog to get the maximum benefit. One thing you can do is ping your blog write some articles and just small promotional tactics to make your blog more powerful. You want to focus more on your actual website rather than your blog, because your website makes you money not your blog. Don’t waste too much time on your blog but definitely do a little promotion for it.

Promotion method #2 - Creating a Squidoo lens is now a popular way of making money and promoting your website. Squidoo is place where you can host unlimited websites for free on their servers. Creating a squidoo lens is very easy because they have modules that you can use to make your lens more appealing to the search engines. There are many different modules such as text module, youtube videos, poll modules, amazon, ebay, and hundreds of other modules you can use. Some people use squidoo lenses to make their money online but I think they are more useful for promoting your websites or even blogs. You can also use a service called Hubpages which does the same thing as squidoo and you can use it as another form of promotion. It doesn’t matter which one you use or if you use both they have very high authority in the search engines.

Promotion method #3 - You can answer relevant questions on Yahoo Answers. This is a place where people ask questions on many different subjects and other people will come by and answer it for them. If your website is about marketing you would search for questions on marketing and post an answer to their question. Then you would put your link with your answer and the search engines will see it and gives you more backlinks to your website. The search engines have high regard for yahoo answers and consider it a very high quality site.

These are a few of the promotional techniques that we have used to promote NicciAndLee and have had excellent results from using these techniques. It’s much better for your website if you use multiple promotional techniques because the objective is to get many backlinks to your website from multiple sources. Try out these promotional techniques and see which ones you like doing and which ones you get better results from.

Love life, not just the weekends. You only have one life, Live It! @ www.NicciAndLee.com

Some say we are in a recession. Others say we haven’t had any negative growth yet through the 2nd quarter of 2008 and you need 2 consecutive quarters of negative GDP for a textbook recession. The financial and credit markets are predictors of the future and they are telling us that, any way you want to measure it, 2009 will be a year of recession

Does this mean to go and hideout in a bunker until the weather clears? If you do, this will be a mistake which you will regret for a very long time. Tough times call for action, not passivity. It calls for greater precision and targeting for the most efficient and ROI-driven strategies to maintain and improve your sales and profits. Yes, I said improve … even in a recession.

The following from Emarketer was just released showing the estimates of online advertising spending growth:

The doom and gloom crowd don’t believe these numbers and therefore won’t share them with you as we are here. However, according to a June McKinsey & Co. survey of 340 senior marketing executives worldwide, 91% are using online advertising, and over one-half indicate that their companies plan to maintain or exceed current levels where possible. Even more telling, 55% of marketers said they’re cutting expenditures on traditional media, precisely in order to increase funding for online efforts.

Why is this? Why do marketing experts believe that shifting precious marketing dollars online and taking away from the traditional media is the way to go? It all comes down to results.

Here are the key reasons for the phenomenon:

1. The buyer is finding your website as a result of their personal initiative; all at a time and place of their choosing. Traditional media reach less than .05% of their target market at enormous cost; this is the quintessential example of inefficiency and waste and cannot be tolerated by all those on a tight marketing budget.
2. The web is, more than anything else, an instrument of measurement. Therefore it is vastly more measurable and accountable than traditional methods.
3. The web is clearly more targeted and provides us much granularity as the buyer or the seller desires. The information is all there and always available.
4. The web is just simply gaining viewer time. Traditional media commercials are ignored or “fast-forwarded” using new technology. When online, viewers are in buyer mode when searching for a product or service; they have the confidence that the web / Google et al will lead them to the right information and the right purchase.
5. Traditional media provide you only the information they want you to know in the time or space they are allowed. The web provides no barrier; buyers can check out products, prices, terms and conditions. They can use the social media and other supportive tools to gain the confidence and peace of mind they need before making a buying decision.

So here is what you need to do to overcome the challenge of recession:

1. Improve your Internet Marketing Strategy. This includes many factors:

a. Hire an Internet Marketing Company
b. Generate a game plan to generate targeted traffic through SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Sponsored Search or PPC (Pay per Click).
c. Make a major commitment to content with the company you select. Content is life-blood of quality SEO results.
d. Improve your website to optimize conversions as well. The right SEO Company will actually include this service as an integral part of Search Engine Marketing and Website Design.

2. Start e-publishing a monthly newsletter for your existing clientèle. Keep your name in front of your customers and new prospects that sign up through the sign-up on your website.

3. Consider Affiliate Marketing - depending on your business, you can take advantage of thousands of online sales agents that only earn a commission after the sale is made or the lead is generated … a true meritocracy.

Do all of these things and more and you will be found by precisely those people who are seeking your products and services.

Love life, not just the weekends. You only have one life, Live It! @ www.NicciAndLee.com

Your Blog - a strategy for success

Your brother has a blog. Your mother has a blog. In all likelihood, your grandmother probably has her own blog too. So, how’s your brand going to start a blog that competes with more than 60 million others currently in full swing across the world? Here are five tips to make your brand’s blog something people find interesting, meaningful and worth coming back to.

1 – Put someone passionate about your brand in charge

Your top brand ambassador might already be working inside your company. But he or she could just easily be an outsider who’s head–over–heels for what your company stands for and sells. Find that person and put them in charge. It takes between 30 mins to an hour to create a blog, but endless attention to keep it going and keep it relevant. Treat it seriously, and the marketing ROI will be tangible.

2 – Create original content

The Internet is filled with sites that scrape content from other places and simply regurgitate it. While this is okay some of the time, people are coming to your brand’s site for original thinking presented by your brand. Give them what they want. Additionally, this will make you one of the sites that other blogs quote and grab information from. Increasing the number of in–bound links to your site raises your stature and the likelihood that an even wider audience will find your brand’s blog.

3 – Carve out your niche

As a living, breathing thing, your brand has its own unique view on the world. What is it? Your blog can become the quintessential place to express this distinct perspective – something no other site in the world can offer.

4 – Be authentic with your posts

Marketing spin and heavy selling are not allowed in this medium. Reserve that for your corporate web presence. Be honest, real and let your true brand personality shine through. Otherwise, you risk a backlash from people who will see through the guise.

5 – Encourage and participate in conversation

The wonderful thing about social media is it’s just that – a rich conversation with people who are interested in what you offer and who can give you deep insights about how to better position and sell your products to them more accurately. Use this to your full advantage by asking questions in posts to spark conversation and by responding to comments. A dynamic and valuable community will be built as a result.

Start your online community now

There’s no time like the present to get your blog going and growing.

Love life, not just the weekends. You only have one life, Live It! @ www.NicciAndLee.com