Wow, 30 days is really really short sometimes.

It’s been an enlightening experience trying to build up a traffic flow using just comments, but one that was definitely worth the time and trouble. I have made some great new friends, read a lot of excellent information (and some not so great) and learned more about Google and how they rank blogs.

A couple of notes before I publish the final results.

• Commenting is a strategy that can start some movement, but takes dedication and a willingness to read what other people are doing and add something to the conversation.
• Google Page Rank status is more than 3 months behind at any given moment.
• Connecting with other bloggers in your niche is a great way to find people to challenge you, force you to extend yourself (there’s a peer-review kinda thing going on)
• Don’t give up.

This experiment started as a result of moving from one blog to another (http://www.CenayNailor.com to http://www.BehindTheCurtain.byCenay.com), but I was hasty and moving for the wrong reasons. Well, okay, they were the right reasons to me, but I should have looked at other options first!

In my "absence" from the first blog, something amazing happened. That blog achieved a Google Page Rank of 1/10. No, it’s not enough to "retire" on, but it sure does feel good.

As I mentioned before, the sad thing is that the ranking are so far behind, I had gotten there BEFORE I moved, and just didn’t know it. So, 4 months of inactivity will catch up with me shortly, which will probably drop the hard won ranking.

But, now I know it can be done.

I am exploring new ways to improve my site, my ranking and my value to you, my loyal readers. But for now, here’s how the rest of the case study shaped up. I don’t know how you, but these number speak volumes to me.

Days 21 - 30

Actually, since posting nothing but the case study would be boring, I gathered the final week+ activities into one list (below). And please note, that this was so much fun, that even though the experiment is over, I will continue commenting on the excellent blogs I have found.
Day 21 — May 26th, 2008 Alexa: 632,058

• Blog 1: Alexa: 920,054 Google PR: 3/10 - added one comment
• Blog 2: Alexa: 3,428,239 Google PR: 2/10 - added one comment
• Blog 3: Alexa: 876,760 Goole PR: 2/10 - added one comment (deep link)
• Blog 4: Alexa: 2,029,278 Google PR: 3/10 - added three comments (2 blog + 2 deep link to another blog)

Day 22 — May 27th, 2008 Alexa: 631,992

• Blog 5: Alexa: 876,760 Goole PR: 2/10 - added one comment (deep link)
• Blog 6: Alexa: 2,029,278 Google PR: 3/10 - added one comment (deep link)
• Blog 7: Alexa: 241,563 Google PR: 4/10 - added two comments (both deep links)

Day 24 — May 29th, 2008 Alexa: 602,773

• Blog 1: PR 5/10 Alexa 400328 - added one comment
• Blog 2: PR 5/10 Alexa 638219 - added two comments (two different posts)
• Blog 3: PR 3/10 Alexa 1712797 - added one comment

Day 30 — June 4th, 2008 Alexa: 585,933

• Blog 1: Alexa: 128,335 Google: 4/10 - added one comment
• Blog 2: Alexa: 2,449,059 Google PR: 0/10 - added one comment (affiliate link)
• Blog 3: Alexa: 3,004,776 Google PR: 0/10 - added one comment
• Blog 4: Alexa: 20,991,548 Google PR: 0/10 - added one comment

Today’s Alexa score: 545,945
Google Page Rank: 0/10 (up from "unranked")

Just to recap, I started with an Alexa ranking of 987,533 on May 6th, 2008 . After thirty days (more or less) of commenting on blogs in my Niche, my Alexa ranking is 545,945 . That’s a drop of 441,588 . I can live with that.

I just did a "count" of the total number of comments… only 46 (plus or minus a few I might not have recorded). As I mentioned throughout this study, real life often intruded, and since "commenting" isn’t what you would call a "money activity", client work frequently came first. Imagine if I commented on 10 blogs every single day!

Give it a try. I promise it is a really revealing and rewarding process.

There’s a lot of talk online these days about writing great content. And I’m totally 100% in agreement that if you’re not creating good content for your sites, person or business, stop wasting your time and move on to something else. Great content compels people to action and you need it on your site to grow and accomplish your goals.

But if no one sees all of your great content, does it really matter?

Continue Reading "5 Free and Easy Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website"

If you have been following along on the Google Page Rank case study, you know that I have been seeking and commenting on popular blogs, especially those that have a higher Google PR than mine.

That isn’t hard to do since I am a ZERO and means there are a LOT of blogs out there to comment on.

Now, I have to tell you that finding, rating and commenting on blogs manually has presented it’s challenges. What time of day do you do it? How much time do you spend? How do you know the rankings and ratings of the blogs/posts you are spending your time on.

These are just a few of the challenges.

And since I also want to "entice" new visitors, I don’t just dash off a quick … "Hey, great post" kinda note.

I actually read the post. I think about the post.

I comment only if I can add something. I have read many more posts than I have commented on. (By Product=Great Education)

Hard work, but worth it. My Alexa rating has fallen (this is a good thing) from 987,533 to 722,250 in the two week(ish) I have been doing this.

I think I would be getting better "traffic" results if I were one of the first to comment on a new post. When someone reads the post and then my comment (which hopefully added something to the readers experience), then they just might take that extra click and stop by.

My regular readers know I am a computer programmer, and therefore, inherently lazy. It’s a personality trait that is preferred for this job. You have to WANT to find an easier way, one that takes less work - in order to really succeed in this business.

So, I have been looking for a way to make the commenting easier and take less time, and allow me to be one of the first to comment on a new post.

I Think I Found A Better Way

You will remember I downloaded and tried out Comment Kahuna . Interesting piece of software, but wasn’t really getting the job done. There is a bug in the "send my comment over" function, and it requires you "prewrite" your comments to be included. This doesn’t work for me since I am reading the post and adding to it.

Then I discovered Comment Sniper. (No, this isn’t a pitch and no, I am not an affiliate)

This little jewel allows me to search for (or add) a blog I want to "monitor", and when a new post is made, it notifies me! I click the handy popup alert down in my task bar and I am taken right to the post in question.

I am just getting started with it, but love it so far.

I will report back how it goes and if it makes a difference in my "commenting strategy ". But the ideal of the my computer telling ME when it’s time to comment is preferable to trying to figure out when on my own. I am juggling 14 balls at once, and the commenting has slipped some.

There’s that real world thingy again.

So, stay tuned, more on Comment Sniper soon.

Today’s post is a guest spot by author and SEO consultant Sam Kern. You can see more from him on his Articles Base profile by clicking his name.

Author: Sam Kern

Selecting the right keywords for a website is the key to top ranking on search engines. If the wrong keywords are optimized, there is very little chance of them achieving top placement. So much so that some SEO consultants advise to use the chosen keyword in the actual domain name. If a keyword is searched thousands of times a day in Overture, then most of time the competition you will have to outrank will be extremely fierce. In order to find about less competitive keywords that can still generate a good traffic to your website, you will need to work out the KEI - Keyword Effectiveness Index.

Continue Reading "Achieve Top Search Engine Ranking By Choosing The Right Keywords"

Once you get serious about blogging, there is nothing more frustrating than feeling like you are shouting in an empty room or driving alone down a long empty road.

Hello? Anyone out there?

I have been blogging now for a bit over a year. My first blog was on Blogger.com and I slowly built up my traffic and "readership". I started with an Alexa ranking of 10,349,299. I worked that down to 725,294.

Found A Better Blogging Platform

Then I discovered Wordpress - a much better blogging platform that gave me options, easier editing, plugins and a way to really track where my traffic was coming from. (See below for more info)

So I moved.

Lost a bunch of my readers and a lot of traffic as a result. Ouch.

Time To Rebuild.

Spent the next several months building up my traffic, again. And this despite leaving a redirect page in my wake so people that landed on my old blogger blog would be redirected to follow me. Several pain months later, my Alexa ranking was down to 385,250, but still no Google Page Rank.

Had one really frustrating time trying to get "pretty links". See, I didn’t know at the time that Wordpress does better on a Linux hosting plan. Ouch. Had to move again.

Fast Forward To Today

Here we are today. Linux hosting, Wordpress 2.5, plugins that really help. Life is good.

Except for the rankings. I have managed to whittle my Alexa ranking back down to 987,533. But is a Google Page Rank even on the radar?

So, I decided to try something new. I thought you might like to follow along.

An Idea Was Born

I am creating a Case Study of one technique designed for the sole purpose of gaining a Google Page Rank. I suppose there are better things I could be doing with my spare time, but I really want a Google Page Rank. Perhaps it’s because not everyone has one. Or maybe is the fact that they haven’t rated me yet. I don’t know, but it galls me and I want one.

So, for the next 30 days, I will be conducting a case study in "Commenting" and publishing my results. I will post about my activity (comments posted, blog rankings, ranking of the blogs I comment to, etc) and we can all see exactly how effective this technique is.

I want traffic. I want a busy superhighway with an off-ramp at my door.

I have heard it said that inbound links, especially from ranked pages, really help. They bleed some of their page rank all over your blog. I want to put that to the test.

You up for that?

Rules And Description Of Experiment

Okay, rules. There have to be rules, right?

No expensive software

No paid back linking, no begged links

Everyone must be able to duplicate my results

Techniques used have to be fully defined. No hidden steps.

That’s enough rules.

This is my case study, but I welcome your comments, suggestions and feedback. I want this to succeed because I want the Google page rank, but I want it to succeed so YOU can have a Google page rank as well. All you have to do it follow along.

Ready? Set. Go!

Special Note: If you are just starting out with your blogging, please make a note of hardships and troubles with starting with the wrong blogging platform for your goals. Decide up front what your goals are, your needs to meet those goals and your budget, and choose a blogging platform that matches.

My Current Setup:

• I own the domain ($10 at GoDaddy )
• I self-host on my own IX Web Hosting account ($4.85/mo)
• I run WordPress 2.5 (free, visit WordPress )
• I have installed these plugins

FireStats Traffic Statistics plugin for WordPress (so I know who is coming and where they came from)

All in One SEO Pack Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog (so I can help Google like my blog)

Dagon Design Sitemap Generator Generates a fully customizable sitemap (so my readers know what’s here and can find it easily)

Google Analytics This plugin makes it simple to add Google Analytics to your blog (so I can track in my Google account the analytics of my traffic)

Google XML Sitemaps This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO. (so the search engines don’t have to think about it, I can just tell them what’s here)

MaxBlogPress DealDotCom Widget Show the latest deal of the day from DealDotCom in your blog and earn lifetime commission from the sale (so I can help fund my hosting costs)

Psychic Search Secretly discover what your visitors want to read on your blog (so I know what to post next)

Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form This powerful yet easy-to-install contact form features exceptional accessibility and usability while still providing extensive anti-spam and anti-exploit security features. A marriage of communication and peace-of-mind. (so my readers can contact me with questions, suggestions or problems found on the site)

I told you, full disclosure. Now you know what I have and why I have it. Well, okay, one exception to the exposure. I want to keep my “source blogs” private until after the experiment. I will refer to them as Blog 1, Blog 2, etc. I will note their current Alexa and Google Page Rank though.

Day 1

Alexa Ranking: 987,533
Google Page Rank: A big fat ZERO

Day’s Activity:

Googled “blog traffic techniques” to find blogs worth commenting on

Blog 1: PR 5/10 Alexa 400328 - added one comment

Blog 2: PR 5/10 Alexa 638219 - added two comments (two different posts)

Blog 3: PR 3/10 Alexa 1712797 - added one comment

Please note a couple of the blogs specifically stated that posting “just for links” will get your comment deleted. I knew that I was gonna have to add value with my comments so this wasn’t a surprise, but you should take note. Your comments MUST add something to the post. That’s the only way people will want to click on your link!

Commenting on blogs is a great way to get incoming links, but I also want visitors so I have to have something they want. (Knowledge/Content). Make sense?

Stop! Don’t run. I didn’t mean THAT technical.

If you have been doing your homework and learning about new techniques to “fund” yourself while you are waiting on all those prospects to make up their mind, then you know about “self-funding” your advertising. This is the process where you market a tool or service that your target market would be interested in, and collect names and email addresses during that process so you can follow up with them.

(Want to just skip the article and get to the free stuff? Click Here )

You have heard me mention it before, but just in case I will mention it again. Affiliate Marketing is one very easy way to self-fund your advertising.

Simply find a product or service that dovetails with your target market, and market that to them. Simple, right?

Well, actually, it is. Especially if you choose the right product. For those of us in network marketing, any tool that helps a network marketer is a no-brainer. Something like MLM Traffic Formula for example. Or Magnetic Sponsoring . Or Attraction Marketing . Any of these are excellent courses designed with the network marketer in mind.

But this article isn’t about those programs (although I own and use them all and highly recommend them!), it’s about affiliate links. See, when you are marketing a product that isn’t your own, you are considered an “Affiliate”. As such, they assign you a link that you send your prospects to. It’s usually an ugly link. Something like http://cenay.magneticsponsoringonline.com/?mad=2405

Trust me, even if you are brand new to the web, that’s an obvious affiliate link. Know what most people do? They strip out what they know to be the affiliate portion of the link and try to land on the “main page”, because that’s where the “leader” is. You have done it yourself, haven’t you?

There’s a better way.

It’s called a “redirect” and there are several ways to handle it. My personal favorite if money is tight and you can’t buy a new domain for every product you are marketing, is to use what’s called an iFrame redirect on a subdirectory of your domain.

I did warn you this was gonna get a little technical, didn’t I?

See, a web page can be designed to have “frames”. An upper frame, and body frame, hell, even a frame along the side. So, you can have a page located at www.YourDomain.com/myProduct and it contain a frame that displays the affiliate product sales page in the lower frame (the body), while leaving the address bar alone so that it displays your domain name and subdirectory.

That’s what I have been doing for a couple of the products I market and it has been working well for me. But then, I am a programmer, so building the PHP code to handle the technicalities was easy.

I get calls from downline members, network marketers I am mentoring and even a couple of upline members about how to do this, all the time. I can’t tell you how many pages I have built in the last 6 months.

(Now we come to the reason for this post)

So, I did what any self-respecting programmer would do, I wrote some software to handle it for me.

And knowing that most redirects only do that one thing (redirect the visitor), I went one step further (that’s the Virgo in me). I added a feature to allow me to add a Title, Description and a set of keywords that were related to the content, right into the PHP page. This way, when Google indexes my domain, it’s sees the title, description and keywords and indexes those as well.

(Now, don’t give up on me just yet, there is a reason for all this explanation)

I wrote a program I call “iFrame PHP Redirect Generator ” (or IFG for short) and I am making it publicly available, so anyone, regardless of technical skill, can generate a redirect page for themselves.

I am giving it away. To anyone. You are free to email it to friends, family, upline, downline, crossline and your next door neighbor. No strings. No hassles. No hoops to jump through.

I put a copy on my Video site (not sure why I put it there, I was a little sleep deprived this week), so hop on over there and download a copy for yourself.

http://www.Videos.byCenay.com/iFrameGen.htm

It’s simple to download, easy to install and a cinch to use. Most importantly though, it will help you appear more professional to those you are marketing to, and help you retain a larger percentage of the visitors you do get.

Still not convinced or don’t understand. Let me demonstrate it for you. Below are two links. Each will open in a new window so you don’t lose your place here. Click each link and then tell me, which would YOU be more inclined to “buy from”?

http://Cenay.magneticsponsoringonline.com/?mad=2405

http://www.Recommended.byCenay.com/magnetic

I should think the answer was obvious. It would be even better if you were to buy a domain name just for the product you are marketing, but that might be a little much for you, just starting out.

The Software Is Just Waiting For YOU

So, go download my free software (I remind you, no hoops, no hassles, you don’t even have to tell me your name to get a copy) and get started funding some of your advertising by offering what people in our industry are already looking for!

While you are on the Video site, book mark it. I will be creating video’s showing you best practices on affiliate marketing that funds your network marketing business.

That link again, http://www.Videos.byCenay.com/iFrameGen.htm

Enjoy.

One of my readers sent this question to me, so I thought I would share the answer here.

Jim Feilin Wrote:

Tags. Can you have too many? Or should they be very targeted? Also, should I add MLM, Work from home tags, (etc) in your opinion?

Jim

I won’t mention which company Jim represents (that’s up to him to mention), but I will tell you it is specific to photo storage. I explain this so you will understand part of my answer.

Here’s what I sent back…

There is such a thing as too many. Google considers more than 7-10 “keyword stuffing”. Each of those 7-10 should be targeted to the content of the post. 3-5 highly targeted tags and keywords with a keyword density of about 5% is ideal according to many of the SEO experts. If you are talking about storage techniques, then do not include mlm or network marketing.

I do make it a habit to add a tag for my name. I am branding myself, and pretty much want anything I post or write to come up if someone searches for me. This might not be your strategy, I mention it as about the only thing I tag with that might not be directly related to the article.

Well, okay, a second exception. (But my content is of a different nature than yours). If I am discussing some type of branding technique used to grow your business, I will include tags like network marketing or mlm. Remember, that is my target audience and hopefully, the content is what they are looking for.

Just like sales pages, your blog should focus on a single broad topic. If you are planning to use it to prospect for customers (rather than business partners), focus your message accordingly. Don’t keep pitching your business to someone just looking for a solution to their memory storage issue. This might be preaching to the choir — but I just want to throw that out there.

Hope this helps. As always, please remember the answers you get are in my humble opinion.

Signature lines are a great way to prospect and make the most of a medium you are already using. You already send e-mail’s to friends, family, and business colleges but perhaps you don’t want to present your opportunity outright to them. Let’s face it, most of us have been in more than one network marketing opportunity and have “burned some bridges”. Adding a compelling signature line to your e-mail’s allows you to say whatever you want, provide a “link” to your marketing web page and do it without any pressure or obligation.

Think about it, how many emails do you send out every day ? How many of these forwarded jokes, pictures, stories and things of that nature, do you receive every week ?

Why not put your email to work for you by adding a link or two to your signature file? That’s all it takes! You can start as simple or as fancy as you’d like. You do want to get your readers attention though. Your signature line should make a statement, ask a question, or intrigue them in some way.

Right now, a lot of people that you email on a daily basis may not be interested in building a long-term residual income with your business opportunity. But imagine if one of them just found out she is pregnant and wants to explore options working from home. Or another gets injured on the job, and needs to make ends meet with something they can do lounging at home. Your link is there, quietly beckoning. “Click on me, I am offering you a chance to change your life”. Okay, I am exaggerating a little, but you get my point. A compelling signature line is a must.

In most email clients such as Outlook, Outlook Express, and some online email sites, you can create more than one signature file so that you change it up from time to time. And you should use a different one when emailing the same group more than once a week. You should never miss an opportunity to display your links though. You never know when someone’s situation or circumstances change or they are secretly unhappy with their present occupation. Suddenly, someone you least expect may be interested in what you have to offer, whether it’s a product or a business opportunity.

The idea is to get as much exposure for your business or products as possible. Maybe one of your friends has a slow day at work and clicks on one of your links out of boredom and ends up making a purchase. Cha-ching.

You may also want to consider all the funny stories, pictures, jokes that inevitably end up in your inbox. Imagine what would happen if you just forward them to 5 people, who forward them to 5 of their friends. Suddenly, your signature links have the potential of reaching hundreds of people. And did I mention, it’s free?

To make this even more effective, take it a step further and add your link right above the story, joke or picture, with a little “brought to you by www.your-domain-name.com.”

Now, I am making a couple of assumptions..

a) I am assuming you have a “place” to send your prospects that explains your business opportunity for you. That’s the www.your-domain-name.com we were talking about.

b) I am also assuming you have a method there for them to “raise their hand” when they are interested. They have to be able to let you know in some way.

These are absolute requirements to make the most of this method of prospecting.
Purpose of signature line

* Helps you sort and prospect without talking to people initially
* Provides *people* an opportunity to see what you are doing without pressure
* Makes it “their” idea
* Gets forwarded to other people, extending your personal reach

Sort People Effortlessly

Now, let’s go into a little detail about each of these. What do I mean by “sort”? Well, let’s say you send an email to a group of friends, perhaps a joke you received or a link to a particularly good website or YouTUBE video. Some of those people are successful in what they are doing, and some are not. It’s not up to you to decide which is which. THEY’LL do that. If they are unhappy in their current situation, they will be open to looking elsewhere, meaning they just might click. If they are happy in what they are doing, they might click because they know someone who isn’t happy or could use extra money.

Get Your Message OUT There, With Zero Pressure

Signature lines are your silent partners in that they “prospect” without pressure, without obligation, without you having to say a word! You didn’t ASK them to click a link or read more about your opportunity.. your signature line is just there, taunting them, intriguing them. A well-written signature line can be more powerful than the *3 foot rule*, your circle of 40 or whatever other “marketing” ideas your upline has.

It’s Always Better When It’s Their Idea

See, it’s MUCH better when taking some action is their idea. Most people will resist, JUST TO RESIST. It’s ingrained, particularly if they have had, or know someone who has had a *bad* network marketing experience.

Extend Your Personal Reach

There is another advantage to signature lines in emails. It extends your reach for you. When you send an email to a friend or family member that is cute, funny, news worthy and is passed along, your signature line is passed along with it. Think about the possibilities here. Imagine sending an email that lands in someone’s inbox who is unhappy with their income/job/situation. They might not know you, or maybe only know you only by name, but here is a chance for you to reach out to them.

Let’s cover some examples of signature lines and where you would use them.

• On All Outgoing Emails You Send (even replies)
  On All Posts You Make In Forums
  On All Replies You Make In Forums
  On All Posts You Make In Your Blog
  On All Comments You Make On Other Blogs

Let me give you an example to help you understand the value here. Not long ago, I joined a new network marketing company called Nussentials . I built a website and started advertising “Work From Home And Create Wealth ” on Google’s Adwords. At that time, less than 3 months ago, 100% of the traffic (or visitors) I got was from those paid ad’s.

Once I started using signature lines posting in my blog and submitting articles to the article directories, I started getting traffic I wasn’t paying for. Now, just 3 months later, almost 30% of my web traffic comes from these sources. Those are visitors I didn’t pay for.

30% of my web traffic by taking a few minutes and setting up a signature line. Hmmm.

(This article was originally my notes on a video I created to help my downline, which you can see here: Using Signature Lines To Prospect - Video )

I guess you would have to have been living under a rock (or just not surfing the Internet) for the past two years to NOT know about Google’s Adwords feature, but I thought I would spend a few minutes explaining one method to drive traffic to your business opportunity page.

While there are a few methods (we will cover them all in later posts) to do this, none is as quick or effective as using one of the largest *in-place* methods available, Google Adwords.

Here’s how it works… you research what keywords you want to advertise for (keywords are what the people searching Google use to get results), build an ad, bid on the keywords and then turn on the tap. Instant traffic flows to your web site.

Sounds easy doesn’t it?

The Keywords

Well, there are a few pitfalls (think Grand Canyon if you go into this without some forethought), some things to look out for, and you need to be prepared to spend some time researching, reviewing, refining and adjusting the list of words or phrases people will be searching for to find you. If you just put 1-10 keywords in your bid list, you will get a few *hits*. The more keywords you enter, the more *hits*.

But, and let me be VERY clear here, if you enter keywords just for the sake of having more in your list, you will go broke pretty fast. You want *laser-guided keywords* that bring traffic to your site, but you ONLY want keywords that relate directly to your opportunity, and indicate a willingness on the part of the web surfer to review your page.

In other words, don’t include a keyword phrase like “real estate home business” because those people aren’t looking for what you are offering (unless you actually have an MLM opportunity in the real estate field!). Every time someone searching for that term sees your ad and clicks, you wasted the “cost-per-click” associated, you pissed off the surfer because they really don’t want to know more about your MLM and you dilute your traffic analytics.

The Ad

The next element to successfully driving traffic to your web site is the ad itself. Google has been a little stingy with space and only allows you 25 characters in the headline, 35 in each of two description lines, and a display URL (also 35 characters ). Frankly, it’s pretty hard to generate excitement and interest with so few words, but it can be done. Again, plan to spend a little time with this element. You want to explain features or benefits to the person reading the ad, so they WANT to click to see what you have to offer.

Whatever you do, don’t lie. People aren’t stupid (despite what you might think) and will leave disgusted if they see an obvious lie. They will also leave pretty quick if they clicked a ad that promised them free information and only find paid content available. Again, this just wastes your money and their time. Not a good combination.

The Capture (or Landing) Page

The final element, and one you should plan to give a lot of thought to, is your landing page. This is the page that the web surfer sees when they do click on your ad. You have about 5 seconds to grab their attention and give them a reason to keep reading so this should quickly explain what you are about, or answer a question they have been asking (their internal dialogue), or even better, ask them a question they really want to know the answer to , such as “Are you losing weight the way you want to?” or “Do you have all the money you need to do the fun things in life? I do!”.

The headline is one of the most important aspects of your Capture Page. And if you ask and then answer the question (within the body of the sales letter), they will keep reading. Make your points one by one, each one directed at generating excitement, showing them how it is possible for them and then ask them to take action. It can be to sign up for more info (lead capture), or sign up now, or purchase something from you. The goal here is to get them to take action for their own benefit, so your wording needs to move them to that end. My favorite is the email capture because I know with their email address, I have more than one opportunity to *sell* them. I can send them free information, build trust, get them used to hearing from me (but don’t over do this part) and then when they are ready, whether its tomorrow, next week or two months from now, they will remember the contact, the good information and they will call me and ask to join the organization. Why? Because I educated them, and asked for nothing in return.

I could spend hours and hours on how to drive traffic to your business opportunity and still not scratch the surface, but I wanted to give you some food for thought. There are other ways which I will cover in more detail in later posts, but here is a teaser…

Forum’s : Posting, answering questions, asking questions and interacting with other network marketing professionals is a good way to establish yourself as an authority. It’s also a free way to drive traffic to your business opportunity. Just add a signature line to your profile so each time you post or reply to a message, your link is shown and clickable. Remember, other networking people read these posts. Many will click the link to see what you are doing.

Blogs : Posting information in your blog is also a good way to drive traffic where you want it. Write a post about the three things you should avoid saying on the phone with a prospect, or the 5 things you need to always say, or how to counter rejection, and people will read it. The search engines will list you, so someone looking for information about what you wrote about will be presented with your blog entry. The more you write, the more traffic you get. Remember to show your business opportunity link somewhere on your blog page. Every few posts, mention that that link explains *something* better. There are free Blogs out there, ready and waiting for you. I use both Blogger.com and I host my own using Blogger’s interface. I also have a WordPress blog (this one) that allows for some more advanced templates, though it’s a little harder to get setup initially. While hosting your blog or using WordPress might be a little too advanced for your taste, the first is literally *push-button-publishing*. Go to www.blogger.com and try it today.

Articles : There are dozens of article directories available on the web today. Each of these articles allows an unlimited number of *reprints* by anyone at all. Let’s say I have a website about Gardening and I want fresh content so the search engines are happy, but don’t have time to write it myself… I search out an article from one of more than 700 directories, pull the article and post it on my site. The search engines are happy. The web surfer is happy. And the person that wrote the article is happy because each reprint MUST include all the original text and links.

There are other methods, but those are the one’s I will be covering soon so check back in soon. In fact, why don’t you bookmark this site and check back often.