You probably have already seen dozens, if not hundreds of “make money online ” blogs and websites out there, right? Their popularity is no secret: people see bloggers earning big time in this niche (or at least claiming to), and they decide to jump in to see if they can get a piece of the pie. Unfortunately most people who follow that route will fail in the long run.

A couple of weeks ago I came across a post from Yaro, titled How To Make Money Teaching People How To Make Money, that explained how this pattern unfolds. Here is a quote from it:

Some people consider making money by teaching how to make money essentially a scam. I mean if you know a system of how to make money, why not just use that system rather than sell it? That smells fishy right? Umm, no, I find that logic quite silly. Why not make money using your system AND teaching it.

So, why can a small minority of people earn big in the Internet marketing industry and the majority fail miserably? Is the make money online niche only full of scammers or those who just got lucky?

As someone who has been making money in this niche for years – and I’ve certainly climbed the ladder over time – I’m in a pretty good position to explain the subtle elements that people new to Internet marketing won’t see.

The interesting thing about Yaro’s post is that he is not only explaining why people fail to make money on the “make money online” niche, but he also lays down some points and tips that you can use to succeed. Worth a read.

Definition:

A niche market is a focused, targetable portion of a market.

By definition, then, a business that focuses on a niche market is addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers. You can think of a niche market as a narrowly defined group of potential customers.

For instance, instead of offering cleaning services, a business might establish a niche market by specializing in blind cleaning services.

Why should you bother to establish a niche market? Because of the great advantage of being alone there; other small businesses may not be aware of your particular niche market, and large businesses won’t want to bother with it.

The trick to capitalizing on a niche market is to find or develop a market niche that has customers who are accessible, that is growing fast enough, and that is not owned by one established vendor already.

Are you aware that Google offers a variety of tools to help you with your website performance and promotion? The pervasive search engine company has a library of information, support materials, blogs, videos and applications all at your fingertips.

Here are some of the essential Google tools for your website to ensure that your website is very Google-friendly and that you are leveraging available resources to market your business online:

Google for Webmasters
A detailed overview of how Google indexes web pages.

The Google Channel on YouTube
A collection of more than one-thousand videos covering everything Google.

Google Webmaster Central
One-stop shop for webmaster resources.

Google Webmaster Tools
Detailed reports on your web pages’ visibility on Google.

Google Webmaster Tools Checklist
A checklist to help you get up and running quickly on Google Webmaster Tools.

Google Webmaster Central Blog
Official news on crawling and indexing sites for the Google index.

Google Webmaster Central Channel on YouTube
A collection of more than 100 useful videos.

Google Webmasters Help
A list of support resources.

Sitemap Generators
Tools to create XML sitemaps.

Google Business Solutions
A directory of Google services to help you market your business.

Google Local Business Center
Tools to help you get your business listed in Google and Google Maps.

Google AdWords
Create and run online ads for your business.

Google AdSense
Contextual advertising solution for web publishers.

Google Keyword Tool
Confirm keyword query volumes and research keywords for your website to target.

Google Trends
See trends in the way people are searching.

Google Insights for Search
Compare search volume patterns across geographic regions, categories and time frames.

Google Base
A database for you to submit online and offline content and products.

Google Product Ideas Blog
Updates from the Google product ideas team. See the future right now.

Google Analytics
Web analytics solution providing you with insights into your website traffic.

Google Website Optimizer
Web page testing and optimization tool.

Google Checkout
Secure checkout process similar to PayPal.

Google on Twitter
Follow Google on Twitter.

Google Webmaster Central on Twitter
Get the latest updates from the Google Webmaster Central team via their Twitter feed.

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform. It lets you update your status and lets the whole world know what you are up to. There are millions of Twitter-addicts all over the world, and the number of active users has increased by 900% in the past year. Companies can also use it to promote themselves.On Twitter you will have people “following” you, and you will be “following” others. “Following” is being updated every time a new post is added to one of your contacts’ profiles. Being followed is the same; every time you have something to add, all your “followers” will be updated. The more people that follow you, the more exposure your business will get. But it’s not about adding as many people as you can to your friends list. You need to be smart about building your follower base.

The problem is that many companies that try to market using Twitter don’t understand how this community works, and consequently their Twitter Marketing efforts don’t pay off.

To help you avert this fate, the following steps will guide you in understanding what to do and what not to do to give your company huge exposure using Twitter.

Step 1: Import Your Contacts

Twitter allows you to to import contacts from Gmail, Hotmail and your own address book. Do it.

Step 2: Make Sure that Your Profile is Complete

Fill in all the fields (both required and optional) and include your website URL. You can also personalize your Twitter page to match your company’s branding.

Step 3: Understand the Dynamics of Twitter

Twitter is a social tool, not a classifieds site. These are some tips that will help you to get followers:

• Don’t spam others about your specials
• Follow other users
• Be active in the community (tweet and post comments about others’ tweets often)
• Only post useful and relevant information
• Don’t tweet every 5 minutes. It becomes annoying.
• Engage in conversations. Retweet (reply to others’ tweets) often
• Don’t promote your company directly. Do it the smart way. For example, if you sell widgets, write a buyer’s guide about the kind of widgets that you sell and tweet about that blog post. That is useful information. Avoid tweets like “Great Widgets On Sale – Starting at $9.99!”

Step 4: Build Your Followers Base

There are many things that you can do to build your followers base:

• Put a link to “Follow Me on Twitter” everywhere (your email signature, forums, website, and business cards)
• Every time you post on your blog, invite people to follow you on Twitter
• Search for Twitter users whose followers base you would love to have for yourself. See who is following them and follow those users. They will follow you back.
• See who is following your friends and follow them.
• There are Twitter directories that are great to find members who are likely to follow you. Examples include Just Tweet It and Twellow.
• Use Twitter’s search feature to find profiles that interest you. Use Twitter’s RSS feed to be notified every time a tweet containing a certain keyword is made.

Step 5: Balance Your Followers/Following Ratio

Try to have a balance between people you follow and people that follow you. If a lot of people follow you and you don’t follow them, they will stop following you. If you are following plenty of people but just a few are following you, you’ll be seen as a spammer trying to grow your follower base as quickly as possible.

These are some ideas to keep both numbers balanced:

• Grow slow. Instead of adding 200 new friends all of a sudden, add maybe 50 and wait for them to follow you back. Then follow another 50.
• Use tools like Friend or Follow. This tool lets you check who is following you whom you are not following. It also allows you to see who you are following who are not following you. This is the best way to balance your ratio in just a few minutes.
• Avoid following others so they follow you, only to stop following them once they are on board following you. If you do this, you will be seen as a spammer.

Step 6: Make it Worthwhile to Follow You

Tweet interesting stuff. Every time you are about to post something, ask yourself “Is this something I would be interested in?” If the answer is no, chances are that your followers will feel the same way.

Step 7: Learn from the Best

Find users with several hundred followers and learn from them. See what they are doing right and get ideas from them.

Done right, Twitter Marketing can lead to positive exposure for your business. Companies have been known to make tens of thousands of dollars from customers that found them through a Twitter account. Depending on your business, Twitter could be one of the most successful weapons in your Internet Marketing arsenal.

Twitter is growing by leaps and bounds as people begin to appreciate its clean and easy-to-use interface. Twitter, at this point, does not look like one of the many flash-in-the-pan Internet applications that we have seen in times’ past.

Twitter’s 140 character micro-blogging platform has gained a lot of traction, as individuals and business people have learned to bring together their friends, family and customers under a communications platform that all users find useful.

Mom and dad find it easier to keep up with the lives of their grown children through Twitter. The fact that Twitter allows people to link to other web pages makes Twitter a simple platform to share thoughts, ideas, and links to stories and pictures. Grandma and granddad find it easy to check in on the kids’ Twitter account and to maintain daily contact with those across town and elsewhere in the world.
Friends can make plans and share common interests through the Twitter world. One can reply to a message publicly, or if the message is a bit more private, one can send a Direct Message (known as a DM) to anyone who has agreed to follow you also. Through the DM system, lovers can share flirts that no one else can see, but the persons intended to receive the message.

If you let your kids use Twitter, it may be best to set up their Twitter Account Settings to “Protect The Tweets”. In the description of this feature, Twitter says, “Only let people whom I approve follow my tweets. If this is checked, you WILL NOT be on the public timeline.”

The Public Timeline is the messages/tweets that everyone can see. Anything not on the Public Timeline is private, with restricted access.

Business People Are Working To Tap Into Twitter Marketplace

Twitter was born in March of 2006. But most of us never really heard of it or even understood it, until this last year (2008-2009). A few of the Internet gurus started talking about Twitter in 2008, and as 2009 got underway, more online marketers started talking about the Twitter community on a nearly daily basis.

We have accounts in Twitter that are a couple of years old, but we didn’t get involved with Twitter really until about April of 2009. In April of 2009, we had 12 Twitter Followers.

In May 2009, there was not a single online business in the Top 100 of Twitter, but those numbers are starting to change. Through May of 2009, the Top 100 accounts on Twitter were dominated by TV and Movie celebrities, a few media companies such as @cnnbrk, politicians and sports figures.

Most online marketers hadn’t given Twitter much thought until “The Great Ashton Kutcher vs CNN Twitter Race” that ended on April 17, 2009 with Ashton (@aplusk) getting the privilege to declare victory. Even now, three months after the end of the race, Ashton is still the champion – Number 1 in the Twitter Follower counts with 2,975,032 Followers. Ashton is followed by @TheEllenShow – 2,610,357; @britneyspears – 2,553,668; @cnnbrk – 2,431,783;  @twitter – 1,930,821 and @urdu_news – 5,594,54.
When the Great Twitter Race was concluded, I did a backlink check on Ashton’s @aplusk account. Literally, Ashton had bought a ton of advertising on websites, blogs, forums, etc. Ashton was also getting tons of free press in print and online in the Great Twitter Race.

Of course, we marketers should not feel bad if we are getting on this bandwagon a little late in the game, because @google has only had their account since Jan 09. Google is currently the 23rd biggest Twitter account with 1,244,976 Followers.

A surprise for me was seeing @WholeFoods, an Austin Texas based grocery store, sitting at #38 with 1,094,093 Followers. According to TwitterCounter, Whole Foods had only 322,820 Followers on April 4, 2009. A quick look at the Whole Foods profile indicates that they are using the account to share with their customers: company news, customer support, and available specials.

An honorable mention goes to @kevinrose, celebrity and founder of Digg.com. Kevin Rose is the 40th most popular person on Twitter, with 1,092,920 Followers.

Once you get into the Top 100 List below #40, you finally start to see a few online businesses in the mix. @zappos CEO is #45. @woot is #46. @TechCrunch is a web media site at #55. @dooce is at #60. To see the full Top 100 List, go here: http://twittercounter.com/pages/100

Who Is In Your Target Market and What Do They Want To Know?

As you look around at those people who are successful building their own little communities on Twitter, you will notice that each one gives people what their Followers want.

For example, @cussy is an online marketer, and he has nearly 10,000 Followers. His secret to growth: quotes. He gives his followers some of the best quotes about business and reaching goals of anyone on Twitter. I follow him and Retweet him often.

@dave_carpenter advertises himself as a Success Partner For High Achievers. Dave shares quotes and tips, and he retweets others who give good advice also. More importantly, Dave encourages the people he follows. He has nearly 9,000 Followers at this time.

@MattLevenhagen is a professional marketer. His 13,000 Followers follow because he runs a mix of marketing tips, links to great articles, and retweets for great advice. He even uses his Twitter account to give his customer’s support.

@SocialMedia411 is a Social Media expert who offers social media tips, links to social media articles and news. With more than 56,000 Followers, you can bet that the advice given here is worthwhile to its audience.

When you learn to talk to the people most likely to buy from you, you have completed the first and most important step to enable you to develop strong Twitter Marketing habits.

Learn How Others Are Successful With Twitter

As always, when you want to learn to be successful, you should look to those who are already successful and try to reverse-engineer the steps that they used to become successful. Once you have taken the time to study many who have been successful in the way that you want to be successful, you may note that success comes from giving people what they want and doing it in such a way that you provide good value to your customers.

Those who have been successful with Twitter have done so, because they put the needs of their Followers ahead of a personal desire to be boring or silly.

The good news is that other business people have started to find success on Twitter and you can too. When you learn to provide the people in your target market with the information that they need and want, you will have started down the path to building a Twitter Follower list to envy.

Author: Trey Pennewell

A goal is a website page which a visitor reaches once they have made a purchase or completed another desired action, such as a registration or download. Before Google Analytics can calculate goal conversion metrics, you must define one or more goals. A goal is defined with the following information:

• URL for the goal page: Specify a page that can only be reached by achieving a goal. In the case of a registration goal, for example, the goal page might be the Thank You page. If your goal page can be reached by visitors who have not completed the goal, your conversion rates will be inflated.

• The name of the goal: Specify a name that you will recognize when viewing reports. Examples of names you might use include “email sign-up” and “article ABC download”.

• The defined funnel: You may specify up to ten pages in a defined funnel. A funnel represents the path that you expect visitors to take on their way to converting to the goal. Defining these pages allows you to see how frequently visitors abandon goals, and where they go. For an e-commerce goal, these pages might be the first page of your checkout process, then the shipping address info page, and finally the credit card information page.

• The value of the goal: For e-commerce goals, Google Analytics can use the actual value of the purchase. To allow Analytics to do so, leave the Goal Value field blank and set up your purchase receipt page as described in How do I track e-commerce transactions?

  For non-e-commerce goals, Google Analytics uses an assigned goal value to calculate ROI, Average Score, and other metrics. A good way to value a goal is to evaluate how often the visitors who reach the goal become customers. If, for example, your sales team can close 10% of people who request to be contacted, and your average transaction is $500, you might assign $50 (i.e. 10% of $500) to your “Contact Me” goal. In contrast, if only 1% of mailing list signups result in a sale, you might only assign $5 to your “email sign-up” goal.

To set up your goals, Enter Goal Information:

1. Log in to your Google _nalytics account and click Analytics Settings.
2. Find the profile for which you will be creating goals, and click Edit.
3. Select one of the 4 goal slots available for that profile and click Edit.
4. Enter the Goal URL. Reaching this page marks a successful conversion. For example, a registration confirmation page, a checkout complete page, or a thank you page.
5. Enter the Goal name as it should appear in your Google Analytics account.
6. Turn the goal On or Off. This selection decides whether Google Analytics should track this conversion goal at this time. Generally, you will want to set the Active Goal selection to On.

Then, Define a funnel by following these steps:

1. Enter the URL of the first page of your conversion funnel. This page should be a page that is common to all users working their way towards your Goal. For example, if you are tracking user flow through your checkout pages, do not include a product page as a step in your funnel.
2. Enter a Name for this step.
3. If this step is a Required step in the conversion process, select the checkbox to the right of the step. If this checkbox is selected, users reaching your goal page without travelling through this funnel page will not be counted as conversions.
4. Continue entering goal steps until your funnel has been completely defined. You may enter up to 10 steps, or as few as a single step.

Finally, configure Additional settings by following the steps below:

1. If the URLs entered above are Case sensitive, select the checkbox.
2. Enter a Goal value. This is the value used in Google Analytics’ ROI calculations, and can be either a set value for the page, or a dynamic value pulled from your e-commerce receipt page. If the former, enter the amount in the field; if the latter, leave this field blank and refer to How do I track e-commerce transactions?
3. Click Save Changes to create this Goal and funnel, or Cancel to exit without saving.

Having a website that gets found in Google, Yahoo, and MSN, etc. isn’t hard to do, but it can be difficult to know where to begin. Here are my latest and greatest tips to get you started:

1. Do not purchase a new domain unless you have to. Due to Google’s aging delay for all new domains, your best bet is to use your existing domain/website if at all possible. If you’re redesigning or starting from scratch and you have to use a brand-new domain for some reason, you can expect to wait a good 9-12 months before your site will show up in Google for any keyword phrases that are important to you.

1. Optimize your site for your target audience, not for the search engines. This may sound counterintuitive, but hear me out. The search engines are looking for pages that best fit the keyword phrase someone types into their little search box. If those “someones” are typing in search words that relate to what your site offers, then they are most likely members of your target audience. You need to optimize your site to meet *their* needs. If you don’t know who your target audience is, then you need to find out one way or another. Look for studies online that might provide demographic information, and visit other sites, communities, or forums where your target audience might hang out and listen to what they discuss. This information will be crucial to your resulting website design, keyword research, and copywriting.

1. Research your keyword phrases extensively. The phrases you think your target market might be searching for may very well be incorrect. To find the optimal phrases to optimize for, use research tools such as Keyword Discovery, Wordtracker, Google AdWords, and Yahoo Search Marketing data. Compile lists of the most relevant phrases for your site, and choose a few different ones for every page. Never shoot for general keywords such as “travel” or “vacation,” as they are rarely (if ever) indicative of what your site is really about.

1. Design and categorize your site architecture and navigation based on your keyword research. Your research may uncover undiscovered areas of interest or ways of categorizing your products/services that you may wish to add to your site. For instance, let’s say your site sells toys. There are numerous ways you could categorize and lay out your site so that people will find the toys they’re looking for. Are people looking for toys to fit their child’s stage of development? (Look for keyword phrases such as “preschool toys.”) Or are they more likely to be seeking specific brands of toys? Most likely, your keyword research will show you that people are looking for toys in many different ways. Your job is to make sure that your site’s navigation showcases the various ways of searching. Make sure you have links to specific-brand pages as well as specific age ranges, specific types of toys, etc.

1. Program your site to be “crawler-friendly.” The search engines can’t fill out forms, can’t search your site, can’t read JavaScript links and menus, and can’t interpret graphics and Flash. This doesn’t mean that you can’t use these things on your site; you most certainly can! However, you do need to provide alternate means of navigating your site as necessary. If you have only a drop-down sequence of menus to choose a category or a brand of something, the search engine crawlers will never find those resulting pages. You’ll need to make sure that you always have some form of HTML links in the main navigation on every page which link to the top-level pages of your site. From those pages, you’ll need to have further HTML links to the individual product/service pages. (Please note that HTML links do NOT have to be text-only links. There’s nothing wrong with graphical image navigation that is wrapped in standard <a href> tags, as the search engines can follow image links just fine.)

1. Label your internal text links and clickable image alt attributes (aka alt tags) as clearly and descriptively as possible. Your site visitors and the search engines look at the clickable portion of your links (aka the anchor text) to help them understand what they’re going to find once they click through. Don’t make them guess what’s at the other end with links that say “click here” or other non-descriptive words. Be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site. The cool thing about writing your anchor text and alt attributes to be descriptive is that you can almost always describe the page you’re pointing to by using its main keyword phrase.

1. Write compelling copy for the key pages of your site based on your chosen keyword phrases and your target market’s needs, and make sure it’s copy that the search engines can “see.” This is a crucial component to having a successful website. The search engines need to read keyword-rich copy on your pages so they can understand how to classify your site. This copy shouldn’t be buried in graphics or hidden in Flash. Write your copy based on your most relevant keyword phrases while also making an emotional connection with your site visitor. (This is where that target audience analysis comes in handy!) Understand that there is no magical number of words per page or number of times to use your phrases in your copy. The important thing is to use your keyword phrases only when and where it makes sense to do so for the real people reading your pages. Simply sticking keyword phrases at the top of the page for no apparent reason isn’t going to cut it, and it just looks silly. (Purchase and read our Copywriting Combo for exact tips on how to implement this correctly.)

1. Incorporate your keyword phrases into each page’s unique Title tag. Title tags are critical because they’re given a lot of weight with every search engine. Whatever keyword phrases you’ve written your copy around should also be used in your Title tag. Remember that the information that you place in this tag is what will show up as the clickable link to your site at the search engines. Make sure that it accurately reflects the content of the page it’s on, while also using the keyword phrases people might be using at a search engine to find your stuff.

1. Make sure your site is “link-worthy.” Other sites linking to yours is a critical component of a successful search engine optimization campaign, as all of the major search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your site’s overall link popularity. You can go out and request hundreds or thousands of links, but if your site stinks, why would anyone want to link to it? On the other hand, if your site is full of wonderful, useful information, other sites will naturally link to it without your even asking. It’s fine to trade links; just make sure you are providing your site visitors with only the highest quality of related sites. When you link to lousy sites, keep in mind what this says to your site visitors as well as to the search engines.

1. Don’t be married to any one keyword phrase or worried too much about rankings. If you’ve done the above 9 things correctly, you will start to see an increase in targeted search engine visitors to your site fairly quickly. Forget about where you rank for any specific keyword phrase and instead measure your results in increased traffic, sales, and conversions. (You can sign up for a free trial of ClickTracks, which easily tracks and measures those things that truly matter.) It certainly won’t hurt to add new content to your site if it will really make your site more useful, but don’t simply add a load of fluff just for the sake of adding something. It really is okay to have a business site that is just a business site and not a diatribe on the history of your products. Neither your site visitors nor the engines really give a hoot!

An effective banner design can make the difference between an unsuccessful and successful banner ad campaign. We have found that the following banner design tips can increase CTRs (click thru ratios) and resulting sales.

1. Eye catching.

The first thing you want to do, is to catch the viewers attention. Try to create a catchy phrase, something that will arouse the interest of the viewer and make him/her curious.

2. Keep it simple.

A rule of thumb is to keep it short and simple. Remembers, the banner is not your website. The text on your banner should be informative and give the viewer an idea of what your website is all about.

3. Relevant content.

Make sure that the content of your banner is relevant to the products/services you are offering on your site. A woman in a tiny bikini would attract the attention of a male surfer and probably get lots of clicks, but when the surfer discovers that you really sell dvds he is sure to leave your site. Thus you may end up with high click thrus, but none sales.

4. If your service is free, tell the viewer.

It turns out that the word “free” increases the click thru rate. If you offer free games download don’t just say “Download games”, say “Download free games”.

5. Don’t lie.

Please make sure that you deliver whatever you promise on your banner. Don’t claim that your web hosting plans are free, when they really cost $50.

6. Link to a specific page.

If someone click the banner, they want to go directly to the information they are looking for (the very reason that they clicked the banner). They don’t want to go to your more general homepage and spend time looking for the information.

7. Aspects of Color.

Many studies have indicated that people respond better for bright colors, such as green, blue, and yellow, or certain color combinations, like a rich yellow on dark blue.

8. Call to action.

Some surfers still need to learn that a banner needs to be clicked on, not just watched at. Make it obvious that the banner is to be clicked.

9. Include your logo and web site url.

Remember that even if a banner don’t get a click it may still increase your name and brand awareness. But don’t dilute the banners punch line or the copy. Often it is best to keep the url and logo together on either side of the banner. The logo should be small and the url can be displayed in small font size.

10. Banner file size.

A banner load before or with the main page text and grab the viewers’ attention immediately, and the smaller it is the faster it load. The ideal file size of a banner is 10kb or less. Decreasing the banner size leads to tradeoffs in animation and the number of colors used.

11. Running time of animated banners.

How long should you make your animated banner run? A typical web surfer spends less than 10 seconds looking at a specific area of the website. Thus the banner must display all its contents within this time.

12. Use several banners for your ad campaign.

You probably don’t know everything about your audience preferences and behaviour patterns, and it is unlikely that one banner will fit all. Start with several banners. As your campaign progress you will come to know which banners are generating higher click thru rates. Track each banners CTR, and if possible conversion rate, and give the banners with higher CTR higher priority.