Marketing Business Mistakes to Avoid

If you've tried your hand at building an Internet-based business but haven't yet reached the success you want, find out about these 11 deadly mistakes and how to avoid them.

Not Treating What You Do as a Business.
The difference between a hobby and a business is that a hobby doesn't make you money - it costs you money.
If you're earnest about starting a profitable online business, approach seriously and focus on generating revenue.
Treat your online business as you would any regular business.

Being Distracted by Too Many Good Ideas.
You can light up a room with a light bulb, but you can cut through steel with a laser beam. The same is true with your effort and ideas.
Too many Internet-Entrepreneur-Wanna-Be's lack the will power to stay focused. Chasing too many ideas at the same time often leaves them exhausted, frustrated, and with little result to show for their hard work.
The key to success is to select one business idea and to develop it completely before moving on to another project.

Not Selecting a Specific Niche.
Perhaps the biggest mistake of all is trying to be everything to everyone. You can't - so stop!
It's very counter-intuitive to focus on a smaller slice of the market and most people are afraid to do it. But when you do, your business will grow faster, and you'll be more financially successful in less time.

Falling in Love With the Wrong Product Idea.
Even the most experienced entrepreneurs fall into this trap from time-to-time and develop products without doing any research. Before you devote any serious amount of time and effort to developing your new ideas make sure there is a demand for the type of product, information, or service you want to launch.
If you need help with selecting an ideal niche market for your business and finding out which products you should develop first, take a look at this fast track training program.

Falling for the "Get Rich Quick" Scheme!
Remember the old adage "if something is too good to be true..."? It's alive and well on the Internet.
Countless people buy into the idea of making millions online overnight. Sadly, they buy into programs hyped up with empty promises only to find themselves "out of cash and out of luck" a short while later.
Be aware of spammers, illegal money-winning scams, and buying "ready to go businesses" that are "hot but will sell for cheap"!
Before you fork over your money investigate if those hot businesses have ever made a dime for their current owner.
Doing your homework will save you valuable time, money and many sleepless nights!

Going Into It, Instead of Growing Into It.
While the Internet makes it easier to reach your potential clients, you're still building a business - and that takes time. Don't tell your boss you're quitting today because you started this hot new online business last night and you'll be "rolling in dough in no time flat!"
First make sure your business idea works and is profitable.
That's one of the advantages of Internet Business - you can start small and step-it-up as your business starts getting sales and generating profits.
Just be sure you can consistently replace your current income before jumping ship and telling your boss to "beat it"!

Mistake #7 - Being a Copy-Cat!
Quickly - what is the most popular business on the Internet? You guessed it - it's how to make money on the online!
It seems that everyone who has bought a course on making money online is credible enough to teach this subject a week or two later!
Don't fall for the allure of easy money - because it's only a perception. In reality your chances of having a successful online business are much greater when you are different from the pack.

Wasting Time and Money on Developing Pretty but Useless Websites.
A bad idea is a bad idea - no matter how pretty you dress it up. Many people waste precious startup dollars on expensive but needless graphic design work, pretty logos, and complex web design.
In reality, many businesses can be simple and inexpensive to get off the ground. In fact, a simple site with little or no graphics will often make more money than one with all the latest bells and whistles flashing all over the page.
Think - what is the core concept of your business. Outline it on a single sheet of paper, then implement it fast in it's simplest form. You can always give it a makeover and make it prettier if it's successful and profitable.

Not Building Relationship with Clients.
"Even though you don't know me from Adam, I want you to take out your wallet and give me $20 - in exchange I'll make you the King of the Universe!" What!? You don't want to give me your $20? What a surprise!
Most people think about starting a business online in terms of getting a quick sale - with no prior relationship with their potential clients at all.
In reality, you'll be more successful when you make your first goal to collect contact information from potential clients and follow up with them on regular basis.
It's much easier to "sell something for Free" than trying to convince people to give you money at first.
Make it your goal to prove your credibility online and make your business all about relationships with prospects and clients, and you'll build a thriving online empire.

Calling It "QUITS" Too Soon!
If your new online venture isn't making money at first, don't walk away from it too soon. Many entrepreneurs have multiple "failures" in their background - which in reality are lessons in what didn't work.
Evaluate your ideas and get help with gaining a new perspective on what you're doing. With some new ideas you might find a new way to position your business differently and make it profitable.
Or maybe you simply need to give it more time to gain the traction and momentum you want.

Being too cheap!
While it's a good habit to be thrifty with your dollars, don't confuse saving money with being cheap. Remember the price you're paying for things isn't always expressed in money. It's also the time, effort, and lost opportunities you can't take advantage of because you lack the know-how or are busy doing low-level tasks.
Smart online entrepreneurs continually invest in their Education. They buy marketing training programs, time-saving software tools, and systems that allow them to grow businesses faster with less effort.
The best news is that getting good basic training in how to start your information marketing business doesn't have to be expensive.

About The Author
The author, Adam Urbanski, Founder and President of Marketing Mentors, teaches professionals and business owners proven strategies to leverage their know-how into low-cost, high-profit information products and programs. For a four-hour fast track training program, go to his website at InfoProfitFastTrack.com.

More about Search Engine Optimization

Most of the time when we pitch to a new client we are asked for SEO guarantees. "Your competition has guaranteed top results and submission to 100,000 Search Engines and Directories". We go all out educating clients that Search Engine Optimization is all about smart work and not just adding random keywords and submitting to every directory possible. I'm writing this article to reach out to the SEO buyers and help them distinguish the crooks from the genuine SEO cos. I've compiled my Search marketing experience over the years in this article. I hope this helps you in selecting your Search Marketing initiative.

There are No Rank Guarantees.
Search Engines alone control their indexing and ranking algorithm. Do not try to trick Search Engines. The only way to improve your search engine rank is by playing by the rules. And the rule is very simple: make it logical. Web content is primarily for the site visitor and not crawlers.
If your Search Engine Optimizer sold you magic "Top rank on Google in 10 days flat". Forget it. There are no short cuts. Top ranking in Search Engine Natural Results will take time. Hard work is imperative especially in developing the content on your website and the links to your site.

Ranking is Not the End, It's the Means.
Ask yourself what will a top search engine rank get you? Most businesses are interested in increasing sales on a website or at the least driving qualified traffic. Ranking for the right keywords (keywords used by your target audience) is important. There are SEOs who will try to show case results for keywords that occur only on your website. Beware such gimmicks.

Know Your Competition.
"Rank" is relative position and more so in the Search Engines' natural results. How well you do in the search engine results is a function of how much hard work you have done in relation to your competition. Analyze your competition's keywords, links, keyword density and spread, but be sure not to copy your competition.

Use Search Engine Friendly Design.
A search and visitor friendly design is a must for any successful website. Your website should be compelling enough for repeat visits by search engines and potential customers. Make sure you have search engine friendly URLs and avoid those long URLs with query strings.

Select Keywords that are Worthy.
You must research your keywords before targeting. There are tools that give you a good idea of a keyword's search potential for example. It is important to know the number of searches for a keyword in the last month, last 6 months and last year. You should also find out the number of web pages that are targeting the keyword. It is advisable to start a campaign with keywords with moderate competition and a high number of searches.

Write Great Content.
Even if your website site is technically perfect for search engine robots, it won't do you any good unless you also fill it with great content. Great means it has contextual and editorial value. Great content brings repeat visits and increases the chance of conversion. Great content is factual and appeals to your target audience. Your web page should have your desired action embedded in the content and you must ensure that the content is fresh. Keep adding and editing content regularly.

Use Good Hyper Linking Strategy.
Hyperlinks make your content accessible and contextual. You must hyperlink in the right context within the website and to other websites. Good links are appreciated by the Search Engines and by visitors. No one likes to be taken to a mall selling "Macintosh" when shopping for "apples".

Write Relevant and Original Meta Content.
Meta content is like a business card. Just as your business card tells who you are and what you do, Meta content tells the search engines the relevance and context of a web page. Resist the temptation to include everything in the Meta content, but make it detailed. Confused? The idea is to include only what is relevant to the page in the Meta Content but to include everything that is relevant.

Acquire Relevant Links.
The links you acquire are the roads to your web page for search engine bots and visitors. Good links improve your webpage's equity on the World Wide Web and bad links make a dent in your equity and credibility. Be selective in reciprocal linking. Both reciprocal and one way links work, if you are prudent in selecting the links. Submit your website to the relevant sections in relevant directories.

Consult Experts, If You Need To.
If you have the competence, there are two ways to learn - learning from your mistakes and learning from others' experience. You can choose either. If you have the time and can wait for the online dollars, do it yourself. If you want to get started now, it may be useful to consult the experts.

About The Author
The author is an expert in Search Marketing with over 10 years Online Marketing experience. He heads www.rankuno.com, the specialist in online marketing and Search Engine Optimization. RankUno empowers its clients around the world with high ROI online marketing programs. He may be reached at bhaskar@rankuno.com.

10 rules to search engine optimize for Keyword and meta description tags

Keyword and description meta tags optimization tutorial for better search engine rankings. Have you ever wondered why some web pages get higher search engine rankings than others? Of course you have, if you are a web developer. You may have read or heard of a hundred ways to improve your page ranking and tried them all. Only to see dismal results and wonder what the heck went wrong.

Been there and done that. So I thought I would let you in on the secrets I use to get my pages to rank high in the search engines. Once you read these tricks you might think that is so obvious I should have thought of it.

Here are the 10 rules I use to search engine optimize a page for keywords and description meta tags.

1. First let's assume that you already know what the page is about and have already created it. This is not a tutorial on how to write web pages. Rather guidelines for search engine optimization using your meta keywords and description tags.

Depending on the type of page you are creating determines how many keywords you should use. For instance a sales letter is typically 2000 or more words. In that type of page you need to describe all the advantages of your product and why it is the right solution. You will want to get testimonials and place them in appropriate places. You may even want to tell a story relating to how well the product has performed. Don't over do the page or you will lose your prospect to boredom.

The product page (different from the sales letter) should be between 500 and 750 words. All you are trying to do here is sell a product. Visitors that make it to these pages probably already know what they are looking for and are only looking for specific information. Your job is to convince them that your product is the right one. Beyond that and there is more opportunity for your visitors to disagree with your pitch and move on.

The article page should be at least 1000 words and not more than 5000 words. Okay some might say that 5000 is too long and others have said that isn't 1000 words aren't enough words to describe what they have to say. Too long - some say that 500 words is good for an article page. So lets look at this: a person who can read 10 words a second will be through your page in 50 seconds. Not enough time for them to soak up your message. A person reading 3 words a second will take about 2-1/2 minutes. Plenty of time for your message to sink in.

The average reader can read somewhere around 6 words per second. Which would take them 83 seconds to read your 500 word article. Barely enough time to get your visitors comfortable. At 1000 words the average reader will read your page in roughly 3 minutes. At 6 words a second your reader needs around 3 minutes to read a 1000 word article. This plenty of time for the reader to make a decision to click on your most wanted response.

At over 2000 words the average reader will need 5-1/2 minutes to get through it. This is stretching the limit of time most visitors will spend reading one web page. At 5000 words the average reader takes over 13 minutes to read your page. This is well past the amount of time a visitor will need to decide to click on your most wanted response. If your article is really good most people will read all the way through it. If not they are off to the next website in a flash. If you have more than 2000 words you may want to consider breaking the article into 2 pages.

Okay, back to rule #1 use the right amount of words for a particular type of page. Not too many and not too few.

2. Primary meta keyword (the first one) must be an exact match with the file name of your page. This lets the search engines match up your keyword with your page and give your page higher relevancy. Here is an example from: Ocular Defense Formula (Pr2 and #2 in Google). The first keyword for this page is "Ocular Defense Formula." This seemingly obsure product gets 33,000+ search engine results in Google alone. So it is not that obscure after all. And makes for a good example.

3. Use only 5 keywords in your meta keywords tag. More than that and the search engines might think you are keyword spamming and won't list your page. The search engines rank your keywords in the order that they appear. This makes the first one the primary keyword and the second one a secondary keyword and so on. You should line your keywords up in the order of relevance to the page. Here is the meta keyword tag I used in this example.

"Ocular Defense Formula, Lutein, Bilberry, eye health, vision"

4. Use all of your keywords in your meta description, with the primary keyword as close to the front as possible. Definitely within the first 5 words of your description. The search engines don't read your description verbatim, but can find and match them with your keyword list. So try to use them all but don't repeat them if at all possible. Again if your meta description repeats your keywords too often the search engines might think you are keyword spamming and not list your page, so don't do it.

5. Meta description should be between 100 and 200 characters. It is important to get a solid description of your page. Less that 100 characters and the search engine may not find it relevant enough to list. More than 200 characters and the search engines may truncate it. Which looks unprofessional on your part. Truncated meta descriptions may leave searchers with the impression that your content will be too wordy and full of you know what. Too short a description and your visitors may think there is not enough information on your page and move on to the next result. So try to get your description just right, not too long and not too short. Here is the meta description for ODF.

"Ocular Defense Formula with Lutein, Bilberry and herbs to support eye health and protect your vision from aging and oxidation. Learn how to improve your visual acuity."

6. Line up your meta keywords up too resemble a sentence. Although search engines don't read your keywords as a sentence verbatim, it should reflect well what your page is all about. See the meta keyword tag above.

7. Proof read your content twice. You should always proof read your work before you post for a lot of good reasons like spelling, grammar, placement and paragraph distribution. Once your page looks great proof read it again with your focus on keyword placement and repitition. You want your keywords placed in your content sparingly. What? you say. Again over use of your keywords might result in the search engines thinking you are keyword spamming. That isn't to say you shouldn't have too few. My rule of thumb is 3 uses of a keyword for every 300 words. This lets the search engines know that there is a lot of supporting content for the keyword.

As you are proof reading you may discover that you have a much better keyword for your meta tag than what you originally thought. For instance in ODF I discovered that I had left out the keyword "vision". After proof reading my page I added that keyword to my list and used it a couple more times in the page.

8. Put your meta description all on one line in your html code. This will ensure that the search engines reads it all. I have noticed that some search engine results leave off the second line of a description. That may leave out some of your meta keywords if that happens.

9. Never use more than 3 words for your primary keyword (and file name). People rarely search for a keyword phrase over 3 words long. Too many words in a keyword phrase and the search engines may not find enough relevancy to list your page in the results. Two words in a keyword phrase (and file name) is ideal. For Ocular Defense Formula, I thought 2 words weren't enough to describe the page. "Ocular Defense" would have been too vague and misleading. I could have named the page something else and optimized for those keywords, but, ODF is a product page and optimizing for something like "Eye Health" would have been misleading and probably not get listed high in the search engines.

10. Use your primary keyword in the first and last paragraph of your page. The search engines will give more relevancy to your page if they find your keywords at the beginning and the end of your page. Also your primary keyword should appear in the first 90 characters of your content.

Bonus tip - Use your primary keyword as a text link in your page only once. Not twice but definitely once. If you don't want your visitors to leave your page make that link an "add to favorites" bookmark. On a product page this works great because you don't want to give your visitors the opportunity to go else where.

In summary use these tips to increase your search engine rankings. Optimizing your keyword and descriptions should improve the relevancy of your page and boost your search engine rankings. Notice how I used my primary keyword and description meta tags in this last paragraph.

About the Author: Tim Koen - web developer, http://www.best-website-tools.com. Tool Time blog. All the best website tools, tips and techniques to grow your online business.