No Nonsense Marketing From Doug Prentice

Among the many ways to get free web traffic one of the easiest and most straightforward must be using Blog Carnivals. A Blog Carnival is where someone decides to compile a selection of blog postings all related to one topic that he/she has chosen. It’s a bit like a magazine where you have an editor (the organiser), contributors (you plus other bloggers) and an audience (readers). The beauty of a good Blog Carnival is that it will give the readers a selection of articles that they will find interesting and stimulating.

The benefit for you as a blogger is that readers will see at least a straight link to your blog posting or at best a synopsis of your posting plus your links. Readers who click on your link will be taken directly to the blog entry you have submitted. While they’re on your blog you hope that they either sign up for your blog or click on an affiliate link or product you have for sale.

So, how do you go about it? There are a variety of blog carnival sites but I’d suggest the best place to start is at blogcarnival.com. On this site you’ll find an enormous range of different blog carnival topics and there are sure to be some that match in with your own niche.
Once you land on the Blog Carnival home page start off by having a look at both About Blog Carnival and Frequently Asked Questions. These will supply with info that can save you a lot of time. This is what you see.

1) Click on the Submit button on the right hand side near the top of the page. You will then be taken to the Submit an Article Page.
2) Click on Carnival and an alphabetical drop down list of carnivals will appear.

List of Blog Carnivals

3) Make a note of any carnival that applies to your niche
4) Find a good blog posting of yours that will be applicable to some or all of the carnivals you’ve noted. By a good posting, I mean one that is a self contained item. Not a response to another topic and certainly not one that’s full of selling content. It’s got to be interesting and stimulating and be able to be read as a stand alone piece.
5) Select the blog carnival your posting is good for, and complete the other boxes. In the Permalink URL box submit the URL that goes straight to this specific posting. Enter your name, your email address, choose the category most appropriate to your posting and add any comments you may have.

Then just fill in the CAPTCHA code and submit.

Blog Carnival Submission Page

6) Repeat this process for as many postings or blog carnivals you have that are appropriate.

You’ll be notified if your submission has been successful. The success rate you get will depend entirely on the quality and suitability of your submission.

So keep records on what works and what doesn’t work to improve your success rate.

Now it’s down to you to do the work – it’s not rocket science – unless that’s your niche.

If you’re a beginner you’re probably wondering just how you get visitors to your website.  By this time you’ve probably spent a good bit of cash and don’t want to spend a whole lot more to use adwords or similar. But help is not far away – what you need to know is how to get free web traffic

There are a variety of methods to get free web traffic to your site but all will require some effort on the your part. One such method is the use of article marketing where you write stimulating pieces full of  information useful to others. You then have these articles published via a directory such as Ezine Articles and hope that people click through to your site and that the article is picked up by other publishers/webmasters and more people discover you and your site.

As in all things in life it’s never as simple as it appears although if you follow some simple rules you can make this strategy pretty effective. For proof of this have a look at the experts listed by location in ezinearticles.com for your country and ask yourself  why do so many of these authors write hundreds of articles. The answer in short is because it works!

1) Use search engine tools such as those provided by tools.seobook.com to identify the keywords you want to use – don’t use phrases that are too popular or you’ll end up on page 5, 000,000 in Google. Go for one of the lower but not obscure phrases so that you’re in a high search low competition area.  What you’re trying to achieve is to get your article in page 1 or page 2 of Google rankings for your chosen keywords.

2) Write an article that is “keyword rich” of about 400-500 words. make sure your keyword phrase is included in your article 3 to 4 times and above all make sure it’s included in your title. Make your article interesting and informative remembering the maxim ” the more you give the more you get back”. Don’t be afraid to give away lots of your most valuable information so that readers will want to click through to find out more . Obviously you don’t want to give away the whole shop or you’ll have nothing left to sell.

3) Make sure you have a powerful resource box. This is the box at the end of the article where you can place some details about yourself and what you do. Ideally you should include to links here. One that is the anchor text link (your keyword phrase) transformed into a link and the other a raw link to your website. Plus include a few words about yourself and what you can offer.

Most importantly you’ll need a snappy headline – look at other related most read articles for ideas.  But above all your article should solve a problem. The impression you want to create with your readers is that you have helped them and you can help them more.

Submit your article and sit back. I should think not! This is where the hard work really begins. If you want success enough you’ll have to do this over and over again with lots of articles to create momentum for your website. Imagine each article is a pair of hands pushing your website up the Google rankings.

Now it’s up to you to go out and get that free traffic.

How can I  make money in internet marketing? I’m sure this is a question all newbies ask all the time.

Having been thrashing around aimlessly for a couple or so years and getting nowhere I decided it was about time that I got serious about trying to make money via internet marketing. Up to this point I had spent quite a bit of money chasing the elusive “Silver Bullet” that was going to give me entry to the high life seemingly enjoyed so effortlessly by many of the internet gurus.

After doing some research, the process of building an internet business began to reveal itself. I don’t think I’d have been able to do this nearly so easily with out the help of John Thornhill and Lee McIntyre who have different approaches but are in ways similar. The most obvious similarity is that they subscribe to “no easy button” philosophy. An internet business is like any other business in many respects. What you get back from it is directly related to what you put into it.

The process at its most basic is:

Get a website

Drive traffic toward it

Make money

Now obviously this is a gross oversimplification of the process – e.g. lousy website, disinterested traffic = no money. But assuming that you have a good product for sale – be it your own or someone else’s (affiliate marketing) there are customers out there prepared to buy. You don’t have to spend a fortune to get a decent product – just a bit of research and some imagination – or find a good affiliate product to promote.

Now comes the tricky bit. How do you get these all to elusive potential customers to visit your website? There are a myriad of so called “Silver Bullet” solutions out there but from what I’ve seen they all cost money and don’t always teach you the basic methods of how to get free web traffic.

Now let’s assume that you’ve started off with a blog. A blog is one of the easiest places to start: it doesn’t cost much (just hosting costs really) and it can be a great place to have links to affiliate products. So how to get free web traffic to your blog. There are 2 very basic simple methods I’ll deal with in this piece:

Blog Carnivals and  Article Marketing. These two can actually work hand in hand to get your first free traffic.  

A Blog Carnival is a bit like a magazine dedicated to a particular topic. It has editors and contributors and a readership. I think the best place to start is at http://blogcarnival.com where you can find a list of Blog Carnivals by topic and when the next issue of a particular carnival is due to be published. You’ll also find the deadline for submissions.  The principle is that you submit a blog article to a relevant carnival and if it’s accepted and published in the carnival, readers will click on the link that takes them to you blog – free traffic. Obviously this a grossly simplified explanation and I plan to expand on this in some depth in a subsequent blog entry.

Article Marketing is where you submit articles to a article directory (EzineArticles.com seems to be the most popular) and hope to have the article published. At the end of your article you can append a resource box which allows you to include your details and a couple of links back to your blog/website. Other publishers and webmasters can reprint your article on their websites as long as they retain the resource box with your links.  The more exposure your article(s) get hopefully the more people will click on your links – free traffic.  Again there’s much more to it than that but this is another topic I’ll expand on in a subsequent blog but staying on the theme of how to get free web traffic.

Now the secret is that as you submit your blog article to a blog carnival submit related articles to ezine directories. This will magnify the effect and hopefully get more links pointing back to your blog/website. Now it’s down to hard work and repeating the process over and over and over again to build momentum.

Just remember to keep your eye on the target, learn the basics and don’t be diverted by bright shiny things. Ignore the continuous stream of “Silver Bullet” offers flooding into your inbox. Once you’ve got the basics right you can then look at alternatives with a more practised eye.

Yes, let’s start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start. So sang Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music and she was so right.

In the beginning I was looking for ways to make money on the internet. Like the rest of us I was searching around, registering for this and that as long as it was free. A totally indiscriminate scattergun appoach. As a result of this I started to receive all these free ebooks, some of which were hundreds of pages long. So I started printing these off and soon was the proud possessor of a bulging bookshelf of internet knowledge.

Wow! I thought I must really be on my way now that I have all this knowledge. Did I read these books? Well maybe a little bit. Did I take action? The only real action was happening on my printer as I printed out another 100 page epic on how to be an internet millionaire.

About this time I started to receive regular emails from a “guru” whose $200 plan would give me entry to his lifestyle of easy money and fast cars. So I sent off my $200 and sure enough received an impressive five inch thick manual, some audio tapes and some video tapes (yes it was that long ago). Now in no way am I denigrating the guru involved as I’m sure the content, if followed through, would have led me somewhere but, boy, how daunting and complicated did it all look. too daunting for me.

So, once again I took no real action. Does any of this ring bells with anyone?

Next I came across eBay. Simple concept, easy to follow steps straightforward to execute (again yes, it was some time ago). No prizes for guessing what  . I started selling some of my old stuff. Next I started buying stuff and selling it on and making a reasonable amount of money.

Don’t get me wrong, selling on eBay while relatively straightforward still requires a lot of work. So I figured out eventually that it wasn’t the hard work part that deterred me from internet marketing but the complete lack of  direction and being able to see the endpoint.

After a few years my growing disenchantment eBay lead me off to other channels of money making but still left me feeling that I’d missed a trick somewhere and rekindled my interest in researching internet marketing. And oh how it had changed. Every day i started receiving emails telling me that for anywhere between $19 and $4999 there was a plan that would have me earning mega bucks within a few weeks.

Despite my previous experiences I did fall for this at least a couple of times. But then reality kicked in and I started sorting out the wheat from the chaff and read the emails a bit more closely. I found out that there was breed of successful internet marketers out there who wanted to help others succeed – sometimes without even asking for anything in return. This was my eureka moment – find a mentor you feel you can trust! Especially before you buy anything from them.  Anyone will be your buddy once they have your cash.

I’d give this advice to anyone starting out on the road to Internet Marketing. Subscribe to a host of internet marketers and find 2 or 3 that you feel comfortable with and who seem to have genuine interest in their subscribers. Be wary of the guys/girls who only email you to make a pitch. Yes, everyone will make a pitch at times but that should be secondary to what is in the best interest of the subscribers. Go to the Warrior Forum and have look at the list of successful markerters. Sign up to a few and they will in turn lead you to other people.

However, it all still seemed complicated without any clear road to a destination compared with the simplicity of eBay. I knew then that what I needed was a clear step by step visualisation of internet marketing.

In my next posting I’ll reveal where this lead me.

Listening to Chris Rea recently I thought that about sums it up – I’ve come so far but I’ve still got a long way to go.

The last few months have crystallised quite a lot of my thoughts about how to progress with Internet Marketing. As I’m sure you probably believed at the outset, all we had to do was buy one of the “bright shiny things” that for a consideration of $49, $97, $199  would take us by the hand and lead us to the promised land of untold wealth and luxury.

Yes, I did and spent a bit of money along the way. And what have I learned? Well, I’ve learned that there are a lot of people out here who want my money more that my success. I’ve also discovered that there are some really good people out there who want to help me to help myself to succeed. There is a cost attached but there’s also a lot of good free stuff as well.

So from today this blog will be dedicated to revealing what I’ve learned so far and what I learn as I go along.  One of the major problems I encounter is that of assumed information, i.e. that the writer assumes that you know what something is – whether it’s how to find and buy a domain name or how to use a particular piece of software. On a regular or more likely irregular basis I’ll try and give you as much free info as I can muster starting from the very basics onward. As I get better and quicker at doing things hopefully my blogs will become more useful.

The very first lesson is that THERE IS NO EASY BUTTON. If anyone asks you for $199 and all you have to do is push the button and watch the money roll in, don’t believe them. Internet Marketing is like any other business (yes I said business). It’s not a toy or a hobby – it’s a business. What many people won’t tell you is that to really succeed in business you need two things – a tremendous amount of hard work and a bit of luck.  But often by doing the hard work you make your own luck. Gary Player, the renowned golfer, was often quoted as saying “the more I practice, the luckier I get”.

Your internet business must be run and planned like any other business. Calculate how much you can afford to invest in your business for the first 6 months and then set that in concrete. There will be many people whispering in you ear along the way, tempting you with there “bright shiny things”.

What I plan to show over the coming weeks is to show you where I went wrong and where I still go wrong as I surely will along the way. Hopefully you can learn from what I’ve learned and the mistakes I’ve made.

Well, so long for now. In my next blog I’ll start from the beginning and where I now believe I should have begun.

Doug

You know I can’t believe that after all these weeks of blogging I haven’t mentioned the four occupants of this house around whom the whole thing revolves – the pets. Yes, that’s right, nothing but nothing happens in this house that doesn’t in some way involve the gang of four.

Our gang of four comprises 2 wonderful poodles Kiki and Petra and 2 boy cats (formerly abandoned farm kittens) Big Boy and Baby Boy. Kiki and Petra are both former breeding dogs although Kiki’s breeding career was very short – one batch followed by a hysterectomy whereas Petra’s breeding career was more successful until her retirment about 5 years ago. Poodles, a much maligned breed due to their toy like appearance, are amongst the smartest and most obedient dogs I’ve come across.

Petra is now 14 and we’re mentally preparing ourselves for the day when she won’t be with us any more. No matter how many pets you have over the years it never gets any easier to watch them get old and slow down. Slow down that is until a collar is brandished in front of her, when she’s up like a year old pup running round in circles, desparate to get out.

Kiki is nine very loving and a right little madam when she wants to be! In Kiki’s world there is only Kiki. If attention is shown to any of the other pets guess who’s pushing her nose in – yes that’s right Kiki. She is also very very attached to Mrs P. It’s as if there’s an invisible string attaching Kiki to her “mum”. Where one goes the other is never far behind.

That’s all for today. next time I’ll tell you the story of how our boy cats arrived in a big paper bag!

Earlier this year I waxed lyrical about the free music service WE7, which I still believe is a really useful source of free music. Recently however I have been seduced by the charms of Spotify which I mentioned in another posting.

While there some things I can’t find (Pink Floyd/Led Zeppelin) on Spotify it does have the following advantages over WE7:

Firstly there are fewer adverts – in fact many fewer that you’d get with commercial radio. WE7 on the other hand has an ad after every track. I suppose the real benefit of this is if, like me you want to listem to an album which is a collection of linked pieces where one segues into another – for example Caravanserai by Santana. While you don’t get through the whole album with out an ad you at least get a better feel for the flow of the music.

Secondly, once you’ve chosen the artist you want to listen to and are then presented with a big list of tracks/artist/album, click on the artist and you then have a list of the artist by album. Set this rolling and Spotify will work its way forward from you chosen starting point going on album by album. So you can listen to hours of your favourite band/artist without having to click another button.

Now if they would only get all Dick’s Picks of the Greatful Dead on there I’d never need to click another button again!

Isn’t  it lovely now that the light night nights are starting again. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and blow me the garden is starting to sprout again. As the redoubtable Mrs P will tell you , gardening is not my strong point. The dearly beloved used to do most of the gardening but when she broke her leg a few years ago and I was working away from home a lot we were lucky enough to find “our Gerry” who is a wizz at gardening/handyman stuff. And for the next few years all went well with Gerry keeping the garden ship shape and Bristol fashion.

However he’s not getting any younger and has been laid up for the last few months. This was OK in the winter but now that spring is blooming the garden and surrounds are getting a bit messy. So this weekend it’s all hands to the pump to pull it back in order, with lots of grass cutting and general tidying up to be done.

Also noted that all the fencing and sheds could do with a lick of preservative. So off to Aldi this morning and picked up one of their special offer electric Spray Guns (£9.99) and 15 litres of preservative (£6.99 per 5 litre). So we’ll see how it goes over the next couple of weekends and I’ll report back.

So pray (if you’re allowed to say that nowadays) for good weather as I begin my gardening marathon – yes next weekend’s Easter so the gardening could go on for some time!

Now, I’m not normally one given to the allure of “bright shiny things” and had for quite a few days resisted the temptation even to to dip into any of John Thornhill’s emails about Butterfly Marketing.  I approached this as I do with all the the other offers from internet marketers, which is – I’ve got at least 4 projects on the go just now – concentrate on these and don’t get distracted by “bright shiny things”.

However I do have a lot of respect for John and when I received an email form him yesterday which had RANT in its subject line I just couldn’t resist. John had gone to the trouble to make a video to tell me that he just couldn’t understand why I hadn’t taken up the chance of getting a copy of Butterfly marketing at a knockdown price ($29.99 + shipping). He was even offering a series of videos as a bonus that would explain to to put the Buterfly Marketing into practice. To sum up, although John put it much more eloquently, I’d be a bloody idiot to pass up this chance.

Now, I don’t know much about John but I do know 3 things about him: 1) he makes a lot of money 2) he likes helping other people make a lot of money 3) If he says you can do it you most probably can. So knowing absolutely nothing about Butterfly Marketing I lauched off through John’s link and bought myself a copy of Butterfly Marketing.

I emailed John telling him what I’d one and why and received a delightful reply from him assuring me that he can help me to make it work.

If you don’t know of John already have a look at John Thornhill – he’s the real deal.

Do you want free music without the guilt of illegal downloading? Well I certainly do and sitting at mt PC most of the day I get bored with radio after a while. Yes, there are lots of free internet radio stations but even they get a bit boring after a while.

This week my mate Bob of corvoleather fame (best leather guitar straps ever!) turned me on the spotify. In the past I’ve sung the praises of WE7 but this is even better. Once you’ve completed the simple registration form you have FREE access to music via your computer that’s only limited by your imagination.

Music from your chosen artist comes up in form that allows you to choose tracks or albums. Choosing an album present you with the track listing, an image of the record/CD cover and a review/ history of the chosen album. Click start and Bob’s your uncle – well not in this case, he’s more of an old friend.

Spotify have deals with lots of record companies so the choice is wide. The only price you have to pay for your listening is the occasional ad (every 7/8 tracks). It’s a bit like commercial radio. This ensures that artists/ record companies get their bit and you can enjoy the music knowing your doing your bit to support the musicians.

It seems to have the same limitation as we7 with certain artists missing. My pet gripe is lack of Frank Zappa/ Mothers of Invention. I guess it must a label thing.

Overall though a pretty good addition to help you through the day.