Internet Marketing, Make Money Online

Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog will know I'm quite passionate about cars, it all started when I was a boy, I had a scrap book of newspaper clippings from the auto section with all my favourite cars, I actually wanted to build a collection of photos of every car ever built, and luckily the auto section of newspapers in those days used to cover the auto industry including car shows.

These days I don't bother with newspapers because I get all my motoring news from the web, and websites these days usually offer video and podcasts, aside from written articles about car repair or the latest model.

Actually I enjoy watching videos of cars, especially production model spycams, or race spec custom builds, I think it's only natural, guys like cars and we like to see what designers are testing on the roads even if we never get to drive these autos ourselves. I subscribe to Motorward's RSS feed, and a bunch of other lesser known auto sites, simply because I can't be bothered using search engines to find the latest car news.

Motorward seems to be written by a bunch of people who are real enthusiasts even if their English isn't spectacular, you get the feeling people in Germany track what Audi, VW, BMW, Mercedes are doing then quickly write up a piece without getting it proofread, but the news is up to date, and I guess that's probably the most important thing.

I should add the disclaimer that whilst I've fiddled with auto repair in the past, I actually don't like repairing cars, I always thought it was better to take my car to the workshop and hang around talking to the mechanic while they did what needed to be done, but I do still like reading about auto repair because you never know when it will come in handy.

However the most appealing reason for subscribing to auto news sites is to see the latest car spy shots, for me it doesn't matter if they'r eAmerican cars, German or other European cars, or Japanese cars, I like to see the next model without all the finishing touches; speculating over a cold beer with friends if the new model will be better or worse than other brands makes for a great evening.

Of course I'm always right and they're always wrong, but they can't help it, I just know more about cars than them, and even if they don't agree with me I'll be proved right or they'll forget and it won't matter.

Living in Spain and not speaking the language fluently means I have to be self employed because my regular paying job (sales management) isn't available to me, but traveling and being an Internet Marketer is very compatible. Consequently, a lot of people ask me to consult with them on improving their local business search results.

I always recommend starting with the basics, and that includes Twitter, and Facebook, both of which are amongst the best ranking websites on the net, and if you use them wisely mean your local business could dominate the top 5 or 6 results in the search pages for your main keyword. If you've read my previous article on using Twitter to promote your business you'll find this article fills in a few of the gaps not mentioned in the first.

Twitter
Twitter is great for connecting with people in your local area, and can also be good for SEO if you can keep your tweets short enough that you can also publish your full URL in your tweet.

The way I use Twitter is that I create a profile that has a very basic about us type of info but I include my main keyword in the profile, and also the website link, then I find all of my peers in the industry, with local websites this means anyone in your town, and anyone internationally who tweets about the same stuff that you do. The reason I follow everyone in my home town is that you just never know when one of them might become a customer.

After creating the profile and following local tweeters and international peers I wait for them to follow me back. Some people advise you to only follow people who return follow, but I think that is really stupid and frankly those idiots aren't real Internet Marketers.

The reality is that if I follow you and you sometimes mention something that I could help you with then I win, if you don't follow me back it isn't a problem, because when you check tweets to you you'll see my tweet, and if I've helped you it is likely you'll start to follow me. Moral of the story, don't try to game Twitter to increase followers, if you have a local business you'd prefer followers who have an interest in your product.

Now the tweeting begins, and for most business people the concept of tweeting seems like a waste of time, but here's the magic of tweeting, it lets a local business have an opinion about your home town, lets you be part of your community, and the effort is minimal. Here's an example, your local business sells widgets, most people will use Twitter to simply blast special offers etc, but let's say the local basketball team has an important game coming up, why not also get behind them with a "Go Sharks! [Business Name] is right behind you, bring it home tonight!"

See how short and sweet that is, and I tell you what it puts you right in there with all your local tweeters who will see you tweeting something they would also tweet. Stuff like that is free advertising because other tweeters will retweet that, or reply to you with their own rah rah, see where this is going? And how super easy it is to use Twitter to really get involved in your community for free, and best of all for minimal effort.

so how many tweets a day should you aim for if you're a local business? Personally I'd aim for one per day, but you need to split the content up a bit for the different audiences you have. Out of 10 tweets I'd probably mention things happening in the business maybe 5 times, from special offers, to sponsorships, members only offers or parties etc. Try to keep the actual tweet to the minimum, and use the rest of the space to link to your webpage with more info. Google loves URLs in tweets, and this will definitely help with your SEO.

Facebook
Facebook is similar to Twitter, but works in a completely different way and has the potential to drive even more business your way because the notes you create can be longer, and you can attach photos or video. In addition, Facebook fan pages often rank very well in Google, so don't be afraid to create a fan page.

I always advise my clients to create a fan page instead of a group, they give a lot more options for configuring the page, and fanpages are public, meaning the search engines will find them, and you get statistics on how many of your fans are interacting with the page.

Once you've created your fanpage, you really need to complete the profile but don't just copy and paste from your website, remember the fanpage will be indexed by the search engines so you don't want duplicate content. Make sure you add your contact details etc, and then also create some photo albums with your products or events that your business is involved in. If you also have short videos you've made upload these as well. It might seem like you're recreating your website on Facebook, but many of the people who use Facebook will never visit your website anyway, and if they still connect with you it doesn't really matter.

The wall in your fanpage is the most important part of the entire page, everything you publish there will also appear on the wall of anyone who is a fan, so make sure you never spam, you never use bad language, and you never write about irrelevant topics. Specifically, your fans are fans because you are a local business for their town, or they feel a connection with your business, so don't abuse this.

I always recommend to clients that they publish to their wall at least 2 or 3 times per week. You can publish more often, but unless you have something good to say it isn't worth it, and 2-3 times per week is great for your SEO activities as well.

A recent article I wrote was about backlinks, specifically crafting great anchor text, but now I want to take the entire process forward another step and talk about blog links that work for me.

I love when people comment on my sites, the more comments I get the more I feel like I'm connecting with people and sharing something worthwhile. If you blog on any subject it's good to get comments and boost your ego. Of course I never get as many comments as the a-list bloggers, but I'm not chasing huge traffic like they are so it's understandable.

The second reason I love comments is that they actually increase the amount of content on my page, every person who comments and leaves a paragraph or two gets approved, and their comment increases my page length by another couple of paragraphs. This is why I also try to answer every good comment with a couple of paragraphs myself.

It doesn't take very long to get a 1000 word article converted into a 2500 word page when you include 10 comments, and it doesn't matter if half the comments are yours, why? Because it's more content. The only thing you should try to do is keep your comments on topic. Read More