Web 2.0 – what the….

So what the heck is Web 2.0?

Do you really understand what it is?

Well everything I have read and watched seems to point to one thing – socializing!

Socializing could be described as sharing stuff on mass….

For example here are a few things that really encapsulate Web 2.0

• Bebo, Facebook, My Space, Squidoo, etc – Personal web pages/blogs that can be interacted with other friends and family.
• You Tube, Google Video, etc – social video sharing sites
• Del.icio.us, Stumble upon, Technorati, Digg, etc – social book marking that can be shared

Services like My Space, Face Book and Bebo command more daily traffic that Yahoo and Google put together.

Did you just hear that right? More traffic that Google AND Yahoo – together!

Do you have any idea how many people use Google to perform searches on a daily basis? Think about this, “Google it” is now an everyday phrase – that’s pretty impressive.

So given that millions of people now use these social services, what does that mean for you?

Traffic – lots of it, tons of it, more than you can cope with….

Did you also know that Squidoo was too big for even Google to give the famous “Google slap” to! What the…

Squidoo is a perfect example for us to use here as a breeding ground for prospective customers. You see – unlike My Sapce, Face Book, etc – Squidoo is more topic or niche based as opposed to individual user or personalized page based.

Squidoo allows you to create a range of beautiful sites on any topic, then you can apply lenses – extra sub-pages that are focused on particular niches within that topic.

Using our gardening example, we can create a site around tomatoes, and niche lenses on tomato varieties – each lens linking back to your web site. pages related to the same subject.

Now – provide good quality material on the subject in each of the lenses and you’ll attract every tomato nut in the world to your site – meaning three important things:

1. A huge amount of traffic – pre-validated prospects who love information on your subject (tomatoes in this case).
2. Your site back-links alone will be drive up your website Google organic ranking.
3. Credibility as a professional in your chosen niche.

Do you have any idea how important it is to pre-validate your customers – massive?

See PPC (Pay Per Click) traffic, where you pay Google to send you traffic via your personally written ad, may not be really interested, since a badly written ad may bring people that misunderstood what your site was about.

No such risk with squidoo traffic that has already seen your material, knows its good, and wants more….

Also this traffic is 100% FRE.E – costing you nothing except the time you put into building your free Squidoo site. Now if your very clever, have a lot of PLR (Private Label Rights license which allows you to freely alter the material, e-book, video, etc) material, and have an automated or semi automated system – that task may not take you long at all!

Just imagine adding to your Squidoo and web site, social book marking as well!

Hundreds or thousands of your visitors will bookmark your sites as a “must see” or “great reading”, etc.

Thousands more bookmarking users will also be arriving – again FRE.E!

Now repeat that process with Bebo, Face Book, My Space…. OMG!!! Do you have any idea what sort of traffic you can command.

Whoa! Let’s say that again – ‘DO you have any idea of how much PRE-VALIDATED traffic you can command’?

Yes it takes time – but even if it took you 3 months, going from 50 visitors a day to 5,000 pre-validated visitors a day!

I’m serious – do it correctly and the sky is the limit.

The Key do doing this properly and ensuring success?

No surprises – FOCUS, consistency, and dedication!

Ever tried D.I.Y home decorating?

Big job, but focusing on one task at a time, and not quiting until its finished will guarantee you success – right?

Have you seen those reality T.V shows where there are D.I.Y disasters? The problem – tackling too many jobs at once and never completing one is usually the problem. The other one (less frequently) is being ill equipped to tackle the task at hand, wrong tools. or poorly estimated.

The same principles apply to building an on-line business! Focus, consistency, and dedication!

PREPARE WELL!

Start with Squidoo, build a strategy of how you want to build the site, read all of the material you can find on the topic, study the material on the site – get building! Don’t quite until it’s finished fully and repeat!

FOCUS AND FINISH!

The first site might take you six to eight weeks to complete, again dependent on your time commitment, but be patient and in no time flat you will have finished.

Build your back-links to your main site pages, ensuring you do not short cut this process!

Spend another week studying social bookmarking, joining the each of the larger bookmarking sites and bookmark your web site and Squidoo site properly.

Now sit back and what your site rise up Google’s organic ranking (organic ranking is the free ranking Google gives sites based on relevant search terms – another post soon on this one).

Now here is the beauty in all of this – you have just done all of the hard work!

Use the material you put together for your Squidoo site and repeat for Bebo, Face book, My Space – one at a time!

Bookmark each as with the Squidoo site – you already belong to these social bookmarking sites, so this is very easy (an hour or two at best). Your done!

No kidding, if you do the ground work, and do not skimp on quality material, you will have more FRE.E traffic than you will know what to do with!

Yes it will take a while – but “anything worth doing, is worth doing well” – right?

One more very important thing! Do not forget to use your keywords on each of the relevant pages you are building – ensuring the back links to your site have the same keyword sets on the page and in the header (H1). This is very key to your success and key to your organic growth in Google.

Soon everyone searching on Google using your your key word/s or keyword phase/s will find your site coming up every time, and cost you nothing when they click on your links.

Then there is video sharing! Whoa – too much info for one blog? Yeah, you’re right – we will make this a feature of another blog.

Remember what we have discussed here is only one traffic strategy – blogs another, there is more… much more but that is for another blog as well!

You can now start to appreciate why people become overwhelmed with information and really just end up going in circles, getting no where.

FOCUS on one thing at a time, as I have laid it out here, and you WILL be successful!

To your very good success and fortune. Until the next blog!

Doug Turner.

MarketingWahoo.com

Blogging – an inexpensive way to attract traffic

Whats the most inexpensive way to create traffic to your web site?

A web log – commonly known as a Blog!

A blog is also a good field testing mechanism for potential markets, feeling out what your customers want or need in the niche you have chosen.

As you know creating on online presence can be a rather expensive exercise and you still cannot be sure that what you have built is servicing your customers needs.

The best way to know what your potential customer base wants? Ask them directly via your blog.

Traffic can be attracted in numerous ways, but most require you to have a website at least. Then of course you run into hosting costs, auto responder costs, product development, etc…

A blog is free and demonstrates your desire to engage your customer base. If you cannot attract customers to free information and tips you are able to provide them via a blog – what makes you think a website will be any different?

Now many believe in using PLR articles to develop their articles or blogs, but in reality the best way to engage people is – well, just laying out your thoughts as they come to you. Not only does this show you have a reasonable amount of talent in a particular field but often you can learn a thing or two from those who read your blog and respond.

I know that automation is a key part of an online business but when it comes to teaching people, they are all individuals and everyone has a different learning style. Responding to people who ask questions is key part of blogging, building credibility as well as showing a human face to those who show interest in your subject.

If you don’t like people you really don’t have much future in an online market – after all surely marketing is a process of selling to people.

I know blogging is nothing new, however it is the most inexpensive way to engage a potential customer base and by adding your website link (if you have one) to your blog, you can also increase your search engine ranking.

Try to teach people something you have personally found that works and never pitch to people, that is not the purpose of what you are trying to accomplish here. A good teacher is also a good learner and everyone has got something to teach as well as something to learn. I am yet to meet an exception to that rule….

Think about topics that interest your potential customer base. What turns you on? What would you like to know? After all it’s your blog – if you want to know something there are probably a thousand more folks that what an answer to exactly the same question.

Are there any rules that should be applied to your blog? Not really.

Be a little controversial – that’s always a good way of getting comments.

Ask questions of your readers.

What kind of subjects should blog about?

I am assuming here that you have already performed some sort of research after listing a number of subjects you are personally interested in and passionate about. Go niche, very niche after doing your research to identify the number of people interested, searching, on your favorite subjects – but that is another topic altogether.

Which reminds me of yet another blogging rule. Stick to the topic!

Think about all of the topics in your chosen niche that people would want to discuss. For example if your niche is growing tomatoes, best time plant, spraying or organic, types of tomatoes, staking plants, blah,blah,blah…

Check out the competition to see what they are talking about – the latest techniques, etc.

Remember to respond to queries and be human. Use humor if appropriate (death of a loved one might not be appropriate) and give some valuable information.

Blog consistently, and don’t give up. Once day or several times a week will be good. As your blog grows so will your audience and reputation.

Any comments would truly be appreciated and responded to – however spamming just to get back- links will not make it onto my blog.

Good blogging!

Doug Turner

MarketingWahoo.com