Like most students of SEO, I’m continually looking for cutting edge and new marketing technologies. During my continuing search, there are some common themes and ideas that keep popping up whether its from the mind of an expert or the mind of a novice.

I’ve filtered out some of the garbage and and have confirmed some of the ideas that the experts have claimed to be paramount to your online marketing success, added some of my own proven ideas, and have come up with a short list that all TRUE expert SEO’s should know.

1. You Not only Need to Blog, but You Need to have a WordPress blog.

If you entered into the Internet marketing and SEO industry after 2006, you should already know that you need to have a blog. After 2007, then you should know it needs to be a WordPress blog. Forget Blogger, Bloglines, TypePad, or any other platform that your Guru’s recommended. Pro SEO’s, use WordPress.

WP gives you the flexiblity and the ability to dominate Google if used properly. Guess what, “properly” is not a secret. Don’t get all bent because you think only the experts know how to use it “properly.” Relax, with the right plugins and the right social media attack, it’s simple.

2. There is Only One Search Engine, Google.

Yes, there are some individuals who use Yahoo! and Bing (previously Live, previously MSN Search), but honestly, who gives a shit. Google has been the most popular search engine for over 8 years, and is now the most visited site on the web. True SEO’s consider Yahoo! and Bing to be a very far 2nd and 3rd. If you rank well on Google, you’ll eventually rank on Yah-Bing!

3. It Doesn’t Take 3 Months to See Top Results in Google.

Every newb has heard it, and every “guru” has taught it. They say it will take 3 weeks to 3 months to see your website in the search engine results pages (SERP’s). Guess what… that’s bullshit. The next time your mentor, SEO, or consultant tells you this… fire them, they’re worthless.

With a WP blog, the right plugins, and the right knowledge… your new posts can rank on the first page for your keywords within 30 minutes and sometimes alot sooner. I’m not saying that you can go after terms like “home business” with the same results. Obviously these highly competitive terms are more difficult to rank for. But within your specific niche, which is the only one that matters, you can and will do very well.

4. Social Media Marketing will Bring You Immediate Traffic and Exposure.

With the development of socially driven websites, getting highly targeted traffic to your blog is easier than ever. Social news sites like Digg, Mixx, and ShoutWire allow users to vote on the quality of your content. If its valuable, your blog will get voted up, which in turn means more traffic.

The same principle is used with social bookmarking sites like Delicious, MisterWong, and Furl. Web 2.0 has evolved incredibly fast over the last 3 years. Spamming the search engines or your website is not going to work anymore. You actually have to have great content on your blog… imagine that.

5. Every Page on Your Blog Needs to Have a Meta-title and Meta-description.

If you run a WP blog, then the All-in-One-SEO plugin makes entering meta information very easy. When I do a simple Google search, I get a title and description of the 10 most relevant pages related to my search query. The title and description on a SERP are determined by what the webmaster enters into their meta-title and meta-description.

Most SEO’s will agree that the meta-keyword field is obsolete, but the All-in-One-SEO plugin allows you to enter this info as well. No need to overdo it though. There’s a great article about meta-tags over at SearchEngineWatch: How To Use HTML Meta Tags

Related articles:

• Want To Be Found By Bing? (sweetbusinesses.com)
• How to Get More Organic Search Engine Traffic? (earnblogger.com)
• Blogging 101: 5 Tips for Blog Post Titles (techstartups.com)

Yeah, Blogger, Typepad, and possibly Movable Type are the ones you are most familiar with. Blogger was probably the most powerful blogging platform up until a few years ago. Not anymore.

Let me get in your face for a minute. If you and I start competing within the same market, and I have a WordPress blog while you have a Blogger account… I’m going to embarrass you in the search engines. I will outrank you, I will garner more traffic, and I will invariably make more money than you.

If you do not have a WordPress blog, fear not, it’s NEVER too late. You have two options here. You can create a free WP blog at www.WordPress.com, or you can host your own blog on your own server.

Hosting your own blog will cost an intitial one-time membership fee plus a low monthy fee, about $7.00 per month. I use BlueHost as my web-hosting service. BlueHost has fantastic customer support and will be able to walk you through almost any issues you have. They also have a 1 step process for installing a WordPress blog. They make it very easy for you.

Also, with a web-hosted WP blog, you’ll have greater control over the functionality of your blog. There are these little programs called Plugins that help your blog become a marketing machine. A free WP blog does not support plugins. This is a major disadvantage.

Because you’re serious about your online success, I’m going to assume that you have voted to host your own blog. Now, BlueHost is not the only web-hosting service out there, but it’s the one I use and the only one I can give support on.

A web-host is like having another computer where you store all of your blog files (webpages). But,  this computer (web-host) is always connected to the Internet. This allows for 24/7 access to your website for your readers/customers. If you were to do this on your own computer, you would have to insure against power failures, ISP payments, viruses, and many other limiting factors.

Your very first step is to open a BlueHost account. Once that’s done, you need to carefully select a domain name. You can purchase one at GoDaddy.com. That will cost you less than $10.00 per year. You will be able to transfer that domain to your BlueHost account. Also, 1 domain name is included with your package if you sign up with BlueHost.

Once you’ve done that, look for the article on “Uploading a WordPress Blog to my BlueHost Account.”

If you absolutely cannot afford a web-host, and you want to go with a free blogging platform, then use www.WordPress.com. Do NOT use any other free blogging service. If you’re making love to another service, then it’s time to cheat. This is business… do you want to be faithful, or do you want to dominate?

All pro bloggers and Internet marketers are using WordPress, get with the program…

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With so many blogger-coined terms, ideas, and marketing methods out there, it’s difficult for a novice to even know where to begin.

Eventually, either from here or elsewhere, you’ll learn about keywords, keyword research, onsite optimization, RSS, blogging, social media marketing, Web 2.0, and Buzz Marketing.

These are just broad ideas that fall under the two larger umbrellas of SEO and Internet marketing. Above you’ll find some links to some of the resources I draw from. By no means should you try to learn any of it at this point. Crawl before you walk, walk before you run…

If you’re here reading this article trying to grasp the basics, then the sites above will only set your ass spinning. I merely included them so that you can see that I’m not just making up this crap. I didn’t come up with this stuff, I just leached on to certain bloggers and marketers who are at the forefront of Internet and social media marketing (SMM).

I will eventually reveal all the sources I draw from, but only when you have a better understanding of the basics of web marketing.

In a traditional brick & mortar business, the proprietor almost always has to spring for some type of advertising. It could be in the newspaper, the YelloPages, radio spots, TV, or any other type of exposure. These types of media also require a renewal fee after a set amount of time.

Even though the owner of this hypothetical business will have included these costs within his initial business loan, it’s still adding cost to an already lofty investment. Then he must consider property costs, rent, insurance, inventory, staffing… and so on.

Now let’s look at an Internet business. With the right training and knowledge, one can can start an Internet business today for almost nothing. No inventory, no staff, no property to maintain. All you really need is the will to learn and a laptop.

As your understanding increases and all that you’ve learned begin to mesh and actually start to make sense, you will need to lay down some cash in order to build your brand. You’ll need to purchase a few domains, each costing less than $10.00 a year. Once you start blogging, you will need to pay for web-hosting. Web-hosting is fairly inexpensive, but initial start-up costs will be between $100.00 to $200.00.

Depending on your business, you may need to purchase things like business cards, brochures, flyer’s, printers, and software. (Microsoft Office, Photoshop, etc.) However, the things mentioned above are not necessary… just good ideas for your future.

As far as advertising goes, you can gain exposure using the thousands of free tools that are available to you on the web. There are free classified ad sites, free press release services, free blogging services… the list goes on. More on this in another article.

How Do I Make Money on the Internet?

This is a delicate question and can be answered in many ways. As a beginner, you should understand one of the most basic methods of making money on the web:

Drive traffic (visitors) to your website, some will stay and see what you’re offering, some of those who stay will buy your product. Obviously, the more people you drive to your site, the more will buy.

There is an addendum to this idea; Once you get these people to come to your website, you will want to capture their information. Their name, email, and phone number ideally. You can do this by RSS, newsletter subscription form, or by a lead capture site.

This is because if you have updates to your site, new products or services to showcase, specials to offer, you have a way of alerting them to come back to YOUR website. This is referred to as list building. Someone once said… “The money is in the list.”

Then, How Do I Drive Traffic to My Website?

The majority of your visitors will find your site through one of the three major search engines. Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Not necessarily in that order, but you should always optimize your site for Google placement.

From now on, when I refer to a search engine, SE, or SERP (Search Engine Results Page), I’m talking about Google.

A Google SERP has three areas that you should know:

Area 1

This is the Top Results for Google AdWords. This is not always in the SERP’s but you should know that it is paid advertising and not organic. It will be highlighted and slightly separated from Area 2.

Area 2

This is the Organic Search Listing. The websites that you see at the top here are fully optimized for SE placement and highly relevant to your search query… according to Google. This is the area you’ll be most concerned with when optimizing your websites. It will cost you nothing to get top position in Area 2, but depending on your keyword, may take some time.

Ideally, you will want your website to appear above the fold. Which means that you want the search engine user to be able to see your Title, Description, and URL without having to scroll down. Usually this means position 4 or higher. It really depends on the users computer settings.

You cannot pay Google to place your website in Area 2, the Organic Listings. You must have relevant content on your website, a little PageRank, and you’ll get there. I’ll give you the tools and knowledge to do it fast and efficiently.

Area 3

This is also Google AdWords. Remember, AdWords is PAID advertising, not free or organic like Area 2.

Now, back to the question. How do you drive traffic to your site? How do I get my products, service, or opportunity in front of people who are willing and ready to buy?

Google is going to help you in a big way here. Google only wants to display the most relevant and useful information to the user. The user is the most important person to Google, not the advertiser. Googlebot, the program that finds websites for the user, will analyze your website in the blink of an eye to find out if your webpage has useful info for the Google user.*

If so, and you have a fully optimized website, you have a ton of useful and relevant information, you have other relevant or popular sites “recommending” you, then your site will be displayed. If Googlebot thinks you’re trying to trick it by using spam tactics, not only will it not display your site, but it will eventually remove your website from the Google Index and your site will NEVER be displayed.

Do Not Spam Your Website or Google

Once you start blogging, you are going to do some keyword research for your product or service, then you are going to create useful articles that include those important keywords and phrases. Keep in mind that you are going to have a search engine killer once you create a WordPress blog.

Once the article is done, you’re going to “Buzz” that article. This means you’re going to submit it to social news sites, and social bookmarking sites. These social sites allow other users to vote on your story. If it gets voted up, fantastic, you’ll get immediate traffic to your site. If it gets buried, so what, you’ve establish a presence on the web that is very powerful in itself.

Now once these people get to your site you want to keep them there. It’s important to realize that you must be saying something useful, funny, controversial. This is why you can’t throw a bunch of keyphrases on a webpage and hope you make money.

This is Web 2.0. Everything is social and user controlled. Tricking the search engine robots isn’t going to work anymore. You must find your niche and appeal to that audience. Writing press releases and submitting articles are great branding tools, but they fall off the SERP’s very quickly. You have to learn the methods that allow you to DOMINATE the search engines.

You have competitors out there that are taking your traffic. This is war and you need to strap on your gear. Stick with me and I’ll show you what’s possible, I take no prisoners.

This is just an intro, after reading this you might be asking how, when, why… or maybe you’re completely lost. Everything will begin to fall into place. Subscribe to my feed above so you don’t miss my next article, it’s gonna be a good one.

*Googlebot is a tad more complex than this, but this simple definition is suitable for now.

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