Who's Your Guru?

The other day I was talking to a guy at the health club I just joined. (Never had time when I was working for someone else.) We started talking about our personal trainers. If you aren't familiar with the term, these are fitness experts who are educated to design work-out routines based on an individuals strengths, needs and goals.
Anyway, Rick said something that struck me right between the eyes. "I got so confused reading all the books and fitness magazines. Everyone has a different opinion of what works the best. I finally figured if I was going to work out, I might as well pick one expert, listen to them and follow their program."
Later, as I was driving my sore body home, I thought about how appropriate Rick's comment was to Internet Marketing. Everyone's an expert. (Even people who have yet to sell their first eBook.) And there are a million programs, books, secrets, techniques and tactics that will work for you.
The problem is, you can easily fall into what my favorite business school professor called, "Analysis Paralysis". That's where a lot of people are stuck. They keep reading, and it gets in the way of actually doing something.
***** I was guilty *****
I was guilty of this, too. I must have bought several hundred dollars worth of books and courses before I found what worked for me.
Fortunately, the expert I decided to follow was, in hindsight, an excellent choice. And by following his advice and listening to his ideas, I have built up a couple of successful income streams.
My point isn't that my "guru" is the right one for everyone. The point is to pick one or maybe a couple of people you really respect, and model them. Of course, make sure they are actually successful in their own businesses first. But when you find someone you respect and whose style you like, listen to their advice and follow what they recommend in their writings.
***** Save Your Brain *****
Following this strategy can save lots of brain cells that you would spend switching strategies and tactics. It avoids confusion and gives you a good point of reference from which to work.
You don't have to keep reading and searching for the latest eBooks. Assume your guru knows the latest tactics and will advise you of how well they work.
I'm not saying you never look at another eBook or eZine again, it's just that you have one primary star you follow, it's that much easier to find your way.
Resource Box: Jeff Mulligan has an MBA and 20+ years of marketing experience as an ad agency Senior VP and VP Marketing for two software companies. Jeff owns CBmall, a site that provides 15 different ways for ClickBank affiliates to earn income on thousands of ClickBank InfoProducts. http://www.blastincome/cbmall

Don't Pay a Fortune to Promote your Website

by Jeff Wendland

If you are new to internet marketing, it can be a little intimidating to figure out the best way to promote your website with out spending a fortune. There is hope. It is not necessary to by into adwords or to pay for advertising banners on a host of websites to generate traffic to your site.



A very easy way to get your websites name out there is to use as many forums as you can. Be sure they are relevant to your website or to internet marketing though. These forums will be a great crash course for you. You should start by reading several of the posts and the stickys to pick up the culture of the particular forum you are on. After familiarizing yourself, you can begin to make posts.



Don’t start out by just plugging your site. Join into conversations and you can even start your own threads with your own questions. Joining in these chats will be a good way to get your website’s link in front of some eyes. Not by spamming your link in every message, but by posting your link in your signature box.



That way, with every post you can simply write about relevant topic to that thread and your links will show up in your signature box. This is a great way to drive some traffic to your site and to get an education by participating in the forums. There are thousands of forums out there too so if you work this, you will be driving some traffic to your site with out spending any money on advertising.



Another great way to get your site out there is by submitting your link, title and description to web directories. While some directories do require a fee or a reciprocal link, there are thousands of directories that provide free one way links. Submitting your website to directories will help you in two ways. One is when ever someone uses a directory for a search, they will find a link to your site. This really is a great way to drive traffic as not everyone wants to use the giant search engines for their searches. The second benefit of submitting to directories is that it provides links to your site which will help your search engine ranking. The higher your search engine ranking, the more traffic will come to your site. The majority of people do find their websites by submitting a search term to a search engine like Google or Yahoo. If you can get your website to the top page or two of these search engines you will be getting tons for free traffic with these organic search results.



My favorite way to generate traffic and links to your website is by submitting articles to article directories. Odds are good that you know a great deal about the theme and topic of your website, otherwise you probably would not have made the site.



This knowledge can make you an expert on this topic. You can write articles from 500-1500 words on any theme related to your site and submit them to the many free article directories on the net. This will work somewhat like the web directories except you are writing an article. At the end of your article, you will put a link to your website in a resource box.



Submitting your articles will help to bring traffic to your site in many ways. First, anyone who visits the article directory and reads your article is likely to follow the link to your site. Second, many other websites submit to an RSS feed which stands for really small syndication.



These RSS feeds will be picked up by other websites and posted as content, each with your resource box and a link to your website. This is yet another way to drive more traffic to your site. Submitting articles to article directories will also greatly improve your search engine ranking which will help to bring traffic to your site from people doing searches much like it does with the web directories.



Articles are even more effective then web directories because the article will be loaded with keywords that people search for with the link to your site being at the end of the article.



If you keep things simple and follow these steps, you will bring traffic to your site. It may take some time and work, but you will not have to pay a penny to advertisers. Like anything worth having, this will take some work, but the results for your website are worth it. So, what are you waiting for, get out there and start promoting your website today!
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