One social networking site I belong to, Bloghology, has enabled the facility for every blog post within it’s network to be included in it’s newsletter.  Bloghology, the brainchild of Mert Erkal, is another example of network marketing, but the key here is that it is a network connecting  bloggers to  Internet marketers/Entrepreneurs. It is a network with a purpose,  connecting bloggers to bloggers, as well as Internet marketers/entrepreneurs to bloggers.

Mert is a pro blogger, who gave his day job up last year to become a full time blogger, now self employed on the internet. Joining Bloghology is free, and you can sign up by clicking the banner above

             Reasons for optimism in internet marketing during 2009.

If you are looking for bright spots in the economy, it’s wise to look for developing trends. According to eMarketer reports, there are a number of online trends developing, and likely to continue in 2009, as people either look for ways online to supplement their income, or set up their online business….

Consumers Are Increasingly Turning To The Internet As A Way To Save Money.

As I highlighted in a previous post, as retailers are struggling across the globe, more people are preferring the ease and convenience of online shopping.

Shoppers Are Making More Purchases Based on Recommendations Received Through Social Media Sites.

Social networking is the perfect way to develop your online presence, and continue to cultivate lasting relationships with your potential customers. It’s also great for referrals to your website, to increase your exposure to the web. If you don’t offer products directly for sale, you can promote other peoples products by affiliate programmes.

A Typical Internet User Is Spending 20% MORE Time Each Day Reading Blogs.

As with social media, blogging is GREAT for establishing your reputation online, for building relationships with your market, for creating new content for your site, and can even help you get a TOP ranking in the search engines (which in turn can generate up to 7 TIMES more sales).

Web Surfers Are Spending 46% MORE Time Watching Online Videos.

You can use video in your salescopy in order to more effectively sell your product… you can use it for SEO purposes and traffic generation (Google LOVES video!)… to create informative or educational videos for your niche… and to spread the word about your business.

You can still make serious money online despite the economic downturn, just as long as you focus your efforts on a few key areas. Soon I will focus on specific information products designed to help us in our quest towards financial independence from our blogs

I opened a weekly video page on this site, each week will feature a new video, what’s hot in the world of internet. This weeks video  features affiliate marketing

Soon I will publish information products that I am promoting. I have many e-books to give away for those who choose to take up any offer I promote.

If you research any article on internet marketing, you will quickly discover the use of keywords in tags and headlines is the single most important element in any online business strategy.

Here is a free tool which allows you to discover top targeted keywords for niche marketing.You can use it to generate a huge keyword list and save it in excel wordsheet in seconds.

Like other webmaster tools I am offering on this site, it’s freeware programme, try it and see if you like it as much as I do

                                                  Download.

 Christmas shopping has defied expectations in 2008…My local butcher in the high street has a sign up that says sold out-The first time in over 20 years of dealing with him that I’ve known that happen! Also Waitrose is said to have made sales up 40% on previous year. But is this the high street’s last fling, or the start of a recovery…

 Consensus of opinion is that people have been determined to enjoy themselves this Christmas, despite all the doom and gloom heaped on us by the media and the financial crisis. After all, there’s only so much bad news we can take it at any one time! Even the financial markets are enjoying a rally, focusing on the widespread fiscal policies designed to drag us from the mire.

 And here is another goal…According to ECommerce Journal E-Commerce is expected to grow by 100% this year.  In UK, Woolworths retail stores have gone into liquidation, after over a century of trading, and retail outlets across the country are in decline. I think in many cases, they have only themselves to blame. The sale of third rate goods at not cheap prices, with less than helpful staff in stores has only encouraged more people to look at the internet for shopping.

I mention Waitrose…Like many other stores, examples, Marks and Spencer, Waitrose has online shopping facility. Which has to always be backed with an efficient returns system.

In a Marks and Spencer store recently I noted that to try on clothes one had to walk across to the other side of the store to try things on. With no staff to answer any questions, only a surly checkout operator. Is that likely to encourage people to shop in the store? Or more likely to do what I did, and walk OUT of the store, get online, and order the items there!

Another department store, Selfridges, sell food to take away. Yet they charge in addition to  eat in store, yet offer nowhere to do so! So if you question it with the staff, all you get is “it’s a takeaway” This also happened to me while “shopping” there recently.

Yet retailers continue to blame the economy, or the government,  the credit crunch, even look for blame if there is an “R” in the month, for their failings.

It’s not rocket science to work out that more thought is being put into online selling than selling in stores. Or that more people are monetizing websites, such as this one, (for example) attracting advertisements, affiliate programmes and sponsorships, even paid posting.  The digital revolution is here to stay, and the invitation is there for us to join it.

And the best way to join it is by being a part of it.

                                                        eNewsletter Manager

If you want to produce your own ezine, here is a program that is aimed at being the complete newsletter management solution, from the management of the opt-in and opt-out submissions of subscribers, to the sending of the newsletter itself, all with the mere need of just one POP and SMTP mail accounts.

An ezine  allows you to send personalized messages and automatically manage subscriber requests. It’s the internet equivelent of magazine, and great for sending out your own e-mail lists!

                                                       Download

This programme, like all others I will be offering in this Webmaster Tools series, is a freeware download, and one I personally tested.

I wish you all a happy, healthy new year!

I know times are hard, economically, but here is a quick reason for optimism…On line shopping and e-commerce continue to grow at a furious pace, as the retail sector in the high street declines. The point being, everything in finance is cyclical. As one sector goes pear shaped, another gradually evolves into positive. So, are we going to react to the current financial crisis, or Act on it? The latter meaning to position ourselves so as to note trends and take advantage of them…

I will continue t work towards monetizing my websites, and charting my progress. Talking of which, the new year being a good place to take stock, since this site launched three months ago my new page rank from google is PR 2, Alexa rank 808,000, and technorati rank coming down slowly, may not be as slow as all that IF technorati would update their stats once in a while

So am I satisfied? Of course not, that only invites complacency. But I feel I should share any progress made with you, because, as I learn, I can pass on my experiences

 Merry Christmas to you all

 It’s been a hard year for many of us in these troubled economic times…My festive wish is for whoever is reading this is that you can spend  peaceful time with those people you love and cherish the most. 

Whichever way you look at life, it all boils down to one thing…How we spend our time.  Whatever the state of our bank balance, material possessions, spending quality time depends on doing the things we love, with people we love.  This Christmas, and always, I wish peace to the world.

Thanks to Graylight of flickr for the image.

A further point regarding search engine traffic…Are you getting the right kind of traffic to your site? Or does your site confuse the search engines?

  It’s one thing to  get people to your site through the use of keywords, but if you are too broad in your terminology those who found your site will only leave again if your keyword is not on the topic they want.

It’s always a good thing to check your site statistics, and look for how much traffic you are getting from search engines. Search traffic is only of any use if it is targeted towards your subject, so if your blog topic is marketing and in a post you write a word relating to rainfall, it’s no good adding “rainfall” as a tag into your post, because what good is it if you get people to your site interested in meteorology? Chances are, they will not be happy, and will not return. ..

Keywords and  Taglines

Use of tags is key here. When choosing keywords remember that the more broad ranging you are, the more words you are offering the search engines, BUT, the more off topic you are becoming. Keep tags selected, and bear in mind popular search terms also means more competition, and in the early stages of your site, the lower you will rank in the search engine listings.

Opposite end of the scale, type in a word that is used only rarely, and you will rank far higher…But is that word relevant to your post? Feel free to experiment to create the happy medium

Adsense Tactics

An easy way to start monetising your website is to make use of google Adsense programme. I will assume most people are familiar with what the programme is and how it works, if not there are many guides, the most useful being google itself.

However, many feel Adsense has had it’s day in the sun, and people these days don’t bother to click on ads. One drawback is blogs receiving traffic from other blogs. No matter how popular a blog is, chances are most of their income comes from either membership or affiliate products. Adsense itself has an affiliate programme. But here I’m giving an idea for an Adsense tactic. It is largely dependant on SEO, and attracting other website traffic (not just blog traffic)

                                            Attract Search Engine Traffic

A lot depends on what your website offers it’s readers. Example; My guitar site. This is my top site for search engine traffic. This because it is more popular, and is focused on it’s subject. I get a lot of traffic from people looking for free downloads of guitar scores.

 Although I offer some music scores, I only upload my own or copyright free. Remember though, if people come to your site and get the downloads they want, why click on ads taking them to another site? Far more likely if they do NOT get what they want at your site they will click on the ads on your page, IF you attract targeted ads.

A lot of search engine traffic is potential buyers or looking for free downloads. If your site attracts buyers for products, these are the people most likely to click on ads.

However, I do not like cluttering up my site with ads all over the site. Remember you can place ads on selected posts, or on single posts, the latter by going to theme editor in wordpress, and clicking on single.php to place the ad code in. Or simply edit a post already published, and use html format and add the code to the post where you want the ads to appear.

So be selective with website ads, work out a strategy and try it over a few months to see how it goes. Remember, Rome was not built in a day…But some of it’s foundations were dug