Various Link Building Method
November 21, 2008
andy tao asked:
Once you have made your website it’s time to get it successful and making money. The only way to make money is to get people visiting it, the more people you can get – the more potential it has. There are many ways that you can boost your search engine ranking increasing your traffic. You have to build as many quality back links as possible which in turn raise your rank in the major search engines.
There are various ways of doing this, each having advantages over the other. One way is to submit your website to directories, this is where you pick a top level category and include your website and description in there. This can be very useful as a popular directory can provide you with targeted traffic. Directories often come in three forms, free non reciprocal (you can submit it for free with out needing to link back to them), free reciprocal (you can submit your link for free but you will have to have a link from your site to the directory in order to get accepted) or paid directory (self explanatory, you have to pay either per month/year/permanent in order to get your site listed).
Another way is to contact similar sites in your niche asking for a link exchange which can also provide you with targeted traffic from time to time. For example if you have a site selling baby cots, contact sites that sell baby clothes, toys etc and ask to trade links as you can also provide them with traffic. Make sure you trade with the right sites that will actually give you a benefit as too many outgoing links can have a negative effect on your site.
You can write articles based on your niche that people will find interesting and submit them to article directories, make sure you embed a link back to your site so that if people use them it will provide a back link unless they go to the trouble of taking it out.
A new method that is becoming popular is to sponsor wordpress themes, once someone has made a theme and got sponsors they will submit it to various theme sites where people can download them for free and use with their blog. If they do that they will have a link pointing to your site. Only pick ones that you think will be downloaded multiple times in order to get the best results.
Once you have made your website it’s time to get it successful and making money. The only way to make money is to get people visiting it, the more people you can get – the more potential it has. There are many ways that you can boost your search engine ranking increasing your traffic. You have to build as many quality back links as possible which in turn raise your rank in the major search engines.
There are various ways of doing this, each having advantages over the other. One way is to submit your website to directories, this is where you pick a top level category and include your website and description in there. This can be very useful as a popular directory can provide you with targeted traffic. Directories often come in three forms, free non reciprocal (you can submit it for free with out needing to link back to them), free reciprocal (you can submit your link for free but you will have to have a link from your site to the directory in order to get accepted) or paid directory (self explanatory, you have to pay either per month/year/permanent in order to get your site listed).
Another way is to contact similar sites in your niche asking for a link exchange which can also provide you with targeted traffic from time to time. For example if you have a site selling baby cots, contact sites that sell baby clothes, toys etc and ask to trade links as you can also provide them with traffic. Make sure you trade with the right sites that will actually give you a benefit as too many outgoing links can have a negative effect on your site.
You can write articles based on your niche that people will find interesting and submit them to article directories, make sure you embed a link back to your site so that if people use them it will provide a back link unless they go to the trouble of taking it out.
A new method that is becoming popular is to sponsor wordpress themes, once someone has made a theme and got sponsors they will submit it to various theme sites where people can download them for free and use with their blog. If they do that they will have a link pointing to your site. Only pick ones that you think will be downloaded multiple times in order to get the best results.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Top 10 Link Building Strategies
November 21, 2008
Oudam Em asked:
This list of top 10 strategies for building links is based on my own experience of building links to my sites throughout the years. It is important to keep in mind that when it comes to SEO, nothing is set in stone. SEO is a cat-and-mouse game, so I will revise this list from time to time as the field continues to evolve.
Please note that the order in which these methods are listed do not necessarily reflect their order of effectiveness. Some methods may work better than others for certain sites.
1. Submit to web directories
Submitting to web directories is a vital part of every successful link building campaign. Apart from driving traffic to your website through direct referrals, web directories provide static, one-way links to your site, boosting your link popularity and improving your rankings on the major search engines like Google and Yahoo.
It is important to note that not all directory listings are equal. Listings from trusted, established directories like Yahoo! and DMOZ are more valuable than those from the thousands of others on the net. All else being equal, a link from a directory focused on your niche is worth more than one from a general directories.
Submit to both free and paid directories. Free directories provide one-way links to your site with no strings attached, but they can take forever to review your link. Paid listings can be a good investment if the fees are reasonable and the pages on which your link will reside have decent PRs. Your sites will be listed with fewer competing links on paid directories.
2. Write articles and press releases
Submitting your article to directories is a highly effective way to build one-way links to your site. First, you write a thoughtful and informative article on an topic in your area of expertise. Then you submit it to article directories to be read by the general public and reprinted on other web sites. Appended to the end of your article is a resource box which contain links to your site and email address.
While there are hundreds or even thousands of article directories on the web, you should focus on writing a high quality article and submitting to a handful of the more popular ones. Having your article published on a top directory can be worth more than a hundred less reputable ones. If you write something that people find useful, they may pick it up and reprint it on their blogs, newsletters, etc. This is how a quality article propagates virally in cyberspace– it virtually distributes itself without your having to manually submit to a thousand article directories.
3. Exchange links with related sites
Online forums like Digitalpoint are an excellent place to find reciprocal linking partners. Avoid sending out spammy e-mail solicitations like those generated by many SEO software programs. I get dozens of these everyday.
4. Make use of social bookmarking sites
Social bookmarking sites help bring together internet users from every corner of the world into a virtual global village. Submitting content to sites like Digg.com, YouTube.com and Del.icio.us can bring lots of visitors in a hurry.
It is important to understand that sites like Digg and YouTube are not necessarily shock sites. Although there is some publicity to be gained from the shock value of an article or video, one must not resort to tasteless and offensive materials to gain attention. There is only so much value in the attention gotten by being the village idiot.
5. Buy text links on other sites
Although link buying is somewhat an unnatural way to build links, it may be the only way to increase your link popularity if your site is not unique or interesting enough to get people to link to you on their own. Most commercial sites fall into this category.
You should buy links in a way that simulates natural linking as much as possible. Buy text links from sites that are related to yours. Vary anchor texts and descriptions. Buy links from internal as well as home pages. Buy links from both high- and low-PR sites (which can be gotten at a bargain prices).
6. Participate in online forums
Sharing knowledge can be a very powerful way to establish your online presence and credibility. If you check your backlinks on search engines like Google and Yahoo!, you may notice that a number of them come from the signatures of forum posts, that is, if you post in forums. Most forums allow signature links. I don’t participate in forums that don’t as allowing them is the least the forums can do to compensate me for contributing to their contents.
7. Write testimonials and reviews.
Writing a glowing review about a product or service and submitting to your vendor or service provider can give you a very high quality link back to your site. But this strategy can prove time-consuming as many vendors publish only a handful of testimonials from their customers. Don’t waste your time by sending a testimonial to a vendor who does not have a “Testimonials” page on their site. When submitting a review or testimonial, don’t forget to mention to your vendor that they should be feel free to publish your comments on their site (along with a link to your site).
8. Ask vendors and clients to link to your site.
I once bought a $350 script package and asked my vendor if they could feature my site as site made with their script. They obliged and gave me a PR7 text link from their site. Since the link is worth at least $40 a month, my initial investement for the script has paid for itself many times over. Besides the SEO benefits, it is responsible for thousands of visitors to my site a month through direct clicks. The moral of the story: don’t be afraid to ask. The worse that could happen is that they say “no”.
9. Blogging
Setting up a blog is a no-brainer. Even if you’ve no web designing experience whatsoever, you have a blog up and running in no time. Blogs allows for a more informal setting to get your words across. So, it’s much easier to write a blog entry than an article to submit to article directories. Use your blog to share knowlege, voice opinions, connect with others with similar interests, and of course, to link to your other sites.
Avoid spamming blog networks like Blogger and MySpace. These spam blogs (“splogs”) are a waste of time as they will not get much attention from people and will yield little, if any, SEO benefits. Write about something you know and have a genuine interest in. Focus on quality rather than quantity.
10. Content is king.
Yes, content is still king. In fact, content is by far the most important of the ten strategies I’ve mentioned. Having fresh, unique, engaging content is an excellent way to attract natural linking from other sites. This is the type of links that search engines like.
You may have heard of the buzz phrase, link-baiting, that is being tossed around in the SEO community nowadays. The idea is to get others to link to you voluntarily, perhaps by causing some type of sensation or controversy on YouTube, Digg, the message boards, or whatever. Link-baiting, in my opinion, is no more than a new play on the old “content is king” mantra.
This list of top 10 strategies for building links is based on my own experience of building links to my sites throughout the years. It is important to keep in mind that when it comes to SEO, nothing is set in stone. SEO is a cat-and-mouse game, so I will revise this list from time to time as the field continues to evolve.
Please note that the order in which these methods are listed do not necessarily reflect their order of effectiveness. Some methods may work better than others for certain sites.
1. Submit to web directories
Submitting to web directories is a vital part of every successful link building campaign. Apart from driving traffic to your website through direct referrals, web directories provide static, one-way links to your site, boosting your link popularity and improving your rankings on the major search engines like Google and Yahoo.
It is important to note that not all directory listings are equal. Listings from trusted, established directories like Yahoo! and DMOZ are more valuable than those from the thousands of others on the net. All else being equal, a link from a directory focused on your niche is worth more than one from a general directories.
Submit to both free and paid directories. Free directories provide one-way links to your site with no strings attached, but they can take forever to review your link. Paid listings can be a good investment if the fees are reasonable and the pages on which your link will reside have decent PRs. Your sites will be listed with fewer competing links on paid directories.
2. Write articles and press releases
Submitting your article to directories is a highly effective way to build one-way links to your site. First, you write a thoughtful and informative article on an topic in your area of expertise. Then you submit it to article directories to be read by the general public and reprinted on other web sites. Appended to the end of your article is a resource box which contain links to your site and email address.
While there are hundreds or even thousands of article directories on the web, you should focus on writing a high quality article and submitting to a handful of the more popular ones. Having your article published on a top directory can be worth more than a hundred less reputable ones. If you write something that people find useful, they may pick it up and reprint it on their blogs, newsletters, etc. This is how a quality article propagates virally in cyberspace– it virtually distributes itself without your having to manually submit to a thousand article directories.
3. Exchange links with related sites
Online forums like Digitalpoint are an excellent place to find reciprocal linking partners. Avoid sending out spammy e-mail solicitations like those generated by many SEO software programs. I get dozens of these everyday.
4. Make use of social bookmarking sites
Social bookmarking sites help bring together internet users from every corner of the world into a virtual global village. Submitting content to sites like Digg.com, YouTube.com and Del.icio.us can bring lots of visitors in a hurry.
It is important to understand that sites like Digg and YouTube are not necessarily shock sites. Although there is some publicity to be gained from the shock value of an article or video, one must not resort to tasteless and offensive materials to gain attention. There is only so much value in the attention gotten by being the village idiot.
5. Buy text links on other sites
Although link buying is somewhat an unnatural way to build links, it may be the only way to increase your link popularity if your site is not unique or interesting enough to get people to link to you on their own. Most commercial sites fall into this category.
You should buy links in a way that simulates natural linking as much as possible. Buy text links from sites that are related to yours. Vary anchor texts and descriptions. Buy links from internal as well as home pages. Buy links from both high- and low-PR sites (which can be gotten at a bargain prices).
6. Participate in online forums
Sharing knowledge can be a very powerful way to establish your online presence and credibility. If you check your backlinks on search engines like Google and Yahoo!, you may notice that a number of them come from the signatures of forum posts, that is, if you post in forums. Most forums allow signature links. I don’t participate in forums that don’t as allowing them is the least the forums can do to compensate me for contributing to their contents.
7. Write testimonials and reviews.
Writing a glowing review about a product or service and submitting to your vendor or service provider can give you a very high quality link back to your site. But this strategy can prove time-consuming as many vendors publish only a handful of testimonials from their customers. Don’t waste your time by sending a testimonial to a vendor who does not have a “Testimonials” page on their site. When submitting a review or testimonial, don’t forget to mention to your vendor that they should be feel free to publish your comments on their site (along with a link to your site).
8. Ask vendors and clients to link to your site.
I once bought a $350 script package and asked my vendor if they could feature my site as site made with their script. They obliged and gave me a PR7 text link from their site. Since the link is worth at least $40 a month, my initial investement for the script has paid for itself many times over. Besides the SEO benefits, it is responsible for thousands of visitors to my site a month through direct clicks. The moral of the story: don’t be afraid to ask. The worse that could happen is that they say “no”.
9. Blogging
Setting up a blog is a no-brainer. Even if you’ve no web designing experience whatsoever, you have a blog up and running in no time. Blogs allows for a more informal setting to get your words across. So, it’s much easier to write a blog entry than an article to submit to article directories. Use your blog to share knowlege, voice opinions, connect with others with similar interests, and of course, to link to your other sites.
Avoid spamming blog networks like Blogger and MySpace. These spam blogs (“splogs”) are a waste of time as they will not get much attention from people and will yield little, if any, SEO benefits. Write about something you know and have a genuine interest in. Focus on quality rather than quantity.
10. Content is king.
Yes, content is still king. In fact, content is by far the most important of the ten strategies I’ve mentioned. Having fresh, unique, engaging content is an excellent way to attract natural linking from other sites. This is the type of links that search engines like.
You may have heard of the buzz phrase, link-baiting, that is being tossed around in the SEO community nowadays. The idea is to get others to link to you voluntarily, perhaps by causing some type of sensation or controversy on YouTube, Digg, the message boards, or whatever. Link-baiting, in my opinion, is no more than a new play on the old “content is king” mantra.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tips for the Successful Link Building
November 21, 2008
Robert Toth asked:
At first I want to tell you something about link building basics. Link building is about getting inbound links to your website /link popularity building/ and it is one of the most important aspects when evaluating the quality of a website. Our intention is always to get more visibility and traffic to our website through these links. It is a part offpage search engine optimization /SEO/ and you have to do it, when onpage optimization is done correctly.
With link building you will improve your link popularity and that is important because every search engine /Google, MSN, Yahoo …/ now consider them as a part of their ranking algorithms. It is inevitable part for achievement TOP 10 position in search engines and for the good Google Page Rank as well.
For those who don’t now what the page rank is, here’s the explanation. Google is measuring the importance of the websites with the scale for ranking called pagerank /it is from 1-10/. When you install the Google bar, there you see the pagerank of your website, the higher is the better.
But now, let’s start with link building process. We know 2 types of link building in term of linking:
1. One-way link building
2. Reciprocal link building
The first one gives more importance but it’s harder to get. Here are some simple but effective tips.
1. Getting one-way link is not so easy, because your website must provide some useful and quality information for your visitors so they will link to your site without asking them. Be sure to always create on your website an important page and name it “Links to us”. It helps your visitors to copy and paste the HTML code to their websites; you can also create a small banner ad. If your information on your well designed website is interesting, useful and up-to-date people will certainly link to you without asking. These sort of inbound links are natural and valuable, but this is not the only method to get one-way links. Here is the next:
A, Submitting to the popular and niche directories /the most important free directory is DMOZ.org and paid Yahoo directory/.
Find for your website suitable directories and pages accepting your site. Put into Google, Yahoo and MSN the following word and keyword combination:
“add url” “your keyword” “no backlink required” ,
“submit url” “your keyword” “no backlink required” ,
“submit link” “your keyword” “no backlink required”
By typing these queries to Google you will directly find thousands of one-way links.
B, Submit your website to the article directories
Write an interesting article about your business or interests, but never trade in your article. Try to provide interesting information. If you don’t have time write or you don’t know how to do it you can hire some freelance writer who will do it for few bucks.
Search for article directories, simply type a query to Google:
“submit your article”,
“submit article”,
“add your article”,
“add article”
With these queries you will find hundreds of free article directory sites!
Don’t forget to promote your articles and website at digg.com, del.icio.us, technorati.com, furl.net, rawsugar.com, simpy.com, shadows.com, blinklist.com, my.yahoo.com, google.com/reader, my.msn.com, bloglines.com/help/share.
C, Submit your website to the forum sites
Another way to generate one way links is by participating in forum debates. There is also the possibility to leave your signature and URL. Many forums allow you to register, add a relevant comment or thread and sign your comment with a website. Some forums are so popular and visited that search engines visit them often and can generate a free traffic for you.
D, Leave a comment on other blog sites.
Search for the blog sites related to yours where you can leave a comment.
Type a query to Google:
“Leave a comment” intitle:”your keyword”
“Leave a response” intitle:”your keyword”
“Leave a comment” “your keyword”
“Leave a response” “your keyword”
Always read the corresponding article /blog/, make only on-topic and useful comment, but be careful not to spam.
If you have a blog site, be sure to submit it to blog directories.
E. Press release distribution
Next possibility to get one-way links and visibility is to submit a press release about your site to PRWeb, PRLeap. These sites distribute press releases to major news outlets and syndicates.
F, Email newsletter directory submission
Find email newsletter directories you can get the value from advertising in the newsletter and then benefit from the link in the website archive.
Some newsletter directories:
Ezine-Universe.com, Zinos.com, BestEzines.com, InfoBot.net, LifestylesPub.com, …
G, Buy one-way links
You can also buy links from high ranking sites. It can bring you some traffic and increase your page rank but have to pay for linking back from $10 – $200 monthly depending of the pagerank and position of your link on the website. Quality text links ads you can get from textlinkbrokers.com
There are lots of link brokers out there waiting to sell you a link from a high ranking site. These may have value but I like to look for well established, relevant newsletters that sell ads AND archive past issues on their website
H. Beware of Link Farms you may often heard about getting thousands links but it is not effective and that’s not the way to go.
2. Reciprocal Link Building
The easier way to getting links is asking website owners or webmasters for link back to your website for their link. Always put their link to your website before you asking for a links exchange. It’s harder to say no when you link them back.
To find your competitors backlinks in Goggle, MSN and Yahoo type the following:
Link:www.yourcompetitorwebsite.com try to get backlinks from these sites
Let’s see how to find another link partners in search engines:
“add url” “your keyword”
“submit url” “your keyword”
“submit link” “your keyword”
“your keyword” “link exchange”
Quality reciprocal links you can find by typing the previously mentioned queries in directory.yahoo.com and dmoz.org.
Link popularity building is not an overnight process; it has to be doing properly, continuously, day by day or week by week. You may use some link building software, but when you build links always vary the link building techniques and after 3 6 months you will see how your link popularity and traffic are increasing. You can check your link popularity at http://searchengineoptimization-submission.com/link_populariry.php
At first I want to tell you something about link building basics. Link building is about getting inbound links to your website /link popularity building/ and it is one of the most important aspects when evaluating the quality of a website. Our intention is always to get more visibility and traffic to our website through these links. It is a part offpage search engine optimization /SEO/ and you have to do it, when onpage optimization is done correctly.
With link building you will improve your link popularity and that is important because every search engine /Google, MSN, Yahoo …/ now consider them as a part of their ranking algorithms. It is inevitable part for achievement TOP 10 position in search engines and for the good Google Page Rank as well.
For those who don’t now what the page rank is, here’s the explanation. Google is measuring the importance of the websites with the scale for ranking called pagerank /it is from 1-10/. When you install the Google bar, there you see the pagerank of your website, the higher is the better.
But now, let’s start with link building process. We know 2 types of link building in term of linking:
1. One-way link building
2. Reciprocal link building
The first one gives more importance but it’s harder to get. Here are some simple but effective tips.
1. Getting one-way link is not so easy, because your website must provide some useful and quality information for your visitors so they will link to your site without asking them. Be sure to always create on your website an important page and name it “Links to us”. It helps your visitors to copy and paste the HTML code to their websites; you can also create a small banner ad. If your information on your well designed website is interesting, useful and up-to-date people will certainly link to you without asking. These sort of inbound links are natural and valuable, but this is not the only method to get one-way links. Here is the next:
A, Submitting to the popular and niche directories /the most important free directory is DMOZ.org and paid Yahoo directory/.
Find for your website suitable directories and pages accepting your site. Put into Google, Yahoo and MSN the following word and keyword combination:
“add url” “your keyword” “no backlink required” ,
“submit url” “your keyword” “no backlink required” ,
“submit link” “your keyword” “no backlink required”
By typing these queries to Google you will directly find thousands of one-way links.
B, Submit your website to the article directories
Write an interesting article about your business or interests, but never trade in your article. Try to provide interesting information. If you don’t have time write or you don’t know how to do it you can hire some freelance writer who will do it for few bucks.
Search for article directories, simply type a query to Google:
“submit your article”,
“submit article”,
“add your article”,
“add article”
With these queries you will find hundreds of free article directory sites!
Don’t forget to promote your articles and website at digg.com, del.icio.us, technorati.com, furl.net, rawsugar.com, simpy.com, shadows.com, blinklist.com, my.yahoo.com, google.com/reader, my.msn.com, bloglines.com/help/share.
C, Submit your website to the forum sites
Another way to generate one way links is by participating in forum debates. There is also the possibility to leave your signature and URL. Many forums allow you to register, add a relevant comment or thread and sign your comment with a website. Some forums are so popular and visited that search engines visit them often and can generate a free traffic for you.
D, Leave a comment on other blog sites.
Search for the blog sites related to yours where you can leave a comment.
Type a query to Google:
“Leave a comment” intitle:”your keyword”
“Leave a response” intitle:”your keyword”
“Leave a comment” “your keyword”
“Leave a response” “your keyword”
Always read the corresponding article /blog/, make only on-topic and useful comment, but be careful not to spam.
If you have a blog site, be sure to submit it to blog directories.
E. Press release distribution
Next possibility to get one-way links and visibility is to submit a press release about your site to PRWeb, PRLeap. These sites distribute press releases to major news outlets and syndicates.
F, Email newsletter directory submission
Find email newsletter directories you can get the value from advertising in the newsletter and then benefit from the link in the website archive.
Some newsletter directories:
Ezine-Universe.com, Zinos.com, BestEzines.com, InfoBot.net, LifestylesPub.com, …
G, Buy one-way links
You can also buy links from high ranking sites. It can bring you some traffic and increase your page rank but have to pay for linking back from $10 – $200 monthly depending of the pagerank and position of your link on the website. Quality text links ads you can get from textlinkbrokers.com
There are lots of link brokers out there waiting to sell you a link from a high ranking site. These may have value but I like to look for well established, relevant newsletters that sell ads AND archive past issues on their website
H. Beware of Link Farms you may often heard about getting thousands links but it is not effective and that’s not the way to go.
2. Reciprocal Link Building
The easier way to getting links is asking website owners or webmasters for link back to your website for their link. Always put their link to your website before you asking for a links exchange. It’s harder to say no when you link them back.
To find your competitors backlinks in Goggle, MSN and Yahoo type the following:
Link:www.yourcompetitorwebsite.com try to get backlinks from these sites
Let’s see how to find another link partners in search engines:
“add url” “your keyword”
“submit url” “your keyword”
“submit link” “your keyword”
“your keyword” “link exchange”
Quality reciprocal links you can find by typing the previously mentioned queries in directory.yahoo.com and dmoz.org.
Link popularity building is not an overnight process; it has to be doing properly, continuously, day by day or week by week. You may use some link building software, but when you build links always vary the link building techniques and after 3 6 months you will see how your link popularity and traffic are increasing. You can check your link popularity at http://searchengineoptimization-submission.com/link_populariry.php
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Social Networking for Network Marketers: the New Era
January 27, 2008
Darren Olander asked:
Can you guess what the big buzz is lately for network marketers? Social Networking! I will explain why but let’s take a quick look at how it started. At first there was MySpace and Facebook, two huge social networking giants. Network Marketers have joined them in order to market their opportunities through these sites. It is a great way for that extra free exposure even though the members of the networks aren’t entirely targeted.
However, the value of marketing on Myspace and Facebook is quickly dropping. This is due to the massive release of new and niche focused social networks. The fact is that this year alone I have seen an increasing number of professional social networks geared towards network marketers launching and becoming increasingly popular. To name a few: TalkMoola.com, Zenzuu, Friendswin, Yuwie, and Wowzza. A couple older ones are DirectMatches, AdLandPro, and even Ryze. Honestly I wouldn’t even be the least bit surprised to see a few more start-up this year – that is how much it is catching on! It is also obvious why they do become so popular among network marketers, because there is no better advertising than targeted advertising. Exposing your business opportunity, system, or product to other network marketers is simply the most effective thing to do. Once a network marketer joins you they already have had their foot in the door and are somewhat knowledgeable about the industry and can greatly help your business. However if a random person from MySpace sees and joins your business they are not nearly as valuable to you because they most likely have no idea what they are doing or what network marketing is even about.
So when network marketers are invited with the ability to join a social network full of network marketers it is almost a no-brainer. Just to clarify why I said “almost”… It is because not all network marketers have caught on to the power of social networking yet or how to properly use social networking to explode their businesses. But the ability to further expose themselves and their business to other like-minded people is extremely valuable and profitable for most. The old way of network marketing is out, and I see the future holding tight to social marketing through professional social networks. Even so, many of these new business social networks are offering incentives for those who join. These range from revenue sharing, direct affiliate commissions, and various MLM pay plans. Through this supporting these new business social networks they will experience the increased awareness and exposure that they deserve.
All professional social networks, however, are not created equal. Here are a few things you need to look out for when deciding which ones you will utilize in exposing yourself and your opportunities.
1) Somewhat Targeted or Extremely Targeted?
When looking over your social networks find out if the people involved in the social network are the type of people who would be interested in what you have to offer, or are like-minded to you. This means that if you are a network marketer looking to provide an opportunity to other network marketers then the people involved in the social network should be strictly network marketers. Does the social network you are considering include members looking for a date or love? If the social network includes this or niches totally unrelated to you then this weakens the potential of that network for you. However, if the social network is only network marketers or business opportunity seekers then it is an incredible source for you.
2) Are there limitations on contacting your friends in bulk?
Increasing your friends or contact list on social networks is the one major thing you must do in order to maximize your exposure and reach. This means accepting friend invitations from those within the social network and also seeking out other like-minded to add to your network of friends. The larger your list of friends the more active you will appear to be and the more people will take heart to what you have to say. It also means more people who you can send messages to through the social network. Some social networks limit the amount of people you are able to send a message to at once. Let’s say you have 200 friends but you are limited to sending to only 30 people per message and you can only send one bulk message per day. Well this is a very negative restriction and even more so if you have a much larger network of friends. On the other hand, some social networks will let you add unlimited friends and you can send them a bulletin or message to all your friends at once anytime with ease. This is what you should be looking for because whether you have 100 friends, 1,000 or even 10,000 you can send them all a message just as easily as if you were sending it to one. This means potentially huge exposure for you. If you want you can even consider it like an instant contact list of targeted prospects! However, I do warn about sending too much unwanted messages to your friends, you should try to connect with them and send them as much quality information as you can instead and then lightly introduce what you have to offer. If you consistently send what they would consider as spam messages they will just block you or remove you from their friends’ network, so using the social network properly is important.
3) Are the members free, paid, or both?
Another factor is the true quality of the member base. If the membership is mostly free then they are less likely to be purchase ready. However, if the membership is all paid and everyone is used to paying to be a part of the social network then these are the highest quality members you can get in touch with because they will have the money to invest in working with you. Mixed is fine though as this factor is not as important as the first two.
4) How are the other site incentives?
This is the least important but should still be mentioned. Other incentives could be the pay plan such as revenue sharing, affiliate commissions, or some type of matrix structure. It could also be other services provided with your cost of the membership such as training, tools, or other bonuses. Keep in mind, even if they do not offer great incentives but the rest of the above factors are positive I would still be excited to join.
Right now there is not a huge selection of targeted professional social networks but I am positive that the future will hold true for more and more becoming available. Personally I like to take advantage and join any social network because that is extra exposure for me, and any extra exposure is always a good thing. However when choosing to be most active in select networks you may want to consider the above factors. I have created many strong relationships, learned a lot, taught a lot, and profited a lot from those relationships within social networks. You should take at least some advatange of every professional social network available, even if it is just setting up a profile to gain some extra exposure. If they are a niche social network that have like-minded inviduals similar to yourself then you should definitely be more open to actively using that network. The benefits can be enormous.
Can you guess what the big buzz is lately for network marketers? Social Networking! I will explain why but let’s take a quick look at how it started. At first there was MySpace and Facebook, two huge social networking giants. Network Marketers have joined them in order to market their opportunities through these sites. It is a great way for that extra free exposure even though the members of the networks aren’t entirely targeted.
However, the value of marketing on Myspace and Facebook is quickly dropping. This is due to the massive release of new and niche focused social networks. The fact is that this year alone I have seen an increasing number of professional social networks geared towards network marketers launching and becoming increasingly popular. To name a few: TalkMoola.com, Zenzuu, Friendswin, Yuwie, and Wowzza. A couple older ones are DirectMatches, AdLandPro, and even Ryze. Honestly I wouldn’t even be the least bit surprised to see a few more start-up this year – that is how much it is catching on! It is also obvious why they do become so popular among network marketers, because there is no better advertising than targeted advertising. Exposing your business opportunity, system, or product to other network marketers is simply the most effective thing to do. Once a network marketer joins you they already have had their foot in the door and are somewhat knowledgeable about the industry and can greatly help your business. However if a random person from MySpace sees and joins your business they are not nearly as valuable to you because they most likely have no idea what they are doing or what network marketing is even about.
So when network marketers are invited with the ability to join a social network full of network marketers it is almost a no-brainer. Just to clarify why I said “almost”… It is because not all network marketers have caught on to the power of social networking yet or how to properly use social networking to explode their businesses. But the ability to further expose themselves and their business to other like-minded people is extremely valuable and profitable for most. The old way of network marketing is out, and I see the future holding tight to social marketing through professional social networks. Even so, many of these new business social networks are offering incentives for those who join. These range from revenue sharing, direct affiliate commissions, and various MLM pay plans. Through this supporting these new business social networks they will experience the increased awareness and exposure that they deserve.
All professional social networks, however, are not created equal. Here are a few things you need to look out for when deciding which ones you will utilize in exposing yourself and your opportunities.
1) Somewhat Targeted or Extremely Targeted?
When looking over your social networks find out if the people involved in the social network are the type of people who would be interested in what you have to offer, or are like-minded to you. This means that if you are a network marketer looking to provide an opportunity to other network marketers then the people involved in the social network should be strictly network marketers. Does the social network you are considering include members looking for a date or love? If the social network includes this or niches totally unrelated to you then this weakens the potential of that network for you. However, if the social network is only network marketers or business opportunity seekers then it is an incredible source for you.
2) Are there limitations on contacting your friends in bulk?
Increasing your friends or contact list on social networks is the one major thing you must do in order to maximize your exposure and reach. This means accepting friend invitations from those within the social network and also seeking out other like-minded to add to your network of friends. The larger your list of friends the more active you will appear to be and the more people will take heart to what you have to say. It also means more people who you can send messages to through the social network. Some social networks limit the amount of people you are able to send a message to at once. Let’s say you have 200 friends but you are limited to sending to only 30 people per message and you can only send one bulk message per day. Well this is a very negative restriction and even more so if you have a much larger network of friends. On the other hand, some social networks will let you add unlimited friends and you can send them a bulletin or message to all your friends at once anytime with ease. This is what you should be looking for because whether you have 100 friends, 1,000 or even 10,000 you can send them all a message just as easily as if you were sending it to one. This means potentially huge exposure for you. If you want you can even consider it like an instant contact list of targeted prospects! However, I do warn about sending too much unwanted messages to your friends, you should try to connect with them and send them as much quality information as you can instead and then lightly introduce what you have to offer. If you consistently send what they would consider as spam messages they will just block you or remove you from their friends’ network, so using the social network properly is important.
3) Are the members free, paid, or both?
Another factor is the true quality of the member base. If the membership is mostly free then they are less likely to be purchase ready. However, if the membership is all paid and everyone is used to paying to be a part of the social network then these are the highest quality members you can get in touch with because they will have the money to invest in working with you. Mixed is fine though as this factor is not as important as the first two.
4) How are the other site incentives?
This is the least important but should still be mentioned. Other incentives could be the pay plan such as revenue sharing, affiliate commissions, or some type of matrix structure. It could also be other services provided with your cost of the membership such as training, tools, or other bonuses. Keep in mind, even if they do not offer great incentives but the rest of the above factors are positive I would still be excited to join.
Right now there is not a huge selection of targeted professional social networks but I am positive that the future will hold true for more and more becoming available. Personally I like to take advantage and join any social network because that is extra exposure for me, and any extra exposure is always a good thing. However when choosing to be most active in select networks you may want to consider the above factors. I have created many strong relationships, learned a lot, taught a lot, and profited a lot from those relationships within social networks. You should take at least some advatange of every professional social network available, even if it is just setting up a profile to gain some extra exposure. If they are a niche social network that have like-minded inviduals similar to yourself then you should definitely be more open to actively using that network. The benefits can be enormous.
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