• Research your business partners (companies and individuals) carefully

Whether it’s joining a new affiliate network, signing up for a payment processor so you can make sales online, or hiring someone to develop a website or Facebook app for you, doing your due diligence can go a long way. Do some research on the person or company that you’re going to be dealing with. This can be as simple as doing a Google search to see if you can uncover anything about them online that would be negative, such as past disputes. When dealing with businesses, be careful of start ups and new companies. While they may grow and become a valuable business partner for you in the future, they could also go out of business unexpectedly. There are numerous complaints in webmaster and online marketing forums about affiliate programs that have shut down and left hundreds of people without any payment. This is why you should give priority to partners that have already built up a solid reputation online and who have shown they’re doing well for at least a few months.

• Don’t re-use the same log in information for every online account that you use

When you do business online, chances are you will have a few dozen logins to keep track of, such as email services, hosting services, affiliate network accounts, payment processor accounts, etc. The smart thing to do is to avoid using the same user name and password for every single account that you use at different websites. The reason behind this is quite simple. Let’s say the database of an affiliate network is hacked and all the log in information is posted on public websites by the hackers. If you used the same log in information everywhere, there is a much bigger chance that hackers could access your other accounts and cause more damage. Therefore, your login credentials should be unique for every site that you use, even if this means that your password on each site is only slightly different by a few characters from those that you use on other websites. You should also avoid writing down passwords or even worse, creating a text file on your computer with all the user names, passwords and site names written in plain text.

Online Business Security Tips: Part 1 is a post from: Websites For Sale

• Research Your Keywords

This applies to both your blog post categories, as well as the posts that you will be making. Research the keywords that you would expect readers to search for on search engines like Bing and Google. Do a comparison of the different keywords, such as their search volume and competition level. Select the right keywords to describe your categories. For your posts, include the keywords in a natural way. This is very important, as to ensure that your posts stay legible and not simply stuffed with keywords, you will need to include them in a fully natural way.

• Include Sharing and Bookmarking Options

Integrate the “big three” social media buttons, such as Google+, Twitter and Facebook with your blog, by having like buttons for your blog itself as well as for individual posts. If there are other social networks that are popular among your readers, include their buttons as well. You should also put in social bookmarking links, such as Digg, Stumbleupon and Delicious, which will further allow your visitors to remember your blog as well as share it with others. An RSS feed would also be a good way to keep your readers loyal by letting them know when new content has been posted to your blog.

• Submit Your Blog to RSS and Blog Directories

There are plenty of free blog directories that you can submit your blog to. Take advantage of them. Even if they may not bring you too much exposure in the beginning, a few visitors a day could rapidly turn into hundreds of visitors if your content is engaging enough for these visitors to share your content with others online.

• Distribute a Press Release Regarding Your Blog

When you’re just starting out and have started adding some content to your new blog, distributing a press release about your blog could be a good way to get some attention. Press releases are often held in high regard by the “News” section of search engines, especially Google. You can find plenty of free information online on how to write an effective press release, what information to include in it, as well as where to distribute it so that you will get maximum exposure for your blog. This is one of the best ways to get some attention going to your new blog and can very well get you your first loyal readers if they like the topic of your blog and its content.

Attracting Quality Traffic To Your Blog is a post from: Websites For Sale

• Be careful with apps and plugins that you install

There are many plugins and apps that were developed for social media sites, especially for Facebook. For example, you can find apps that let you post to numerous social media sites at the same time, as well as integrate your website content better with your social media accounts. While they may be useful, there have been some rogue apps that were detected. Usually, Facebook is good at finding and removing those, but before this happens some damage could get done. For example, rogue apps could steal compromise the security of your profile, as well as post spam messages on your or your friends walls. Before you decide to use an app, you will need to do a bit of research about it to make sure that it’s actually a legitimate tool and not some piece of social media malware. Simply Google the name of the app or plug in. If it’s something legitimate, then you will find some websites, blog posts, or online news articles that talk about it in the form of reviews and information, as well as some background information on the developers of the application. If it’s something rogue, then you will probably find cautionary messages that have been posted in many places on the web to warn social networking site users about it, that way you would know that it’s an app that should be best avoided. Doing a minute or two of research of Google could save you a lot of trouble, so this is not a step that should be skipped.

• Beware of impersonation

Since no identity verification is required to join social networking sites, there’s little out there that could stop a cyber criminal from creating a fake account and impersonate someone that you know, such as a client, business partner, etc. If you discuss things with someone on a social networking website, make sure that you actually know the person that you’re dealing with and that you’re sure they are who they claim to be. This is something that is easy to do and simply requires a bit of common sense on your part.

Safely Using Social Media For Business: Part 2 is a post from: Websites For Sale

Previously, the number one method of attack for cyber criminals that targeted small and medium businesses was through email. Phishing messages that were disguised as messages from legitimate companies were used to either steal information or get the unsuspecting user to install malware on their computer. While this form of cyber attack is still relatively common, hackers have instead started focusing their attention to social media sites as a channel of attack. There are already many reported instances of security breaches caused by social media use in business. The main question here would be how to use social media safely and protect yourself against such attacks. There are some good practices which you can implement across your company that will reduce the likelihood that you will fall victim to such an attack.

• Use a good password for your social media accounts

This may seem obvious, however you would be surprised how many users, even serious business users have passwords that could easily be guessed. Don’t use anything that one could easily figure out and try to use a combination of letters and numbers. Also, don’t use the same password for all of your social media accounts and don’t re use the same password that you’ve used on another website. While social networking sites have very good security and are highly unlikely to get their databases compromised (though they’re not immune to that), many other websites that require you to register and select a user name and password run on simple scripts that aren’t too hard to compromise. There’s a high chance that if the data is compromised and shared online, hackers everywhere will first try the user name (or email) and password combinations on popular sites like Facebook to see if they could break into any accounts.

• Keep the email address used for social media secure

Even if you have a good password, this will be quite worthless if the email address associated with your social media accounts is compromised. All a hacker would have to do is to click on the “Forgot my password” link and then have a new password sent to that email that they’ve just broken into. So use common sense and make sure that your email stays safe as well. Use a separate email address for your social media activities rather than using a “general” email address for everything related to your business. This will reduce potential risks should your email be compromised for some reason. Of course, your email password should be a good one as well, just like the password for your social networking accounts.

Safely Using Social Media For Business is a post from: Websites For Sale

Be Social

Social media is a topic that comes numerous times when discussing traffic generation techniques as well as internet marketing in general. This is not without good reason: the majority of people visit social networking sites, so the traffic on these sites is already there. You just need to direct it to your blog. The two best examples in this case would be using Facebook. When you post a new article in your blog, share it on Facebook. Readers will see the title of the post and a summary, where they can click through to your blog to read more if interested. For Twitter, just send out a Tweet about the update and include a link.

Also, don’t forget to include buttons so that users can like and share your posts on their social networking profiles, thus giving you exposure to their friends and followers, generating a potential for more traffic in the process.

Use RSS

RSS feeds are a good way to get people to follow your blog in a way similar to following someone on Twitter or Facebook. When they subscribe to your RSS feeds, people will be able to see in their browser if you’ve made a new blog post. If it’s something that interests them, they will then click through to your blog and read the article you just posted.

Be Patient

Building a steady amount of traffic to a blog is something that takes time and patience. It’s quite unlikely that you will receive thousands of daily visitors after just taking one of the actions presented here. But keep posting good content and keep using the techniques shown here and you will soon start seeing a few visitors on your blog. This can grow in time, you will just need to be patient and continue blogging and actively taking efforts to generate more interest and thus more traffic on the blog you’ve built.

Be Creative

You’re not limited to what was presented here when it comes to getting traffic. Think up of your own strategies to bring in high quality visitors and read up more about things such as social media, SEO and traffic generation to blogs. You may discover some new methods and techniques that you will want to try, which may very well be the solution that you were looking for to finally get the amount of visitors you wanted.

Tips for Promoting Your Blog: Part 2 is a post from: Websites For Sale

Add Social Media Buttons

Even though users may not buy something from you right away, they might still be interested in your business and what it offers. For this reason, adding social media buttons that let your users follow you on popular social networking sites like Facebook and Google + is an excellent way to make them remember your website for the future, even though they didn’t get anything from it today. Of course, adding social media buttons on your product pages is also important, especially if you are selling items directly from your website.

Add a Bookmark Button

Again, adding a bookmark button to your site serves a similar purpose to what social media buttons do: they help users remember your business and makes them more likely to go back to your website when they’re ready to buy. Encourage users to bookmark your site as a way to keep in touch so they can check your site out later for any future products or promotions. Otherwise, you may have users who may have bought something from your site, but couldn’t remember what it was and they ended up on a competitors website instead when they were searching for yours.

Make Your Contact/Help Information Prominent

Sometimes a user would like more information about your business or your products before they make an order. This is why you should always include some FAQ or Help pages on your site, especially if you are running an e-commerce website. In any case, having a “contact us” button featured prominently on your home page is a great way to encourage people to contact you if they have a question. Make it open a pop up with a contact form where the user can fill in their name, email and message to you, so that you can get back to them right away if they have something to ask.

Let Users Create Content

Websites that have user generated content tend to do quite well. For examples of this, check out many travel websites, which dedicate an entire section of their website to user reviews of travel products, as well as having a discussion forum available where different people can discuss travel related topic. Some of the biggest e-commerce sites like Amazon also do it by letting users post ratings and reviews of products they’ve bought from the site. User generated content gets you free original content on your site, thus helping with SEO. It also helps improve the user experience, as your users will feel that they have a voice and can interact with your site better.

Building a Home Page that Will Convert: Part 2 is a post from: Websites For Sale

• Leveraging the Power of Social Media

If you are like billions of people around the world, then you probably have an account on Facebook and maybe one on Twitter. Here, you would start by creating a social media page on Facebook and Twitter for your website. You would then contact your friends by posting your business Facebook page on their wall. It is also possible to create a graphic ad featuring your website, upload it to your personal account and then tag your friends in the photo. Some of your friends may Like your page, or even make a purchase on your site if they need something that you are selling. Since your post will be on their wall, it is possible that their friends will see it and Like it too. The goal here is to create a viral effect that will spread to people.

• Don’t Forget “Personal” Marketing

Even though we live in a world where many of our communications take place online and ads are often seen as impersonal and targeting a wide audience, you can also market your website to people that you know and that you think may benefit from your products. It would be a good idea to print out some business cards with your website and info about your business. These can be ordered cheaply online, or you can just print them yourself with business card paper that you can find for $1 at the Discount Dollar store and a cheap ink jet printer. Pass these around to your friends and people that you know. If you know of someone that would especially benefit from the products that you are selling, then promote your site to them in priority. For example, if you sell smart phones online and you have a friend who just accidentally dropped their iPhone in the toilet, then now would be a good time to market your products to them. If you maintain the stock yourself as opposed to drop shipping, you could just give them the item in person for a cash sale, saving them time on shipping the item and also saving you on shipping costs as well as on payment processor fees.

But running an e-commerce site isn’t like running some sleazy MLM program, is it? So you don’t have to promote only to the people you directly know. There are also some great local marketing methods that you can employ as well, which we will see tomorrow.

Promoting Your New Web Store – Part 2 is a post from: Websites For Sale

• Get Listed in Google Places

Time and time again, online marketing experts will recommend that anyone who has a website for their business gets a free listing in Google Places. Why? A few simple reasons: its free and can help you get visitors, both to your website and to your actual business. All you need to do would be to list your business and it would appear in a few days.

• Put your website on your receipts, bags, printed materials, etc.

Some of your existing and potential clients may not even know that you have a website. By putting it out in front of them, you are increasing the chance that they will see it and go visit it. This also has the effect of increasing customer loyalty. A customer who visits your website will be more likely to buy from you again in the future, as it serves as a reminder that your business exists.

• Use social networking

Facebook is the second most popular website in the world, right after Google. So if you don’t have a Facebook page, then you are leaving traffic on the table. Simply create a Facebook page for your business, filled with information about your latest offerings, and prominently include links to the relevant portions of your website. Create special, Facebook only discounts and promotions to boost its efficiency.

Twitter is also a popular social networking service. It works a bit differently from Facebook: you send out short messages to your followers, called Tweets. These Tweets can include a link to the relevant part of your site, such as the page for a new product, or to a promotion that you are having for the season.

• Have your website on your business sign, your vehicles, etc.

This can serve as a very effective way of getting free traffic. For example, if your business is closed and someone passes by who might be interested in what you have to offer, they could remember your website and then check it out later. Keep in mind that very few people will actually note down your website URL, but will rather remember it from memory. Therefore, it needs to be something that is memorable and something that would not be confused with one of your competitors websites. Remember, you can have multiple domain names pointing to your main website, so if you think your main domain would be too hard to remember, consider getting an alternate one. This definitely has the potential of getting a few extra visitors to your site when you need them.

Free Ways to Get Visitors to Your Business Website is a post from: Websites For Sale

Obviously, establishing your presence on social networking sites such as Facebook is the first thing you would need to do. Getting started is very easy and doesn’t cost anything, unlike with some other forms of online advertising. All that you need to do is to sign up and create a page for your business. Generally, this will be named after your company, however if you are running a specific marketing campaign or want to promote a specific product, you can also create a fan page based on that specific product.

Another creating your page, the first thing that you would want to include is your contact information. While Facebook is definitely not a search engine like Google, people still use it to find information, thanks to its search feature that presents relevant pages on the network. As such, in the info section of your Facebook page, you should include contact details such as a link to your main website, phone number, address, email, etc. This will ensure that someone who was interested in dealing with your company and found your Facebook page has your contact information.

Next, on the page itself, you can create different sections besides the main wall. For example, you can put in an email capture box, information about a new promotion or contest that you are running, etc. This is done simply by making use of the tabs on the side of your Facebook page.

The “wall” of your page will be the main place where you will share information with your visitors. Use this to make new announcements about your products and services, as well as about your upcoming promotions. Your page visitors can also leave comments on your posts. Make sure that you monitor these comments so that you can answer questions rapidly. By being active on your Facebook page, you automatically give your visitors a trustworthy appearance, as they will know that you are available to answer their questions.

Remember to keep your Facebook page updated at least every few days, even if you do not have anything that is spectacular to announce. If your page looks like a ghost town and hasn’t been updated in months, visitors are less likely to want to Like your page and add it to their profile.

You have the option of either creating your business Facebook fan page by yourself, or there are also companies which can create one for you. Remember that the more professional and attractive your fan page looks, the more useful it will be as a tool for promoting your business throughout social media websites.

Creating a Good Social Media Page is a post from: Websites For Sale

• Look Things Up

Facebook, for example, has a great search engine that can let you find a certain word being posted on pages, as well as discussion groups. By using the search feature, you will be able to see if people are talking about your business, or about your industry in general. Find out what people are saying, what kind of questions they are asking and what kind of comments they are posting.

By doing this, you will get many benefits. First, you will find out who your target customers are and what they are saying. You will also be able to see what your competitors are doing on their pages and in discussion groups. Also, you will be able to spot any potential vendors and business partners that could be useful to your company.

• Interact with users on your page

Having a Facebook page or a Twitter profile would be quite useless if you simply use it for one way communication just like a static HTML page on a website would work. The great advantage of social networking sites is that they are built for two way communication which will allow you to interact with your users in a number of different ways.

So if you post something on your Facebook page, for example, you can get some comments from your users about your post. Find out what they are saying and if necessary respond to them. Your users will feel re-assured that you are there and are actually listening to them, which shows that you actually care about their satisfaction level. With this considered, they are more likely to become your customer or to return and buy something from you again in the future.

Another tool that is offered on Facebook which can be very useful for businesses is polls. You see, polls are not just for teenage girls to post “ZOMG Is this guy hoooooot LAWLZ!!!!111”, but can be used as an effective market research tool for your business.

You can create a poll about what kind of products or services people would want to see in the future. Or you can ask them just how satisfied they are with some recent changes that you have made to your website, or to one of your offerings. Then, take a look at the results, interpret the data and act accordingly. As we all know, if you give your users what they want, once again they will be more likely to become profitable customers for your business, as they will see that you are actually paying attention to what you are saying.

Using Social Media to Get Information About Your Market is a post from: Websites For Sale