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The Indispensable Shopping Cart

By on June 6, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

The Indispensable Shopping Cart

Shopping carts are a necessity for those Website owners who wish to sell physical or digital goods and also those who sell services. Customers have come to expect that a serious ecommerce site will have a shopping cart and will exit a site it if doesn’t. A shopping cart has become an indispensable part of doing business online.

A customer can place items into a virtual shopping cart and continue browsing the site to locate other items of interest. The customer can usually look at the top of the screen and see a running total of how many items they have placed in the cart and can usually also tell a running total of dollars spent so far. While navigating the online shopping cart a customer is able to add to the cart, delete items from the cart, change quantities of the items that are in the cart and make option choices such as color and size from the cart. Shopping carts will even do the math for the customer regarding totaling the retail amount of the order, adding any necessary tax and also adding the shipping fee to the order. Most shopping carts will even email the customer after they have made a purchase and thank them for shopping at the particular Website and will confirm the order that they just placed. The fact that a shopping carts software can be programmed to do this means that the customer will feel secure in the purchase.

Because most ecommerce sites have shopping carts, if your site lacks one you will look unprofessional to a customer visiting your site. The last thing you want to do is drive away potential customers because you did not think to provide a shopping cart.

A shopping cart can provide many benefits to the online store owner including providing data collection and market research based on customer usage, such as how many carts have been abandoned before the purchase was completed, and how much traffic went through the shopping cart. A secure, easy to use shopping cart can even foster repeat business when customers enjoy their shopping cart experience.

The benefits of a secure and multiple featured shopping cart can give your customers a shopping experience that will put them at ease dealing with you. When a customer feels comfortable dealing with you they will purchase more items, and also come back to purchase again from you. They will also spread the word about the good shopping experience they encountered with you and you will pick up more customers by word-of-mouth advertising.

A shopping cart is an indispensable tool to the Website owner who sells goods or services because of the professional look of the site, the shopping experience a customer will enjoy using the shopping cart and because of the invaluable data a shopping cart can provide the Website owner about the shopping habits of the customers who visit the site.

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Communicate with Twitter

By on May 29, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Communicate with Twitter

Twitter is a unique kind of place, it’s another social networking location but still it’s a really excellent place to be. You can find all kinds of people on Twitter; pick a topic that you want to meet people who know that topic, like “basketball” or some other term. You can see the matches and click to see their Twitter page, click on the follow button under their picture, and you will than receive updates when they change their status.

It’s not full of tons of different types of themes or backgrounds you can use. However, you have some really cool looking themes that you can change the colors to your desire. Making you page perhaps very unique, or normal like others. Depending on what you want to do.

When you go on to find others, there is also a button that says “suggested matches”, check these out, you’ll be surprised who you may find there. Anywhere from Shaquille O’Neal, to Kevin Pollock, both the Kutchers, you know Ashton and Demi. And too many more to really name.

Looking through Twitter today, there was one post that had said the staff of Twitter had gotten to see the Phoenix Suns when they were in town, thanks to Shaq. How cool is that, really you know it happens once in a while, but it’s just neat to hear about what they are doing.

If you’re trying to get some interests going on products you have for sale. Put up your link and see if you get some more sales. Twitter is a place where you can meet people from all walks of life, and in all areas of the country. What a way to broaden your horizons.

For college students this can be a great way to get that extra information on a country they may have to do a report on. Go and look for people at that location. Get to know them and see if you can find out some information about their location, stuff that no one can find in a book. Not only will you have a unique report, you’ll impress your professor, and get a good grade.

Some people think they want to move out of a state to another state or country. Get on Twitter and find people from the area and ask about the weather, to what kind of places are in that place to have fun at. Or maybe you want to plan a special vacation, one that you can stay away from the tourist’s traps, and see things that most people don’t know about.

With a Twitter account that costs nothing to set up, you will open up new forms of communication with people who you might never meet, but could become best friends with online. Be sure that you check out the cool widgets, there is a listing of widgets that are available on the different types of operating systems. Check them out and add a widget or two.

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Shutter Reloaded

By on May 25, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Extensions, or plugins, are used to give your site or blog more functions and extend its usefulness. They also make it more interesting and more convenient for you, the blogger, and may even draw more readers to your blog! This article will list a few basic WordPress plugins that will definitely improve your blogging experience.
Starting off the list is Shutter Reloaded, a plugin that makes your photo-viewing experience a better one. It uses the Lightbox effect, which is a script that enables images to overlay the existing page you’re on. It is very cool and definitely enhances your image-viewing experience. And because it doesn’t use an external JavaScript framework, it’s very light. That’s always a plus!
Another item on the list is the Google Custom Search plugin. The default search capability that comes with the WordPress page is limited to searches within your posts only. This powerful search capabilities can expand your search to the whole of your website and will be able to return more relevant results to your users.
Third on the list is a very interesting plugin called Akismet. What it does is that it blocks automated spam, which is the type that is sent by automated bots. Akismet eliminates spam by scrutinising the method of delivery, instead of the message itself. Installing this plugin will mean virtually no comment spam, as it is commonly delivered by bots. Automated bots, beware!
Another plugin that would up the convenience level of your WordPress is the Query Posts. It compiles a list of pages similar to the one you’re currently viewing, by way of a calculation of a page’s similarity in terms of title, content and tags. There are a lot of options that you can choose from for you to find related posts.
I’m sure your readers would like leave comments on your page, right? Well then you should install Subscribe to Comments. It enables your commenters to choose if they’d like to be notified of recent comments on your page. When this plugin is installed, a checkbox will appear for your commenters to tick whether or not they’d like to be informed via email of new comments.
Last but definitely not least is the WordPress Automatic Online Backup, an automated backup program that’ll save you the hassle of manually backing up all your databases. As you should already know, it’s crucial to have backups, especially for important data. WordPress Automatic Online Backup sends database backups to your free account at its website, but also does it on-demand. It will delete any old backup as soon as it receives a new one. You can also determine which backup version that you do not want to be deleted.
In conclusion, all the plugins listed are basically plug-and-play, so no hassle of long-winded installations; they are also compatible with WordPress 2.7; not to mention LEGAL and licensed under GNU GPL. They’ll make your WordPress experience a million times better!

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Promoting your Website through Social Media

By on May 17, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Promoting your Website through Social Media

In this day in age you need to utilize social media as a website owner if you want to reach out to the most amounts of people. Social media websites make up the highest visited websites on the internet so if you can reach out to these massive crowds then the potential for making money is endless. There are two forms of social media that every website owner should utilize at one point or another, and the sooner you implement these tactics the quicker you can build your traffic and earnings.

The first form of social media advertising is through social bookmarking websites. These websites are abundant nowadays and there are literally hundreds of them all over the internet. You don’t need to submit to all of these obviously, but you should find a list of the most visited ones and make sure you submit to them often. You’ll always get a rush traffic from them and the more viral your content is the more response you’ll find on the social media websites. The goal is to gain votes and get listed on the high traffic pages of these social media websites, which is a lot easier said then done. With many bots out there that cheat the systems it can be difficult to land a front page listing, but if you ever do then you can expect large amounts of traffic to come from them. You should generally post to social bookmarking websites every time you add a new page to your website. It takes minutes to submit a webpage to a social bookmarking website so the time investment is definitely worth the traffic you’ll receive.

The second form of social media advertising you use is a lot less crowded right now and there is also more potential for finding clients using this method. The method is video advertising and as you know websites like Youtube receive tons of traffic on a daily basis. There are hundreds of video sharing websites out there that you can submit your videos too, and although time consuming it’s worth it. Once your video is live on the video sharing website then it’s generally fine to sit there and receive traffic for months to come without having to worry about doing anything else. The more viral your video is the more traffic you’ll get leaking to your website obviously, but any video is better then no video. A lot of webmasters don’t know how to make videos so if you can do this then you already have an advantage over most webmasters. Most of us need to outsource this type of work and even though it’s costly I still find it worth the money.

Social media marketing and advertising is only becoming popular now, and if you think it’s already popular then wait to see how it is in three years. You need to implement these tactics into your website now before it becomes too late and too many people use them. There will always be room for these mediums of marketing, but once there crowded with webmasters then the potential for profit becomes lower. It’s always better being a leader then follower, so don’t want for everyone to jump on the social media bandwagon and start using the methods now before everyone else.

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Common Mistakes Webmasters Make When Building Links

By on May 13, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Common Mistakes Webmasters Make When Building Links

Every website owner needs to build links on a regular basis in order to compete with the competition, but many webmasters make severe mistakes when building links. If you make any mistakes when building links then it could cause you a massive headache and also ruin your website. You can’t just go out and get links anywhere you want too, instead you need to focus on building relevant natural links. Let’s take a look at some of the common mistakes webmasters make when building links.

Not Using Proper Anchor Text

The whole point of building links is too increase your search engine rankings in the many search engines, and you want to rank for the keywords people are searching for. Your anchor text when building links should be the keywords that you have been targeting on your website. Use different anchor texts when building links as well, but always make sure that the text is relevant to your keyword strategy.

Building No-Follow Links

No-Follow links are no use too anyone and they are only good if they can bring you lots of traffic from direct clicks. If you want to increase your search engine rankings though then you need to build do-follow links as there the only links that count for anything in the search engines. Don’t waste time building no-follow links and when you do build links spend the time to make sure your links are do-follow.

Building Non-Relevant Links

If you have a website that is about training dogs then you don’t need to get links from piano websites as there not even remotely relevant to your website. The search engines look for relevant links and if you build half the amount of links you do now, but make sure there all relevant then you’ll do a lot better in the rankings of the search engines. If you’re trying to increase your page rank then you’ll want to also build a few high page rank relevant links and that should do the trick.

There are plenty other common mistakes that webmasters make when building links on their website, and you should make sure you don’t fall into any of these. If you do then you need to correct the mistakes immediately as it could be the difference between ruining and saving your website. If you build links in link farms or spammy areas then you’ll need to deal with the risk of having your website de-indexed from the search engines.

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Of WordPress and Widgets

By on May 9, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Of WordPress and Widgets

One of the world’s largest blog hosting sites, WordPress, achieved its status by offering users with loads of features, apparently more than its competitors do. However, one feature that truly sets them apart from the rest is WordPress Widgets which is quite simply, the use of widgets on WordPress blogs.

Widgets are basically plugins or tiny applications which can be placed on your blog’s sidebar. In WordPress, the most convenient aspect of putting up widgets is it is easily done without the need of html or web page editing expertise. With the ability to add and arrange widgets at your fingertips, it’s you can get your blog to look the way you want it to be making it a personalized one indeed in no time at all.

There are also huge amounts of widgets available online apart from those available in WordPress and can be obtained from websites such as www.widgetbox.com. Other than providing you with widgets of all sorts, they provide you guides on creating your own widgets to truly add a touch of personality and originality. These guides are even handy for the really tech-savvy individuals like developers and theme and plugin authors. Widget creating is important for them who work for WordPress as they have to keep tabs on the thousands of people from over 130000 blogs many of whom are constantly downloading WordPress programs each day.

With the use of Javascripts as well as Ajax, widgets are quite simply little boxes which represent content elements located within the sidebar of your theme. One downside to this is that once the widget is what it is, its look and the way it works can’t be modified. Among the elements which come as standard are;

Archives – A collection of links for older posts sorted by month.

Blogstats – A display of statcounter as well as a record of the amount of traffic coming into your blog.

Calendar – A calendar which dates can be used as links if there were any entries posted on that date.

Categories – A list of categories for post sorting and searching purposes.

Links – Quite simply, a blogroll arranged according to their respective categories.

Pages – A list of links to every page.

Most Recent Posts & Comments – A list of the most recent posts as well as comments that have been approved.

Meta/admin – A collection of links directing you to meta functions such as logging in and logging out, entries and comments RSS, Site Admin and WordPress’ homepage.

Search – A search tool to search within your blog.

Text – A feature allowing the insertion of HTML, Javascript or simply any form of plain text and can open up possibilities for miscellaneous text widgets.

Another interesting thing is the ability to add RSS feeds sourced from elsewhere using the new widgets available. With functions like these, the uses of widgets encompass almost every thinkable thing where only your imagination is the limit. However, too many widgets may not only cause your blog to slow down, but may end up spoiling the look of your blog as it is never advisable to have too much of a thing and this includes widgets.

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What You Need to Successfully Run a Blog Network

By on May 5, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

What You Need to Successfully Run a Blog Network

A lot of bloggers who run either one or a few blogs have been looking into expanding their reach and creating what’s known as a blog network. There are lots of companies who own blog networks nowadays and more are created each day, but only a select few of them are well known and profitable. You can’t expect too be able too run a blog network on your own and that’s the main mistake a lot of bloggers are doing. They think that they can do everything, but the fact is there is only so much time in a day and you won’t be able to do everything needed by yourself if you want too become successful. The one thing all the profitable and well known blog networks have in common is that they outsource a lot of the tedious work and capitalize on cheap outsourcing rates around the web.

Outsourcing too international countries has become a popular way for webmasters too get work done for the lowest possible rates and it’s vital to a blog network. If you want to run a blog network you’ll need an entire team of people working for you, and you’ll basically need to spend your time managing the workers and also working on the small details.

To have any success with a blog network it will take a lot of time as you need to establish each one of the blogs in their market. This isn’t an easy task for one blog let alone multiple blogs so make sure you’re ready to put in the time and work. The first thing you’ll need to purchase is a server in which you can purchase C-Class IP’s with because you’ll need quite a few of these. You should put each blog on there own C-Class IP as it will only cost you roughly $1 per month per IP which is definitely worth it. You don’t want the blogs on the same IP because then Google might see them as a link farm and could punish them severely without any notice. You’ll also need to purchase all of the domains you want to use and set them up on WordPress each on there own IP. Once this is done you’ll need to begin outsourcing too get the blogs going.

At first you’ll only need to be concerned about content and should you hire a couple freelance writers to complete some article packs for you on the niches you’ve chosen for your blog network. Add the articles to post on the blogs once daily and timestamp each article accordingly so that you don’t need to go to each blog each day to make the post. In these early stages you’ll want to make sure you install all your stat counters so that everything is ready to be tracked. Once the content begins too compile on the blogs and they start getting indexed in Google then you’ll need to start finding link builders to build some links. You won’t need too many links in the beginning and should only get a few of them so that you gain some SE recognition. A lot of links can be built down the road for free once you become popular so don’t spend too much money on link building. The most important part to spend money on is the content and you should make sure you have lots of it.

There is a lot more to running a blog network, but this guide should give you a brief outline of what you’re thinking about getting into. Unless you have a fairly nice budget then don’t even consider doing it because you won’t stand a chance. You’ll just burn yourself out quickly and then become bored with blogging in general. You can’t do something that isn’t possible so realize early that if you want to run a blog network you’ll need to outsource most of the work. This means you’ll be running in the negatives for the first few months and then you may start moving into the green. There is a chance you won’t even move into the profits though and this is the risk you take when starting a blog network.

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Monetize Your Blog

By on May 1, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Monetize Your Blog

A blog is certainly the best possible platform for your creative outlet.
But, if it can earn you a regular income, then it undoubtedly is the
cream of the cake. Contrary to the popular belief, blogging does not
have to be limited to your pastime. With a bit of effort and dedication,
it is indeed possible to turn your blog into a money making machine.
In this chapter, we are going to discuss some easy yet smart ways of
monetizing your blog.

Make money through Google Adsense or other pay per click
programs

Joining Google Adsense or any other pay per click (PPC) program is
undoubtedly the easiest way to monetize your blog. One must
understand that these pay per click programs allow you display ads on
your website and you get paid for every click on those ads. Though it
is the easiest and smartest way of getting money, it might be difficult
to earn a considerable amount in the initial stage of the blog as
majority of the pay per click programs including Google Adsense only
pay a few cents per click.

Sell Affiliate Products

Using your blog to sell products can prove to be very profitable way of
making money. Selling affiliate products do not require you to supply
them yourself; you don’t even have to deal with any issues regarding
the deal. Selling affiliate products can result in very good profits,
provided you are smart enough to sell products or services which are
closely related to your blog’s niche.

Sell Ad areas or spaces on your blog

If you have worked hard enough to make your blog popular and if you
have already earned one of the top three page ranks on search
engines, then it is more than a probability that many advertisers will
be more than willing to advertise on your blog. You can sell ad spaces
on your blog at a very good price.

Advertising link publications
In this case, you strike a deal with the owners of websites or blogs
who are trying to increase traffic for their blogs or websites. You offer
to publish the link to their website in your blog statement, at an
agreed rate. If your blog has a good traffic rate then it is more than a
probability that you might be contacted by numerous potential
advertisers.

Monetize with your own products

After getting assured of regular traffic, you can concentrate on
creating your own products. These products can be anything like an e-
book or a membership site which can be promoted through your blog.
Since you already are aware of the pulse of your readers, it would not
be a difficult task to encourage them to purchase something which
could be of use to them. You can even go one step ahead to offer an
e-course to your readers.

It is highly recommended that you concentrate on one way of
monetizing your blog in the initial stages. Once you see that the
strategy is giving you guaranteed returns then you can spread your
wings over other methods as well. It also pays to take ideas from
popular blogs on the same niche.

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