SiteSell eLearning - Day 6a Building a site that gets the click

Last night the students in the SiteSell eLearning course took their first steps in putting together all they had learned about keyword research and niche planning. Two new home pages have been created with more to follow.

Rick led off with Acoustic Guitar College. He plans to share his love of guitar playing with his visitors and encourage them to develop great technique playing whatever music they like. Blues, Rock, Country, Folk, Celtic, Open Tunings or whatever your passion might be.

Sue was next in line with Manufactured Mobile Homes. Sue wants her visitors to get a glimpse of Mobile/Manufactured homes and the parks before you purchase your new home. "Let me guide you through the home purchasing process and make it a pleasurable experience" says Sue.

These websites are just beginnings and dont reveal the extraordinary amount of effort and planning that went into their launch. What they do reveal are the basics. Present yourself in a professional manner with a clean look and feel, consistent text font, easily readable by the visitor. No fancy bells and whistles, just excellent content keyed to what vistors are asking for.

Burlington Tsuruoka Karate Dojo - a great place for kids karate

Nowadays there are plenty of karate and martial arts clubs around and often it seems that they are more interested in making money from babysitting and selling seminars than passing on the true spirit of karate - self improvement for young and old.

Today I got some great news that the Burlington Tsuruoka Karate club is reopening. This is a club with a very long history in Burlington, Ontario. Its a non profit club where excellent instructors volunteer their time. Over the past 40 years, this school has produced many champions as well as improved the fitness and life skills of countless others.

The club had to close their downtown Burlington location a short time ago due to lack of students. Now they are sharing space with a dance school which should be a much better arrangement. So if you would like a great workout and some excellent karate or martial arts instruction please pay them a visit.

Its also a great place if you have children and need to put them in the hands of instructors who teach for the sheer joy of passing on the art. Anyone who is into the martial arts knows that its not about learning to hurt people, its about learning to push your limits and learning to cope better with the world around you.


Burlington Tsuruoka Karate School
4155 Fairview Street
(at McCarthys Dance School)
Burlington, Ontario
L7L 2A4

Phone: 905-333-9100
Class times: Thursdays 8pm, Saturdays 12 noon
Chief Instructor: Sensei Stephen Chorny

SBI is just for newbies NOT!

SBI! is in a class all its own.

Where else can you find the perfect combination of the right process, all the right tools, and constant updating. Where else can you find an unmatched track record of success?

You can't.

Unfortunately many people feel compelled to compare SBI! to existing products that do only a part of what SBI! does.

Instead of comparing apples to apples, they compare apples to, well, antelopes. It's not even in the same ballpark.

When this happens, it creates confusion. Naturally, it's a sign of a successful project -- no one creates urban myths about the unknown.

Let's take a look at the top 5 SBI! urban myths and how you can turn them around for maximum results...

1) SBI! Is Only For Newbies

FACT: SBI! is IDEAL for the Internet beginner, true. But it's really for anyone who has yet to succeed online.

Many very successful SBIers are seasoned Web marketers. They love how SBI! automates the most tedious site-managing tasks and allows them the time to build their business.

Long gone are the days when they have to piece together bits of necessary technologies that SBI! already does...

SiteSell Tools

Beyond the fact that power-users love the efficiencies, though, is the bigger point. If you have a successful business that earns you $1,000, $5,000, $10,000 per month (whatever you define as financially successful), you do NOT need SBI!. You already have a successful business.

But if you have yet to achieve significant, long-term success through free Search Engine traffic, give it a try. There's NOTHING to lose with the Guarantee. And as so many SBIers have said...

"Why did I wait so long. There's so much to gain."



2) I Can Make Money with Squidoo or Hubpages. Who needs SBI!?

FACT: Squidoo is pennies. SBI! is dollars and sense!

Putting up a page on Squidoo or Hubpages is NOT doing business online. You may be creating some content, but so is everyone else. For another Web 2.0 company, not for you.

And the other big drawback...

You have no control. You are controlled by the free hosting company, subject to future rules, future problems, etc. You are also subject to Google devaluing these free pages (as eBay has recently for their affiliate program -- they are seen as spammy by the engines). So...

Stop working for others. Take control of your online efforts and build your own e-business.

Build your OWN Internet "hub" of activity and make dollars, not cents. Be your OWN Squidoo (Content 2.0 lets visitors build pages for YOU -- now we are "talking business!" :-) )

Owning your own Web site makes so much sense. And following the step-by-step Action Guide will take your customer from niche-choosing to content-creating to income-earning.

Long-term. Evergrowing. Evergreen.... by SBI!.

These are the Netrepreneurs who attract the traffic. They make the money. And their visitors create stacks of original content for THEM!...

content 2.0



3) SBI! Is Just Expensive Web Hosting

FACT: SBI! is sooo much more than a Web host.

Web hosting is cheap. And those with the right knowledge can sign up for a cheap hosting account in minutes and pay $100 per year to house their Web site.

Wait. That's only $200 less than SBI!. SBI!'s Brainstorm It! is worth at least that. That means you get everything else for free, everything on...

SiteSell Tools

Even though SBI! hosts your Web business as a part of the product, it can hardly be called a Web host. It's a complete education/do-it program that takes customer from concept to execution to success...

http://course.sitesell.com/

The step-by-step-by-step plan of action and all the tools needed, not to mention the constant updating, lets you focus on your business. SBI! has been creating Web success stories for over 10 years!!!.



4) SBI! Is Too Expensive -- You Can Get It All For Free

$299 is cheap for what SBI! delivers. Simply compare...

http://compare.sitesell.com/

And SBI! just keeps getting bigger and better with constant updates, upgrades and new tools that employ the last technology with none of the usual technological headaches.

(Including a HUGE new announcement this month. Look out for SBI! 2.0 coming soon.)

And all at the same $299 price point since 2003!

And there is just no way that "you can get it all for free."

We once issued a major challenge, offering $5,000 for those who could find a set of tools that delivered the same functions as SBI!. No one could do it. And no one can today. Just try to match this...

http://tools.sitesell.com/

The funniest thing is that the "gurus" who spread this myth usually promote other tools that cost way more than SBI! and don't offer even 5% of all of what SBI! offers.



5) SBI! Is A Scam

FACT: SBI! is the only product of its kind that teaches ordinary people how to change their lives by building a Web business the RIGHT way.

• No Get-Rich-Quick schemes...



• No fooling the Search Engines...



• No promises of untold riches...

Just a proven process that takes your customers from zero to financial independence with common sense and the tools to allow them to do it on their own.

It's the only program in the world offered at major colleges and universities at all levels... undergrad, MBA, continuing education...

http://www.sitesell.com/more-info/universities.html

SBI! delivers on each and every promise it makes.

Your customers can try it totally risk-free, thanks to its iron-clad guarantee...

http://sitesell.com/more-info/guarantee-teeth.html


On the Web, information moves quick, and people are sometimes quick to judge SBI! based on a blurb or a bad review written by those who know nothing about SBI!.

Using Google Alerts to find a job or for your business

Google alerts is a free service that allows you to be notified the very moment anyone makes a post about any keyword or phrase you choose. The implications of this are tremendously useful regardless if you are a job seeker or an entrepreneur seeking new work for your business.

If you are a job seeker, try entering a keyword that represents your job title. (ie - "Steel detailer"). Noe everytime someone makes a blog post, an addition to their website, writes an article or anthing at all about "Steel Detailer", you are going to get notified. Immediately.

The alert might the first posting of a new job which allows you to get your resume in before anyone else. The alert might also be company news relating an expansion. That would give you an opportunity to get the name of the poster and contact them directly about the possibility of their needing extra help.

If you are an entrepreneur, the alerts are key you in to new developments in your industry as well as new projects. Upcoming projects are often discussed in local newspapers before the tendering process even starts. Getting an alert that keys you in to one of those stories gives you an opportunity to make first contact.

Setting up Google Alerts is dead simple, just type a keyword, select how often you want to be notified. I typically start with "as it happens". Then enter your email address. From that point on you will be the first to know of new jobs and developments in your industry.

Kitchen cabinet maker uses computer cut marquetry on his door designs

"Little is being done in cabinetry in general and kitchen design in particular that wasn't around 40 years ago" says Bob Baldwin a custom kitchen cabinet designer and maufacturer. As an example, he cites door panels that remain much the same in their choice of wood species and finishes. "There was some innovation about 20 years ago with what we call European style cabinetry in the USA but other than not having face frames and offering white cabinets, it's really not a huge change" he says.

In Bob's contemporary kitchen designs, cabinet doors become a canvas for his art. "I want to use flat panel doors to bring color, shape, and design into the kitchen" he says.

"Imagine a flowering vine snaking its way across the upper cabinet doors, or a flock of birds or butterflies or clouds or a garden scene on the base cabinets or a colorful landscape. This is not being done, and I think it should be. It would bring color into the kitchen and make every kitchen unique. Instead of painting or printing such scenes, I want to use inlayed stained wood veneers to make art with a more permanent feel than most disposable kitchen designs. The wood grain would add to the effect."

Bob uses solid bamboo flat panels for the doors and drawer fronts because bamboo is not an endangered wood species, unlike some of the exotic tropical woods, and because its fine grain acts as a non-intrusive backdrop for his designs' inlays.

Bob now proposes to produce his designs as doors which can be fitted to any standard size of kitchen cabinet. "Cabinet boxes are large and hard to ship," he says, "but cabinet doors aren't. Also, cabinet boxes are all the same - you can hang just about any door on them. That means that I can ship my door design anywhere, and they can be installed on someone else's cabinets.

Look to your local newspaper for website content

The pundits will tell you that traditional news media is dead. Newspapers are losing market share and going bankrupt in record numbers. But one thing that often seems to be overlooked is the quality of content that many newspapers provide and the frequency they do it with.

I like to read the Toronto Star every morning and I am often blown away by the breadth of research that goes into their investigative articles. Articles that appear there on a daily basis!
Just one of these articles would be sufficient to create a really interesting website which would draw traffic and attention for years to come.

So if you are looking for great content look to your local daily for inspiration. There are precious few websites that go to the trouble that a good investigative reporter goes to in reporting a great story. Depth of research, excellent sources and a compelling read. Make sure you give credit to the origianl newspaper source when putting your website together.

Hand drafted F1 vintage race car drawings

Tony Cairoli is a Toronto area artist who specializes in hand drafting pictures of vintage racecar's. His meticulous drawing work goes even further than a conventional general arrangement drawing by trying to represent practically every nut and bolt on the car. Everything is done by hand in pen and ink, just like the draftsmen of old.

Tony remarks how you could identify who made old hand drawings just by observing the style of their work, and how they were able to capture their subject completely. This skill was not limited to drawings of cars. It was a point of pride for many a draftsman and woman to represent their work completely on a single sheet of paper.

Keyword search strategies for Industrial clients

If you are an industrial manufacturer or service provider using the web to promote your business its important to focus on your keyword searches. The thing is, you should not get discouraged just because keyword demand seems extremely low.

It's fine for keyword demand for words like "ipod" or "britney spears" to be in the millions of searches per month but you cant expect searches for "dust collection" and "structural steel detailing" to be just as popular.

Bear in mind that although these searches may be less than 100 searches per month, all you may need is 1 interested visitor to follow through and make a purchase. Especially if your clients normally spend thousands on a given purchase.

The other thing to consider is that these low demand keywords are very often easy to rank in the top ten for. And ranking in the top ten for a whole series of these keywords will increase the ranking and traffic of your website as a whole.

SiteSell eLearning Week 4 - Planning for Monetization

This week in the SiteSell eLearning course we covered Monetization Planning. This is typically the first thing new websites tackle, thinking they have to immediately post links to affiliate sales to get money coming in right away.

Unfortunately, as they discover, it doesnt quite work that way. You first have to build a reputation with your visitors. After all, most only buy from those businesses they know and trust. That trust has to be earned.

But you do have to plan for monetization based on the type of business you are thinking of creating. You want to know now, if there is going to be little chance of making money before you register your online business.

In class we discussed the basics of Google adsense, affiliate marketing and joint ventures both online and offline. Students were instructed to choose several different types of monetization techniques. The reason for this is to not keep "all your eggs in one basket" in case one monetization strategy fails.

Next week URL registration, several new online businesses go live !

Cap & Trade economy an opportunity for dust collector industry

On going talks continue between the USA and Canada about implementing President Obama's "cap and trade" system to meet air pollution control objectives. The "cap and trade" system will be a boon to the manufacturers of dust collectors as well as air pollution control and monitoring equipment.

Companies that can meet and surpass emissions regulations will be rewarded with credits they can sell on the open market to companies who are not meeting the targets. Air pollution control equipment manufacturers will have more reason the ever to work closely with companies to help them achieve and exceed emission reduction.

In the past the purchase of a dust collector has been seen as a grudge purchase, something that had to be done to avoid fines by the United States EPA or the Canadian MOE. With the cap and trade system, its entirely possible that the purchase of a dust collector with the latest air pollution controls will be become a potential source of income and ultimately a profit center.

SiteSell eLearning Week 3 - keyword research

Last night the class and I finished off 2 weeks of training in keyword research, using SiteSells Brainstormit module. In the web business course we get students to research 3 seperate niches and test them to determine which niche is likely to produce the most viable business internet venture.

At this stage the focus is on finding niches that are in great demand and also niches that have verylittle being written about them on the web. We want to ensure that when we launch our business, that it will immediately get attention from visitors.

We do this demand research with vertical and lateral keyword searches. Searching allthe keywords phrases that contain a given word an also searching for synonyms that may reveal undiscovered demand. The Brainstormit module gives us the ability to test the compettion for the keyword and the how well that competition is doing in terms of traffic.

Next week we will complete our research by checking out monetization. We will determine how much income that the niches we have been researching are likely to produce. Once we are armed with that information we can make a sensible decision about which niche to register as new web business in week 5.

A free first page listing for your business on Google

Have you ever noticed that nowadays when you search for a local business on Google, a list of companies with their locations pops up ahead of any other search results. These are Google local business listings and they are completely free.

To get listed go to the Google maps home page and click on "put your business on Google maps". You must have a physical business location and business phone number. That phone number must be verified by Google, which is usually done through a simple phone call.

Gather your business information carefully. You have the ability to enter photographs and videos as well as your business description. I would reccomend you research the keywords visitors are using to find your business before you enter your business description. You can also use these keywords in the filenames you use for your videos and photographs.

The advantage to doing all this is that your business can end up getting listed on the first page of Googles search results for that keyword in a matter of 24 hours after you list your business. Google maps listings are probably the simplest and sure fire ways to get listed by Google.

Building free website traffic

If you are the owner of a Canadian small business and you have a street address and business phone number your first choice for a business listing might be the traditional yellow pages listings provided by yellowpages.ca. But there are options. Yellowpages are indeed a good place to list but the cost can be prohibitive.

Think about high quality free internet directories such as Industry Canada's free business directory This directory has a Google page rank of 7, which makes it extremely important as a directory and as a potential source of page rank for your business website. It also has an Alexa ranking of 554 which means that it receives an enormous amount of traffic. These statisitics are at least as good as Yellow pages itself.

To get your business listed, click on "Canadian Company Capabilities" and started. Unlike many directories, ic.gc.ca allows you to list an enormous amount of information about your business. The potential for your business to be found is greatly enhanced by this.

We often complain about how governments waste money, but this is one area where our government has given us a marvellous free vehicle to help any Canadian business compete. Make good use of it !