I’m sure by now that you already have a plan and strategy in place for your site’s marketing campaign, if you don’t have one, I suggest you read my previous posts, Integrating Short Term and Long Term Traffic and Targeted Traffic first.

Before moving on to specific traffic methods and techniques, I’ll give you the list of all the basic traffic methods that I use and tell you the benefits and differences of each one (I won’t go into details here as each one of these methods need a whole new post). Don’t get overwhelmed by the huge list though…remember that you don’t have to do all this in one go. Take it slow and steady.

The list below is divided into two categories, free traffic and paid traffic, and they are arranged and sorted out further by speed in descending order, meaning the first one in each list category is the fastest method to acquire traffic.

Paid Traffic

• Pay-Per-Click Advertising
  • Instant traffic literally! You will see results within minutes after setting up your campaign
  • Can be short-term or long-term, depends on how much you are willing to spend
  • You only pay for results (clicks)
  • Gives you, as the advertiser, the power to control the costs.
• Banner or Text Link Advertising
  • Second to PPC when it comes to sending traffic
  • Same with PPC advertising, can give you short and long-term results depending on your budget
  • You pay for exposure (usually on a monthly basis)
  • Good for bringing highly targeted traffic if you choose well for the sites to advertise on
• Newsletter or Ezine Advertising
  • A short term method – will give you a sudden boost of traffic in a short time
  • Still works but you have to find a newsletter or ezine that is directly related to what you are offering
  • Payment terms differ as some sites charge per newsletter and some charge per month
  • Can give you high quality traffic if you know the right way to do it (right ads to create, methods to use, etc…)

Free Traffic (some of them have a paid option where you get a lot of cool features)

• Article Marketing
  • Really effective in building long-term traffic
  • Slow at first but once set up, it will give you continuous flow of traffic
• Video/ Audio Marketing
  • Good for those who enjoy talking than writing
  • Can bring out your personality more than an article or blog post
  • Videos can be viral if done right – will be passed on throughout the internet
• Submitting Press Releases
  • Can give you short-term traffic (once the press release is published) and long-term traffic (a really good press release that is keyword rich can go a long way)
  • Get your press releases published once and your content will be distributed to several sites
• Classified Advertising
  • Gives more space than PPC and e-zine advertising
  • You can give your ads a boost with a really small fee
• Forum Posting/ Marketing
  • Can also give you instant traffic, however, there are so many variables to consider such as :
    • Forum’s activity
    • Traffic of the forum
    • Forum’s SEO
    • Forum’s posting rules
  • There are millions of forums in the net – you can easily find one that is targeted to your niche/ offer
• Blog Commenting
  • Same as forum posting as it also depends on a lot of factors
  • There are a lot of blogs out there that allows you to leave a comment, it’s just a matter of choosing the right blogs to comment on
• Social Networking
  • Places where you can build relationship with your prospects and subscribers
  • Some of these sites give you the chance to create your own page (hub pages) where you can post your content and your links
• Blog Traffic
  • Blogs are loved by the search engines so expect your blog to be indexed a lot faster than other type of sites
  • Has a built in RSS feature where it automatically submits your content to several sites
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Although this is the last in the list, as it will really take time to rank well in the search engines, this is probably the best and one of my favorites that can give you the highest quality of traffic there is – organic search!
  • Not that hard as what others are saying, you just have to do the right thing
  • Once you are in the search engine’s front page results, competitors will be having a hard time to knock you off…unless you start gathering targeted links that is.

These methods are just the basics, there are more out there but I want you to start with the basics as this will build your website traffic’s marketing campaign’s foundation. Don’t worry if you don’t know any or one or more of these stuffs as I will teach you each of these methods in my next future posts.

The key to building long term and steady traffic is to start with the basics, master only one method at a time, simplify and automate as much work as possible and always track and measure your results.

Others who read this post also read:

• January 16, 2010 -- Targeted Traffic – The Key To Maximum Conversion (0)
• January 11, 2010 -- Integrating Short Term and Long Term Traffic To Your Website’s Marketing Plan (2)
• December 27, 2009 -- Website Traffic – The Lifeline of Your Online Business (1)

After sorting out the type of traffic to use on your website’s marketing campaign, it’s time to gather the right keywords to use to get targeted traffic.

In order for your site to survive for years to come, the right mix of short-term and long-term traffic is needed, however, in order to maximize your conversion rate and make more sales, a different approach and more research is essential.

Targeted Traffic = Higher Percentage of Making a Sale

Before you market and drive traffic to your site, you should gather keywords that you think are related and relevant to what you are offering. These keywords will give you targeted traffic that will boost your sales significantly.

Targeted traffic is simply getting the right people that are looking for the exact solution that you are offering (if you are selling something). Now how do you target these people? That’s where keywords or keyword phrases come in.

Keywords – The Primary Means of Targeting Visitors

From my previous post, Integrating Short Term and Long Term Traffic To Your Website’s Marketing Plan, I said that traffic generation is just really a combination of two methods – free traffic and paid traffic.

Considering your current resources, you can properly choose the best method to focus first. Regardless of what you choose, you still need to do the homework of gathering enough keywords to target.

It also doesn’t matter where your visitors are coming from (articles, blogs, organic search, ppc, etc…). What matters is that you use the right keywords to attract targeted traffic to your offers/ websites.

The Right Keywords to Use

Gathering the right keywords takes time but having these set of keywords can make or break your business so give importance to it. It is time consuming but it isn’t that hard. In fact, I believe you have stumbled on hundreds of these keywords already when you do your market or product research!

The first thing to do is to look for similar keywords of your main keyword or keyword phrase. If your product is an ebook on how to train a dog, then you should search for the keywords that are relevant to “dog training”.

Go to Google’s External Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) and put in your keyword to search. Google will give you a lot of relevant and related keywords as well as the synonyms to that keyword.

Take these keywords and put it in a list. Take note of the search volume too. The higher the volume, the better – although low volume “long-tail” keywords are also good. (I’ll discuss this advance technique on my future posts)

You can also use the free Keyword Tracker Tool (http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/). The numbers here are just the tip of the iceberg…multiply the results by 8 to get a better estimate of the traffic.

For example, you searched the keyword “dog training”, and it gives you a search volume of 105. Multiplying this by 8 gives you 840 – a better estimate of the real traffic the keyword gets.

One last thing, be careful on choosing your keywords to add in your list. If you are selling a dog training ebook, then it’s a waste of time using “dog training video lessons” or “dog training supplies” because you are not offering it. In other words these keywords are not targeted to your product, which is an ebook.

If you are not satisfied with your keyword list, there are a lot of keyword tools, both paid and free, to use in order to expand your list. My favorites are Keyword Spy, pro version of Keyword Tracker, and Keyword Elite 2.0.

Others who read this post also read:

• January 23, 2010 -- Different Methods to Boost Your Website Traffic (0)
• January 11, 2010 -- Integrating Short Term and Long Term Traffic To Your Website’s Marketing Plan (2)
• December 27, 2009 -- Website Traffic – The Lifeline of Your Online Business (1)

On my last post, Website Traffic – The Lifeline Of Your Online Business, I simplified the traffic generation process and how to maximize your website’s exposure.

Bringing your site’s URL in as many people as possible will definitely give you hundreds, if not thousands, of visitors a day but in order for your site to stand on its own, you should start your marketing campaign the right way.

Planning For the Type of Traffic to Use

There are two types of website traffic:

• Short Term Traffic
• Long Term Traffic

Short term and long term traffic is completely different in terms of its timing and efficiency.

Short Term Traffic

Website traffic that you can generate really fast and can give you a sudden boost of visitors that only lasts for a few days.

Examples of Short Term Traffic

• Sending to your email list
• Google Adwords (last as long as you have a budget)

Long Term Traffic

Needs a lot of work and takes time to build but once there, it will give you a steady stream of traffic that will last for years (if done right).

Examples of Long Term Traffic

• Writing Articles
• Submitting Press Releases

Before creating your marketing plan, you should answer these important questions:

Where you are right now – When choosing for the right combination of these two, you should consider the status of your online business.

What you have right now – It’s not enough to know the right timing and type of traffic to use, you should also consider your business’ current resources.

Two Resources That You Control and Have:

• Money
• Time

At first, your whole marketing campaign should be based on these two resources.

Regardless of how you generate traffic, it will always fall down into three categories: Buy, Attract, and Steal.

3 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Site

• Buy Traffic – Pay-per-click, e-zine, classified advertising and any paid methods
• Attract Traffic – Proving good quality content through articles, press releases, giving away reports, etc…
• Steal Traffic – using the popularity and traffic of BIG sites like high-traffic blogs, forums, social sites, etc…

I’ll discuss each of these three in detail on my future posts. What’s important for now is that you know how to properly integrate short term and long term traffic in your website’s marketing plan based on your current resources and situation.

Others who read this post also read:

• January 23, 2010 -- Different Methods to Boost Your Website Traffic (0)
• January 16, 2010 -- Targeted Traffic – The Key To Maximum Conversion (0)
• December 27, 2009 -- Website Traffic – The Lifeline of Your Online Business (1)

After months of work on my other sites and projects, I finally have the time to update this blog and as what I’ve stated on my last post, I will change the main topic of the blog from “make money online” to “getting targeted website traffic”.

If you still want to learn more of how to make money online, I will update my other blog, My-Resources.Net, with topics concerning “making money online reselling products”. You can visit it and download internet marketing products while you’re at it here: Resell Products | Master Resell Rights, Resell Rights, Private Label Rights.

As this is the very first topic in website traffic, I’ll give you a basic background on what web traffic really is and how simple driving traffic to your website can be.

Website Traffic

By now, you’re already familiar with the term traffic and the importance of getting targeted website traffic. If not, traffic is simply the visitors to your site…in internet marketing, this means getting your product in front of people who are looking for that specific solution.

Simplifying Website Traffic Generation

Getting traffic to your website, especially targeted ones, need not to be complicated and hard. You just need to understand and know the basic rules on how people find websites and their hangouts on the net.

It’s All About Exposure – Getting Your Links Spread Throughout the Web.

In order for people to know and visit your site, they first need to see it from the internet, hear it from their friends, or click a link to it from a different website. The possibilities are endless – it’s all about your website URL’s exposure! (URL = Uniform Resource Locator. For example, the URL of this site is http://www.riczsabido.com)

The higher website traffic you want, the more places you should put your website’s link. In other words, if you want maximum exposure and traffic, then you should get your site’s URL to as many websites as possible.

You Can Increase Web Traffic By:

• Partnering with other similar sites and exchanging links with them,
• Creating and providing content (articles, viral reports, press releases, free eBooks, etc…)
• Advertising (media buying, pay per click, banner ads, etc…)
• Linking to your site within several sites that allow it (forums, blogs, classified ads, videos, etc…)

Don’t worry if you don’t know this things, I’ll discuss all of these in detail on my future posts.

As what I’ve said, the possibilities are endless. There will always be a way to put your website URL in front of your target market.

Be creative!

When you find a site that is related to your product or website, ask yourself questions like: Can I put my link in this website? Can I submit an article with my link? Does the owner of the site allow advertising? Can I post a comment in this site? You get the point!

Keep looking for these sites and find a way to put your website link in it. Start slow – find one to three websites a day and post your website link there. You’ll be amazed how much traffic this simple step can give you.

Others who read this post also read:

• January 23, 2010 -- Different Methods to Boost Your Website Traffic (0)
• January 16, 2010 -- Targeted Traffic – The Key To Maximum Conversion (0)
• January 11, 2010 -- Integrating Short Term and Long Term Traffic To Your Website’s Marketing Plan (2)

Before I share my point, here’s a major update regarding this blog:

1. I am too busy on my recently launched site (not related with online marketing) so you will just see me write a new post twice or at least once a week. To make up for it, I’ll make sure to give you articles that is really informative and worthwhile.

2. I’ve been asking my other website’s visitors about their biggest problem on their online business and generating traffic comes on top of the list. So I’ll be posting more on this topic and probably would change the whole structure of the site accordingly.

I think that’s about it…now on with the topic – The New FTC Guides Governing Testimonials and Endorsements.

If you haven’t read about it yet, here’s a link to the FTC’s site: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

Before moving on, I just want to say that what you are going to read here are just my personal opinion. This should not be taken as a legal advice. I am not a lawyer and neither know a lot about laws (I’m not even based in the US!).

Before taking any suggestions, you should first approach your lawyer. Plus, if you do not agree with my site’s TOS, please leave this site now. : )

Whew…a very boring paragraph to read right? But you’ll be seeing a lot of those in the near future so you just might as well get used to it.

I assume that you have read the new guide on the link I gave you above, if you haven’t or is too lazy to click and even glimpse on it (like most people do), you can continue reading…just don’t take it out on me if your business get busted later on.

As you know, these new rules will greatly impact all online businesses that have testimonials (results-driven and income claims – yes, now you can’t use the most effective type unless you include a disclaimer that states the average typical result of  your buyers) and those that are doing endorsements and any product referrals.

Here’s what I have to say:

1. Testimonials.

If you are one of those that do use “specific” results-driven testimonials or post income claims/ proof, you should consider changing it. Unless you want to put a disclaimer after each testimonial stating the average typical result of your buyers which, for most if not all, is pretty embarrassing.

Here’s why:

No matter how good your products are, your average result will always be really really low. A really high quality product with an income proof of $5,000 per month and with customer testimonials showing a result of $1,000 in the first month, may have an average result of $00.01 or probably less.

And it’s not because the claims or testimonials are fake, its because a lot of buyers (we’re talking about 80%+ here) will not finish reading it, will not even follow the information, and will not take any action at all. I’m guilty of it…and I know you are too.

For example, this “Buffettology” book that I purchased two years ago. I haven’t finished reading it until now. I remember reading the first chapter but after that, I just put it in my pile of unfinished books. Why did I bought it? It’s because it’s the current “craze” way back then.

How many ebooks, books, e-courses, etc. do you have in your hard drive? How many of those you actually finished reading and took action til the end?

My solution:

Use other type of testimonials. The one’s that are pretty general and doesn’t convey your customer’s results like “Hey Ricz, I really love your product. Looking forward to purchase another one from you.”

If you really want to use “results-driven” and income claims testimonials, you just have to find a way to state the disclaimer and reveal what your average “typical” result really is in a way that it doesn’t devalue your product.

2. Endorsements/ Recommendations

FTC wants you to fully disclose to your website visitors the real relationship between you and the products you promote/ endorse/ recommend. If you earn any compensation from it (commissions, paid reviews, etc…), you need to tell them. Transparency is key.

My Solution:

This one won’t really affect your sales if you do it right. If you’re targeting other niches (not the make money online/ internet marketing niche), you don’t have to worry about it at all. Of course, disclose to your website visitors that what they are clicking is your affiliate link and that you are receiving a payment from recommending it. Non-IM guys won’t really mind it at all.

If you are in the make money online/ internet marketing niche, find a way to make them buy from you and not from other sources. You can do this by offering high quality bonuses that complement the product your promoting. The only way that they can get these bonuses is when they get the product from your affiliate link.

To reiterate, please don’t use this as a legal advice. Always consult your lawyer regarding this and don’t think that you can get around with this new rule. Do your best to always comply!

I would love to hear your opinions about this new rule. If you have something in mind, you can freely do so by replying below. : )

Others who read this post also read:

• August 31, 2009 -- Getting Ideas For Your First Info Product (1)
• August 25, 2009 -- How To Become An Expert In Your Niche (1)
• August 10, 2009 -- Don’t Be Sold! (1)
• August 1, 2009 -- How to Write a Sales Letter That Really Sells (4)
• September 9, 2009 -- Split Testing Basics (2)

Now that you know how to write a sales letter that really sells, it’s just a matter of fine tuning your sales copy to achieve the maximum conversion rate that it can squeeze out from your website visitors. As an internet marketer, it is essential to test, track, and optimize a campaign, product, or website in order to reach the desired level of profit that we want.

Here are 3 things that you should optimize and use on all your sales letters:

1. Evidence or Proof

One thing that you should always keep in mind is that your website visitors don’t want to believe anything that you have in your sales copy. This is because most of them already have bought a product that is similar to yours and have been lied to or scammed.

This is the reason why you need to show them your proof before they even have the chance to object!

I talked about what testimonials to use for your sales letter on this post, Sales Letter, and I’ve mentioned that the best testimonial are those results-driven ones. Instead of “This is the best “making money online” program I’ve ever seen”, make them say “I Earned $XX In X Days With This “Making Money Online” Program!”.

Always include photos and information of the one leaving the testimonials to boost credibility.

Also, if you’re product is that of the “Making Money Online” niche, you should always post a screenshot of your earnings using that kind of technique. Just make sure it is updated and with no modifications. People can easily see through those deceptions.

Always include a proof or evidence whenever it is applicable or necessary. This will boost your conversion and this means more money for you.

2. A Catchy Headline

Spend as much time on your headlines as you do when you write the whole sales letter. Yes, it needs that much time! The headline of your sales letter can make or break your business. Your sales letter should be able to stand out among the rest if you want it to be even read at all!

If you already have a good conversion rate with your sales letter, then split test another variation and see its effect on your numbers. You will be surprised how changing two or three words of your headline can significantly increase your profits.

3. The Right Approach

What this means is that you should write your sales copy just like when you are talking to a real person in front of you. Empathize, connect, and naturally converse with them.

A good sales letter follows the natural flow of a conversation between two strangers. You find out what their problem is, be empathic with them, tell them that they should not suffer that way, and how it would be very convenient if their problem is solved, etc…

Include the readers of your sales copy in the conversation. You want to make a relationship with them, a bond that will make them like you – and eventually purchase from you.

Don’t be afraid to write your very first sales letter. Even if you haven’t sold anything online, chances are, that you have tried selling other things.

Copywriting is a skill that can be mastered over time. Just practice by writing your own and applying these three simple things. Remember that in internet marketing, everything is a learning process.

Continue to look for ways to spice up your sales letter until you reach the results that you wanted.

Others who read this post also read:

• September 16, 2009 -- Where To Get Your Website Content (1)
• August 26, 2009 -- Internet Marketing For Newbies – Saving While Making Money Online (2)
• August 22, 2009 -- Making Money Online Is Not Just Finding the Right Opportunity (1)
• August 1, 2009 -- How to Write a Sales Letter That Really Sells (4)
• July 13, 2009 -- Earning Your First Dollar Online (3)

I finally have the time to write a new post! Our country has been hit really hard by Typhoon Ondoy and it needs all the help it can get. For those who wants to donate, you can do it here = Donate Through Kerygma.

On with the topic…Article Marketing 101

Before I teach you the fundamentals of writing a really good article, I’ll give you its importance first.

Why Write To Article Directories?

1. Your link or website URL will be advertised by the article directory in exchange for a short article. Depending on how much traffic does the article directory receives, you could get a lot of targeted visitors back to your site.

2. If your articles are published on article directories, most especially the most popular ones, you will be perceived as an authority in your subject. This builds up credibility and trust with your visitors.

3. These article directories allow other webmasters to republish your content on their site, provided that they include your bio box with it. Here is an example of a bio box:

Having your articles reprinted with this bio box on it will give you two benefits:

• This gives you backlinks to your site, which is good for SEO
• You will be leveraging on the traffic of the sites that have republished your article – the more visitors that site gets, the more traffic to your site

Now that you know the power of article marketing…let’s move on how to write your very first article.

Before you write your articles, make sure that is based on a really good research. The first thing to do is find out what people are searching on the net. There are several free tools out there that will do this job. Just Google search “Keyword Research Tool”.

Google Keyword External Tool being one of my favorites.

Don’t skip on this important step. Without research, you will be like shooting in the dark with your articles. All you have to do is collect a small keyword list that will serve as your guide in writing the article.

Writing Your Article

Article Headline

The most important part of your article is the headline. Make sure that your articles have a catchy headline that will increase the curiosity of the website visitors.

When writing your headlines, include your keywords on it. The ones that you collected a while back. Let’s say your niche is about weight loss.

And “Weight loss program” is one of your keywords…

Your title can be “The Best Weight Loss Program”…this is not the best title out there but it should kill those other articles that are not optimized at all.

When inserting the keyword in a headline, make sure that the exact keyword is included…without any modifications in it. Don’t insert any word in the middle, even “and”, “with”, etc…

Also try to insert the keyword as close to the beginning of the title as possible. Google gives more weight to these words, it’s called “Keyword Prominence”.

Don’t be limited to your article titles. Make use of the allowed max characters for it. Make it interesting. As for our example, we can make it more catchy with “The Best Weight Loss Program For Busy People” or something like that.

Other Techniques To Spice Up Your Article Headline

• Use the “How To” Formula – “How To Be Effective In Any Weight Loss Program”
• “Top 10″ Technique – “Top 10 Things To Look For When Choosing The Best Weight Loss Program”
• Creative Use Of Numbers – “How I Lost XX lbs. in XX days With This Weight Loss Program”

Don’t limit yourself with these examples. Try out other stuffs. Be creative!

To wrap it up, when writing your headlines, make sure that it shows a big benefit that the readers will receive, how much convenience they will get when they read your article, and has a catchy element that increases the readers curiosity.

Writing Your Article Content

There’s no faster way to finish an article than actually starting to write it. There’s so many marketers out there asking how to write an article or where to get the content if they don’t know a bit about the topic. If you want to find some techniques on how to get your article content ideas, check my post at Where To Get Your Website Content.

Additional Place To Get Your Website Content:

• Gutenberg.org – this is a site full of public domain literature, these are writings that no longer have any copyright protection on it. This means you can use these for republishing and put your name on it as if you are the author, much like private label rights but completely free.
• ExpertVillage.com – site full of how-to videos. Just convert or transcribe it into a written output.

You don’t have to write an award winning article. Just use ordinary English terms. And you don’t have to write a very long post (500 words and up), 300-400 words would do.

You want your readers to click on your link inside your bio box so don’t leave them with too much information.

Contrary to what several article marketers say about keyword density percentage, you don’t have to focus on that much. Having your keyword on your article title is enough for Google to find it.

However, there’s no harm on being on the safer side so try to include the keyword on the introduction and conclusion of the article.

This should be enough for now. I’ll discuss how to write a bio box with high CTR on my future posts and other article marketing techniques that I use on my sites.

Article marketing is also known as “bum marketing” because its really that easy (and its free). What you need to do now is write your very first article with catchy headlines and properly structured content and submit it to article directories (focus on ezinearticles.com first).

For a list of the best article directories, visit my other site here: Internet Marketing Tools and Resources.

Others who read this post also read:

• October 12, 2009 -- My Take On The New FTC Rule Concerning Online Marketers (0)
• September 13, 2009 -- Internet Viral Marketing 101 (2)
• September 9, 2009 -- Split Testing Basics (2)
• September 5, 2009 -- Instant Back-End Product Creation (1)
• September 3, 2009 -- Email Marketing 101 (0)

Affiliate Internet Marketing Video Of The Month – Using Yoono.

Yoono is one traffic source that you don’t want to miss. It has a lot of cool features and is not restricted to a certain target market – this means you can easily reach a larger population. It’s a powerful source of traffic that only a few know and use.

Social bookmarking sites are one of the many sources of website traffic out there. There are several benefits on adding these sites to your site’s traffic list such as viral, buzz features and high quality back links. Web 2.0 sites have very good PR ranking – Yoono having a PR 6.

Using Yoono is really simple and it sits right on top of your browser for easy navigation. With Yoono, you can:

• Discover – different sites, news, and people (sorted by popularity)
• Share – anything you discovered with other people
• Exchange – ideas with people who have the same interests as you.

Yoono is a free downloadable toolbar and is recommended as a Firefox Add-on. The video below will walk you through its installation, configuration, plus other necessary steps.

Using Yoono and adding it to your marketing tools list will definitely boost your websites traffic and exposure.  Start using Yoono by downloading the toolbar here.

Unbranded version of this video with private label rights can be downloaded on my other site here – Internet Marketing Products.

Others who read this post also read:

• August 18, 2009 -- Backing Up MySQL Databases Video (0)
• September 13, 2009 -- Internet Viral Marketing 101 (2)
• August 21, 2009 -- File Storage Service – Using Amazon S3 Video (0)
• October 3, 2009 -- Article Marketing 101 (0)
• September 14, 2009 -- Internet Viral Marketing 202 (3)

Sorry for not posting lately…our group went on a trip to Anvaya Cove, Bataan, Philippines (a really nice place by the way…check it out here. I am not in any way affiliated with them, although one of my colleague is).

Along the way, we were struck by several mishaps and what was supposed to be a day trip became an overnight stay. I have to leave the car there too…

It was all worth it though. The ambiance and scenery were all breathtaking. After finally reaching home, I opened the PC and guess what welcomed me? A list of unfinished tasks…And one of it is this post!

As an internet marketer, we should be effective at managing our time. Is your hard drive a disaster right now? Do you made a plan at the beginning of the year and realized that you are not at least halfway to it?

If you didn’t know, I have a lot of sites to maintain…a total of five sites including this blog. Complete list of things that need prioritization:

• My-Resources.Net – my main site. This is where all my info-products and affiliate pages are stored.
• This blog, RiczSabido.Com – where I place all my shameless plugs : )….. and share all what I know about Internet Marketing.
• HousingChicken.Com – my test site. If I find a new idea and other black hat techniques, this is where I test it first. Better safe than sorry.
• Fat-Loss-101.Com – a joint venture with my girlfriend. Although both of us don’t know anything about weight loss. All articles are researched and outsourced.
• LyfCafe.Com – my group’s blog. Self-improvement niche. Really delayed though…
• My girlfriend…
• My family
• My Caring Group

There are several other things not mentioned above the list but these are the ones that I prioritize over others. The real challenge for an internet marketer is managing all these.

I can do it all, however, there are still a lot of things that I do regularly that aren’t productive (one’s that are not contributing any value towards the realization of my goals).

To be an effective internet marketer, one of our main goals should be to manage our time better. We can’t avoid it, some things will just eventually fall through. Sometimes, we just don’t accomplish certain important things and it always cost us money along the way.

My hard drive is in a mess right now. I plan to sort through all of it and get my system of organization back.

I used to be good at organizing things and managing my time, but as I added and changed a lot of things in the process, it messed up the big picture and it never found a smooth transition within. I’m buried and, I must admit, a little scattered.

There was a book that I remember reading a year ago that really gave me a sense of direction and I plan to reread it again this week. The title of the book is Getting Things Done by David Allen. I highly recommend this book if you feel lost in your online business. David shows an incredible approach on how to organize things.

This is probably one of the most useful book I’ve read about time management and the most powerful too. It gives a very simple straight-forward plan to get all the things you need to be done, organize it, and put it into a system (The same process we need as an internet marketer – automation!).

It’s really easy once you have a system in place to take care of all important tasks. And for us internet marketers, time is just as important as making money and building a business. If you’re disoriented right now, focus on rebuilding your system. Work less, Make more!

Others who read this post also read:

• September 9, 2009 -- Split Testing Basics (2)
• October 12, 2009 -- My Take On The New FTC Rule Concerning Online Marketers (0)
• September 16, 2009 -- Where To Get Your Website Content (1)
• September 7, 2009 -- Where Do You Start With All These “Making Money Online” Opportunities? (0)
• August 31, 2009 -- Getting Ideas For Your First Info Product (1)

Do you own a website? Do you have a blog? What if you want to update it with at least one article a day? Can you handle it?

Well, not everyone could. As much as I wanted to, I can’t…with all the projects I’m working on (I have three other sites aside from this one). You have to come up with new stuffs to talk about and squeeze out that creative juice at least a little further.

Getting Your Website Content

Determine what you want to talk about in your website. Write the topics that immediately come out on your mind. Brainstorm on ideas.

If you can’t think of anything at all, then it’s time to approach good ol’ Google. Search your topic.

Still missing something? Try Amazon.com or Magazine.com and browse for ideas on your topic. Go to your local library and look for books about your topic. Take note of the title, extract its table of contents, and if possible read some of its chapters. This knowledge will help you a lot in the future.

I have my list of topics for my website….now what?

If you are done with your list, narrow it down to a specific niche. Niche that you are more interested about and with less competition. The more niched, the better.

Focus!

You will be able to properly target your market much better and Google will like your website more if you are focused on a very specific niche topic.

After narrowing your list down, sort the topics out in order of relevancy. Only focus on those that are most relevant to your website’s theme. In the future, you might want to add some recent topics concerning your site – new products or news.

I narrowed my list down…what’s next?

Now that you have an organized list, take a topic each day (depending on your posting frequency) and start writing about it.

Don’t have anything to write? It doesn’t matter. Just write! Believe me, it will come naturally. Learn to relax. Let your creative side do the writing.

If possible, create an outline first. But after that you have to just write it all out. It may not be as perfect as you want it to be and you may have to rewrite it again and again but the end point is, you finished it. You took action. And you will get better in due time.

What about keywords?

Keywords don’t really matter that much. If you write a very good article, you don’t have to worry about keyword density. But it doesn’t hurt either if you injected some keywords you want to rank highly on. Most of the time, I include my keywords or key phrase on the title, introduction and conclusion of my post.

Also make sure that you do your on-site SEO (meta tags, title, keywords, etc…) as well.

Don’t overdo it. And being a perfectionist won’t help either. A very informative article with 400-600 words a day is enough for your subscribers to be happy and for search engines to crawl your website and find new content.

Others who read this post also read:

• August 22, 2009 -- Making Money Online Is Not Just Finding the Right Opportunity (1)
• July 13, 2009 -- Earning Your First Dollar Online (3)
• October 12, 2009 -- My Take On The New FTC Rule Concerning Online Marketers (0)
• October 5, 2009 -- 3 Ways To Spice Up Your Sales Letter (0)
• September 9, 2009 -- Split Testing Basics (2)